AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He throws me a couple of his shirts. “One night on the job and you’re already looking for baby names?”
I realize that I don’t really have enough clothes to separate them in whites and colours, and the whites are barely white anymore anyway. Flinging everything back together into a pile, I reply, “Not funny.”
“I’m just saying, Celeste sounds a little bit posh for your bastard child.”
I throw his shirt back at his head. Even though it’s not funny if I think about it for too long, there’s really not much left to do but laugh. “It’s better than Maverick!”
He gives a little bow before pulling out a small bag of Ghostshade and accidentally scattering rolling papers all over the floor. “Smoke enough of this and anything sounds great. That was my mom’s philosophy, anyway.”
I sigh. “So there’s no, like, criminal supergenious in this city with that name?”
He carefully picks up each piece of paper, straightens it out, and puts it back in the package. “Why?”
“Just a name I heard around.”
“Hmmm.” Mav gets up and tiptoes over to the window. “There’sCeleste de Villiersbut I don’t think criminal supergenious is the right description.”
“What is the right description, then?”
Mav peels back some of the wooden boards closing our window and lights up his freshly rolled joined. “She’s a witch,” he says between inhales. “Kinda notorious.”
“Notorious for?”
“What is this about?” He narrows his eyes at me. “Is Alastor making you mess with her stuff or something?”
“What? No, why would he?”
For a few seconds, he studies my face as if trying to determine whether I’m lying, his joint smouldering by itself. “They have some kind of turf war going on, I think. He said you’d be picking up more work, is that what he’s making you do?”
“No. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” I begin flinging my clothes into a duffel bag that has been in this apartment longer than me. It smells like gym shoes and cheetos.
He shrugs. “I’m just saying, I don’t think you want to get involved in this.”
“Get involved in what?” The duffel’s zipper is broken and gets stuck half-way. I yank at it nervously, underestimating my own strength until the zipper tears free from the fabric. “Dammit!” I mumble.
He takes a gratuitously long puff of Ghostshade. “I don’t know, she brings witchy stuff into the city, herbs and whatnot. Banned stuff. Charon’s Veil like to mess with her, sabotage her shipments, that kind of thing.”
“What? Why?”
“Apparently, a few years ago, she killed a bunch of big vampire bosses. Just–” He runs his thumb over his throat as if cutting it and clicks his tongue. “Which is why, if they need someone to set her warehouse on fire or steal from her, I am nowhere to be found. And I suggest you do the same.”
“How do you know all of this?”
He shrugs. “I spend a lot ofquality timewith some important people.”
I clear my throat. “Is that why you usually work at the club?”
He throws me my sunglasses, which I’ve hung over one of the wooden boards. They’re cheap and plasticky, but will help me get through the last fading daylight. “I don’t know. Prostitution is decriminalized. But if you get caught doing one of their drug runs… I’m not ready to spend twelve years in a tomb.” He shakes his head. “And I hope you’re not either! If we’re going to save up for a deposit on a better place, it would help if you’re not in prison.”
I frown. So far, I haven’t told him that I’ll need to pay off my ridiculous fine first. “Then why’d you suggest me for it when we were at the Myrrh & Adder?”
He waves his hand. “Oh, for this new thing? It’s not drugs.”
“Right.” I shake my head, trying to remember what we were talking about. “So, Celeste is bad news?”
“Yeah. Dangerous territory. Like, finding-a-chopped-off-horse-head-in-your-bed kind of territory.”
“That’s… oddly specific.” I draw my hood deep into my face, trying to shield myself from the memory of the setting sun. Then I sling the old duffel over my shoulder and head for the door. “But I promise I’ll be careful.”
