Claimed by Sarah Fine Page B

but I wanted to run them by you.”
    “Yeah?” he asked, his voice strained. “Like who?”
    “She mentioned someone named Bradan. A first cousin?”
    “Bradan? He’s a total player. Treats women like tissues. Cheap and disposable.” Dec had once gotten in a fistfight with the guy on the deck of Bradan’s yacht after Bradan had “playfully” chucked one of his drunk girlfriends over the side and into the harbor. Dec had ended up having to give the poor woman mouth-to-mouth, and Bradan had protested loudly when she vomited up water and gin all over his polished deck. It had been the last straw. Dec had pulverized the guy and gotten himself barred from several family events as a result. Not that he minded. How did Cacy not remember that? “He’s the last person on earth who should be allowed near Galena.”
    Eli frowned. “How about Hugh? Another cousi n . . . works with Aislin?”
    Dec snorted. “Hugh’s a pompous, greedy asshole with the sensitivity of a numbing agent.”
    “Um. Carrick?”
    “ I’d rather spend time with a Shade.”
    “That bad? How about Riordan? Cacy told me he’s a nice guy.”
    “He is. And he has the personality of a cucumber.”
    “Oka y . . . Davin? Cacy said he’s into science.”
    Dec grimaced, feeling the anger rise inside him. “Only if you consider all the weird cosmetic procedures he’s had done!” What was Cacy thinking?
    “S o . . . who would you suggest we go to? Who might be willing—and able—to be a decent partner for her? Because of all the admittedly shitty options, this is the one she’s choosing. I’d like it to be as unshitty as possible.” Eli threw back his remaining whiskey in one long swallow. He sighed. “I just want her to be okay. That’s all I want.”
    Dec looked away from him. “Me too,” he muttered.
    “Then give me a name. Because you’re her first choice, and if you won’t do this for her, then—”
    Dec swiveled around so fast he nearly fell off his stool. “She actually said that?”
    Eli opened his mouth to respond, but then winced and looked down at his arm. “I have to go. Duty calls.”
    Dec was dying to ask more about what Galena might have said to her brother, but he knew that Eli was probably reading a list of names scrawled on his arm, people he was supposed to Mark for death tonight. “Understood. Get going.” If he delayed too long, the pain would set in.
    “Dec,” said Eli as he took a few steps back, “I know it’s too much to ask. I know it comes with a lot of heavy consequences. But it could save millions of lives. Including Galena’s. It can’t happen at the expense of her soul, though. She’s really strong, but she’s been through hell and she needs someone who’s going to be gentle with her. Someone who understands what it will take for her to go through with it.”
    And with that, Eli vanished.
    Dec groaned. It was too much to ask. Way too fucking much. He had a decent life. Sure, he was bored to tears and basically trudging through each day, but that didn’t mean the solution was to hitch himself to a woman he barely knew in order to make her immortal. H e’d been engaged before, when he was a lot younger, but he had realized, as the months wore on, that his fiancée was more entranced with his money than she was with him. Sh e’d wanted him to take a corporate job and quit the EMS, right when he was about to be promoted. She wanted to rush the wedding, because she was twenty-four and dying to get locked in looking fabulous for several decades, since Ferrys aged more slowly than regular humans once they hit their twenties. And when Dec had finally seen through the haze of infatuation he thought had been love, h e’d also seen that sh e’d only ever wanted what he could give her—sh e’d never just wanted him .
    And in a way, Galena was the same. Sure, she had a better reason for wanting to become a Ferry, and she didn’t seem like the type wh o’d be interested in his money, but still