Life After: The Complete Series

by Julie Hall

  “No, as a matter of fact, I brought you here to teach you to do that.”

  He pointed. I brought a hand up to my brow to block the sun and spotted a person on a bright blue-and-green board gracefully riding a wave. He agilely cut the board to the left and right to stay on the wave and rode it back to shallower waters.

  Immediately, anything demon related was forgotten as I jumped to my feet in excitement.

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about! Where do we start?”

  Logan took his time getting to his feet, brushing the loose sand off.

  “I’m glad I found something you can be enthusiastic about.”

  He reached down to the duffel bag he’d brought with him and fished out two wetsuits. I eyed them skeptically. They didn’t look particularly comfortable or fashionable. He tossed one at me. I managed to grab the suit before getting slapped in the face with it.

  “First, you need to get your bathing suit and that on.” He nodded at the black bundle in my hand.

  “Why aren’t you just materializing yours?”

  “Ah, that’s another thing about Earth. It takes a lot of skill and time to learn to do that here. It’s a handy trick to have back home, but it probably won’t do you very much good here. You have to bring all your supplies with you. Only what you bring with you will remain invisible to the people here. We can’t just pick up a weapon off the ground. We need to use one we’ve brought with us so people don’t see a crowbar or baseball bat floating in the air. But don’t worry; we stash weapons from home around so that anyone who needs them can find them in a pinch.”

  I picked up on probably the most unimportant part of the explanation.

  “So you’re telling me other people can do something you can’t.”

  Logan, smart enough to realize I was trying to bait him, just rolled his eyes and pointed a finger behind me.

  “Girls’ bathroom is that way.”

  I rolled my eyes back at him and headed in the direction he’d pointed.

  After getting changed, I rushed back to the beach. The wetsuit, a rather thick unitard, was not as uncomfortable as I’d imagined. Unfortunately, it was twice as unattractive. I shouldn’t have worried since Logan was the only one who could see me, but I was still pretty self-conscious about how ridiculous I looked.

  Logan was down the beach a little way waxing up one of the boards. The other lay flat in the sand. I was slightly disappointed that he didn’t look half as silly as I felt wearing a wetsuit. But his didn’t cover everything from his wrists to his ankles like mine. It was T-shirt style and only went down to his knees. It clung to him like a second skin and showed off all of his lean muscles. More than that, for once he truly looked relaxed.

  He stopped working on the board when I walked up.

  “Great, you’re ready. Have you ever been surfing before?”

  I gave him what I hoped was a scolding look.

  He winced. “Whoops, sorry about that. I forgot you wouldn’t remember. I think we should assume we’re starting from square one. The most important thing about surfing is balance. That’s why I think this will be a great training exercise for you: if you can learn better balance on a surfboard, it’ll help with your balance when fighting.”

  “Hey, what’s wrong with my balance?” I put my hands on my hips in mock annoyance.

  Logan shot me a bland look before continuing. “So as I was saying, balance is the first building block you need to become a good fighter. You need to be in control of your body at all times. Surfing will help you get a feel for your core so that, when there are variables on the outside that are changing, you are still in control.”

  “All right, I’m ready. Let’s go.” I grabbed the board he wasn’t working on, hefted it under my arm, and turned toward the surf. Before I could get two steps, Logan grabbed my arm to stop me.

  “Hold on there. The lesson starts on land.”

  The water called to me. I stuck my lower lip out in a pout and set the board back down as I gave the ocean a longing look.

  Logan laughed. “Oh come on, don’t look like that. You look like a puppy that just got his favorite toy taken away.”

  I put a hand on my hip. “You know it’s an incredible tease to be this close and not be able to enjoy it. You just had to find a way to torture me, didn’t you?”

  Logan laughed harder. “Yes, that’s it, Audrey. I’m here solely to make you miserable.”

  I had to laugh too, despite my annoyance. “Just as I thought. At least you’ve finally admitted it. And I don’t really appreciate being compared to a dog.”

  He got in another short laugh. “Duly noted. Now let’s get started. The faster you catch on, the quicker we can get in the water.”

  That was motivation enough for me.

  10

  The Great Escape

  When Logan finally gave me the okay to pick up the board and paddle out into the surf, the water felt as amazing as I’d thought it would. We had spent an hour on the beach as he proceeded to teach me every idiosyncrasy of surfing—including its history. The lengthy wait in my black wetsuit made getting in the water as refreshing as a long drink of iced lemonade on a hot summer’s day. I used my arms to paddle out past the breakwater. Although breathing heavily when I finally made the distance, the peaceful surroundings engulfed me. Sitting upright on the board and letting my feet dangle on either side in the water, I took in the vastness of the ocean in front of me.

  Logan paddled up beside me.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  I just nodded. With all the wonders in the afterlife, seeing the ocean sparkling in the sunlight still took my breath away.

  “It’s hard to imagine that people would deny a Creator with all the beauty around them. This doesn’t just happen by chance. His fingerprints are all over this world.”

  I took a deep breath to process his words. There was a lot of wisdom in what he said. “Did you enjoy the ocean this much when you were alive?”

  It was the first time I’d ever asked Logan anything about his life on Earth. It was the first time I’d ever cared enough to ask. I turned my head to study him while I waited for a response.

  His eyes stayed on the horizon, his expression unreadable. His stoic face safely locked in place. “Yeah, I used to come here a lot. My family owned a home not too far down the beach. This used to be one of my favorite spots.”

  Here? Logan used to live here? I was equally surprised that he was comfortable bringing me to this spot. I looked toward the shore and tried to imagine Logan as a kid running along the beach. It was difficult to envision him so carefree.

  “Let’s get started,” he said, interrupting my thoughts. And with that, Teacher Logan was back. He launched into another lecture on surfing that I was forced to wait out until trying the real thing.

  Three hours later, I lay in the sand exhausted. I didn’t even care that my hair was covered in sand or that there was a beach crab getting dangerously close to my foot. I was wet, tired, and happy. The surfing had been harder than I anticipated, but I thought I’d done okay. There were times when it felt as if I was flying along the surface like a bird. Eventually my body just gave out on me, and I started making stupid mistakes. Logan picked up on it and called it a day. We both rode a wave toward the shore. I’d pulled my board up onto the sand and collapsed. Logan had taken a moment to look out at the water before setting his board carefully in the sand and taking a seat next to me. As usual, he hardly looked winded. I was too content to care.

  “That was fun! Definitely my kind of workout!”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it. It’s good to see that when you’re properly motivated you’re not so much of a klutz.”

  The backhanded compliment warmed something inside me, and I smiled.

  Logan reached up and unzipped the back of his wetsuit, peeling it off to his waist. I almost gasped in surprise at the angry scar that ran diagonally from his left shoulder blade down to his ribs on the right. It looked as if the
flesh had been torn from his back. What could make a wound that large? It was the first scar or deformity of any kind I’d seen since entering the afterlife.

  I resisted the urge to reach out a hand and trace the scar. Logan looked back at me. If he guessed at what I had been staring at, he didn’t let on.

  “You ready to get back? I think it’s probably about time we got going.”

  I let out a deep sigh. “If we have to.”

  The beach was almost deserted. From the position of the sun, I guessed we had an hour of daylight left, if that. I pushed myself up to a sitting position and tried not to stare at Logan’s bare chest. I had to admit it was pretty distracting. My gosh, the boy probably doesn’t even realize what effect he could have on girls because he’s cooped up in the gym all day.

  I tore my eyes from Logan to stand. Now that we were out of the water, I was equally eager to get my wetsuit off. I reached up to pull the zipper down my back and started to peel the wetsuit from my upper body.

  “What are you doing?” Logan sounded startled.

  I stopped in the middle of peeling off the right arm. “What?” I looked down at myself and then around at the beach. What was the big deal?

  “Don’t you want to go to the bathroom or something to do that?”

  Huh? “I’m just taking off the wetsuit. I’ve got my bathing suit on underneath.” I didn’t know why, but I became a little defensive. “I’ll get all my clean stuff nasty if I don’t take it off here. It’s not as if you’ve never seen anyone in a bathing suit before.” And because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut yet again, I added, “Besides, you look practically naked in that thing yourself.”

  I gestured to his upper torso as I continued to peel the wet material from my skin. Geez, I was even wearing a one-piece. Would his head have exploded if I’d worn a bikini? The thought made me chuckle and lightened my mood.

  Although he tried to hide it, Logan looked anything but relaxed. He sat rigidly in the sand with his face trained on the ocean. He might have been a shade or two redder than normal. I was enjoying the idea of making him uncomfortable. Served him right.

  All of a sudden he made a huffing sound and pushed himself gruffly to his feet. “Whatever. I’m going to put these boards back. I’ll see you back here when you finish getting changed.”

  Logan grabbed my board as I struggled to get the suit off my legs and stomped up the beach. Seriously, what was his problem?

  In a moment I was free of the wetsuit and feeling very sandy and salty. I’d seen showers in the bathroom and decided I deserved the extra time to wash off the grit. I didn’t see Logan anywhere. Oh well, I thought, and made my way to the bathrooms.

  The shower felt heavenly. I wasn’t sure what the people there were seeing—probably just a broken shower steaming up the bathroom—but at that moment, there was nothing nicer than the feeling of clean water washing away the sand and salt from my body.

  When I got out, I pulled the towel from my bag, dried off, and quickly put my clothes back on. I sent a silent thanks to Romona for convincing me to bring the bag of extra things. She must have known what we were going to do. I spent a few extra moments working knots out of my long hair, especially happy I’d thought to put a brush in my bag. With my hair down so it could air-dry, I exited the bathroom carrying my bathing and wet suits in my hand.

  More time had passed than I realized. The sun was already setting over the water as I traversed the cooling sand. Huh, guess that means we must be on the west coast somewhere. My money’s on California.

  The sky was a mixture of purples and pinks that faded to orange and gold toward the horizon where the sun made its final farewell for the day. As breathtaking as it was, I didn’t take too much time to admire it. Logan was likely impatient for my return. In my mind’s eye I saw him leaning up against a post with his arms crossed against his chest in frustration. I swiveled my head to find him, but the beach was almost empty. I couldn’t see him anywhere.

  Suddenly, a bad feeling clenched my chest. It was as if I smelled something wrong in the air. But it wasn’t a smell at all. It was something icky trying to burrow its way into my brain. I looked around frantically to locate the source. I could have sworn there was a pressure against my head, but when I turned there was no one there. My breathing picked up as my mind went wild with possible explanations.

  Out of nowhere Logan appeared, grabbed my hand, and jerked me into a run. It was difficult to sprint across the sand, especially carrying a bundle of wet things and a pack, but I somehow managed to keep up. When we reached the road and rounded a corner, I was finally able to yank my hand free.

  “What in the world was that all about?”

  Logan looked at me with the familiar annoyed look. “Keep walking.”

  “Logan, what’s going on?”

  He refused to look at me as his eyes scanned the area. He spoke more to himself than me. “I know there’s a boardwalk around here, not too far away. We just need to get there.”

  “Logan!” I shouted this time. “What was that back there?”

  I slowed down, forcing him to look back at me. He finally did.

  “It was a demon. We have to keep moving.”

  I stumbled on nothing when he said “demon” and took a few quick steps to steady myself. This wasn’t the time for questions, but I had a million of them. A cord of dread grew thicker in my gut. Logan looked concerned, and if he was concerned, I was sure there was cause to be.

  “Did it see us? Does it know we’re here?” I took a quick look around us, suddenly convinced we were going to be attacked at any minute. My imagination was running ahead of me, but I didn’t know how to stop it.

  “I’m not sure. If we get to a group of people, we should be able to blend in. Usually, the only way they can distinguish us—when we aren’t in body armor—is that we can see them. If we blend in naturally, there’s a chance the demon won’t realize we’re here.”

  We were still walking at a fast clip. Logan continued, “Getting back isn’t as easy as getting down to Earth. We have to get a lift back from an angel. One was scheduled to get us on the beach, but we can’t wait for her there anymore. We’ll have to go to the backup location after we’ve lost the demon.”

  My mind was spinning. There was so much I didn’t know.

  “Don’t you want to, maybe, stay and fight it or something?”

  Although that was the last thing I wanted to do, I wondered why we were running. Weren’t we supposed to be fighting? Wasn’t that what we were, demon hunters?

  Logan’s eyes flicked toward me for a moment before scanning the area.

  “We aren’t prepared, Audrey. We don’t have any weapons, we have no armor. You’re almost completely untrained. This isn’t a time we want to meet a demon.”

  He suddenly grabbed my hand again. “Quick, it’s this way, I’m sure.”

  We made a sharp turn to the left around a small dune, and sure enough, there was a bustling little boardwalk up ahead. The lights were just coming on with the darkening sky, and it was filled with people. It was exactly what we needed to blend in. I started to get giddy with renewed hope, but a moment later, I sensed the demon again: the smell that wasn’t a smell, the dark pressure on me. It pushed against me from behind.

  “Logan . . .” Something in the tone of my voice made him turn to me. “I can feel it coming.”

  Logan looked less worried and more determined and gave my hand a quick squeeze as he pulled me forward.

  “We’re almost there.” It was all he said, as if getting somewhere would mean we were safe.

  And he was right. We stepped onto the planks of the boardwalk and were swallowed into the crowd. I was relieved for about two seconds until I realized the crowd was parting around us, just like Logan had said they would. There was something wrong with this. We were still too conspicuous to hide, and I felt the demon behind, stalking us from the beach. We needed to go somewhere more private but still busy, somewhere where it wouldn’t look weird to have
people avoiding us.

  Logan must have been thinking the same thing, because he quickly pulled us toward the opposite side of the boardwalk where it was slightly less crowded. It took all my willpower not to look behind us. The fine hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and the non-smell was getting worse.

  We walked by some of the less popular stands on the boardwalk. Logan kept me moving at a quick pace. I dug in my heels all of a sudden and tugged on Logan’s hand to get him to look at me.

  “Logan, we have to stop running. It just makes us look more obvious.”

  It went against every instinct I had not to break out at a full run in the opposite direction of the demon, but I knew I was right. Logan looked at me doubtfully but stopped, and together, we started again at a slower pace. What could we possibly do to blend in with normal living humans? And then a thought came to me.

  To our left there was a space between two stands that was slightly dark but still partially lit by the boardwalk’s bright lights. Impulse took over, and I went for it. I caught Logan by surprise enough to drag him in after me.

  “What the . . .” was all Logan was able to get out before I crushed his mouth with my lips. My face heated with embarrassment, but I willed him to understand what I was doing. No such luck. He was an unmovable statue, with his arms tense to his sides and his feet rooted to the ground. He obviously wasn’t catching on. This wasn’t going to work if he couldn’t play along.

  I pulled back enough from the fake kiss to urgently whisper, “Put your arms around me.” When he didn’t immediately comply, I whispered the command more forcefully, “NOW!” and stomped on his foot for emphasis.

  Something finally roused in him. His arms obediently slid around my waist, and he pulled me closer. I reached a hand around the back of his neck to bring his mouth back down toward mine and kissed him like my life depended on it.

  As Logan suppressed his surprise and regained control of himself, he also captured control of the kiss and softened it. As his lips molded to mine, I tried hard not to think about how soft they were. When he tilted his head to change the pressure, I tried hard not to notice that he tasted like peppermint and that my lips were now tingling a little. With a mind of its own, my hand moved up the back of his neck to bury in his thick hair. One of Logan’s hands slid up my arm to cup the side of my face, leaving goosebumps in its wake. His other tightened around my waist to pull me even closer. He tilted his mouth to deepen the kiss as his thumb slid under my chin to stroke the sensitive skin there.