I could see how tired she was, just speaking to me, and wondered how she could possibly have the energy to hold all of Eternity together.
“You must be very careful,” she whispered. “There are those who would wish you dead, even on the council. They would see you as a threat to their power. I don’t doubt that Caim had help finding you.”
“Coreen,” I whispered. It wasn’t that I had cared for her really, but rather that she had died because of me. Nausea punched me in the stomach.
Khadija’s eyes softened. “Do not blame yourself for her death. She knew what you know now.”
“She knew?”
“She and Grim were closer than they let on. She knew everything he knew.”
And I thought I had felt bad before. Grim’s lover had died on my ship, trying to protect me. How could I continue looking for the right soul, knowing everyone around me was in danger?
“Grim thought if he assigned several reapers to the task of finding the next soul that those who opposed him would not suspect any of the reapers were different or specially designed, but they are still aware that the soul he searches for is crucial to his reign. I have suggested that he declare to the council he has already found the needed soul. It will distract them, so that you can search for the soul without fear of attack. You must hurry, Lana. We haven’t much time, and I see much in your future that worries me. This will not be your greatest challenge, and if you are strong, it will not be your last.”
“Who are you?” The question was too tempting not to ask.
“I am called the Princess of Quarish and the Pure One. My husband was the great prophet, and I, the first Muslim. You may call me Khadija.” She nodded, dismissing me, and the force holding me in my seat vanished.
I stood and walked back through the silk maze. What else was there to say to her? Thanks for holding Eternity together. Thanks for making me special so I could be responsible for the deaths of all those around me. Thanks, but I’d rather be an underpaid peon. See you next time, that is, if I don’t die first. Yeah, silence was my best bet.
As I was leaving, another thought dawned on me. She was my creator, not Grim. I’m not sure why, but something tightened in my chest. Where Grim had been my boss, she was my goddess. Part of me wanted to turn around and go back to ask where reapers went when they died, but I didn’t. Maybe I was just afraid of her answer. Maybe I just didn’t want to hear the truth I already knew.
Reapers are one of the few races without a real afterlife to call our own. We have no souls, so an afterlife wouldn’t be of much use anyway. Yet, pride struck me all the same. We didn’t have to invent our creator like the souls did. How ironic that we should be left without an afterlife, without souls, and without the privilege of even knowing our creator.
Maalik looked up anxiously as I emerged from Khadija’s house. Panic clouded his expression. The tightness in my chest grew worse as I narrowed my gaze on him.
“How long have you known about her?”
“A month,” he sighed. “Muhammad sent me. He thinks she is simply here to quietly assist and supervise Grim. It’s been well over a thousand years. So I’m sure you can imagine his concern. That’s why I was elected on the council. Khadija was his first wife, you know. Coreen was the only other who knew what Grim had done with her, until recently.”
“How long have you known about me?”
“A week. You should really be thanking Khadija for your promotion. Grim wasn’t happy when I explained to him how she had gifted you, but I had to make him understand the seriousness of her retirement.”
“You were never really interested in me, were you? You were just keeping an eye on me for her.”
It seemed petty to change the subject to something that could never measure up to the importance of what I had just learned, but our relationship, if you could call it that, felt like something I was more capable of understanding and discussing at the time.
“She never asked that of me.” He sighed and reached out to grasp my shoulders. “But if she had, I would have been grateful for the excuse to be near you.”
“I don’t know what to think of all this right now.” I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered.
“Let me take you home to get some rest.” He made a face at the pulpy demon chunks still clinging to me, but then pulled me into his arms and rested his chin on my head anyway. “And a shower,” he added.
Taking my hand, he pressed the coin between our palms once more, and whispered, “Morte.”
The air thrashed around us, and then we were back in the elevator at Grim’s office. The doors slid open just as the strange wind died off. We were on the main level.
Maalik’s hand never left mine as he led me out of the building and towards my apartment. I blushed, almost embarrassed that I was letting him lead me around like a child. At the same time though, it was comforting. From his worried face, I could tell he wasn’t holding onto me possessively but protectively. The tightness in my chest eased away.
“I have a gift for you.” He grinned, trying to hide his worry when he caught my stare. “It’s at your apartment.”
“How did you get in?”
“Gabriel was on his way out.” A thread of bother was hidden in his tone.
“What is it?”
“You’ll see when we get there,” he laughed as he tugged me around the next corner. Like I didn’t have enough questions buzzing through my head. At least this one was more pleasant to ponder on, or so I thought.
Chapter 16
“Man is a dog’s idea
of what God should be.”
-Holbrook Jackson
“Well, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
Two enormous black dogs were curled up on my couch, smashing the cushions beneath them flat. One of them lifted its head and bellowed out a welcome call as we entered my apartment. Maalik walked over and scratched the beast behind the ear.
“Aren’t they perfect?” he asked cheerfully.
“Exactly what movies did you watch when you first got here?”
“What’s wrong?” He frowned and looked back at the giant gifts he had bought for me. “Don’t you like them?”
“Normally, when a guy gets his girlfriend a dog as a gift, it’s a puppy. Normally, it’s just one puppy. And normally, they make sure they are allowed to have them in their apartment first.”
“I’ve already taken care of that.”
“What?” I all but squeaked.
“I spoke to the complex manager and there won’t be a problem.”
“Maalik, I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I don’t want two giant dogs. This apartment is hardly big enough for me, and where are they supposed to, um, relieve themselves?”
“Well, first of all, they’re not dogs. They’re hellhounds, and I’ve already made sure they’re house broken. They can let themselves out to use the side lawn.”
“Hellhounds? Isn’t it illegal to have hellhounds in Limbo? Did you even read our laws before coming over here?”
“Yes, I read your laws. You have to have a special license for them, and I’ve already acquired that for you.”
The nearest hound whimpered and rolled its sloppy tongue up the back of Maalik’s hand.
“What’s this really about?” I frowned and folded my arms.
Maalik looked down in defeat. I wasn’t about to accept a gift this strange without a good reason, and he knew it.
“Coreen was supposed to protect you. Now she can’t. I need to know you’re going to be safe. Please accept the hellhounds. I’ll even help take care of them,” he pleaded with me.
I sighed and went to stand beside him. The hound furthest from us lifted its head to follow my movements, while the closer one beat its tail on the couch and nudged its wet nose under my hand. I reached out to the second hound, but it just gave me a sniff and turned away, as if it weren’t any more pleased about the situation than I was.
“What are their names?” I decided I had done enough fighting for o
ne day. Maalik’s face lit up with relief.
“They’re not named yet. I just bought them from Hades today. Technically, they’re still puppies. I guess I got one thing right,” he laughed.
“You mean they’ll get bigger than this?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Not by much. Why don’t you go ahead and name them.”
I thought about it for a minute. I’d never had a pet before. It seemed like a huge responsibility to give something a name that it would have for the rest of its life, especially if it that something was immortal. It made me wonder if it had been Grim or Khadija who had named me.
“Are they male or female?”
“One of each.”
“Perfect. Saul and Coreen,” I announced.
The second dog tilted its head when it heard Coreen’s name. It had to be the female. The name seemed even more fitting, seeing her attitude. Maybe I could just pretend that reapers were reincarnated into hellhounds. It sounded better than the alternative anyway.
“Saul and Coreen,” Maalik repeated. “Good. I have more business to take care of this evening, but I’ll be waiting for you when you get back tomorrow. Be careful.” He pulled me around to face him and gave me a stern look. “I mean it.”
I pulled away from him and smiled. “Hey, this is my job. Get used to it. It’s not like I have a choice. It’s the price we pay.”
He gave me a forced grin and planted a kiss on my forehead. Just when I thought I had some clue about him, I realized I didn’t. What happened to the big talking angel who dangerously flirted with me every chance he got? And who was this sweet, timid guy buying me puppies?
Maalik brushed a blood crusted curl out of my face and then turned to leave.
“What do they eat?” I asked as he reached the door.
“There’s a bag of food in your coat closet. Cerberus Chow. Just follow the directions on the bag,” he quickly answered and ducked out the door.
I smiled and scratched Saul under the chin. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
I opened my closet to find a four hundred pound bag of dog food. The top was already torn open and two dishes the size of punch bowls rested on the shelf above my crumpled up jackets and scarves. The bag read: feed two to three gallons each morning and evening. It wasn’t going to last long. Cerberus, Hades legendary hellhound, graced the front of the bag, looking fierce and mighty.
Saul bounced over to where I stood and nudged me in the back of the knee with his muzzle.
“Okay! Okay,” I laughed, taking down the dishes.
I filled them with the instructed two gallon minimum and placed them beside the refrigerator where I noticed a note stuck to the freezer door. Gabriel’s sloppy handwriting let me know he had something come up and had to cancel our date for Purgatory. I laughed to myself, knowing he had written date just to piss off Maalik.
Saul crunched away at his dinner and had his dish almost clean before Coreen sauntered over to join him. I dumped another gallon of food into his dish and sat cross-legged on my kitchen table to get a better look at my new companions.
They were almost identical, except for Coreen being slightly leaner. But with her attitude, it wasn’t going to be too difficult telling them apart. Saul finished licking out his dish and turned to find me. He seemed comfortable and aware that he would be staying with me in the tiny apartment. I couldn’t say the same for Coreen just yet, but who knew.
Saul spotted me on top of the table and in an effortless movement leapt up to join me. The table squeaked under our weight as he made himself comfortable and dropped his huge head in my lap. Coreen snorted at us and made her way back to the couch, just what I would expect from her if she were a reincarnation of the real Coreen. I’d give her some time.
Chapter 17
“Most of us spend the first six days of the week
sowing wild oats, then we go to church on Sunday
and pray for a crop failure.” -Fred Allen
“Lana?” Josie’s confused voice echoed through my head, pulling me out of a hazy dream filled with giant cats and dogs tangled up in silk curtains. Saul’s giant tongue lapped up the side of my face, smashing the strange dream into my even stranger reality.
“Oh, yuck!” I rolled away from him.
“Lana!” Josie shrieked.
A low growl that shook the walls followed, and I remembered Coreen on the couch.
“Coming!” I shouted and leapt out of bed, throwing the covers over Saul, who had insisted on sleeping next to me. He untangled himself and bound after me into the kitchen.
Coreen had Josie backed up against my kitchen table. Drool spilled from her snarl as she snapped at who she thought was an intruder. Maybe she didn’t like me, but at least she knew how to do her job.
“Down girl!” I shouted, feeling silly that I didn’t know what else to say. Coreen’s growling ceased almost immediately. She straightened her posture and pranced back to the couch with a satisfied sniff.
“When did you decide to get a dog? Dogs?” Josie asked, seeing Saul behind me.
“I didn’t. Maalik did,” I yawned and ran a hand through my curls, still damp with slobber, before glancing at the clock above my kitchen sink. It was five in the morning.
“What are you doing here so early?”
“I wanted to talk,” she began and sucked in a ragged breath of air. “I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been up all night.”
“Oh.”
“So, Maalik got you two dogs?” Her stiff posture loosened as she unclenched her fists.
“Actually, they’re hellhounds. Want some coffee?”
“Sure.”
Josie was already dressed for work, but we didn’t have to be there for another two hours. I wasn’t about to change out of my comfy pajamas just yet.
“Don’t you have to have a license for hellhounds?”
“Already taken care of,” I answered over my shoulder as I scooped some coffee grounds into a filter.
“He must really like you, huh?”
“I guess. We’ll see how they work out today.”
I turned on the coffeemaker and joined her at my dinky kitchen table. After three hundred years, you would think I would have nicer furniture. I decided to put that at the top of my next shopping list, if I lived long enough to go shopping again.
“Kevin stayed the night at my place. He’s still asleep. I’ll go back up and wake him later.” Josie pulled her knees up to her chest and hooked the heels of her boots on the edge of the chair. Her robe fanned out around her like a skirt. How she made it look so good, I’d never know. The same thing on me looked like a garbage bag trying to pass for a poncho.
“Yesterday was something else,” I said.
“Something else?” Her brow creased. “I’m not sure Grim has enough coin to make this promotion worth risking our lives. We don’t have souls. It’s not like we get to go off to some afterlife if we die.”
“Right. All we have to look forward to is a monument in the middle of some crummy park.” I sighed, remembering Saul’s memorial service.
Grim had a statue made of my deceased mentor, wearing his cowboy hat and all. He had been so thrilled when he collected his first rancher. The soul had given him the hat as a souvenir. I couldn’t remember ever seeing Saul without it afterwards. He was the reason for my collection of old western movies. I wished he had lived long enough to watch one with me.
“Why do you suppose Grim picked us instead of some of the more experienced reapers?” Josie folded her arms over the table.
I opened my mouth and then closed it. I was almost positive I wasn’t supposed to share what I knew. Grim had threatened to vote Maalik off the council, something that had never been done before, and Grim didn’t make empty threats. Maalik trusted me. Khadija trusted me. And Josie trusted me too. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her. But the second I had thought about telling her the truth, my palms started sweating.
“Are you alright?” Josie tucked a tuff of hair behind her ear and slid h
er legs back under the table.
“Yeah.” I pulled my hands into my lap.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
The coffeemaker sputtered out the last of its brew, and Josie stood. She dug through my cupboard and found a pair of mugs with colorful, apocalyptic scenes hand-painted on them. Gabriel had given them to me a few years back as an apology gift for puking on my couch, a piece of furniture that needed to be replaced even more than the table.
“Maybe you could ask Horus what’s going on.” Josie filled her cup to the brim, but left enough room for sugar and cream in mine.
“I don’t think Horus knows anything,” I said, taking the mug from her. “He probably traded his services in exchange for extra souls. That last one shouldn’t have gone to Duat, but you saw how quickly Grim ordered us to take it there.”
I took a sip of my coffee and then sloshed some down my top as Saul rammed into my leg. He had somehow managed to flip his food dish on top of his head and stumbled towards my voice until he found me.
“Shit!” I yanked the scalding top away from my skin. “Hold on Saul.” I set my mug down and pulled the dish off his head. His tail thumped on the floor as I opened the coat closet to get his food. Coreen sat by the fridge waiting for her breakfast too.
“Saul?” Josie smiled at me. “You’re kidding. What about the other one?”
I smiled and placed the food dishes on the floor.
“No,” she laughed. “You didn’t!”
“Yup, that’s Coreen. I like to think that they’ve been reincarnated as hellhounds. It makes me feel better anyway.”
“Whatever works I guess.” She smiled, looking better than she had when she first arrived.
I grabbed a dish towel and pressed it to my coffee-stained top. “So, are you going to be okay working with Horus again?”
“I don’t even know what to think of him right now, and Apollo’s back at Mount Olympus already. You know, Kevin’s young, and a wreck at the moment, but I think it’d be easier to just date him,” she laughed.
“I wonder who Grim will appoint him to, now that Coreen’s… gone.” Dead just didn’t sound right. We were supposed to be immortal, but like most immortals, if you don’t have a religious following, i.e. a fan base, there were plenty of loop holes to fall to your death through.
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