Read Drip Drop Teardrop, a Novella for Free Online Page A

head of the
household staff. If you have any problems or need anything, Ames
will be more than happy to assist you.”
    “ More than
happy, miss,” Ames added congenially.
    “ Thank you,”
she somehow managed to be polite. It wasn’t the butler’s fault that
his employer was a twisted, blackmailing, kidnapping immortal son
of the dead.
    “ Thank you,
Ames.” Brennus dismissed him and the butler left the room without
making so much as a peep.
    It became clear, as
Brennus fiddled with the tea, making up her cup (a splash of milk,
one sugar – she didn’t even want to know how he knew how she took
her tea!) and a little plate with sandwiches and biscuits, that he
wasn’t going to answer her question unless she asked it again. He
was really going to make her work for it, which was so unfair
considering she was the one who apparently held the key to his
future happiness (freedom).
    “ Well?” she
snapped, jerking the cup out of his hand as he passed it to her. He
threw her another one of those irritatingly wicked hot smiles. “Are
you going to answer the damn question or not?”
    Settling back into his
seat he watched her through narrowed eyes. “I’m going to assume
your lack of manners this evening is due to the shock of
discovering you have a soul mate.”
    Avery choked on her tea,
a dribble of hot liquid rolling down her chin. She wiped at it
furiously and nailed him to his chair with the deadly look. “Soul
mate! Manners?! Are you frickin’ kidding me?”
    Brennus snorted. “You
make my point brilliantly.”
    “ You
arrogant, pain in the ass. You kidnapping, evil,
twisted-”
    “ Yes, yes I
get the point,” he sighed wearily. “I’ll refrain from teasing
you.”
    She reminded herself that
her Aunt Caroline brought her up to be polite and in control of her
emotions. Avery closed her eyes, drawing in a deep, calming breath.
She shook a little as she reached for her tea again.
    “ I have
servants who help me with the dead,” Brennus answered suddenly and
her eyes popped wide, staring at him, immediately intrigued despite
herself. “We’re allowed a handful to help carry the
burden.”
    “ Who are
they?”
    “ Men and
women who died. Spirits.”
    “ And they
take care of the dead you can’t get to?”
    Brennus nodded. “They’re
tied to me. They feel what I feel; they do what I would
do.”
    “ How many
spirits are tied to you?”
    “ Five.”
    Avery gulped. This night
just kept getting weirder and weirder. “Did they have a
choice?”
    Brennus sighed, seeming
somewhat annoyed by the question. “Contrary to what my scar
portrays I’m not some kind of ogre, Avery, forcing people to do
things.”
    She snorted.
    Refusing to take the
bait, Brennus sighed again. “Most people, nearly everyone, believe
in some kind of afterlife, even if they don’t think they do. It can
be buried deep down, a precious piece of hope in something akin to
paradise awaiting us after our lives here in this plane of
existence end. But there are those few who never even
subconsciously dream to hope. They become spirits, shades,
wandering the infinitesimal line between this plane and all the
others.”
    “ Purgatory?”
    He shook his head. “If
you believe in purgatory then yes if you’ve not repented for your
sins, but these people haven’t believed in anything. Not even the
idea that we simply cease to exist when we die-”
    “ So people
who believe we just cease to exist…”
    “ They just
cease to exist.”
    “ Huh.”
    “ Anyway, I’ve
given the choice to a few of the spirits and they’ve chosen to do
something with their strange existence and help me ferry the dead
into their afterlife.”
    Avery was engrossed
despite herself. What Brennus was telling her was unbelievable. As
a person of no religious affiliations it was astonishing to be told
that our beliefs in life were strong enough to determine our
afterlife. For a moment her busy brain forgot she hated him. “OK,
so say I believe in heaven, hell