Chapter 7

When we arrived at Thanatos' house, I couldn't help but stare in awe at how large it was. I thought he must live there with dozens of other Reapers because there was no way he could possibly live in that massive thing all alone.

"It's pretty extravagant. I told him he should get something smaller, seeing as it's only him living here."

"There's only one man living in this mansion? Does he like to throw big parties or something?"

"Nope. Pretty much just keeps to himself. Hasn't had anyone other than his dog living here since I moved out when he had the house moved here from Europe."

All I could do was mouth a 'wow.' I found myself wondering if they took money for reaping souls. I didn't dare ask, though. It felt kind of rude to do so.

Grabbing my bag out of the hearse, I followed Charon up to the main entrance. As we walked in, a large, black mass came flying down the stairs and tackled me to the floor.

"Kerberos, no!" A voice called out as the large dog pinned me to the floor. I had only a moment to register that it had three heads before it started happily licking me.

"Worst. Guard dog. Ever," said a strained voice.

Charon helped me up as Thanatos pulled the three-headed mastiff off of me.

"Charon, can you take him out back, please?"

"Sure thing." Charon led the dog towards the back of the house, chastising him along the way.

"Are you alright?" Thanatos asked, picking my bag up off the floor.

I just stared in shock in the direction Charon went with the dog, back pain be damned.

"Andy?"

"Th-the dog had three heads. I-it wasn't fake."

"Of course, he's not fake."Thanatos gently dusted dog hair off of me as he spoke.

"I'm covered in the slobber of a three-headed dog," I said in a dazed tone.

"Let's get you to the bathroom so you can clean up." Thanatos led the way up the stairs and down the hall to a bathroom, grabbing a towel and washcloth along the way. "I'll wait for you downstairs," he said, leaving me to clean up.

I thanks him, closing the door after her left, then stripped down and turned on the shower. While the water warmed, I grabbed my body wash and shampoo and conditioner out of my bag. Climbing into the shower, I allowed the warm water to wash over me. While being kissed by such an excited dog was adorable in its own right, I was glad that my life didn't end right then and there from being tackled. As I began to wash my face, I realized that being kissed to death wouldn't have been an ideal ending to my life either.

Once I was done with my shower and had some clean clothes on, I walked downstairs with my dirty clothes and the towel and washcloth in my arms. It was as I was rounding a corner that I found Thanatos in what I could only assume was the living room. He was leaning against the mantle of the fireplace, eyes focused on the tablet in his hand. I could tell by the way his jaw muscles flexed that he was grinding his teeth. Whatever he was reading was obviously upsetting him. I cleared my throat lightly to get his attention. His eyes widened slightly as he looked up from his tablet as if he were seeing me for the first time. He blinked and shook his head before giving me a gentle smile.

"You could've left that stuff in the bathroom. Clark would've grabbed it and washed it," he said, nodding to the bundle in my arms. "Have a seat and let me take those things and set them in the laundry room for you."

"I hesitated a moment before handing the bundle over to the dark-haired man and taking a seat. While he ran to put the stuff in the laundry room, I combed through my thick, fluffy hair with my fingers before pulling it into a low ponytail. When I finished, I got up from my seat and looked around the room, examining the photos on the mantle and the books in the bookcase. From what I could tell, the man owned every book ever written by Neil Gaiman.

"I'm sorry about Kerberos. He's a bit too friendly for his own good," Thanatos said when he returned.

I looked from the bookcase and smiled gently at him, shaking my head. "It's okay. Better that he tried to kiss me to death than tried to rip me to shreds."

"Good point. Did you find something of interest to you?"

I looked back at the bookcase then turned my attention to Thanatos once again. "You've got quite the book collection."

"That's only a fraction of them. The ones I read most. The library had more."

I stared in a mixture of disbelief and excitement. "You have a library here?"

"Yeah. You're welcome to explore it. Later though. I think right now, we should talk about that phone call you got."

So much for my Beauty and the Beat moment. I thought to myself.

I nodded my head and sat down on one of the leather chairs, waiting for Thanatos to do the same before telling him what happened.