Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,17

night,” I said with a frown. “Also, Bronx might not be in tonight. I’m going to call him in an hour or two to check on him.”

“Not in? How bad did things go last night?”

Leaning against the counter, I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at the floor. While the lobby had a nice old hardwood floor, the main tattooing room was covered in this crappy yellow linoleum that was cracked, chipped, and lightly stained with splatters from dropped ink containers. “I was sent to protect a fix-production house.” Trixie gasped and I clenched my teeth and chanced a peek up at her. Pixies weren’t directly related to elves, but it was my understanding that they were at least seen as some kind of distant cousin—a lot closer than humans were believed to be. “I relieved them of their supply in the process of protecting the house.”

“Thank goodness,” she breathed, her shoulders slumping in her relief. But they stiffened again as her mind traveled along the next natural conclusion. “Is that how Bronx was injured?”

“Sort of. We got out of the house fine, but Reave decided that I needed to be punished to make sure that I didn’t try anything like that again.”

Trixie’s brows furrowed, meeting over her petite nose as she looked at me. “So Bronx was hurt?”

“Reave knows that the best way to handle me is to threaten the people I care about. I’ll take whatever beating that he can dish out, but I break when he threatens my friends. I guess we all have to have a weakness, right?”

Trixie opened her mouth to say something, but never got the chance. Sofie jumped out of her arms and back onto the tattooing chair between Trixie and me. “Absolutely not!” she snapped. Her tail flicked back and forth as she paced along the chair. If she had been human, I think she would have smacked me.

“You are a warlock, Gage! You do not have weaknesses. You do not allow ordinary, weak-minded thugs to control your actions through threats. You take care of them and continue on your way.”

I gave a little snort. “This coming from a witch trapped as a cat for the past several years.”

Sofie primly sat in the middle of the chair, facing me. “My condition has no bearing here. You are a warlock!” Her chest puffed up as she added that last bit, as if it was supposed to instill some kind of latent pride.

I shrugged. “I’m not a warlock. I never finished.”

“You became a warlock the minute you were taken to the Towers. Doesn’t matter if you finished.”

“No. I’m not a warlock. I don’t kill.”

I didn’t know it was possible, but Sofie managed to arch one little cat brow at me in mocking question. Fuck. Simon was haunting me.

“That was self-defense,” I said slowly through clenched teeth.

“You’re saying that you didn’t go there intending to kill him?” Sofie pressed. While it didn’t show now, I could easily imagine the smug expression on her human face.

I looked away, glaring at the wall. I could argue that I didn’t go across town looking for Simon because I had been looking for answers from my old tattooing mentor Atticus Sparks. But deep down, I had always known that it would all lead back to Simon and that matter came down to killing him before he killed me.

“Does Reave know about me?” Trixie asked, breaking into my train of thought.

I jerked my gaze over to her and stiffly nodded. I wasn’t going to lie to her in an effort to leave her feeling safe when she wasn’t. It would be better if she at least knew to look over her shoulder on occasion, not that I wanted to add to her worries. She was already looking over her shoulder in expectation of seeing another elf hunting her. We might have earned a reprieve from her people, but neither one of us trusted it.

“I won’t let him touch you,” I said.

“Why? Because you’ll kill him?” Trixie’s words were soft and gentle, possessing a wealth of sadness for me and this life I was trying to live.

I pushed away from the counter and walked over to the doorway so that I could look across the lobby and out the front picture window to the street beyond. Shoving my hands into my short hair, I leaned my elbows against the doorjamb and stared at nothing.

“No, he won’t touch you because I’ll do as he asks until I think of some