Keira Grim: The Final Breath Chronicles Book Two

by V. B. Marlowe

Colden took a step toward Bram. They were almost touching. I stood between them. "Colden, why don't you go back in the house?"

  Thankfully Fortunately , he took a step back. "You're right. I can't make you do anything. We'll see what Mr. Lawson has to say about this. I don't think he wants to foot the bill for a bunch of kids doing nothing." He turned on his heel and went inside.

  Bram sat back down.

  "You okay?" I asked.

  He went back to sharpening his stick. "Yeah."

  "I'm going to go in and take a shower."

  "Okay."

  "Bram, I know you don't want to, but you're going to have to take charge of this situation. Be a leader to these kids. Don't worry. I'll help you."

  He nodded and I went inside.

  The house had begun to empty. We were used to turning in early. A few kids had fallen asleep on the couch. I headed to the upstairs bathroom and took a long hot shower.

  I took a nightshirt from the drawer of my dresser, appreciating the fact that no one had touched my clothes. I loved being able to pick out what I wanted to wear as opposed to dressing to suit Dunningham's preferences.

  Downstairs in the kitchen, I looked around for the tea bags. A warm cup of tea would help me sleep. As exhausted as I was, my mind was too overwhelmed to let my eyes close. I remembered seeing tea bags in the pantry.

  I switched the light on in the kitchen and discovered that it was still a mess. Dirty dishes were piled up in the sink. Food was left out that should have been in the fridge. The counters were covered with crumbs and discarded food. The garbage can was overflowing. There was no way I could live like this. We were definitely going to have to distribute household duties.

  As I opened the pantry and reached for the box of chamomile tea, a clanking sound startled me. I turned to see Chase placing an empty bowl in the sink. He turned and headed out of the kitchen.

  "Chase, wait!" I said following behind him.

  He turned to me and I realized that this was not the same Chase I had known my whole life. Something was wrong. Chase rarely went thirty seconds without smiling. He had a baby face and killer dimples, but tonight he looked older and sullen.

  "Are you okay?" I asked.

  He shook his head. "I made a decision. I crossed the line and I can't come back, so I might as well keep going, right?"

  "Chase—"

  "I did it for her and she won't even look at me."

  "Chase, tell me what you mean," I said even though I knew.

  He leaned against the counter and folded his arms across his chest. "I came here for Naomi. She couldn't stay in Nowhere , and I didn't want to stay there without her. Before all this stuff happened, we were supposed to get married and be committed to each other. I killed that first guy for her. To bring her over. But then I had to keep going to pull my weight. I didn't know killing someone would feel like this. We're not supposed to care, so it should be easy, right?"

  We were trained to have no emotional attachment to humans. It wasn't that we hated them or anything ; , we just couldn't care. Once feelings and emotions got involved, you couldn't do your job properly. That had always been Naomi's problem, but of course, she had good reason.

  "What's it like?" I asked.

  "It wasn't as easy as Lawson make it sound. That man—the first one—he could have had a family, children to miss him. I guess the best part was that he didn't see me coming. He looked around like he sensed a presence, though. But I just did it from behind. If I'd had to look in his eyes, I don't think I could have done it."

  I gulped. "How did you do it?"

  "I used my scythe. Just one quick motion. I separated his head from his body. That's how the others do it too. It's gruesome, but it's really the most humane way. They don't feel a thing. They don't suffer. Only the people they leave behind do that."

  I wrapped my arm around Chase's and leaned my head on his shoulder. I hated for him to be so sad. "You're not a bad Grim, Chase. You just did what you felt you had to."

  "Bram doesn't look at me the same anymore."

  Chase had always idolized Bram.

  "I'm sure we'll figure something out, Chase," I said. We had to have a meeting the next morning with the other Grims.

  14

  The following morning , Bram woke me up to tell me that Josh and Dorian had made it safety.

  The information took a moment to process. I was taken aback by Bram leaning over me in bed.

  He grinned at me. "I told you'd they'd be fine. They're like two kids in a candy shop."

  "Where is Josh?"

  Bram headed for my bedroom door. "He's outside with Dorian doing a science experiment," he replied, putting "science experiment" in air quotes.

  That was Dorian, always doing something scientific. My brother wasn't as into science as Dorian, but he never turned down a chance to be Dorian's assistant.

  I found Josh in the backyard with Dorian. They had several clear plastic cups filled with soil and seemed to be in deep discussion about them. I didn't even want to know what they were talking about.

  "Keira!" Josh said, running to me. He had knocked over a cup of soil, but Dorian didn't seem to mind.

  Dorian waved. "Hey, Keira."

  Josh seemed so much stronger and taller than I remembered. I tried to think of how long it had been since I'd seen him. He pulled away from me. He was almost as tall I was. He would be fifteen in three months. "Mom and Dad are worried sick about you?"

  "I'm sure they are." I felt a stab of guilt. Both of their children were missing , and they had no idea where we were.

  "I left them a note," Josh said. "I didn't tell them where I was going, but I told them that I was okay and not to worry. It's so cool here. Better than being in Nowhere."

  I supposed it was like a vacation to them, but I knew like all vacations, at some point it would come to an end.

  After breakfast we had a house meeting to establish some sort of order—who would cook, clean, and do what on what day. We'd agreed to pitch in to clean up the pigsty of a house and to enforce stricter rules on our visitors.

  Bram called a second meeting for all the Grims. So far we occupied three houses side by side. We met in the middle house which was occupied by all boys.

  The living room of the middle house was surprisingly even messier than ours. Colden, Eilam, and Tate sat at a table off to the side, separating themselves from us. It was easy to see that we were different , though. Their hair color ranged from light brown to blond, while the rest of us had jet black hair and eyes to match.

  We settled on the sofas and the floor. There were eighteen Grims, but twenty-one of us all together. Naomi sat sandwiched between Chase and me I on the love seat. I could feel the tension between them. Bram took the floor. Everyone gave him their full attention.

  "Guys, this is a serious issue. We need to make some decisions and set some boundaries. I know it's fun being here without your parents and not having to adhere to Grim laws, but this is not just going to be one long party."

  "What? That was the whole reason I came over here," Ashton whined.

  Bram shot him a look , and he shut up.

  "I'm not saying we can't have fun. We can. But we have to look at our reality here. We're fugitives here , and it's very possible that Dunningham will send someone after us. Luckily , they don't know where we are , and hopefully , they'll never find out."

  "Bram, what are you saying?" asked a girl named Ebony.

  "I'm saying we need to be prepared to fight for our lives. If someone from Nowhere does come for us, they'll be coming to take us back for execution. Trust me. I know Dunningham. They'll be no forgiveness for what we've done. We can't take it back so we need to make a plan in case of attack."

  "What about Mr. Lawson?" Dorian asked. "Colden said that if we don't complete his assignments, then Dunstan will send us back."

  Bram gave his brother a hard stare. "Colden doesn't call any shots around here. Since when do we take orders from Foragers?"

  I winced and wi
shed that Bram would stop calling them that. It was only going to make things worse between them. One of the boys was about to say something, but Colden motioned for him to be quiet. The three boys stood.

  "Look, this is not about calling shots. I could care less about being a leader and who listens to me and who doesn't. The reality of this situation is that we're here as part of a deal. Lawson is offering us freedom and a chance at a better life and to have that we need to uphold our end of the deal. It's not fair for some of us to do all the work. Murder isn't fun for any of us. None of us want to do this, but it's what we agreed to. Everyone needs to uphold their part or—"

  "Or what?" Chase asked.

  "You can go back to Nowhere and take your chances there. But you won't stay here on my dime. I don't owe any of you anything. All you've done is treat my people like garbage for years."

  Bram took the floor back. "Thanks for your input, Colden," Bram said, dismissing him. "So here's where we stand. I've decided to have Shiva be my left-hand man. I need to see Shiva and Kuro after the meeting so we can start developing a defense strategy." Shiva was a dark-skinned boy who kept his hair braided back in cornrows. Kuro was tan and kept his black hair shoulder - length. Since he had come to the human world, he'd decided to shave the left side of his head bald. They had both been friends with Bram in Nowhere and looked pleased to be his chosen ones.

  "If you don't want to go on jobs, you don't have to. Meeting adjourned," Bram continued.

  The look on Colden's face told me that this was far from over.

  After Bram took Shiva and Kuro upstairs, I suggested that we make a list of things that we wanted from Lawson since we were all together. Usually it took him a day or two to get us supplies.

  Naomi rattled off the usual things , and I jotted them down on a notepad. "Bread, milk, cheese, apples, cookies, crackers . . ."

  "I need hair gel and shampoo," Nokomis added. "Not just any kind, the good stuff."

  That led everyone else to shout out random crazy things faster than I could write them down.

  "How about some movies?"

  "Comic books."

  "A cotton candy machine."

  "A water slide for the pool."

  "I think a trampoline would be cool."

  "I want a puppy. The kind of dog that never gets big."

  "What about a kite? I always wanted one of those."

  "I could use some more test tubes." (That was Dorian.)

  Most of the things were so ridiculous, I didn't bother to put them on the list.

  After that Naomi asked me to go on a jog with her. Exercising wasn't something we typically did in Nowhere, but she'd seen people doing it in the human world and wanted to give it a try. I wasn't really sold on the idea yet.

  I switched my jeans for a pair of track pants I'd found in my closet , and we left the house.

  "I love it. It's a way for me to clear my mind and burn off some steam," Naomi told me. "I usually listen to music when I run. Lawson brought us all iPods. They're really cool."

  I knew what they were from following humans on assignments, but I'd never had one of my own.

  We rounded the corner of our street. The street we lived on was almost deserted. The other streets were more populated, but the subdivision was practically empty.

  "What's up with you and Chase?"

  She shrugged. "We're cool."

  "Don't lie to me, Nay. You haven't even talked to him since we've been here." I stopped running to look her in the face. "Is it because he murdered someone?"

  "You know I don't believe in that, Keira. I never thought Chase would be capable of doing something like that. I just can't look at him the same way I did before. He's like a totally different person."

  I knew what she meant. This had been a kid who wouldn't kill a bug.

  "You shouldn't be too hard on him. He did it for you. He wouldn't have even come over here if it weren't for you."

  "I know, but—"

  "Trust me, he hates what he did. He only did it because that was the only way Dunstan would release you."

  "I know," Naomi muttered. "I get that, but…"

  "Just talk to him, Naomi. We've all been friends forever. You at least owe him that much."

  She d nodded. "Okay, Mom, I'll talk to him." She slowed down. We watched two girls playing in the sprinklers in their front yard. "I missed you a lot. I even missed your unwanted advice that's always right."

  My thoughts went back to Dunningham. "I still can't believe I was engaged to that cretin."

  "I know. What's wrong with his old ass engaging himself to a seventeen-year-old? There was no way Bram was going to let that go down."

  My cheeks warmed.

  "So," Naomi said slyly, "now that we're out of the confines of Nowhere—you two aren't going to hook up or anything, right?"

  "Of course not," I said quickly, although I hadn't had time to give it much thought.

  "Good, because the thought of you and my brother…" She shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't want to think about it."

  Naomi had never liked the idea of Bram and me I being together. I understood that. Bram was her brother , and they had never gotten along. I didn't want to picture my brother ever dating someone , either.

  We walked the rest of the way in silence, thinking and taking in the neighborhood, although no one could see us. I saw people carrying in groceries. Children playing hopscotch on the sidewalk. A man on his porch enjoying a glass of lemonade. They didn't have to collect lives or kill people to live. I kind of wanted to know what that felt like.

  That night after dinner, Bram called Naomi and me I into the backyard and told us to bring our scythes.

  "Spread out. Give yourselves some room," he said, standing in front of us.

  We obeyed and held our scythes out in front of us. Bram stood back, then he proceeded to whip his scythe around as if cutting the air. This was foreign to us. Our scythes were sacred instruments. We were only to use them for collecting lives and then hang them up afterwards.

  "If you want to kill someone," Bram said, "all you have to do is decapitate them." He thrust his scythe through the air sideways. "One fell swoop , and that's it. Heads will roll." Then he laughed at himself. "Try it."

  Naomi and I both imitated his movements as he watched.

  "One more time, with a little more force."

  We did it again and he nodded.

  "Okay. If the person you're fighting has a scythe and they're coming for you, you need to block their hits or get the scythe out of their hands. Keir, you go first. I'm going to come for you and you need to protect yourself. Don't cut my head off, please."

  I tightened my grip around the warm metal. My scythe was usually cool, but it was warm in this dimension. Bram stepped toward me, whipping his scythe around quickly. I wondered how he got so good so fast. I took a step back.

  "No, don't back up. Hold your ground. Fight."

  He swung his scythe at me, way much too close to my face. He tried it again, but I held my scythe in front of me and blocked the blow.

  "Good," he said. Then he made a downward swipe at Naomi, knocking her off her feet.

  "Bram!" the two of us shouted.

  "That's not fair! I wasn't ready!" Naomi whined.

  "Really? Is that what you're going to tell a Watcher who's holding a scythe to your throat?" Bram asked. He mimicked Naomi's voice. "'No fair, I wasn't ready'?"

  I helped Naomi off the ground. "How'd you get so good at this ? . "

  "He used to do this at night in the backyard," Naomi said bitterly.

  "Shut up. You have to be prepared at all times," Bram continued. "You can't just stand there daydreaming, you have to be on the defensive. Most importantly, always protect your neck." As he said that, he held his scythe in front of my throat. He could have easily decapitated me if he wanted. That would be a terrible fate for a Grim. I would still be alive, but my head would be separated from my body. What kind of life would that be? "We need to keep practicing," Bram told
us. "You guys suck worse than everyone."

  Since I didn't like being bad at anything, I took that as a personal challenge. I stayed outside practicing with Bram a long time after Naomi had given up and gone inside. She said if someone wanted to decapitate her, so be it. Bram had been extra hard on her.

  "I'm tired," I said to Bram breathlessly.

  "One more time. You haven't gotten my scythe out of my hands yet."

  "Okay, just one more—"

  Before I could even get the sentence out, Bram did some hardcore ninja move on me. Somehow my scythe ended up on the ground. Bram had spun me around and grabbed me by the waist from behind. His breath hit the back of my neck and I pushed him away.

  "What was that?"

  "You getting your ass kicked. I told you, you suck."

  I knelt to pick up my scythe. "It was my first time. Give me a break."

  "Give you a break? That's not how you're going to get better."

  I headed for the door. "I'm going inside." I sensed Bram following me. I turned and used my scythe to knock his scythe out of his hand, then rammed him in the stomach with my knee. When he doubled over, I kicked him in the chest and he ended up on the ground. Had he really thought I was going to let him get away with that stunt he had pulled?

  I put my boot on his chest. "Always be prepared, young Grim."

  The look of shock on his face quickly disappeared as his lips curved into a sly smile. "I'm not gonna lie. That was pretty hot."

  Shaking my head, I went inside. Bram called after me, but I ignored him.

  I was startled by Colden sitting at our kitchen table hunched over a bowl of cereal. I never knew when Colden was going to show up. He seemed to come and go as he pleased.

  "Cereal," he said without even looking at me. "Who knew this stuff was this good? Did you guys have cereal in Nowhere?"

  "Yeah, we had cereal."

  I was intrigued by this scene. Colden was usually so intense and serious. He ate the bowl of cereal like a five-year-old tasting something good for the first time.

  "Well, we don't have anything but roots and plants. Sometimes pheasant and rabbit."

  Bram entered the kitchen behind me. "What are you doing here eating our food?"