The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

want to
further your career, take a chance and have sex with your boss. It could be the
start of something special.

 
    Williams’s jaw dropped. Flake
hadn’t been kidding when she’d said her horoscope had told her to have sex with
her boss. For a few moments he visualised himself fucking her over the desk in
his office. She was pretty fit and probably a fun shag too. After a few seconds
of thinking about it, he shook his head and laughed to himself. Flake seemed
pretty stupid, but even she wouldn’t be dumb enough to follow a horoscope that literally.

 
    Sixty-Two

 
    Rae’s Diner was a hive of activity
for the first time in a long while, and all of the customers seemed to be in a sociable
mood for a change. Everyone was wishing each other a good day, whereas in the
past, no one ever spoke to anyone they didn’t recognise. Times had changed in
Santa Mondega. The sun was shining outside and the days of the undead lurking
in dark corners were a distant memory.
    Kacy picked one of her French
fries from her plate and nibbled on the end of it. Dante was sitting opposite
her in their booth by the window, wearing one of his indiscreet red Hawaiian
shirts. He was shovelling fries into his mouth three and four at a time with
one hand. His other hand was sometimes forcing in an occasional bite from his
cheeseburger. When it came to eating fast food, Dante had it down to a fine
art. As well as shoving in the burger and fries he was drinking a large coke
through a straw.
    ‘You enjoying that?’ Kacy asked.
    Dante made an approving noise and
nodded. He hadn’t noticed that she was barely touching her food. Even though
the burger and fries was far more nutritious than her previous diet of blood,
Kacy’s appetite hadn’t really returned since she’d become human again. She was
still worrying about things that Dante had long since stopped caring about.
Things like what to do with the Eye of the Moon. She finished eating the French
fry and began twiddling with the blue stone that hung around her neck on a
silver chain. It was visible for everyone to see, resting nicely above her
ample cleavage on her low cut white T-shirt.
    ‘I don’t think I want this any
more,’ she said.
    Dante shrugged. ‘Shove it over
here then. I’ll eat it.’
    ‘Not the food. The Eye of the
Moon.’
    Dante stopped cramming food into
his mouth and looked up at her, his face showing an unusual degree of concern.
‘What?’ he said, revealing a half chewed burger in his mouth.
    ‘I think we should get rid of it.’
    ‘But it’s worth a fortune.’
    ‘I know, but it’s bad luck. Look
at how many people have died because of this thing.’
    Dante wiped his hands together and
picked up a napkin from the table next to his plate of food. He used it to wipe
some grease from his fingertips. ‘That stone can stop you from ever getting
sick. No one can hurt you when you’re wearing it. Why get rid of it?’ he said.
He took another suck of coke through his straw before continuing. ‘Neither of
us’ll have to worry about getting seriously ill ever again.’
    ‘Maybe not,’ Kacy reasoned. ‘But
we’ll always have to watch our backs, because people will kill for this thing.
The Mystic Lady told us that, remember?’
    Dante looked deep in thought for a
moment. ‘Is that the old woman whose head fell off?’
    ‘It didn’t fall off. Someone
beheaded her.’
    ‘Same difference. She was as mad
as old cheese.’
    ‘Even so, she was right. A lot of
people have been killed because of this stone.’
    Dante picked up a French fry, but
for once didn’t stick it straight into his mouth. ‘Well I thought the Bourbon
Kid would have come looking for it by now.’
    ‘It’s been over a week. I think he
was coming back for it, he’d have done so already.’
    ‘I guess so. So what do you wanna
do with it then?’
    Kacy looked out of the window at
the street outside. The diner they were eating in was situated on the promenade
in the harbour. She nodded at the sea. ‘Thought maybe we could throw it off the
end of the pier,’ she said timidly, hoping that Dante wouldn’t react angrily to
the suggestion.
    He sat blinking at her for a few
moments, as if he was checking to see if she was serious. Eventually he wiped
some ketchup from the corner of his mouth. He looked at the red sauce on his
fingertip and licked it up. ‘If we throw it away and you get sick one day, are we
gonna have to come back here and look for it at the bottom of the