Authors: Alicia Dean
“I’m not really interested in gossip.”
That wasn’t entirely true. She’d been sucked in by gossip about others before; she just didn’t want to hear it about herself.
“Sorry. Won’t say another word.” He ate a few more forkfuls and shook his head, pointing across the room with his fork again. Audra twisted in her seat to find Mary Lou a few tables away. “Man, Nurse Ratched is still busting my balls. Every day.”
“Maybe you should slow down and try to stop forgetting things,” Audra advised gently. “We have people’s lives in our hands. She’s just doing her job.”
“Look at her,” he went on like he hadn’t heard her. “Bet she’s showing a picture of that daughter she’s so proud of. All she talks about. She think anybody cares her kid’s a cheerleader?”
Audra grinned. She had to agree with him on that one. Camellia was all the woman talked about, when she wasn’t ‘busting someone’s balls.’
“
Head
cheerleader,” Audra corrected, and Wilton’s mouth split in a smile. Bits of spaghetti clung to his teeth. She pushed her plate away. The man was not the most charming lunch companion.
Audra was about to excuse herself when Jaxon walked over, sliding into the seat next to her.
He jerked his head toward Wilton. “Hey, buddy, you have spaghetti on your teeth.”
Wilton’s chubby face flushed, and he scrubbed at his teeth with his forefinger.
Scowling, he shoveled in the rest of his food and stood. “See ya later, Audra. Doctor Maroney.”
Audra turned to Jaxon as Wilton weaved his way through the tables and out the door. “That was kind of mean.”
“Yeah. Got rid of him, didn’t it? You’re welcome.”
She bumped him with her shoulder. “Thanks.”
He narrowed his gaze on her. “You okay? You look exhausted.”
“Rough night.”
A wicked light danced in his brown eyes. “You and Marshall Dillon?”
She shoulder-bumped him again. “Stop calling him that, and no. Well...yes.”
His eyebrows rose. “Really? I thought I was kidding.”
“It’s not what you think. Maria came to my house last night.” She glanced around to make sure the gossip mongers were not in earshot. “Scott beat her up again.”
“Asshole,” Jaxon bit out.
“Tell me about it. I called Shane. While we were waiting for him, Scott and his nephew showed up to force Maria to come with him.”
Jaxon scrutinized her closely. “Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head. “Other way around.”
“You hurt him?”
“Yeah. Poker to the head. He was coming after me.”
“
Damn
, girl.”
Audra narrowed her eyes. “You sounded just a tiny bit gay when you said that. Rare for you.”
Now he shoulder-bumped her. “Back to your story. So, did Shane arrest him?”
“No. Scott left before Shane got there. We took Maria to where her kids are staying. Then I went to the station with Shane. Filled out reports, answered a bunch of questions, ended up spending the night there, or what was left of it.”
“Romantic.”
Kind of
, she almost said. Shane had treated her like she was made of glass. Well, not the kind that was shattered all over her living room floor, more like one of those blown glass figurines that had to be handled with special care.
Jaxon took a bite of his burger and, unlike Wilton, waited to swallow before he spoke. “So, are they going to arrest the asshole or what?”
Audra debated telling him about Scott’s involvement in her attack, but thought better of it. He would be enraged and frustrated that he couldn’t do anything about it. It would come out soon enough, once Scott was finally caught. “The police are looking for him. He’s on the run.”
“Good riddance.”
“Yeah. As long as he doesn’t find Maria and the kids.”
“Or come back and hurt you. Maybe the sheriff should put a police detail on you. You know, just to make sure you’re safe.” He winked. “Bet he’d volunteer himself.”
“You sure are pushing this me and Shane thing. What gives?”
Seriousness replaced his amused expression. “I don’t know. I just think you two would be good together.”
“We haven’t seen one another in years. We had a mild high school thing that didn’t last. Not what you’d call a classic love story.”
“You know, I was an ass for letting you choose me back then.”
“You didn’t
let
me. I just chose you.”
“I was selfish. Because of me, you lost a chance at something real.”
She saw true anguish in his face, true regret. She put a hand over his. “It’s okay, really. My choice. I wouldn’t change things.”
“I would. I wouldn’t have been such a dick.”
She squeezed his hand before releasing it. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Jaxon. That’s not the only reason you’re a dick.”
He chuckled. “Thanks. You always know how to make me feel better.”
She looked at the clock on the cafeteria wall. “Break’s over. I’d better go check on Trevor.” She slid from her seat. “See ya.”
On the elevator ride, she thought of Shane. Could they have something together? Was she even interested in finding out?
She liked him. A lot. Liked the way he was so caring, yet macho at the same time. Sort of like a mix between Mother Teresa and John Wayne. And, he was not at all hard to look at. Big, manly, strong...those sexy laugh lines around his dark brown eyes.
Another pair of eyes flashed in her mind. Blue. Deep blue and ever changing, like a tumultuous sea in a raging storm. A shiver ran through her.
Get Dimitri out of your mind
.
She had to stop thinking about him, stop recalling that odd, shivery, cool spark that somehow made her feel warm and tingly...
Stop it!
She shook her head to clear it.
When the elevator doors opened, she stepped off, stopping by the desk to pick up Trevor’s chart, perusing it for changes as she made her way down the hall.
She looked up from the chart as she entered the room. At first, her mind didn’t quite process what she was seeing. He’d been in her thoughts only seconds before, and now, he was standing in Trevor’s room.
How could that be?
Why
would that be?
And, worse, Gaylen stood next to him. Dimitri’s expression was fierce, angry. Gaylen’s looked like someone who’d won the lottery.
Cold wind chilled her insides, and dread settled in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t want to, but she turned to look at Trevor. He was slumped in the bed, jaw slack, eyes staring.
She let out a wail and rushed over to his side. “Trevor!” She punched the emergency button and pressed her fingers to his wrist, then to his neck.
Over her shoulder, she glared at Dimitri and Gaylen. “What have you done?” she screamed, not caring if anyone heard. “What in God’s name have you done?
As Audra trudged down the hospital corridor, voices around her surged and faded. The people she passed seemed to look at her differently. As if she knew something. As if she was part of this. As if she had seen the monsters who’d taken Trevor.
Somewhere in the hubbub of the code team trying to save the boy’s life, of trying to undo what
they’d
done, the reapers had disappeared. Good. She didn’t want to look at them. Not ever.
Like she had a choice.
She snorted a laugh, drawing the attention of an orderly passing by. He gave her a puzzled look. Before this was all over, she’d surely be committed.
A sound like the howl of a wounded beast rose. At the end of the hallway, near the nurses’ station, Dr. Blasingame, Trevor’s doctor, was speaking to Cheryl. She gripped the doctor’s arms, shaking her head over and over. Her mouth moved, but Audra couldn’t make out what she was saying. She could guess, though.
Please, no, it can’t be true. My baby can’t be dead. Oh, God, please...
Audra changed her course, heading toward the elevator, her goal the exit door at the back of the hospital. She needed some air. Needed to get away from pain and death and doom.
“Audra?” The word came out as a choked wail, a blend of shattered hope and disbelief.
She drew in a breath and turned. Cheryl approached, quickly, unsteadily. Her face was a tortured mask—mascara smeared, the flesh of her cheeks quivering, her eyes a window of despair.
“Cheryl, I’m sorry,” Audra whispered.
“What happened? I don’t understand. I just went down to get a cup of coffee. He was fine.” She brushed a hand across her face, then held it out in front of her, let it hang there for a moment as if unsure what to do with it, then let it drop. “He was fine when I left him. What happened?”
Audra opened her mouth to answer, although she wasn’t sure exactly what to say.
Cheryl didn’t give her the opportunity. “I shouldn’t have left him. I’m his mother, and I shouldn’t have left him. He was all alone.” A noise similar to the one she made earlier exploded from her. “Oh God, my baby died all alone, and now I’ll never see him again.”
She sagged, and Audra grabbed her shoulders, helping steady her as she led her to a nearby chair. “Here, sit. Let me get you some water.”
Audra looked toward the nurse’s station and caught Tonya’s eye, then made a drinking motion with her hand to her mouth. Tonya nodded.
“I’m so sorry,” Audra said gently. “He was a great kid. I can’t imagine how you must be feeling.”
Tonya brought a cup of water and Audra pressed it into Cheryl’s hands. She lifted it to her lips, then paused, looking up at Audra. “Wait. He wasn’t alone.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Dear God, had she seen the reapers? Did she know what happened?
“You were there. You were there with my Trevor when he died.”
Audra’s heart seized. She’d been there all right. And hadn’t been able to help him. She’d perhaps been the cause of it, although she wasn’t sure how this whole soul-taking thing worked. Had they done it to punish her, to send her a message, to impress her? What?
Her insides trembled. This was all too fantastic, too beyond the scope of reality. She needed air.
“I’m sorry, but I wasn’t. Trevor was already...gone by the time I got there. We still tried to save him, but it was too late.”
Cheryl might have said more, but her family arrived, and Audra slipped away as they surrounded her, hugging, consoling, offering useless words that brought no comfort.
At the end of the day, her son was still dead.
Audra rode the elevator down, then headed to the exit. The door opened onto a railed sidewalk, which led to a delivery bay. No one ever came out here. She would be alone.
The night was quiet. Peaceful. The full moon hovered in the evening sky, its brilliant glow putting the streetlights to shame. A beautiful evening. The kind Trevor would never be able to enjoy again.
She gripped the cold railing and finally allowed herself to cry. Sobs poured from her body, hurting her chest and straining her throat. Poor, young, funny Trevor. His life cut short. His dream of football and girls crushed. His family left with an empty hole that would now be filled with a lifetime of grief.
“I apologize.”
She gasped and whirled to find Dimitri standing behind her. Her pulse jumped, and it took a moment to get her breathing under control. The fear quickly turned to anger.
“You apologize?” she choked, brushing furiously at the tears on her face. “You just killed a seventeen-year-old boy, a kid I was responsible for helping heal, and you
apologize
?”
“I didn’t take him.”
“Bullshit. You were there. I saw you.” She barked out a laugh. “
Take
. That’s sort of a benign word for what you and your psychotic buddy do, isn’t it? Maybe I can help you come up with something more fitting. How about execute, annihilate, slaughter? Wouldn’t one of those be more accurate?”
“It wasn’t me. It was Gaylen. I didn’t get there in time to stop him.”
She brought her hands up and clasped them over her ears like a child. “I don’t want to hear it. Don’t care. You’re both evil. I shouldn’t even know you exist, let alone be seeing you, conversing with you. Can’t you just go away and leave me alone?”
“I’m sorry. Now that you can see us, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t make you
un
see us.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and turned her back to him, speaking over her shoulder. “You’re not here to reap right now, are you? I mean, unless you’re going to take me. So what the hell are you doing here? Can’t we leave it to where I only have to see you when you arrive to do your dirty work?”
“We could. Or when I arrive to stop Gaylen.”
“How do I even know you’re telling the truth? How do I know Gaylen is the one who took Trevor? The evil one who takes people before their time? Maybe you both do it.”
She didn’t hear him move, but she felt that chill of electricity on her back. She straightened, her body tensing.
“Look at me,” he said softly.
She hesitated before slowly turning to meet his eyes. They were even more vivid than she remembered. The moonlight made tiny little moonbeams dance in the blue irises. She drew in a shaky breath.
“Audra, I didn’t take him.”
Incredibly, she realized she was starting to believe him. Was this some kind of reaper trick? Could he get inside her mind and influence her thinking? Because, beyond all rational thought, she actually believed he was sincere. She had a certainty that, in spite of what he was, he wasn’t lying to her.
“I don’t...I just can’t...” She shook her head, suddenly aware of how cold it was outside. She hadn’t brought a jacket, and the wind nipped at her flesh. She hugged her arms around her body and shivered.
“You’re cold.” He grinned sheepishly. “Wish I could give you my jacket.”
She frowned up at him. “So, how does that work? You’re not solid. I can’t touch you. You float around Earth like some kind of ghost, yet you appear solid, like a living being.” She pointed toward his jacket. “You obviously change clothes. I assume you shower? Eat?”
He chuckled. “You need to go inside. You’ll catch your death.”
She gave him a sharp look. “My
death
?”
He lifted his hands. “I meant that figuratively. Sorry.”
“I want to know. If reapers are going to be hovering around all the time, screwing with my life, I want to know how it all works.”
He sighed. “There’s so much to explain. A lot to it that I’m not up to going into and I don’t think you’re up to hearing right now.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and cocked his head. “Let’s just say reapers exist almost like humans, but on our own plane. We’re among you. Walking, eating, making love—” His eyes locked on hers, and a trill of warmth rushed through her that she tried to ignore. “We can’t feel things on the same level, but in our own plane of existence, we experience many of the things humans do.”
“Where do you live? Do you have your own reaper houses that we can’t see?”
His lips twisted. “We occupy homes that are currently unoccupied for one reason or another. The owners could be away on a trip, the house could be empty, on the market, but those kind of suck because they typically aren’t furnished.”
“So you use the occupants’ things? How can you use objects when you’re not even solid?”
Why was she asking such inane questions? Maybe it was to keep her mind off what had just happened, what he really was. Besides, truth be told, she was curious as hell.
“We use their furniture, some of their items, but bring our own clothes, personal belongings. We can make contact with objects, just not people. Part of the whole plan to keep our overlapping worlds apart to some degree.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Is this really what you want to be talking about? Do you really want to hear the mundane details of the life of a reaper?”
“No. I really want to know why you took Trevor. Was it really his time? He’d just fallen ill again. We could have helped him. We’ve fought the cancer before.”
“Come on, Audra. You’re too intelligent to continue asking a question to which you’re getting the same reply. For the last time, I didn’t take him.”
“But you would have, if it had been his time.”
He tilted his head forward and shrugged. “Sure. That’s my job.”
“Well, your job sucks, and I want nothing to do with you.”
“You’re judgmental.”
“I’m what?”
“Judgmental. You criticize, berate me for what I do—which follows the natural order of life and death—yet you work so hard to save people, even when doing so will only prolong their suffering. Rather than letting them go, where they’re free of pain and misery, free of suffering, you struggle to save them. Are you any better than I am?”
“Are you serious? Did you really just ask me if I’m better than a
reaper
?” She shook her head. “You rip peoples’ souls from their bodies. Take lives.
I
try to save them.”
“Right. You fight to save people and doom them to a life of pain, dependence on others, lost dignity. What’s so much worse about death?”
“I can’t believe you expect me to answer that.”
“And what about you, Audra? What about your own life? Is this what you had in mind for your future?” His lips twisted. “Working, having friends, but no one special to love...to love you. Borrowing someone else’s kid since you have none of your own? You’re so afraid of death you never learned how to live.”
Each word was like an arrow to her gut. She didn’t know how this...this monster had the power to hurt her, but he did.
“I guess you know all that because you’re some kind of sick, twisted, supernatural psychotic stalker, right?” Her voice shook with tears and rage. “Well, you know what, Dimitri? Fuck you and your reaper world.” She brushed past him, although she supposed she could have walked right through him.
“Audra, wait.”
“Go to hell, Dimitri. Don’t come near me again.”
“I can’t make that promise, Audra.” His voice carried to her on the chilly night air, but she didn’t turn back. “You work around humans in peril. You’ll be seeing a lot more of me.”
~*~
Dimitri lounged in the easy chair, his ankle crossed over the opposite knee.
Another rented room. The guy had to spend a fortune in motel bills. He watched as the man leaned into the mirror, carefully peeling the beard from his face. Odd. Normally, he left still wearing the disguise.
He halted before completing the task, the fake hair hanging half off his face, and clutched his chest. Ah. That must be the reason. He wasn’t feeling well. Maybe he worried he’d end up in the hospital and would have a lot of explaining to do if he didn’t get rid of the beard.
“Damn. You’re here.”
Dimitri flicked a glance over his shoulder. “Gaylen. I wondered if you’d show up.”
Gaylen gestured to the body on the bed. “You already take care of her?”
“Cassie did. Her first time to fly solo. I just observed.”
“How did she do?”
“She did well. Got a little emotional for a second. Hesitated like she could keep the girl alive if she didn’t reap her. But she recovered quickly.”
“So, she’s a full-fledged reaper. Hard to believe that little slip of a girl can stop me from taking souls now.
If
she happens to arrive first.” He cocked a grin. “She doesn’t have the instinct you do, so I’m probably safe from her for the most part.”
“Don’t underestimate her.”
Dimitri’s attention was drawn once more to the killer, who was now gasping audibly, fumbling through his pants pockets. He pulled out a pill bottle.
“The guy’s ripe for the picking,” Gaylen said. “Thanks for hanging around to spoil my fun.”
“Why don’t you go reap someone who’s ready?”