Read Online Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore - Free Book Online

You’re a topic of conversation more than you know. I hear Baron Samedi and Maman Brigitte were very pleased with your work in Texas.”
    “I pride myself on customer service,” I say. “But I’ll admit, I haven’t really followed up with them the last couple of days,” I say. “I’ve been a little preoccupied.”
    The last thing I want to be is watercooler talk around the demigod offices.
    “Nonetheless,” she says, “you’ve built yourself quite the reputation over the years. I could use your particular expertise.”
    “You want to hire me.”
    “No,” she says. “I want to own you.”

Chapter 8
    “Come again?” I’ve had weird job offers before but this is a bit much, even by my standards.
    “Do you know how many of my followers I can communicate with directly? How many I can appear to the way I’m appearing to you now?”
    “I wouldn’t even hazard a guess.”
    “None of them. My will comes to them in dreams, flashes of insight, a half-remembered whisper in a cocaine-fueled frenzy. Even my mages must perform rituals to hear me speak.”
    “Must make it a little hard to get them to do what you want.”
    “We get by. It’s the particulars that are a challenge. Detail and nuance.”
    “So you’re looking for a high priest?” I don’t know what the hell she’s getting at here.
    “No. Let the Catholics have their Pope. That’s something I don’t need.”
    I stop at a marble sarcophagus at the edge of the building and lean against it. Try to look nonchalant, but the truth is that I’m scared shitless. I’m getting the sense that this is one of those offers I can’t refuse.
    “Then what do you need?”
    “A courier. Someone to carry out my will.”
    “An errand boy,” I say.
    “No. An enforcer. A champion.”
    “You’re looking for a thug?” I say. “Considering most of your followers are murderers and drug runners, don’t you already have somebody better qualified for the job?”
    “Killers of men,” she says. “How many demons have you destroyed?” she asks. “Ghosts you’ve banished? Vampires, lamiae, ghouls? You’ve destroyed things almost as powerful as I.”
    “Yeah, and?”
    “I have, as you’ve pointed out,” she says, “an abundance of murderers. But can they survive a Redcap? Face the Jersey Devil and live?”
    Things I’d rather forget. Things I’ve never told anyone. “How do you even know about that?”
    “As I said, you’re a topic of conversation. I’m truly not asking you to do anything you don’t already do.”
    I make a pretense of thinking about it. I already have my answer.
    “Say I sign on with you,” I say. “What do I get?”
    “You’re already a powerful mage. You have control over the dead. You see things that only a handful like you can. Now imagine my power coupled with your own. Imagine that power tenfold.”
    “I’m listening.”
    “With me as your patron I can enhance your already impressive abilities. And give you things you’ve never dreamed of.”
    Take what I already know and tack on what she can give me? The things I can learn. It’s tempting. Incredibly tempting. Only there’s a catch.
    “You own my ass,” I say. “You tell me where to go, what to do.”
    “More or less, yes.”
    “I’m nobody’s meat puppet.”
    “Which is why I want you for the job. I don’t need an unthinking drone. That would defeat the purpose. Your will is your own.”
    “So long as you keep me wrapped around your finger. Steep price.” I pull my jacket tight around me. The wind has picked up, chilling the already cold fall air. “No,” I say. “I don’t care if the job comes with full dental and a weekly blowjob. It was nice meeting you, Señora. Good luck filling that position.”
    “I can give you your sister’s killer,” she says. “Is your vengeance not worth it?”
    “And lose my freedom? Not by a long shot. I’m not one of your gun-toting narcos. With all due respect, being a gopher for a manifestation of violent