4. As long as I complete my chores and come back to the compound by eleven, what I do with my time is my business, but I will not be reckless and do anything that will harm myself or the other Interceptors.
5. This contract is binding and once I sign, my life belongs to the Interceptors.
There were a couple of things that gave me second thoughts, like such as knowing that this was a permanent decision and that I must risk my life to save a human. I took a deep breath and signed. I placed the pen down.
"You had second thoughts," Marshall said as if he could read my mind.
"Well, it's a big decision."
He leaned back in his chair and stared at me. His eyes were a shade of gray I had never seen before. I wondered if whether that was their natural color or if it was a result of him being away from his colony for so long. I wondered if my own appearance would change.
"I know it's a big decision, but our lives were never ours anyway. Being born a Grim is being born into servitude. We serve death. We weren't born to be happy or comfortable. That hasn't changed since you came here. The only thing that has is that now you serve life."
He was right. We weren't like humans. We couldn't mold our lives to be the way we wanted them to be ; , we were born to do a job and that was that. I'd always accepted that. It was easy to when you were born into the lifestyle and it was all you had been taught. But now that we had had a taste of something else, and just a little bit of freedom and happiness, it wasn't so easy to accept.
He handed me a bulky black watch. "This device is very important. Don't ever lose it or take it off. It's synchronized with all the other watches. There's an alarm that tells you when it's time for you to go, but the most important part is the sensor. When the face of the watch is blue, you're far away from your human. Yellow means you're closer, and red means you're in very close proximity."
I took the watch and wrapped it around my arm.
Marshall helped me with the buckle. "You will go out with Celeste tonight. She goes out at midnight after she gets back from work. She'll be your mentor. You're lucky. She's one of my best Interceptors."
I was happy about that , since I already knew Celeste and she seemed nice. The others had been rather cold toward us so far.
"She requested you, you know," Marshall added.
"Really? Why?"
"She said the Grims who had the most to lose would take it the most seriously."
"Oh."
"You have a lot to lose?"
I thought for a moment , and then I told him about my situation with Dunningham. It felt good to tell someone else about it besides Chase and Naomi. Maybe because I didn't really know Marshall.
"Well, that's not something you'll have to worry about here," Marshall assured me.
Marshall reached for something at the side of his computer and retrieved a wooden stand filled with syringes with a light orange liquid. The sight of the needle made me feel a bit light-headed. Marshall chose a syringe and thumped it with his finger.
"You must be some kind of a genius to come up with a serum like this that can make us be seen in the human world when we want. What about when we're on assignment?"
Marshall laughed. "You sure ask a lot of questions. When you go through the transportation chamber, you will become invisible to the human eye."
"You made a transportation chamber also?"
"Yep."
I was in awe of his capabilities.
"Okay, turn to the side, please."
"Wait," I said, holding my hand up. "What happened to your other Grims?" Some Grim colonies were larger or smaller than Nowhere, but surely they had more than thirty-eight Grims.
Marshall's eyes turned sad. "They didn't make it."
"They died on the job?"
"No. Before I could get the serum right. It took me a while to perfect the formula. As you know, Grims can't survive in the human world for too long when not on assignment. We lost them because I took too long."
I could only imagine how guilty he felt , and I hated that I had even asked the question. "I'm sorry." I turned and pulled my hair away from my neck. Closing my eyes, I prepared for the prick.
I shuddered as the needle broke my skin. I felt the pressure of Marshall pressing down on the syringe. This was it. I could die before my years were up. I could die just as easily as a human. The thought of that terrified me. I grabbed the arm of the chair as the sting of the serum flowed through my neck and filled my chest with a burning sensation. I knew Bram had been lying. It stung like hell. I was tempted to cry, but I bit down on my lip instead. I didn't want Marshall thinking I was weak.
Finally, he pulled the needle from my neck. "Now that will sting for just a little while. You can go now. You might want to lie down. Good luck tonight."
I thanked Marshall and rose to my feet, which wasn't easy. He reached a hand out to me as I tried to steady myself.
"I'm okay. Thanks." I went back to the barn to prepare myself for my first job that night. I hoped this was something I was capable of doing.
After feeling nauseated and napping the entire afternoon, I woke up in time for supper. Sy and Eva had prepared a meal of baked ziti, garlic bread, and a garden salad. The food was delicious and made me long for my mother's cooking. I wished I had paid better attention the times she had tried to teach me something. I knew my way around the kitchen, but my food was nowhere as good as hers. She'd never have the chance to teach me her recipes now.
Marshall approached me after dinner as I cleared the dirty dishes from the table. "Keira, you have an assignment tonight, so you're excused from your duty. Rest up. You don't know how long you'll be out there." The reminder of my approaching assignment made me nervous, but I was happy to avoid kitchen duty for the night.
Bram walked me back to the barn. I had already slept a few hours during the afternoon. I figured I could squeeze in another hour or two.
"I'm going out tonight, too," Bram said. "With some guy named Mauricio. He's an ass."
I grinned. "How do you know that already?"
"Tonight before dinner I went up to him and told him I was excited about shadowing him tonight. He totally blew me off. He didn't even look at me."
I grabbed Bram's hand. "Just give them some time to get used to us. We're strangers to them, infiltrating their peaceful life. We'd probably feel the same if it were the other way around."
Bram shook his head. "Maybe this is a mistake."
If it was, it was too late to think about that now.
I stopped walking and grabbed both of his hands. I knew exactly what his problem was. I'd always been able to read Bram like a book.
"I know this is difficult for you. Back at the house, you were used to calling the shots and being the one in charge, but it's different here. That's not necessarily a bad thing, Bram. Sometimes you have to submit to authority."
He rolled his eyes at me. "You swear you know everything."
"I do." We continued walking. "What time do you go out?"
"Nine o'clock. We're going to L.A. I've had a couple of assignments there. It's a cool place."
"Bram, make sure you focus and don't be rude," I said gently. "Even if he's rude to you, be nice." I knew how he could be , and this Mauricio guy had already rubbed him the wrong way.
"Yes, Mom."
He and the others always said that to me , and I hated it. Just because I was sensible and didn't believe in doing stupid things didn't mean I was trying to be their mother.
In the barn , I made my bed comfortable and set the alarm on my watch to ten o'clock. Even though we weren't going out until eleven, I wasn't sure what time Celeste would come for me , so I wanted to be ready just in case. I figured having her waiting for me wouldn't be a good way to start our mission.
I shot out of bed when my alarm went off. I had been in the middle of a nightmare where in which Dunningham was chasing me around his house.
Bram was already gone on his assignment, as were a few other Grims. Naomi was sleeping
peacefully beside me while Josh sneezed repeatedly next to Dorian. I would have to say something to Marshall about that. My brother should be able to sleep in peace without sneezing every few seconds , and we should be able to sleep without hearing it.
Nokomis sat up and shot my brother a dirty look.
"He can't help it!" I told her, even though I was fully aware of how annoying it was. She muttered something I couldn't hear and then lay back down.
At eleven o'clock on the dot, the door of the barn crept open. Celeste poked her head inside. "It's time."
25
Celeste was dressed in normal Grim attire—a black hoodie, black jeans, and black boots, like me. We took a brisk walk to Marshall's office , where the transportation chamber was housed. The door to his office was opened, but he wasn't inside. I supposed he kept it unlocked so the transportation chamber could be used whenever it was needed.
Celeste walked over to the silver, bullet-shaped contraption and typed a code on the keypad beside the door. The door slid open. This chamber was no different from the chambers every Grim had somewhere in their own home. Only this time it wouldn't take me to a different dimension, just a different state.
Celeste pulled at a silver chain around her neck. Tucked inside her hoodie was a small, black rectangular-shaped thing. She stuck it into a slot that fit its shape perfectly and then stood back. "This tells the chamber where to take us."
"Oh." I wasn't sure how many questions to ask. I didn't want to be annoying. I remembered Marshall telling me that I asked a lot of questions.
The chamber began to vibrate , and soon we were going full force. I braced myself like as always. It was easy to lose your balance in these things.
When we stopped, so did my breathing. I was a lot more nervous now than ever. I was used to collecting lives. It was something I had been doing for four years. It was in my nature. This was the exact opposite. Stopping death. What if I were no good at it? What would the Interceptors do? Send me away?
The chamber door opened up to a busy city street. Celeste stepped out first with me right behind.
"Now, we have to remember where the chamber is. It doesn't work like you're used to—after you collect a life, the chamber appears to you and you're taken straight home, whereas we have to find the chamber ourselves."
"Okay," I said as I looked around me so I could get some clues to remember our location. I had never had an assignment in Washington D.C. before, but I knew of it. Studying major cities was part of our Grim studies , and this was the capital of the country. The weather was a bit chilly. Pedestrians donned coats and light jackets. I spotted several monuments and dome-shaped buildings. One tall, slender building rose above the others, pointed at the sky. I had never seen a structure shaped like that before. The mixed aromas from nearby eateries tickled my nose. It seemed like as though we were in the heart of the city.
"Our subject should be around here somewhere. Look for the glow," Celeste said. She was taking long strides , and it was an effort to keep up with her.
"No one can see us, right?"
"Nope. Although she might be able to. Sometimes the Fated can see us and sometimes they can't. There's no telling why."
We walked the streets for almost twenty minutes, looking every which way for a glowing person. Celeste rolled up her sleeve and looked down at a device on her wrist, the same device Marshall had given me earlier. It glowed bright yellow.
"She's near."
I looked down at my own device. No light shone from mine.
"Don't worry," Celeste said. "It'll kick in once you're ready to go on jobs by yourself."
We walked on keeping an eye out for our subject. As we passed a loud, crowded pub, something caught my eye. A glow. I paused. A woman sat at the counter and she had a light ethereal glow about her.
"Celeste, look."
Celeste had gone a few steps ahead , and she turned around. "Good job. I would have walked right past this place." The device on her hand was glowing red now.
A group of loud, laughing men exited the pub. We squeezed past them and entered. Celeste and I took seats at an empty table and watched. This was always the hard part—the part I didn't enjoy. Just sitting around waiting for something to happen. I spent plenty of time watching humans live their lives and do things that most of the time I didn’t understand. I didn’t even want to calculate how much of my life I spent watching and waiting.
I'd heard someone call the woman Brandy. Brandy seemed to be popular. She was constantly surrounded by men. I couldn't see much of her face, only the side. She had long light brown hair that curled almost to her waist. She also wore a navy blue pantsuit. I guessed she had come here straight from work. I also sensed that she didn't want to be there from her body language.
Celeste rested her head on her fist and watched a TV that hung in the corner of the room. I noticed that as the men came and went, there was one man to Brandy's right who didn't budge. I wondered whether if she was with him or if she’d known him prior to walking into the bar. Then I thought of something much more serious. How was she meant to die? How were we supposed to stop it? What if another Grim showed up to collect her life?
I didn't like this place. It was loud and rowdy. There weren't many women there. I wondered why Brandy was there , since she didn't seem to be enjoying it. Finally she stepped down from the barstool and grabbed her coat from the back of the chair. The man who had been sitting next to her helped her put it on.
Celeste nodded at me and the two of us followed Brandy and the man out of the pub. I was glad for the quiet sounds of the almost empty streets.
Brandy stopped in front of the pub and smiled at the man. "Well, it was nice meeting you," she said. So she hadn't known him from before.
The man had wild eyes and , a receding hairline , and was shooting me all sorts of bad vibes. "Can I help you get a cab?" he asked.
"No. I can walk from here."
He grabbed her arm in a way I didn't like. "Let me walk you. I don't mind."
"No, that's okay." Brandy pulled away from him and walked on.
The man laughed, but not in a nice way. "So all the drinks I bought you, I just wasted my time and money tonight?" he called after Brandy.
She didn't respond. As she walked on, Celeste and I followed behind.
I looked back at the man as he stood on the street watching Brandy. He pulled something small, like a card, from his pocket and ran across the street.
As we walked Brandy's phone rang. She dug into her coat pocket and pulled it out. "So, I took your advice and hung out in a place where men were." She paused. "Nada. It was a total waste of time. Every guy in there was a jerk." Another pause. "I know you say I work too much and that's why I can't find anyone, but I'd much rather be working. I'm telling you, Ash, there's just no good men left." After a few more statements of her swearing off dating, Brandy hung up.
She turned and walked into a small convenience store. We stayed close. She chatted a few minutes with the guy behind the counter before purchasing a pack of gum and a carton of cigarettes and then went out again.
The night air was getting cooler , and I loved it. Brandy wrapped her coat tightly around her and walked faster.
We caught up to her when she stopped at the corner to wait for a car to pass before she crossed.
She lived on the third floor of a ten-story apartment building. We stepped into the elevator , and I couldn't help but wonder how long this job was going to take. It didn't seem as if Brandy was going to die tonight. Sometimes we could follow a person around for weeks before they met their demise. I hoped this job didn't take that long. I was eager to get back to… the compound, I think.
Inside her apartment, Brandy did the usual things people did to prepare for bed. I sat on a bench at the end of Brandy's bed while Celeste occupied an armchair and tried to stay awake. She had worked a long shift at the grocery store , so I could only imagine how exhausted she was. Maybe our us coming to the compound would take some of the load off o
f the others.
Finally , Brandy pulled a lavender eye mask over her eyes, switched off the lamp on her nightstand, and crawled underneath the covers. I sat and watched and waited. This was what I was trained to do. It was what I was used to. Waiting for death wasn't thrilling , and the hardest part was trying not to fall asleep.
I rocked myself gently in the darkness until a scraping sound came from somewhere in the room. The light flicked on. Brandy sat up in her bed and removed her eye mask. Celeste and I stood as the closet door continued to creep open. A man stepped out. The man who had followed Brandy out of the pub.
Brandy looked as stunned as we did. "What the hell are you doing in my house? How do you even know where I live?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "You followed me home."
The man pulled something from his pocket. "No, I didn't. You left your license on the counter when the bartender asked for your ID. You should be more careful, young lady."
What should we do? I looked at Celeste, hoping she could somehow read my mind.
"Wait," Celeste said.
"Get out right now before I call the police!" Brandy screamed. She turned to her nightstand and pulled the drawer open. I thought she was going to pull out a cell phone, but instead she pulled out a small handgun and pointed it at the man. For half a second , he looked afraid.
"Shoot him," I said, although she couldn't hear me. Brandy's hands began to tremble , and a tear rolled down her cheek. That was when I knew she didn't have it in her to shoot him. He knew it too. Brandy, it's him or you.
Taking advantage of Brandy's fear, the man leapt onto the bed and landed on top of her. Before I could move, Celeste had jumped on top of the man and placed him in a headlock. Brandy slid from underneath him and ran out of her bedroom and out of her apartment screaming.
Her attacker was also screaming. I couldn't blame him, being held down by some invisible force and all. Celeste dragged him to the floor and pressed her thumb into the man's neck. His eyes fluttered and then closed. His head rolled to the side. She pushed the man off her lap and then stood.
Keira Grim: The Final Breath Chronicles Book Two Page 19
