Winged Reaper

by Shelley Russell Nolan

  I eased myself through a gap in the crowd and Sarah’s mother spotted me. Her face, already pale, went sheer white. She shook her head, mouth open but no sound emerging. She tugged on her husband’s arm and he leaned in closer to her, concern on his face. She pointed at me and when he looked up I could read anger in his gaze before he took his wife’s arm and they both turned their backs on me.

  My breath caught in my throat and my body flushed with heat. I tried to move forward, but a hand on my arm pulled me back. Connor turned me around to face him, his expression grim.

  ‘I wouldn’t if I were you. Mum and I tried to give our condolences a minute ago and some big guy stepped in and told us we weren’t welcome. Being related to Andrew makes us persona non grata.’ He shrugged. ‘Can’t blame them, I guess.’

  I backed away, avoiding the gazes of those around me as I made my way out of the crowd and sought Emily. She stood in the middle of the grassed area to the left of the chapel, face lifted to the sky, eyes closed.

  She opened them when Connor and I approached, and her brow creased. ‘You okay?’

  I gave a sharp nod, the only response I could manage right then, and cast my eyes over the crematorium grounds as Emily and Connor made small talk.

  The chapel rested on a small hill and the slopes leading down to the road were dotted with headstones marking the final resting place for Easton’s dead. Ornaments, faded photographs and vases filled with flowers nestled around many of the headstones.

  ‘Hey, Tyler,’ said Connor, ‘I saw you giving Bradbury the cold shoulder. Does that mean I can tell Logan you’re single again? He’s still keen to give it another try.’

  I spun around. ‘You have got to be kidding me. How could you think I would want anything to do with him, ever? The guy cheated on me.’

  ‘Come on, he’s a mate. So he made a mistake. All he wants is a chance to make it up to you.’

  I glared at Connor, ready to tell him in no uncertain terms just what I thought of his mate, but Rhonda appeared and cut me off.

  ‘Connor, we’re leaving. Are you coming?’

  ‘Nah, I think I’ll keep the girls company. Get to know my new cousin.’

  ‘She’s not your cousin. She’s nothing to you.’

  Emily flushed and hung her head while my eyes went wide. Looking at Rhonda, the contempt in her eyes made me shiver and a shadowy image of Grimm appeared in my head. Why would I connect Rhonda to Grimm? A memory niggled at me, but it slipped away when Connor spoke.

  ‘What’s your problem, Mum? There’s no need to be rude.’

  Rhonda screwed up her mouth, and then heaved out a sigh as she smoothed down the skirt of her linen sheath dress. ‘Look, your father and I have something we need to discuss with you. You can get to know Tyler’s cousin another time.’

  Connor shrugged. ‘Fine. I guess I’ll catch up with you later, Emily.’ He nodded his head in my direction and walked off with Rhonda.

  Emily still stood with her head down and I touched her lightly on the shoulder. ‘Don’t take it personally. Rhonda’s not the nicest person at the best of times, and she’s never been a fan of mine. Watching Connor flirt with you will probably give her nightmares for weeks.’ Again the shadowy image of Grimm appeared, probably triggered by my mention of nightmares.

  ‘But she’s your stepmother?’

  ‘Yeah, with an emphasis on the “step” part,’ I said with a tight smile. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’ I took her arm and we walked towards the car park.

  ‘Tyler, can I talk to you?’

  I stopped and waited for Sam to stride over to us. I could see Chris in the background, watching, and shifted position so Sam blocked my view.

  Sam gave me a smile and then looked at Emily, eyebrows raised.

  ‘This is my cousin, Emily,’ I said, ‘on my mother’s side. She’s staying with me for a while. Emily, this is Detective Sam Lockwood.’

  ‘Nice to meet you, Emily.’ He held out his hand, a warm smile on his face.

  ‘It’s nice to meet you, Detective Lockwood,’ said Emily, pumping his hand. ‘Wow, a detective. That must be so exciting. Catching bad guys and all that, though I guess it isn’t all like it is on TV.’

  ‘Not quite. There’s more paperwork, for starters, and less gadgets,’ Sam said, his smile widening. ‘Can I have my hand back now?’

  ‘Oh, I am so sorry.’ Emily dropped his hand, a blush coating her cheeks. She looked from me to Sam and back again. ‘I’ll go wait by the car.’ She fled before I had a chance to say anything.

  Sam shifted his feet and ran a hand over his close-cropped brown hair. He cleared his throat, but I jumped in before he could speak.

  ‘Thank you for your support in there.’ I inclined my head towards the chapel. ‘I don’t think I would have got through it without you and Emily. She’s been great.’

  ‘I thought you didn’t know anyone from your mother’s family?’

  ‘I didn’t. Emily saw me on the news and tracked me down after finding out her dad was my mum’s brother.’

  His brow furrowed. ‘Normally I’d warn you to be careful of any relative coming out of the woodwork, especially after you’ve been in the news. But from the look of her, there’s no doubt she’s the real deal. Still, I think you should be careful. With what you’ve been through, you might want to take it slow with your new cousin.’

  I hunched my shoulders. ‘I better go. I have to pack up Sarah’s things and deliver them to her parents. Emily is going to help me.’

  Sam stepped closer, taking hold of my arm. ‘I saw what happened, with the Abbots. Don’t take it personally. They’re hurting and looking for someone to blame.’

  Hard not to take it personally when two people who’d meant so much to me turned their backs on me, but I didn’t say anything. They were right. I was as much to blame for Sarah’s death as Andrew was.

  ‘I also saw you with Bradbury. I take it the two of you are no longer together.’

  I shot a glance at Sam, leaning towards him when I saw his hopeful expression. I caught myself, pulling my arm free, taking a step back. ‘I can’t do this. Not here, not now.’ I fled to the car, gulping in air as I unlocked the door and slipped into my seat.

  Emily climbed into the passenger seat, face red. ‘I am so embarrassed, but I just got so excited to be meeting a real life detective. I swear I was not trying to hit on your boyfriend. Please don’t hate me.’

  ‘Of course I don’t hate you. And Sam’s not my boyfriend.’

  ‘Really? I just thought, with you guys holding hands and you snuggling into him during the service, that he must have been your boyfriend.’

  ‘No, no. He’s a friend, kind of, and I wasn’t snuggling. It was, I was … upset, and he was comforting me. That’s all.’

  ‘If you say so, but he definitely wasn’t sending out a friend vibe. To me, it looked like he was really into you. And Chris Bradbury did not look happy to see you talking to him.’ She gave a sigh. ‘I can’t believe you got to go out with him.’

  ‘We weren’t going out, Chris and I, we just got thrown together during the murder investigation. That’s kind of what happened with Sam, too,’ I said as I started the engine and backed out of the car park.

  ‘You are so lucky to have two hot guys crushing on you. I read these romance novels, where the main character has two guys fighting over her, and it always seems so exciting.’

  ‘Yeah, well, my life is not a romance novel.’ It was more of a horror story.

  Emily nodded and for the rest of the drive home I listened as she talked about anything and everything. She kept talking as we boxed Sarah’s belongings up. Then we packed them into the back of Sarah’s VW. Emily drove my car while I drove the VW to Mr and Mrs Abbot’s house, parking it in the driveway. I put the keys in an envelope and left them in the letterbox. Cowardly, maybe, but I thought they would prefer it that way than to have me hand them over in person.

  Though all I wanted to do was go home and hide under the bed, p
retend that last week had been nothing but a bad dream, I stopped in at the supermarket and bought enough groceries to last the next few days. Halfway to the flat, my necklace went cold. I kept driving, unable to pull over and enter the astral plane with Emily in the car. I struggled not to react when the cold grew more intense.

  ‘Are you okay? You’ve gone pale.’

  I gave Emily a tight smile. ‘I’m okay, just a bad headache. Think I’ll have a lie down when we get home, try to stop it from turning into a migraine.’

  ‘You poor thing. I get bad headaches too, they’re not fun. My dad does as well, so it must be a family trait, like black hair and brown eyes.’

  By the time we reached the flat the skin under my necklace felt frostbitten. I must have looked pretty bad as Emily took the keys off me, unlocked the front door and practically pushed me towards my bedroom.

  ‘Go, lie down and get better. I’ll put the groceries away.’

  I didn’t argue, heading straight to my room. I locked the door and lay on the bed. When I took astral form I sighed with relief at leaving the stinging sensation behind, wishing this day was over already.

  5

  I floated through the ceiling of a low block brick home and found a man and a woman sprawled on the lounge room floor, heads bloodied and battered. A man in a bright yellow high-visibility work shirt and dark blue pants was tugging on one end of a large leather couch. A baseball bat, blood congealing on the thickest end, was tucked under one arm.

  His face was mottled, body rotting from the inside out.

  Before I had time to process the presence of a Wraith, I heard what sounded like a small child crying. The Wraith pulled on the couch, wrenching one corner out from the wall, and stumbled backwards, dropping the bat as he lurched around in an effort to regain his balance. He scooped up the bat and hefted it over his shoulder.

  A small boy huddled behind the couch. He tried to scramble over the top, ducking down when the Wraith swung the bat at his head.

  The bat hit the wall with a crunch, leaving blood splatters over the fading wallpaper. The Wraith lurched around the exposed end of the couch and lifted the bat high.

  ‘No.’ I surged towards the Wraith, hand outstretched ready to reap his soul. He spun and swung the bat at me.

  I experienced a weird shivering sensation as it passed through my astral body. He swung it again and again, faster and faster, unable to do any damage but using the wind it created to keep me back. I darted to the side, making another attempt to get to him, to touch him, so I could take his soul.

  I caught a glimpse of black just before a dark reaper barrelled into me. The force of its attack shoved me backwards even as it flipped over and came at me again. I dived to the left to avoid its charge. On the other side of the room, the Wraith continued his attempts to get to the boy. I had to stop him, but with the dark reaper in the way I was running out of time.

  I had to do something.

  I roared, sending a huge psychic blast into the dark reaper, but even though the black cloud comprising its astral form thinned, it didn’t stop it from ramming me and forcing me even further away from the Wraith and the little boy.

  Anger towards the dark reaper and the Wraith filled me as the necklace chained around my throat started to vibrate, its heartbeat resonating throughout my body. I focused on it, acting on instinct, drawing in aether, the psychic energy that coursed through every living thing. It swirled inside me, clean and powerful, and a bright light flared when I hurled it at the reaper.

  The reaper shattered into thousands of pieces, glass like black shards spraying around the room. Though stunned by what I’d just done, I pulled myself together and faced the Wraith.

  ‘Run.’ Psychic energy amplified my voice and the Wraith staggered. But I wasn’t talking to him. I risked a glance over my shoulder. The little boy was still behind the couch, curled into a ball.

  I didn’t want to risk shooting out another beam of aether as I had no idea if it would hurt the boy. But I could use a psychic blast. While my last attempt had sailed harmlessly through the dark reaper, it would work on the Wraith’s physical body. I focused on my intent, draining as much of my energy as I dared and sending it out in one concentrated burst. It hit the Wraith in the abdomen and he reeled, arms windmilling as he sought to keep his balance.

  ‘Run.’

  At my second shout, the boy’s head flung up, eyes wide, and he looked straight at me.

  ‘Go.’ I sent another blast of energy into the Wraith, speeding up the decomposition process and forcing it away from the couch. He fell to his knees and crumbled to the floor, body unable to rise.

  As the boy darted out from behind the couch and made for the front door, the Wraith detached from his host body and floated towards the man he had murdered.

  I flew through the air, getting between them, blocking the Wraith when he made an attempt to get to the woman. No way was I letting him get hold of another body.

  I heard the front door of the house open and then slam shut.

  The boy was free.

  The Wraith, now in a malevolent black astral form, came straight at me and I prepared to do to him what I had done to his friend. At the last second he twisted in mid-air and shot up and through the roof.

  I wanted to follow the boy, to ensure he was okay but as I hadn’t reaped the souls of my two clients I was tethered. I had to hope he’d be okay until I could go and check on him. I reaped the souls of the man and woman, but I didn’t place them in my necklace. Instead, one in each hand, I went in search of the boy.

  I floated through the front door and was relieved to see him across the road, clasped in the arms of a young woman with red hair. His face was pressed into her shoulder and she was patting his back. A man stood next to them, eyes roaming the street while he talked on a mobile phone. I drifted closer and the light of the two souls I held got brighter.

  The little boy turned his head and looked at me. His eyes filled with wonder when he saw the souls, and their light expanded to touch him. He snuggled back into the arms of the woman holding him and closed his eyes, tense little body relaxing.

  I placed the two souls into my necklace and got the feeling they were content.

  I was anything but.

  As my astral body headed for home, I worried over what I had witnessed. The Wraith had killed the two people whose souls I now carried in my necklace and tried to kill the boy as well. But why?

  I arrived home and reconnected with my body, shaking as I pulled myself into a sitting position. I stumbled into the hall, thoughts racing as I reached the kitchen and switched the kettle on. I needed coffee, strong and sweet.

  I’d only ever had contact with two Wraiths, both of them sent to kill me by Grimm. Was he behind this latest attack? Was this his sick way of replacing the energy I’d taken from him when I’d broken the chain of souls anchoring him to the physical world? As horrible as it was, that was the only explanation that made sense.

  I poured boiling water into my cup and opened the fridge in search of milk. When I closed the fridge, a yellow post-it-note fell off.

  I picked it up and read the short note.

  Hey Tyler,

  Connor is showing me around town. Hope you don’t mind. Call if you need me.

  Emily.

  Her mobile phone number was written neatly underneath.

  I poured milk into my cup, stirred my coffee and took a sip, not sure if I liked the idea of Emily spending time with Connor. But I wasn’t my cousin’s keeper.

  I sat at the kitchen table, the silence of the flat wrapping around me. Now would have been a good time to have Emily chattering on, distracting me from my dark thoughts. As it was, the scene I’d witnessed at the reaping played over and over in my head. I needed to know what was going on, but the only person I could talk to about this stuff was Chris and I was not going there.

  The urge to talk, to discuss with someone who knew what I was talking about and who might have valuable insights to share was a ta
ntalising thought. But the only other person I knew who was part of the dark world I’d been dragged into was Killian, who wanted me dead. I had no one else to talk to.

  Unless…

  I bolted into the bathroom, desperately hoping Mum would appear and be able to answer all my questions. But the mirror remained empty of anything but my reflection. I trudged back to the lounge room and flopped on the couch.

  What was I going to do now?

  My mobile phone rang and I pulled it out of my handbag. The caller I.D. read “Sam”.

  Should I answer it? Maybe hearing his voice would lift my spirits?

  I hit the talk button and held the phone up to my ear. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Hey.’

  I sighed, relaxing back into the couch, eyes closed. ‘Hey.’

  ‘Tough day?’

  ‘You could say that.’

  ‘Want to grab something to eat?’

  I held my breath, wanting to say yes, not sure if it was a good idea. I had valid reasons for not getting involved with a homicide detective.

  ‘It’s just dinner, nothing else. You’ve got to eat so why not do it with me? Or do you and your cousin have plans?’

  ‘Emily’s out with Connor. I don’t know where they are or when they’ll get back.’

  ‘Even more reason to have dinner with me. You shouldn’t be alone, not tonight.’

  ‘Okay,’ I said, surprising myself. But he was right. I did need to eat. I’d skipped too many meals as it was in the last week, and I’d need to keep my strength up to be ready to face Grimm when he came for me.

  ‘Great. I’ll pick you up in half an hour.’ Sam disconnected and I stared at my phone.

  Half an hour to get ready?

  Seriously?

  6

  I climbed into Sam’s car. Not the unmarked, a sleek gold BMW. Immaculate inside, with leather upholstery and all the gadgets a tech whiz could wish for, it still had the new car smell.

  ‘This is not what I pictured you owning,’ I said with a smile.

  ‘What did you think I’d drive?’