by M K Mancos
He was halfway to her place when his phone rang.
“What’s up?” She sounded upbeat but no less concerned.
“I need to talk to you about our friend Midnight and Death, Inc. Where are you and I’ll meet you?”
“I just got on the bus. I’ll be back in about forty minutes.” There was a quick intake of breath, a muffled scream, and then the line went dead.
“Keely!”
“Sonofabitch!” Keely rammed her elbow into her assailant’s stomach. There was a muffled “oomph”, but he didn’t release her. Judging from the awful black nail polish, it was either a drag queen with poor fashion sense or Midnight. Her bet was Midnight.
The cold tip of a knife poked her in the side of the neck. “Shut up or your scything days are over.”
Good God, who writes his lines? She’d heard better copy on NPR.
If he thought she was going to shut up with her life in danger, he had to be on crack. Her cell phone had clattered to the floor when he grabbed her. Josiah stood a better chance of finding her if she kept talking. She’d not had a chance to tell him what bus she was on or where she was headed, other than Hoboken. For all he knew, she was just taken off the bus and kicked to the curb.
“So what do you plan to do with me, Midnight? Hand me over to Death, Inc?”
The knife bit into her. “How do you know I work for them?”
She craned her head to look over her shoulder as far as the blade allowed. “Do I look stupid to you?”
The arm around her waist tightened. Stale breath fanned her face. “No, you look hot as hell.”
She turned her head away again. The point pierced her skin. Warm blood trickled down her neck. “Ever hear of a toothbrush or breath mints?”
He ignored her comment and said, “At the next stop, we’re going to get off and you’re going to come with me, or you’re going to die like the bitch in the park.”
Keely had no intention of doing either. “How about if I call down the wrath of heaven on your stupid ass and have you dragged off into a dark purgatorial void somewhere?”
“You don’t have the power. The Office of Death and Dismemberment is a joke. They don’t care about their employees like Death, Inc. does.”
“Hey, I never claimed to have any power. But I have plenty of friends who do.” Samson, you better get your raggedy ass over here and save me, because Josiah’s too far away and I don’t know if I can get out of this one alone.
“Your friends have no power over us.”
That made Keely laugh. “No, my boss only created the entire universe.”
“Shut up.” The knife bit a little deeper.
The bus stopped. Midnight pulled on her arm to make her stand. “Come on.”
“Wait.” Keely said, reaching for her phone. “I dropped my phone.”
“Leave it. You won’t need it where you’re going.”
He dragged her up by the arm to stand.
“It’s a good phone,” she protested.
She made her body go limp with dead weight. The action pulled Midnight off balance. Using that as her cue, she swung her leg out, connecting her boot-shod foot with his face. Blood splattered as his lips broke open. Keely kicked him again with the other foot for good measure. His eyes closed and he went down hard in the aisle.
Keely grabbed her phone from the floor and took off. She stopped to yell at the bus driver, who hadn’t done a thing to help. Nor had the other passengers for that matter. “Next time you see a woman get attacked on one of your buses, do something, will you? For now, I’m calling the Port Authority about this incident.”
“Lady, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Keely glanced behind her, but Midnight no longer took up the middle of the aisle. Nor was he even on the bus.
“You getting off or what?” The driver held the doors open for her.
“No,” she breathed and sat down in the empty seat near the driver. “I guess not.”
With shaking fingers, she raised her phone to her ear. “Josiah, are you there?”
Nothing.
She glanced down at her phone. It was off. Damn, it must have disconnected when she dropped it. Poor Josiah would be frantic. He tended to freak out if she wasn’t where he could contact her. The thought filled her with all kinds of warm thoughts.
She dialed his cell phone.
It rang only once before he answered. “Keely? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. I think.” She chanced a glance over her shoulder. “Something really weird just happened to me.”
“But you’re all right?”
She dabbed at the knife puncture on her neck. It had stopped bleeding, but her fingers came away sticky. “I’m fine. Meet me at the bus depot in Hoboken.”
“I’m pulling in now.”
She smiled despite her earlier fear. Somehow Josiah made everything all right just by being him. “You know, if you aren’t careful, I might be in danger of falling in love with you.”
“From now on, I’ll remember to throw caution to the wind.”
Heat swirled up and lodged in her throat. Did that mean he felt the same way?
“Stay on the line with me until I get there?”
“Try to get me to hang up.”
Keely took in a deep breath and stared out the window. Maybe the Scythes weren’t all that bad. She might not have met Josiah if not for them. And that was one thing she’d never regret.
26
They’d kept up a steady debate over the similarities between Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5 until Keely stepped off the bus and directly into Josiah’s arms. After giving her a hard and thorough kissing, he pulled back and turned her face to the side to inspect the wound she hadn’t admitted to having.
Adrenaline poured through his system, making his hand shake as he held her face. “You told me you weren’t hurt.”
“It’s only a little prick from an even littler prick.”
Josiah ground his teeth together and took her book bag from her. “How did you get away from him?”
“Kicked his face in.” Keely followed him to his car, but said no more than that. Josiah took the hint and didn’t ask again until they were on the way to Water Point Station.
“Now, tell me what happened and don’t leave anything out.”
“I got on the bus and sat down. I saw your message and called you back. Next thing I know, someone in the seat behind me grabbed me.” She turned angry eyes toward him. “It was Midnight. And he said if I didn’t come with him, he’d kill me. You see how far that got him.”
Josiah couldn’t stand it a moment longer. He had to touch her. Had to verify she was sitting next to him alive and real. He ran a bent knuckle down her petal-soft cheek. “I’m glad. I thought I was going to have to tear the entire city apart, looking for you. As it was, the Port Authority Police got an earful.”
“It’s not their fault, Josiah. The bus driver claimed not to know what I was talking about and the other passengers didn’t react as if they’d seen anything either.” She twirled her hand in the air as if trying to stir up the words that failed her. “He’s got some kind of power that’s being issued by Death, Inc. He’s not your average Goth.”
That explained a lot.
“I thought maybe that was the case when I learned this morning that he’s been dead for six months and his DNA’s been found at several crime scenes in the last few weeks.” Josiah jumped on 95, taking the quick way to Water Point Station.
“So what is he? Is he one of their Reapers? Or a Scythe?” Keely shook her head, dismissing the words. “No, he’s too arrogant. He’s probably a gopher who thinks he’s king shit.”
He’d never heard her curse so much before, or at least he’d never taken note of it. The incident had rattled her cage and with good reason. The idea Midnight had her at knifepoint on a city bus with no one the wiser scared the breath right out of him. There was a real chance the man, no matter his position at Death, Inc., meant busine
ss. He’d certainly put a mark on her.
One that could have been fatal.
“How much longer until your semester ends?”
“We’re only at mid-term now, so another two months. Why?”
“I don’t want you going into the city alone until this case is resolved.” When she started to protest, he held a hand up to cut her off. “Keely, I’m not spending the next two months with my heart in my throat every time you leave the house to go to class.”
Her angry gaze softened. Damn, she drove him crazy when she looked at him like he was the only man in the world. “I’ll be careful.”
“Careful or not, the next time you might not be accosted by a horror movie extra and the knife might do a little more than nick you.” He put his hand on her arms where she’d crossed them under her breasts. He moved his hand along until he could grab hers, then he brought her fingers to his lips. He kissed them, then turned her hand over and kissed her palm.
She smoothed her hand over his mouth. “We have to do something to catch this guy. I have a feeling he’s the key to something bigger.”
And something his crew had no way to protect against or arrest. There weren’t any laws on the books that covered otherworldly beings. Even if the being in question did violate several laws of common sense and fashion.
“What do we do to catch him?” Keely asked, tucking her hand behind his neck to rub.
Tension melted away at the magic in her touch. “I’m working on it. Nothing in the conventional manner. I’m not sure my training is up for chasing felons to the afterlife.”
“You might surprise yourself. Getting the bad guy is pretty much the same no matter where you’re at.”
They turned onto Keely’s street. Cop cars and fire trucks were parked out front. Smoke billowed out from her apartment windows.
“Josiah!” The car barely rolled to a stop before she jumped out.
She was grabbed around the waist by one of the firemen. Josiah got out of the car and flashed his badge at the fireman. “She’s with me. And that’s her apartment. What happened?”
The fireman nodded to Josiah in greeting. It wasn’t someone he knew. “Neighbors reported smelling smoke and the alarms were going off.” He turned to raise a brow at Keely. “You leave anything on when you left?”
Keely narrowed her eyes at him. “I haven’t been home for four days, so no.”
A man in the crowd moved toward them. It took Josiah a moment to recognize Samson in street clothes. He’d never seen the Scythe in anything but the long black robe and cowl. Josiah hit Keely on the arm, directing her attention to her former mentor.
“Samson? Do you know what happened?” She left the fireman, who had gone back to his duties, and stalked over to the tall being.
“If they burn your residence, you have fewer places to hide. It’s a way to flush you out. We’ve put protections up around Josiah and your parents’ home.”
“They’re acting like a bunch of common thugs.” Keely pulled Samson along with her farther away from the crowd gathering outside the building. “Don’t they have anything better to do than harass me? Why am I so important?”
“You’re a mortal Scythe who killed one of their Reapers with a sickle, that makes you very important. In truth, Death, Inc. employees shouldn’t be able to die.” Samson lowered his voice so only Keely and Josiah could hear.
“They can if they’re recruited like me.” Keely pointed out.
“But they put the death in Death, Inc. Their employees aren’t mortal.” He leaned forward, lowering his voice even more. “They walk the earth between worlds. A half-life, so to speak. Neither alive nor dead.”
“Zombies,” Josiah said.
Samson canted his head to the side. “Hardly, but close.”
Keely turned toward her building, her hands fisted at her sides. “All my clothes, save the ones I took to your place are there. Almost everything I own is in that apartment. Notes from classes I’ve taken, textbooks I’ve used, reference materials.” Tears filled her eyes as she rubbed a hand over her heart. “Family pictures.”
Josiah put his arm around her, holding her to his side. “We’ll get you new things, Keely. I just thank God you weren’t at home. No telling what those monsters would have done.”
Samson shook his head. “He made sure she wasn’t there.”
“Then why worry about her at all if He can protect her?” Josiah really didn’t want to get into a doctrinal debate with Samson when he needed to be active, but the question was a damned important one.
“That is an answer I cannot give you.”
“Stop it, you two.” Keely’s face had gone pale. Her jaw tight. “I want them to pay for this.”
That’s all Josiah needed to hear.
“We really need to find where the souls go after they’ve been severed. Follow that trail and everything else falls into place.” Josiah took off to the car. “Come on, we won’t be able to get inside the building and standing here gawking at a fire isn’t going to answer our questions.”
“Where are we going?” Keely climbed in the front seat and slammed the door.
“Home to get Pugsley. He seems able to sniff the bastards at fifty yards.”
Samson got in the back and closed the door. He looked in the rearview mirror at Josiah. “I believe I’m what they call part of your posse.”
Josiah started the car with a grim smile on his face. “That you are, my friend. That you are.”
Pugsley sat in the backseat, his flat nose stuck out the window, sniffing the air as if he knew instinctually his tracking senses were needed. Dark canine eyes watched the passing cars and pedestrians as if assessing each one for a potential threat.
Keely leaned back and gave him a pat as he scanned the street. “You’re something else, Pugsley.”
He turned his head as if to say, “You bet your ass, lady.”
“He’s in working mode.” Josiah glanced at Keely as she stroked the dog. He really loved the idea his girlfriend and his dog had hit it off. Doubly so now that Keely had unofficially moved into his place.
Having her around the last few days had been like a slice of Heaven. They’d meshed their lives together with relative ease. With a legion of dead guys chasing her, it was probably kind of nonsensical to argue over bathroom vanity space or wet towels on the bathroom floor. If she stayed with him, they’d have plenty of time to iron out all those wrinkles. Not that she left towels on the floor—that was his particular flaw.
But while he had the opportunity, he should at least test the waters for a future. “It might be a few days before you’re able to go back to your place.”
Keely moved slowly, as if treading water. She visibly swallowed. “If you want, I can stay with my parents until then. I’ll have to ask you to drop me off at the storage place to get my car.”
Damn, he hadn’t meant to hurt her. He wanted her to stay with him permanently. But it was way too soon for that level of declaration.
“Sweetheart, you’re welcome to stay with me as long as you like. I just don’t want you going back to your place by yourself to get your things until the fire department gives the all clear.”
“Are you sure that’s all? I know I kind of got thrust on you.”
In the backseat, Samson cleared his throat. “There will be no moving in with the parents or thrusting of one into another’s personal space. You are where He decreed you to be at the moment and that is all you need to know for now.”
Josiah glanced at Samson in the rearview mirror. “All right. You’ve made your point. But for the record, I wasn’t going to let Keely leave without a fight.”
“You weren’t?” She peeked at him from the corner of her eye.
“Not unless you really want to go.” He squeezed her hand. “I know when I have it good.”
She gave him that angelic smile of hers, sending his heart to knock against his ribs. He really had it bad for the woman.
The mood was spoiled as Pugsley exploded into ang
ry barks.
They had just passed the entrance to an alley. Josiah tried to find a parking space along the curb, but there was nothing available until the next block. Pugsley continued to go ape shit in the backseat. His toenails screeched across the window and ripped at the upholstery, trying to get out.
“Hold him,” Josiah commanded as he opened the car and Pugsley tried to climb over the seat.
Keely held onto the bulldog’s collar. “Get a hold of yourself. We’ll get the baddies soon enough.”
Pugsley gave her a wild-eyed look.
“Dog. Here.” Samson did nothing more than snap his long fingers and Pugsley quieted. He took his front feet off the center console and stood near Samson, waiting patiently to be let out.
Josiah raised a brow. “You could have done that five minutes ago when his alarm went off.”
“We needed to be certain he wasn’t barking at a fire hydrant.” Samson slid over, opening the door by the sidewalk. Pugsley jumped out and waited for the rest of them to get out before taking off again in the direction of the alley.
Josiah and the others followed behind the crazed Pugsley. He kept his hand on his gun in case what they encountered in the alley was mortal and not of the ethereal. Both Keely and Samson had changed into their Scything costumes. Josiah refused to think of it as a uniform—there was something inherently wrong about wearing a uniform to send someone’s soul to the afterlife.
The alley was sandwiched between two brick buildings. Light shone at the end where it opened up into a parking lot. A few cars and a dumpster were parked back there, but little else. Pugsley started into the alley, his nose in the air, sniffing for all his flat nose was worth.
He spun in a circle then trotted to a side door. A series of short barks told them what they needed to know. Their prey had gone into the real estate agents’ office. Josiah hoped like hell the damn thing hadn’t decided to look for a new neighborhood to haunt.
He tried the door. It was locked. Not surprising.
“Can you get inside and look around without being seen?” Josiah asked Samson.
