Read Online Die for Her A Die for Me Novella by Amy Plum - Free Book Online Page B

form, guys,” calls Ambrose from where he’s retrieving the battle-ax. He runs his finger along its edge, testing its sharpness. “Good thing he didn’t get you first; this thing’s a Grade A killing machine,” he says. “And now it’s mine, all mine,” he coos, like it’s a baby instead of a deadly weapon.
    Vincent drops his sword, and his hands ball into fists as he absorbs the energy of the numa. He glances at me, and I can see the effect it’s having on him—the dark gleam of the eyes and the evil-looking scowl as the power hits him and sinks into his being. After a second he looks like a normal bardia again, but one who’s downed a few crates of Red Bull. “Ha!” he laughs, and grabs my arm a little too firmly. “This is going to work, Jules. I can just feel it.”
    “Ah, okay,” I say, wondering if this Dark Way plan is really the best idea. It’s not like Vincent’s going to go all raving-numa on us, but the immediate effects of absorbing the dark power a few days in a row are a bit frightening, to say the least. “How many of these guys do you have to kill?” I ask, extricating myself from his grasp.
    “Just have to keep it up for a few months, one every few days,” he responds. “At least, that’s what Violette and Gaspard calculated.”
    He claps his hands together expectantly, and then pulls out his phone. “Yeah, Gaspard. Ambulance needed at Le Boudoir, boulevard de Clichy. One-way trip to the crematorium.” He hangs up and looks at Ambrose and me with a wild look in his eyes. Based on my numa-killing experience, it’ll take an hour or so for the buzz to die. “Montmartre’s just a few blocks away,” he says. “Who feels like running some stairs?”

FOURTEEN
    THE NEXT WEEK WHEN I AWAKE FROM DORMANCY , Kate is the first thing on my mind. The regular bodyguard duty that Vincent has asked me to do while he numa-slays has made it impossible for me to achieve my goal of forgetting my feelings for her. I have the overwhelming urge to see her. To go to her house. To follow her as she goes about her daily activities.
    I actually did it once. I sat in her room, watching her lie on her bed doing homework. Chewing on the end of the pencil as she considered what she read. Wrote notes in a messy script that was completely illegible, at least to me. At one point she lay on her back and watched the ceiling, and an expression of pure happiness crossed her features. Like she had a beautiful secret. And I knew that she was thinking of him. I felt dirty and sullied for spying on this intimate moment and left immediately. I never visited her volant after that.

FIFTEEN
    “ VINCE, LOOKS LIKE THAT ZOMBIE HIT YOU AS hard as you hit him,” I say, pointing to the fist-sized purple patch under his ribs. Vincent looks down, pressing on the bruise, and recoils in pain. “Holy crap, that hurts,” he says, sucking air sharply between his teeth. “That’s weird: I don’t remember him touching me at all. I must have run into something when we came back up the stairs from the sewers.”
    After two weeks of numa slaying, Vincent is looking considerably worse for the wear. Violette confirms everything is on track, though. She says things have to get bad before they get better.
    So I nod, and hold my tongue. I’m encouraged when Vincent reanimates looking like his old self. Although I have a bad feeling about this whole Dark Way thing, who am I to go up against Gaspard and Violette’s brainiac dream team?
    But I’m beginning to lose my willingness to help him reach his goal. The more Kate’s in our lives, the more I find myself falling for her. The more I see her, the more I want her around. It’s a vicious cycle, and it’s making me crazy. I’ve begun staying away from La Maison and spending more time in my studio, just to avoid our paths crossing any more than necessary.
    I shower and slip into some old jeans and a T-shirt. “Where are you off to?” Vincent asks, rubbing a towel across his wet