Grim (Death's Apprentice Book 1)

by Scarlett Snow

  Gabriel looks to where I’m staring. “That’s a standard reaper.”

  “But…” I reach back and bring my own wing forward, inspecting the feathers. They haven’t turned gray. I look to the angel for an explanation.

  He smiles. “Death has many reapers, but only two apprentices. Usually he only has one. It’s very unusual that he should have you and Deacon operating at the same time, but I suppose unusual times create unusual circumstances.” He looks at the reaper, who has disappeared into a building along with the man he’s stalking. “Reapers find people, average people, who are about to die. They deliver them to Death, and they go through the process of being weighed and sent to their final destination. These are ordinary souls, not like the ones you collect.”

  “So the souls that I’m sent to get are special?”

  “There’s a reason they’re on a list.”

  I open my mouth to ask Gabriel what he means, but he’s gazing at the sky with a fierce look in his eyes. The sun breaking through the clouds shines over him, and he’s never seemed more like an angel than he does right now. The sunlight surrounds him, reflecting off his white wings and tailored suit, and suddenly I understand why artists say angels have halos.

  Zeus and Ryan suddenly join us, and the expression on the dog’s face is just as severe as the one Gabriel is wearing.

  “They’re not far,” Zeus reports, looking up at Gabriel. “Riverbank High School. Three blocks away. Four demons.”

  The muscles work hard on my angel’s face. He’s clenching his jaw.

  “What’s wrong?” I probe quietly, placing a hand gently on his arm. “Why would there be demons at a school?”

  He takes a long moment to consider his answer. He stretches his wings out, making my own look mediocre, and turns to me. “It’s feeding time.”

  There’s a loud clap, then Gabriel soars into the sky, and the wake of air stirred up by his wings knocks me backward. I stretch my own wings, ready to follow him, but I hesitate and look down at Zeus.

  He inclines his head. “We’ll meet you there.”

  “Yeah,” Ryan agrees. “Go stretch your wings, cutie.”

  Nodding at them, I lift myself into the air and fly after Gabriel. It doesn’t take long to reach the high school. I follow Gabriel’s scent—which is a lot like cinnamon and sandalwood—and when I spot him hunched on the domed rooftop, I swoop down and land beside him. Zeus and Ryan are nowhere in sight. Maybe they got caught up with something else. Hopefully, they tracked another demon.

  Since the day I could talk, I’ve always been full of questions. However, as I follow Gabriel’s gaze into the school’s tennis court, my blood freezes at the shadows clawing into a small figure. It’s after school hours, but not all the students have gone home.

  “Is that…” I can’t even finish the sentence. Is that a kid?

  “We’re too late. She’s already dead.”

  The creatures snarl and gnaw at the girl, their elongated limbs slicing into her body. They’re physically devouring her, even though they’re only made of darkness. The poor girl must have been no more than fourteen. I look away, unable to bear the sight.

  I keep my focus on the emerald glass stretching over the dome. “Why did they come here?”

  “Virginal blood,” Gabriel tells me. “Demons only feed on humans who haven’t been tainted. What better way to hunt than on vulnerable children?”

  I clutch my throat, struggling to breathe. “Why…can’t we…do anything…” I gasp out. Oh, God, I feel sick. “We’re just standing here.”

  Gabriel comes closer and reaches out. I look up at him, and he rubs his thumb across my cheek. “I’m sorry you had to see this.”

  I lean into his hand, thankful for his support. “I just wish there was something I could’ve done. What about her soul? Can’t we help her cross over or something?”

  Gabriel looks away, taking a moment to answer. Slowly, his hand slips away from my face and he turns toward the demons.

  Despite my best efforts, I follow his gaze. They’re still eating her. Thankfully she isn’t alive to feel it.

  When he speaks, he sounds bitter. “Her soul is gone now. The soul is the first thing that these monsters consume.”

  The unfairness of it makes my blood boil. I clench my hands at my side, and I want to lay waste to those shadowy monsters.

  “Then we catch those demons and make them suffer.” I jump onto the edge of the rooftop. When Gabriel doesn’t follow me, I look over my shoulder at him and use the nickname Death called him. “Gabe?”

  “It’s not as simple as that. Most demons live in packs. If we attack now, we won’t find where their nest is.”

  “Then why don’t we take one of them for interrogation?”

  “Not yet. There’s…"

  My pulse spikes as I watch the demons catch sight of another student. These kids must have been at some kind of after school activity. Now, they’ve become something’s dinner.

  Instincts take hold of me. There is no way I’m going to watch them kill another kid.

  Not if I can help it.

  I push off the roof and fly down in an effortless swoop. The ground trembles beneath me when I land. The demons screech and scatter away, but I’m hot on their trail. One of them is shaped like a winged python with fangs the length of my arm. I pursue it, flying and reaching out my hands as far as I can. It twists and turns and manages to avoid my every attempt to grab one of its appendages. It hisses at me, but I keep trying…and failing.

  Urgh! I keep missing!

  “Sacha, no! Come back!” Gabriel bellows, his voice strained with panic.

  But I can’t go back. Death asked me to put an end to this. I don’t want to disappoint him.

  I’m so close…just a little more… Got it!

  I seize the top edge of the demon’s wing and yank back with a vicious heave. Just as I think the demon is about to yield, a bright light flashes over my field of sight, and I’m sucked through a glowing red opening that rips itself into being, like a kind of tear in the fabric of reality.

  The first thing I notice once I get through the tear is that it’s unbearably hot. The air resists inhalation, and I feel like I’m suffocating. The demon is still twisting and flapping, trying its best to get away from me, but I’m holding on for dear unlife. It snaps at me, hisses at me, but I don’t let go.

  I can’t see anything but blinding crimson light. It’s disorienting, and the way the demon is whipping me around, I’m starting to get a serious case of air sickness. It would serve it right if I barfed all over it.

  Sulfur permeates my senses and the red light is starting to have streaks of sooty black. Things that I can’t feel brush past me, catching my hair and my clothes. They reek like death and bile, and the air is getting thicker and more stale by the minute. I start to cough, and it’s like a giant hand is around my chest, constricting me.

  Can demons kill somebody who’s already dead?

  The red light abruptly turns into an inky darkness, and the demon that’s been carrying me is barking and yipping in some insane language that’s part dog, part bat and all kinds of crazy. It hisses at me again, and I manage to kick it in the mouth.

  It really doesn’t like that.

  With a feral yowl, it bares its long fangs and strikes at me. This time it hits its mark. The fangs go deep into my leg, and then we’re falling again.

  The demon and I tumble from the air, hitting an outcropping of rocks that angle sharply away. We roll together, which is not at all something I enjoy. Its fangs are still buried in my leg, and I still have its wing, which I think has become a little dislocated.

  The poor little thing…not!

  We plummet onto a flat surface where the rock undulates like frozen waves on the ocean shore. It’s like the rock has melted, then solidified again, but I don’t have time to think about pretty geology now. I’ve got this demon to contend with.

  It’s angry. I’m not feeling much happier, either. When we landed,
its fangs got jostled out of my leg, which is now bleeding, and I lost my grip on its wing. I’m extremely pleased to see that the limb in question is jutting out of its back at a very improbable angle and it looks pretty broken.

  Bummer.

  It coils up like a rattlesnake, shaking the tip of its tail even though it doesn’t really have any dried scales to beat together. Its eyes are made of red fire, and all around us, I can see smoke and feel the heat of flame. The stench of sulfur is almost overpowering, and I have a terrible idea that I know exactly where I am.

  I’m in Hell.

  And I’m alone, without my personal angel to protect me.

  “You don’t belong here, Apprentice,” the demon hisses, flapping its one good wing at me. It’s chilling how human it sounds.

  “No? Well, I’m here anyway, and I can kick your butt down here just like I did up on earth.”

  It laughs. “Try it.”

  To be honest, I’m not a fighter. I’ve never done more than wrestle with MacKenzie. Even then, it’s not like I’m trying to really take my little brother down. I haven’t the faintest idea what I need to do to make this demon regret going to that high school.

  My mind flashes back to all the wildlife shows I’ve ever seen, and I figure that what works for crocodiles might work for demons. With a yell, I leap onto it and grab the ruined wing again. The demon pitches and rolls, its long, serpentine body coiling madly, trying to get around me and squeeze me to bits. It would have to constrict itself, though, and I’ve got hold of both of its wings now. I grab, pull, and twist them, almost as if I’m planning to take them back with me and make myself a purse.

  The good wing snaps like a cracked skull, and the demon howls. It stops struggling and falls still, its head turning all the way around so it can stare at me with its molten eyes.

  “Let me go,” it snarls.

  I tighten my grip on its injured wing. “Not until you promise to take me where I want to go.”

  It laughs manically. “Not likely, Apprentice.”

  I squeeze my fist harder around its wing, hearing the bones grind. I raise my eyebrow at it, then squeeze even more.

  “Augh! All right, human—I’ll take you. Stop!”

  Something tells me that I need to insist on the point, so I twist again. “Promise?”

  The demon yelps. “Y-yes! I promise to take you where you want to go. Now let go of my fucking wing! You’re killing me!”

  “That almost makes me want to keep going,” I tell it, still full of anger after what I witnessed on the tennis court, “but a deal’s a deal.”

  I release its disgusting wing and straighten up. The demon actually seems to shrink a little, contracting in on itself to huddle around its injury.

  It looks up at me resentfully. “Where do you want to go?”

  “I want you to take me to Lucifer.”

  The demon’s eyes bug, and it starts to vibrate. At first I think it’s terrified by the very thought of taking me to his Big Bad Boss, but then he explodes in a raucous laugh, the kind a hyena crossed with a cobra would make. It’s a thoroughly unpleasant noise, and I kind of want to choke it to make it stop. I just let it laugh and wait for it to be able to talk again.

  If it could wipe its eyes, it would. It manages to get its roaring laugh under control, but it still has a case of the giggles. “You’re demented.”

  “That’s rude,” I say, my feathers bristling.

  “Rude? You want me to take you to the Fallen One, the Prince of Lies, and you’re worried about me being rude?”

  It explodes into more guffaws. I’ve just about had it with this slimy snake. I reach out for its ruined wings, and it wrenches itself away with a sharp squeal. Strangely, its laughter dies as soon as I threaten it with more pain. So much for being a demon. Just like a spider, it’s more scared of me than I am of it.

  I would also normally feel bad about hurting another being, but for this thing, which ate a little girl, I’ll make an exception. It seems to know that I am most certainly not joking, and it backs up a little.

  “It’s your eternity,” it says churlishly. “If this is the way you want to spend it, don’t let me stop you.”

  I bend down to take a look at my leg. The wound is already closing up, leaving just a smear of blood on my skin. I don’t know how it healed, but I’m grateful. You never know what kind of things you could pick up down here.

  Of course, I’m dead, so I probably can’t get an infection. But this is Hell. For all I know, the infection could be spiritual, and I’m not going to take any chances.

  The demon slithers away slowly, watching me to make sure I’m following. The light shining from its eyes is the only illumination, and there’s no way I’m letting it get away from me. In the darkness around me, where the red glow doesn’t reach, I hear things chittering and skittering, and I’m getting a serious case of the almighty creeps. I walk a little faster.

  The demon leads me through countless narrow passageways, winding and circuitous. The floor is uneven, and there are who-knows-what lying all around, tripping me up. The demon is used to this terrain, clearly, but I’m having trouble navigating all the dips and turns.

  There’s a flickering light up ahead. Its red and yellow beams are casting ominous shadows on the pitted walls. I see the glint of orange light on some massive beetle’s carapace, and I shudder. I hate bugs and that thing is at least as big as I am. The demon looks back at me and laughs at my obvious discomfort as it keeps leading me forward.

  The narrow caves lead into larger chambers, and now I can see nightmare creatures of all descriptions hanging from the walls and ceilings. Their leathery wings flap at me, and they shout from mouths entirely too small to hold that many teeth. They have compound eyes like flies, and when they move, they make an unnerving clacking sound.

  I don’t understand their language, but I don’t need to be a linguistic genius to know that they’re laughing at me. One of them, a round monster that looks a lot like moldy mashed potatoes, points at me and shouts a stream of words. All the other demons start shouting and hooting. The noise is almost a physical force, and the demon I’m following joins the laughter.

  Yuk it up, buddy.

  Finally the cavern opens out onto the shore of a subterranean river. Instead of water, the river flows with fire and lava, with flames dancing along the surface. Actually, when I look closer, I realize those aren’t flames at all—they’re tiny demons in the shape of fire, writhing in agony. It’s a horrible sight.

  On the other side of the river, another shore leads up to a wrought iron gate. The gate posts are made of twisted bars that wind around spears, each one containing a mummified human head. The dried-up eyes and desiccated mouths are wide open, and a low moaning echoes from their dead throats. The gate itself is enormous, at least a hundred feet high, and made of spiked bars. A dismal fog rolls out between them, and behind the fog, another red light emerges.

  My demon guide points its tail. “We have to fly over the river to reach the gate.” He glares at me. “Well, you have to fly over the river. You’ve made it so that I can’t.”

  “Aw,” I coo spitefully. “Poor baby.”

  It snaps its fangs at me. I manage to get out of the way before it can bite me again. Good thing, too, because its fangs drip black venom that sizzles when it lands on the rocky shore.

  “That’s all I have to do?” I inquire skeptically. “Just fly across and open the gate?”

  Something moves under the ground not far away from me, making the rock shiver and warp. That can’t be good. I jump away from the…whatever it is and hover in the smoggy air.

  Another demon erupts out of the rock and sand at my feet. He’s like the brother of the one who brought me here, but he’s larger and uglier by far. He glares at me with bulging red eyes, his wings beating so fast that they buzz.

  “You want to go to see the King?” he asks, incredulous. He turns to the demon who led me here and asks something in their tongue. The smaller demon yips
back at length and the big guy turns back to me.

  “Take me to Lucifer,” I demand firmly, landing on the soil he just left behind. “If this one can’t do it, you can. Chop, chop.”

  He looks at me like I’ve completely flipped my lid, and I probably have. I’m here for a reason, and I’m not going to be denied. I will find out why Lucifer has broken the truce with my boss. I put my hands on my hips and give him an impatient look.

  “Well?” I prompt. “What’s it going to be?”

  The first demon, the one who brought me down here, says, “I promised her…”

  The bigger monster whips the demon in the mouth with his monstrous tail, sending him flying. He lands about fifty yards away and lies very, very still. The demons hanging on the walls and ceiling burst out into a cacophony of shouts and laughter, and some of them trade shiny stones like they’re settling bets.

  This place is insane, or maybe I’m the crazy one for wanting to come down here. I wanted to help Death. Now I’m not sure I made the right decision.

  “I will take you,” the new demon announces, “but don’t blame me if he doesn’t want to see you.”

  I gulp, forcing myself to appear confident. “Is he just through that gate?”

  He looks at me with a sly smile. “Yes. It leads to his throne room, where he sits in his infernal glory. He already knows you’re here.”

  I spread my wings, and the electric blue feathers look startlingly bright in this dark place. With two downbeats, I’m airborne and soaring over the burning river. The larger demon follows me, and soon we’re landing on the other side.

  The shore over here has more sand, but the rocks surrounding me are just as sharp as on the opposite side. There are no plants, and no animals, unless you count the demons who cluster around the gate. Some of them look nearly human, and others…definitely don’t. A few of them make my mind feel woozy just from looking at them, so I make a point of keeping my head turned away.

  The demon escorts me up to the gate. When we approach, the mummified heads in the gate posts let out blood-curdling screams. It’s terrifying and disgusting and horrible all at the same time and I resist the urge to cover my ears with my hands. I’m not going to start showing weakness now.