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The old me would have thought he was gorgeous, like Ryker and Cruise. Like I shouldnotthink Danvers was.
But it didn’t matter. Appearance didn’t matter to me much anymore.
“Hi, sure.” I put on my shoes and exited my tent.
The sweatshirt and pants helped, but I would need to find a coat before winter hit again. Maybe Cruise would pay me another three hundred then I could buy another from the next job? Then again, I’d be lucky if the other jobs I worked paid me more than twenty dollars at a time. The more people who found out I was possessed—and it wasn’t a small number—the harder it became to find anyone willing to hire me.
Nathan smiled at me. I could never quite figure out his ethnicity, and that was okay. With his olive skin tone, light, almost blondish hair, very blue eyes, and impressive height, I imagined him to be a beautiful mixture of so many things.
Or a creation that should never have existed,my demon suggested. I chose to ignore her.
Nathan arched a brow at me. “I heard you did a great job today. Cruise was impressed. I knew you were the right person for the job.”
It was sweet of him to say so. Nathan had let me know Cruise needed help, then he gave me his phone number. Fortunately, my burner phone still had enough minutes to contact him.
“Thanks. I mean, I’m glad that he thought so. He was nice to me.”
Nathan smirked. “He can be. I’m glad to hear he was today. Sometimes he’s grumpy, and I can’t say I blame him. How you feeling?” His face fell when he asked. “Tough day with her?”
Tell him to mind his fucking business.
“Just about the same.” What difference did it make to discuss it? “How are you?” I asked mostly out of polite habit, but I wanted to know. I wanted to still be the kind of person who cared about the little things, even if sometimes it felt more like going through the motions.
He touched my shoulder, and for a second I forgot I didn’t like to be touched anymore. “I know she doesn’t like me around. I know it feels weird to be touched.” His blue eyes were so hypnotic, they were almost not real to look at. “But you need it, regardless. Human beings have to be touched or we get starved, so be careful she’s not leaving you without feeling the loss of it.”
Like freezing to death without knowing it was happening. “How do you know all these things?”
“I’ve been doing this a long time, even before everyone knew about it. You’re going to be okay, Addalee. I have faith in you. Hang on. Pack up your things tonight and take them with you to Cruise’s. The hunters are coming. By the time you get back, you won’t be safe here. They’re not going south tonight, so I advise you to go that way.”
He wasn’t ever wrong. “Why do you help me escape them? I mean, I’m grateful, but it’s confusing.”
Nathan lifted his chin. “Those fuckers. I mean…in the beginning, they wanted to help. Now it’s a power thing. Angry people who feel wronged by the situation somehow. Maybe it’s grief over someone they lost, or maybe it’s just wanting to feel superior? I don’t know. So few of you survive hunter exorcisms. It’s not meant to be done by amateurs who have seen it once, and I won’t stand by while they kill you all when there is still hope you can be saved. So go, do it tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow, make sure you’re safe in the south part of town.
I watched him leave, unable to move for a second. My shoulder still tingled where he’d touched me.
One of these days, I’ll kill him. We all will. How dare he interfere in things?
“What things did he interfere with?” She always said that, and I never understood.
Never mind. Aren’t you supposed to be packing and visiting your mom? If she’s not dead, dead, dead.
Yeah. That was the plan, at least before Nathan’s warning.
I should really ask him how he always knew what the hunters had planned. There were times I couldn’t remember what I needed to say to Nathan. He was nice to me, kind in a way that wasn’t only him tolerating me. He listened when I spoke like I was still a person worth hearing. Ryker did, too. Other than them…I didn’t have long- term people in my life anymore, not that I’d started with many.
And how did he know Cruise? Another question I should have asked before he vanished. I didn’t think he was homeless. What was he always doing there in the camp?
I pondered about it on my walk toward my mother. I shivered. In April, it shouldn’t snow, but it felt like it might.Damn it.
I’d love to see you shake all night.
I hated her, and she obviously hated me. We weren’t companions, and I had at no point wanted her presence, but this kind of antipathy wasn’t unusual for possession.
“If I die, you find another person or you go to hell.”
You won’t die. You’ll just hate life.
I already did.
