It leaped back then charged again, foaming at the mouth in rage. I twisted smoothly, dancing to the side as its talons cut through the air where I’d been standing. My energy flared as I flowed around the creature, my staff cutting cleanly through one leg.
The eater fell screaming to the floor, the shrill volume piercing. Ignoring the painful way my eardrums protested the assault on them, I spun to the side and swung the staff, removing the eater’s head and silencing its shrieks.
Stepping back, I released my staff and bent over to rest my hands on my knees as I fought to catch my breath. My muscles quivered with exhaustion. I was dancing dangerously close to my own death without any more replenisher. I didn’t know where the other eaters had gone. I couldn’t sense them anymore, thank the gods.
The little bell dinged to announce the arrival of the elevator car and the doors slid open. The tension in my shoulders eased as I straightened and urged a now hesitant Mr. Parsons away from the wall he’d plastered himself against. With some gentle prodding, I guided him into the car where we waited for the doors to close. No one joined us, they wouldn’t. In the mortal world, this elevator didn’t even exist.
Just before the doors slid shut, I caught sight of Caius watching me from where he leaned against a wall down the hall. A small sigh of relief escaped me as the car began to move slowly down without me pushing a single button. A confrontation with a demonborn wouldn’t end well right now. I almost snorted at the absurdity of the thought. It would never end well against the likes of him, no matter how much energy I had.
Sometimes I wondered if Caius purposely led them to me. More often than not, after a confrontation with an eater, I would catch sight of him lurking a ways off. Usually when I was low on energy. Was he trying to get me killed?
My disheveled reflection in the shiny steel doors offered no answers as I caught my breath. My straight black hair, that usually hung midway down my back, was slightly wild from fighting eaters. Dark circles clung below my green eyes, making my ivory skin seem paler than it was. If this kept up, I was going to look corpsier than my charges. I would have to request more replenisher next shift.
My breathing finally under control, I unrolled my list and glanced at it. The preemie baby had disappeared from it. It looked like Victoria was successful. I breathed another sigh of relief. The hardest part of my job was when I had to carry babies or lead small children to the ferry. It was the one time I always knew I would be paying the ferryman.
The elevator dinged and the door slid open to reveal the wide expanse of black and gold sand. Collector demons roamed between us and the river, their red eyes scanning the bank, their clawed hands on too-long arms dragging grooves in the sand. I looked over at Mr. Parsons who had made the ride in absolute silence. His age-weathered skin began to smooth out and he moved easier. We stepped off the elevator.
Beside me, James Parsons’s gaunt face filled out, his back unbent. The collectors didn’t even bother to glance at him. I would be paying the ferryman and Mr. Parsons would be fine. We crossed the sand to where the ferry waited.
Charon nodded to me as I helped Mr. Parsons onto the platform. It wouldn’t do to bring him all this way only to have him fall into the river. There was no coming back from that. I placed one of the large, ancient-looking gold coins into the ferryman’s hand. He gave me another nod before picking up his long pole and pushing the wide raft away from the bank.
The chill breeze of a soul brushed over me. I turned, my heart dropping. The spirit shuffled through the sand with a lost look on her face. I reached a hand toward her, although my feet refused to move. Even if they did move, even if I reached her, it would do no good. A soul unescorted by a reaper was a soul lost. Not even the collectors could touch it.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her though I desperately wanted to. I had witnessed this only two times before and didn’t want to again. Swallowing hard, I finally managed to turn away. Even the demons roaming the bank stood frozen in place, their red eyes turned toward the Lost. They didn’t like this any more than me, if for different reasons. Hard to collect a soul if it was already Lost.
Unable to help it, my attention returned to the soul of the young woman. She stood at the edge of the black water. I held my breath. Without an escort, the ferry wouldn’t come. She couldn’t stay on this side. Everything would compel her forward whether she wanted it or not.
She turned and looked at me. My throat constricted, nearly strangling me as tears burned my eyes at seeing the desperation in her face. There was nothing I could do for her. The moment she’d stepped onto the sand without an escort, she was Lost.
With a cry of pain and dismay, she stepped into the water. Weeping with terror, she continued forward. The cries of other Lost trapped under the water filled the air and mingled with hers. Dark gray fog rose from the surface in thick tendrils. It wrapped around the soul like tentacles.
She thrashed and screamed, the sound long and thin as the fog dragged her farther into the river’s immeasurable depths. The gray mist swirled across the whole river obscuring my view, for which I was thankful. If only I could close my ears. The cries of the other Lost in the river increased until I couldn’t tell which were theirs and which were that of the young woman.
And then silence. It hung heavy and oppressive over everything. The fog cleared and only the rolling water of the river was visible, the soul of the young woman gone beneath the surface for all eternity. Never to visit loved ones in dreams, never to eventually reach the Hall of Souls, never to come in another life. I shivered. My body finally began to respond to my commands and I was able to turn and walk away. All along the bank, the demons thawed and returned to their prowling.
More exhausted than I ever remembered being, I made my way back to the waiting elevator. It would be a while before I could banish what I’d just seen from my thoughts. An unescorted soul was the greatest nightmare of everyone. Only reapers and collector demons had to actually witness a soul becoming lost in the river, though. No one else walked this side of the bank.
The elevator doors slid closed. I looked at my list as it began its ascent. Only two left for me today since the preemie lived. There should have been another. A young woman named Ashley Farthen. Her name wasn’t gone, but it was faded indicating she was beyond me now. Was that who I watched disappear into the river? If so, how did I miss her death? I’d never missed a death. Not even in the two months since I began working on my own.
When the doors slid open I stepped into a village in another country. This change went largely unnoticed by me. I was used to it now and my attention was on the cottage at the end of the street where a twenty-five-year-old woman awaited me and, no doubt, my sister or another guardian would also be there, trying to save her. Hopefully, no soul eaters came for this soul if the guardian wasn’t successful.
***
“The Lost are an anomaly. On rare occasions, a soul is missed. But this, this is something altogether different.” ~Caius
Chapter 9
That evening, after making my way through the busy chaos that was the Reaper Office, I handed in my remaining coins and list, then dumped the empty vials of replenisher into the drawer at the replenisher counter and pushed it shut. The woman behind the counter appraised my face before trying to press a full vial on me. I refused since I had no intention of drinking that nasty stuff when I was already almost home. I slowly wove through the crowded area to the elevator bank. Thankfully, one was just emptying out so I didn’t have to wait. Not that I would have to wait long anyway, the elevators were busy every hour of every mortal day and night.
I stepped into it with several other reapers and gave it my apartment number. Ryan, who had been reaping for about ten years, occupied the elevator with me. He flashed me a grin. “You up for some othersiding this evening? Everyone in Rowen’s group is going. Tonight is a celebration.”
“Sure, why not. It’s been a while.” I smiled back, thrilled with the idea. After dealing with soul eaters and
a Lost I could do with a diversion, once I didn’t feel like the walking dead anyway. “What are we celebrating?”
“Are you kidding?” Ryan raised an eyebrow. “Do you know what day it is?”
“Um…I think it’s Saturday. Why?”
“Jo,” he said with a laugh, “it’s been exactly one year since you came to live in Midtween. It’s officially your immortal birthday.”
Wow, a year already? It was hard to believe. “I have an official immortal birthday?”
“We all do. It’s the day we decided to become reapers and we always celebrate the first full year,” he answered. “We have the day of our actual birth, but that’s different. So, happy reaper birthday.”
I knew not everyone in Midtween became a reaper. Some preferred to work in the offices or do other things. It wasn’t required that someone with traces of angel in them become a reaper, everyone had a choice. I hadn’t realized they celebrated their first year as a reaper, though. I couldn’t help smiling, “Thanks. Othersiding sounds like the perfect way to celebrate it.”
Gertrude, a tall, dark-haired woman who had been a reaper for more than a hundred years, shook her head. “I fail to understand the fascination you younger reapers have in othersiding. Given the way the world on that side of the veil has changed, I am thankful I no longer have to work in the field, much less go there voluntarily.”
I shrugged. “It hasn’t changed that much for us.”
“I suppose,” Gertrude said, though her expression said she still didn’t get it.
“So Rowen doesn’t mind taking us?” I asked Ryan.
“Of course not. He wouldn’t deny it on a day like this.” The elevator came to a stop. “See you in an hour.”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” The doors opened on the floor of the building that contained the apartment I shared with Bethany. Once inside the apartment, I told the counter what I wanted to eat, then went into my room to shed the black cloak that marked me as a reaper.
I pulled off the pair of black jeans and t-shirt I wore underneath then pulled on clean, comfortably worn blue jeans and a snug, plum colored t-shirt with a raven on the front. Black cloaks and clothes are pretty much all reapers wear since fashion doesn’t have a place in Midtween, but I was going othersiding. A cloak didn’t exactly fit in there and I was ready to wear something with a little color.
After running a brush through my hair I went back to the counter, grabbed my tuna sandwich and iced tea then settled on the sofa and set my plate on the coffee table. Despite not being real, the sandwich still tasted damn good and I desperately needed the energy it offered. Knowing I would be othersiding soon, I chose to eat light. Why fill up on this stuff when I would have the chance to stuff my face with real food full of real grease and real salt?
Bethany pushed through the door, her bright red hair a tangled mess and the sleeve of her cloak torn. “Hey, Jo.”
That was one reason I adored Bethany, she remembered to call me Jo. I took in her exhausted face and frowned. “Wow, you look like crap. Bad day?”
“Ugh!” She flopped down on the sofa next to me. “Three eaters today. Three! And one of them ripped my cloak with its nasty claws.”
Bethany held up her arm, poking the opposite hand through the long slash in the black material of her cloak sleeve. “Filthy beasts.”
I couldn’t agree more. “I guess I should be thankful I only had to deal with two.” What was the point of telling her I dealt with four during my shift? I had no desire to rub my abilities in her face.
“Definitely.” She let her arm fall and leaned back with a groan. “You’re lucky, what with your heritage and all. You don’t need as much of that nasty replenisher.”
“Yeah, and that heritage attracts the damn things, too. Apparently, my soul would be extra tasty. Hey,” I set my sandwich down. “Ryan said everyone is going othersiding later to celebrate my first year as a reaper. We’ve already got the okay from Rowen. You’re going, right?”
“Yes!” She sat up, renewed energy filling her expression. “I totally forgot about it with the eaters and everything. It’s been weeks since we’ve been othersiding. After seeing a Lost today, I could use some fun and this is the perfect day for it.”
“I saw a Lost as well. I hate it when that happens.” I took another bite and chewed, washing it down with a big gulp of tea.
Bethany stood. “Let me get out of my cloak and eat something. I drank all of my vials of replenisher today. It still wasn’t enough. I feel drained.”
“Eat light, so you have room for real food.” I hollered as she disappeared into her room.
I finished my food while she changed. It was nice having Bethany as a roommate. The thought of being a roommate to someone like Gertrude or one of the other older reapers made me shudder. Fun would be sucked right out of the air.
It didn’t take long for Bethany to scarf down half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and glass of soda. After placing our dishes on the counter where they would disappear shortly, we grabbed our wallets and headed out the door. The elevator at the end of the hall took us to where Ryan lived with his roommate Ethan. A knock on the door brought Ethan out, dressed and ready to go.
Bethany smiled, “Hey, Ethan.”
“Hey yourself, Bethany.” He smiled then turned to me. “Happy reaper birthday.”
“Thanks!” I gave him a big grin.
Ryan emerged from the apartment then, his thick, dark brown hair looking slightly tousled, but in a way that said he’d purposely combed it to look that way.
As we walked back to the elevator, we were joined by Chelsea, Fran, James, Skyler, Devin, Aaron, Brenden, and then Hannah, the newest member of Rowen’s group. James wrapped his arm around my waist while we walked. Each of them wished me happy reaper birthday as they showed up. Contentment filled me at having them make the day a special one.
In the mortal world, the age difference between Hannah who just turned sixteen, and Ryan, who was now twenty-five, would have precluded any hanging out. On this side of the veil, it didn’t matter.
Rowen waited for us at the elevator, his dark skin a contrast to the white doors. We all crowded into the elevator car as the doors slid shut. They opened to let us out in a department store that had probably been out of business for several years.
It was night in the mortal realm and the dim light of reaching street lamps silhouetted the few, scattered empty display shelves and racks that still remained between us and the storefront. The drop-offs always reminded me of some of the B-rated apocalypse movies I’d watched when I was growing up.
We turned away from the storefront and made our way to the back. A loud clatter to my right almost made me jump out of my skin. I turned to find Fran on the floor, the lace of her shoe tangled in an overturned rack.
“Are you injured, Fran?” Rowen asked, concerned.
“No.” Fran pushed her blonde hair out of her face. “Stupid clothing rack right in the middle of everything.”
With Ethan’s help, I managed to detangle Fran from the metal rack in the semi-darkness. A reaper’s ability to see in the dark was better than any mortal’s, but that didn’t mean we could walk through deep black with the blissful indifference of a cat.
Fran smoothed her clothes and ran her hands through her hair to straighten it. “Thanks, Ethan. You too, Jo. I have no idea how my shoelace ended up stuck like that or how you could see it well enough to get it loose.”
“You’re welcome.” I didn’t bother to mention that even though it was still murky to me, I could see better than her in the dark. A product of my half-angel parentage.
Rowen went ahead of us and opened the heavy metal door at the back of the store. A dim sliver of light from beyond cut through the deep gloom. Not much, but enough the rest of us were able to make it without further incident.
The door let out into an alley. We deftly dodged puddles from a recent rain as well as garbage dumpsters as we made our way out of it. The revitalization of the downtown area hadn’t re
ached here yet and the street was mostly populated by convenience stores with bars over their windows along with boarded-up buildings. I walked next to Bethany and Hannah as our group headed down the street.
Several long blocks from the abandoned department store, the city came alive. Restaurants, clubs, bar and grills, and other flourishing businesses occupied the buildings. Horns occasionally blared in the heavy traffic on the road. Though it was October in the mortal realm, the air was warm and humid. The scent of food, perfume, and car exhaust filled the night. Music thumped from inside a club mixing with voices raised in excitement, conversation, and even anger. Laughter and shouts occasionally rose above it all.
Hannah, who had started reaping only a month ago, stared wide-eyed at the herd of noisy humanity around us. I couldn’t help smiling at her expression. This was her first time othersiding. I tried to view the energetic city through her eyes and failed.
Bethany practically bounced, a wide smile plastered across her face. She took a deep breath and danced a twirl before settling back into a lively walk. “I love othersiding.”
I nodded in agreement, unable to keep a goofy grin of my own off my face. Yes, there were places to hang out in Midtween but they were quieter, more sedate. They didn’t have the vibrant energy of the mortal realm cities I’d come to enjoy since I started othersiding. We’d even gone to San Francisco once, which had been fun since I never had a chance to hang out with friends when I lived there.
Rowen led the group past a club with its music pumping through the walls and on down the block to a bar and grill. My stomach rumbled at the smell of the food when we stepped through the door.
***
“Othersiding. Not always the safest thing for a reaper to do.” ~Caius
Unveiled (Raven Daughter Book 1) Page 7
