My Immortal Assassin by Carolyn Jewel

messaging app on her spiffy new phone and typed I am in UR base spending UR $$ and sent it to Durian. If it didn’t mean shopping, she’d rise to the challenge of maxing out his damn card.
    A few minutes later, she was in the ladies department staring with horror at row after row of clothes. Jesus God. What a nightmare. Her phone dinged.
    xlnt.
    Yeah, right. Excellent.
    She really did need everything. If she had any idea anymore of what kind of person she was, it would be easier to know what to buy. Best to keep it simple, she decided. She gritted her teeth and shopped until the credit card should have been smoking.
    Along the way she picked up Joy, a personal shopper who was just now standing by the bags she’d amassed so far, having set out a selection of leather jackets for Gray’s consideration.
    She was studying them when some guy who looked like he was lost wandered near and smiled at her. Cute. Better than cute, but not her type. She didn’t know what her type was, but he wasn’t it. Her head was throbbing from the effort of keeping herself blocked so she wasn’t in the best mood. Not his fault, of course.
    At first, when she noticed him staring, she nodded and went back to looking for a jacket that would hide blood. Not a requirement she felt she ought to mention to Joy, but Durian was Nikodemus’s assassin. She might end up doing some wet work one of these days. She already had what she called her mini-Durian clothes; everything black, only not fancy. She had workout gear, underwear, and lots of jeans, T-shirts, shirts, and sweaters. It turned out she favored bright colors and strong patterns. She was looking for a black leather jacket because spending someone else’s money turned out to be addictive.
    “Hey,” the lost-looking guy said when she made the mistake of making eye contact with him the second time she noticed him. He was about her age. Maybe a little older. Very corporate looking.
    She smiled and went back to the jackets. She tried on a couple more but she wasn’t feeling the love.
    “We meet again.”
    Gray looked up at the guy talking to her. He was standing right next to her now. She didn’t like that she hadn’t known he’d moved so close. He looked like an Italian lawyer, with the suit and tie and shiny shoes to go with the Mediterranean complexion. She knew from what Durian had told her so far that the kin couldn’t feel magehelds. If he was one, she wouldn’t be able to tell from Tigran’s magic. Christophe’s, though, that might work. If she knew shit about it.
    His black hair was long enough that she was pretty sure he wasn’t mageheld. Mages, Christophe included, shaved the heads of their magehelds. “Come here often?”
    The guy’s eyes flicked down to her left hand. She smiled in relief. Nothing nefarious here. He was just a normal guy making sure he wasn’t about to try his lame moves on a married lady. “First time here,” she said.
    He held her gaze and smiled. He actually looked a little shy when he did. That settled her nerves down. “A virgin, huh?”
    “Yeah.” She slipped off the jacket she’d tried on.
    “The other one was better on you. Not that my opinion matters.”
    “Thanks.” She hadn’t been hit on in so long, she could hardly remember how to make him go away with no hard feelings.
    He flashed her another smile, but something got inside her blocks. She didn’t like the way it felt, but she didn’t know enough yet to figure out if he was just some sociopathic human or something she ought to be afraid of. He pointed at one of the jackets. “How about that one?”
    Something about him wasn’t right. While she pretended to look, she took out the phone Durian had given to her. “Nah.”
    “Listen.” He tugged on his tie. “You’re going to think I’m coming on too strong, but I think you’re just…” His cheeks flushed. “Can I buy you a coffee?”
    “Oh, hey. That’s really nice of you to ask.” If he was a normal human, she didn’t