“I buried what was left.”
“You did?” She’d missed that when she’d been lost in thought.
He grunted again, and the lights of the town grew brighter. “Someone will see us,” she pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter.”
She rested her head against his thick shoulder, allowing the heat from his skin to radiate into hers. It was like snuggling against an electric blanket. “Can you talk in more than two-word sentences?”
“Yes.”
She waited and waited. Her lips twitched. Then she started to laugh. This entire situation was absurd.
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. He really was handsome. She touched his face, stroking her fingers over his thick facial hair. It was soft, not scratchy against her skin. His arms tightened around her, but he didn’t tell her to stop.
“Where are we going?” Time to be proactive. She’d been independent a long time. It was what had allowed her to break away from her kin and try to make her own way. “I moved around a lot until I landed here. I figured keeping myself isolated was key. Fewer deaths meant less chance of being discovered.”
Alexei kept to the shadows, moving stealthily behind a group of houses. “I can walk, you know.”
“Faster this way.” He picked up speed, becoming a blur. Then they were inside a house and he was lowering her to her feet.
“Wow.” The room spun slightly, and she blinked several times to right it. What he’d just done was similar to what she did when she was on the job. Her kind could go from one side of the world to the other in a split second. She hadn’t had any trouble with speed since her first trip. Maybe because her powers were muted it was different. Or maybe it was the man himself making her head spin.
“Why didn’t you move that fast from the beginning?” They could have been here much quicker, even if it wouldn’t have been safe to do with them being hunted.
His cheeks turned a faint shade of red. “Liked walking with you.”
It was hard to reconcile the lethal assassin who’d killed with such speed and accuracy—all without breaking a sweat—and who’d had the intelligence and quickness to hide from a reaper—no easy task—with the slightly embarrassed male who’d carried her here, all because he’d enjoyed being with her.
Alexei was a contradiction, a complex man with many layers. She’d known it, but there was even more to him than she’d imagined. What she’d witnessed only touched the tip of the iceberg.
He made his way into a bedroom and quickly dressed, pulling on jeans, boots, and a sweater. Once he was clothed, he jammed a laptop into a pack before returning to her side.
“Wait.” She stopped him before he could open the door.
“Why?”
Her physical and psychic skills might be unavailable to her, but she could still use her brain. “If I was searching for me, I’d watch and see if anyone was making a run for it. We’re lucky we weren’t spotted on the way here.” Easing back the curtain, she peered out the window into the darkness. “It’s probably a good thing you took things slow on the way here. Too much of a burst of speed might have gotten attention.”
“I don’t know anything about reapers.” He set his pack down and motioned to the sofa. His was newer than hers. Bigger too. And a pleasing shade of gray instead of the hideous pattern she’d lived with.
She was going to miss that ugly sofa. It had been hers, at least temporarily.
She slipped her bag from her shoulder and dropped it beside his before taking a seat. “We only have contact with other species at their time of death.” She gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Doesn’t make us the most popular of folks.” That was an understatement. She was usually met with fear and anger.
Alexei sat and bent one knee so it was resting on the sofa and his body was turned toward her. She fought the urge to throw herself into his arms. The only person she could depend on was herself. She had to remember that, which wasn’t easy with him sitting beside her and practically radiating concern.
“How does it work?”
“Reaping?” When he nodded, she decided to give him a condensed version. “When someone is supposed to die, one of us is sent. Our purpose is to guide the newly departed soul to where it needs to be. We never take a life. And we never interfere. Those are the two cardinal rules.”
“Never?” He seemed surprised. Most people were.
Sometimes a reaper showed up early, before a person had actually died. That usually freaked them out.
“No scythe—no cutting a person down?”
“No cutting a person down.” She didn’t mention Death’s scythe. That was probably the most lethal device in existence. It could destroy anyone or anything, even a god—small g, not the big G. The head reapers had lesser versions, but those were still deadly in their own right.
Alexei dug his computer out of his knapsack and powered it up.
“What are you doing?” she asked. Curious, she scooted closer. She was very aware of him as a man. As much as she tried to keep her mind on what was important—staying alive—she couldn’t do anything to stop the way her whole being seemed to come to attention whenever she was near him. Now that he’d defended her, it was even worse. He’d put his life on the line for her. What woman wouldn’t be enticed by that kind of strength of character?
And then there was his body. Some women might be put off by his size, but not her. It was a huge turn-on that he was big enough, brawny enough to carry her several miles through the snow in the middle of the night.
She’d been so strong for so long. It was nice to have someone to lean on, even temporarily. And she wouldn’t apologize for that. It didn’t make her weak. It made her human, which she wasn’t. Not really. She wasn’t sure what she was classified as. Paranormals didn’t consider them one of theirs. They were outsiders.
Maybe that’s why she’d been so fascinated with people, how they loved and lived. Their lifespan was so short, but they packed so much into it.
“Cassie?”
“What?” Crap, had he been talking to her? This was no time to get distracted. She had to focus her attention.
He angled the laptop so she could see the screen. “Forgotten Brotherhood? You guys have your own website?”
“We can keep track of jobs so we don’t get in one another’s way.”
“Yeah, I bet that wouldn’t be good. There was an incident, wasn’t—” She broke off and nibbled her bottom lip. There’d been an incident all right. She remembered now. Reapers had been pulled off other jobs when there’d been a mass slaying, totally unexpected. It had happened a long time ago, likely before his time.