Chapter Fifty-One #2
He lifted his fingers, looking at her again.
“Piper, no,” Frankie insisted.
“He’s already touched me once, Frankie.”
“But what if it was just a fluke?”
Piper bit her lip. “Guess we’ll find out.”
The Reaper chuckled eagerly. “Can I touch you now?”
“Wait,” I said and he looked at me, annoyed. “I want your word that Frankie and I will be completely free of you.”
“You have my word,” he said, looking back at Piper.
“She can’t do this,” Frankie argued. “I won’t let her.”
Piper looked at me. “Hold her.” I wrapped my arms around Frankie, locking them into place, and she struggled against me, begging Piper not to do this and telling me she would never forgive me if I let her best friend die.
It was a risk I was willing to take. This was it. We were down to no other options. If this didn’t work, we would all be dead in minutes.
“Do it,” Piper said, looking directly at the Grim Reaper.
While Frankie continued to struggle, G.R. reached out tentatively, extending his hand like he was touching something so delicate it might shatter with the merest hint of a touch. He drew closer and Frankie began to cry.
Piper just stood there, stock still, waiting, and then the tips of his fingers brushed her cheek.
She blinked.
She drew in a deep breath and smiled, looking over at Frankie, who practically collapsed in my arms.
“It’s been so long,” he murmured, becoming braver and cupping the side of her face with his palm.
Piper stiffened at his caress and lifted her foot like she wanted to step away, but she didn’t. She glanced at me instead.
“You got what you wanted,” I told him.
It’s like he didn’t even hear me speak at all. He was so entranced by her that it was like he saw nothing else. He began stroking the side of her cheek like she was a treasure he had searched out for hundreds of years. “You’re soft. And warm. I forgot how warm live skin could be.”
Okay, he was just being creepy now.
“We had a deal.” I reminded him, my voice hard.
He drew away from her slowly, like he didn’t want to let go. Maybe he didn’t. I would think that never being able to touch anyone ever would make a man feel a certain hunger—the kind of hunger that never really went away. It was the kind of hunger that not even Death would be able to get away from.
When he stepped away, Piper let out a huge sigh of relief and stepped back.
The Reaper looked at me. “Charming, I release you from the employ of myself, the Grim Reaper. From here on out, you will no longer possess immortality. You will no longer have the abilities that were bestowed upon you during your work. You will live and die like any other human who walks this earth. You have my word that I will not come for you or the girl.”
I was free.
Free from death. Free to live. Free to love.
It was something I never once thought was even possible and now it was mine.
Frankie wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. Her laughter made me smile and then my smile turned into a laugh.
I am free.
“Now I want what’s mine,” G.R. said, cutting into my happiness.
I nodded. “We can go right now.” I pulled away from Frankie. “Go wait in the car. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She bit her lip and glanced over at the Reaper. I couldn’t really blame her.
“I do not go back on my word,” G.R. said. Then he looked at Piper. “Perhaps we will meet again.”
That got Frankie moving. She grabbed Piper’s hand and towed her toward the door. G.R. watched Piper until she was out of sight. Once they were gone, he turned abruptly, pinning Storm with a hard stare. “You’ve been very busy.”
Storm didn’t say anything, but his cloudlike body shifted.
“You’re going to make it up to me.”
“Yes, I’ll show your soul how to borrow a body.”
G.R. smiled and gazed back to the door Piper and Frankie just went through. “Yes, how to borrow indeed.”
I glanced at Storm. It was one of the times I really wished he had a face so I could read his expression. Because what G.R. said just now… it sounded kind of ominous.
Before anyone could ask him what he meant, he was ushering us off through his insta-doors so we could give him back what we stole.
It didn’t take long and once he had gotten exactly that, he sent us back to the Target’s house where he said we were responsible for the body.
Apparently he wasn’t interested in keeping it or eating it (I certainly didn’t ask him about that).
He didn’t even say good-bye to me.
I didn’t care.
When his doorway closed for the final time, all I felt was relief. I was never going to have to kill again. And maybe, somehow, with the life I had left, I could try to make up for some of the lives I had taken.
But first I had a body to dispose of.
“What the hell are we gonna do with her?” Storm complained. “Why does she have to be the senator’s daughter?”
“It doesn’t really matter who she was,” I said. “Because even if she had been a nobody, someone would have loved her and that someone’s entire world would be over.”
“If I had a face, I would be crying right now,” Storm said.
I laughed. “Smartass.”
He made a heavy groaning sound and I rolled my eyes.
“What I said wasn’t that bad,” I replied.
“That was not me.”
Someone groaned again. I looked down at the Target. It was her.
“Dude, I thought she was dead,” Storm said.
“She was. Wasn’t she?”
“I-I don’t know. When you snapped her neck, everything went black. It was like I was unconscious. The next thing I remembered was trying to get out. I was so disoriented though, it was hard.”
She moaned again. This time her head moved back and forth.
“Can someone survive getting their neck snapped?” Storm asked.
“No.” But she wasn’t dead. Clearly.
“Maybe you didn’t do it right?”
She groaned again; this time her hands moved.
“Is it possible that somehow having your soul inside her protected her from dying?” It was a crazy thought. Wasn’t it?
“I don’t know. I’ve never been in someone’s body when they died before.”
“Olly?” Frankie whispered, stepping in from the other room. I jumped a little, surprised at her appearance. Then I realized she hadn’t just appeared; she walked into the room like any normal human would do. Except this time I couldn’t hear or feel her coming.
I was completely human now.
I smiled.
“Is she alive?” Frankie said, completely ignoring the fact that I was having a moment. It was likely the first of many private moments I would be having due to my newfound freedom.
“I think so,” I answered.
She gave a great shout of joy and pulled out her phone. “I’m going to call for help.”
“What will G.R. say if he hears about this?” Storm worried. Frankie lowered her phone and frowned.
“It doesn’t matter. He’s already made the deal. He can’t go back now.”
Frankie grinned.
“You guys get out of here. I’ll wait and tell the ambulance I found her like this when I showed up for lunch.”
“I don’t want to leave you here alone.”
She caught my hand and smiled. “I’ll be fine. See you at home.”
Home.
I liked the sound of that.