Home > How to Live an Undead Lie (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy #5)(5)

How to Live an Undead Lie (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy #5)(5)
Author: Hailey Edwards

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Corbin shrugged. “I discovered a loophole, and I exploited it.”

“A loophole that size is unlikely.” Linus radiated calm. “Society prisons are very good at what they do.”

“Call your mom and verify my story,” Corbin taunted. “She’s probably spitting nails right about now.”

Used to taking hits below the belt where his mother was concerned, Linus raised an eyebrow as if to ask, Is that the best you can do?

“When I call, should I mention you’re here?” Linus kept his tone cool, but black gathered in the corners of his eyes. “That you’re my source of information?”

The vampire swallowed hard. “No.”

“How else would I explain my sudden interest in a minor facility in a town clear across the country?”

Corbin had no answer for that.

Linus knew his mother better than anyone. He was Corbin’s best hope of avoiding detection, assuming we decided to help him evade capture. I wasn’t sure I wanted Clarice Lawson as an enemy, even if I was responsible for Corbin’s current predicament.

“I’m sorry for being an ass.” Corbin raked his fingers through his hair, tugging on the ends with frustration. “I haven’t eaten since I broke out six days ago.”

A hungry vampire was a dangerous vampire. Corbin was a ticking time bomb until he fed.

“I don’t know how to…” A grimace twisted his features. “They didn’t teach me to...”

“Feed,” I finished for him.

“Yeah.” Relief he didn’t have to say it bowed his shoulders. “That.”

Vampire hunter or not, sympathy welled in me. “They served you donor blood?”

“Yeah.” He wet his lips. “Heated. In a mug.”

Not teaching a vampire how to source his own meals wouldn’t handicap him in the long run. When they got hungry enough, they turned savage. Their biology demanded blood, and their brains flipped a switch to make sure they got it. Rip out enough throats and rogues learned finesse. That or they got put down.

“Look, I get that I put you in a tight spot.” Corbin stood with a resigned sigh. “You’re under no obligation to help me, but I don’t want to hurt any innocents. Can you at least point me in the right direction?”

I hooked a thumb over my shoulder, indicating the stairs. “Fifth room on the left.”

“You’re going to let me stay?” He glanced between us. “Here? With you?”

“With us.” I patted Linus’s thigh. “He lives here too.”

Corbin wisely kept his mouth shut about our living arrangements.

“Dawn is four hours away, and you chose a heck of a city for your escape.” Vampires aware of his family ties would kill him on sight, and most necromancers would pay someone to do it for them. Being Deathless didn’t mean he couldn’t be killed. It just meant he wouldn’t die on his own. “Giving you a place to crash for the day is the least we can do.” Stashing him also meant we knew where to find him until we decided what to do about him. “Linus and I have errands to run, but we’ll leave Lethe and Hood with you in case there’s any trouble.”

“To keep an eye on me.” His eyes glinted in a flash of temper. “That’s what you mean.”

“That too.” I gestured around the room. “This house isn’t just my home. She’s family. Hurt her, and I will deliver you to the Grande Dame with a big red bow stuck to your forehead. That goes for Oscar and the gwyllgi too.”

Squeaky barks carried from the bay window where Keet bounced along the bottom of his cage, snapping his beak at the bars.

This was all Lethe’s fault. I told her not to sneak him pieces of hamburger patties. Now she was his hero.

“The same goes for the parakeet.” I indicated the small banana-yellow bird scratching his earhole with his foot. “Usually, he has grand delusions he’s a bat. Right now, he believes he’s a dog. Just go with it.”

“Oookay.” Corbin looked ready to bolt out the door and take his chance with the dawn. “I guess.”

“I’ll bring up a towel and fresh sheets in a minute.” I hadn’t changed the ones in that room since Amelie moved into the carriage house. After getting to my feet, I crossed to the window and unwrapped the bundle of ghost boy cradled in Woolly’s embrace. “Oscar, can you show Corbin to Amelie’s old room?”

His mumbled reply sounded mostly like a yes, so I nudged him toward the stairs.

Corbin stared at me a moment too long then ran his tongue over his teeth in preparation for what he was about to ask.

Linus picked up on the tension between us, and he slid his hands into his pockets. It did nothing to hide the way his fingers curled into fists, but no black clouded his eyes, and I doubted Corbin noticed the slip.

“I need…” Corbin’s gaze caressed the length of my throat. “I can’t put it off any longer.”

“I’ll bring you dinner,” Linus said in a voice that threatened my ears with freezer burn.

A soft growl tickled the back of my throat, and he whipped his head toward me.

“Not you.”

“I offered to bring him dinner.” His tone thawed, his eyes dancing. “Not be his dinner.”

The temperature in the room cranked up a few degrees as I blushed. “Nanny nanny boo-boo?”

The joke was weak, but it was all I had to offer after snarling over him like he was a bloody steak caught between the jaws of two ravenous dogs.

After Oscar tugged on his sleeve, Corbin took the hint and headed upstairs, leaving Linus and me alone.

Linus waited a minute before allowing his lips to curve. “I don’t mind you being possessive.”

“You’re not a hunk of meat.” I exhaled through my teeth. “You act civilized, so can I.”

“Don’t feel the need to conform on my behalf.” He eased his fingers under my hair, cupping my nape, his fingers spreading chills. “No one has ever wanted me for myself. I don’t mind. You wanting me.”

“Good.” I let him guide me against his chest, where I buried my face in his shirt and linked my arms at his spine. “I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.” I felt the hitch in his breath, the uptick of his heart. “One day, you’ll believe that.”

He hummed an answer that didn’t satisfy me, but it’s not like I could beat him over the head with a stick. I mean, I could. He would let me. But it wouldn’t drive home his worth. It would only prove I was a crazy girlfriend.

Hmm.

“Am I your girlfriend?” I mumbled against his shirt. “We didn’t exactly define this.” I swallowed. “Us.”

“I don’t require a label,” he said, tension drawing his back tight against my fingertips.

“What if I want one?” I peeked up at him. “Do you have any objections?”

“No,” he breathed, the word softer than the relieved exhale that parted his lips.

“Wait here.” I ducked into the kitchen and dug out a permanent marker and a pack of yellowed labels Maud used to stick on preserves and various other concoctions. Linus kept a wary eye on me while I filled in the blank space where he couldn’t see. “Done.” I peeled it off, walked over, and stuck it to his shirt with a pat. “There.”

“Grier’s boyfriend,” he read, his fingers tracing the curling edge. “I suppose that means the reverse is true for you.”

“I’m not sure.” I gestured to all the empty real estate on my shirt. “I don’t have one.”

Unable to stop the smile crinkling the corners of his eyes, he walked into the kitchen and jotted down a line. He peeled off his label, returned to me, and smoothed it on my shirt, right over my heart. I worked up the nerve to glance down, uncertain what title he had settled on so quickly, and my voice broke when I read simply, “Mine.”

I had never belonged to someone before and had them belong to me too.

This felt big, larger than stickers and more permanent than the markers we used to stake our claims.

“You guys heading out?” Lethe strolled into the room and plopped on the couch. “Or making out?”

Huffing in annoyance, I picked up a pillow and threw it at her head. “Ever hear of knocking?”

“Ever hear of not inviting strangers into your house?” She caught the pillow and tucked it under her head. “Oh! Or better yet—ever hear of not inviting strangers to sleepovers? Seriously. You have trust issues. As in, you’re not suspicious enough.”

“Woolly cleared Corbin,” I reminded her.

“He won’t cause any problems,” Linus agreed. “We have too much leverage over him.”

Hearing his certainty bolstered mine. “If he shows his butt, we’ll toss him out on it.”

Linus excused himself to the kitchen.

The fridge opened, glass tinkled, and the microwave hummed.

Lethe examined her fingernails. “What do I get for babysitting your spawn?”

“Whatever you want from Black Dog Brewery.”

Her eyes lit up, and she rubbed her hands together.

“Keep it under a hundred this time,” I warned. “I can’t afford to keep bribing you otherwise.”

“I did,” she protested. “My bill was like ninety-nine dollars and ninety-six cents. A new record.”

“The charge was for two hundred and sixty-five dollars.”

She twirled a strand of vibrant blue hair around a finger. “I can’t help that you didn’t put a cap on Hood or Baby Kinase.”

“One hundred dollars,” I said slowly. “Total.”

“Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll go light.”

“Thank you.” I lifted a finger. “On the topic of my spawn, how does he smell to you?”

“Like he spent one too many days in a car without taking a pee break.”

   
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