Winged Reaper

by Shelley Russell Nolan

Connor looked up as Chris headed into the kitchen, eyes unfocused as he gazed around the penthouse, almost as if he didn’t know how he came to be there.

  Chris returned with four glasses in one hand and a bottle of scotch in the other. He placed them on the coffee table before pouring a generous measure of scotch into each glass. He held one out to Connor, who stared at it blankly.

  Connor leaned forward, ignoring the glass Chris was offering him, and took the bottle instead. He took several deep gulps before placing it back on the table.

  His eyes, clearer now, found mine and his expression hardened. ‘How did he die?’

  ‘He was stabbed in the chest,’ I said, giving him a moment to process my bald statement before I hit him with the rest. ‘He was murdered by Tr’lirians who want me to free their clan leader from Demania, Hell, and they plan on using your body to house his soul.’

  Connor screwed up his face. ‘Not this shit again. Have you been smoking the same stuff as Mum?’

  ‘It’s all true. I wish it wasn’t, but it is. Rhonda is a full Tr’lirian and you are half, the same as Chris.’

  Connor’s gaze flicked over to Chris, who stood beside me sipping his scotch. He raised his glass in a salute.

  Connor grabbed the bottle and took another gulp. ‘This is bullshit,’ he said, wiping his mouth. ‘Logan’s dead and you lot are raving on about flying aliens.’

  ‘We aren’t aliens. We’re the original inhabitants of Earth,’ said Rhonda, sounding affronted. ‘We lived here long before humans showed up and spread their filth all over the world, ruining our paradise. We fled to Angellin to avoid their stink.’

  ‘Really, Mum? You sound like one of those crazies who reckon they’ve been abducted by a UFO.’

  Rhonda sniffed. ‘I’m not crazy. I’m telling the truth. Why won’t you believe me?’

  ‘Show me your wings, and then I’ll believe you.’

  ‘I don’t have them anymore. I told you, I had to give them up so I could watch over Tyler’s mother.’

  ‘That’s convenient.’ He lifted the bottle of scotch to his lips once more.

  Rhonda’s face had gone red and her hands arched into claws.

  ‘Have you shown him how you can slip into the astral plane?’

  ‘What?’ Rhonda stared at me, eyes wide. ‘No, I … ah … didn’t think of that.’ She gave me a defiant glare. ‘I’ve spent so many years making sure no one knew what I could do, it never even occurred to me.’

  ‘Chris and I already know what you can do. Now you just have to show Connor.’

  Rhonda stood and straightened her skirt, looking self-conscious as she faced her son. ‘Connor, honey, I don’t want you to be scared but I am going to disappear. Don’t worry, I’ll be in the astral plane. I’ll be able to see you, you just won’t be able to see me.’

  ‘Come off it, Mum. I’m not five.’ Connor waved the bottle of scotch in her direction. ‘Just do your magic trick so we can get this farce over with.’

  Rhonda glowered at him. ‘Do not take that tone with me, young man. I may have put up with it when I was with your father, but no more. You will show me the respect I deserve. Do you hear me?’

  Connor gave a start. ‘Ah, sure.’ He put the scotch on the coffee table and scratched at his head. ‘Do your thing.’

  Rhonda took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and vanished from sight.

  Connor shot up from the couch, waving a hand in the air in front of him. ‘Holy shit. Where did she go?’

  I couldn’t see her, but watched as Chris tracked her progress through the astral plane. At one point it looked like he was going to reach out and touch her. I shook my head, not ready to trust her with what might be our one advantage over Malia’s Tr’lirians. I had no doubt that if it came down to it, Rhonda’s determination to protect Connor would see her hand Chris and I over to Malia in a heartbeat.

  Rhonda reappeared on the other side of Connor and he jumped sideways. She wore a self-satisfied smirk. ‘Now do you believe me?’

  Connor sank back down on the couch, hands on his knees, eyes roaming over all of us. ‘Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?’

  ‘Rhonda can fill you in,’ I said. I’d had enough of delivering bad news. Before she could protest, I moved over to Chris and led him into the kitchen.

  ‘I want to find Malia. I need to know where she is staying for when I get Emily’s soul back.’

  He shook his head. ‘It’s too dangerous.’

  ‘You could get your private investigator to find her.’

  ‘Why don’t we wait for Lockwood to return, and then we’ll decide on a course of action?’

  ‘We don’t have time.’

  ‘There’s always time.’

  I glared at him before stomping back into the lounge room. Connor was shaking his head as Rhonda filled him in on the freak show his life was about to become. I could sympathise with him. It had been mere days since darkness and death had entered my life, revealing hidden worlds both above and below. I was still struggling to come to terms with what that meant for me. But at least Connor’s awakening wasn’t as violent as mine, nor had he been chained to the Underworld.

  I, on the other hand, faced an eternity of reaping souls, my quota increased by one thousand every time I reaped the soul of a Wraith, destroying their hope of rebirth. I hadn’t stopped to calculate what my quota now stood at, not wanting to face my future head on. I paced in front of the dining table,

  ‘You’re a reaper? What does that mean?’

  I stopped pacing and looked over at Connor, who was peering over the back of the couch at me.

  I heaved a deep sigh and took a seat in one of the plush armchairs. ‘When a person is dying, this necklace goes cold to let me know. Then, when I touch it, my astral form leaves my body and I am pulled through the astral plane to my client. I reap their soul, place it inside the necklace, and return to my physical body.’

  ‘You’re carrying dead people around your neck. Gross.’

  ‘They’re souls, and mostly it’s not too bad. They’re content, peaceful, waiting for rebirth.’

  ‘Was Logan content?’ His eyes hardened. ‘Monique? Sarah?’

  I forced myself not to look away. ‘Monique is at peace. Her soul is safe, in my necklace, until I release it. Then she’ll be reborn. Sarah’s soul is there too.’ I left it at that, not wanting to explain how Sarah had become a Wraith and attacked me or how she would never be reborn.

  Connor’s face paled. ‘What about Logan?’

  ‘One of Grimm’s dark reapers took his soul before I could reap it, so I don’t know where it is.’

  Connor washed this information down with the last of the scotch. He stood, staggering as he navigated his way around the coffee table. ‘I need to lie down.’

  Rhonda took his arm and I showed them to the third bedroom. Connor stretched out face down on the mattress and was snoring in seconds. Rhonda removed his shoes and sat on the bed beside, him, stroking his hair, stern expression dissolving as she watched him sleep.

  I snuck out of the room and found Chris clearing away the glasses and empty bottle of scotch.

  ‘Connor is sleeping off your scotch and Rhonda is keeping him company,’ I said.

  ‘I’d be driven to drink too if I suddenly found out I’d been lied to my entire life.’

  I nodded but didn’t reply, his comment hitting a little too close to home. ‘I’m going to lie down as well. I have a feeling tonight is going to be busy.’ I tapped a finger on my necklace. ‘Can you wake me when Sam gets back?’

  His mouth firmed into a line before he gave a slow nod. ‘Enjoy your nap.’

  He brushed by me and I didn’t turn around until he left the kitchen. I headed to my room and lay down, wishing my words hadn’t hurt him.

  23

  I’d barely got myself settled on the bed when the call to reap came and I was drawn to a housing area opposite Easton University. One of the newer estates, brick homes were squeezed into tiny
blocks and juvenile trees provided limited shade for the kids playing in their yards. Cars slowly wound their way through narrow streets, dodging people out for a stroll. A typical Saturday afternoon in suburbia.

  The pull of my client drew me towards the backyard of a gleaming two storey monstrosity. I rounded the corner of the house and at first I could see nothing to warrant my presence. Washing fluttered on the clothesline, an empty basket resting on the ground beneath it. Then the clothesline turned in the wind, revealing white sheets splattered in blood.

  On the other side of the clothesline, sprawled on the grass in front of a large outdoor entertainment area, lay the body of a middle aged man. Blood seeped from dozens of deep slashes on his arms and legs. Rents in his shirt and shorts showed similar wounds to the rest of his body. But it wasn’t the sight of my client’s injuries that made me gasp.

  Two people stood over him. The male, young and muscular, tossed a blood drenched knife on the grass beside the dead man. He peeled off thick gloves and placed them in a plastic bag the pretty young woman beside him was holding open. They shared a passionate kiss before he took the bag from her and moved to the back of the entertainment area. He used a brick barbecue as a step ladder to scale the six foot fence.

  The second he was out of sight the woman dropped to her knees beside the man on the ground and let out a long wailing scream. A shudder swept through my astral body as I moved closer, revolted by the look of satisfaction on her face as she surveyed her lover’s handiwork. I shifted my focus to my client, resisting the urge to let loose with my own scream as I placed my hand below the bloody rent in his neck.

  His soul answered my call, its light subdued as I placed it in my necklace.

  I was equally subdued as I travelled back to Chris’s penthouse. Though the man’s death was not related to Malia or Grimm’s Wraiths, it was still disheartening to witness the levels of violence mankind was capable of perpetrating on one another.

  I swept into my body, tears leaking from closed eyes as I waited for my senses to come back on line.

  Sound returned first, and my pulse kicked up a notch when I heard movement in the room. I forced my eyes open, blinking rapidly to clear my vision.

  Sam’s smiling face greeted me, and my own lips curved up despite what I had just witnessed.

  ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Sorry I woke you. You looked peaceful.’

  ‘I was reaping.’ I sat up and reached for the bottle of water I’d put on the bedside table.

  ‘Bad?’

  ‘I’ve had better times.’

  He sat beside me and put a hand over mine. ‘Bradbury told me what happened at the flat, and with Connor. How are you doing?’

  I forced myself to maintain eye contact, hoping Chris hadn’t mentioned our visit to Killian’s compound. ‘I’m doing lots better than the man whose soul I just reaped. He was murdered, and I know who did it.’ I gave him the details, fascinated by the cop face he wore as he questioned me further.

  Finally satisfied with my descriptions of the murderous lovers, he stood. ‘I’ll need to take care of this, make sure the detective handling this case knows what to look out for. The first couple of hours of any investigation are the most crucial. I don’t want to give the perpetrators a chance to get rid of the evidence.’

  I followed him down the hall, wishing he didn’t have to leave but understanding why he had to go. ‘What about Logan? Was there any evidence at the scene to identify who killed him?’

  He sighed, rubbing his chin. ‘So far all we have are one set of footprints leading to the body, which preliminary tests suggest are Millar’s. There’s no sign anyone else was there, and his car is missing. My guess, one or more of your winged friends forced Miller to walk into the middle of the field, while they flew along beside him, never leaving any trace of their presence.’

  ‘When I was drawn to reap his soul they gathered around his body, but they were all in the astral plane. No footprints when you’re not in solid form.’ He must have been so scared, marched to his death by beings beyond his comprehension. No one deserved to die like that.

  Sam gave a nod. ‘We searched Millar’s place. One of my colleagues recognised you in a photo on the mirror in his bedroom. I need to take a statement from you, from Bradbury as well, to make it clear you were here at the time of the murder.’

  I gave him a sad smile. ‘You were here too, but I guess that doesn’t count.’

  ‘I can’t tell them that, Tyler. They’ll take me off the case, and I need to be on top of every discovery they make, otherwise I wouldn’t have found this before anyone else could bag it for evidence.’ He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a silver charm bracelet that had my name spelled out in sparkling letters. Sarah had given the bracelet to me for my twenty-first birthday.

  I stared at it, at the evidence he had removed from a crime scene to protect me. All my doubts about getting involved with a homicide detective, soothed by his easy acceptance of my life as a reaper, came back with a vengeance. I forced myself to meet his eyes as I took the bracelet from him.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘We’ll get them. I promise,’ said Sam.

  Chris cleared his throat as we entered the lounge. ‘I wouldn’t be making promises you can’t keep. Even if you did manage to find out which one of them did it and bring them in, it would be impossible to keep them locked up.’ He gave a grimace. ‘They’d slip straight into the astral plane, never to be seen again.’

  ‘I’ll deal with that when I find them.’

  ‘Why, Lockwood, are you proposing to deliver your own brand of justice to our Tr’lirian murderer?’

  ‘I will do my job, Bradbury, and I’m counting on you to do yours. Tyler’s just filled me in on an unrelated murder. I’ll be back after I get her information to the lead detective. With who knows how many Tr’lirians running around, this is probably the safest place for Tyler. Keep her here. Keep her safe. Do not leave her side.’

  ‘Understood.’ Chris tipped his head.

  ‘Hey, I’m right here.’ I glared at both of them in turn. ‘I am not a child. I don’t need a babysitter and I get to decide where I go and what I can do, not the two of you.’

  ‘Tyler, this is for your own protection,’ said Sam.

  ‘We just want what’s best for you,’ said Chris.

  I straightened my back. ‘Right now that means finding a way to stop Malia. I need the two of you on my side, backing me up. Not standing in my way.’

  I settled my gaze on Chris. ‘I’m going to check on Connor and Rhonda. While we wait for Sam to get back, I want to go over what we know and make a plan for where we go from here.’

  Neither of them spoke as I stormed away. I kept my momentum up as I made my way to the last bedroom down the hall. Outside the closed door, I took a couple of deep breaths before slowly twisting the knob and peeking inside. Connor lay on his back, a deep snore echoing around the room. Rhonda had dragged an armchair beside the bed and was curled up in it, facing her son, also sound asleep. She might not be the easiest person to like, but she definitely loved her son.

  I quietly closed the door and tiptoed back to the lounge room, my anger at the way Sam and Chris had talked over me fading. I should never have gotten angry with them, but they had to understand that this was my fight. They couldn’t lock me away and hope the situation would sort itself out. I had to take the fight to Malia before I died, again. To have any hope of doing that I needed Killian and Cade on my side.

  I returned to the lounge and found Chris sitting at the dining table.

  ‘Is there any word from your investigator about where Malia and Talaom are hiding out? I need to be able to tell Killian when he calls.’

  His expression darkened. ‘I hope he doesn’t call, that way you won’t live to regret offering yourself to him like a sacrificial lamb.’

  ‘I did what I thought was right. I’m still not convinced there’s another way to stop Malia and Grimm.’ I sat down opposite Chris, avoiding my reflec
tion and the ever present death head in the mirror on the wall behind the table.

  ‘Don’t give up hope yet. We faced down the Grim Reaper and lived to tell the tale. We can do this, together.’

  His eyes were intent on mine, deep emotion in the vivid blue. I glanced away, relieved when my phone rang.

  I checked the caller ID, hoping it was Killian with Cade’s answer.

  I frowned when I realised it was my boss’s number. I hit the talk icon. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Please help me, Tyler.’ Anne’s voice was frantic, breathless, barely recognisable. ‘He said he’ll kill me if you don’t come to the office immediately.’

  ‘Anne, are you okay? Who’s there with you?’ I stood, knocking my chair to the floor behind me, conscious of Chris’s worried gaze.

  ‘I don’t know. He’s wearing a mask. He has a gun. Please, Tyler. Hurry.’ The line went dead.

  ‘We have to go. My boss is in trouble.’ I bolted to the front door and wrenched it open.

  Chris grabbed my arm before I could push the button for the elevator. ‘Wait up a second. What’s going on?’

  My voice was as frantic as Anne’s had been as I told him what she’d said.

  Chris’s expression hardened. ‘You can’t go. It’s a trap.’

  ‘I don’t care. He’s going to kill her.’

  ‘Better her than you.’

  ‘How can you say that? Her life wouldn’t even be in danger if it wasn’t for me.’

  He swung me around to face him, still keeping a firm grip on my arm. ‘I’m not saying we don’t help her. I just want you to stop and think about this. Call Lockwood. Get him to check it out first instead of rushing in blind.’

  My stomach clenched at the thought of Sam falling into the hands of whoever was terrorizing Anne. I shook my head. ‘No. I don’t want Sam involved.’

  ‘Way too late for that,’ he scoffed. But he did let go of my arm.

  I pushed the elevator button, relieved when the doors immediately slid open. I bounded inside and hit the button for the carpark. My relief faded when I turned around and saw Chris had his phone out.