Servants of Fate

by Wendy Sparrow

  “No, go on. I like hearing about your life.” He did but, dammit, why? He was going to take her life in a year.

  She smirked. “I knew you felt that way.” Even a snide smile like the one she wore drew his attention to her lips and kept it there. How could some who drove him insane like this make him want her so much? “So, I…”

  It hit him that fast... an image of death and destruction appeared in his head, sent from his father in warning. Swearing, Tempus spun a U-turn on the icy mountain road.

  Beside him, Lacey screamed. The ground began to rumble and he punched the gas pedal as the side of the mountain came down in an avalanche that flowed like a river across the road.

  Lacey stopped screaming and spun in her seat to watch as they sped ahead like a surfer shooting a curl.

  “Faster! Go faster!” she shouted, pounding on his shoulder with her fists.

  “I’m going as fast as I can!” They should have taken his Porsche, even if it didn’t perform great in the snow. They could have outrun this sneak attack by the Fates. They broke clear of the danger area.

  Lacey gasped in deep panting breaths as he pulled to the side of the road.

  “Breathe slower or you’re going to…”

  Her beautiful eyes rolled up in her head, and she fainted. Leaning across her, he reclined her seat and reset her GPS to pick an alternate route. It added another two hours onto their trip. Damn. At least, he wasn’t bored. Still it’d be no good to have her talking the whole trip. He snapped his fingers and froze time. There—that was better.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Her new neighbor had an incredible body... and a very nice Porsche that he was washing shirtless. He’d moved in practically during the night so they’d yet to meet, but she wanted to meet him. He was the first mortal guy she’d felt any interest in for the past two weeks.

  Look at her—she was moving on.

  She’d woken up in her house on her couch about five minutes after she’d estimated the avalanche had occurred and she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Tempus. He’d stopped time, drove her the whole way home, tried probably all twenty-five of her keys in her lock, brought in her luggage, and, now, he was gone. Lacey had wandered around swearing for about an hour as she unpacked, partly to keep the tears at bay. It was hard to cry when you were saying words that would have cost you money in the swear jar at work. She’d be broke if she spent any more time with Tempus.

  A week after New Year’s, the time blips had started.

  Once, she’d been standing at the stove finishing the end of thriller novel while distractedly prodding her meal, and then she’d been at her table with take-out Chinese in front of her and the faint smell of scorched food in the air. Her novel had never turned up. She’d been in the last fifteen pages of it too. Plus, half of the Chinese take-out had been missing. He’d eaten and left—all while time was frozen. That was creepy and rude.

  And she wanted him. Despite his aggravating and stubborn personality; despite his immortal calling to eventually kill her; despite even his arrogance, Lacey couldn’t stop thinking about him. He’d invaded her dreams. She dreamed of him kissing her and caressing her and woke up to an empty bed and vague sense of loss. She was losing it.

  The second time blip had happened just two days ago. She’d gone out for lunch and walked toward a construction site... and then she was back in her office with a BLT and a peach smoothie. Why a peach smoothie? How had he known? Her coworkers hadn’t known what to make of her walking out the door and then suddenly being in her office two minutes later with lunch. They’d teased her about having a secret boyfriend. He was male and he was a secret. But friends? Not exactly. It was difficult to say what they were.

  He wasn’t even sticking around long enough for her to thank him.

  At least she was pretty sure she’d thank him.

  Probably.

  She might even kiss him for saving her life. Then, he’d wrap his arms around her and… Lacey wiped the cold lemonade glass across her forehead and down her cheeks. It was still cold outside, but she’d grabbed lemonade to watch her neighbor.

  Finally, she was attracted to someone... well, mortal. It made her want to jump around cheering. Though, with her luck, it’d cause some sort of catastrophic accident and she’d lose time and get a visit from her ghost—which was how she’d started thinking of Tempus.

  Her neighbor must have a high tolerance to the cold. It was only in the thirties out there and he was washing his car. Half the neighborhood was probably watching him. She could see the teenage girl across the street sitting in her window seat ogling him. He was way too old for her. She hadn’t seen his face, but she was certain he was in his late…

  He turned.

  Hell. His late eternities. Stupid, stupid immortals.

  Setting down the glass, she stormed out of her house.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  He was bobbing his head and whistling. Oh, he had earbuds in. She strode forward and tapped him on the shoulders. When he turned, he seemed unsurprised to see her. Most men would have smiled at their new neighbor or said hello. He pulled the earbuds out with a tug and simply raised his eyebrows in a gesture meant to acquiesce to her speaking... or maybe just deigning to listen.

  “What are you doing here?”

  He tipped his head toward the house. “I live here. I anticipated a lot of trips here now that I’ve seen how you cook.”

  “It was one time.”

  “Two times. The second time you left cookies in the oven while you took a shower singing ‘Hungry like the Wolf.’”

  Maybe that had happened. She’d been surprised to see the pan on the stovetop and the oven turned off after she’d finished her long shower. But, dammit, she needed to unwind after how stressed out Tempus was making her. “I didn’t notice you stopping time.”

  “You wouldn’t have. I only stopped it long enough to get in and out without your neighbors calling the police.”

  “Well, what did you do to the older lady who used to live here?” Lacey gasped. “You killed her.”

  “Don’t be silly. I paid her an outrageous sum to move out immediately and she is living in Palm Springs near her son. I don’t go around killing people. I take one life a year in order to save dozens of deserving lives. This year, I have no minutes to give to other mortals—so I have nothing better to do than save you again and again. And read. In that book you were reading, the police commissioner was corrupt and the murderer.”

  Her hand itched to slap him. “I was almost done with that.”

  “I know. I figured you wouldn’t miss it since you’d nearly finished anyway. Plus, now I’ve just told you the ending so you won’t need it back. Which is good because I lost it.”

  Come to think of it... that wasn’t the only book that had disappeared. “You’ve been taking other books of mine.”

  “You have good taste in fiction.” He seemed almost reluctant to admit it.

  “Of course I do.” She sighed. “Thank you.”

  He stared at her.

  “Did you hear me? I said thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For saving my life.”

  He shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t going to let it go to waste.”

  She slapped a hand to her forehead. Just when she thought maybe they could get along and maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, he reminded her that he was only saving her life so it’d be worth something at the end of the year. She was like a fruit not quite ripe enough. How depressing.

  Spinning around, she stomped back toward her house before stopping just shy of the porch. They were going to be neighbors. The least she could be was neighborly. Turning, she asked, “Do you want some lemonade?”

  “Sure.” He snapped his fingers and he had lemonade in his hand along with the book from her side table.

  “Now wait…” One minute, she was marching toward him to grab her book. The next, she was back inside. On her couch.

  That bastard.

 
; She was dating a louse. He shouldn’t feel guilty in the slightest that he was about to ruin her Valentine’s Day. Even if she’d never have another Valentine’s Day to make up for it, at least she wouldn’t die tonight. There was that.

  The waitress wouldn’t stop flirting with him. She was obstructing his view of Lacey’s table.

  “My food is fine,” he said unnecessarily to the lingering waitress.

  “It’s just strange that you’re here alone on Valentine’s Day.”

  He shrugged. “I’ve never much cared for the holiday. I’m not a romantic.”

  “Maybe you would be for the right woman,” she said, batting her eyelashes.

  “I prefer redheads.” He had. Lately. A certain redhead was driving him insane with... preference.

  The blond waitress pouted for a second, before shrugging. “I’ve gone red before.”

  “Natural redheads.”

  She leaned across his table and whispered in his ear, “Well maybe you wouldn’t find out until it was too late.”

  Okay. There was nothing for it. He snapped his fingers. Picking up the waitress by her elbows, he took her to the back of the restaurant and then returned to his seat before unfreezing time. That should unsettle her enough that she wouldn’t bother him anymore.

  When he sat down, it was nearly time. He’d set this up perfectly.

  Lacey laughed at something her date said. It grated on his nerves. Not her laugh—the fact that she would laugh at that moron. Her laugh was actually quite nice. If he didn’t have to kill her, he’d have tried to spend time with her to see if he could make her laugh.

  It was time. He snapped his fingers. His food had been dropped off two minutes before and hers had just arrived. He swapped his plate of food for hers. Tonight was not the night for her to try the chicken. Tempus could have left it at that. But her date really was a jerk and it’d be a shame to ruin the perfect timing of the waiter still leaning over the table, placing the food in front of her date as the jerk was gesturing. Tempus simply had to inch the plate of shrimp linguini over to the edge of the table where his hand would catch it.

  Returning to his table, Tempus snapped his fingers.

  His mistake was in positioning himself so he could see. Also, it was probably unlikely she wouldn’t have noticed that, instead of chicken, she had swordfish.

  The plate catapulted shrimp linguini all over her date. Nice. The waiter and that moron groaned at the same time just before her date started yelling at the unfortunate waiter... who would find three hundred dollars tucked in his shirt pocket after work to make up for this. Lacey’s head swiveled around, before honing in on him. Her eyes narrowed. She didn’t even acknowledge her date excusing himself before she’d bounded to her feet.

  “You!” She slid into the chair across from him and frowned at his plate before looking back at her own at the other table. “You switched plates?”

  “E-coli is an unpleasant way to die.”

  She slid the chair back a few inches with a grimace down at the plate. Then, she looked around the crowded restaurant with frantic eyes.

  “It was just your plate,” Tempus said.

  “Oh,” she said on a heavy exhale. Then, she stilled. “Wait, what was wrong with my date’s plate?”

  “It was across from yours.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Tempus rolled his eyes. “Oh, c’mon, Lacey, you can’t be serious. The guy is married.”

  “He’s divorced.”

  Tempus tapped the table. “Not. Yet.”

  Her lips firmed. “How would you know?”

  “I followed him home after I caught you kissing him on your porch.”

  “Caught me? We were standing under the porch light so of course you saw us, and it was on the cheek.”

  “His wife says they’re separated but they’re still living in the same house for convenience with the kids.”

  Lacey paled. “He has kids?”

  “He didn’t tell you?”

  “No. I didn’t want to date anyone who might become attached or have kids who might be upset if I died... like I will... in ten months.” Her shoulders drooped.

  Behind her, the waitress wandered back into the room, looking uncertain. Her eyes fell on his table and Lacey’s presence before she spun around and went back into the kitchen. Lacey’s date came back at the same moment and noticed she’d left the table. He didn’t even search her out. He threw his hands up in the air and stomped out of the restaurant. Without paying. What a jackass.

  “I think you’re stuck with the bill,” he said, nodding at her date’s retreating figure.

  Lacey threw a glance her date’s way with a somber expression on her face. “Kids, huh?”

  “Five and nine-year-old.”

  She slumped and dropped her face into her hands. “I give up. I can’t date anyone knowing I’ve got ten months to live.”

  It shouldn’t have made him so happy to hear her say that, but it did.

  “This was an experiment. I was going to see if I could still find love before I kicked the bucket, but the more I think about it—the worse it sounds for me and him. But I’ve never been in love.”

  He snapped his fingers. Tempus retrieved his plate of swordfish and took her plate of chicken back to the kitchen, dumping it. Perusing what was ready and plated up, he procured her a plate of eggplant parmesan. Sitting down, he snapped his fingers again.

  “…and it seems like something everyone ought to experience.” She lifted her head and stared at the food.

  “I thought vegetarian would be a wise choice given your near-fatal brush with the chicken.”

  Her eyes flicked between her food and his.

  “Also, since I ruined your date, I thought the least I could do is have dinner with you.”

  She looked at him and he shifted uncomfortably under her scrutiny. “What if I’d rather eat alone?”

  He went to snap her fingers, but she grabbed his hand.

  “I wouldn’t. You’ve just never wanted anything to do with me before. You even took more than your share of the kung pao chicken that one night before just taking off.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “I like kung pao chicken but you took most of it and left me broccoli and beef which I don’t like as much. If you’d stayed to talk about it—we’d have settled urgent matters like that.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. More kung pao chicken next time. The tingling warmth from her touch unsettled him, so he slid his hand from beneath hers. What was she doing? “We discussed this in the car. You said you’d rather not see me, and it slows me down if I do interact with you.” He’d been doing as she asked.

  She frowned.

  “But now we’re having dinner together and we each have a plate so we can make the most of this.”

  “I suppose that makes sense.”

  “It does. I’m unfailingly logical.”

  Leaning in, she inhaled. “Plus, this smells amazing. You know I once had eggplant parmesan in New York in this tiny little Italian place that you had to know where it was in order to know where it was. It was amazing.” She licked her lips, leaving a distracting wet sheen on them. He missed several things she’d said while staring at her lips. That kiss of theirs had never left his thoughts. No kiss would ever compete with that kiss. “And that’s how I wound up a dead extra on Law and Order. So, what would you do if you had only a year to live?” she asked, drawing his attention. She placed her napkin across her lap.

  The wait staff were at her previous table trying to figure out what had happened to its occupants.

  “I’m immortal.”

  “Yes, but what if you weren’t immortal? What would be on your bucket list?”

  “I’ve done everything.” When you weren’t limited by time, money, or proximity, you could do everything—twice.

  “You’ve fallen in love?”

  “Of course not. Mortals believe in love. Time holders know it’s a temporary rush of hormones mislea
ding those with limited lifespans to cling to each other, prolonging a fleeting sensation that is ultimately only in their heads. Human beings use love as a confirmation that their brief existences have meaning.”

  “I bet you tell all your dates that.” She took a bite of her dinner and moaned in appreciation. “This is probably better than the chicken anyway.”

  “Less deadly at the very least.”

  She nodded. “Zeit is in love with Hannah.”

  “He’s mistaken.”

  She looked up at him. “Just like that? He’s mistaken?”

  “Her time on this earth was limited which gave her an inflated value in his mind and created a perception that losing her would endanger his own well-being. Now, my father has indulged Zeit and has one less son to carry on the work we’ve been doing since mortals were created. None of his other sons seem to have such impaired judgment.”

  She pointed at him with her fork. “You let me live.”

  “I was... distracted.”

  “No, you were blinded by lust and had your hands on my ass and your tongue in my mouth.”

  “As I said... distracted. I won’t make that mistake again—a choice we both agree on.”

  “Exactly.”

  He nodded. It was good that she was being so rational about this.

  “So, what would you do with this year if you were me?”

  “Ten months. You have ten months, not a year.”

  “What would you do with these ten months if you were me?”

  “Try not to die and consider working from home so I don’t have to come to your work to save your life.”

  “You want me to make it easier on you to save my life?” She didn’t sound pleased. “I’m taking up too much of your time?”

  “You’re taking up a fair amount. They made that book I read last week, The Pelican Brief, into a movie and it’s on TV tonight. I was going to watch it.”

  “Instead you’re at a restaurant, throwing food on my date, and swapping out plates.”

  He shrugged.

  “By the way. Why did my date end up with his plate on his lap?”

  He met her narrowed eyes. He should change the subject. “Have you seen The Pelican Brief?”