“You don’t wanna know,” he said seriously. “Being married to me will offer you protection.”

  “Or you could just let me go back home,” I pointed out. I knew he wouldn’t but I had to at least mention it.

  “You think you’d be safe up there?” He sounded offended I would even suggest such a thing. “What, you think Davidson would care about you enough to protect you from the vile wretched cursed souls of the damned?” He scoffed. “Davidson only cares about one thing and that’s himself.”

  “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” I asked.

  “I protect what’s mine.” His response was so serious, it took me a moment before I realized he wasn’t joking. There was nothing on his face that indicated as much.

  Suddenly, it was difficult to breathe. I needed air. I didn’t like the way he looked at me - both fierce and filled with possession. My bones were reduced to liquid and if I didn’t force space between us, I wouldn’t be able to.

  So, I brushed past him, thinking this was my chance to reclaim some kind of power, even if it was only in taking some personal space back. But he stopped me. Fingers wrapped around my arm, and though they pressed firmly into my skin, there was a gentleness about it, a consideration.

  He didn’t want to leave any more marks on my skin.

  I swallowed. I tried to look anywhere but in his eyes, but it was impossible not to. I sucked in a breath.

  He tilted his head to the side. “Babes…”

  But before anything could happen, before he could say anything else, there was a loud banging on the door.

  “I know you’re in there, Keaton, you son of a bitch. You better open this door before I break it down myself.”

  6

  The only thing I could do was widen my eyes as Keaton strolled over to the door and opened it. I knew Keaton wouldn’t put me in any unnecessary danger. Maybe a stupid thought to have when he was a heathen and the most dangerous spirit roaming around on earth, especially now that I had freed him, but even so. I was his ticket out, as he liked to continue to say, and if he hurt me in any way, I could rescind the deal at any moment.

  He knew that.

  Which meant whoever was on the other side of the door wasn’t a threat.

  Keaton stepped out of the way as a ghost that resembled Keaton, with broad shoulders and few inches on the heathen, floated into the room. Keaton immediately slammed the door shut and positioned himself in front of me before this stranger could get a good look at me. It was almost as though he was hiding me from this entity…but why? He didn’t seem to care about my presence at the bar. Who was this guy and why did Keaton care so much?

  “What the fuck do you want, Ambrose?” Keaton asked. He didn’t bother to hide the clear suspicion in his tone.

  “Really? Is that how you talk to your own brother?” The stranger’s eyes flitted around the room until they landed on me. “And who is this? Is she the breather everyone’s talking about?”

  “Everyones’ talking about her, huh?” Keaton asked. There was mild curiosity to his tone, but other than that, he didn’t reveal much of what he was thinking.

  I glanced over Keaton’s shoulder, trying to pin this guy down. He mentioned being a brother to Keaton, but from the research I had done, I didn’t think Keaton had any family. Then again, it wasn’t like I was an expert on the heathen. Research came back with barely anything. Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was on purpose or if it was difficult to find out anything about him.

  “She just barely got here,” he continued. “How could people talk about her? How could they even know -” He cut himself off. “She can’t hold her liquor. That’s it, huh? That gave her away?”

  “What were you thinking, bringing a breather into that bar?” he asked. He tried to step around Keaton, probably to get a better look at me, but Keaton followed his brother’s movements with his own, preventing his brother from doing so. “You know better than that. You know, especially after Alyssa -”

  “Don’t.” Keaton’s warning was gruff and gravelly, but deadly all the same.

  My ears perked up though. Who was Alyssa? And why did it elicit such a response from Keaton?

  “What are you doing here?” his brother asked. “With a breather? Another one? You can’t possibly think -”

  “I’ll think whatever I damn well want and you sure as shit aren’t going to stop me,” Keaton said. “You weren’t locked up by the Keepers for a goddamn century. You don’t have the powers I do. So you can’t tell me jack shit.”

  I watched his brother’s face as carefully as I could from behind Keaton, trying to gauge his reaction to Keaton’s mini-outburst. From what I gathered, Keaton was the more powerful of the two. But that didn’t seem to intimidate this guy in any way.

  The brother didn’t look perturbed in any way. His eyes narrowed at Keaton, long, graceful fingers swooping over his mouth. There was a familiarity between the two of them, and the more that I looked at him, the more resemblance I saw. I wasn’t sure who was older, but it was clear they were related in some way.

  Which made Keaton seem more…human. At least, it reminded me he was human. The fact that he had a family meant he also had a vulnerability, and that, in turn, made him seem…not as bad as before.

  Really? You’re softening for him because he has a brother?

  It wasn’t that. It was…well, it was difficult to explain.

  “So?” The stranger perked his brow and began to stride the length of the room, hands behind his back. His eyes drifted up to the ceiling before glancing around. “You gonna tell me who she is?”

  Keaton snapped his fingers and a cigarette lit up. The subtle scent of smoke filled the room. His brother wrinkled his nose and shot Keaton a wary look.

  “What?” Keaton growled, not even bothering to pull the cigarette from his lips as he spoke. “You going to tell me these things can kill? Seems a little late for that, doesn’t it?”

  “Maybe for you,” his brother agreed. “Her? Not so much.”

  Keaton grunted but didn’t say anything. There were so many questions I had, so many I held back. I didn’t want to question Keaton’s reputation or put him in a weird spot like I had back at the bar. I wanted to believe it wouldn’t matter since this was Keaton’s brother, but I needed to be careful when it came to assumptions, and I still wanted information on my brother, information I wouldn’t get if Keaton chose not to get it to me.

  Which meant, for now, I had to be on my best behavior.

  “Well, aren’t you going to introduce me?” He reached one end of the room and turned, heading back this way.

  Keaton withdrew his cigarette and blew out smoke. “Wasn’t planning on it.”

  “You bring a breather into the Void and don’t think I’m not going to find out about it?” his brother asked. There was an edge to his voice, as though everything he had worked so hard on trying to control was close to shattering due to Keaton’s nonchalance. “Especially after Alyssa?”

  “Who’s Alyssa?” The question popped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

  From my position, I could see Keaton’s back tense in the suit he wore the second I said her name. I held my breath, not because I was worried he was going to do something to me, punish me in some way, just for saying her name, but because I didn’t want to give him any reason to not say anything. In fact, I doubted he was going to say anything at all, but I seemed to want to try.

  Keaton’s brother looked between us. “She doesn’t know?” he asked. He threw his head back and a chuckle seeped out of him, low and deep, like the chiming of a grandfather clock on each new hour. “How rich. Of course she doesn’t know.”

  “You better tread carefully, brother,” Keaton said slowly. Ash fell to the floor as he practically chomped down the edge of the cigarette. “Wouldn’t want you to have more of a shitty afterlife than you already do. You still pushing papers for the agency?”

  “We’re not here to talk about me, big brother,” he said.

  “That’s a first,” Keaton muttered before sticking the cigarette back into his mouth. “Considering you’re in my home, you want to get to the point? Me and the lady have a lot to discuss and your presence is unwanted and unwelcome.” There was a threat hanging with each word he uttered, though he hadn’t explicitly threatened his brother.

  Yet.

  “My point is, everyone in the Void is already talking,” he said, spreading his hands out casually. “I’m sure you haven’t been back for more than a few hours but everyone knows you somehow escaped the Keepers. Your legend continues to grow. More than that, everyone noted you had a girl on your arm. A living, breathing girl. Unless you’ve married her, you must return her back to her world before she’s targeted. You have enemies, Keaton. They will use her, take her, do whatever they must in order to get you to do their bidding. And that’s without bringing the Prince into this.”

  “The Prince?” I asked, standing on my toes to get a better look at Keaton’s brother. “Of Hell?”

  “Of…” He started to chuckle before punching the bridge of his nose. His shoulders jumped up and down, clearly amused by my question, though I didn’t understand what was so funny about it. “Of Hell? Where did you find her? Clearly, she knows nothing of this world, which means her ignorance is also a vulnerability you can’t afford -“

  “What the fuck do you want, Ambrose?” Keaton yelled, throwing his arms out. The cigarette flew from his mouth and burst into ash before it could touch the ground. “You come here to lecture me? Go fuck yourself. I don’t need a lecture from some paper-pusher brown-noser like you. Get the fuck out before I force you out, and we both know I can and will.”

  Ambrose narrowed his eyes slowly. He seemed to have a better hold on his emotions than Keaton clearly did.

  “The agency knows about you and about her,” he said slowly. “You know Sheila is going to want to talk.”

  “Sheila’s a cunt who can go fuck herself,” Keaton snapped. “I don’t owe the agency shit. Not after Alyssa.”

  “Yes, well, they’re not going to think so.” Ambrose adjusted the cuff of his long-sleeved dress shirt, taking his time to straighten it out until the wrinkles disappeared. “In fact, no one is going to think so. People might be afraid of you, but that won’t stop them from asking questions, and it won’t be long until the Prince hears of your release. Maybe Alyssa herself will come by, hmm?”

  Keaton erupted. The house vibrated. I lost my balance and fell onto my backside. If I wasn’t so wrapped up in the exchange between brothers, I would have demanded some kind of explanation. I had no idea what was going on, but it couldn’t be good - at least based on Keaton’s reaction.

  “Does she know what you really are?” Ambrose asked, ignoring Keaton’s outburst. Glass from the window burst and a hundred pieces littered the floor of the living room. “Does she know what you’re truly capable of?”

  “You don’t get to talk about her,” Keaton said slowly. His voice was hushed, a gentle roar of the wind late at night. An omen if I ever knew one. “Now get out before I hurt you.”

  The door to Keaton’s home burst open. Wind invaded the space, running through my hair, tangling it up into some kind of rat’s nest.

  “What did he promise you, hmm?” Ambrose asked as an invisible force began to push him towards the direction of the door. “Riches? Jewels? Fame?”

  I swallowed. My eyes darted over to Keaton. He arched a brow, almost as though he was surprised I would deign to look to him for anything at this point, after his behavior.

  “Whatever it is, don’t think for one second he’ll give you what you want,” Ambrose continued when I didn’t respond. “Keaton’s slick. He says all the right things, finds your weakness, and then uses it against you to get exactly what he wants without holding up his end of the bargain. If you are going to marry him - because there’s no way Keaton would bring you back here unless that was the only purpose he expected you to serve - you better make sure it’s worth it. Because once the vows are exchanged, there’s no going back. And you need to square away if that’s something you can live with. Because here, in the Void, you’ll be living for a long time, and with Keaton as your life and death partner? Well, you’d kill yourself just to escape your fate, and I wouldn’t want that.”

  Before Keaton could respond, Ambrose left.

  Now, the two of us were alone together.

  “Welp.” Keaton rubbed his hands together. “I’m going to bed.”

  I blinked. “Wait, what?” I followed him to the bedroom, practically running to catch up to him. “You’re going to bed? Do you need to sleep?”

  “What I need is for us to tie this knot so I can get out of here,” Keaton said darkly. He popped from the doorway and landed on the bed.

  “But I have questions,” I said, moving to the bed.

  Keaton rolled his eyes. “‘Course you do,” he said. “Well, save it. I’m not saying shit until I can finally fucking relax.”

  “And what do you expect me to do while I wait?” I demanded. I wanted to stomp my foot but thought better of it.

  Keaton lifted up the covers and gave me a feral smirk. “Come over here and find out.”

  7

  I gave him a long look. Suddenly, I wished I had stayed tucked safely in the doorway. There was a heaviness here, something almost smothering and hot.

  “I ain’t going to bite you,” Keaton said. “Unless that’s what you want.”

  “What I want,” I insisted, making my way into the room slowly, tentatively, “is to understand.”

  I kept my eyes on him, not quite trusting he wouldn’t vanish from his position on the bed and pop up behind me, taking me at a disadvantage. He had this magic I couldn’t wrap my head around, and I was in his world. This entire situation was dangerous. I should demand my release. I should track down his brother and insist he take me back up to my world. And yet, I was compelled to stay. This wasn’t even just about Richard anymore. I needed to know why this place was kept from other Keepers, why an agency in the Void wasn’t discussed with Keepers, what any of this meant. Why would Davidson keep something like this from us? There had to be a reason…but I couldn’t figure out what that was. I didn’t want to make assumptions - I was bad at that - but I couldn’t help but wonder if Keaton was right, if Davidson wasn’t as innocent as I believed him to be.

  “You don’t have to understand,” Keaton said, shifting his gaze back up at the ceiling. “You just have to keep that pretty mouth shut and marry me.”

  “You know I can’t keep my mouth shut,” I said.

  “Well, not when I’m fucking you,” he agreed, shooting me a smarmy grin.

  I couldn’t even be mad at him. Instead, I rolled my eyes and eased myself carefully on the side of the bed, twisting my torso in his direction even though I was sitting side-saddle.

  “Tell me about this agency,” I said. “What do they want with you? Do you think they’ll help me figure out what happened to Richard?”

  Keaton gave me such a look of disgust that I flinched and nearly stumbled off the bed.

  “Don’t be stupid,” he snapped. “It ain’t a good look on you.”

  “What do you want from me!” I shouted instead, throwing out my arms. “Aren’t I here? Haven’t you taken me away from my entire life? I’m trying to do whatever you ask me to do -“

  “Really?” Suddenly, Keaton popped from the bed directly in front of me. He sat next to me but his chest practically grazed mine. “So, you married me then? Everything is official? Do you think I want you as a wife? You think I want a wife at all? I need my freedom. I need to be out of that godforsaken crypt. I need to come and go as I please, and the only way I can do any of that is if you marry me. That is all I want from you. You wanna fuck a couple of times too, I won’t be opposed to that.”

  My hand shot out, ready to slap him. He grabbed my wrist before I could make contact, and before I knew it, I was pressed into the bed, him hovering on top of me. That wrist was pinned over my head. I tried to pull away from him, but he wouldn’t budge. I was trapped, supernatural green eyes boring down at me.

  “You dare strike me again?” he growled through his teeth. “I’m beginning to think you ain’t as innocent as you look. You like it rough, don’t you, babes? You’re just a little bit crazy, or else you never would have agreed to marry me, huh?”

  My cheeks pinched with disgust. How dare he make assumptions just because I wanted information on my brother.

  And yet, there was this small, inconsequential part of me that shuddered at his words. Was I crazy? I didn’t want to think about it. Except…now that he said something, I couldn’t help but wonder. If Daphne was in my position, would she have agreed to such a thing? Or would she have trusted Davidson to help her figure everything out? Would she have even considered Keaton an option?

  Of course not. She would have trusted Davidson. Why didn’t I?

  It was only then that I realized the predicament I found myself in. Keaton pressed into every inch of my body with his own, his eyes lasciviously looking over me like I was some sort of piece of steak and Keaton hadn’t eaten in a long time. There was a hint of disgust deep within me at the very thought of him consuming me the way he seemed to want to, but somewhere within that disgust was desire. Even I couldn’t deny that. I didn’t know why. There was nothing substantially attractive about him.

  And yet, the way he looked at me, the way he made me feel something deep within me that was both confusing and dark and tantalizing, I couldn’t deny that I wanted to explore that.

  “You know,” he said, his voice low as he leaned even further into me. His breath swarmed my face in a way that caused a shudder to rip down my spine and refused to stop until it hit my core. My immediate reaction was to jerk away, to force distance between us, but there was nowhere for me to go. “I could take you right here on this bed. There’s nothing stopping me from doing just that. You want it. Deny it all you want, babes, but you’re a shitty liar. I’d be able to see through you. I do see through you. I know you want to know what it’d be like. You want to know if I’d please you the way I promised to. You know I’m not a liar. I’m not you.”

 

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