Reaper Reborn
The Grimm Brotherhood Book Three
Kel Carpenter
Meg Anne
Reaper Reborn
Kel Carpenter & Meg Anne
Published by Kel Carpenter & Meg Anne
Copyright © 2020, Kel Carpenter LLC and Words that Sparkle LLC
Edited by Analisa Denny
Proofread by Dominique Laura
Cover by Amanda Pillar at Smoking Hot Covers
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Created with Vellum
For Karma, the fiercest protector, most loyal friend, and purest soul I’ve ever known. The world lost some of its magic the day you said goodbye.
I’m Death, and I make sure that everyone is equal.
The Brothers Grimm
Contents
1. Hunted
2. Dissension
3. Rock the Vote
4. And the Winner is
5. Tiebreaker
6. When the Dead Come Calling
7. Abomination
8. The In-between
9. Overturned
10. Spyception
11. Martyr
12. One-Woman Show
13. Undone
14. Line in the Sand
15. Reborn
16. Confrontation
17. Havoc
18. Fuck Up
19. Death Montage
20. Hey Sister, Soul Sister
21. Gooood Salem
22. Knock-Knock-Knockin’ on Death’s Door
23. Shit Meet Fan
24. Happily Fucking Ever After
Also by Kel Carpenter
Also by Meg Anne
Acknowledgments
About Kel Carpenter
About Meg Anne
1
Hunted
What the actual fuck?
My heart beat in erratic rhythms as my doppelgänger lifted her Ray-Bans and my own gray eyes stared back.
I wish I had something clever to say. I’d like to think that I could handle this craziness with the same laissez-faire attitude I approached life with.
But let’s be real. This is me we’re talking about.
Hammer meet nail.
“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest.
“My name is Thana,” she said, striding forward with a sleek gate. “Daughter of Death.”
It was eerie to see my own body move with the litheness of a predator. My eyebrows drew together as my thoughts started whirring.
There was a moment there where I heard her words, but they didn’t really compute with my short-circuiting brain. I was either in shock or having a seizure.
Judging by the continued stream of consciousness, shock was winning. Though I wasn’t willing to rule anything out just yet.
“But I’m the Daughter of Death—” I started. For some reason, it was the ‘Daughter of Death’ comment that snagged my attention the most. While I didn’t even know what it meant to be one, I was already territorial of my title.
I mean, I did just save, like, all the reapers from death.
Being a supe freak was now my schtick.
I didn’t know who this gray-haired broad was, but until I did, I was going to pull one from Esme’s book. Stick to my guns. Or in this case, my foul mouth and charming personality.
“And my sister,” she said, finishing my sentence, though not the way I would have expected. “My twin.” Her gaze drifted over my shoulder to where Shepard’s ghost was hovering. She gave him a pointed look before looking to me once more.
“I don’t understand,” I said slowly. “I don’t have a sister.”
Even if I did have a doppelgänger. Weird. Next level kind of weird.
Like some Twilight Zone shit.
“You did,” she said, but it came out closer to a purr. She leaned forward and lifted one of my pale pink locks, twirling it in her finger. “Before you were reborn.”
Up to that point, time was moving slower for me. My thoughts were tripping over one another, trying to come up with who the fuck this girl was. I mean, she looked like me, she dressed like me, if it weren’t for her corporeal form—I might have thought I was hallucinating. Maybe I accidentally split a piece of my soul—just like James.
But here she was, a second version of myself standing in the flesh.
The idea of having another twin seemed crazy . . . until you remembered the little tiny fact that apparently I reincarnated.
Was it possible that a past version of me, wasn’t just me?
I looked at Shep. “You’re seeing this too, right?”
Some of the seriousness drained from my brother’s face as he gave me an annoyed twist of his lips, followed by a very dramatic sigh. “Yes, Salem, I see her too.”
“Just checking,” I muttered.
Sheesh. You’d think for being dead, he’d be less irritable since I was going to bring him back. Fucker.
Least I wasn’t hallucinating. That much was clear.
“I can assure you, I’m quite real, Salem. I know this is probably a shock to you, and you’ve always been a bit unpredictable when given surprises, but there’s no other way to really say this.” She took a deep breath, and all I could think about was the fact that this was not how I planned to spend my morning. I was starting to wish I’d never left the pool house, which was crazy, because you’d think that I would want to know if I had a twin running around, right? Well. That was probably the shock. Hostess cupcakes were really good at getting someone over shock, though. “You and I were the original Daughters of Death in this realm,” Thana announced, putting an end to my meandering. Her next words were an icy bucket of water over my head. “We created the reapers. We maintained the order in the supernatural world. You and I.”
I opened and closed my mouth, eventually settling on the most important and obvious questions.
“What happened, then?” I asked. “Why was I killed? How was I killed?”
“A monster.” Her eyes flashed with cold fury. I felt the chill from it deep inside.
“A monster?” I repeated, not letting my unease show. I used my dubious tone of voice and narrowed my eyes.
“From the realm of death,” she said. “It’s been hunting us. After your first death, we were separated, and it took many years to find you. By then it was too late. You died again. This happened several times along the way. But I’ve found you now . . .” Her words trailed off as she released the lock of hair and cupped my cheek. “We’ll be together again. I’ve grown over the centuries. My power has grown. I can keep you safe where others cannot.” Her skin was cool to the touch. Her expression genuine. Sincere.
“How did you find me?”
“Death,” she said simply. “I felt your presence enter the spirit realm. There’s only one person who is my equal in everything. I knew it was you.”
Well, that seemed to make sense. As much as any of this did.
It was a lot to tak
e in, though. Something niggled in the back of my brain. Like she wasn’t telling me the complete truth.
“You’ve been in town for a little while now,” I said, shaking off her hand. She had no outward reaction. No surprise. No hurt at my movement. Nothing.
The inhumanness of her reactions, the way she oscillated from sincere to cold so rapidly . . . it was more than unsettling.
“I needed to assess the danger.” She gave me a sad look then. One corner of her mouth curving down. “The monster is a clever beast. It hides in those you know. I needed to interact with them as you, so that I could see if it’s already found you.”
“And?” I prompted slowly, watching carefully. “Has it?”
“It’s on your trail, but I don’t believe it’s infiltrated those close to you yet. It took out the witch you were talking to because she knew too much.” Her eyes slid sideways once more, to where Shepard still wavered. “You should be careful interacting with ghosts too much. They work with the monster. Spy for it. You shouldn’t trust anyone.”
“Anyone but you?” I said. It was only a moment, but a flash of annoyance crossed her features as she realized how that sounded. The more my shock at seeing her wore off, the more I was coming back to my senses.
“Well—” she started, but I cut her off.
“You seem to know an awful lot about this monster, and yet it’s me that’s died multiple times.” I put my hands on my hips, my suspicion mounting.
“I know a great deal because we’re the ones that created it.”
I blinked twice. Now that I was not expecting. Before I could gather my thoughts and come up with a response, Thana continued talking.
“We created it together and unleashed it upon the world. Something soured in it along the way. It wanted power for itself. So it turned on us. I wanted to put it down, but you thought you could save it.” She smiled again, but it wasn’t happy. It was almost pitying, but with a hint of warmth. “You always were soft.”
I let out a snort of derisive amusement. “Yeah, right. Warm and fuzzy, I am not. Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m about the furthest thing from soft that you can be.”
Thana studied me, her gray eyes cool and assessing. There was a detached calculation there that I didn’t recognize. Had I ever looked at anyone the way she’s looking at me? Instead of replying, she lifted her right shoulder in a bored shrug I definitely recognized. It was beyond creepy how her mannerisms were so like mine, and yet it was like meeting an alien. She possessed an otherness about her that I wasn’t sure what to do with.
Was I supposed to trust her?
Hardly. I knew almost instantly that wasn’t happening anytime soon. I’d lost too many people to trust someone that shared my face, showing up in town right after Darla was murdered. She claimed it was a monster, and her explanation sounded good. Almost a little too good, though.
She may be who she claimed, but something told me I didn’t have the full picture.
And really—how could I? She claimed we’d been here since the beginning of time basically. There were a lot of questions to ask and a lot of ground to cover before she got anything resembling trust.
I glanced over my shoulder at Shep, wondering what he was thinking about this turn of events.
His body was tense, but his face was unreadable, giving nothing away. That, in itself, was telling. Shep didn’t trust the bitch either. But was it because she was claiming his title, or for another reason?
Until I dealt with Thana and got Shep alone, it was clear I was not going to solve that riddle.
“As enlightening as this is, I was sort of in the middle of something with my actual twin, so how about you schedule something with my assistant, and we continue this conversation another time?”
There. That was subtle. Sort of.
Thana frowned, looking entirely too disappointed with me. “I know this isn’t easy for you to believe after everything that’s been happening around here, but you need to listen to me. You’re in danger, and the only one who can keep you safe is me.”
“I’ve been doing just fine on my own,” I said, my voice hard this time.
That was a bit of a stretch. I’d died what, four times now? Five? Not a great track record . . . unless you considered the part where I came back each time more powerful than before. That was pretty cool.
The look in her eyes shifted then, almost like she’d decided to try a different tact with me because the whole ‘your life is in danger’ thing clearly wasn’t working like she’d planned. “Salem,” she said, reaching for my hand.
Energy tingled through me at the touch, and once again I stepped out of her reach.
Her expression turned mournful. “I have walked this realm alone for almost four centuries, searching for you. Trying to save you. Only to be too late every time. You are my sister. The only one who is my true equal. Don’t you see? We need each other. It’s the only way we can defeat this monster.”
There was an earnest sincerity in her voice that had been lacking until now. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it, but it was obvious to me that Thana truly believed what she was saying. Then again, James had believed in what he was doing too. Belief didn’t make someone trustworthy.
“Look,” I sighed. “I have a lot going on right now. This whole monster business is just icing on the cake—and while you may be my long-lost twin—I have a brother I’m trying to save, because he’s the twin I know.”
“I’m not asking you to run away with me. I know you too well to think that would ever happen. I just want to be a part of your life again,” she said softly.
Indecision warred within me, but one thing was clear. This chick had answers. Answers about who and what I was. I couldn’t completely blow her off. Not yet.
And really, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to.
While I didn’t trust her at all, I did get the distinct impression she felt attached to me. There was a kinship of sorts. It couldn’t hurt to listen and see how this played out. I’d lost a lot of people lately . . .my eyes strayed to the spot where my father had been before he disappeared.
Maybe I could gain some too.
“I don’t trust you,” I told her.
Disappointment flashed through her expression as her lips pressed together and the corners of her eyes tightened. “I can’t change that until you let me.”
“I know.” I crossed my arms over my chest as I regarded her. A pang went through me. Something I didn’t understand, but I wanted to. “Here’s the deal. I’m interested in staying alive instead of starting all over again. Teach me what we are, how to control my powers, and how to defeat the monster. I want to know everything—the good, the bad, and the ugly.”
“That’s not something you can learn overnight,” she said.
“If it were, I’d be gravely disappointed in the universe for giving me something that easy for once,” I replied in a bland tone.
She snorted, grinning over at me. “I suppose there is that,” she said, coming closer once more. “You know, you have no memory of me. You don’t know how much we’ve been through yet. Even after all this time, though, you’re still the same.”
“Don’t be so sure,” I said, pulling away. “We might have the same face. The same origin. A shared history. But I don’t remember it. In this life, I am Salem. I had a twin brother, my best friend is a succubus, and my boyfriend is a reaper. You may have been around a while, pretending to be me—but you don’t really know me.”
“No,” she said softly, stepping up beside me. “But I will.”
My phone dinged in my pocket. I pulled it out and read the text from Graves.
“Where are you going?” she asked, following after me as I started walking toward the parking lot.
“The Council called a meeting. Every supernatural in Farrow’s Square has to be there.”
Cool fingers brushed my arm. I glanced over my shoulder.
“But you’re not a supernatural,” she said.
“Yeah, but the
y don’t know that.” I considered that for a moment as I resumed walking. “Well, most of them. The reapers have some inkling.” Pausing, I called out, “Shep?”
He popped up in front of me. “Yeah?”
“Meet me at the morgue tonight. We’re going to find you a body.”
His gaze slid sideways, toward Thana. He clearly didn’t trust her, but he kept those thoughts to himself for the moment as he nodded once, then disappeared.
“He doesn’t care for me,” she noted in a shrewd voice.
“You just barged in and claimed to be my long-lost twin from another life. He’s skeptical,” I said, making my way to the car once more. “Reasonably so.”
Reaching the Impala, I flung the door open and hopped in. On the other side of me, Thana did the same.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
“Coming with you,” she answered like it was obvious.
“You can’t come to a Council meeting.”
“Why not?”
I put on my own pair of Ray-Bans and started the car up. “Because they don’t know you, and they don’t know what I am—and I’m trying to keep it that way.”
She squinted at me. “Why?”
“Because”—I reached for words—“because they can’t know.”
“That’s a dumb reason,” she said.
“Hey! You’re the one that just said a monster is hunting me,” I argued.
“Yes,” she agreed with an emphatic nod, her tone of voice sarcastic. “The supernaturals knowing what you are won’t make a difference. The monster will find us in the end. It always does. In the meantime, I’d like to stay close to you. I know you don’t trust me, but I want to make sure you’re safe.”
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