Chapter 51: Draugr
Kaine stepped into the hallway, the taste of Rebecca still warm on his lips. Her apartment door clicked shut behind him with a soft finality that somehow felt heavier than it should. He stood there for a moment, running his hand through his hair, trying to shake off the way her fingers had felt tangled in his shirt, the way she’d looked at him like he was something worth keeping.
’Focus. You’ve got work to do.’
He crossed the narrow hallway to his own door, fishing for his keys with hands that were steadier than they had any right to be. The lock turned with a soft click, and he stepped into his apartment expecting the usual shadows and silence.
Instead, he found Marcus standing in the center of the living room like a pale statue, those unsettling eyes fixed directly on the door. The ghoul’s head tilted slightly—not quite curiosity, not quite judgment, but something uncomfortably close to both.
"Don’t," Kaine said flatly, shrugging out of his dinner jacket. "Whatever you’re thinking, just don’t."
Marcus remained perfectly still, but something in his posture suggested amusement. Which was disturbing, considering ghouls weren’t supposed to have a sense of humor.
Kaine hung his jacket on the back of a chair and moved toward his bedroom. "We’ve got work tonight. Real work, not the kind that involves—" He gestured vaguely toward Rebecca’s door. "That."
The ghoul followed him with those pale eyes, silent as always but somehow managing to convey volumes with a simple tilt of his head.
"It’s complicated," Kaine muttered, pulling his long black coat from the closet. He strapped Soulrend across his back. The familiar weight of it settled across his shoulder. "Everything’s complicated."
"Listen," Kaine said, turning to face Marcus. "We’ve got a client. Some worried mother thinks her son’s girlfriend might be a bloodsucker. Standard paranoia check, probably nothing. But we’re not going there first."
Marcus tilted his head again, this time with unmistakable curiosity.
"First, we’re going back to that restaurant." Kaine pulled on his gloves, flexing his fingers. Marcus had followed them just not into the restaurant but he’d been there the whole time. "That waiter who couldn’t keep his eyes off Rebecca? He wasn’t human."