'Til Death We Meet Again (A Grim Awakening Book 3)

by Michelle Gross

  _____

  Night came and the house had a chill to it. Once Alex fell asleep, I decided to take nice, hot bath. Mom had already left for work.

  The water was relaxing but not enough to take my mind off of Penny. I slid my body further down into the tub when my phone went off.

  I had to get out of the warmth of the water and wipe off my hands before grabbing the phone from the sink. I hurried back to the water with a pleasant sigh as my toes dipped back into the water. It was Killian.

  What are you doing right now?

  Even though I knew it was him, I still pretended not to know.

  Who is this??

  I sunk into the water and held the phone at a safe distance from it as I waited for him to reply.

  Ur Lover. The handsome hero. That guy you are always thinking about.

  My snort echoed in the bathroom as I tried to hold in my smile.

  Killian?

  Does that ? imply that you have more than 1 lover?

  How are you even texting me right now?

  Always with the questions… who do you think I am?

  You can’t see me, but I’m doing a major eye roll right now. Ur so vain!

  Oh, I can see you.

  If I hadn’t been already burning up from the water, I definitely was at the thought of him watching me. I raised up slowly in the tub and looked around.

  I don’t see you.

  I texted him and when no reply came, I was disappointed. I decided it was time to get out, I was baking and on the verge of passing out. I patted myself down with my towel before tying it around my body.

  I tiptoed to my room because I was positive I would see Killian in my room. Only he wasn’t. When I crept into my room, it was empty and I dropped my shoulders in disappointment. I walked to the bed where my clothes lay and let the towel fall to the floor. It was at that moment the sound of a book being closed filled the room. I jumped and looked behind me and saw Killian standing before me with a closed book in his hand, holding it in the air like he had made the sound on purpose. A devilish grin descended upon his face.

  My nerves were already shot from the noise, but now the sight of him devouring me with his eyes kicked me into overdrive. I panicked, covering myself quickly. “Turn around!” I hissed.

  “Sorry.” He didn’t look sorry.

  “No, you’re not. You did it on purpose.” I puffed my cheeks out at him.

  “I thought I had made it clear already that I was no gentleman.” But he did finally turn around, and I waited several seconds to make sure he wasn’t going to turn back around before I hurried to put my clothes on. “I came at the right moment. I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

  “Don’t pretend you’ve been here this whole time.” I grabbed his shoulder and forced him to face me. Of course, that grin was still plastered on his face. And of course, I wasn’t really upset with him.

  “Why do you get all hidden on me when I get here? It’s not like I haven’t already seen you before, and if I recall, you were putting those beautiful tits in my face on purpose last night.” My heart rate increased and I thought about turning away so that he couldn’t see my face. “I also remember you were trying to get me all riled up while we were trying to watch a movie together a few days ago…”

  “That’s wasn’t entirely me,” I stammered and told a big, fat lie. I could always tell when he was affecting me with his incubus voodoo and when he wasn’t… I just wanted him. I still wanted him, but now I was caught off guard and had no clue how to handle the feelings he was giving me.

  My stomach tightened with anticipation and I tried to look away, but his hand was already holding my chin up. He lowered his face to mine. “Whatever you say,” he whispered into my ear and goosebumps took over my skin. My nipples were visible in the white t-shirt I wore and the heat that entered my stomach was already dipping between my legs.

  His hand left my chin and slowly slid down my neck onto my chest where he stopped at my breasts.

  Touch me, go on. I waited with anticipation. I wanted him. I craved him.

  “Melanie.” I let my head lean closer to his neck as he breathed into my ear, but he pulled back. “Should I make you beg and get all needy on me before I finally touch you again?” I was thrown off by his question and looked him in the eye. Darkness played out in them. “You did make things difficult for me when I was an incubus demon knowing that I didn’t want to take advantage of you. You did what you wanted anyway. I was trying to be a good demon around you, but you kept on and on and on—”

  I jerked away from him, but he snatched my hands and threw me onto my bed. I bounced, and the springs creaked under my weight. “What are you doing?”

  “Teasing you, Love. I want to see what reactions I can get you to make.”

  I covered my face with my hands to hide my embarrassment. “Come here.” I uncovered my eyes to see him offering his hand out to me, and I took it. He pulled me up from the bed and wrapped his arms around me.

  “I want to get to know you more,” I breathed into his chest. I wanted to know him more than any other woman did. “Not just emotionally, but physically… I want to know you, Killian. I have no experience with relationships or—”

  “Where is this coming from? You were never bothered about it before.” He looked down at me.

  “Why didn’t you tell me that Penny was watching over Tess?” I asked quickly and looked up to see a slight smile on his face.

  “So, it’s Penny.” He moved to the bed and sat down pulling me into his lap. My shorts were more like underwear and I was self-conscious of every part of me. His hands gripped my legs as he held all my weight. “Are you upset that I didn’t tell you that Penny would be there or are you upset because I’ve slept with Penny in the past?” My stomach clammed up at his words, and I shrugged my shoulders. I hoped my face didn’t look as sick as I felt.

  “Look at me,” he told me and I did. Pleading dark-brown eyes stared back at me. “I can’t change my past, I’ve lived alone for a very long time, Melanie, and I’ve done a lot of things, but I was still lonely.” I tilted my head toward him and waited for him to continue. “If I could pull my heart from my chest and let you see and feel what I’ve felt all these centuries—the loneliness that’s always been there, the yearning that has consumed me to find someone to love… then you’d understand that I’ve never once loved anyone until the day I met you.”

  He grabbed my hand and placed it on his chest and I felt the rhythm of his heartbeat thump against my palm. “In the few weeks I’ve known you, I’ve discovered pain and heartbreak, fear and worry—so many new things, all because of my love for you.”

  I dropped my head against his shoulder and he breathed deeply. “I’m embarrassed, with everything that we’ve been through and still going through, I’ve done nothing but stress about your relationship with Penny since I saw her.”

  “Penny is a Reaper, a good one at that, but that’s it.” He touched our foreheads together and I closed my eyes and drank in this moment. “You know, you don’t have to be apart from me, not if you don’t want to be.” I opened my eyes and I hoped his hearing wasn’t good enough to hear the increase in my heart rate. Was he hinting at me staying with him—at his castle?

  With our foreheads still touching, his breath quickened, and so did mine. I could feel his breaths against my face as we drew closer. “What about you?” Our lips drew closer.

  “I want you by my side. Always.”

  We kissed.

  Softly. Slowly.

  But it was so much more than that. It had my heart exploding in my chest, unmasked desire became us—we parted our lips only enough to get air into our lungs. My hands were immediately underneath his t-shirt, tracing the hard ridges of his stomach. I realized this was the first time I was actually touching him—he always seemed to be the one touching me.

  He was so much bigger than me—strong, sexy. He knew how to take me over the edge before bringing me back down with gentleness.

/>   “Killian,” I moaned now that his mouth was trailing down my chin and neck.

  “What is it?” I was glad to hear that I wasn’t the only one breathless.

  “Aren’t you going to touch me?” My head fell back but my hands were still all over him.

  He kissed my neck as he spoke. “Here, turn around and straddle me.” But he was already positioning me around to face him and placed my legs at his hips and the first thing I felt was his hard length pressing against me. The passion burning my insides became chaos, unrelenting and all-consuming for what he offered.

  His hands took hold of my butt forcefully and held me firm against him. I grabbed his face and pulled him in for another kiss. He held me there against his erection as if to foretell what would soon come.

  “You’re so—” He pushed me onto the bed. “What the hell?” I turned to see what he was looking at. Three ghosts stood in my room looking at me. “If you’re coming to me, I can automatically assume you all are ready to part from this world?” Killian stood up.

  “You.” One pointed to me. “Save us!”

  That was all they said before they started moving toward me. Killian became Grim and his scythe materialized in his hand and the portal to Heaven opened, and he threw one into the bright light. The Reaper that had been staying at my house walked through the door and knocked another one in as soon as he entered.

  “No, bring me—” The ghost didn’t get to finish what she was saying to me before Grim pushed her into the light and it disappeared.

  “What was that?” the Reaper, Miles, asked him.

  Grim’s essence was no longer his normal shade of blue, but black. He changed back into Killian and his brows were pinched together in frustration. Or confusion, I wasn’t sure.

  “She was trying to say something to me,” I mentioned. “You should have let her speak before sending her.”

  “They came for her despite sensing we were here?” Miles sounded surprised.

  “Just what were they trying to do?” Killian seemed to be asking himself that question. “And, why did it take you so long to get up here?” He turned on the Reaper. “If I had not been here, they could have gotten to her before you even entered the room.”

  “I only let my guard down because I knew you were here,” he replied.

  “Remember you did give me the necklace as well,” I tried to ease some of Killian’s agitation.

  He ran his hands through his hair. “You can head back downstairs,” he told Miles, and he simply nodded. “If you sense anything unusual going on in this house, you better move regardless if I’m here or not.”

  “It won’t happen again.”

  Once he was gone, Killian turned toward me. He walked over to the bed and placed his hands on each side of me and kissed me. “I don’t want to leave you, but I have to figure out what Fear’s got planned. It’s making my fucking skin crawl.”

  “What’s been going on?” I asked him. “Did you figure out if it was Fear taking the portal chips?”

  He placed a kiss on my forehead. “I’ll figure it out. I don’t want you to worry about anything.”

  I sighed. “That’s not how this works.” His eyes met mine and I told myself not to get lost in them. “When will you start sharing things with me? I want to know the good and bad. I want to carry whatever burdens we have and face them together.”

  A smile touched his lips. “You’re amazing, you know that?” I shook my head at him. “I don’t know yet. We still can’t find Fear or Molly. I’m more worried that we won’t find them at all at this point, not until he wants to be found. He’s scared. He doesn’t want to accept that his death’s coming, yet he’s smart enough to hide away and prepare, but no matter what he does, Death can’t be stopped.”

  “Will it all be over when he dies?” The thought sounded amazing, and it was becoming a question I kept asking him and myself.

  He looked down. “Marcus is the one that will die, and even though I’m sure he’s the reason you are marked, Fear’s still an entity and we have no clue which one is thinking what when it comes to your mark.” He stared at my t-shirt, the spot on my chest where the X was. “There could be another way…”

  “What is it?” I asked quickly.

  He shook his head and raised up. “It’s not something I’d want to—forget I said it. I’ll come and get you after school tomorrow, okay?”

  And he was gone, just like that.

  Chapter Five

  Melanie

  It was early—too early to be feeling the guilt that I did as I looked down at Haley’s leg in a cast. She bullied me growing up and I disliked her for it, but I didn’t mean to break her ankle.

  Only I must have or it wouldn’t have happened.

  Haley’s ankle was the least of my problems, though.

  “God, it’s gotten cold quick the last few days.” Tess rubbed her arms as she sat next to me in class. It was cold since it was October, but I didn’t think that was why this room was freezing. I looked around. Ghosts were everywhere.

  Ever since they came to my bedroom last night, they just kept showing up. So many that Miles called for backup. Not that they were dangerous—his words, not mine, but they didn’t have a clue what they wanted with me.

  “Save me, bring me back,” a lot of them would cry. So, apparently, these ghosts thought I could bring them back from the dead. Which was making this school day extremely difficult. The few ghosts that normally roamed the school were enough to distract me from the living, now they were all over the place! I couldn’t concentrate.

  “This human cannot bring you back to life. Us Reapers, are here to protect her because she can’t do anything.” Then there was that. I turned my head to Penny talking to one of the ghosts and glared.

  “My daughter needs me!” the ghost lady cried, and Penny sighed. “I have to come back!”

  “In you go,” Penny gave the ghost a push toward the light. The ghost tried latching onto my desk and I jerked back. The desk skidded and the whole class turned on me. Penny shoved her into the light. “Who’s next?” she called around to the other ghosts.

  “We just want her to bring us back,” another ghost spoke.

  “Is everything okay, Ms. Rose?” Mr. Stevens asked me.

  No, the number of ghosts in the room double the amount of the living and for some reason, they think I can bring them back to life! I leaned over my desk and placed my hand over my chin awkwardly. “Yup, I thought I saw a spider.”

  Some in the room laughed, and Mr. Stevens looked at me unamused. I looked over to Tess and she had her face partially covered with her hand as she shook her head at me.

  “Not so fast!” Miles yelled as one of the ghosts tried to make a run for me. I ducked my head just as he grabbed a hold of him and threw him into the light. When I looked up, Tess’s expression was murderous.

  I was in total ghost mode, and she hated when that happened.

  This was going to be a long day.

  _____

  I picked Alex up from school and took us home. Ghosts were waiting in my yard. I closed my eyes and sighed as I turned off the engine.

  This entire day had exhausted me.

  I had been so preoccupied with the ghosts and Reapers that I forgot to ask Tess about Mike. Hopefully, I would remember tomorrow. She did manage to tell me about a Halloween dance the school was having—or maybe she was talking about a party she was wanting me to go to? Okay, so I couldn’t concentrate on everything she was trying to tell me at lunch.

  A Reaper had stayed with Alex and one with Mom today. Miles had filled me in, and it put me at ease to know that Killian was taking every precaution to protect my family. Miles was already slipping out of my car and ascending them all to Heaven. Thankfully, I parted ways with Penny when she went home with Tess.

  “I wonder if Mom has something cooked?” Alex wondered as he stepped outside blissfully unaware of the craziness going on around us.

  “She’s probably still in bed,” I told him as
we headed inside. I weirdly maneuvered around the yard just to get inside, earning me a few strange looks from Alex.

  “So,” Alex started as we stepped inside the house. “I can’t believe this guy actually likes you,” he said, and I was too stunned to answer at first so I glared instead.

  “I’m offended.” We took our shoes off at the door. “Are you trying to say I’m not likeable ’cause I happen to find me extremely lovable,” I informed my kid brother.

  He snorted. “I only meant that he seems all bad and dangerous while you are…”

  “I’m what?”

  “Innocent?” he offered then sighed. “Good? That’s it, you’re too good for him.”

  I smiled at him. “Are you worried about me?”

  “Someone has to look out for you, obviously, this guy might not be a good person, and you have a bad judge of character. Besides, now that Ryan is gone someone has too.”

  I watched him walk through the hallway and disappear into the kitchen. I followed after him. He was standing in the fridge getting something to drink when I grabbed his shoulders and turned him around. “Alex, no one is ever gonna take Ryan’s place. He will always be the guy that was there for me first—my best friend.” I could tell that this conversation was making him uncomfortable. He was only seven, and he was too young when Dad died to actually know how it felt to lose someone he loved. He had been close with Ryan, he enjoyed when he came to visit because Ryan would always play video games with him. “We miss him, but you can’t hold that against Killian. You and Mom don’t even know him.”

  “He knows that, Melanie,” Mom stepped into the kitchen with us. She still wore her pajamas and a bad case of bedhead.

  Now that I was talking about Ryan, I turned toward Mom and couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of my mouth. “You don’t think I feel guilty about Ryan? I wanted to be with Killian despite the fact that Ryan was buried last week!” I wiped my face and went on, “I can’t change my feelings, not when I finally feel so connected with someone.”

  Mom didn’t say anything, instead, she walked across the kitchen to hug me. The feeling her arms gave me were foreign—we lacked physical contact for so long and grew distant since Fear marked me when I was nine. But when I breathed in the familiar scent of her, I realized how many nights I had wanted her to do this when I was too terrified to fall asleep.