Queen of the Damned

XIII

My eyes burned even behind my sunglasses, the bright white snow reflecting up off the ground and under my lenses. There was a fresh six-inch coating of snow on the ground. Overnight every surface, including the dark black roads which had been turned a light grey due to the ice and rock salt ground into them, had been completely covered in the heavy white fluff.

"I hate the snow," I muttered under my breath, my gloved hand intertwined with my 'husband's'. The worst part about being undercover is the day to day living. People like landlords notice if tenants never leave their apartment. Agents looking into us might notice our lack of activity too. Hence why we were coming home from a date to the movies. Fun.

Gag me with a spoon.

"Aren't you from New York?" Ashton quipped, looking down at me with a raised eyebrow. Despite his lax face, soon enough we would be in full-on stress mode. We needed new passports and identification papers and we didn't have the resources to make them. That's why Potvin was getting them for us, though nothing was without a price. He wanted us to take care of a member of a ranking gang on Friday night.

Part of me was looking forward o the adrenaline rush. Sitting in an office all day was too boring for me. At least when I was in Monaco I could do other jobs. Here I had to be significantly more careful and focused. But there was a sliver of the fear deep inside of me. Every new mission meant one more opportunity for Ashton to kill me and make it look like an accident. Every second of every day brought us closer to the inevitable tipping point when we didn't need each other anymore. That's when someone would die.

"And I left. I think that's sign enough I'm not a fan of the white devil."

"Funny. I thought that was your code name," Ashton mused with a smirk while I rolled my eyes and scoffed. We might be having a light-hearted conversation but both of our eyes were scanning our surroundings like always. There was always an opportunity for someone to follow you, listen in on you, and take pictures. We had to be prepared at all times. You didn't get to the top by being careless.

You got there by being cunning and ruthless.

"Nice try, Bisset. My mother was much more creative and very humorous. Athena Eris is quite fitting; war strategy and quarrels. If she wanted a fighter, she undoubtedly got one." I loved my mother with all my heart but who names their child after Eris? Sure, it was a pretty name but that seemed like a curse. It's like naming your son Hades. But I suppose that's beside the point. My mom was always into history. I guess I get that quality from her. My father was much more interested in business and real estate, which I steered clear of.

"Then she'd be very proud." He didn't have to continue with the 'if she was alive' part. I knew that story all too well. Ashton must have been well versed in both of my parent's deaths. It was all over my record. Last week when Ashton was talking about his childhood I purposefully kept quiet. I didn't like talking about how my mom died of cancer when I was thirteen and my dad of 'suicide' when I was twenty. My mom was my best friend growing up and it hurt to see her go. My parents had met when she was on a semester abroad at NYU. They had been together ever since. Her death was hard on my father and me.

"I'm sure she would be," I drawled sarcastically while rolling my eyes behind my aviators. "A girl who never went to college, jet setting around the world with her older, wealthy husband." It was no secret Ashton and I had money. Our work never came cheap. But this would be the job to end all jobs. That's why Ashton hadn't hesitated in joining sides with his mortal enemy to accomplish it.

"You make it sound like I'm a sixty-year-old praying on high schoolers," Ashton scowled at me.

"I think it's pretty entertaining," I laughed lightly. The cold air was nipping at my cheeks, my frozen ears and the tip of my nose probably bright red. The best part about Monaco was that it rarely, if ever, snowed. Days like this made me wish I lived in Fiji. "Don't worry, old man. I'll make sure I find you a good retirement home."