Reap & Redeem (17 page)

Kylen pulled her down a narrow alley, darkened by the height of the buildings that surrounded it. He stopped at a heavy wooden door and pulled her into a tavern advertising Stag beer above it. As lunch destinations went, this would not have been her first choice. She’d visited several lovely bistros in the area for her “Food & Cuisine” column. Gilardis or The Aviary would have been delightful, although she had trouble picturing Kylen sitting at one of those tiny round tables eating a cannoli or crepe.

After surveying the bar, filled with just a few hardcore patrons scattered throughout, Kylen led her to a booth against the back wall. Motioning for her to sit across from him, he took a seat that put his back against the wall and gave him a full view of the one visible door. A busty waitress sashayed over with two glasses of water, ready to take their orders. Kylen ordered for them both without making eye contact with the waitress: two cheeseburgers, a basket of fries and a beer for himself.

“You got it, sugar,” she said. “You’re here awful early today. We usually don’t see you until the wee hours.”

Kylen ignored her, and she left to turn in their order.

“A friend of yours?” Olivia asked.

“No.”

“Well, I would hope not. You were very rude to her.”

Kylen grunted and leaned back in the booth, stretching out his legs under the table and crossing his arms over his chest in an I-am-relaxed-but-don’t-mess-with-me pose.

Unintimidated, Olivia continued, “I need some answers, Kylen. Ruth told me a lot, but it’s so different to have actually experienced it.… I still don’t get how you zapped us to the cemetery. And more importantly, why every time you touch me you shock the crap out of me…in a good kind of way,” she added shyly.

“We’re not human, Olivia. Not entirely. We can travel through the equivalent of a subway from consecrated ground to consecrated ground. Most supernatural entities can move this way. Some have more restrictions, some have less. Demons and the minions of Hell move through different portals. Deacon and Nate don’t even need to enter the subway through consecrated ground. They can access it from anywhere.”

“That’s amazing! How is it that no one knows about this? Humans, I mean. And how come you can take me with you?”

“Humans can’t see most aspects of Heaven or Hell. You can imagine the problems it would cause if they could. Reapers can see…everything.”

“And me? How is it I can travel with you? Can you take anyone? Anything?”

“We can take any physical objects that we can carry. As for you…Ruth thinks it’s because your aura is white.”

“The death aura.”

“Yes.” Kylen frowned at her. “Ruth explained what the colors mean?”

“Only the white. Is mine still white?”

Kylen drank from his water glass and stared toward the door like it was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. “Mostly.”

“What does that mean? Mostly?” She’d get answers from him if she had to pry each one out—which, at this rate, she’d probably have to.

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose like he had a bad headache. “It seems to alternate between white and blue.”

“How?”

“Good God, do I look like Doctor Oz? I don’t know how all of this works. All I know is that every time we come into contact, you draw energy from me. And somehow that seems to be…prolonging your life.”

“You’re keeping me alive?” she whispered.

“Yes.”

She searched his face, looking for…something. Something to explain why a reaper,
this
reaper, would want to keep her alive when it would be so much easier for him, for all of them, to let her die as nature intended.

“What happens to my soul when I die?”

The waitress brought their food, along with Kylen’s beer, and set it all down on the table. Kylen picked up the beer and took a long pull.

“Anything else, sugar?” she asked.

“Bring me two more of these,” Kylen said, tilting back the beer and finishing it.

“I will. But it’s awful early, sugar. Pace yourself.”

Kylen scowled as the waitress left and Olivia pressed on, “What will happen to me, Kylen?”

“After you die, a reaper will collect your soul and take it to Purgatory for processing. You’ll be sent to Heaven or Hell, and then you’ll begin the process of ascending or descending through the various levels of wherever you’re sent.”

“Who decides where I go?”

“An angel, Rashnu, does the initial sorting.”

“And the demons? What do they have to do with all of this?”

“The demons work for Camael. Camael is…
was
an angel. Now he’s classified as a fallen angel. He’s a duke of Hell, and he commands legions of demons on Lucifer’s behalf. The demons collect souls and take them straight to Hell. They don’t get sorted, and they can’t be retrieved. We think that the more souls he has, the stronger his demon army becomes. A war is coming. We’re trying to prevent it.”

“And if you can’t?”

“The term
Hell on Earth
will become a real thing.”

Olivia pushed her food around her plate, her appetite gone. Kylen’s studious appraisal of her made her self-conscious and uncomfortable. She knew she still didn’t understand the extent of what they were up against, but she was secretly grateful she wouldn’t be around to see it. She had her own battle to fight.

“Eat,” Kylen demanded, his own plate already empty.

“I’m not really hungry anymore.”

“We are not leaving here until you’ve eaten everything on your plate.”

She smiled at him. “You’re not the boss of me.”

“I am for today.”

Amused, she bit into the hamburger to placate him. It was delicious.

* * *

It was almost eleven when Kylen led them back to the crypt in the cemetery. He surveyed their surroundings. Things probably wouldn’t get too dicey until after dark, but that wasn’t a given. Imps, demons and worse things could move about in the daylight, but they preferred the darkness because of the protection and anonymity it offered. They would have eight hours of peace. If they were lucky.

“Will you take me home now?” Olivia asked as she followed him through the door of the crypt.

“Where do you live?”

“An apartment in Maple Wood.”

“Is that near Maple Park Cemetery?”

“Yes, it’s a few blocks away.”

“Good,” he said. Sometimes a guy really could get lucky.

“Come.” He pulled her into his arms. His blue energy danced across her skin as they shimmered and spun toward Maple Park.

There was no crypt where they landed in Maple Park, but the cemetery was much smaller and, thanks to the almost unbroken canopy of old-growth maple trees, it was shady even in the midday sun. There were so many big trees that the stones were set at random around them instead of in a neat grid like in the downtown cemetery. The trees had probably been here long before the first corpses.

“Which way?” Kylen asked, glancing around the small expanse of the cemetery for any potential threats.

“Follow me,” Olivia said, taking his hand this time to lead the way.

They walked down a broken sidewalk through a quiet neighborhood of brick buildings and Victorian homes. It was Meridian’s historic district, and many of the houses were probably about as old as the maples.

“There.” Olivia pointed to the top floor of a renovated Victorian.

She keyed in a code on the security pad, and they walked through the shared entry door before winding up three sets of stairs to her small suite of rooms.

Kylen had noticed a shared kitchen and laundry room on the bottom level. “How many people live here?” he asked.

“There are four separate apartments. Mine’s the largest because it spans the entire top floor.”

When they reached the top of the stairs, Olivia unlocked her door and pulled him inside. Her entire apartment could be viewed from the doorway. It consisted of a spacious 20 by 24 living room, a small bathroom with a claw-foot tub and wraparound shower curtain, and another 20 by 24 bedroom with a small study and library arranged between the two dormers on the front-side of the house.

A Victorian gothic theme characterized the decor, from the rich burgundy walls to the heavy damask-striped curtains hanging from the side windows. The two dormered windows, which were surrounded by shelves and shelves of books, were paned with stained glass.

A sofa table with ornately carved legs stood behind a red velvet couch in the living area. Two mahogany wing chairs squatted on the corners of a richly detailed Persian rug. An intense wallpaper pattern of ridiculously large velvet-embossed flowers covered two walls of the living room.

The entire apartment was such an incredible mishmash of patterns and dark colors it bordered on horrendous.

It reminded him of Hell.

At least it smelled better.

“It came furnished. And decorated,” Olivia said, acknowledging his look of abject horror. “None of the decor is mine. Only the books and clothes, really…and a few other things.”

He nodded. Speechless.

He caught a glimpse of the decoratively draped four-poster bed in her bedroom and broke out into a cold sweat. The room looked remarkably similar to the suite they’d rescued Deacon from in Hell.

“I have some housekeeping to do. There’s a club my friend from work told me about. Tonight is karaoke night, and I’d like to go. Will you take me?”

His head said no. But his heart said that this is what he’d signed on for. He’d agreed to help her, although against his better judgment. The sooner she got this ridiculous list finished the sooner he could get back to his job—his
real
job—and get her back to the safety of the compound.

“Yes.”

Her smile settled into his chest and pushed his heart down into his stomach.

This was a very bad idea.

Returning to the living area, he sat on one of the stiff wing chairs as Olivia went to her bedroom. When he heard the shower turn on, he got up to pace the room. He hated this place. It was impossible to secure and with only one door, the place was a fire hazard. Probably didn’t even have a fire escape.

Drawing back the dark burgundy drapes, he looked out the window. There was no fire escape and only the shallowest overhang, which slanted too severely off the roof to use for an escape.

He hated everything about the place.

Movement in the alley between homes caught his eye. Three imps sat hunched against the side of the neighboring house, staring up at him, waiting like jackals.

He found himself hoping he wouldn’t have anything to feed them tonight.

Kylen wasn’t sure how long her chores might take, but a crazy plan began to form in his own mind. If he was going to help her in this ridiculous quest, maybe he could help her to achieve at least two of her bucket list items in short order. As an added bonus, they’d take them far away from the dangers of Meridian…for the time being at least.#
47
swim in the ocean
and #
49
fly over a volcano
could both be accomplished in one place and within a few hours. It had been a long time since he’d been there. Too long. She’d love it.

When the shower stopped he called out to her before he lost his nerve.

“Olivia.”

The door opened and she peeked through the crack in the door, her hair dripping with water. “Yes.”

“Put on a swimsuit. We’re going to make a detour.”

When her face lit up with anticipation, Kylen’s heart cracked a little.

She was going to be the death of him.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Winter meant nothing in Hawaii. While Meridian, Arkansas was in the 40s, Hawaii stayed a balmy mid-80s year round. It was the nearest place he’d been able to think of where Olivia could swim in the ocean and fly over a volcano in two hours.

They landed in a small cemetery on the island of Kauai. Not exactly secluded, but one of the most amazing sunrises Kylen had ever experienced had been at Shipwreck Beach. He hoped they’d have a chance to see one equally as spectacular.

“Where are we?”

“Hawaii.”

“What!” Olivia spun around in a circle, taking in the tropical foliage. The water was still well beyond their line of sight. The five-hour time difference and the short walk from the cemetery down the dirt path would put them on the beach just in time.

As they emerged from the forest and onto the edge of the pristine white beach, Olivia gasped. “Oh, Kylen. It’s…”

“Number 47. The sunrise is a bonus.”

Olivia sank to the sand on her bottom, wrapping her arms around her legs, and rested her chin on her drawn-up knees. She kicked off her shoes and dug her toes into the sand.

“I’ve always wanted to see the ocean. Where are we? Exactly?”

“Kauai.”

“You’ve been here before?”

“Yes.”

“You’re so lucky to be able to travel like you do. You must have been to thousands of places this lovely. Is this your favorite?”

“No.”

“Then where? I can’t even imagine anywhere better than this. Look at those colors!”

Kylen did look. But it had been too long since he’d last exchanged energy with Olivia. His color vision had faded again, and he would have to trust her assessment.

“Come. You can sit by me to watch it,” Olivia said.

This wasn’t a vacation, and they didn’t have time to be leisurely, but he couldn’t deny the appreciative sparkle in her eyes. She was practically glowing with happiness. It didn’t escape him that he was the cause, a fact that pleased him more than it should. But while he didn’t want to ruin this for her, they needed to knock these items off the bucket list and get back to Meridian to finish the rest.

He sat.

His scythe scabbard was rigid and unyielding against his back, so he was uncomfortable at first, but he soon found himself lost in the gray shades of the Shipwreck Beach sunrise. Olivia’s bright aura was almost a physical presence between them.

She reached for his hand, taking it into hers and held it without words.

He let her.

He watched as his electric blue energy leaped up her arm, turning her white aura a pale shade of blue. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the colors of the sky, and he watched in awe as the sun rose over the craggy rock projection that had given the beach its name.