Little Saint Bride [Death and the Maiden, #1]

Chapter Four: How Not to Seduce a Bounty Hunter

'What happened to the Ferryman?' I repeat, waving the cutlass closer to his eyes. 'You have a pretty face, bounty hunter. How much information will you give me to save it?'

'I'd like to keep my face, thank you. I found him like this. Which is why I thought you—'

I glance at Mercer, questioning whether this man was telling the truth. I've not done many interrogations, but I've met a lot of liars, and I don't think the bounty hunter is one of them. Mercer looks white and terrified, and completely useless.

'We didn't kill him,' I say, 'We were looking for a way across. How else can we get across?'

'So, you are the Bride.'

'What makes you say that?' my eyes narrow. He's awfully fixated on this.

'The Bridal attire. The young, innocent girl and her noble guide...looking for a way to get across the Styx,' he replies. His eyes flick up in a tiny eye roll when he says the words "innocent girl".

He says the Styx like it's an old friend. The Styx is the river of the Underworld, one of the seven, and it joins with the other great rivers to form the passageway to the next life. Elysium.

The man has information I need, but can I trust him? Unless he's playing an elaborate game, he didn't kill the Ferryman. The boat appears to be out of action: there's nothing to steer it with— whatever the Ferryman used, it's fallen into the water.

'What do you want, bounty hunter? We can pay you money. The coins we would have given to the Ferryman, were he alive.'

The bounty hunter stares up at me from our position on the floor, but casts a lazy eye to where I'm still pinning him down, a smirk across his mouth.

'I'd like for you to get off me,' he says, running a hand through his matted, dark hair. I watch him closely, my narrowed eyes tracing the pulse in his neck (deceptively alive), and down to the rips of leather that opened his chest. Suddenly, I'm conscious that I'm staring, and...I like what I see.

That, and my legs are clamped around him. That and he's like a rock beneath my body. That and...

STOP IT, NERISSA.

I jump up, flushing and shaken, still managing to hold my cutlass at his throat so that he is still limited in his movement. He knows that, and he gives me a withering look.

'I'm off. Now, will you take us across the Styx?'

He throws his head back and laughs. Considering the Underworld is very quiet, albeit the rush of water around us, the hunter is making a lot of noise in comparison. I hear Mercer drop to the ground, faint, and I grit my teeth.

Give me strength, I think sourly.

'What's so funny?' I demand. The hunter is still chuckling, but he looks a lot nicer when his smile is genuine. It's not the earlier leer of deathly amusement.

'Why do you think I'm here? I'm looking for a way across, too,' he replies, nodding towards the Ferryman's body. 'I'm a bounty hunter, not a sailor.'

'What were you doing out here?'

The man's gaze draws back to mine, and I notice that he has a freckle right underneath his left eye. It's strangely endearing. His sleek dark hair frames his angular face in a very cute-rogue kind of way.

Oh stop it already, Nerissa, I chastise myself. But I'm still looking at that freckle, wanting to brush my lips over it.

This whole chapter of my life-turned-death is messed up.

'Do you really want to know?' he says, and I notice the dark shift in tone. I stand straighter, my cutlass ready to kill.

'Yes! Answer me! What were you doing out here?'

The hunter sighs, sitting on his knees as if he's awaiting execution. I hear him murmur the reply.

'I deliver runaway souls to the rivers. The ones that try not to die, that is. And I get paid for it. That's why I'm out here; sometimes, they escape back to the human world, and others I find still roaming the shores. But this—' He nodded towards the trail of Ferryman innards resting nearby, '—started recently. There's strange happenings around here. Ferrymen along the rivers are found dead, and souls aren't reaching the rivers. That's why I thought you were up to something.'

I lower my cutlass after a few seconds. The hunter hasn't moved, and Mercer is still shaking to my right. I feel like we've started on the wrong foot. The hunter looks up in surprise when my weapon is no longer trained on him.

'Three is better than one, right?' I shrug. 'We're both on the same side, so no point fighting about it. I'm Nerissa. I'm the lucky, blushing bride of Death. That lump over there is my guide, Mercer.'

On cue, I hear Mercer retching. He's finally seen the Ferryman's remains and is now vomiting forcefully into the river.

I catch the hunter's eye and we both look away, suppressing smiles.

'What's your name?' I ask him, and he thinks for a moment.

'You can call me Hadrian,' he says.

--

A/N: Sooo...we have a new character, Hadrian. What do you think of him? Good or bad?

How did you like our heroine being badass in her underwear? :')

Waiting on your thoughts and funny comments,

Larissa

xx