Raven's Breath (The Women of Purgatory) (11 page)

His joyous smile filled my heart and suddenly I could no longer breathe.

Literally.

I tried to inhale but couldn't. My lungs were already filled to capacity. Within seconds I was on the verge of panic and then exhaled.

A thick thread of white smoke escaped my lips and entered the boy's mouth. His eyes grew wide.

The foggy substance continued to flow into him and I felt his spirit pull away from me. I prepared to throw out my Reaper ribbons to keep him from running, but before they fully extended, the young man's soul returned to his physical body.

I stared and gaped.

His body began to glow from the inside out, expelling the same pearly white mist out his pores––the mist he'd ingested from me.

I took a step forward, hovering over the hospital bed to get a closer look. His chest began to rise and color flooded his cheeks.

He took a breath.

The machines went wild and I went blank.

What the HELL i
s happening?

Doctors and nurses raced into to the room, while the boy's parents were forced to gather outside the door. I watched the chaos, my thoughts a swirl of wonderful impossibilities. When the machines fell silent and the final order had been shouted, the boy's parents rushed forward, embracing their newly revived son in a flurry of prayers and tears.

Hell had nothing to do with this; this was a freakin' miracle.

20

I paced Garrett's apartment, waiting for him to dismiss the last two Reapers and lock the door. The second he opened the night drop with a wave of his hand, I started in. "Garrett! I'm telling you I just brought a kid back to life. As in, I literally breathed life
into
him."

"What in the world are you talking about, Raven? He was just probably another white-lighter."

White-lighters were people who died for a brief moment, which afforded them the chance to see the
white-light
before returning to their bodies. It happened occasionally, but not very often.

"No. He wasn't a white-lighter. He actually came to me but instead of my light building to open the portal, my lungs were filled with a weird cloudy mist that came out my mouth and flowed into his. It filled him up and he returned to his body and Came. Back. To. Life." I stressed each of my last words.

Garrett never stopped scribbling, tallying the days counts.

"Garrett!!" I slammed my hand down on his desk. "I'm serious. Something strange is happening to me."

Garrett dropped his pen and looked up. "Raven, relax. If something is happening to you, it's probably just another new perk."

"I don't think so. I know something's up but I'm not sure it has anything to do with Death." I began to pace his study again, taking a brief moment to randomly ponder how his rug stayed in such good shape with all the traffic it saw. "I'm not even sure my dreams
are
a perk. I've never talked to him about it and he's never brought it up."

"Maybe you should just ask him," Garrett rationalized.

I shook my head, contemplating the suggestion. "I don't think so. I have this weird feeling that my dreams and now this 'mist thing' are somehow connected. I just need to figure out how."

"Sounds like a plan. Are you still keeping your dream journal?" Garrett asked.

I lowered my head. "No."

"Well, maybe you should start again, because if the two things are related, it may be the only way to figure out how or why you have these new 'abilities' and where they came from."

He was right. I'd need to start keeping track of the faces I saw in my dreams and notate the events that happened during their retrievals.

Three days passed before I was able to write something interesting in my journal. I'd seen plenty of faces in my dreams yet their retrievals were nothing like
the miracle boy's––until today.

Last night I'd dreamt of an old man, and when we'd come face-to-face, his elderly gaze was as peaceful as the memories of his life that played across my mind. When I'd reached for his outstretched hand, I felt the familiar tug that indicated the mist in my lungs had started to build. Sure enough, when I tried to breathe in, I couldn't. Then, just like last time, I exhaled and the cloudy substance flowed from me to him in a steady stream. I moved closer, placing my hand on his face, mesmerized while the last filaments of vapor entered his mouth.

His soul returned to his body and the steamy light radiated through his pores from the inside out. He took a new breath and opened his eyes. He'd searched the room for me but found nothing, for he was no longer in the netherworld, but once again truly alive.

I closed my journal but remained in the memory, trying to focus on anything that was similar about the two incidents. Nothing stood out, but then again, each time I'd been so overwhelmed and left with such a benevolent feeling I could hardly keep a linear thought in my head. I'd have to try harder next time––if there was a next time––to make sure I cataloged more details.

A noise caught my attention from just beyond my bedroom window. I glanced up and spotted Holli hovering outside.

"Another round of breakouts has occurred. It's time to go." Her formality caught me off guard. I dove out the window and we headed for the portal fields.

"How have you been?" I asked, happy to see her again, even if it was under the guise of work.

"I'm well, thank you. And yourself?"

I glanced in her direction and found the muscles in her jaw were as tight as her words. "What's wrong, Holli?"

"Nothing. Why do you ask?" The twitch of her head and the increased grinding of her teeth made it obvious she was lying.

"Because, I can tell something is bothering you."

She stole a glance in my direction; the frown she wore and the flare to her nose made her features look pouty with a hint of disgust.

"Geez, what's with the look?"

We landed in front of portal 221 and before I could press her for an answer, I received a quick smack to the face.

My hand flew to my cheek. "Ouch. What the hell was that for?"

"Do you think I don't know?!" she yelled.

"Know what?"

"You tried to steal Death away from me that day in the garden!"

My mouth fell open. If anyone wanted to attack me right now, they would have succeeded. I was in shock, utterly stunned, and the ability to speak completely beyond my grasp.

"That's why he hit you. He told me all about it. Once you saw my castle you were so jealous that you tried to steal him away by throwing yourself at him. He had to hit you to snap you out of it."

Oh.My.GOD!
What game was he playing? One minute he wanted us to be great pals, the next he was setting us up to throw down.

"Holli, I'm not sure why Death told you that story, but that's exactly what it is...A. Story. I would never try to steal Death from you. If I wanted to be his girlfriend, I would have just said yes all those times he asked me before you were even here."

That earned me another slap across the face. My intention was to make her understand that I'd
never
had an interest in Death, now or before her arrival. But apparently that's not how it came across.

"He said you'd say that. But now that you see the things he gives me and how much he cares for me, you changed your mind."

"This is ridiculous," I bellowed. "Call him here right now. Let's see what he has to say when confronted with us both."

The fact that I was willing to argue my point in front of them both must have broken through the thick lie layering her brain. Her shoulders slumped and her lips began to quiver.

"I'm not sure which bothers me more. The idea of my only friend hurting me, or my lover constantly lying to me." The dam released and tears raced down her cheeks.

Oh man
. I was not good at this girly shit. And even though I felt bad playing the 'you-can-count-on-me' card to find out what Death had been lying about, I couldn't really pass up the opportunity.

I strode forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Holli. But please know, I would never do anything to hurt you on purpose." I added that last part, in case Death's secret somehow involved her, which meant she wouldn't
remain unscathed once it was revealed. "Now, besides this whopper about me being a boyfriend stealer, what else has Death been lying to you about?"

I wasn't sure if she'd answer a direct question, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

"Recently, he's been leaving me alone a lot more and when I asked him why, he said it was to test a theory. I didn't know what he meant so I kept asking. He told me to drop it or he'd cut me off from my castle." Sobs shook her petite form. "He's never treated me like that before, and I know it has something to do with the phenoms he keeps pulling inside."

My ears perked up. "I thought he did that just so you could practice flying?"

"I thought so too, but now, he won't even let me practice or be in there at all when he does it." She buried her head in her hands.

I continued to pat her on the shoulder, offering what condolences I could. I tried to imagine what theory Death could be testing and how it involved the phenoms.

My mind was humming, then Holli straightened and wiped her tears. The resolved look on her face made me nervous.

"If Death wants to keep experimenting with the phenoms that
we
gather, I wonder what he'd do if we simply refused?"

Oh shit!
Holli was turning out to be braver than I imagined, but disobeying Death was not an option unless you were ready to face his scythe. Maybe he hadn't explained those things to her because she was his girlfriend. However, I didn't think that fact made her immune from his anger if she decided to test his authority.

"Holli, that's not a good idea. Death will deliver the final death to any Reaper who doesn't do as instructed. I've seen it done and personally, I'm not ready to die."

She huffed a hard breath, turned to portal 221, and walked inside. I wasn't sure if I'd dissuaded her rebellion, but for her sake and mine, I certainly hoped so.