The Death of My First Assignment (Death Series)

by Ami Urban

I drew in a breath.

  “Kevin...” I said. “What are you doing here? Taking a vacation?” I tried to joke.

  He didn’t crack a smile. He didn’t even move a subtle muscle.

  Nothing.

  Jeez...

  “I think you know why I’m here,” he replied elusively.

  I started to shake my head, but my brain caught up with me. All at once, I realized that my eyes had not, in fact, deceived me.

  I’d seen a girl speaking with a bartender across from my sitting place. She had two people with her—both were tall; one had dark skin, the other had dark hair. And now, after all that chasing, I finally remembered where’d I’d seen her companion of lighter complexion.

  It was Kevin Carter.

  And the girl was Katie—my Katie.

  My head swam.

  No.

  No way could it be true. I must have been dreaming. I tottered on my feet, but Kevin held out a hand to steady me.

  “Martin, calm down,” he said.

  And just like that, my cool completely snapped.

  “Calm down?! Calm down?! Don’t tell me to calm down! My girlfriend is alive and I had no idea!”

  “Chill out!” Kevin hissed.

  He gripped my shoulders and shook me. Before pushing his face closer to mine, he glanced around at the crowd.

  “Let’s go somewhere and talk.”

  “No,” I shrugged him off. “Whatever it is you need to tell me, you can do it here. Otherwise, I’m gonna go find Katie.”

  I started to push past him, but he caught me in his iron grip and pulled back, knocking me off balance.

  Then, he dragged me across the slick floor toward an alcove by the men’s restroom.

  He didn’t even hesitate; just pushed me into the tiny space and blocked my way.

  “Listen to me, Martin.” His voice was low and gruff. “Katie’s alive.”

  My heart stopped. All of a sudden, it felt as though my blood started flowing in reverse.

  I couldn’t pull in a breath, and my palms began to sweat with a vengeance.

  In my heart, I knew she was alive, but having Kevin just blurt it out like it was yesterday’s news made it all the more shocking.

  “She...she is?”

  “Yes.”

  “How? I...I saw her body...” My words left me as I remembered running my fingertips over the ice-cold flesh of her cheek inside the velvet-lined mahogany coffin.

  “They made a mistake. She wasn’t supposed to die,” he answered.

  “She...she wasn’t? I don’t understand. How...how could they make a mistake?”

  Kevin shook his head. “I don’t know. They told her they can’t fix it and she has to stay dead to everyone.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Everyone but you?”

  “I’m from the afterlife. I know things neutrals don’t.”

  “Then why...why didn’t anyone tell me?” I demanded.

  He didn’t offer an answer to my question—only a piercing look—so I plowed forward. “What is she doing here? Why won’t you let me see her?”

  “She’s on her first assignment.”

  “Assignment?”

  “They’re recruiting her to work for them. She has a rare soul, Martin,” he explained.

  “I already know that!” I snapped. “That’s why I fell in love with her! She’s a Siren and I...I let her...die...” My hands started to shake.

  “There was nothing you could have done then. But there’s something you can do now.”

  I looked up. “Anything. I’d do anything for her.”

  “Are you on an assignment, too?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Texas?”

  “...Yeah.”

  “Serena Gibbons,” he said slowly.

  I nodded. “How did you—?”

  “Katie’s on the same assignment.”

  “I’ll help!” My muscles tensed again.

  But this time, it was from anxiety—anxiety because I was going to see her again.

  I was going to be able to hold her again.

  I was going to kiss her again.

  “She doesn’t remember you, Martin.”

  My heart dropped to my knees. “She…she doesn’t?”

  Mr. Carter shook his head. “No. She suffered some memory loss when they brought her back.

  “It’s coming back to her, but we can’t force it on her.

  “Besides, she’s got all the help she needs to let Serena pass on,” he said.

  I felt a thickening in my blood. “Who was that other guy with you?”

  Out of nowhere, Kevin cracked a smile. “He’s Death.”

  “What is—?”

  “You can help in another way, however.”

  “Anything! Anything!”

  “Go home. Stay away from her.”

  Chapter Nine

  “Stay away from her.”

  Julian looked up at me in surprise. After scarfing down his food, he was giving the waitress a suggestive look. My words were warning to him that we didn’t have time to play.

  “Katherine, I’ve never had a matron before, and I don’t intend to start now.” He raised a dark eyebrow.

  I smirked. “I’m not a mom. But I seem to have been thrown into pet-owning.”

  “Very funny. What are you trying to say, my dear?” He admired the waitress who was now bending over to sweep crumbs off the table next to us.

  “Call me dear one more time, Julian,” I warned.

  “I’d be much obliged. But perhaps another time; I’m otherwise occupied.”

  “Of course you are.”

  “Hey, guys, ready to go?”

  I twisted around in the booth to find Kevin standing over us.

  “Oh, God...so ready,” I said, sliding out of my seat.

  We were at the restaurant door when we realized one important member of the fabulous three was missing.

  “Julian?” Kevin turned.

  There he was. Death incarnate—chatting up a waitress like he was anyone else.

  I growled, surprised that my vocal chords could emit such a low frequency. I stalked over to him, getting there in three strides.

  What I really wanted to do was curl my fingers around a handful of his hair and drag him through the Phoenix airport, then feed him to a crocodile.

  But I settled for wrapping my death grip around his upper arm and tugging him out of the restaurant.

  “Watch it! This body bruises like a peach!” He dusted himself off when I’d finally let him go.

  “If you keep talking about yourself in ‘this body’…” I used two fingers on each hand as “air-quotes.” “You’ll have more than a bruise to worry about.”

  Both his eyebrows rose at once. “All you require is a leash and some vampiric canines and you could be a killer Chihuahua.”

  “Note the use of the word ‘killer’!”

  “Hardly...”

  “Okay, guys, enough!” Kevin broke us apart before the whole thing turned into a bloodbath.

  Well...it would have been Julian’s blood and not mine.

  * * *

  “So, did you find anything?” I asked Kevin after the plane had cleared the runway and my stomach had stopped making loops around my insides.

  “Nope. The place was clear. I’m not sure what you sensed back there.” He didn’t even look up from his magazine.

  I pursed my lips, sighing through my nose. Maybe I was going crazy after all.

  “Kevin,” Julian said, leaning over me way too far, “did you notice how forcibly Katherine removed me from the stunning grip of the waitress?”

  “What are you getting at?”

  What I thought was an attempt for Julian to assume I had some sort of pseudo-crush on him turned into him being serious for once.

  “These...wraiths, as you so call them...can they not influence the thoughts of others?”

  “Some,” Kevin said. “But what’s that got—?”

  “Both you and she can sense them, can’t yo
u?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Can they ever conceal their...identity...from you?”

  Kevin seemed stunned for a moment, his mouth open as if he wanted to answer, but his brow furrowed as though he didn’t know how.

  “If...they can, it would be new to me. I’ve never been able to do that,” he finally answered.

  “Well...the motive behind my inquiry is that I wasn’t chatting up the waitress so I could obtain her telephone number.”

  He shot me a look. He was suggesting I had some hidden pukey feelings! Gag.

  “Why are you looking at me?” I shrunk back in my seat.

  “Because, Katherine! Despite what you may think, psychopomps can’t copulate!”

  That shut me up.

  At least he’d said it quiet enough so no one would hear.

  I don’t even think it registered with Kevin. Boy, it sure sucked to be Julian.

  “There was something about her I couldn’t place,” he went on, back to our conversation about the waitress. “It was as though she...”

  “Weren’t of this dimension?” Kevin finished, apparently a part of the conversation again.

  “Mm...” Julian nodded, pursing his lips. He looked like a monkey every time he did that. Then, he looked at me, those bluish-gray eyes searching my face. “Did you sense anything, Katie?”

  It was the first time he’d used my preferred name. I didn’t even realize he’d asked me a question until Kevin put a hand on my arm.

  “Katie?”

  “No...I didn’t...sense anything...”

  Julian nodded. “I’m not even sure if my senses are working properly. I’ve never used them to locate alter-dimensional beings.”

  “There are humans with rare souls living among us. I’m sure that’s all you were sensing. I doubt it was a wraith,” Kevin replied.

  I wriggled in my seat. I kept having the feeling that someone somewhere was watching me. Julian gave me a look.

  “Is our conversation making you uncomfortable, Katherine? I would think that being a Siren and assisting people into the next dimension would take most of that trepidation away.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. That statement didn’t even deserve an answer.

  “Katie’s never banished a wraith before, Julian,” Kevin said for me.

  I sighed.

  “Banish?” He lifted his right eyebrow.

  “People with rare souls or those who work for the afterlifers can release wraith souls from the bodies they steal,” Kevin explained.

  “Release them? As in…make them go back from where they came?”

  “Duh,” I said. “Unless there’s some wraith soul repository the government’s hiding.”

  “Probably not the best idea to talk about government conspiracies on an airplane.” Kevin chuckled at his own joke.

  I wasn’t listening. The overwhelming feeling of being watched was getting under my skin. I unhooked my belt and stood halfway out of my seat.

  No one seemed to be looking at me. As a matter of fact, most of the passengers were buried in magazines, had their headphones on, or were asleep.

  “Katie?” Kevin asked. “What’s wrong? Are you getting that feeling again?”

  “Uh…” I turned my head around and sat back down, staring at the headrest of the seat in front of me. “N…no. I just…feel like someone’s watching me…”

  “Well, to be fair…”

  Whatever Julian said next would no doubt end out of his favor.

  “There’s always someone watching you. I don’t mean like God or anything, since he’s not real. But beings of other dimensions are—”

  “Can it!” I growled. “I’m not stupid!”

  “I wasn’t suggesting you were.” He leaned away from me as though my bitchiness would rub off. “I was merely explaining—”

  “I’ll be back in a bit, guys,” Kevin interrupted.

  I looked up at him through doe eyes as he squeezed between our knees and the seats in front of us.

  I needed him to keep me from smacking Julian in the mouth.

  But he was leaving me to fend for myself; control my own emotions.

  “What’s doin’?”

  “Just going to use the restroom. I’ll only be gone for a few minutes.” He gave me a reassuring smile.

  “But…but…how can you live with yourself knowing you’ll be an accomplice to murder?!” I came halfway out of my seat.

  “Well, I never…” Julian harrumphed as if I’d insulted his very well-being.

  I shot him a look. “You’re damn right you never. And if you ever want to at all, you’ll shut it right now!”

  “Guys…just behave for a couple minutes, please. Julian, why don’t you…read a magazine or something,” Kevin suggested as he walked down the aisle toward the back of the plane.

  “Read a magazine?” Julian scowled. “Really? With the advent of the spoken word he wants me to read? But we can have so many wonderful conversations with the intricacies of the English language. Why, I couldn’t even—”

  “Knock it off!!”

  Chapter Ten

  “You need to knock it off.”

  I looked up just as Kevin Carter slid into the empty seat next to me.

  I scowled at him and continued my staring contest with the mountains below.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

  “Yeah, you do.”

  “You could enlighten me.”

  “You’re giving Katie the creeps.” He stared me down with those haunting blue eyes.

  Those eyes held so much wisdom—perhaps even more than mine.

  But something about what he’d said made my territorial blood boil.

  I was positive that if the situation was reversed, I wouldn’t be giving her anything but affection and love. And she wouldn’t protest to that—no way, no how.

  “I’m giving Katie the creeps? I’m not the one who can read her. All I can do was watch from afar while she lives her happy new life—without me.”

  Kevin shook his head. “If you think she’s happy…”

  “She’s not even happy? Then why won’t you let me talk to her? I could make her happy!”

  “No!” He grabbed my shoulder, his fingers digging in, letting fear grip me to the core. “She doesn’t remember you. If you force yourself on her, the memory may not come back in sync. She might only remember how you lied. She might only remember that you work for a damn wraith, Martin. All you’d do is make things worse.”

  “But, I told her—”

  “Katie is better off without you right now.”

  The words everybody is afraid to hear came rolling off his tongue like they were easy for him. Well, they weren’t easy for me! They’d made my entire body shut off. My brain refused to think, my lungs refused to let me breathe, and my heart refused to beat normally. Despite Kevin Carter being a former high school teacher and a good friend, he was still one of them, and once a wraith, always a wraith.

  “No…I…” I stammered.

  “Excuse me…”

  The two of us looked up to find the woman who had been sitting next to me. Kevin gave her a polite smile.

  “Sorry, ma’am. I was just leaving.” As he bent forward to stand, he shot one last glance at me and said, “Don’t push her.”

  I watched him nod at the woman next to me and trek back up the aisle toward his own seat. He gave Katie—whom I assumed was sitting in the middle—such a friendly smile that it made me ill. I wanted to be the one giving her that smile. Because I knew if I did, she’d fling herself into my arms and we’d be together again. She’d remember if she saw me.

  * * *

  “So, he just told you not to come near her again?”

  I nodded while taking another sip of Coke. I swallowed after chomping on a piece of ice.

  “Yup. I love her more than anything and he won’t let me see her again.”

  Over the following hour and a half, I told the woman next to me my entire
journey with Katie. It would have taken decades to tell her the truth. And of course I substituted some minor details to make it believable.

  Katie was still my lost love, but Kevin was now her uncle and this other guy they were with was her new…boyfriend. I was hoping my lies stayed lies.

  “My word…” The older woman next to me took her glasses off her nose.

  They hung limp around her neck, attached to a pearl-beaded chain that shone weakly in the dim cabin light. “That’s such a terrible situation for someone as young as yourself. So, you’re following her all the way to Texas, then? Her uncle isn’t moving her there because of you, is he?”

  “Yes and yes.” I tossed back the last of my drink.

  “My, my…” She clucked her tongue. “You know, my granddaughter, Esmeralda, became involved with a young man once. None of us much cared for him as he was a rather mindless hoodlum. But we never came between them. We figured she’d come to her senses eventually.”

  “Did she?” I was more intrigued than perhaps I should have been.

  She gave a solemn nod. “Oh, yes. It only took ten years of a loveless marriage and three abused children. But she did let him go.”

  “Well, I would never abuse Katie.” My eyes narrowed at nothing in particular. She placed a hand on my arm.

  “And I’m not saying you would, dear. I’m simply saying that we should let our children do what they please. They can’t learn well by others’ mistakes—only their own. I think…you should fight for her.” She threw me a wink as she leaned over the armrest. “Because if you don’t, I might have to step in and give her uncle a talking to.”

  I gulped. There was nothing like a possible life-ending confrontation to sober you up!

  “That…that won’t be necessary. I can do it myself.”

  “Are you sure? I’ve been known to be the most persuasive grandmother known to mankind.”

  “I’m sure, I’m sure. Promise me you’ll let me handle it myself.”

  She stared at me for a few seconds, then nodded in agreement.

  Four hours later, we touched down at the Dallas airport in Texas. And that’s where the real adventure began.

  Chapter Eleven

  Texas was where the real adventure would begin. I could feel it in my very core.

  My first assignment was just minutes away, but my head was still reeling from the strange encounter outside the gates at the airport.