Chapter Twenty-six
Z acharias swung at me as though he were a baseball player trying for a home-run. “You are dead! Matters involving the living are none of your business!”
The whistle of his scythe slicing through the air accompanied his shout, and the black cloak he was wearing spun around him. He looked every bit an avenging reaper.
I teleported across the room before his blade had the chance to slice into my skin. It hadn’t killed me when I’d grabbed onto it while trying to save my men in the tunnels, but it wasn’t something I was eager to experience again.
The moment I re-materialized directly behind him, I grabbed the hem of his cloak and yanked it over his head. Thrown off balance, he stumbled to the side, crashing through a glass-fronted cabinet and sending trays of vials to the floor. A few rolled away unscathed, but most shattered on impact.
Hex, yeah! That’s what I’m talking about!
I might not have known proper fighting techniques, but I knew how to pants a bully.
There was no time to celebrate, because the moment he extricated himself from the cabinet, the moment he got his wits back, he was going to come twice as hard for me.
“Why won’t you die?” he snarled, stepping on an unbroken vial and nearly falling backward.
“I can’t until I see how your story ends. Book girls are downright feral when it comes to finishing our books.” Taunting him was a bad idea, but it was the only one I had at the moment.
If he stayed distracted, he wouldn’t be thinking about the ghosts who’d just ghosted his toxic flat arse.
Zacharias teleported so fast I didn’t have a chance to do more than raise my arms to cover my face before he reappeared in front of me, and his scythe sliced across my forearms.
I refused to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream. Dropping to the floor, I teleported myself to the other side of the room and crouched behind the cabinets. But the moment I re-materialized, Zacharias was looming over me.
His scythe sliced across my back, cutting through my shirt as though it were made of tissue paper, and leaving a deep slash from my right shoulder blade to my left hip. Man, I sucked just as badly at Sidestep the Reaper as I had at dodgeball.
“Are you a witch? Is that how you turned Saul against me?” he snarled, lifting his blade.
I stumbled to my feet, trying not to slip in the ectoplasmic energy that had dripped like blood from my arms to the floor. Using my ghost speed, I blurred across the room, but it was no match for the speed of a reaper.
The flat side of the blade slammed into my side, hurtling me into a metal filing cabinet. I crumpled to the floor, thankful I didn’t need to breathe since it felt like he’d broken several of my ribs and the agony was making it hard to not pass out.
If he’d been a collector, I could have escaped to the reaper plane and he couldn’t have caused me physical pain. Just like a human couldn’t hurt my ghostly body. But there was nowhere I could go that Zacharias couldn’t follow.
“I was so close and you just had to come in here and screw me again.” His fingers grabbed my hair and used it to lift me from the ground.
The searing pain had my eyes burning with unshed tears, but I stubbornly blinked them away. He would never see me cry or hear me scream. Even if he killed me, he’d know he hadn’t broken me.
“Why can’t you be a normal ghost and follow the rules? And why didn’t you vanish the moment my scythe touched you? A slice by a reaper’s scythe is fatal for every living being. Only a reaper can survive the cut of a scythe. Ghosts go poof when touched by a scythe.” He held me in front of him, narrowing his eyes and studying me as if he’d find the answers written on my face. “So what makes you different?”
Relaxing my throat so he wouldn’t hear the anguish I was experiencing on the inside, I borrowed Lochlan’s lazy smirk. “I’m a free spirit.”
Zacharias wasn’t amused and spun around to shove me onto the countertop. Stars sparkled in my vision as my cheek connected with the unforgiving surface and I nearly vomited from the edge of the counter punching me in the gut.
I could teleport far away, but I wasn’t sure if the ghosts and my collectors were far enough away yet. Zacharias couldn’t kill me with his scythe, but my men weren’t immune. And they couldn’t teleport away from him. If I teleported to Saul, there was a chance I could get him back here before Zacharias mowed down hundreds of innocent ghosts and my circle. They would be sitting ducks.
No, I would give them as long as possible before I teleported away from here. Assuming I could still summon the energy to do it.
“You haven’t won,” he hissed against my ear, crushing my battered body into the counter. “I have a backup plan to destroy the reapers because I knew if Saul figured out we weren’t going to help the ghosts into the beyond all at once, like he believed, he’d shut it down. No, for my plan to work, I needed to drain them dry, and Saul wouldn’t have liked that. He was broken and so set on getting justice for his brother that he trusted me without asking questions. Until you showed up and his entire focus changed. It’s amazing what a guy will do for a girl if she knows how to suck a dick.”
Despite my dire situation, my heart soared with happiness. Saul hadn’t known Zacharias’ true plans. My husband might have been the grimmest of reapers on the outside, but he was gooey goodness on the inside. I smiled just thinking about how much he would hate to hear me to say that out loud.
“You think this is amusing?” Zacharias used his grip on my hair to twist my neck to the side with a hard jerk. “You’re not walking or floating out of here alive.”
“Duh. I’m already dead.” I forced out a harsh laugh. “What’s funny is I’m dead, but you’re the one who needs to get a life.”
Zacharias shouted in fury and yanked my head back. I braced myself for the blow I knew was coming. How long had it been since the fight started? How much more could my body take?
The tremors in my muscles, my waning energy, and the sticky fluid that was leaking from my body to pool on the floor answered my question.
I’d underestimated my injuries.
I’d waited too long.
But I didn’t regret my decision. I’d trade myself for the lives of my circle and hundreds of innocent captive ghosts every single time.
If it was my time—again—I couldn’t help but be thankful for the incredible death I’d been given the chance to live.
Zacharias’ eyes were wild and his grin had that unhinged edge that made for the most terrifying horror movies. “The best part of this is knowing your death will destroy Saul. The reaper who could have had it all, but never appreciated it. He lost his brother, he’s about to lose his species, and now he’ll lose his soulmate.”
“You think by bringing Death to his knees, you will prove you’re superior?” I lifted my chin and locked eyes with Zacharias. “Even on his knees, my husband towers above a pathetic, sniveling, butt-munching leech like you. I bet you hide your own Easter eggs and still can’t find them!”
His chest was heaving, and the vein on his temple pulsed. Pressing his scythe against my throat hard enough that it cut a thin line in my skin, he hissed, “Are you finished?”
“Actually, no. There’s one last thing.” This time I was the one wearing the unhinged grin. “You might be faster than me, but you can’t outrun Death.”
I didn’t even get to see his reaction to my Oscar-worthy last words before he vanished.
No, not vanished. Just tossed through space and time faster than any being had traveled before.
I would have collapsed on the floor if not for the arms that caught me mid-air. “Boo!”
“That’s my line, idiot,” I croaked, my throat tightening with unshed tears at seeing Lochlan’s face.
I turned to see Saul’s scythe clash against Zacharias’. Both men were powerful, but Zacharias’ arms and legs trembled from the impact of each blow he blocked.
“I tried to warn him Saul wasn’t going to be happy,” I told Lochlan, wanting to see him smile, rather than look at me with such sorrow in his eyes.
“We’ll be lucky if Saul doesn’t accidentally lose it and reap all of Amberwood with a click of his polished leather loafers.” Lochlan clamped his hands around my forearms, trying to slow the flow of ectoplasm.
“That’s because he really knows how to knock ‘em dead. Get it?” I wiggled my eyebrows, then winced when my scalp screamed in protest.
Rhodes and Evander dropped to the floor beside us. “What can we do? How can we help you?”
“I’m fine, everything’s fine,” I lied reassuringly.
“Feed from us. Take all of my energy if it will help you heal!” Lochlan pleaded.
“So, funny story, but I don’t know how to feed. I’m more of the feedee than the feeder.”
“But you said Saul fed you. How did he do it?” Rhodes pushed.
“I don’t know. He kissed me and then sort of poured it down my throat. A lot like funneling beer at a college party—not that I did that.” A migraine began jack-hammering my skull, making it hard to think. There was something important I needed to tell Saul.
“Uh, guys?” Evander’s whisper sounded like a scream, and I curled into the fetal position and covered my ears.
Why was everything so loud? And why did it feel like my skin was melting off my body?
Thud.
I’d come here because Saul was in danger. But why? It seemed like he was doing a lot better than me.
Thud.
There was something he needed to know.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
I felt hands on my body and screamed in pain. Something was wrong. This isn’t what it felt like to die, and I would have known, since it wasn’t my first rodeo.
“You were too weak and scared to take your position! I’ve spent years working to claim it as mine and you think you can just pick it up on a whim? You and Philetus were both weak and unworthy of your bloodline!”
Thud .
I’ve been in this moment before. No, I haven’t. This is just déjà vu.
THUD.
“She’s stopped bleeding.” Rhodes’ words seemed to come from a thousand miles away. “I think she’s healing.”
“But ghosts can’t heal. They can’t make their own energy, that’s why they burn out,” Evander reminded them.
Lochlan lifted me from the floor. “We need to get her out of here and somewhere safe before they cause the tunnel to collapse.”
THUD .
“You don’t deserve the power you have!”
Everything inside me went still.
This was the second time I’d heard that voice say those words.
The first time had been the night I died, and my murderer had been the one to say them.
Memories of that awful night flashed through my mind, and one after another, the pieces fell into place.
My death was something I tried to never think about because I was disgusted that it had been such a dumb, pointless one. While I hadn’t been killed by Santa, the Easter Bunny, a Leprechaun, Cupid, or Sasquatch—I might as well have been.
That night, I’d decided to push myself to do something other than work, sleep, and read. An advertisement for an Amazonian art exhibit had caught my attention, and I’d attended.
The gallery was a large warehouse, and the team had outdone themselves, decorating the interior with various vines, flowers and giant leafed plants that could be found in the Amazon. It gave the viewer the feeling of walking through a jungle, and created the perfect backdrop for the pottery, jewelry, and paintings.
Everything had been fine until I’d decided to sit and rest my feet for a minute. I found a quiet corner and pulled out my phone to check the time and somehow clicked open my Kindle app.
I hadn’t intended to read anything, but the next thing I knew, I’d been reading for an hour. If it weren’t for the sensation of a bug crawling around under my shirt, it was possible I’d still be sitting in the corner of the gallery reading to this very day.
With an ear-piercing shriek, I’d scrambled to my feet, desperate to get the bug out of my shirt. To anyone watching, I probably looked like I thought I was at a rave, and it was my mindless panic that had sent me running headlong into an early grave.
I’d rushed toward the bathroom, shoving open the door and trying to rip my shirt over my head.
“You don’t deserve the power you have. It’s wasted on you.”
I froze with one arm out of my shirt, and the other stuck beside my head. “Is someone there?”
Had I run into the men’s bathroom and started stripping? This was exactly why I stayed home—to avoid discovering how incredibly adept I was at coming up with new and creative ways to humiliate myself.
“She has nothing to do with this!” The second male’s furious roar echoed around me, making it impossible to know which direction it was coming from.
Something slammed into me with enough force to send me hurtling backward. My back connected with cold, hard metal. I lay motionless, confused, and unable to suck in a breath.
“Don’t! It’s not her time!” The anguish in the man’s voice had me wanting to comfort him. Which was weird, since I was pretty sure he was talking about me and I wasn’t going to be going home tonight. Or ever again.
A sharp pain sliced across my stomach, followed by the sound of metal banging against metal and grunts. When silence fell, it was so absolute that I thought for a minute I’d gone deaf.
Why was I so cold?
The quiet was broken by a man’s labored breathing.
Was it my attacker or the guy who felt bad for me? My arms felt like they were made of concrete, and by the time I freed my head from my shirt, I was gasping as though I’d just run up twenty flights of stairs.
I lay on the cold ground and took stock of my surroundings. Stars twinkled against a navy-blue background above me, and tall brick walls rose around me.
If my arms hadn’t felt so impossibly heavy, I would have facepalmed. Thanks to my deep-seated terror of all things creepy crawly, I’d shoved open the wrong door. Instead of the bathroom, I’d rushed into the alley behind the gallery… and straight into the lead role in a future murder podcast episode.
Twisting my head to the side, I found a man lying on the asphalt a few feet from me. A pool of crimson was spreading out from beneath him. I couldn’t feel my body below the deep gash across my stomach, but with effort, I dragged myself closer to him.
Using my shirt, I tried to put pressure on the worst of his stab wounds.
“You’ll be okay. Just stay with me.” I did my best to sound confident, not wanting him to panic. Scanning the alley, I searched for my phone to call for help, but I must’ve dropped it when I’d been sneak attacked by the bug.
“You are a terrible liar.” He gave a weak laugh that turned into a wet cough. “I’m dying.”
“No, you’re not. I’m not going to let you.” I had zero medical skills, but I was going to do my best to pep talk him into surviving.
“Death is my area of expertise. I think I know what I’m talking about.” His words were so soft I had to lean in to hear him.
A dizzying wave of pain rolled through me, and my muscles no longer obeyed the orders my brain gave them. I slumped on the ground beside him, and when I looked into his sad eyes, I knew that neither of us were making it out of that alley alive.
He grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently. Even though he was a stranger, I felt a sudden wave of comfort surrounding me. I wasn’t going to die alone.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. You didn’t deserve to die like this,” he whispered.
My lips refused to form words, so all I could do was blink in response.
“I have something he wants, and when I die, he’s going to come back looking for it.” The man choked, each breath he took becoming harder to pull into his lungs.
Still, he was doing better than me. My lungs refused to inflate at all and my shallow gasps were coming further and further apart.
“I can’t let him get his hands on it.”
Well, duh . I didn’t want him to get whatever he wanted if for no other reason than I was saltier than seawater over the whole being murdered thing.
His fingers tightened around my hand. “Wish I could tell my wife and brother that I love them. I guess you never know when it is your time, even when it’s your job.”
He wasn’t making sense, or maybe the fog in my brain was muddling his words. Did he work at an ER? A mortuary? How did he think he could know when someone was going to die?
Were his eyes pink? No, it had to just be a reflection of the nearby streetlight.
“Is there someone you would say goodbye to?” he asked. His eyes searched my face, seeing the truth without me needing to say a word.
I had no one. Unless I wanted to call my boss and let him know I was calling out of work… forever.
There was only one thing I’d have liked to do: finish the last two chapters of the book I was reading. I was going to be left hanging on a cliffy, and there was no way a book girl could rest in peace when she was dangling like that.
“We’re running out of time.” The man’s chest made an unsettling gurgling sound as he tried to get air into his lungs. “I should’ve healed, but he planned for that, too.”
And I should’ve checked which door I was running through.
Catching a slight movement, I slid my eyes down to find a large beetle swaggering its way up my leg. A warrior who’d come to gloat over the body of his fallen enemy.
I didn’t know enough about insects to know if the beetle had been a stowaway in the crates of art from the Amazon region, or if he was a local type of douchebug. All I was sure of was that this was the biggest beetle I’d seen in my life, and I was helpless to move as it sashayed its way up my leg.
“I’m supposed to help dying people, but my final act is using someone. Please forgive me,” he rasped.
His words were making less and less sense, and the beetle was crawling faster and faster as he moved from my leg to my bare stomach.
PLEASE let me die before it gets to my face!
“I’m sorry.” Those were the last words I heard before I saw the white light.
But instead of walking toward it and into peace, the light seemed to rush at me. It consumed me, burning my body from the inside out and outside in.
I screamed in agony, but of course, no sound came from my lips. As the light continued to taze the ever-loving-life out of me, my one consolation was seeing the beetle fall to the ground beside me, where he lay motionless.
Good. If I wasn’t walking out of here, neither was he.
A moment later, the light won, and I was sucked into nothingness.
Thump .
The memories faded, and I was back in Lochlan’s arms.
I knew who had killed me.
Thump.
I knew who had held my hand when I lay dying, and I now I understood what he was. Philetus. And Zacharias had killed him by using that herb to weaken him and keep him from healing.
Thump.
The same thing he planned to use on Saul.
THUMP.
Not a chance. I would not let Zacharias hurt any of my men. His murderous streak ended today. Forcing my eyes open, I teleported myself back to the secret laboratory.
I blinked in the blinding fluorescent lights, my migraine continuing with that annoying drum beat that pulsed in my ears. Dizziness washed over me and I grabbed the counter to catch myself.
My body still felt like I’d gone a few rounds inside a washing machine full of bowling balls, but my lacerations had closed so that my lifeforce was no longer leaking everywhere, and I considered that a definite plus.
I made my way down the hall and toward the sounds of fighting, and with every step, my energy flared a bit brighter. While I would’ve preferred a fast burn, I could settle for a slow burn as long as it eventually got us where we needed to go.
Watch out, Zacharias. I’m coming for you.
A shiver ran down my spine at my poor word choice. I was definitely not going to be doing any of that with him.