Death Becomes Me (Call Me Grim Book 2) (10 page)

Her hands grip my arms and she yanks my wrists behind my back, holding me tighter than a girl her size should be capable of.

“I stand by what I said before, Rookie,” she says with a sneer. She’s ditched the guttural growl for her normal, high-pitched voice.

A few choice words that my mother would be ashamed of me for knowing, much less saying, spill from my mouth as she walks me into the room.

“You must be Aaron,” the girl says, ignoring my potty-mouth. “I’m Ruth and I’m here for your soul. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“Run.” I yell as I struggle against her iron grip.

“Where is he supposed to go?” Ruth chuckles. “Really, Aaron, did you teach this girl anything?” She twists my arm in an unnatural angle and I bite back a scream of pain, but I’m not nearly as good at controlling the tears that obscure my vision.

“Look.” Aaron’s voice cracks. He holds his hands up in front of him, palms forward. “I’ll go with you. Okay? Just let her go.”

“It’s not that easy,” Ruth says. She eases her grip and my arm tingles with the return of blood flow. “If it was, do you think we’d still be here having this discussion? It’s not like
she
could stop me from doing whatever I want. But I can’t take you like this.” She gestures to Aaron’s body. “I need your soul.”

“So, you’re waiting for me to die, then.” Aaron swallows. I can only imagine how strange this is for him. For the last forty years he’s been the one waiting and watching people die, and now he’s the one being watched.

“Sort of.” Ruth grabs my shoulders, spins me around, and then pushes me farther into the room. The backs of my knees hit the bed and I sit, hard, but manage not to flop back onto the mattress. Ruth tilts her head and narrows her eyes at me in a don’t-try-anything-stupid glare.

“You were a Reaper. Libbi’s your replacement.” She says it as if she’s explaining how to play Duck, Duck, Goose to a room full of three year olds. “I’m not sure how you two managed to leave your territory, or why you would even try something so selfish, but that doesn’t change anything. She has to kill you, like she was supposed to. She made a commitment, a verbal contract. Abaddon only wants her to keep her word.”

“I can’t do that,” I say between clenched teeth.

“You have to.” Ruth focuses her angry eyes on me and her lips press together. The scar on her cheek pulls her mouth into a sneer. If she had that Scythe to my neck right now, I’m sure she would cut me again. “We all have to kill the Reapers we take over for. It’s part of our job.”

“Why? Not killing him and leaving Carroll Falls hasn’t hurt anybody.” I sit up straight and meet her sharp eyes. “What does it matter? Why can’t Abaddon just let us go?”

“You really think leaving your territory hasn’t hurt anyone? Don’t you realize your selfishness has probably destroyed several souls by now? People with families and loved ones? Those souls are gone. Forever. By leaving your territory reaperless, you’ve committed soul murder.” Her glare slips to Aaron. “But I shouldn’t blame her for this, should I? You’re her teacher. You’re supposed to tell her what happens to a soul without a Reaper there to help them out of their body. But no. You kept that to yourself, didn’t you? Probably thought she wouldn’t come with you if she knew.”

“I know what happens,” I bark. “It’s terrible.” My fingernails dig deep into my palms. I don’t know what kind of person she thinks Aaron is, but she’s dead wrong. “We didn’t leave Carroll Falls without a Reaper. My friend Kyle has the Scythe. He’s the Reaper there now.”

“What?” The anger that distorted Ruth’s delicate features moments ago drains away and is replaced with wide-eyed surprise. “Is that true?” She looks to Aaron for confirmation. “You didn’t abandon your territory like a pair of careless deserters?”

“No, of course not.” He takes a step toward her, but stops when her eyes level him with a warning. “I would never do something like that.”

“But Abaddon said …” She shakes her head slowly. A frown ripples the brown skin of her forehead again. “Why should I even believe you?” she snaps. “You’re criminals.”

“It’s pretty easy to check.” Aaron gestures to the silver ring on her right thumb. “Do you know you can use your Scythe to travel to other territories?”

“Of course I do.” Ruth peeks down at her Scythe. She crosses her arms over her chest and looks up at Aaron with a pinch of distrust in her eyes. “Do you really think I’m stupid enough to leave you here by yourselves with my lifeless body while I travel to your old territory?”

“You can take me with you, if you want,” I say. “Then you’ll know I’m not up to something while you’re gone.” I shift on the bed, itching to stand, but I’m so much taller than Ruth. I don’t want her to take my height as a challenge.

“What about him?” She tilts her head in Aaron’s direction. “He’s not a Reaper anymore. He’s living. He can’t come with us.”

“But he also can’t hurt you. And if he decided to run—which he won’t—” I give him a quick glance. “—it won’t take long to pop into Kyle’s body and see if we’re lying or not. In two minutes, Aaron couldn’t even get outside of the hotel, much less out of your territory.”

The seconds stretch as Ruth considers us. Eventually, she uncrosses her arms. Her troubled brow relaxes but the muscles in her jaw remain tight.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” she says. “Under one condition …” She snaps her wrist and the Scythe unfolds with a metal-on-metal clang. Sunlight glints off the edge of the blade as she catches the familiar, black-wooden handle in her hand. She smirks at me. “I get to keep this at your throat the whole time we’re gone. And if you give me even the slightest reason, I’ll…”

“Got it.” I touch my neck where her Scythe sliced me before. My instantly dry tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

“Do we have a deal?”

“D-deal.” I push the word out. I have no choice but to agree. If we can prove ourselves to Ruth, she might let us go, or maybe even help us. If we’re just one quick trip to Carroll Falls away from gaining a possible ally, how can I refuse? But what if her hand slips while we’re out of our bodies and she accidentally slices my carotid artery?

I take a deep breath, swallow my terror, and with as much bravery as I can muster, I say, “Let’s do this.”

11

In a flash, Ruth appears behind me. The sharp edge of her blade presses to my neck, so close I’m afraid to breathe much less move. My pulse bounds against the cold steel.

“Abaddon said your territory is in Pennsylvania,” Ruth says. It’s a statement, not a question.

“Yes. Carroll Falls.”

“And the boy in your place is named Kyle?”

“Yes.”

“Kyle what?”

“Dennis. Kyle Dennis.”

Light ripples like electrified water along the bit of blade I can see and then bursts outward. It envelops us in the same bubble of blue iridescence that surrounded Bobby and me when he used his Scythe to travel to Carroll Falls yesterday. I quickly squeeze my eyes closed, having already learned the joys of Scythe travel the last time.

The sucking sensation funnels from my chest and I’m yanked forward. Air whooshes by my ears, but I don’t feel a breeze, just the sensation of simultaneously falling and spinning. The thought of Ruth’s Scythe against my neck while neither of us is completely present in our bodies flits through my mind. It quickly disappears when I’m slammed forward and white hot pain sears my back and chest.

Kyle and Haley’s kitchen is so familiar I could recognize it in the dark, though that’s not the case now. Every light is on and a first aid kit sits open on the glass-topped kitchen table. Its contents are strewn around it like the medical supply box exploded. The stringent scent of rubbing alcohol permeates the air.

“—just a fall. I’m fine.” Kyle’s voice comes from my lips and I shiver. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to sharing a body with him. The pain in my back flares with stinging heat as something presses against the skin there. “Ouch. Be careful with that.” Kyle glances over his shoulder, bringing my point of view with him. All I can see are her tight blond curls, but I know who stands behind Kyle.

“Sorry.” Haley’s head snaps up and her sympathetic, brown eyes simultaneously find his and mine. She lightens her touch. “This doesn’t look like ‘just a fall’, Kyle, unless you fell into a wood chipper.”

Kyle chuckles, pulling the raw skin on his back and chest tight with the movement. He draws in a breath with the sudden pain and then says, “Not a wood chipper. I fell out of a—”

Kyle,
I say into his mind.

“Libbi?” Kyle sits up straight.

“You fell out of a Libbi?” Haley repeats with a skeptical lilt in her voice.

“No, Haley,” Kyle says and I can feel his exasperation from inside of him. “Remember what Max and I said? You didn’t believe us, but Libbi’s here now. Inside of me.”

“Mmm… Did you hit your head when you fell?” Haley presses the alcohol-soaked gauze to Kyle’s back. It stings like hell and I bite back a yelp. “Look, I miss her and want her to come home too, but you’ve got to stop doing this to yourself. It’s unhealthy.”

“It’s true, Haley,” I use Kyle’s mouth to say out loud. “I’m here.”

Haley stops mid-daub when she hears my voice coming from her brother. “Libbi?” she says tentatively.

“Yes, it’s me,” I manage before Kyle takes back control of his vocal cords in the mental equivalent of pushing me aside.

“Shit, Libs,” Kyle says. “You’re not safe here. You have to leave. Abaddon knows. He knows you and Aaron escaped.”

I know,
I say inside his head.

“Good,” he says. “Then you should also know you can’t keep popping into my head like this. It’s too dangerous. If you had decided to show up even just a half hour ago …” His words trail off and he shakes his head. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

Something finally clicks in my brain and I look down at his bare chest. Angry red welts stripe his skin. Blood seeps from the deeper wounds, running in rivulets down his body and staining the waistband of his jeans brownish-red.

“Oh my God. Did Abaddon do this to you?” That’s what I say, but deep inside I know this is my fault. Abaddon may have done the damage, but I’m the reason it happened.

By leaving Carroll Falls, I put Kyle on Abaddon’s hit list. We all knew that was a possibility when we created our little plan, but seeing it,
feeling
it, makes it so much worse. It’s real now. No hiding. No pretending. No wishful thinking.

Good thing Kyle continues to hold himself upright. If I was in my own body right now, my legs would probably dissolve to quivering lumps of flesh and I’d collapse to the floor.

“Someone did this to you?” Haley says, her face distorted by a scowl. “You said you fell.”

“It’s fine, Hale. I’m fine. I didn’t tell you because you refuse to believe this stuff.” Kyle shrugs and something warm and wet trickles down the back of his arm. “Maybe now you’ll listen to us.” Kyle slowly shakes his head and I feel his thoughts focus back on me. “But, seriously Libs, he probably would’ve figured out where you are, or at least made this,” he says, gesturing to his shredded chest, “ten times worse if you had shown up in the middle of it. You need to get the hell out of here, before he calls me back.”

“Kyle,” I whisper. “I’m so—”

Before I can finish the apology, the familiar sucking sensation resurges in my chest.

Okay, I’ve seen enough.
Ruth says as she yanks us out of Kyle’s body so violently my stomach heaves. She drags me through the swirling nothingness back to the hotel room in Chicago like a kid dragging a wagon.

I snap back into my body and my eyes spring open. Aaron perches on the edge of the hotel bed watching us. The area of skin between his eyebrows pinches with worry. I keep perfectly still. The razor edge of Ruth’s Scythe continues to press against my neck as her sharp breaths brush my ear.

“Umm … Do you think you can put that thing away now?” I ask, trying my darnedest to speak while remaining as motionless as possible.

“Oh, yeah.” The pressure of the blade lifts and I hear the reassuring clang of the Scythe folding back into its ring form. I tentatively touch my neck, feeling for any accidental slices.

“Kyle’s been attacked,” I say, once I realize I’m no more wounded than I was when we left. “He’s alive, but Abaddon left him a mess. His back and chest are shredded.”

“Oh.” Aaron sighs and shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Libbi.”

Ruth steps around me and collapses on the edge of the bed next to Aaron. She rests her head in her hands and pants like she just finished a marathon.

“You okay?” I ask, even though it’s clear she isn’t.

“Yeah. Scythe travel takes a lot of energy.” She glances up at me. A hint of a troubled frown plays at the corners of her plump lips. “Now, what am I supposed to do with you two?”

“Do you believe us?” Aaron asks hopefully.

“Yeah. I believe you.” Ruth studies us for a moment then shakes her head. Her eyes drift over my shoulder to the balcony door. “I’m not sure what you were thinking when you left your territory, but I believe you’re not a pair of Reaper criminals that don’t give a crap about the souls you’re responsible for, like Abaddon said you were.” She rolls her eyes. “It’s just my spectacular luck you turned up on my doorstep.”

“Does that mean you won’t turn us in?” My soft voice quivers and I hope she doesn’t hear the uncertainty there. “You’ll let us go?”

Ruth takes a moment to reply and I hold my breath as her narrowed eyes drift between us. Slowly, she nods. Relief floods my body and my tense muscles relax slightly. I glance over at Aaron and see the same wave of relief wash over his face.

“What were you thinking, defying Abaddon like that?” Ruth tilts her head in curious awe, her eyes wide and shiny. “Did you really think he’d just let you go without a fight?”

“Maybe,” I say with a tiny shrug.

At the same time, Aaron shakes his head and says, “Not really.”

“Wow.” Ruth laughs, soft and high, like the tinkle of bells. The sound drains the rest of the tension from the room. “You’re either plain-old stupid or certifiably insane.”

“A little bit of both, I think.” Aaron chuckles and runs a hand through his hair. He gives her a small smile. “But we really only left because Libbi wouldn’t—”

“So, Ruth,” I cut him off before he can launch into the story of how I refused to kill him or let him and Kyle kill each other. Ruth already thinks I’m a stupid rookie. She doesn’t need more proof that she’s right. “Have you heard of another Reaper that managed to escape his territory? Someone told us there might be a Reaper hiding here, in Chicago, who may have managed to avoid being caught for years. Do you know anything about that?”

“What?” The semi-relaxed smile slips from her face and her soft brown eyes quickly shift back to hard and skeptical. “Who told you that?”

“A Reaper in another territory. I doubt you know him.” Aaron slips his hands into his pockets and shuffles his feet in the lush carpet. He’s the picture of relaxed, but I can see the tension has returned to his shoulders. “He wasn’t sure if it was just a myth or not, but I thought coming here to find out might be worth a shot. I mean, if it’s true, maybe he can help Libbi and me.”

We find ourselves caught in Ruth’s scrutinizing stare again but this time I don’t see the anger and distrust I saw there before. Instead her jaw clenches and her eyebrows scrunch together with fear and worry.

“I understand why you’d think coming to Chicago would make sense, if you think that’s true,” she says through tight lips, “but it’s not. It’s a myth. A Reaper urban legend.” Her words say one thing, but her troubled face says something completely different.

“You’re lying.” It blurts out of my mouth before my filter can catch it, but it doesn’t matter. She knows something, and if she thinks I’m just going to let this go she obviously doesn’t know me very well. “Look, Ruth, I know you have no reason to trust us.” I spread my hands in front of me, pleading. “But if someone managed to keep away from Abaddon for any length of time, we really need to know how he did it. Our freedom—our lives—depend on it.”

Ruth catches her bottom lip between her teeth and chews it raw as she watches me. I can almost hear the gears of indecision turning in her head.

“If I knew something—which I don’t—why should I help you?” she says finally.

“Because, beneath your tough exterior, I believe you’re a good Reaper and a good person, Ruth.” Aaron takes a step toward her and lifts his hand like he’s about to gently place it on her elbow. She gives him a don’t-you-even-try-it glare and his hand drops back to his side. But still, he presses on. “We’re good people, too. We don’t want to hurt anyone. We even found a replacement. All we want is a chance to live.” He glances over at me. “Together. That’s all. If you know something that can help us stay together, please tell us.”

Her lip tucks back between her teeth for a moment and her fingertips dimple the skin of her crossed upper arms. Then something shifts in her features. Her face smoothes and she releases her lip from her teeth. Her arms come uncrossed.

“All right. I’ll help you.” She sighs, flings her hands up in the air, and turns toward the room’s front door. “But not because I’m a pushover, or anything. Abaddon wouldn’t believe I had nothing to do with this even if I showed up at the Gateway with both of you hogtied, and I honestly want no part of it. So, once you’re out of here, you never even heard my name. Got it?”

“Yeah, sure,” I say, nodding.

“Got it.” Aaron looks at me. His eyes widen with surprise and his shoulder lifts in a half-shrug. I don’t think he thought begging would work. To be honest, neither did I.

“Follow me.” Ruth walks toward the door. “And try to keep up. The faster you’re out of my territory, the better.” Her body slips through the metal door and she disappears into the hallway.