Grim Girl: A Grim Reaper novel (Reaper Files Book 1)

by Nicky Graves

I didn’t want to die. Believe me, I’d rather go to trigonometry for the rest of my life than die. But this scared the hell out of me. If I knocked a vampire flat on his ass just with an initial shockwave, what else was I capable of doing to those who didn’t have his strength and immortality?

  “You need time to calm down,” Lawson said, taking my hand and shifting us to a living room I had never seen before. While Ranger’s was filled with large, old furniture with a hint of bachelor bad taste, this one was welcoming, with warm and neutral colors and cushiony furniture. It felt safe. Calming.

  “Where are we?”

  “My place in the dead zone. You can stay here tonight. The time difference will let you rest for longer.”

  “What about my family?”

  “Ranger’s there.”

  That only made me feel slightly better, but I was too exhausted to put up a fuss.

  “You can have my bed,” he said.

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll be out for a while. I have a few questions to ask and a vampire to kill.”

  He led me down the hall to a bedroom. I had never really given a thought to what Lawson’s pod would look like. But I was pleasantly surprised at how cozy his place was. His bedroom was decorated in darker tones than the living room, and the bed looked soft and comfortable.

  The room suddenly felt a lot more intimate than I was comfortable with. Seeing inside of his pod was like looking inside Lawson. He was always so closed off that this felt like a forbidden treat.

  “Will this be okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I said, not wanting to voice my thoughts. “But I need to go home and get different clothes. I’m sweaty.”

  He looked in his closet and pulled out one of his T-shirts. “Will this do?”

  I nodded.

  “Bathroom’s over there,” he said, pointing to a door on the other side of the room.

  “Lawson, how did we shift inside of your pod when we couldn’t do that anywhere else?”

  “It’s my pod. I can shift directly inside of it.” He turned me to the bathroom. “Go. I’ll be back soon.”

  Just as I was about to thank him, he shifted, leaving me alone in his room.

  Wandering to the bathroom, I found it similar to Earth bathrooms. But the shower was something that looked like it had come from heaven.

  Peeling off my clothes, I stepped into the large glass box and pressed the temperature button. It lit up a panel that gave options on different degrees, spray heads, and pressure.

  I played with it until I created the perfect blend. I wanted to stay in the shower forever and never come out. Never face reality.

  I wasn’t sure when I started crying, but soon I was sniffling and shaking all over again, which irritated the hell out of me. I wasn’t some blubbering princess. I was training to become a reaper. I needed to be strong. I needed to be a protector for my family. I needed to be stronger than the blue stone and Azrael. And yet, in that shower, I felt like the smallest, most insignificant person in the world.

  17

  I wasn’t sure what it was about Lawson’s place that made me feel safe. But it did. I fell asleep as soon as I slipped into his bed and buried myself under the covers. His scent was on the pillows, surrounding me. Earthy mixed with coffee and something else. Not rancid like Vance had said reapers smelled.

  It only felt like minutes after I fell asleep that Lawson shook me awake. I peeked out from the covers to find him staring down at me. A hardness was set in his eyes.

  “What happened?” I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

  “Time to go.”

  “I just got here.”

  “You’ve been asleep for ten hours.”

  I jolted up. “Ten?”

  “It’s okay. I wanted you to sleep. But let’s get you back before you’re discovered missing.”

  I stood and grabbed my discarded clothes. “Do you want me to change now or give you back your shirt later?”

  “Later,” he said, holding out his hand.

  I clasped my hand with his and we arrived in my bedroom. The room was dim. The sun barely poked out from the horizon.

  “What about Vance?” I asked. “Will he come back?”

  “I didn’t find him. But I will. I doubt he’ll come back. He’s never been a fan of working for his food.”

  “I thought vampires couldn’t come in a home unless you invite them. I didn’t invite Vance.”

  “Vampires don’t have rules. They don’t give a damn about garlic or crosses. The only thing they have an aversion to is the sun, but even that won’t stop them. Just lay low.” He put something in my hand. “Your phone.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “What do you want me to do today?”

  “Go to school,” he said. “Boomer and I are going to round up as many reapers as we can.”

  “Round up reapers?” I questioned. “What’s going on? Did the elders finally come to a decision?”

  “For whatever reason, the Elder Council is stalling. I’m moving on without them. If we get enough reapers on our side, it might make Azrael back down.”

  “Might?”

  “He has allies that he can summon.”

  “Sounds like a horrible plan,” I said. “Why is the Elder Council stalling?”

  His silence spoke volumes.

  “The Elder Council doesn’t want to help,” I surmised.

  “Some of them do. Some don’t.”

  “Why don’t some want to help?”

  “Just like politics on Earth, there will always be those who oppose.”

  “So we’re on our own?”

  “Not entirely. There are those who know it’s not just about protecting you and your family. It’s about protecting the stone.”

  “This sounds a lot like a war is brewing,” I said.

  He didn’t say anything.

  “What can you even do against Azrael and the blank reapers?”

  “Reapers have been able to keep them at bay before.”

  “Before?”

  “This isn’t the first time that we’ve had to go against Azrael.”

  “But he can kill reapers.”

  “Yeah, but only one at a time. As long as he doesn’t have the stone.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel better.”

  “I’m just saying, he can’t wipe us out in one fight.”

  “Shouldn’t we all be on the same side?”

  “Power and age change reapers. We’re mostly on the same side, but with a lot of disagreements. Reapers aren’t perfect, and it sucks sometimes to be stuck in our position. We could let Azrael and the blank reapers run wild, but could you imagine a world like that?”

  “I could. It wouldn’t be pretty.”

  “Exactly. There are enough of us that want to save humanity.”

  “There’s still another option,” I said. “I die. You take back the stone and hide it.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about it. If you died, you would turn into a reaper before the stone could be taken. It would stay with you.”

  “Forever?”

  He nodded.

  “But the guardians were able to take it from Azrael. Can’t you do the same?”

  “It was taken from his scythe, not his body. I have no idea how to extract it. But I’ve requested the librarian to research it as another possibility. We’ll keep working on this, but right now, we have to take a stand.”

  I didn’t expect much from the librarian. He wasn’t the most helpful.

  When I didn’t say anything, Lawson said, “I know this is all new and you might be nervous. We all are. But the stone bonded with you. It chose you. It didn’t have to. You are destined to be the first female reaper and possess a stone that only Azrael could wield. The more I think about it, the more I’m coming to understand this was probably meant to happen. Whether it is now or a thousand years from now, I think you were meant to have the stone.”

  I gave a nod even though I felt like yakking. S
eriously, how was an ancient stone meant for me? Lawson was probably just trying to be kind and give me a pep talk.

  “So, even if I die, I keep the stone. But what if Azrael kills me in my immortal body?”

  “I don’t know. There are too many uncertainties. Don’t think about it for now,” Lawson said. “I’ll be in touch. Just keep an eye out. Azrael or his blanks could be watching our every move.” Lawson shifted, leaving me in the room alone.

  “What?” I said to the empty room.

  Watching our every move? It was a good thing I’d had a decent sleep at Lawson’s place because I didn’t think I was ever going to sleep again.

  It was hard to concentrate on anything at school. Larue noticed a change in my behavior and told me several times to go see the school nurse.

  “I’m worried about you,” Larue said. “The last few weeks you haven’t been yourself.”

  “I’m fine,” I said for the hundredth time.

  Hitching my backpack up on my shoulder, we walked outside.

  She studied me for a moment. “You’re hiding something from me,” she said. “Remember in second grade? I knew then you were hiding stolen cookies, and I know now when you’re keeping something from me.”

  I didn’t think my past thievery and my current problem were quite the same thing, but I didn’t want to debate that with her.

  “I think it’s just senioritis,” I said, grappling for an excuse. “I want school to be done.”

  “Done? We still have college.”

  “You do.”

  She raised a brow. “We talked about this. You can still go to a community college and then transfer to a university after a year or two.”

  I really wanted to tell Larue everything. This whole reaper thing was putting a strain on our friendship. But I feared that if I told her, she’d never talk to me again.

  “Do you believe in reapers?” I asked.

  “Like the Grim Reaper?”

  “Yes.”

  She looked thoughtful for a moment, and I could tell she was formulating her argument against the existence of reapers without attacking me. Even as a kid on the playground she had been the peacekeeper.

  As we walked down the sidewalk, I noticed a classic blue muscle car up ahead. There was a man sitting in it with long black hair and a short beard. He was probably older than Ranger looked. I wasn’t sure why I noticed him. Maybe it was because I had never seen the muscle car in town before. The cars here were standard stock and mostly rusted.

  “I don’t know if I believe in the Grim Reaper,” Larue finally said. “That’s like asking if I believe in ghosts.”

  “Do you?”

  “Not really. Many people claim to have seen them, but I don’t believe in them. I mean, you did have that weird episode at the park. But I think that was just stress-related.”

  “It wasn’t stress-related.”

  She stopped. “Wait . . . so you believe in ghosts?”

  I kept walking, wanting to distance myself farther from the blue car. Lawson should have never told me Azrael might be watching me. Now I was projecting him on the guy in the car.

  Larue hurried to catch up with me. “You believe in ghosts?”

  “And reapers. And demons. And vampires.”

  She laughed with a snort. “You had me scared for a minute. Now I know you’re kidding.”

  “I wish I was,” I said. “Can I tell you something that will sound completely insane?”

  When she saw I was serious, the smile fell from her face. “You can tell me anything.”

  I weighed the consequence of spilling my guts. I needed someone on my side. Someone who had known me practically my entire life.

  However, I still wasn’t sure if it was the wisest move. Larue could think I was a lunatic and tell my mom I needed psychiatric help. The reapers could get mad at me for telling a mortal. But I was still mortal. And what could they do to me that was worse than the predicament I was already in?

  “You brought up the day in the park with the dead guy,” I said.

  “Yeah. It still makes me shiver.”

  “I’ve been getting this feeling in my gut when someone nearby is going to die. It’s something new. I just started feeling it in the last couple of months. I saw a reaper.”

  “A reaper? Like a cloaked skeleton with a scythe?”

  “No. He looks like a normal human. Well, maybe ‘normal’ isn’t quite accurate for Boomer.”

  “Boomer?”

  “The reaper. His name is Boomer. He’s the one I met first.”

  “First? There are more?”

  I nodded. I didn’t want to continue the conversation. I could already tell by her voice that she was having a hard time accepting what I was saying as the truth.

  “Never mind,” I said.

  “Maybe you should talk to your mom,” Larue suggested.

  “No, she wouldn’t understand. I was hoping you would.”

  “I’m trying. But I just don’t know if I can believe it.”

  “I know.” It was a lot to ask of someone. And it was just the tip of the iceberg. How would Larue believe anything else I told her?

  We turned the corner and I noticed an old blue car sitting up ahead. There was no way there were two of those exact cars in my small town.

  “Does that guy look familiar to you?” I asked. Maybe Larue knew him and I was on the verge of panicking for nothing.

  “What guy?”

  “The one in the blue muscle car.”

  “There’s no one in that car.”

  I halted.

  She noticed I stopped, and she looked at me. “What’s wrong?”

  “I think I forgot something at school,” I said. “Why don’t you go home? I’ll call you later.” I didn’t want Larue caught in the middle of this. We needed to split up in case Azrael or one of his blanks attacked me.

  “I don’t think I should leave you alone,” she said. “You’re not acting like yourself.”

  The guy in the car couldn’t be Azrael. He had been cloaked with smoke snakes billowing from him. This guy looked more like someone who enjoyed heavy metal and dirty bars. But if Larue couldn’t see him, he was obviously a reaper, a blank, or something else.

  “Let’s just go to your house,” Larue insisted. “Whatever you forgot at school can wait.”

  I wasn’t sure how to shake Larue. I had brought out the mother hen in her, and she was going to stick with me until she was sure I was okay. But I really didn’t want to lead the guy to my house, nor to Larue’s house.

  “I’d rather go to the café,” I said.

  Larue frowned but then nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Maybe then you can tell me more. And Finn might be there.”

  “Great,” I said, trying to feign enthusiasm but falling short.

  “You don’t like him.”

  “I do. He seems nice.”

  “Then why don’t you like hanging out with him?”

  “Because we don’t have anything in common except you. But I did say I would go to the party.”

  She looked at me, and I could see her overactive brain coming up with ways of making me best buds with Finn.

  I sighed. “Just give it time. You can’t force relationships.”

  “I know. But you’re my best friend and I really like Finn. I want to hang out with both of you and not have to choose.”

  We turned the corner and headed to the town square.

  When we reached the café, the old blue car was sitting right outside.

  “Isn’t that the same car?” Larue asked, confused.

  “Yes.”

  “But how did it get over here and not pass us?”

  “Must have taken a different road.”

  I tried not to make eye contact with the man sitting inside, but I wished I knew who I was dealing with.

  We walked inside the café. Finn was there with Dane. They were at a crowded table with other friends. And Chloe.

  Larue and I were given a tepid reception by some of them and
an arctic blast from Chloe. But Finn and Dane seemed happy to see Larue as well as me.

  I headed to the counter to order an Italian soda while waiting for Larue, who was talking to Finn. I thought about leaving. Larue could then spend time with Finn, and I could try to figure out who was following me. However, I’d hang out for a little while to make sure nothing happened.

  After I paid for my soda, I walked to a table on the other side of the café—as far away from Chloe as I could get—and pulled out my phone. I sent a text to Lawson. Someone is following me in an old blue car. Only I can see him.

  As I put the phone on the table while waiting for a response, I looked up to find Dane walking over to me.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Hey.”

  “Did you want to sit with us?” he asked. “No one bites.”

  Obviously he didn’t know Chloe very well. “I’ll come over in a minute. I’m waiting for a text.”

  “Oh, okay. Larue said you were going to be at the party.”

  I nodded.

  “I’ll see you there, then.”

  “Yes,” I said. “Definitely.”

  He gave a nod and then returned to his friends.

  I felt bad. Normally, I’d have been happy to talk to him, but now he was just a liability. Everyone was.

  It made me angry. They had no idea how lucky they were to have regular teenage problems. And that made me angry at myself. I used to have regular teenage problems and I hadn’t wanted them. Now, I wished life was back to normal.

  I glanced at my phone. There wasn’t a response. I wondered if it was because Lawson was busy or if there was a delay in inter-realm communication.

  Larue sat down, grinning ear to ear. “You’ll never guess what happened.”

  “What?”

  “Finn introduced me to someone as his girlfriend!” she said with a small squeal.

  “I thought he was already your boyfriend.”

  “It was never stated,” she said. “So it wasn’t official. Now it is. I can’t believe it!”

  I smiled for her. “I’m happy for you.”

  “I saw Dane come over here,” she said with a sly look. “Am I going on a double date with you soon?”

  “Don’t get excited. He just said hello.”

  Still, Larue looked as if she was going to fall out of her seat with excitement. She was hoping for something that couldn’t happen. There would be no double dates in my future.