Affairs of the Dead (2 page)

I’d watched her go with a smile, then almost collapsed onto the sidewalk in exhaustion. As it was, I’d downed two cups of coffee before making the precarious drive back to my house in Brooklyn.

The obnoxious sunlight streaming through my window meant it was morning, so I had to peel myself out of bed and get to work. Since I’d gotten in so late, I had far less than eight hours of sleep, so I was loathe to get up. I was leaning toward calling in sick, then remembered I had used up almost all of my sick days for similar reasons, so I couldn’t afford to use one today. Especially since it was June, and the work year was only halfway done. I sighed and moaned over my predicament, then rolled out of bed and spent a few minutes sitting on the floor, leaning against it. I was extremely unwilling to be parted from this bed.

Seeing me on the floor, a tiny ball of energy in the form of a Yorkie named Luna dashed into the room and jumped into my lap, demanding my attention.

“It’s too early to be so energetic,” I said, my voice thick with sleep. “If I was a dead witch, I’d take a little of your energy, Luna. You’re lucky necromancers are in the business of giving and not taking.”

She nipped my finger in response. Her incessant pestering meant that she was hungry, so I gathered my strength in the pursuit of feeding my dog and drifted into the kitchen, where I believe I filled her bowl with kibble, though it could have been coffee grounds. I also remembered to toss some food into my fish tank. I had about half a dozen fat goldfish, and unfortunately for them, I forgot to take care of them more than I forgot about Luna. I then headed to the shower, which helped wake me up but could do nothing for the sore, heavy feeling in my body.

“May I remember this feeling the next time I forget my rune stones and decide to channel my own energy into a ghost instead,” I muttered as I slumped over my breakfast. I was still wrapped in my towel since I’d been too hungry to wait until I had clothes on before eating. It wasn’t the first time I’d given myself that reminder, and it wouldn’t be the last.

I wolfed down two bowls of cereal, four pieces of buttered toast, six pieces of bacon, and two cups of coffee. It helped a smidge. Afterward, I headed into my bedroom to change, with Luna tangling herself in my feet as she ran after me.

“Well, it’s official. Today will be go-to-work-looking-like-shit day,” I said as I stared at my reflection.

My short black hair was still damp, so it hung around my face in curly clumps, and my cinnamon-brown skin looked washed out and sickly. Even my hazel eyes were a pale imitation of themselves. I had an overall look of exhaustion that couldn’t be washed away or covered with makeup. I did my best with my hair, then got dressed in a tight pencil skirt with a crisp white blouse tucked into it and a sleek navy vest over that. Pumps completed the look. My face might look like crap, but the rest of me was going to look fabulous. Had to compensate somewhere, right?

I checked the time and saw I was already late for work. Oh well. I took Luna for a walk, played with her for ten minutes after we came back, then headed out.

Forty-five minutes later, I was walking toward the office building of Affairs of the Dead in midtown Manhattan. As far as office buildings went, this one stood out because it was the only building in the area covered in large, colorful runes, which varied from simple circular runes to ones that made the most complicated Celtic knot look tame.

As I walked, I was accompanied by a few ghosts who were drawn to the building like moths to a flame. It always amused me to see them pass through someone and have that person shiver at the touch of death they received. Unlike necromancers and dead witches, the average human couldn’t see ghosts unless they were made visible, but some of the more sensitive humans felt something like an icy touch when one passed by or through them.

Several ghosts and I passed through the building’s front doors, and while I headed to the elevators, the ghosts were greeted by necromancers whose job it was to explain why they had found themselves there. Then the ghosts would be assigned to another necromancer, who would have lengthy conversations with them and use runes aimed at figuring out what would get them to cross over.

I got off on the tenth floor and headed into the brightly lit office suite. Behind the receptionist’s desk, there was a sea of tightly packed cubicles, and mine was tucked in there somewhere. How I envied those higher-ranking necromancers who’d earned themselves a nice cramped office.

“Morning all,” I called out as I made my way to my desk. I was still tired but was going to pretend like I wasn’t. Unfortunately, it was written all over my face.

“You drained yourself last night, didn’t you, doll?” A ghost fell into step next to me, and I spared him a glance. He wore energy runes, which meant he could actually walk on the ground. Without the runes, ghosts floated to get around, but a lot of them still moved their legs so it looked like they were walking on air. Which I found very amusing.

“So what if I did, Larry?” I said. As I walked, I noticed that people were giving me quick glances before looking away, some with little smiles on their faces. I frowned. What was that about? I hadn’t yet done anything to earn those kinds of looks.

“It’s like you want to Rot,” Larry said.

I got to my desk, dumped my bag, and turned on my computer. Larry hovered nearby, leaning one arm against my cubicle wall. Larry was a ghost who had been around for the past five years but hadn’t manifested into a beastie because he had that much damn unfinished business. Constantly working on tying up his loose ends kept him from turning into a monster.

Larry was an anomaly; it was rare that a ghost would have years’ worth of unsettled business to get through. It was believable for Larry though, because in life, he’d been a criminal who’d gotten into a lot of trouble and rarely cleaned up his messes. Eventually, he’d crossed someone he couldn’t outsmart and got himself killed. Now he was regularly passed among us necromancers as we tried to help him clean up his plethora of dirty work.

No one relished working with Larry though, since the things he had to take care of often involved retrieving a brick of cash he’d hidden in a sewer or coming clean to someone’s family about how he’d dug up their loved one’s body and sold it to Underground dead witches or necromancers to experiment with.

“And it’s like you want to start your day with annoying me,” I said, attempting to make some sense out of the clutter on my desk. I was trying to find the file that contained all of my cases for the week so I could cross Julia off it and see what else I had lined up.

Larry chuckled, running his hand over his slicked back, dark-brown hair. He had the look of a sixties greaser: black leather jacket over a black shirt, black jeans, greased hair, overly neat facial hair, and an overall untrustworthy look. Wouldn’t have been hard to pick him out of a crowd as a crook.

“I don’t think I’m going to be the one getting on your nerves today,” Larry said.

I shot him a look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He put his hands behind his head and strolled away, whistling. “You’ll see, doll.”

I rolled my eyes. My plow through my desk clutter still hadn’t yielded my folder of appointments, so I started rummaging through my equally cluttered drawers, wondering if I had taken the file home. The folder wasn’t in any of the drawers, but I did uncover my bag of rune stones. They thrummed with energy, and I wished I could tap into one of them and give myself a little boost, but alas, rune stones were for the dead, not the living.

I tossed the stones into my handbag. See how determined I was not to be unprepared next time?

I was cursing under my breath over the fact that I still couldn’t find my appointment folder, when someone’s shadow dropped over me, and I emerged from under my desk. I had resorted to sorting through the junk I’d kicked under there to see if the folder had fallen down. When I saw who stood over me, it didn’t help push my mood in a better direction.

“What do you want, Micah?”

Micah Stone was a fellow necromancer, and if I had to be honest, he was one of the better-looking ones. Over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, and with enough curly black hair to star in a shampoo commercial. He was of mixed race, and his soft hair complemented skin that was a few shades lighter than mine, and he sported the rare gray eye color.

I knew the sight of him elicited many a sigh from the ladies, and a couple of the men, in the office. When it came to me though, there were no sighs to be had.

About a year ago, Micah and I had gone out for drinks that led to a drunken night of sex that then resulted in…nothing at all. I was used to hitting and quitting, as I knew Micah was, but I don’t think he was used to being on the receiving end of it. After that night, his attitude toward me had turned sour, and I took it to mean that he was disgruntled over the fact that I’d slept with him but hadn’t fallen under his spell. But that was his hole to stand in, not mine.

“Boss wants to see you,” he said. “Sent me specifically to deliver the message.”

“Is that supposed to mean something?” I asked, still trying to uncover my folder. He just shrugged.

“It’s a rather pressing matter, so I don’t suggest you keep Andrew waiting.”

“And I suggest you bite me,” I said. I then stood up and slammed my palms onto my desk. “Where is that damn file?”

Micah chuckled, and I glared at him. Then I brushed past him and headed to the boss’s office at the other end of the suite, not because he’d told me not to keep Andrew waiting, but because I knew Micah would hang around being a pain in the ass until I got up. It really was a shame that our drunken night had deteriorated our relationship, because prior to that, we’d gotten along just dandy. Micah’s ego must really be floating around the stratosphere for him to be this bitter toward me all this time later.

Andrew McNabb’s office was away from the main cubicle area and down a short hallway where there were only his office at the end and a nook that served as one of the suite’s copy areas. I waltzed in without bothering to knock, then plopped myself onto the chair in front of Andrew’s sleek, meticulously neat mahogany desk. I propped my feet up on the corner, giving a nice view of my legs, but Andrew continued to type on his computer and didn’t make any indication that he knew I had entered his office.

I didn’t take it personally. That was Andrew for you. He was forty-two but looked younger and had been head of Affairs of the Dead for over ten years. He’d taken over when his father retired.

If Micah was broad shouldered, Andrew was broader. He didn’t look bulky, but he definitely had the type of body that showcased the fact that six days out of seven, he was at the gym. He also had a smile that could blaze through the murkiest bullshit, steely blue eyes, and dark brown hair that was always perfectly styled.

In case I had to spell it out, he was sexy.

Finally, Andrew turned his chair around so he could face me, clasping his hands together on the desk and leaning forward on his forearms. He took the time to let his eyes travel up my legs to my face, where I had a smile waiting for him. He flashed me his pearly whites before his face sobered, which was unusual. There was usually at least ten minutes of flirting and witty banter before we got down to business.

“You wanted to see me, boss?” I said, picking up one of the paperweights on his desk and idling it in my hands.

“There are some issues we need to discuss, Selene,” he said.

I raised an eyebrow. It actually sounded like he'd called me in here for something serious. He reached under a pile and pulled out a recognizable blue folder.

“You have my appointment folder?” I asked, drawing my feet off his desk and sitting up. “Why the hell did you take it?”

“Because you’re being taken off appointments and reassigned to track and retrieval.”

At those words, I was on my feet, with my palms planted on his desk and my face thrust into his. Andrew didn’t bat an eye.

“You can’t be serious!” I said. “What the hell for?” Surely he was just fucking with me. There was no way he was really putting me on track and retrieval.

“Sit down, and let’s discuss this calmly,” Andrew said.

I fumed and huffed but sat back down, crossing my arms tightly over my chest, which only made my cleavage more obvious. Andrew dropped his gaze to have a look before raising his eyes back to mine.

“Exhibit A,” Andrew began. “Last night you took a ghost to a strip club and paid a stripper five thousand dollars to have sex with her. And instead of using rune stones, you taxed your own energy to accomplish your goal. Do tell, how were you going to word last night’s activities in your write-up?”

I ground my teeth and looked away from him. I hadn’t actually mapped out the story for this one yet, but it definitely wasn’t going to involve the words “strip club” or the fact that I blew my expense budget to pay a stripper to have sex with a ghost.

“Selene,” Andrew said, bringing my gaze back to him.

He was sitting there very calmly. No shouting or screaming over my rule-breaking activities, but Andrew wasn’t the screaming type. It was actually his calmness that people feared. I didn’t, but today could be an exception. To my surprise, Andrew’s lips twitched into a smile.

“I have to applaud your tenacity,” he said. “But do I really have to remind you that sex with ghosts is one hundred percent illegal? Especially paying for it? I won’t even bother to harp on the fact that you spent five thousand dollars on it, since having an expense budget isn’t going to be an issue for you for a while.”

I felt like I’d died a little inside. “How do you even know about last night?”

“I had you followed,” he replied smoothly.

I balked.
“What?”

“I had every right to,” Andrew said. “Considering last night wasn’t the first time you engaged in excursions you knew were against the rules.” He pulled out another file and started to flip through the pages. “Three weeks ago, you helped a ghost break into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment to steal his dog back since he died without resolving the custody battle over the dog. Then you drove the ghost and dog to North Carolina to leave the dog with the ghost’s parents.” He flicked his eyes to me, then back down to the file. “Last month, you arranged for a ghost to go sky diving and had to use over a dozen rune stones to keep the skydiving equipment strapped on. And last week, you helped a ghost haunt her high school prom as payback for the bullying she’d received from her classmates. Two students had seizures as a result of their fright, and a dozen others went into shock.” He closed the file. “I could continue, but I think you get the point.”