Grim Life: A reaper's tale (Reaper Files Book 2) Read online

“I should be taking you out,” I said.

  “Great,” he said, taking his cup from the barista. He handed me mine and smiled. “It’s a date.”

  A date?

  I let that sink in as we returned to the table. In my eighteen years, I had had a dismal love life. And now I had a date with Dane. He was the trifecta of guys. Athletic, cute, and nice.

  Considering I had face-planted into the mud earlier, this day was turning out rather well.

  But if Chloe found out, I’d be the target of every insult she slung. Was Dane worth it?

  And what about my feelings for Lawson?

  I shook my head. I was just a trainee to Lawson. He was the dream that would never come true.

  3

  “I can’t believe you kissed Dane,” Larue said with a squeal the next day when we walked to the cafeteria for lunch. She had squealed a lot about it since yesterday. One would think she had kissed Dane with the way she kept bringing it up. But I knew she brought it up because it meant there could be a future double date.

  “Well?” she asked. “He had said something to you after. What was it?”

  “He asked me out on a date.”

  Larue squealed again, squeezing her books into a bear hug. “This is so great,” she said. “I’m dating Finn, and you’ll date Dane. Best friends dating best friends.”

  “Don’t get carried away,” I said. “It’s only one date. You know I can’t get serious with anyone.”

  She looked questioningly at me, and then her mouth opened. “Oh, because of the dead people thing. But it’s not like we’re looking for happily ever after.” She frowned. “I don’t think Finn and I are going to the same college.”

  “And I’m not going to college,” I said.

  “I think you should,” Larue said.

  “The whole reason to go to college is to get a good job. I already have a job, and there’s no advancement or retirement.”

  “What about pay?” she asked.

  “As far as I know, we don’t get paid,” I said. “But I will get my own place in the dead zone.”

  Larue wrinkled her nose. “I hate that name.”

  “Well, that’s not the official name, but it’s what everyone calls it.”

  “It’s depressing.”

  “So is death.”

  “Let’s change the subject,” she said. “What are you going to wear on your date?”

  “Clothes.”

  She rolled her eyes. “We’re going shopping after school.”

  “I have about ten dollars to my name.”

  “We’ll look at the clearance rack. There’s got to be something.”

  Shopping clearance aisles with Larue was not high on my priority list, but she wasn’t about to let me weasel out of it . . . unless someone died and I had to “work.”

  I could fake a death. She’d never know.

  But that would still leave me without anything to wear for my date.

  My stomach lurched.

  We sat down at our usual table. As Larue launched into her list of homework she needed to do, I let my mind wander.

  Life almost seemed like it was getting back to normal after the incidents with Azrael, but I knew it wasn’t. It was like the ominous quiet before the storm. I had a bad feeling my luck wouldn’t hold out for long.

  And then Boomer appeared next to me. “Time to go.”

  “I have three more hours of school,” I said.

  “Duh,” Larue said.

  “No, Boomer is here,” I explained.

  “Where?” she asked.

  “To the right of me.” I looked at him. “I can’t go.”

  “There’s been a major incident,” he said. “Lawson said to get you. We need as many reapers on this as possible.”

  I stood. “Larue, I’ll be back when I can. Cover for me.”

  “Cover for you?” she questioned. “How?”

  I walked out of the cafeteria and glanced around to make sure I wasn’t being watched before I shielded myself. Boomer grabbed my hand and we shifted.

  As I looked out over the chaos, I realized this was no ordinary incident. Madness was not a strong enough word to describe it. Was it a bombing? There were so many people in the town square, some clearly injured, some clearly dead. Spirits and reapers scattered everywhere. Blood soaked the scorched earth. Humble dwellings crumbled in the backdrop. Where were we?

  “Hurry,” he said, grabbing the first soul and shifting.

  There was a man up ahead. I raced to him and grabbed his arm. He tugged away with a curse. “You can see me?”

  “You’re a reaper?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Who the hell are you?”

  “Very sorry,” I said, heading toward a woman instead. It was hard to tell souls and reapers apart, especially with so many crowded together. The energy that radiated from reapers looked the same as the energies of souls. But at least I knew women were a safe bet since I was the only female reaper.

  I touched her shoulder. She looked at me. “Where’s my baby?”

  “Baby?”

  “I can’t find him.” She looked around her frantically. “Where is he?”

  “Just take her,” Boomer yelled as he returned only to then grab another soul and disappear.

  “No,” she said. “My baby!”

  She shook out of my grasp and fled into the crowd. I followed her and stopped when she reached the center of the square, where a majority of the bloodied and mangled bodies were strewn along the ground. A burning car sat in the middle.

  Car bomb.

  “My baby!” the woman cried, falling to her knees as she looked upon herself holding a bundle. I could see the barest light of energy pulsing from the bundle. A soul was there.

  I saw a reaper about to touch her, and I hurried to intervene. “I got this,” I said.

  He glanced at me. “The new reaper?”

  I nodded. “I want this one.”

  He shrugged. “Whatever.”

  Bending down, I coaxed the energy out of the blood-soaked bundle. A baby emerged.

  The woman cried, and I had a hell of a time keeping my cool. I handed her the baby’s soul and then shifted both of them to the transition room to wait in line. When it was our turn, I rang the bell on the desk. The door ahead of us opened, and we stepped in front of the keeper.

  “Door three,” he said, not even looking at us. He just continued to type on his typewriter.

  I led the woman to the door and opened it for her. She hugged her baby to her and stepped through. The bright light swallowed them, and I shut the door and returned to the chaos.

  As I worked, I tried not to think too much about what had happened or who I was taking to be transitioned. I just moved one soul after another. Reapers came and went. Slowly, the chaos died down to a few stragglers and the emergency crews. I kept my eyes focused on the souls and not the dismembered bodies that littered the ground.

  I found another woman and brought her to the transitioning room. She didn’t say anything, just followed my lead.

  Everyone seemed to have a different reaction to death. Some were accepting, some revolted, and some were in quiet shock.

  Stuck in line again, I glanced around at the other reapers. A few gave me curious glances, just as I was probably doing to them.

  “You’re the girl reaper,” the guy behind me said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Heard some stories about you,” he said.

  I turned to look at him. “Like what?”

  He didn’t say anything at first, just eyed me. When I turned to face the front again, he said, “You sleeping with the boss? He somehow made you a reaper.”

  “The boss?” Was he talking about Lawson? Lawson was a controller, kind of like a supervisor.

  “Azrael.”

  “Ew,” I said, turning back to look at him. “No.”

  “Then how come there’s never been a girl reaper?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m not sleeping with Azrael,” I said with an uncontr
ollable shudder.

  His eyes narrowed as if trying to figure out if I was telling the truth. I guess there were bound to be rumors about me. It was to be expected since nothing about me being a reaper made sense to those who didn’t know the full story. But why does it have to be a woman sleeping with a man to get ahead? I didn’t have to sleep with anyone for this nightmare.

  It was my turn to walk through to the keeper. Again, he never looked up. “Door three.”

  I wondered why it was always door three. Why not the rest of the doors that lined the endless hallway?

  I opened the door and looked away from the light as she crossed through.

  When I returned to the bomb site, I didn’t see any more souls. Just empty shells. It was the first time I was really able to look at where I was. This was a dusty, war-torn country. Judging from the surrounding buildings reduced to rubble, this hadn’t been the first bomb.

  Military vehicles rumbled down the road, heading for the city center. I guessed the reapers were done. I shifted back to school, wondering how much I had missed. I couldn’t have been gone for more than a half hour. But when I got there, the hallways and classrooms were empty.

  I glanced at the time on my phone. I had missed my last two classes.

  With a weary sigh, I shifted to my porch, wondering how I was going to explain my absence to Mom. I was sure the office had already notified her.

  Hoping for the best, I walked in as if nothing had happened and headed to the kitchen. After missing lunch, I was starving.

  I knew something was off as soon as I walked in and heard Mom giggle. She moved away from the kitchen table, revealing Ranger, who was sitting on one of the chairs.

  He simply smiled at me, which made me very suspicious. He had been MIA for days. Now he was back, and my mom was giggling.

  I sat down across from him and crossed my arms.

  “Heard you had a busy day,” Ranger said conversationally.

  Mom glanced over at me. “Oh, Riley. Good. You’re home. Mr. Ranger is staying for dinner tonight.”

  “Great,” I muttered, still eyeing him.

  The problem with Ranger was that he was a cambion: half human, half demon. And my mom liked him, causing strange giggling sounds to come from her. And while Ranger was decent, I didn’t want her to get hurt.

  Ranger would never be able to grow old with her. He would have to leave her at some point. She had already lost David’s dad. And Azrael had walked out on her before she even knew she was pregnant with me. I didn’t want Ranger to get cozy here and then leave her as well.

  “What did you do today that made you so busy?” she asked, grabbing a mixing bowl from the cupboard.

  “A few tests.” It was sort of a lie. Taking a woman and her baby to transition was definitely a test. One that I didn’t want to pass but had no choice. I didn’t think I’d ever get the image of her frantic search for her child out of my mind.

  “Do you think you did well?” she asked.

  “I did okay.”

  “What subject?” she asked.

  “World studies,” I said, wanting to groan as my lies compounded. I didn’t even have a class in world studies, but it didn’t feel right to say math.

  Ranger gave me a wink as I grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and headed out of the kitchen before she could ask me anything else. I then headed to my bedroom to flop onto my bed with my legs propped up on the wall.

  Staring at the ceiling, I tried to think of anything except the bombing. But flashes of the scene replayed in my mind. It was disturbing, and my eyes welled up with tears. It was inconceivable how horrible humans could be to each other.

  Dead people.

  Dead children.

  Dead babies.

  There was too much death in the world. And if I was already maxed out, how would I survive being a full-time reaper?

  4

  The rest of the week passed without incident. I wasn’t called to any more death scenes, and I never once felt the pull in my own town, which meant the Cloverfield population was still accounted for. It was Friday after school, and Larue couldn’t stop chattering about my date with Dane.

  “You’re making me nervous,” I said, eyeing the outfit Larue had picked out and draped on my bed.

  “You shouldn’t be nervous,” she said. “Dane is super nice.”

  “I know,” I said.

  “And it’s just a date. You kind of nearly had one of those at his party.”

  And then I had punched him and fled.

  “And, if you start dating Dane, then we can go on double dates.”

  “This. This is how you’re making me nervous,” I said. “It’s too much pressure.”

  “Don’t be silly. He likes you. You have nothing to worry about. Get dressed,” she said. “You’re wasting time.”

  “He won’t be here for an hour.”

  “We still have to do your hair and makeup,” she said.

  I glanced at myself in the full-length mirror hung on the back of my door. I was comfortable with my jeans and plain brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. I was comfortable blending in. But, maybe for once in my life, I could step out of my comfort zone. I was already outside of it just by being a reaper.

  I could do this.

  I stared at the menu, trying to keep my cool. It wasn’t like Dane and I were at some fancy, white-tableclothed restaurant. We were at the local pizza place surrounded by a dozen other students I recognized. Thankfully, I didn’t see Chloe.

  Dane and I had a table off to the side, and I did my best to ignore the rest of the customers.

  “Do you want pizza or something else?” he asked, placing his menu back into the holder.

  “Pizza is fine.” Although I did like the lasagna here.

  “What’s your favorite topping?” he asked.

  “Pepperoni and olives. But I’m not picky. My brother likes bacon and pineapple. And my mom likes spinach and feta. So, I take whatever is around. What’s your favorite?”

  “Sausage and onions. What if we do half and half?”

  I nodded and put my menu into the holder with his. “Sounds good.”

  I glanced at him, our eyes catching. Normally, I didn’t have a hard time keeping eye contact with people. And before tonight, I could hold eye contact with Dane as long as Chloe wasn’t making me run away. But something had changed. The shy awkwardness I was feeling was overwhelming, and I looked away.

  “You look pretty,” he said.

  I hazarded a peek at him to see if he was serious. He was.

  “Thank you,” I said. “Larue fussed over me for an entire hour.”

  “You’re pretty without Larue’s help too,” he said with a smile that caused tingles.

  “Thank you,” I said again, not knowing how else to respond.

  “Ugh! This is the most boring date ever!” Boomer sat next to me in the booth.

  I ignored him, which was quite difficult since he was crowding my space.

  A server stopped by the table, and Dane ordered the pizza.

  “Lawson told me to check on you,” Boomer said. “Thought you might have issues after the bomb site. You seem fine.”

  I gave a slight nod as if I was agreeing to the order.

  Boomer eyed Dane. “So, you got a thing for this guy?”

  I pretended to stretch and elbowed Boomer. He groaned at the jab.

  “Sensitive,” he said. “Fine. I can take a hint. You and jock boy have fun. Just not too much fun. Just ’cuz you’re a reaper doesn't mean you can’t get pregnant. At least I think you can. I mean, if I’m not careful, I could knock up a girl. So, I assume the same applies to you in reverse.”

  I went to stretch again, and Boomer jumped out of the booth. “I’m going. But watch yourself. Guys like him are used to girls being easy. Oh, and Lawson wants to see you. Said he has information.”

  Boomer shifted, and I was once again left alone with Dane. But now I could only think about the information Lawson had. What could it be? I�
��d check in with him later. Right now, I had to get through a date.

  “What are you into besides football?” I asked. “I know you said you like movies.”

  I could do this. It was just two people sharing a pizza. Nothing to be shy or awkward about.

  “Slumming it, Dane?” Chloe asked as she appeared at our table.

  I wanted to groan. I was cornered in a booth and couldn’t escape. She eyed me like one of Azrael’s venomous snakes.

  Dane leaned back and turned his gaze to Chloe. “What do you want, Chloe?”

  “Thought you might need to be rescued,” she said.

  “I don’t. I’ll see you tomorrow at practice.” He dismissed her.

  Chloe glared at me before turning back to Dane with her batting eyelashes. “Careful, Dane. You might need rabies shots if you hang out with her.” Chloe glared at me again and then walked away in a huff.

  “Don’t mind her,” Dane said. “She’s just mad.”

  “About what?” I asked, though I suspected it was just the simple fact that I was on a date with Dane.

  He shook his head. “Nothing important.”

  But I had a feeling that while he might not consider it important, Chloe did. And it wouldn’t be the last I’d hear from her.

  As soon as Dane dropped me off at home, I said hello to my mom, ignoring the fact that Ranger was sitting on the couch with her, looking way too comfortable. I headed upstairs to my bedroom, but I didn’t stay. Instead, I shifted to the dead zone.

  I touched the outside wall of Lawson’s pod, but the metal didn’t give way, which was unusual. I pulled out my phone and called him.

  “Where are you?” I asked when he answered.

  “At Charlie’s. Where are you?”

  “At your place.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Before I had tucked my phone away, he was standing in front of me.

  “Who’s Charlie?” I asked.

  “It’s a bar down at Digger’s Point.”

  “Where’s that?” I asked.

  “No place you need to go,” he said, walking into his pod.

  Lawson looked better. He was moving with his confident stride, and his clothes fit better. I couldn’t help but stare at his lean, muscular body as I followed him inside.