2 Pocket Full of Posies

by Angela Roquet

  When I finally pulled myself off the bathroom floor, impatient knocking sounded through the apartment.

  “Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Josie said as I opened the door. “I guess Maalik showed up last night?”

  “This morning. Help yourself.” I pointed at the table. “There’s plenty left, and I’ve lost my appetite. I’ll grab a shower.”

  “Please do.” She chuckled as she filled herself a cup of coffee.

  Josie thought it was amusing, watching the newness of love take its toll on those who had previously sworn it off and gone celibate for decades, sometimes centuries. I used to find it amusing too, not so terribly long ago.

  It had been at least fifty years since I’d been in a real relationship, but I didn’t remember ever feeling this hopeless with my last lover. Of course, he had been a reaper. We eventually got tired of each other and went our separate ways. Maybe I just hadn’t been around Maalik long enough to get tired of him yet.

  Josie dated as effortlessly as she breathed. Her relationships were never terribly long, and she rarely grieved when they ended. She was currently dating my apprentice, Kevin Kraus. He was a new reaper, fresh out of the academy, and four hundred years Josie’s junior. I’m not sure cougar covers a gap that wide, but they seemed happy together. Well, happier than Maalik and I seemed lately.

  I sighed and hurried off to take a shower. Just because I felt like a hung-over dog, didn’t mean I wanted to smell like one all day at work.

  Chapter 5

  “Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe

  get so boring that eating the apple was justified?”

  -Chuck Palahniuk

  My mentoring class got out late Thursday evening, so it was pushing seven o’clock when I finally got around to visiting Winston. That meant I would only have to stay for a short while. Grim stopped in to check on Winston around eight, but I always made sure I was out of there long before then. It was the one thing Winston and I could agree on.

  Coreen’s memorial statue scoffed at me with her cruel, coppery features. I didn’t like that Grim had used it as the new entrance to the secret throne. It was a constant reminder of the day I had been forced into leadership. Of course, Grim probably figured no one would think twice about him going to visit the resting place of his permanently lost lover. I had to be more creative with my efforts to visit Winston. Coreen and I hadn’t been the best of buddies, but seeing her in battle had earned her a good chunk of my respect, even if she had been eaten alive by hellcats in the end.

  I stole a quick glance behind me and pulled the hood of my robe up with my free hand. The cardboard box, stuffed to the gills with Winston’s trinkets, was tucked under my other arm. I had even added in a few extras, hoping it would suffice him for two weeks instead of one. I desperately needed to free up some time to study.

  Taking a deep breath, I flipped my coin and said the magic word. “Gale.”

  “Lana!” Winston was stretched out on a leather sofa with a punch bowl of cornflakes propped up on his stomach. He gave me a wild wave, sloshing milk everywhere. “You got my life support?” he asked, eyeballing the box in my arms.

  “Yeah, two weeks’ worth.” I dumped the contents onto the coffee table while he retrieved another box from under the couch, his secret hiding spot. Some secret. I was beyond surprised that Grim hadn’t found it yet. In fact, I felt like I’d been holding my breath for a very long time, just waiting for the day. There was really no telling what Grim would do when he found out about mine and Winton’s little visits.

  “Two weeks’ worth?” Winston picked through the pile of trading cards and junk food, pausing on a bag of imitation faerie cakes.

  I folded my arms and glared down at him. “I need a break, Winston. I’ve got finals coming up.”

  “Yeah, you do, and you better pass so you can get out there and find a replacement for me. I don’t know if I can stand a hundred years of this. Grim’s driving me off the deep end. I swear by the dog.” He stuck his tongue out and panted playfully at me.

  The secret throne of Eternity required an original believer of one of the major faiths to fuel it. It was the secret means by which Grim maintained the afterlife’s boundaries and territories. Khadija, the previous soul who had served on the secret throne, had been an original believer of the Islamic faith and served for well over a thousand years. Grim’s desire to keep his secret had nearly maxed her out. She became discourage with Grim’s reluctance and took matters into her own hands, creating me.

  The Treaty of Eternity allowed Grim to create new reapers every hundred years to run his corporation, Reapers Inc. We were more or less glorified slaves. Sure, we were paid, but our career choices were pretty narrow. We could either work for Grim or work for Grim. The specifics of the treaty stated that no new deities were to be created, but we were still allowed basic immortality privileges. We could die, but we were more durable and wouldn’t visibly age. The extra ability that Khadija had bestowed on me was a breach of the treaty. If the wrong people found out, it would mean my execution, or worse, war.

  Winston finished tucking away his new treasures and slid his stash box back under the couch.

  “What’s Grim have you doing anyway?” I asked.

  “Oh, you know I can’t tell you that.” He gave me a gentle grin, one that reminded me that an ancient child-king is still a king. “All you need to know is that it’s exhausting, grimy work.”

  I shrugged. “Can’t be too bad if you still have time to play with your toys and eat yourself diabetic.”

  “I’d trade you places if I could, trust me.”

  “Well.” I glanced up at the clock on the wall.

  “One last thing.” Winston stuffed his hand down between the couch cushions to retrieve a copy of the most recent Limbo Weekly. “Read page six,” he said, tossing the magazine to me.

  I opened it and read aloud. “The Sphinx Congress is still searching for the missing goddess Wosyet and has invested in the aid of Anubis. Anubis has been issued a temporary license to search Limbo City with his jackals. All citizens are obligated to cooperate. If anyone has any information regarding the whereabouts of Wosyet, please come directly to council headquarters.” I tried to give Winston an impassive look, knowing my flaring cheeks were a dead giveaway. He had been the only witness to my crime.

  “Watch your back, Lana. You’re my only friend in this place, and I have a feeling Anubis isn’t the only one searching for Wosyet.”

  “You were there.” I huffed. “It’s not like I took her home with me.”

  “Just her head.” His questioning gaze pierced me.

  Okay. I’d forgotten about that. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Separating her head from her body seemed like a sure way to guarantee she wouldn’t be coming back to bite me in the ass. Of course, I wasn’t so sure giving it to Grim as proof was such a good idea anymore. But at least I didn’t have to worry about Anubis’s jackals sniffing around my apartment.

  “It’s been taken care of.” I folded my arms and glanced at the clock on his wall again. Definitely time for me to go.

  “Clean your axe with hellfire and holy water, just to be sure nothing gets tracked back to you.” Winston gave me a short wave and flipped on the television as I left.

  My paranoia went into overdrive as I reemerged in the park. Cleaning my axe was now at the top of my to-do list, with studying for my finals a close second. I liked Anubis, but I didn’t think he would be handing me a get-out-of-execution-free card anytime soon. He was as dutiful as he was friendly. A good trait normally, just not right now.

  Chapter 6

  “Yes, I have my demons, and this is my way of exorcising them.

  It gets them out- and better out than in.”

  -Naomi Watts

  I had a startling moment of dread when I reached my front door. I could hear the shuffling of papers inside. Where were Coreen and Saul, and why didn’t I have my axe with me? I tried to remember where it was inside, sure
that I wouldn’t have time to reach it. The couch? My closet? To hell with it.

  I swung the door open and lunged inside with my fists up. Josie, Jenni, and Kevin looked up from my kitchen table in unison, text books and coffee mugs piled around them.

  “Uh, surprise.” Josie laughed nervously.

  I relaxed and scowled at her. Cleaning my axe would have to wait.

  “Study party?” I asked.

  “Saved you a seat.” Jenni patted the empty chair next to her. She had become obnoxiously friendly since Josie told her I was applying for a specialty unit, volunteering her tutoring services more often than I cared for. I had a sneaking suspicion that she had ulterior motives involving my future. She was in for a rude awakening.

  I groaned at the scholarly mob in my kitchen and slid out of my jacket.

  “No whining. We haven’t even started yet,” Kevin grumbled. His opinion of me had dropped somewhat since he found out what a crab the academy could turn me into. I was starting to get the impression that he wouldn’t mind if Grim dubbed Josie his mentor instead of me. Well, my grouchiness couldn’t take all the credit there. Kevin and Josie were dating. Another reason Grim would never assign him to her.

  Grim was about as happy as I was about the extra class Josie had talked me into. It was tough for a mentoring reaper to change specialty units or join one at all, in my case, so early in their apprentice’s term. The fact that I wasn’t exactly qualified to take on an apprentice in the first place counted against me as well, especially among the reaper community’s more ambitious members who would have gladly taken Kevin, the star pupil of his generation.

  Kevin had been under the wing of Coreen Bendura, Grim’s former second-in-command, until she met her end at the talons of hellcats. Grim hadn’t so much as said he blamed me, as he had shown he blamed me by dumping Coreen’s orphaned apprentice in my lap. He even volunteered to pay the tuition for the necessary mentoring class at the academy. Grim knew how much I hated school. Which is why I wasn’t surprised at his suspicion when I signed up for an extra class and Horus nominated me for the Posy Unit.

  Josie cleared her throat and picked up a pencil with a stern look. No baseball games to bail me out this time. I slumped into the empty chair and looked at the textbook opened before me. This was it. No more delaying. Focus, I told myself.

  Jenni observed me with a spark of satisfaction. “Let’s begin, shall we?”

  “Where is the first place to look for a wandering soul?” Josie asked.

  “The grave site,” I answered. Good, easy stuff first.

  “And the second?”

  “Their last known residence.” I smiled, perking up. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

  “Third?” Josie asked with a raised eyebrow.

  The answer hung on the tip of my tongue, but it disappeared as I watched my front door burst into flames.

  “Hellfire!” Kevin sprang to his feet, leaving the rest of us sitting at the table with our mouths gaping open.

  “On the menu,” came a gravelling reply.

  The door splintered inward, and a diva of a demon stepped into my apartment. Had she been any taller, she would’ve grazed the doorsill. Short caramel curls framed her angular face, drawing out her golden eyes. Ripped up jeans hugged her spidery legs, and a tiny leather vest squeezed her cleavage into brow-raising awareness.

  Saul and Coreen were at my side in an instant with my axe. I picked it up and stood to face my uninvited guest. Jenni and Josie gathered their senses and stood, too. Josie armed herself with a chair, though I wasn’t sure what good it was going to do against a demon. Jenni was closest to my open closet and quickly found my dusty scythe, discarded among the scarves and jackets. Kevin ripped out a kitchen drawer, scattering utensils over my checkered linoleum, and found the meanest looking steak knife I owned.

  The demon took us in with a comical expression and then tilted her head back with howling laughter, giving Kevin just the right angle of her throat. He seized the moment and threw the knife, sinking it in her neck. I had to pat myself on the back a little. He was my apprentice, after all.

  “Owww,” the demon whined, narrowing her eyes at him as she delicately extracted the blade. The wound sealed itself as neatly as if Kevin had stabbed a bowl of pudding. We were fucked.

  Before my horrified amazement had a chance to dissipate, the hag cinched her gaze on me and sprang, knocking away my axe as she pinned me to the floor and grasped my throat with one hand.

  “Where is he?” she hissed, pressing a lacquered nail into the pit of my throat.

  “Who?” I managed to choke out before she crushed my vocal cords. I clawed at my neck, trying to dig under her fingers. It was no use. I couldn’t match a demon, not bare-knuckled. Desperation tore through my veins. I slammed the palm of my hand under her chin. She grunted as her grip gave way, sparing me one precious breath. It was all I needed.

  Jenni stepped up behind the demon and smashed a vial of holy water into the base of her skull. She rocked over me, eyes wide with loathing, as a stream of bloody water glistened through her hair and burned a trail down her pale cheek before splashing onto my own. I turned my head away and gasped. Flames lapped up the walls of my apartment. My cute little kitchen was melting all over the place.

  That bitch, I thought, just before passing out.

  Chapter 7

  “Although prepared for martyrdom,

  I prefer that it be postponed.”

  -Winston Churchill

  Meng Po’s little temple on the coast was just the way I remembered it. Although, the last time I had visited it had been Josie laid up and drinking the abominable tea. It seemed odd for a grouchy old lady like Meng to live in such a tranquil place.

  Meng’s wrinkly jowls were looming over me as I came to, jarring me awake in record time.

  “Sit still, girl!” she snapped, jumping back in surprise. She thrust a cup in my hand. “You drink now,” she barked and darted out of the room.

  I sat up and blinked a few times, taking in the dark paneled walls and decorative scrolls hanging in every corner. Dusky light filtered in through the bamboo blinds, mixing with the glow from the lantern anchored in the center of the room. I sighed, trying to remember how I had gotten there, and took a sip of tea. I immediately spit it back into the cup. Meng was trying to kill me. I was sure of it.

  I set the cup on the bedside table next to a little bucket of daisies with a note from Josie, letting me know she would be by later after dealing with my insurance agent and salvaging what she could from my apartment.

  My memory snapped into action and I groaned. “Well shit,” I croaked.

  My throat was dry, and a tickling sensation scratched its way down my neck with every breath I took. I reached up to touch the source of my pain and then thought better of it. Josie had wedged a little compact down in the greenery of the daisy bucket. She knew my vanity issues the same way I knew hers.

  I tried to convince myself it was only whiplash or bruising, but it was a vain attempt. The smell of burnt flesh is very distinct. I snatched up the compact and angled my head back. A nasty, hand-shaped blister wrapped itself around my pearly skin. Just perfect. I’d have to find time to stop by Athena’s Boutique and exchange my dress for the placement ceremony. I was going to need one of those evil queen collars to hide this sucker.

  A soft tap at the door pulled me out of my shopping fantasy. Gabriel fluttered in, his face skewed with worry and anger. “What the hell have you gone and gotten yourself into? I take it this little event wasn’t part of your training?”

  “You think?” I jabbed a finger at my throat.

  “Who did it?” Gabriel tried to keep a straight face, but his cheeks flared like he was preparing for the apocalypse.

  “Gee, now why didn’t I think to ask for her name while she was trying to strangle me to death?” I smacked my palm to my forehead.

  “So, it was a female?” He looked surprised. “And obviously a demon. Describe her to me. I’m sure Amy will b
e able to figure out who she is and whose payroll she’s on.”

  “I don’t know.” I shook my head, and then winced when my charred skin protested. “She had curly, dark blond hair and was super tall. Let’s see. She was wearing torn up jeans and a leather vest, and obviously she packs a lot of heat in her hands. That’s all I’ve got.”

  Gabriel frowned and let out an exasperated sigh.

  I held my hands up. “I only saw her for a few seconds, and now I’m here.”

  “Let me see what I can do.” He bent down and pecked me on the forehead before hurrying off to do his recon work.

  My next visitor was an odd surprise. Bub looked a little less light-hearted that usual, which was saying a lot, since he had a pretty solid reputation for being a carefree playboy. He was active on the Hell Committee, but he made it look easy and seemed to go with the flow, never publicly contradicting his superiors. Even when he was working, he somehow made it look like he was at play. I couldn’t imagine enjoying my job that much.

  Today, he was wearing one of his flashy suits that barely passed for business attire and looked more appropriate for a Hollywood cocktail party. He set a dainty vase of pink roses on the table next to Josie’s daisy bucket and rubbed his knuckles over the short whiskers on his chin.

  “Daisies,” he mused. “I should have known.”

  “How thoughtful of you,” I said, fingering the petals.

  “Well, well.” He sat on the edge of my bed and reached out to delicately grasp my chin, rotating my face away to get a better look at my neck. He clicked his tongue a few times before pulling my face back around, locking his eyes on mine. “Are we ready to take Cindy’s course now?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes.” I pulled my chin away with a frown. “I’ll have to take the next two weeks off work though.”