Dead Reaper Walking

by Mina Carter

  Except bones weren’t black. And they didn’t squirm like snakes.

  Not-gonna-throw-up, not-gonna-throw-up, I chanted to myself as we danced around each other. I fucking hate snakes. I hate demons as well. So freaking demon snake bones? Fuck that shit, this bitch was going down.

  She, it, was fast as all hell. Those claws got close to kissing my skin more times than I was comfortable with. I drew more and more power from the Grimm, until it felt like my veins would explode. The shade wasn’t much help. This fucker was too quick for that. No sooner had I disappeared and it was ready to swipe at me wherever I reappeared. There was no way it could see me in there, so it had to be just that damn fast.

  “You’ve already lossssst.”

  Now the skin was torn, its disguise was breaking down. The sibilant hiss almost obliterated the words as it circled me. Troy and the girl were huddled behind me but the demon had its eye on them all the time. Shit. How was I going to get them out? I had one blade, the bike was toast without a rider and this fucker was fast.

  It hissed and slid to the side to try and get around me on my unarmed side. Spying a table leg, I hooked it with my foot and kicked it up. My hand closed around the end and I swung it like a bat. It caught the demon across the cheek. The creature whirled like a spinning top. Blood and a couple of teeth hit the wall.

  “Yeah? Looks like team Liberty is doing pretty good from where I’m standing.” I spun the blade around the back of my hand, like I had a thousand times before, and slashed through the air at the demon’s face. It dodged backward, its spine crunching at the back-breaking movement. “But you were really fucking dumb kidnapping a cop, weren’t you?”

  That was the thing I couldn’t work out. It had Tiffany, why take Troy as well?

  “Seeeeers…need seers. Virgin blood and seers.” The demon giggled, dancing in front of me and casting lustful glances at Troy and the girl. “Everyone knows that, reaper-girl. Blood is power. Need blood. Want blood.”

  The demon’s eyes glazed over as it fixated on the word, stroking a blackened, forked tongue over its lips. Great. All we needed was for it to start craving brains. It danced too close so I punched it in the face. The nose broke with a satisfying crunch, splattering blood all over its face.

  “There you go. Problem fixed.”

  It staggered back, and its snarl of rage echoed around the room. An odd echo, like there were two—

  “On your right!” Troy’s shout alerted me and I ducked a second before claws tore the air where my head had been. I twisted and lashed out automatically, my booted foot catching the new opponent in the middle of a way-too-spongey-to-be-healthy mid-section.

  “What the fuck?”

  I skipped back, not bothering to conceal the surprise on my face. Twin demons. Okay, I admit it. I hadn't seen that coming.

  "See, human? You can't win," it cackled, the mouths moving in unison. They separated, trying to catch me in a pincer maneuver. I did the only thing I could and backed up.

  "Troy. Get the girl, out the window," I ordered, my voice deadly serious. Yay, go me. I sounded cool, calm, and collected, even though deep down I was shitting bricks.

  "Can't win. Can't win." The demon on my left caroled. I swung the chair leg again when it sidled forward and knocked a few more teeth out. Behind me, someone stumbled, the soft cry of pain telling me it was Tiffany.

  The one on the right still looked like an old lady, rather than a nightmare wearing an old lady. I frowned. All my senses told me we were dealing with just one demon, so how was it controlling both of them?

  The Grimm nudged me so I flicked my vision to the shade. In the grayscape, I could see clearer. The first possessed sister’s body I'd been fighting was rife with corruption. To my enhanced vision it was a blackened skeleton—the soul long departed, but the second body interested me more.

  Unlike the first, it was barely touched by corruption. Thin, black lines that looked like veins crisscrossed the skin. Like a cage. The streaks grew thicker and darker down one leg until they covered the foot completely. A tendril broke away from the heel and snaked toward the other body, disappearing into the black mass of corruption that was its foot.

  I blinked. I'd heard of joined at the hip but this was ridiculous. They were tethered. Like demon wifi or something. Even worse, within the caged black veins was the weak glow of a soul.

  Shit. She was still alive. Just. That upped the stakes. I couldn’t let it claim another soul. No way. No how.

  “You really think it’s that easy, reaper?”

  The one with the soul tilted its head and watched me with interest. Lifting a hand, it made a gesture and all sounds of motion behind me ceased. My heart lurched, stomach hitting the floor and eased back, turning so I could see both the demon twins and the window. Troy and Tiffany were outlined in the busted window frame, but instead of scrambling out as quickly as their legs would take them, they were motionless. Frozen in place.

  “Get out of here!” I yelled, taking another swipe at Toothy and Decayed. It hissed and blocked my blow, knocking the wood out of my hand. It clattered against the wall as I ducked another blow.

  But they didn’t. Instead both turned around, going to stand next to the demons.

  “Troy! What the fuck are you doing?” I tried to get between them, but the vacant, glassy expressions in their eyes warned me off. I backed up as far as I could and looked from one to the other. I blinked, pulling up the grayscape. Shit. Two more tethers joined Troy and Tiffany to the first demon. These were fainter than the first. Gray instead of black. Less of a link, but a controlling one all the same.

  “You seeeee?” Toothy sang, amusement in its voice. “They’re already dead, or will be soon…there’s no way you can stop that, little girl. Same as you can’t stop us opening the gate.”

  The world slowed to a stop, the time between one heartbeat and the next, an eternity, as the reality of the situation spread. This was it. I was it. The one person who could stop this from happening. Save the day, get the guy…you name it. Me.

  My gaze latched onto Troy’s battered face and the dead eyes, and fear paralyzed me, locking my muscles tight. I’m a reaper, yes, but all that means is I have a fancy family tree with something not human way back when. My throat tightened. I couldn’t do this, how could I go against two demons and save anyone? I would lose Troy. The gate would be open and the town victim to whatever came out of the third hell. People, lots of people, would die.

  I’d failed as a reaper. As a person. Tears welled, blazing hot trails down my cheeks.

  As the depressing thoughts burrowed into my brain, the Grimm fought back. It’s always been in the back of my mind. A separate thing, consciousness, call it what you will. It was not a part of me until I got the call to be a reaper.

  Now it was in the front of my mind. The second I started to plunge into panic, it surged forward, overturning the thoughts and exposing them as the demon’s manipulation. My eyes narrowed and I shot it a glare.

  “Nice try, ugly. Not gonna work. Because you forgot one thing.”

  The demon blinked. “Oh?”

  “Sure, you’ve got the seers. Virgin blood and human sacrifice…yadda, yadda.”

  I swirled my remaining sickle and let go of my human mask. I reached for the Grimm, no longer holding it separate in my mind but grabbing it and shoving it deep within me, into a dark pit where my soul would be if I were human. The world exploded behind my eyes, all of human history surging through me. Every death was there, every death to come. All filed away. All mine. Everything.

  In that heartbeat, everything made sense.

  I’m not a descendant of the Grim Reaper. My bloodline is pure. Undiluted.

  I am the Grim Reaper.

  Opening my eyes, I smiled. The sickle in my flesh-less hand extended to a scythe, and when I spoke, it wasn’t a human voice that emerged.

  “You need death to open the gate. And guess who controls death?”

  I swung the scythe, my new robes swishing and
the demon’s head fell to the floor. It rolled toward me and I stopped it with a booted foot. The second demon swayed on the spot, looking at its headless companion with surprise. Then it looked at me and its expression crumpled.

  “No! No fair. You were supposed to be just a reaper!” It howled in frustration. “Just a reaper, not Death itself!”

  In the grayscape, the broken tether flailed around like a whip, looking for a new attachment. Something to power the part of the demon hidden in the body.

  “Yeah, well, thems the breaks, kid.” I shrugged and slapped the shaft of the scythe into my free hand. There was a click, rather than the fleshy sound of wood on skin. I was really glad that the mirror over the mantelpiece was broken. As awesome as being the big R was, I really didn’t want to see my reflection. “The plan failed. Give them all a wave in the third for me. I think they’ll be stoked to see you. Ciao!”

  With that, I swung the scythe, altering the composition at the last second so the blade only sliced the demon presence from the body, rather than lop the woman’s head off like the other. The other one’s soul had been gone, devoured by the demon, but this soul I could save. The body no, but the soul…yes.

  She staggered to the side and I lurched for her, but I didn’t reach her in time. Troy got there first, gathering her up before she hit the floor. She opened her eyes for a moment, clear of the demon’s presence and smiled. In the shade her soul rose above the body, a tear on an elderly face that had once been…was beautiful.

  “Thank you.”

  And like that, she was gone, sucked away by the brightest light I’d ever seen claim a soul.

  “She’s gone.” Troy looked up at me, his eyes clear and focused. Then he smiled.

  “Hey, beautiful, I know you were trying to lose weight, but don’t you think that’s a bit far? Digging the robes though, very sexy. Whatcha wearing underneath?”

  An hour later, three things stood out in Troy’s mind. He was alive. The demon was gone. His girlfriend was the Grim Reaper.

  The. Grim. Fucking. Reaper.

  “Yeah, the gate is shut.” Laney’s voice reached from where she was talking to Reilly. “For the moment anyway. Since the three girls were the extent of the Kaufman coven, we won’t have teenage witches trying to open the damn thing.”

  The boss man had come crashing in with the cavalry just after Laney lopped off the second demon’s head, so he and Andrews had seen her in her alternate form. Reilly barely batted an eyelid, but Andrews sat next to Troy in the back of the ambulance. His shell-shocked expression totally echoed the way Troy felt. They’d seen a lot of weird shit between them, but this was totally outside their realm of experience.

  Troy glanced down at his hands, which were still shaking at the close call. He’d been so sure they were going to die. Hell, he’d planned on killing himself, rather than letting the demon use him to hurt Laney. Could she be hurt, killed? How could Death die? Was she even human anymore?

  He looked up to find her watching him. Concern shone in her eyes. Concern for him. Then she smiled, gave him a small wave and he got the warm and fuzzies in the center of his chest. Yeah, she was a woman. All woman in fact. Whether she was human or not… he found he didn’t care.

  His gaze slid appreciatively along her figure, his mind easily slotting the way she had looked in the house into the back of his mind. He’d never found skeletons hot, but the woman in front of him was full of curves he couldn’t wait to get his hands on again.

  Instantly his body responded, hands itching and action going on south of the belt that he needed to alter position to hide. He felt like a sick fucker while he did. What kind of guy gets a boner after being beaten up and nearly causing the end of the world as they knew it?

  Reilly folded his arms and asked the question on everyone’s mind. “Yeah, but what happens when the next genius comes along and tries to open it?”

  Laney pursed her lips and for a second, her face thinned, her other form pushing through. “Then I give them a good reason not to.”

  Chills roved down Troy’s spine. Hell, yeah. A visit from ol’ Boney would make even the most foolhardy decide that discretion was the better part of valor and to get the fuck out of dodge.

  “Then you’re sticking around?”

  “Yeah, just don’t expect me to call you ‘sir.’ Ain’t gonna happen.”

  “Good, Troy needs you.” Reilly smiled, an honest to God smile and flicked a sly glance Troy’s way. “And talking of the man himself, he looks dead on his feet. If the paramedics have cleared him, how about you take him on home?”

  Things moved fast from then on. The paramedics, obviously not wanting to get into an argument with Laney, even if they didn’t know exactly what she was, cleared him without a problem. His ‘broken’ arm had been merely badly bruised, and numb from the demon’s touch. Within minutes he sat in the passenger seat of Laney’s SUV, which had recovered from hurtling through the window as a motorbike. Instead of growling at him as he got in, it made a pleased sound, almost like a purr. He patted the seat.

  “Thanks, mate, you got her to us just in time.”

  Laney opened the driver’s door and slid in. Then she stopped, first looking at him, then around. “You two buddies now?”

  He smiled. He had the best girl in the world, she was sticking around, and all was right with the world.

  “Yeah, we are.” He reached over and claimed her lips in a soft kiss. “Now, how about you get us home before I get us arrested for public indecency?”

  The End

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  About the Author

  Mina Carter is a bestselling, multi-genre author. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and a bossy cat.

  Connect with Mina online at:

  http://mina-carter.com

  https://www.facebook.com/minacarterauthor

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  http://www.pinterest.com/minacarter77

  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2920063.Mina_Carter

  If you liked this story, you might also enjoy:

  Read how Laney and Troy met in:

  The Reaper and the Cop

  Sinfully Naughty Vol 2

  Earth Warden

  Paranormal Protection Agency Series

  Hard as a Rock (PPA #1)

  Between a Rock and a Hard Place (PPA #2)

  Protect and Service (PPA #3)

  Seduced by Santa (PPA #4)

  Close Protection (PPA #5)

  Dragon’s Honor (PPA #6)

  Dragon’s Chase (PPA #7)

  Project Rebellion Series (Paranormal Romance)

  Perfect Mate

  Blood Mate

  Strathstow Shark Series (Rugby Erotic Romance)

  Hitting on the Hooker

  Seduced by the Scrum-half

  Playing with the Prop

  For a full list, please visit Mina’s Website