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“Hey,” I replied with the same reservation.
Trix smoothed a hand over her cotton-candy colored hair and casually shifted so that she would either have to be included in the discussion or talked over.
The woman was unfazed by the action.
“I’m Alessia. That man back there is Tyson. We’re um, looking for my sister.” She paused and reached into her back pocket, pulling out a polaroid. “Have you two seen her anywhere by chance? She goes by Izzy.”
I studied the photo and shook my head. “I’ve never seen her before.”
“She doesn’t look familiar to me either,” Trix added.
“Are you sure? She’s pregnant. Or, was pregnant—the baby may have been born by now.”
Taking another look at the brunette in the image, I studied the laugh lines around her eyes. The smile on her face seemed so genuine and carefree. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d felt so unburdened, the last time I wasn’t trapped beneath a mountain of apathy.
This girl had the same Anubis tattooed on her chest as Alessia.
I gathered right away that it was their insignia. As with all factions in the Badlands, our insignias represented where we came from and broadcasted that we weren’t alone. Where there was one, there was bound to be another—safety in numbers and all that jazz.
Still, none of that was going to make me remember someone I’d never met before. I wouldn’t have forgotten a woman on the verge of giving birth.
“I haven’t seen her,” I repeated.
Alessia retracted the photo with a nod of her head. “Well, if you happen to come across her, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could tell her I’m heading down. She’ll understand the meaning.”
“If we come across her, it’s b—”
“We can do t
hat,” Trix cut me off.
“Thanks,” Alessia replied, flashing another smile. “And good luck, Nyx.”
I stared at her with a slightly arched brow. “How do you know my name?”
Her smile grew a little bigger. “You’re the spitting image of your mother.” She left me with those parting words, turning around and going back to the man she’d called Tyson. Her head moved back and forth in response to whatever he asked.
With the picture still in her hand, she held it up to the show the bartender, who simply shrugged.
Alessia slid the photo back into her jean pocket and headed for the exit with Tyson quickly moving to follow, after saying something final to Zane. I stared at their retreating forms. Alessia’s shoulders were squared and her head was held high.
Not a sign of someone close to giving up. I could respect that.
We were still searching for a few people ourselves, my baby brother amongst them. With that search came one of my greatest fears. I was the reaper’s daughter, the devil’s niece—a Savage through and through.
I was also painfully and tragically human, albeit far from an average one. I still had that small list of things that terrified me just like the mundane did. Some fears were bigger than others, but one always remained at the top.
Death.
That’s ironic, right? Death was something I held like a kiss, but at times her softness turned brutal and self-destructive.
I understood her on a deeply personal level. She didn’t discriminate. I knew at any time without any warning, she could lay claim to someone I loved.
And she knew that if my brother was no longer among the living, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I held strong to my diabolic faith and beliefs that I would feel his departure. As of now, he was still here. I’d walk to the ends of this earth to find him—Lilith and Demon, too.
“Were you about to tell that girl her sister was dead?” Trix asked, interrupting my inner musings.
“Pregnant and lost in the Badlands? That doesn’t sound too good to me.”
