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

by Michelle Gross

  As I hurried down the steps, I could see that the ballroom was flooded with demons. Grim was after the charred demon. He was running for the portal, and Grim slung him backward. He faded and reappeared behind the charred demon and held him back. I thought he might be trying to knock him out but it didn’t seem to be working. The charred demon got ahold of Grim’s cloak and slung him off.

  Another Reaper stepped in his place and was slung back as well. He was headed back for the portal again. My eyes stung and my chest hurt with the crushing reality that I might not be able to save him no matter what I did. I ran for him anyway. “Ryan!” I wanted to protect him more than anything. My fear turned to fury, I couldn’t let this happen. I wouldn’t.

  Save him.

  And that was all the voice had to tell me. She finally offered me the power and my entire body lit up with a golden glow. I was quicker and my steps lighter.

  Just don’t kill yourself before you’re free of Fear.

  I didn’t pay attention to her words at that time. Grim took down a few of the werewolves in order to get to the charred demon. Once he was there, I hollered, “Hold him!”

  He took one look at me and did as I asked. The charred demon didn’t make it easy and there was a struggle before Grim finally held him to where I could do something. The power was tingling and burning my fingertips at this point, and I knew it was time to release it into him.

  I grabbed the charred demon’s wrists and let it all go. My power wrapped around his wrists and formed a golden band on each arm. His burnt skin began to fall off his body and his hair grew back. Ryan stood in his place. He looked at me confused, and Grim released him.

  “What the hell?” Penny looked at me surprised.

  “What’s going on?” Ryan asked, and I looked at the werewolves still entering through the portal.

  But, dizziness hit me and I felt wobbly on my feet. Grim was there to scoop me up in his arms. “She can’t keep using this power.” I could hear the panic in his voice as he spoke to Ryan. I supposed it was scary for him to see it chip away at my time alive, especially when he was the only one that could see how it affected me. When I thought about it, his time would never stop but our time together would be limited to mine.

  “Take her somewhere safe, I have to figure out a way to shut this portal or they’ll never stop coming through.” Grim placed me into Ryan’s arms and walked away. My weight shifted in his arms as he walked with me. He looked down at me with a worried expression.

  “I can probably walk,” I told him and rubbed my head. I could hear the ruckus going on around us and wondered how we were walking away without anyone attacking us.

  “I got you, besides Grim’s making sure no one can get close to us.” That made me smile. “You saved me, didn’t you?” He smiled down at me.

  “It’s the least I could do,” I replied.

  “I can’t believe that you actually have powers… how is that even possible?” he asked.

  I tried to shrug my shoulders and sighed. “I honestly don’t know, but Killian and I… I think we were meant to meet each other as crazy as it sounds… Fate, destiny, whatever you wanna call it, I think that’s how we are,” I gave him the truth. His smiled faded, yet his eyes softened in understanding.

  “So, fate never gave me a chance to begin with?” he tried to speak lightly about the subject, but I knew we were past that.

  “No one can replace you in my life and in my heart. You will always hold a special place there. Ryan, you’ve kept me sane all these years.” He looked up, but I had already seen the tears glisten his eyes. “I will always love you but not the way you want me to and not the way I once thought I did.”

  He finally looked back down at me. “You didn’t have to tell me. I’m going to love you regardless of what you’ve decided.” For a moment my heart fluttered at his words and maybe in another life, one without ghosts and demons… I might have been Ryan’s.

  “I didn’t tell you that to make you feel better. It’s the truth,” I told him.

  “Just as well, Melanie, I spoke my truth right back.”

  Chapter Eight

  Melanie

  “I still don’t understand how you saved me?” Ryan asked for the thousandth time as we sat on the couch together. My eyes were closed and I was beginning to feel a bit better. Grim and the other Reapers had managed to close the portal by tossing every dead werewolf back into it. Something about what came through the portal had to go back in it in order for it to close—it had been spelled that way.

  “I don’t know.” I raised up and sighed. “It comes and goes and the voice speaks and suddenly I know what to do,” I answered him.

  He gave me a funny look. “Voice?”

  “Yeah, the me inside my head,” I replied and then placed my head in my hands. “That made me sound super crazy, didn’t it?”

  He grinned at me. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but since you said it…”

  I pushed him away from me and he laughed. “You never told me about a voice.” Killian stepped into the room followed by Lincoln and Penny and a couple more Reapers I didn’t know.

  “Really?” I said.

  Ryan looked at Lincoln limping and went pale. “If I did that—”

  Lincoln swiped his hand in the air. “It wasn’t you that threw me into a wall but the demon that you become. No worries, I’m a healer.” Ryan didn’t seem to feel better after his words.

  “He wasn’t the only one that you managed to get a swing at.” Penny pointed to the bruise on her face and glared at Ryan.

  “I hit a girl, too?” His voice was full of regret.

  “It wasn’t him,” Killian told Penny.

  She shrugged her shoulders and turned her focus on me. “I’ve never seen any sort of power like that before—the color…” Her eyes were on the gold bands on Ryan’s wrist before she looked back at me. “So, Lincoln wasn’t lying when he told me she healed Rixen?” she asked.

  Killian sat down next to me and placed his hand on my thigh. He let his head fall back and sighed wearily. “She didn’t heal the dragon, Penny,” Lincoln spoke up. “The dragon was already at Death’s doors. Neither mine or Grim’s healing would have saved him.”

  “You’re saying she brought him back to life?” she asked skeptically.

  “I didn’t say that. I don’t know what she did.” Lincoln was healing himself as he spoke. When he was finished with himself, he healed Penny’s bruised face.

  “I just don’t understand.” She crossed her arms. “I don’t sense any sort of demonic presence coming from her…in fact, I don’t sense anything at all. She’s nothing more than a human.” When Lincoln was finished healing her, he stepped back.

  “Not exactly. Whatever power Melanie wields rivals my own.” All eyes fell on Killian but his were on me. “She has a scythe,” Killian said it like it should mean something.

  Silence. Tick-tock, tick tock, the grandfather clocked filled the empty echo. Then they finally went berserk and the room filled with gasps. “She has a scythe?” Lincoln repeated.

  Killian nodded and smiled at me. “I told you she was the reason I was able to merge, yet you didn’t seem to believe me,” he huffed at Lincoln. “She pulled it from her chest. It’s golden.” He glanced down at Ryan’s wrist. “Her power seems to emit that color. Even her skin and hair change when she’s using it.”

  “Yeah, I saw her earlier,” Penny acknowledged.

  “If she has a scythe like you…” Lincoln’s words died out, and for the first time since meeting the centaur, he seemed to acknowledge me as a person—a hint of admiration touched his cheeks.

  “She’s something else,” Penny mumbled, “if she really pulled a scythe from that human body of hers.” She didn’t sound bitter about me—just confused, maybe curious as well.

  “Do you think you can try calling it out?” Killian asked me. Call it out? What the—I didn’t even know how to use the power properly, how was I going to make the scythe appear?

&nbs
p; My mouth tilted upward as I bunched my shoulders up. “I can try, but I don’t think I will be able to.” I blinked innocently at him. “Truthfully, I’ve been trying.”

  “I know,” he told me. Huh? He wasn’t going to chew me out? “Try again.”

  I sighed and stood up. There were too many people in the room, it was making me nervous. I decided to close my eyes instead and focus on bringing it out. Scythe, scythe, where are you? I was rambling with my thoughts and shook my head. Be serious, Melanie. I didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of all these Reapers. In my head, I visualized my scythe. Golden, just as big as Grim’s, yet more feminine, and it had a hook-like blade that went inward like his as well. I moved my hand to my chest and it went no further than the valley between my breasts. I tried a few more times before I gave it up.

  “I can’t. I don’t know how I did it before,” I admitted.

  “I thought so.” Killian nodded like he finally understood something. “She can only wield the power when she’s in extreme danger or if she has an intense desire leading her to use it. Like earlier, it was her desperation to save Ryan that allowed her to use it. I think it’s protecting her that way.”

  “What do you mean?” Lincoln asked.

  “She’s human, her body can’t handle using it.”

  “It’s a shame, really,” Lincoln shook his head at me. “A power like Grim’s and it can’t even be used properly.” His eyes lit up. “I’ve heard that angels carry a light on their skin…”

  “She’s not an angel, Lincoln,” Killian was quick to tell him.

  “I didn’t say she was—”

  “Neither is the power. Although, it is similar,” he added. “She’s my counterpart.”

  “She’s human!” Penny hissed. “It’s not even allowed. It’s against our way of things unless she were to have your mark and she most certainly does not have a mark from you.” I brought my hand over the X out of habit as she spoke. Killian noticed and wasn’t happy.

  “Am I missing something here? Did I ask for an opinion from any of you about who I choose to be with?” Killian looked around the room at his Reapers and none of them said a word. “Yes, I know that it doesn’t make sense that she’s human, and I have no idea why God made her one.”

  “Wait,” I spoke up. “What do you mean? You’re making it sound like you already knew about me.”

  Killian ran his hands through his hair before he looked at me. “An angel came to me a thousand years ago or longer and told me that I had a lover—only she hadn’t been born yet. It wasn’t until you were on the rooftop wearing my cloak and wielding a scythe and piecing me back together again—even calling yourself my light,” he laughed softly, “that I remembered the angel’s words from that night and realized who you are to me.”

  I felt happy and worried all at the same time. “But you said you had no idea what I was,” I told him.

  He grabbed my hand and smiled. “I know you are meant to be with me, Love, but that doesn’t mean I know what your power is supposed to be or why you were born a human.”

  “I’m so confused. And I thought you were complicated before all this,” Ryan mumbled beside me and I shot him a look.

  “We’ll find out more about you as soon as Fear’s out of the picture. Right now, he’s a top priority.” He picked up one of the papers Fear had sent across his land up and glared. “I want every wolf den found and searched. One of the packs in the Underworld is helping him.”

  “Yes,” Lincoln answered for us all. “Then we might get some peace around here again.”

  ______________

  It was becoming a habit of Killian’s to take me home when all I wanted to do was stay with him. I sighed loudly, making it obvious I wasn’t happy it as he pulled into my driveway. Once the car was in park, he looked over at me. “You wanted to stay that badly?” he asked with a smug look.

  “I don’t see why I have to be home. I could stay days with you before I’d have to come back home each night. How do you manage all that time without me when half a day kills me,” I admitted, testing my girlfriend privileges out.

  “I don’t,” he replied. “But I still have my duties as Grim as well as using every chance we can to track down Fear. I want nothing more than to give you all my time.”

  “I could stay in the bedroom you set up for me while you’re busy…” I mumbled.

  Butterflies swam in my stomach when he laughed. “The next time you stay at my house won’t be spent in that hidden bedroom but with me. In my bed.” I felt my face turn red. “Do you understand?”

  “You say those things on purpose.” I made a disapproving sound in my throat.

  “Only because I love to see those cheeks turn crimson for me,” he added and my insides turned to mush. I tried not to look too happy as I opened my door and stepped out.

  “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow after school?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Just say my name and I’m there.” He winked and I rolled my eyes and shut the door.

  What a day, I thought as I made my way inside. Mom and Alex greeted me as I came in. I fixed myself a BLT sandwich before heading upstairs to my room.

  I saved Ryan. I smiled as I ate my sandwich on my bed. I felt closer to Killian. Fear was still a problem, but it didn’t go as planned for him today. I stopped him from taking Ryan. That was enough for me to feel satisfied. I placed my plate on my nightstand and slipped underneath my covers. I was exhausted and showering would have to wait until the morning.

  I studied my shade lamp on the nightstand. I’ve conquered so much in the past few weeks… maybe it was time to finally overcome my fear of the dark. Now that I knew my real fear, the dark should no longer be scary, right?

  I leaned over and shut it off. It was a lot darker than I realized without any light. It took several seconds for my eyes to adjust enough to make out the furniture in my room. Even my ears were straining—I could hear my heartbeat.

  That shape looked odd next to my bookshelf. And I had no idea where that shadow was coming from—it was unrecognizable. Wait, did it move? I turned back on the light and scanned the room.

  Nothing.

  Okay, maybe I wasn’t that ready to conquer the dark.

  _________

  Another day at school spent evading ghosts. The Reapers were doing their job, but they had their hands full. Penny was back with Tess, and I didn’t forget to ask her how she managed to be everywhere all the time. She replied with, “We take shifts watching you, Tess, and your family.” Surprisingly, she hadn’t been snarky about it, but her attitude was still the same regarding me in everything else. She enjoyed gossiping about me to the ghosts before she sent them to their afterlife.

  “I finally talked to Mike,” Tess surprised me at lunch by saying.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. We decided to end things,” she said while taking a drink of water.

  I looked at her for several seconds trying to figure out how she was taking it all. “I hadn’t expected that outcome,” I told her honestly.

  She smiled at me. “He didn’t cheat. You were right about that. He did get with Haley before we were together but I had already known that. We just decided to see how we do apart.” She shrugged her shoulders casually.

  “So, it’s more like taking a break from each other?”

  “No, I think we really are over. I don’t know, I guess it was just nice to hear from one another that maybe we can get back what we lost. It felt good to leave him on good terms.”

  I looked at her like she was an alien. “Who are you, and what are you done to my irresponsible, carefree Tess?”

  She laughed. “I finally realized I had no right to be upset if Mike had really cheated on me… not when the whole time we were together I had regarded him as someone I’d eventually leave. I wasn’t happy with myself and I didn’t want to stay in a relationship where I was that way, so we ended it.” She looked down at her plate with a smile before she looked over at the football players. Mike was
in the group laughing. “Who knows, maybe in the future we will find something between us again, that is if we don’t fall in love with other people. I don’t plan to hold myself back when I’m with someone anymore, and I’ll probably get hurt because of it, but losing Ryan made me understand that nothing’s guaranteed. I hope Ryan knew how much I loved him and I plan on loving the hell out of the poor soul that catches my interest next.”

  Tess had the tendency to say something real then turn around and say something silly to try to take away from the seriousness. I smiled at her. “He does,” I replied then corrected myself, “Did.”

  “Yeah… let’s never grow apart, Melanie, no matter where life takes us.” Her words caught me off guard.

  “Yeah…” I tried to smile back.

  Only I didn’t know if staying alive was in my future, despite Fear’s upcoming death.

  Chapter Nine

  Melanie

  It was another evening of Killian coming to pick me up in his car so that we could leave at his place in the human world and fade to his actual home outside the borders of the Underworld.

  Only when we arrived things were in a slight uproar. Ryan was yelling at Lincoln for something and when we appeared, his anger turned on Killian. “You can’t expect me to sit here and do nothing!” he yelled.

  “What can you do?” Killian placed his hands on his shoulders and glared at Ryan.

  “What is going on?” I asked them both.

  Ryan pulled a crumbled piece of paper from his pocket that I recognized and shot another piercing stare at Killian. “He figured out where Fear plans to open the portal.”

  “So, you managed to find Fear?” I asked Kilian.

  “No, we haven’t been able to find him,” Killian answered.

  Ryan sighed in frustration. “He plans to open the portal in Denver.” His words caught my attention and I turned his way. “He’s going to unleash a hoard of demons that’s out for human blood in our town, Melanie! Where our families are!”