Authors: Alicia Dean
“Seriously?” Kyle shook his head. “That’s crazy, huh? Not a sign he was in distress.”
“Not a sign.” Audra’s voice shook.
Tonya shrugged. “Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.”
“Tonya!” Kyle looked horrified. “That’s cold. Even for you.”
Barely aware of the conversation taking place around her, Audra said, “Listen, I’ve got to go check on...something. I’ll be right back.”
She’d have to speak with the charge nurse, fill out incident reports, all the usual procedures, but for now, she had to get some answers the forms couldn’t provide.
“Are you okay?” Tonya asked.
“Yeah. I’m good. Thanks.”
She backed away and headed down the hall, toward one of the empty patient rooms. As she passed her co-workers, they seemed to all be staring at her, wondering, accusing...
It was probably only her imagination, but she still let out a relieved breath when she reached her destination.
Once inside the unoccupied room, she shut the door. Keeping her voice low but forceful, she said, “Gaylen, can you hear me? I need to see you.”
She didn’t know if it worked like spirits or a magic genie or whatever, where you could call for them and they’d come. It was worth a shot.
“Gaylen! Please. I need to speak with you.”
If he came, would he give her the answers she wanted? And, if he did, what then? If he told her he took Mr. Neufeld and there was nothing she could do about it. What would she do? What if he then said,
“And now, I’m going to take you...”
She shuddered and wrapped her arms around her body. Dimitri said the person had to be in jeopardy. She was healthy. Recovered from her beating, and not even a cold at the moment. Gaylen surely couldn’t hurt her. Not if Dimitri was telling the truth.
Dimitri...
Even if she couldn’t reach Gaylen, Dimitri should have the answers she sought.
“Dimitri!” The shout came out a little louder than she planned. She looked at the closed door, which in itself would seem suspicious if anyone noticed. Maybe they’d think she just needed a few moments to herself.
Raising her voice, she again called out, “Dimitri! Where are you? I have to talk to you.”
“What is it?”
She whirled. Dimitri stood a few feet behind her. He once more wore the leather jacket. His brow was drawn into a frown.
“Dimitri. You came.”
“What’s wrong?”
He moved closer, lowering his head to stare into her face. Her breath caught when the electric spark reached out to her.
“I didn’t know how it worked,” she murmured, her mouth suddenly dry. “I wasn’t sure you’d hear me.”
“Of course I heard you. You were yelling loud enough to wake the dead. No pun intended.”
She didn’t smile. “Gaylen. Do you know where he is?”
He shook his head. “Not at the moment. Did something happen?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “My patient. Mr. Neufeld. I think Gaylen...killed him.”
Dimitri reached a hand out as if to take hold of her arm. Although he couldn’t physically touch her, somehow it seemed as though he did. His hand hovered near her elbow, and she let him lead her to one of the visitor’s chairs. When she was seated, he took the other chair. Leaning forward, he rested his clasped hands between his knees.
“Tell me what happened.” His voice was low, mesmerizing...soothing. Not what one would expect from a dealer of death.
“Mr. Neufeld was scheduled for gall bladder surgery tomorrow. Nothing life threatening. I was with him only moments before, and he was fine. Then...” She looked down to where her hands rubbed back and forth over her thighs. “I saw Gaylen. Outside my patient’s room. He went in. Walked right through the door. By the time I got to him...”
“The man was dead.”
She lifted her head and nodded. “Gaylen was standing there, looking...satisfied, happy even. He killed him, didn’t he?”
Dimitri sighed and unclasped his hands. Resting an elbow on the arm of the chair, he rubbed his temple. “It seems so. I should have been there. I didn’t know.”
“You could have stopped him if you’d been there?” He nodded. “Then why weren’t you? Can’t you just follow him around? Make sure he doesn’t do things like this?”
He grinned, dimples appearing briefly. “I can’t just follow him around. For one, I have duties to perform. For another, I don’t always know when he’s up to his...shenanigans. Occasionally, I get a feeling...a premonition of sorts. Sometimes, I arrive just a few seconds behind, like at the mall, too late to stop him. There are times when I arrive ahead of him. In that case, he can’t do anything, because another reaper is already there. But it’s all just random and luck and timing. No pattern, no rules to follow, nothing I can do to ensure he doesn’t continue taking souls before their time.”
She wasn’t entirely convinced he spoke the truth. Dimitri was a reaper, too. He took lives, just like Gaylen. But there was something different about Gaylen. He seemed to delight in what he did. Then again, maybe Dimitri did, too, but he was just better at hiding it.
“So, you get a sense when people are in jeopardy, and sometimes it’s their time, but sometimes it’s not? If it’s not their time, you won’t take them, but Gaylen will? If, however, their number’s up, you have no qualms about ripping their souls from their bodies?”
His expression darkened. He sat forward so quickly, she thought he was going to lunge at her. She gasped and drew back.
“I told you. It’s my job. I do what I’m here to do. If you refuse to understand, I can’t make you.” He stood. “I’ll leave you to your duties, as I must attend to mine. You should be aware that I won’t always be around when you’re in trouble. You can’t just fetch me any time you please.”
She rose to her feet, keeping a non-electricity inducing distance between them. “But you came.”
“Not because you called. I was in the vicinity.” Another grin crossed his face, this one wicked. “You know, the job and all.”
She didn’t respond.
“Hey,” He lifted his hands and shrugged. “It’s what I do, right? Soul stealer extraordinaire. What can I say?”
He tipped his upper body slightly toward her in a mock bow and headed toward the wall.
He was leaving. By the same method Gaylen had used in Mr. Neufeld’s room.
Walking through walls.
Shit.
Was this really her world now?
“Dimitri?”
He paused, his shoulders squaring, but didn’t turn around.
“I hate death.”
He faced her, crossing his arms, his expression now amused instead of angry. “Not many humans list it on their top ten favorite things. It’s one of those inconvenient realities of life. Everyone dies, Audra.”
“I know. But I mean, since I was a little girl, I’ve hated death. Really hated it. Wanted to understand it, but at the same time, wanted to stop it. I’ve fought it my entire adult life.”
“Hence your profession.”
She nodded, staring down at the floor before raising her gaze to his. “When I was three, my mother died. She and I were alone in a cabin—we fled there when my father threatened to kill us—and my mother became ill.”
Her mind went back to that time. Her mother lying on the floor...Audra shaking her shoulder, trying to wake her...crying when she wouldn’t respond...begging,
Mommy, please. Please wake up!
Some of the memories were fuzzy, but the feeling was as crystal-clear as if it were happening now. Tears rose in her throat. She swallowed them back, but her voice was still hoarse when she continued. “I was in the cabin with her dead body for three days before we were found. I didn’t really know what was happening, but I knew my mother was gone and would never come back.”
Dimitri’s eyes narrowed, became glittering slits between dark lashes. “I’m sorry. That must have been horrible.”
“
Death
is horrible,” she said quietly. “So I hope you’ll understand why I don’t think much of your
duty
. Why—whether it’s Gaylen, you, or some other reaper I’ve yet to meet—death is death. And it sucks.”
She didn’t wait for a response. She walked out of the room, not bothering to watch him fade through the wall. She’d been away too long. If she wasn’t careful, the staff would think she was up to no good. Maybe killing another one of her patients.
Who else could they blame?
Because, she couldn’t tell anyone the truth. Couldn’t tell them her life had been invaded by a couple of Grim Reapers whose sole purpose was to create havoc, end lives, devastate those left behind as they barreled through the world, carrying out their lethal tasks—minus the black robe and scythe—but just as chillingly evil.
~*~
Audra had never needed a drink more than she did after work that night. Between the paperwork, the interview with Mary Lou, and speaking to Mr. Neufeld’s family, her shift ended much later than planned. Finally, she was free to leave the hospital. She headed straight to the bar down the street.
The Red Door was crowded, mostly with hospital employees. She should have chosen a different place. Somewhere she wouldn’t be known. So she could drink in peace.
She settled wearily onto a barstool. “Hey, Ron. Can I get a Chardonnay?”
“Sure,” he said, congenially enough, but his face was set in forbidding lines. He didn’t offer his usual friendly smile.
“You okay?” she asked.
His eyes locked onto hers, and he smirked. “Finally, someone is asking me. You know, it never seems to occur to people that bartenders might have problems, too.”
The anger in his tone unnerved her. There was something a little off about his expression. A faraway light in his eyes. A
creepy
light. She shivered.
“I’m sorry,” she said. He set the glass in front of her, and she took a grateful sip of the wine. “If you want to talk about it, I’ll listen.”
“Nah. It’s okay. You wouldn’t understand. You seem troubled, though. Why don’t you tell me what’s got you so upset?”
She shrugged. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
“Ah, come on. Tell the bartender your problems.” He backed away and spread his arms wide, as if in invitation, his voice rising to a shout. “After all, I’m just one big, fucking cliché.”
She glanced over her shoulder. A few puzzled looks were cast their way, but Mariah Carey bellowing from the jukebox mostly drowned out his words.
As Audra was about to turn back around, she spotted a young girl sitting at a table alone. A
very
young girl. She considered telling Ron, but the mood he was in, he might rough the child up for daring to enter his bar underage.
The waitress, Shanda, came over and cast a worried glance at Ron. Shanda was tall and lithe, with dirty-blonde corn rolls and piercings in her lip, eyebrow, and tongue. She also had large breasts and emerald green eyes and somehow made the whole ‘look’ work.
“I’m sorry,” she said to Audra. “Was he an asshole to you?”
“He wasn’t his usual jovial self.”
“It’s my fault. We were seeing each other. I dumped him.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. Working together now is a real treat.”
“He doesn’t seem to be taking it very well.”
Shanda gathered empty glasses in her fingers and tiptoed to set them on the sink behind the bar. “Didn’t help matters that the guy I’m seeing is a doctor. Ron thinks I dumped him because my new guy is successful, and he’s just a lowly bartender.” She called out, “Two drafts and a whiskey sour,” then grinned at Audra. “Truth is. My new guy is hung like a friggin’ stallion.”
Audra managed a grin. She peeked back over her shoulder at the teen who sat sipping on a straw from a glass of something that didn’t look like fruit juice. Why had Shanda served her? Maybe she and Ron were too wrapped up in their
Young and Restless
drama to pay attention.
Ron slammed the glasses on Shanda’s tray. She grimaced before picking up the drinks and disappearing in the crowd.
Audra slid from the barstool and headed to the girl’s table.
“Hi,” Audra said.
The girl lifted her head. “Hey.”
Smooth skin, blonde hair with fuchsia highlights, large, round blue eyes. Pretty. And young, just as Audra suspected. No more than sixteen or seventeen.
Audra lowered into the chair across from her. “How old are you?” she said in a loud whisper.
“Seventeen. You?”
Audra ignored the question. “How did you get in here? How did you get that drink?”
The girl shrugged. “People don’t pay much attention to me.”
“Maybe not yet, but they’ll notice, and you’ll be in all kinds of trouble.” Audra glanced around the bar. “Not to mention the likelihood that one of these guys will take advantage of you. What’s your name?”
“Cassie.”
“Cassie, I’m Audra. You really need to get out of here, need to go home. I don’t want you leaving on your own. Tell me where you live, and I’ll take you.”
At her hesitation, Audra pulled out her hospital ID. “I’m a nurse. I work at St Anne’s, just down the street. You’re safe with me. I just don’t want to see you hurt or in trouble.”