Reaper (30 page)

“Look, I don't care who you are, but I'm sick of these mind games,” Wendy snarled, jerking the face up and down as she spoke. “Everyone has been having a go at me today and honestly I'm just done, okay? You have something you need to say to me? Say it. Otherwise I'm going to peel this skin off your skull and wear it like a hat, you got me?”

“There!” cried the not-Emma. “There! There is your fire, your temper! There is the Reaper in you!” She sagged in Wendy's grip and chuckled. “I'd thought it gone. I'd thought you'd given up with your mother's death, but finally, there it is. And all you needed to do was nearly die to find your fire. Again.”

“My fire? What…” Wendy stilled. Her hands were glowing faintly with Light. “But…what about the binding?”

“Is still tight,” the skeleton whispered, pressing cold bone fingers to Wendy's chest. “Still close. But it's not impossible for you. You may yet slip it free. If you want.”

The skeleton leaned forward, leering, bringing with it a strong mingled smell of rich bourbon and thick decay. “Go ahead. Try it.”

“I'm so confused,” Wendy said, drawing back to keep from gagging from the stench. “Who are you really?”

“Don't you know?” the skeleton asked, reaching into Wendy's gut and grabbing her by the silver cord. “I'm you. The best you that pathetic little you could ever be.”

Wendy gagged. The feeling of her cord being yanked and twisted was like nothing she'd ever experienced before. The skeletal fingers digging in were sliding across her gut, dipping through the skin, and caressing her from the inside. Wendy wondered if the hand was poking out her back, like she was some macabre puppet.

“You're…not…me,” she hissed, grabbing the skeleton by the wrist and pushing savagely backward, unimpaling herself with a wet
schloop
noise.

The skeleton tilted its head. “I'm not?”

Breathing heavily, Wendy shoved her fingers into the grinning skull's mouth and grabbed the two parts with each hand. Pulling up with her left and down with her right, she yanked as hard as she could until the skull slid apart like a zipper, the bones grinding to yellowing dust beneath the pressure of her hands and exposing the bemused woman beneath.

“Elise,” Wendy said, shaking her head. She wanted to be surprised, but after talking with the greaser she realized that she was more disappointed than startled.

“Yes,” Elise said. “And no.”

Pain shot through Wendy's side. Slowly, unbelieving, Wendy looked down. A tendril of Light receded, taking with it a thin knife that dripped essence. Wendy's essence.

The pain was tremendous. Staggering back, Wendy looked down, squinting as hard as she could, and could just barely make out that her silver cord had been jogged loose of her gut. It hung loosely at hip level like a loop of intestine.

“Why?” Wendy sobbed, gathering the ethereal loop in her palms as carefully as she could. Though the knife was no wider than a knitting needle, the hole in her gut seemed gigantic, like she could shove both her fists into it. Excruciating agony rippled through her entire body as Wendy struggled with her slippery cord and tried to press its length back into her body.

“Why?” Wendy asked again, stumbling forward and sinking to the floor of the dusty tomb. “I'm a Reaper too.”

Elise sneered as Jane stepped around Wendy; Jane's face was calm, still, nearly expressionless. “You're not a real Reaper, Winifred. Like every other member of your ridiculous little family, you're just in my way.” She snapped her fingers. “Jane. Now.”

Sliding on one foot, Jane darted forward. Her dagger swung down and Wendy flung up her forearms to block the stab, twisting at the last second. She was hoping to throw Jane over her head; instead her hand punched cleanly through the Reaper's side.

Wendy pulled back. She held a weapon in her right fist, one that hadn't been there a moment before. It was the bone dagger the greaser had given her; it had come out of his dreamscape into this dreamscape.

Unexpected hot blood gushed over her fingers and wrist, sticky and thick and nearly black in the light. Open-mouthed, Wendy dropped the dagger and scrabbled painfully backward on elbows and ass.
What had she done?

“Jane,” Elise snapped sharply. “It's just a dream, girl, stop whining so! You'll hardly feel it in a moment.”

“Just tell me why,” Wendy insisted, pulling herself back across the floor. “Just…tell me why.”

“Because, as I said,” Elise coolly replied, “you are in the way.” She reached down and patted Wendy's cheek.

“It's not personal, dear. Just good business, just as it was nothing personal with your friend Edward. I needed you out of the way for a few days, but then you had to go and stick your nose in
where it doesn't belong. I took your boy's soul and hid his cord, hoping that you'd run off after him the same way you did after your mother, but Emma managed to bring him home like a lost puppy
and
leave a note pointing you our way.”

Elise shook her head, tsking. “Such waste.” She pulled back and kicked Jane in the side that was gushing essence. “Say you're sorry for ruining my plan, dear.”

“I'm sorry, Grandmother,” Jane gasped.

“That's better.” Elise wiped her hands on her hips. “Penance is good for the soul. As is pain. Just look at Wendy here, Jane. An abomination like her is still up and running despite all the pressure we've put her through today! Remarkable. Send a bevy of Walkers after her and she manages to scare them off with threats! Tie her binding in knots and she manages to free herself enough to escape into dreams. Truly, if she weren't such an obnoxious little thing, I'd be tempted to welcome her into the family.”

“I don't understand. What am I stopping you from doing?” Wendy whispered, trying to keep from watching Jane twitch and sob on the floor.

“That is none of your business, dear.” Elise reached down and hauled Jane to her feet. “Say goodnight, Jane,” Elise ordered. “We've got much to do, and I think we've finally pinned little Miss Wendy down at last.”

Jane gave Wendy a sick smile and Wendy realized that there was something seriously wrong with the blue-haired girl. Her eyes were distant, clouded over, and her expression was drawn and far away. “Bye cuz,” Jane whispered. “Sleep tight.”

“Wait,” Wendy said, struggling to rise. Her gut twisted, the silver cord tangling around her ankle, slowing her down. By the time she'd carefully freed herself, Elise had dragged Jane into the blackness.

They were gone.

L
ily and Eddie darted forward, moving in unconscious unison to reach Piotr as he fell. The snow came down in flurries now, large wet flakes that filled the vision and formed clumps and small drifts on the old, rotting floors.

Indifferent to the risk of his cold, Lily reached Piotr an instant before Eddie and caught him in her arms as he tumbled down. Teeth chattering, she laid him carefully out and then quickly stepped back, briskly rubbing her arms against his chill.

“He's fading again,” Eddie hissed. “Fast.”

“To tend to him, to avoid frostbite, I must wrap up in blankets,” Lily replied sharply. “As many as you can find. Hurry!”

Eddie loped off as Lily knelt down. The cold was so intense that she was finding it difficult to be within a foot of Piotr; she had no idea what she could do for him other than wrap him up and perhaps start a fire with Dora's drawings and the old door she'd used as a desk.

Lily was so caught up in Piotr's plight that she completely missed hearing Elle approach until her old friend was at her shoulder, kneeling down beside her.

“Care to fill me in?” Elle asked gruffly. “What in the blue blazes happened here?”

“Elle?” Lily twisted and hugged her wayward friend, stunned to see her but overwhelmingly happy that she'd finally arrived. Desperately, she squeezed tighter, not wishing to let the prickly flapper go. Eddie was good company but he couldn't handle a weapon to save his own life…or Ada's. “You were gone so long!”

“Well, yeah, it took me awhile to sniff out a Lost, and you will NOT guess where I found one. How's our flyboy doing?” Elle looked
over to where Piotr sprawled on the floor and, glancing up, eyed the fat flakes drifting down. “You all have some sort of adventure while I was out and about?”

“You could say that,” Eddie said, coming down the stairs with every blanket on the thirteenth floor piled in his arms and dragging on the stairs. “I'll admit, Elle, I'm impressed. How'd you know to find us here?”

“I figured something was up when I went by Wendy's and her whole yard was trashed,” Elle explained. “This was, what, a couple hours ago? The only ones inside were her brother and sis so I thought maybe head up to the city, see if you all tried to make it to my old haunt since it's the closest completely safe zone.”

“Indeed? You traveled a great distance then,” Lily said, impressed, as always, by Elle's undying efficiency. “But made good speed.”

“I was alone for most of it,” Elle said. “Till I got to the Pier.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “That's where I found Sarah here, believe it or not. And get this; she already has the skivvy on Petey here.
She
was waiting for
me
.”

Lily blinked in surprise and glanced at the Lost hesitating in the corner of the room, her backpack at her feet and a wary expression curling her lips. The skittishness of the girl was palpable—one wrong word and the Lost would flee. By the look of her, she'd be fast and hard to catch up with too.

“You knew of our problem, young one?”

“Walker stabbed him, pretty straightforward,” Sarah said, frowning at their group. “Though if I knew I'd be laying low all day long I would've snagged another book to read. Bookstore had nothing I haven't seen twenty times.”

“Get this: Wendy met her
this morning
, after we'd left,” Elle whispered. “Had the kid waiting for us up at the Pier, hiding out from the Reapers. Now where is that daffy Lightbringer so I can give her a great big kiss?”

“If the Lightbringer is not at her abode then we don't know where she is,” Lily said shortly. “She is, perhaps, gone. And Ada with her. Ada was taken by animals—gulls, to be precise.”

Elle's eyes widened. “Ada was here? Council Ada? Why?”

“As I could not locate a Lost in a timely manner, I thought that perhaps Ada might be able to help us with Piotr's difficulties. My theory was not incorrect; Ada was able to stave off the worst of his symptoms for a short time but, as you can see, it was not long enough.”

“Well Pocahontas, we got ourselves a Lost now, right?”

“You speak truly.” Lily glanced behind Elle at Sarah and smiled softly. Seeing a Lost again…it warmed her heart. She yearned to collect Sarah to her, to hug the small scrap of girl and soothe her pains, but Lily could sense by the mere set of Sarah's shoulders that a hug would not be tolerated in the least. “It was good of you to come. I am Lily. This is Eddie. We are friends of Wendy…though she did not tell us that she encountered you.”

Taking off her hat, Sarah toed the pile of wet snow at her feet and shivered. “I'm not surprised Wendy didn't speak up—before they left one of the Reapers nabbed a Shade not ten feet from where we'd been talking. She might've thought it was me.” Sarah tucked the hat under her arm and glanced up at Elle. “You didn't tell me it was gonna be snowing.”

“To be honest, short stuff, I had no clue everything was gonna get balled up while I was gone,” Elle said baldly. “I figured Pocahontas here had it all under control.”

“If you are done judging my competency,” Lily said stiffly, “perhaps Sarah might deign to look at Piotr?”

“You think you have it in you, kiddo?” Elle asked Sarah. “Or do you need a few minutes to orient yourself first?”

Sarah scowled. “Where's my salvage?”

“Healing first, then the moolah,” Elle said gently. “You can see we've got plenty, even in a dump like this. A deal's a deal, right?”

“You were talking about gulls before, right?” Sarah said, looking between Lily and Elle as she edged closer to Piotr. Eddie handed her a comforter and she wrapped it around her shoulders, shivering. Lily felt her lips quirk without guiding thought. Eddie was so considerate, it was painfully endearing.

“I used to crash up near Fort Funston, back, you know, before. Before the White Lady started looking around for Lost. And then I went back after she, you know, went away.” Sarah pulled out her hat, tapped the brim absently. “I've been hanging out there since…what, the sixties? So I really know the area.”

“Indeed?” Lily said, surprised that this little ghost had survived so long on her own. Shivering in the cold she seemed to small and fragile, so tiny, but if Sarah could remember that far back she might even be as old as Elle. Possibly older, given the odd cut of her clothing and the possessive way she handled her hat. “Were there many gulls there?”

“Around the fort? Tons. They kept an eye out, you know, for the Reapers. You had to move around at night, keep low, cuz if you saw a gull chances were that a Reaper or maybe some soul they had jockeying for them wasn't gonna be too far behind. It was like that for a long time.”

Sarah yanked her cap back on and shoved any loose tendrils under until she looked like a very skinny boy. “If the gulls took your lady, she's probably up that way. The Reapers probably plucked her right up. They had a house or something up there, up near San Ramon.”

“I know the place,” Eddie said slowly. “Though I don't know where they'd stash someone like Ada. I mean, how do you keep tabs on a ghost?”

“Easier than you might imagine,” Lily said shortly, annoyed that Eddie hadn't shared the location of the Reapers’ stronghold with them already. It would have been good information to have. “But it is no matter. We will fetch Ada as soon as we can. In the meantime—”

“Your friend isn't looking so hot,” Sarah finished.

Piotr was jerking on the floor, spasming up and down, back arching wildly as his head hit the floor with enough force to crack the thick layer of ice that'd formed beneath him. One moment he was nearly solid, slamming into the wood with enough force to make the old boards creak and groan and splinter beneath the ice, the next he was hardly there, his shoulders resting on the floor as his head vanished through the floorboards into the room below.

Sarah, without being asked, approached Piotr with her hands outstretched. Unfortunately, no sooner did she get close enough to touch him than his flailing tripled, and he caught her on the hip and shoulder with one wildly jerking leg. Lily darted forward to catch her but Sarah, shoved violently backward, stumbled and fell, slamming her head into the corner of the desk. Eddie was at her side in a second, lifting her carefully from the floor and examining the spreading bruise and jagged cut along her temple.

Lily gestured to Elle and Elle nodded in return. Silently, acting as one, they moved to either side of Piotr, close enough to touch him but still just out of striking range. Piotr, lost in his delirium, abruptly sat up and said something long and convoluted in Russian, eyes open but rolled back in his head, spitting and cursing as he swung his arms left and right.

“As soon as she's better?” Elle asked, dodging one of Piotr's wilder swings.

The breeze from his fist passing left Lily's flesh prickling. “On three,” Lily agreed, sidestepping another swipe as Piotr, turning at the sound of her voice, spit and cursed. Lily knew very little Russian but what she did recognize was the torrent of profanity pouring from his lips. Though she did not say so out loud, Lily was willing to bet that Piotr was once more reliving his death. The now-familiar word for uncle spewed forth with such venom that her ears fairly burned.

“Are you willing to try again?” Lily heard Eddie asking Sarah. She glanced over her shoulder to see Eddie pressing a scrap of his
shirt to her cut. She recognized the expression on his face—Eddie was marveling at how Sarah's flesh quickly closed beneath his palm.

“They'll hold him down this time,” Eddie promised her, and Lily, despite Piotr cursing violently beside her, preened for a bare moment at Eddie's solid, unwavering assurance. Then Piotr arched forward, this time so hard his head nearly smacked the floor, and Lily immediately dropped all thoughts of Eddie to corral her friend.

“We should wrap our hands,” Elle panted, wincing. “He's colder than a Sunday ice cream cone. Hey Sarah, kiddo, wait a second.”

“No time. Three!” Lily declared and lunged forward, searing her palms on Piotr's freezing shoulders as she grabbed him and shoved him down to the floor. Elle, following her lead, grabbed his ankles. Piotr flailed fiercely, wildly, feet kicking and shoulders lifting off the boards with such strength that Lily ripped the flesh of her palms free to get a better grip and kneel on his torso.

Piotr, eyes frosted over entirely with white now, stilled his thrashing just long enough to twist upward and whisper so only Lily could hear, “You bitch. You know what you do is wrong, you know it is evil, yet still you abide. I will make you pay for this, if it takes me until the sun is blotted from the sky, if it takes me until your precious Ragnarok. I will destroy you both.”

Then, yanking one arm free with impossible strength, he raked at Lily's face.

“Sarah! Now!”

Sarah, flinging herself forward, grabbed Piotr by the temples and sank her hands all the way into his head.

The room filled with rainbow light.