Affairs of the Dead Read Free

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