Chapter 15
GERI
The bottom fell out of Geri’s stomach. She never really understood that phrase, but here she was, falling and wanting to puke her guts up at the same time.
“You can see the dog?” she asked.
“Seems a bit big for your apartment. If you slapped a saddle on that pupper and called it a pony, I’d believe you.”
No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. There was no aura. Nothing was guaranteed.
The ghost phone in her pocket vibrated.
Fuck.
And Geri knew what had to happen next. No question in her mind at all.
“Give me one second. These shoes are pinching my toes,” she said and slipped into the bedroom.
With the door closed, she checked the message. Her street address, five minutes from now.
“It is time to return to your duties,” Bazel said.
“Yeah,” she muttered. “You know what’s funny? Despite feeling sorry for myself and as miserable I’ve been, I’m glad.”
The hood tilted to one side, as if curious. “How so?”
“Lots of reasons,” she said, taking a step forward.
If it hadn't been for the prank, the accident, her death and everything that happened that led to the moment of her revival, she wouldn’t be able to save her sister.
Bazel wouldn’t spare Molly. She would be just another assignment, another soul to reap. Only she could do this.
Geri reached for the hood. The first attempt went through him as if he were made of shadow and light.
The air was colder where he stood. On the second pass, she grabbed the fabric.
It was cold to the touch, like sinking her fingers into a bank of snow.
She pulled the hood down, revealing his skeletal face of gleaming bone and luminous dark eye sockets.
He looked surprised, as impossible as it seemed. “How did you—”
She planted a hand on either side of his face. He was barely there, but she could feel him. She stretched up on her toes to kiss him.
Frigid did not begin to describe the sensation. He was frozen to the core, but so was she. Where they touched, skin on bone, lips to grinning jaw, she felt a thaw. Warmth.
Maybe part of her was still dead. Kissing death didn’t feel weird. It felt right.
She pulled away, lips numb from the cold. “I’m sorry.”
Her breath hung on frosty air. There was nothing more to explain.
Geri plastered a smile on her face and left the bedroom.
“Ready? I thought you were changing shoes,” Molly said. A golden aura now clung to her.
Soon. She didn’t need a text update to know that.
“I did,” she said. “They were worse. Shoes feel weird today. Maybe it’s my socks.”
Molly nodded. Both sisters agreed that socks were abominations and barely tolerable at the best of times. “Come on, before the Parking Authority tries to give Anh a ticket.”
A mortal, a revenant, a reaper, and an omen piled into the elevator.
The ride down was harrowing. The messages only gave her the time and place of the soul to be reaped, not how it would occur.
A reaper only needed to collect the soul with a touch.
The how of the person’s impending death didn’t matter. Usually.
Geri really hoped it wasn’t from a snapped cable. Her fear of plunging elevators was right up there with falling down an escalator and being trapped in quicksand. Improbable but firmly implanted in childhood by television.
They arrived safely in the lobby. Geri rubbed sweaty palms on the thighs of her pants. Her heart thumped in her chest loud enough that she was certain everyone heard. She was going to be sick.
“What are you planning?” Bazel asked, following them across the lobby and out the front door.
Outside, time slowed down, just as it had for the man on the bicycle about to get hit by a car and the man about to fall down the subway steps. Only this time when Geri’s heart caught in her chest, she wasn’t frozen in place, helpless to watch events unfold.
Standing passively by and watching another person die wouldn’t happen. Not today.
Geri reached out and snagged Molly’s arm, jerking her roughly backward.
A wrench, large and heavy, crashed into the sidewalk. It sat on the wet concrete, the silver finish dull and handle wrapped in stained grip tape.
“Oh shit!” Molly exclaimed, looking up at the scaffolding. The safety netting flapped in the wind. “That’s so dangerous. It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
“Yeah,” Geri agreed weakly, heart still racing.
Molly spun on her. “How did you react so fast? You just pulled me out of the way.”
Bazel was less kind. Fire blazed in his eyes. “What have you done?”
“I don’t know.” The glow had vanished from her sister. The danger was past. She should have been able to relax, but she couldn’t. Her hands shook and her breathing was shallow.
The ghost phone vibrated with an incoming message.
Code of Conduct violation has been detected.
Disciplinary measures will be taken.
Well, shit.
Bazel and Geri’s story continues in How to Return From the Grave.