The Death of My First Assignment (Death Series)

by Ami Urban

  “Well...you weren’t notified of me,” I pointed out, remembering what he’d told me in the car the first day I met him. It seemed like a year ago.

  “No, and that rarely happens. I’m only grateful they figured it out eventually.”

  “So, you weren’t notified of Andy... That means his soul is either stuck between dimensions or somewhere else... Can you find it?” Martin crossed his arms over the chest of his school uniform.

  “I suppose I could try. But it’ll take a bit of energy. I’ll have to disappear,” he said.

  “Go do it, then.” Martin shooed him away.

  “But stay out of trouble!” I called as he left us at the payphones.

  Martin breathed a sigh. “Finally some uninterrupted time alone.” A sinister smile crossed his lips.

  “Keep your hands to yourself, Lothario,” I warned. “Or I’ll call Kevin.”

  He rolled his eyes and scowled. “Goody.”

  “You should take a lesson from Julian.”

  “Huh?” he asked.

  “You know, the whole psychopomps can’t copulate thing?”

  Martin choked on a laugh. “He told you that? Of course he can. He’s got a human body just like you and me…”

  At that moment, I wanted to forget I had a human body capable of feeling the tension between us. “Then, why would he tell me that?”

  Martin shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe so he could show up in your room in the middle of night.”

  I blanched. For a moment, fire roared through his eyes. But then, he put a lid on it. “Don’t you have a phone call to make?”

  Crap, I’d almost forgotten.

  I picked up the phone, put another quarter in and dialed the number I’d scribbled out the night before.

  It rang twice before someone picked up.

  “Yes?” A woman answered.

  “Uh… My name is Katie and I’m looking for someone named Charles Gibbons. Does he live there?” I bounced on my toes while a ten second silence ensued across the line.

  “Why you lookin’ for Chaz? What’s that fool done now?”

  “Well... He hasn’t done anything. I...I’m a friend of his daughter’s and—”

  “Daughter?!” the woman screeched. “He ain’t never told me he had no daughter.”

  “So you do know him?” I skirted around the issue.

  Maybe she was his landlady. But people didn’t normally share facets of their lives with their landlady. Did they?

  “Right, I did. That bastard up and left three years ago.

  “He left me nothin’ but this old house to take care of! You see him, you tell him Rosy’s lookin’ for him!”

  “Wait, don’t hang up! I don’t know where he is. That’s why I called. See, he wrote letters to someone named Chris Summers, and the return address on one of the envelopes was your house. Do you have any idea where he could have gone?” I pleaded.

  Rosy mumbled a curse I was thankful not to have heard.

  “Chaz didn’t like people getting in his business. He liked his privacy. When he hired me as a housekeeper, I wasn’t supposed to let anybody in.”

  Okay, I was getting a little closer. “And when he left, he left you the house?”

  “Left me the house and only a month’s wages. If I wasn’t so in love with the place, I woulda given it up long ago.” Her voice went soft. Was she in love with the house, or in love with Charles?

  Judging by her outright anger about where he was, I assumed the latter. I just had to figure out how to use that to my advantage.

  “He didn’t say where he was going...at all? Not even a hint?”

  “He didn’t mention no daughter the whole time we was...working together,” she said.

  Uh-huh...

  “But if he went anywhere, he didn’t tell me. No letters, no nothing. If you find him, you give him my message. And if he’s got any conscience left in ‘im, he’ll apologize!” she shot. The dial tone rang in my ear.

  Damn it! I needed answers!

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Damn it! I need answers!” I paced back and forth in front of Kevin.

  I wasn’t able to find Irish Moses, and I doubted he would tell me what I wanted to hear, anyway. So, the only person I could turn to was him.

  And while Katie was off keeping an eye on Serena at her skydiving lessons, I went straight over to his hotel.

  “I don’t know what to tell you, Martin,” he said, watching me walk around the living room. “If you’d have stayed put and gone home when I told you to, none of this would be happening.”

  I wheeled around on him. “Excuse me?!” I could feel my heartbeat pounding.

  “If I’d have gone home when you told me to, Irish Moses would have devoured my body’s energy! I’d be eternally tortured!”

  “You’re time’s going to come eventually, Martin.”

  I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He would really wish ill will against me? After everything I’d done?

  He’d seen me with Katie. He knew how good we’d been together. He also knew that I would never hurt her on purpose.

  “Yeah? Well as far as I’m concerned, I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere.” I stood my ground with my arms folded over my chest.

  Kevin sighed. “What did you guys find out today?”

  “How much do you know?” I asked.

  “I know Andy Bowdry’s dead. Katie told me what that wraith said last night about pushing souls out of bodies, etcetera,” he explained.

  “Oh, yeah? Was that before or after you asked her out on a date?”

  Kevin was quiet for a moment. He stared up at me, then shifted on the couch and cleared his throat. “I don’t have to answer to you, Martin.”

  “How perceptive of you.”

  “What I do on my own personal time is none of your business.”

  “It is if you’re doing it with my girlfriend!” I cried.

  “She’s not your girlfriend, Martin. Katie doesn’t remember you fondly. Didn’t I tell you that would happen if you intervened?”

  As much as his words pissed me the hell off, he was right. Katie hated me because I’d tried to push her.

  I’d tried to make her remember who I was. It was my fault. I had no one to blame but myself.

  I slouched into a chair opposite him and cradled my head in my hands. “Everything is so...screwed up.”

  “Thank you for censoring your language this time,” he said. “I’m sorry it had to be this way, really I am. But you made your bed two hundred years ago, Martin. You should have told Katie the truth from the beginning.”

  “Says the wraith in a human body.”

  “I’ve never pretended to be something I wasn’t.”

  Silence enveloped the room. It was uncomfortable, but I couldn’t seem to break it. My thoughts were jumbled and disjointed.

  “Oh, dear, from the sound of things, I thought no one was here.”

  “Hi, Julian,” Kevin and I mumbled.

  Maybe Kevin was right. Maybe the fact that I’d pretended to be something I wasn’t had everything to do with Katie hating me now.

  Had I ruined my chances altogether?

  And he was also right about my time coming. Irish Moses would, one day, grow tired of toying with me, at which point I’d die. If Katie was with me when it happened, I—

  I snapped my head up. “Julian!”

  The psychopomp seemed almost as surprised as I was at my outburst. He raised both dark eyebrows and leaned against the arm of the sofa.

  “Yes?”

  “Did you find Andy?”

  “What is he talking about?” Kevin asked, throwing a look at Julian.

  “Oh, Martin inquired this afternoon if I’d ferried Andy’s soul to the afterlife following his guardian wraith’s occupation of the poor fellow’s body,” he explained.

  “Did you?” Kevin was completely focused on Julian.

  “No. So, he and Katherine asked that I try to find out where his soul went as I wasn’t not
ified of its departure.”

  “And did you?!” I couldn’t hide the anticipation in my voice.

  Julian’s features sagged. “That would be another no. I wasn’t able to locate his or this Mays’ fellow’s soul.”

  “Wait...” Kevin stood up. “The PE teacher? Martin...Irish Moses took Mays’ body?”

  “Yeah, I know. He’s a parasite.”

  “This is not good. He’s in a position of authority over a lot of souls. Katie and Serena have a class with him tomorrow,” Kevin said.

  “Perhaps they can use that to their advantage...”

  “How? It’s not like Katie can sneak up on him and listen to his conversations. He’d know she was there. And I do not want her first experience banishing a wraith to be him. He’s too strong.” Kevin shook his head as he pulled a hand through his hair.

  “If only we had someone readily available who was ruthless enough to obtain information from the least favorable of sources...”

  Julian tapped his foot just as an idea popped into my head.

  “Wait...” I started, already grappling with it. Kevin and Julian watched me with anticipation. “As much as I hate to admit this, I know just the person.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “I know just the thing.” Serena dug through her purse the next morning as we waited for first period to start.

  I slid down in my seat, resting my chin on my forearms.

  I just wanted to go to sleep. I just wanted to go home and forget all about Irish Moses and Martin Krane and Julian—

  “Here.”

  She held out a closed fist. I hesitated, but opened my palm. She placed a little white pill in the center and winked.

  “What’s this?”

  “You said you didn’t sleep at all last night and you’re high strung. This will help.”

  “And what is this?”

  “Paxil.”

  I shoved it back at her. “Oh, no. No, no, no, no.” I paused to breathe. “No. I don’t take prescription drugs without a prescription.”

  Serena rolled her eyes. “God, no wonder you got an extension.” Throwing her head back, she swallowed the pill herself. “You’re dull!”

  “Dull equals safe and non-drugged,” I mumbled. A yawn had just escaped me when the classroom door crashed open. I stifled a groan as Justine spotted Serena and bounded up the aisle.

  “Hey, Reenie!”

  “What are you doin’ here, Justine? You don’t have first period with me?”

  Justine gave a faux pout. “I know. But the girls and I are skipping second period, you in?” She smiled. It was fake, but at least it was a smile.

  “No, thanks. Katie and I were looking forward to Pilates today.” Serena gave me a look.

  We’d been plotting all night to keep an eye on Mr. Mays. She didn’t need to do anything except focus on skydiving, but I was grateful for the extra help.

  Justine huffed.

  “Yeah, right. Little miss saintly is just trying to turn you into an angel. God, she isn’t in our Pilates class, too, is she?”

  “So what?” Serena demanded.

  “Oh, come on. I saw that picture she had of you in her backpack that first day she was here. She’s a total lesbo.”

  “I’m right here,” I snapped.

  She tossed me a look. “Yeah, you’re always here. And I’ll bet you’ll be there watching as I’m in the shower, too, won’t you?”

  I sucked in a breath. I’d had just about enough for one existence. “Does everything you think come falling out of your mouth like that? Because the rest of us have a little filter called maturity. But I guess you were absent the day they were handing it out!” I hissed.

  Justine looked at me for several more seconds. Then, she crossed her arms and stormed out, slamming the door behind her. I sat back in my desk, still steaming.

  “That was bloody brilliant,” Serena said with a grin. I sighed.

  “I’m just really tired of being ridiculed.”

  “No, that was amazing. No one’s ever talked to her that way. The look on her face was priceless! I think you should thank that little demon inside you, Katie.”

  I smirked. “I don’t have a demon inside me. I—” I shut my mouth and looked around—namely behind me.

  “What?” Serena leaned over her desk and followed my gaze.

  “Oh...nothing. I was just expecting Julian to pop out and ask me if I wanted a demon inside me,” I joked.

  “Nuh. His exact words would have been, ‘That can be arranged, darling.” The two of us shared a giggle. It felt good to laugh for once.

  * * *

  “You really should have taken the Paxil, Katie. Why aren’t you sleeping?” Serena turned her head to look at me. We were in the middle of PE, resting on our backs on the gym floor with twenty other girls. I felt like an idiot doing Pilates leg circles, but the stretching felt nice.

  “I don’t know. I’ve got a lot going on,” I said. The truth was that after remembering Martin, the memory flashes and insomnia had increased two-fold. And having to keep an eye out for Irish Moses was putting a dent in my original plans. Lucky for me, Julian had offered to do some research and meet me at lunch with his findings.

  “Oh, I thought it was because you were mad about my date with the instructor Friday. I was gonna complain ‘cause you said I could have my room all to myself!”

  “What?” I stopped circling and turned to face her. “No, I’m not mad about... Wait...the instructor? God, girl, you move fast.”

  She tossed me an innocent smile. “I dunno what you mean.”

  “Kathleen Bruner!”

  An impossibly handsome face swam in front of me. I gulped as Mr. Mays smiled. An upside down smile was even creepier than I’d planned. He leaned in close.

  “Why did you stop, Lamb?” His voice was barely a whisper, but it chilled me just the same.

  “Don’t you have anyone better to stalk?”

  His face twisted.

  “Why...no, Lamb. You’re the best.”

  I rolled over onto my belly and sat up to face him. “What is it you’re doing, exactly?”

  He stole a quick glance at the other students, but they didn’t seem to notice our conversation. Serena pretended to ignore us both.

  “What do you think?” He pushed his face closer. On instinct, I backed away an inch.

  “I think you’re stealing bodies and murdering people.”

  His big blue eyes widened. “Stealing? Murdering? What kind of person do you think I am, Lamb?”

  “Why are you doing it? How are you doing it?”

  “Mr. Mays!”

  We turned to see Justine waving frantically from across the gym. What was she up to? I thought she was skipping...

  He turned back to me with a smirk. “Not yet, Lamb. Not yet.” Then, he stood up and walked away. I let my breath out in one long whoosh.

  “It’s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers around here...” I grumbled.

  “What if Mr. Mays dies? Will he take someone else?” Serena asked, switching to her other leg.

  “Most likely.” I made myself comfortable on my back once more. “And we won’t know who unless Martin’s around.”

  “Blimey... That’s exactly why I’m jumping alone on Saturday. I don’t want no chance of an evil wraith strapped to my back.”

  “Wait...” I shot her a look. “Alone? Are you sure that’s a good idea? It’s your first time. Shouldn’t you go tandem?”

  “I thought you’d say that. That’s why I signed you up for the tandem.”

  I sat bolt upright. “What?”

  “Yeah,” she continued without a beat, “I knew you’d be afraid of going by yourself, so you’ll be jumping with a licensed instructor.”

  I was speechless.

  No way did Serena think I was going to jump with her.

  Who cared if someone strapped to me knew everything about jumping out of a rickety airplane at 20,000 feet.

  My stomach churned at the thought.


  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I forgot to mention that the only thing I hate more than being in wet clothes is heights.”

  She looked at me with a surprised smile. “Well, this’ll cure that fear for sure, eh?”

  “Eh...” I said.

  * * *

  Seriously...where the hell was Julian? Free period had ended without any sign of him, and lunch had been going for a solid ten minutes.

  “You all right?” Martin asked when I’d turned around on the bench for the hundredth time. “You look like you’re waiting for someone?”

  “What was your first clue?” I felt the bridge of my nose wrinkle. Serena snickered next to me.

  “Sor-ry!” He put up both hands. “Remind me never to show concern again.”

  “When and if the time comes, I’ll do just that, thank you.”

  “Hey, guys!” An unusually cheerful Justine dropped onto the bench next to Martin.

  It seemed as though my shot at her before first period had done nothing.

  And when she threaded her arm through Martin’s and glared at me, I figured out why.

  “Hey, babe.” She tore her gaze away from mine, yanked Martin’s face around, and gave him the most R-rated kiss I’d ever seen. I averted my eyes while Serena just stared with her mouth open.

  “I hate high school,” I muttered.

  Justine stopped devouring her boyfriend long enough to take a breath and say, “You’ll never guess what I found out.”

  When I braved the sick feeling in my stomach and turned back toward them, Martin was swigging his bottled water like it was holy. When it was gone, he made a face like he wanted to puke. Served him right.

  He coughed and said, “What?”

  “Well, I was following Mr. Mays around just like you asked me—”

  “Wait... What?” I demanded, bracing my palms on the table. “You asked her to what?”

  Martin started to put a finger to his lips to shush me, but quickly brushed it through his hair when Justine shot him a look.

  “Do you always interrupt people?” she asked.

  “Only when their life depends on it. Martin, can I talk to you for a minute?” I beckoned to him with one finger. Justine tightened her grip on his arm.