Death & Co. by D. J. McCune

Author:D. J. McCune [D.J. McCune]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Published: 2013-02-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Twenty-four hours later Adam was scowling into his bedroom mirror. It was Saturday night and his black bow tie was strangling him. Any minute now the Concilium would be arriving and he would spend the next couple of hours trapped at the dinner table.

Had his date with Melissa really only happened the night before? It felt like a dream. Only the finger-shaped marks on the back of his neck made it real. The pizzeria owner had frogmarched him to the nearest cashpoint, taken a tenner and stormed off, cursing extravagantly in Italian.

Adam could still feel the bruises where his starched shirt collar pressed on them. He didn’t care. If he closed his eyes and concentrated hard he could remember the place where Melissa’s thigh had touched his …

‘Adam!’ He was jolted back to reality by his mother’s bellow. Most of the time Elise was too ladylike to raise her voice but when she did she sounded amazingly like an enraged hippo. He sighed and smoothed his hair one last time.

Down in the hall everything was perfect. The tiled floors and wooden wall panels had been polished until they gleamed. There were no coats or abandoned trainers lying around and the dogs had been banished to their pen. Candles stood glowing in tall iron stands and the sideboard was covered with fresh flowers. The air was sweet with their scent.

Just as the house had been scrubbed up, so had the occupants. Everyone stood in line in order of importance, Nathanial nearest the door, Chloe and Auntie Jo at the far end. Elise would be allowed to stand beside Nathanial because she was the hostess tonight. The rest of the women in a Luman line-up were usually the least important, especially the unmarried ones like Auntie Jo. Adam tried to imagine explaining his world to his friends – or worse still to Melissa – and cringed at the thought.

‘Hurry up!’ Elise hissed, eyes glittering. She dragged him into place between Luc and Chloe, tweaked his bow tie and rubbed a microscopic smut off his chin with a licked finger. Adam flinched away protesting and she hurried back to Nathanial’s side, muttering imprecations in French.

Luc gave him a sardonic glance. ‘We clean up good, don’t we, bro?’

Adam snorted but when he turned to Chloe his jaw dropped. She was wearing make-up and a floor-length pink dress. Her hair was swept up in some kind of elaborate bird’s nest and she had either swallowed growth hormones or put on high heels. ‘You look nice,’ he said.

Chloe threw him a slit-eyed glare, suddenly looking much more like herself. ‘Thanks for sounding so surprised.’

‘She’s being fattened for the kill,’ announced Auntie Jo cheerfully. ‘Lots of the Curators have unmarried sons. Your mother has big plans for you, Chloe!’ Chloe rolled her eyes, looking half embarrassed and half pleased.

Elise gave a haughty sniff. ‘One spinster in the family is quite enough, Josephine.’

‘Elise!’ Nathanial frowned and his wife looked away, guilty but unbowed.

Auntie Jo winked at Chloe. ‘She thinks you can do better than the Irish.

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