Death Becomes Me (Call Me Grim Book 2) (9 page)

10

The hotel room door swings closed behind me and my stomach tumbles. Not with hunger, with nausea.

Aaron asked me to run to the café in the lobby and grab us lunch while he showers, and I agreed. I’m not hungry. At. All. But I need something to take my mind off the mess we’re in.

A headache bursts behind my eyes as the elevator doors slide closed. It pulses with every beat of my heart and tugs me forward, out of the elevator and back toward the room, back toward Aaron. As the elevator drops, my brain feels like it is trying to dig an escape route through the top of my skull.

“What the hell?” I squeeze my eyes closed and press my palms to my temples. My head continues to throb and pull, so I lean against the mahogany wall of the elevator and breathe deep.

I’ve had this headache before, when Aaron wanted me to meet him at the nursing home to explain the Reaper thing to me and show me Rosie’s death. I refused to go, mostly because I was freaked out. That is until the worst headache I’ve ever had took over and practically forced me to go. Aaron explained to me later that the headache was because Rosie had reached the end of her life. Since Aaron had chosen me as his replacement, the headache pulled me to her to collect her soul.

The elevator doors slide open on the first floor and I flinch at the light spilling in from the street. It’s too bright. I squint and wipe the sweat from my brow as I cross the marble floor of the lobby to the small café.

The headache pulls me back, but I push forward. I know where it wants me to go and what it wants me to do.

My training period is over and Aaron is supposed to die. But I’m not going to do that. Even if it means living the rest of my life with a head that feels like scrambled eggs, I refuse to kill my boyfriend. This headache obviously has no idea how determined I can be.

I try to ignore the pain and stagger into the café.

Behind the counter, a sharply dressed woman removes an empty tray from the window display and loads another tray stocked with sandwiches. She straightens and swipes the top of the counter with a rag, ignoring me. Perhaps I look too poor or raggedy in my hand-washed jeans and tee-shirt for her to serve me.

“Excuse me.” I slam a wad of cash down on the counter in front of her, but she doesn’t even blink. It’s not until I pull my hand away from the money that the woman’s eyes widen.

“Hey, Pauli.” She calls over her shoulder, “You left your money out here on the counter.”

“Oh yeah. I forgot.” A male voice calls from the back. “Get it for me, will ya?”

She lifts her hand to take my money, which has, through the magic of Reaper invisibility, become Pauli’s money now. I snatch it back before her fingers close over it. Her eyes glaze for a second, then she turns and continues to wipe the counter as if nothing happened at all.

Right. I suppose I should be visible if I want to buy food. I search the hotel lobby for a place to hide. The last thing I want is to draw attention to myself by appearing out of thin air.

Next to the elevator is a metal door marked
Emergency Stairs.
My headache eases to a pull as I walk across the lobby to the door and walk through it. Just like the night of Rosie’s death, when I move toward the soul I’m supposed to take, the pain lessens. Maybe other things will be like the night of Rosie’s death. Maybe when I’m in the same room as Aaron, the headache will go away completely and I won’t feel like my eyes are about to explode and my brain’s about to leak from my ears.

My shoulders relax with the thought. If that’s how this works, I can live with it. I will never be able to leave Aaron’s side without excruciating pain, but that’s really not a bad thing. He’s good company and more than a little easy on the eyes.

The concrete staircase is boring compared to the lush lobby, but it’s deserted. I close my eyes and concentrate on making myself visible. Nothing happens. I try again, harder, digging my fingernails into my palms as I squeeze my fists. No matter how hard I try, the familiar popping, burning wood sound doesn’t come. And I finally realize exactly how big of a dumbass I am.

I’m a full-fledged Reaper now. I’m invisible. I will never be seen by the living again, unless I take an apprentice and they’re willing to share their visibility with me. And even then, I’d have to die shortly after.

Suddenly my knees can’t support my weight. I lean my back against the door and slide to the floor. My legs fold under me and I rest my throbbing head in my hands.

No matter how much I want to, I will never be able to hug my mother, or ruffle my little brother’s hair, or nudge Haley when I see a cute guy. Ever again. When we left Carroll Falls I knew if I wanted to keep them safe I wouldn’t be able to do any of those things, but as I sit on the cool concrete floor of the emergency stairs with my head in my hands, I realize I didn’t do any of it nearly enough.

A tear slips down my cheek, and I swipe it away. I need to get over myself. I don’t have time for regret. I was going to die either way and I knew that before I accepted Aaron’s job. This was the best decision.

I push myself up off the floor and shove my wad of cash in my pocket. No need for money now. Anything I take from the hotel will not be missed. Hell, Pauli will probably think he ate any food I take.

The woman continues to tidy up behind the counter as I approach, completely oblivious to me. The cold inside the refrigerated display case makes the hair on my arm stand on end as I slip it through the glass. It’s weird to steal like this, but at least I’m not shoving someone else’s pancake into my mouth and putting it back on their plate, like Bobby did. I swipe a plastic-wrapped turkey sandwich for me and a ham and cheese sandwich for Aaron.

Will that be enough for the two of us? Probably not. I’ve seen Aaron put down more than this in five minutes.

My body slips like smoke through the display case. I peruse the rack of snacks behind the counter. After loading up on chips, cookies, and two bottles of water, I walk through the display case again. And stop.

I don’t care if I can get away with it. I am not a thief.

I balance the food in one arm and dig my money back out of my pocket. The total for the food is a ridiculous twenty-seven dollars and change, but I don’t care. I slide thirty dollars across the counter. She’ll see it when I leave. She’ll probably give it to Pauli, or put it in her own pocket, but at least my conscience will be clean. Well, until I run out of money, I guess.

The call light for the elevator turns on when I hit the button, which surprises me. I guess I thought my finger would slip right through it, but that’s silly. The physical actions of a Reaper are ignored, forgotten, or the living think they did the action themselves.
That’s Reaper 101, Libbi,
Aaron’s voice says in my head. I shake my head. The glowing numbers change above the doors as the elevator descends.

A knot coils in my gut and cold fingers crawl up my spine.

I don’t know how I know, but there’s another Reaper close by. Very close by. I twist, feeling the eyes on me before I get all the way around.

She stands in the backlit doorway of the hotel with her hands at her sides and her feet slightly apart. A black hoodie covers her head, casting her face in shadow. Even though I can’t see her eyes I know she’s watching me.

“How the heck did you get in here?” Her high-pitched voice squeaks from the doorway. She’s young. Well, younger than me, I’m sure. “You shouldn’t be here. This is my territory.”

“We were just leaving.” I push the elevator call button again, like that will make the damned thing go faster.

“I don’t think so. You don’t belong here and that is
my
soul up there.”

Oh God. She’s here for Aaron. I’m not the only Reaper who can feel his soul’s pull. I have to get to him. I have to warn him.
I turn toward the door to the stairwell. The elevator is too slow. I can run up the stairs a heck of a lot faster.

The girl disappears from the doorway and reappears in front of the stairwell door. Right in my face. My fingers loosen and the food drops out of my hands. How did she do that? If Aaron and I miraculously get out of this, I’ll have to ask him to teach me.

The girl looks up at me. A thick and puckered scar, several shades darker than her brown skin, runs the length of her otherwise smooth face, splitting her right eyebrow and cheek in two. Her eyes narrow and slide down my body, then back up to my face. She’s sizing me up.

I almost laugh. She’s at least a head shorter than me and no older than fourteen. But I stifle the laugh before it leaves my chest. The physical appearance of her age is nothing. For all I know, she could be older than Bobby, Aaron, and me, combined. She could be the oldest Reaper there is.

“Wait.” She takes a step back. The skin between her eyebrows bunches in a frown. “I know you.”

“You do?” My heart runs a marathon without my feet.

“You’re the one Abaddon told us about,” she says. “You’re Libbi.”

My feet catch up to my heart and I run.

I only take a few steps before the girl is in front of me again. Except now she’s eight feet tall and dressed from head to toe in a black, tattered shroud. It floats around her like a cloud of cobwebs. Her skeletal hand grips the long handle of her Scythe. It slices the air with a swooshing sound as she swings it back and forth in front of her. In this form, there’s nothing that gives away her youth. It seems, in Grim Reaper form, whether male or female, young or younger, we all look alike.

“Going somewhere?” The childlike voice is gone. What comes from the blackness where her face should be is the familiar, deep, and menacing growl.

I whip around and sprint the other way, trying to pick up speed enough to fly. I know I can do it, but she’s faster than me. She appears in front of me again and leans in close. I think I see the deep red glow of eyes in the hollow blackness under her hood.

“Rookie,” she gives me a small, disappointed shake of her faceless head and disappears.

A boney arm wraps my chest from behind and yanks me back. My spine slams into something solid, knocking the air out of me. The vise-like grip tightens. I can hardly breathe. Cold air caresses my cheek and fills my nose with the scent of dried roses and dirt. I’d come to love that smell over the last week, but now it fills me with terror.

“Don’t worry.” She whispers in my ear. “Abaddon doesn’t want me to hurt you if I don’t have to.” The curved blade of the Scythe lowers in front of my face and presses to my throat. “He wants Aaron.”

She pushes me forward, keeping my back pressed against her, my arms pinned at my sides, and her Scythe at my throat. The blade stings and I can’t tell if it’s because the metal is so freaking cold or because it sliced my skin.

We walk through the door and into the dimly lit stairwell together. Her fingers dig into my flesh as she lifts my feet off the ground and takes off running. The lamps lining the stairwell blink like strobes as we race by them. Faster and faster, she carries me up the stairs, clutched to her chest like a ragdoll.

What kind of a lame excuse for a Reaper am I? She’s so strong. So fast. She knows so much. I’m a kindergartener compared to her. I can’t fight her. And I don’t even have a Scythe of my own to whip out.

Why didn’t I hang around while Aaron trained Kyle on the Reaper’s powers? I’d be more prepared for this. But no. While they were training, I spent time with my family and Haley.

Stupid.

The room Aaron and I slept in last night is on the twenty-third floor. The Reaper walks behind me, forcing me down the hallway. The curve of her Scythe circles my neck like a gruesome collar.

“Aaron. Run.” I yell as we approach the door to the room, though that’s sort of a dumb thing to say. Where is he going to run? He can’t walk through walls or fly anymore. He’s trapped in there.

“Hush.” She yanks the blade back. Hot pain shoots through me as the edge of the Scythe bites into my neck. Warmth oozes down and wets the collar of my tee-shirt. I guess Abaddon and a Reaper’s apprentice aren’t the only people who can hurt a Reaper.

The Scythe drops from my throat as she releases her grip on me. My hand instinctively darts to the cut on my neck, but I don’t have time to feel how deep it is. The Reaper shoves me hard and I stumble through the closed hotel room door.

I catch my balance on the other side of the door and swing around. I need to get one-up on her. This is my opportunity. It could be my only chance.

She melts through the door and I have just enough time to notice she’s shrunk back to her human shape before I draw back my fist and let it fly.

My knuckles connect with the girl’s abdomen and her eyes bulge with surprise. Air explodes from her mouth and she staggers back a step.

“Not so much of a rookie now, am I?” I say as I shake out my aching hand. I can’t help being snarky. Sometimes it spews out of me without permission. I blame my Irish side.

“Libbi?” Aaron says behind me and I turn. He stands on the opposite side of the bed, body tense. His surprised eyes meet mine and the realization of what’s happening finally sinks in. He may have thought his death was cancelled, but he was wrong. He’s going to die today and there’s nothing I can do about it.

My grand plan ended when I hit the girl. What was I thinking? Did I really think punching her would help the situation? It only made things worse. Now we’re both trapped in this hotel room with a seriously pissed off Reaper.