Haunt_A Grim Reaper Romance

by Tricia Barr

  I nodded, relieved that once Luca was dealt with, it would be permanent.

  I turned to the endless crowd of souls that floated in waiting around us. The pressure to usher them all through the Gate was bone-crushing. It would take an eternity to get them all through. And what of the souls that had wandered back to the physical world, lost and confused, and the ones that followed Luca? There was so much work to be done, and thousands of people die every day. I would never get caught up.

  “How will I ever get this all sorted out, Killian?” I asked, the weight of it all too heavy for me to keep it locked inside anymore. “There are so many souls, and it’s not like people will stop dying until I’m ready for them. This is hopeless.”

  Killian came around to face me and put his hands on my shoulders. Even though I couldn’t physically feel the sensation of his touch, the contact of his energy against mine was still comforting. I would take interaction with him in whatever form I could get it, always.

  “Don’t get overwhelmed, my love,” he said soothingly. “For one, time moves more slowly here. Yes, people do die every few seconds in the physical world, but this plain was built with a slower time structure to allow us to get the job done with time to spare. And two, I’m not going to leave you to do this all on your own. I promise that I will stick around and help you until you get caught up.”

  I instinctively started shaking my head. “But Killian, you’ve already postponed Heaven long enough for me. If you wait any longer, you might not be able to get in at all.”

  “Lorelei, look at my soul,” he said, a raw vulnerability in his glistening eyes. “What color do you see?”

  I looked at him, really looked at him, trying to see his soul for what it was and not as the person I knew him to be. I looked around at the crowd to compare his soul to all of theirs. His was brighter than most, but the shine was not there. Oh no, his light has dimmed!

  “Oh, Killian, I’m so sorry,” I said mournfully, my eyes squinting but unable to cry.

  “That’s what I thought,” he said, nodding with acceptance. “Everything I have done since forcing you through the Gate has darkened my soul. I couldn’t go to Heaven right now even if I wanted to.”

  “No, no!” I shouted, rage and anguish pulsating outward from my core. With no body to contain it, and with my spiritual powers to amplify it, the raw essence of my fury shook the foundation of the plain we were in, making the souls around us grab each other for stability as if preparing for an earthquake.

  “It’s alright, Lorelei,” Killian said reassuringly. “I knew it was going to happen, but everything I did, I would do again. I would do anything for you.”

  “No, I do not accept this!” I shouted. “Come on. I can force you through the Gate to Heaven just like you forced me through the Gate to Threshold, or whatever you called it.” I stomped toward the dial, slamming the door closed and getting ready to turn the dial to the upper right.

  Killian put his hands on my arms, gently tugging at them. “Don’t you remember what I told you? A gray soul could never be happy in Heaven. You have to earn it. This job, ushering souls through to their rightful place, it has a way of cleansing you. I think that if I stick around to help you for a few decades or centuries, I might get my shine back. Although honestly, I would help you anyway. I’ll stay for as long as it takes.”

  I hated this. I hated that Killian had lost his chance at Heaven because of me. The thought of Hell terrified me, but I would gladly sell my soul if it meant Killian could redeem his. None of this was fair. And I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

  I sighed—again, a pointless gesture. “So, what do we do now?” I asked begrudgingly.

  “We go back to the physical world and stop Luca before he can cause any more damage,” Killian said.

  “But…what about all of them?” I asked, gesturing to the thousands of souls in front of us, and the countless more that I couldn’t even see from where I stood.

  “It’s alright,” he said. “We can deal with them all in due time. But Luca is our top priority right now. We have to round him and all of his followers up and bring them back here as soon as possible. That is the first step to restoring balance.”

  My soul was in tumult, quaking with all the powerful emotions that stormed within me, but I had to pick a direction. Luca had to be stopped, of that I was certain. And if I didn’t stop him soon, he would find his way to Carmella and Trixie and kill them for good this time. Killian was right. All these other souls could wait.

  I had to get Luca, before he added two more souls to my eternally long list. Two souls I missed desperately but hoped not to see for a lifetime.

  “How do we get back to the world of the living?”

  I turned all around in this colorful void, but I saw no way out, other than the Gate itself. The ghost boy a few months ago had gone through the same kind of ball of light I just did, and he said he had come back. And Luca had found a way back. I just couldn’t see how.

  “Focus on your unfinished business,” Killian said. “The light will sense that you need to go back, and it will open the portal back up for you to return.”

  Hmm, I really thought it would be more complicated than that. Okay, here goes nothing.

  I let thoughts of Carmella and Trixie fill my boundless mind, let the necessity to return to them, to protect them and to stop Luca, burn out of control. Just as the jumpy urgency became too much to bear, a miniature white sun ignited into existence right before me. A few of the spirits in the waiting crowd gasped, but the majority were too far gone to even notice.

  “I’ll return for you all soon,” I said to them. “I’m sorry for all the time you’ve lost, for all the time I’ve stolen from you. You won’t be waiting much longer, I promise.”

  Those that heard me nodded, their own urgency reflected in their eyes. I had to be quick. I couldn’t let them wallow in the in-between space before the Gate, it wasn’t fair to any of them. But Luca would not go down without a fight. I could only hope it would be a swift duel.

  Killian took my hand, the energy of his fingers weaving through mine, and we walked together into the ball of light.

  The tiny star exploded with light, like a miniature supernova, and when the light blinked out of sight, Killian and I were once again standing in my living room.

  It was empty. Trixie and her family must have already taken her to the hospital. I smiled with relief, knowing that they were all safe for the moment.

  But now that I was here, I had no idea where to start. How on earth was I going to find Luca? And when I did, how would I get him to go back with me to the Gate? This was looking like a spectral mission impossible.

  I turned to Killian, needing a vent for my frantic emotions and hoping he would have a solution.

  “Don’t worry,” Killian said, sensing my neurosis. “I’ve got a plan that I’ve been working on since Luca left the Gate.”

  I sighed and let my shoulders sag. I would be so lost without Killian.

  “We don’t have to find Luca,” Killian began. “We can get him to come to us. But you’ll have to become solid again for this to work.”

  “Really?” I asked, excitement fluttering in my core. I was already going through some pretty heavy withdrawals for the physical, and I thought that reality was gone for good. The prospect was so alluring, so sinfully enticing, that I was twitching for it like a heroin addict at a drug den.

  He smiled knowingly. “Luca needs to think you’re alive for this to work. He wants you to suffer, and he wants to be the one to torture you. If you can take on a solid form as I did and use yourself as bait, I’m sure that he will rise to the challenge. And he will most definitely bring his ghost army with him to witness.”

  “Okay,” I said, liking the plan so far. “But once we have all the bad guys here, how do we get them back to the Gate?”

  “That will require absolutely spot-on timing,” he replied. “Because once Luca realizes what’s going on, he will make a break for it, and t
racking them all down again will take forever. We’d have to snatch them up one by one, and that’s the last thing I want to happen. We only get one shot at this, so we can’t mess up.”

  “Alright, so what’s the plan?” I asked.

  “You’re going to challenge him to a fight, and you’re going to let him think he’s winning,” Killian said. “When he’s the most distracted, convinced that he’s got the upper hand, you’ll have to slip out of your body, open the portal back to the Gate and use your powers to pull them all inside the light with you.”

  “How do I make the light appear?” I asked, feeling like I was missing something that should be obvious.

  “Ghosts only stay on this plain because they have unfinished business,” Killian explained, taking the scenic route to answer my question. “The light appears when they have let go of their earthly ties. Luca is your unfinished business, so as soon as you slip out of your body, let the accomplishment of having caught him fill you up. That sense of closure will open the portal.”

  Yup, that makes so much sense that I feel stupid.

  “I definitely have a lot to learn,” I said.

  “And I will teach you,” he said, lifting his hand to touch my face. Although I couldn’t feel his touch, I could feel his warmth, and if I had a heart, it would have thumped at such a caress.

  His gesture made me eager for the real thing. I wanted a body again, a body that could feel and smell and taste, so that I could take Killian in with every sense possible. One last taste of my drug to last me the rest of eternity.

  “So, teach me, Killian,” I said softly, teasingly. “How do I take physical form? How do I create a body from thin air?”

  He ran his hands down the length of my arms, his warmth sending electric currents through my being. “I’ll walk you through it, and then you can watch me do it.”

  I nodded, my eyes locked to his as our hands refused to part.

  “You have to visualize the molecules around you,” he said. “Identify them, know what they are and what they can become. A human body is made up of eighty percent water, and there are ample water molecules in the air. If you will your temperature to lower, those water molecules will automatically attract to you, condensating on your spiritual boundaries.”

  I felt his energy get colder, his hands becoming icy balls of air in my hands. And then I felt the air shift, the dew and moisture that hung aimlessly in the air pulling toward him. The glistening dew particles floated past me like tiny rain drops in suspended animation. They gathered around his soul, coating his face and arms and torso like a balm.

  “Once you have the water gathered, raise your temperature and pull the heavier elements toward you. Visualize all the parts that make up a body and guide those particles to build those forms. See the organs, the veins, the bones, the muscles and tendons, and the flesh. Tell the particles where to go and what to become with your mind.”

  As he spoke, what looked like dust sucked inward from around the room. Particles lifted up from the threads in the carpet, from the dirt in the potted plant on the kitchen windowsill, from the tops of furniture, all gravitating to him. Before my eyes, a body manifested, piece by piece, molecule by molecule. A webbing of red veins stretched throughout his form, followed by bones growing like accelerated tree branches. Over the top of those bones that were still forming, red and maroon tissues took shape, dense and striated. If it wasn’t so fascinating to behold, it would have been like something out of a gore film. And finally, a layer of pretty peach flesh wrapped over everything, covering the musculature like very sexy wrapping paper.

  Killian stood before of me, solid in naked glory, a body more magnificent than any of the great sculptors could ever chisel. He was the epitome of human perfection, and I wanted to explore every inch of this body he created. But I couldn’t do that as spirit.

  “Now, you try,” Killian said, blushing under my hungry gaze.

  Self-doubt itched at the back of my mind, but determination took over. I had the perfect incentive to succeed, and it was standing right in front of me.

  I willed my soul to chill—literally. The buzzing, staticky energy that made up my soul settled, slowed, the miniscule electric vibrations stilled. And I felt cold throughout my entire being, like I was made of winter. When the dew particles made contact, I felt myself becoming wet, like I was nothing but pure water—which technically, I was. I could feel the moisture swimming and humming within me, feel the slick surface covering my soul. It was so incredible that I almost forgot to proceed with the next step.

  I visualized the free particles around me, and willed it to come to me, to become what I needed it to be. When the molecules began to collide and form the systems of my body, it was the strangest series of sensations one could ever encounter. It was cold and hot, painful and itchy and euphoric. When my bones began to take shape, that was the worst part, followed in unpleasantness by the momentary suffocation of my incomplete lungs struggling for air before they were finished building. I was so overwhelmed by the menagerie of sensations that were occurring everywhere at once that I didn’t even realize skin completely covered my body.

  Just like that, it was over. I was solid. I was breathing. I was alive—sort of.

  And I was naked.

  Blush covered my newly formed flesh instantly. Excitement welled up in my brand-new abdomen. As if controlled by one mind, Killian and I came together, bodies pressing into each other with a ferocity akin to the animal kingdom. Our mouths connected, lips wrestling as they opened and closed over each other, tongues waltzing in a desperate dance to taste, to consume. His hands were all over my fully exposed body, my nerve endings buzzing on a high like no other from his bliss-eliciting touch. And my hands roamed his body just as eagerly, exploring with lust-driven abandon.

  My senses were overdosing on ecstasy, but I still wanted more. Fueled by gratitude at being able to feel again, and desperation for the dire circumstances under which we had come, I knew what I wanted. I had already died once. And I was going to have to die again. Call me selfish, but I didn’t want to die a virgin. Let me have just one wonderful memory to last me the next thousand years.

  “Make love to me,” I whispered against his lips.

  A groan escaped from deep inside his throat, the feral rumble in his chest sending a delicious vibration through my hyper-aware breasts. He crushed me against him even harder, wrapping my body around his, and devoured me with a hunger that proved he was holding back before. We melted to the carpet, a tangled mess of love and lust and complete devotion.

  As far as I was concerned, Heaven couldn’t possibly compare.

  “Are you ready?”

  Killian had already shed the body he’d made and was now hovering beside me as the beautiful soul he was. I had gotten some clothes from my room and was pulling a shirt over my head, an impossibly wide smile permanently engraved on my face. My heart was so filled with joy that I was sure my makeshift chest would burst. Could a counterfeit heart sustain such explosive bliss?

  “Ready to die? Again?” I asked playfully, smile still in full force. “After that, I’m ready for anything.”

  And I was. I felt fulfilled in a way that I never imagined I could. Our souls connected on a level that was nothing less than cosmic, divine. Giving myself to Killian was my true unfinished business. Well, business officially finished, with a bang! Now I could die with no regrets.

  I pulled up the zipper on my jeans and snapped the button. Clothes were an utterly shallow accessory in the revelation of the spirit world, but I didn’t want to face Luca in my birthday suit. Dead or not, I couldn’t be that exposed in front of someone I once considered a father figure.

  “I get that what we did was…” Killian began with a handsome smirk.

  “The most incredible thing in the history of time?” I suggested, biting my lip suggestively.

  “Yes,” he chuckled. “But you have to ditch that smile. It’s time to put on your war face.” He playfully tapped my chin with his k
nuckles, my living flesh only feeling the tingly prickle of his ghostly energy against it.

  “Okay,” I agreed with a sigh, then I relaxed my facial muscles and adopted a serious expression, which was still really difficult. I knew that I was about to face off with my ultimate enemy, but nothing could shake the happiness Killian had given me. I was going to use it as a shield while I let Luca beat the crap out of me.

  I planted my feet in a warrior stance, straightened my chest and shoulders and clenched my fists at my sides.

  “Luca,” I called out, using my spiritual powers as an amplifier to send out my voice like a spectral radio signal. “I’m not running away from you anymore. You want me, come get me.”

  I could feel his awareness catching my signal, as if I were a black widow and he was the bug that had landed on my web, unknowingly sending vibrations right back to me. My acceptance of my place as Gatekeeper had made me exponentially more powerful, I just hadn’t had the time to notice it until this moment. The acknowledgment filled me with certainty that I was going to win this fight.

  Luca was miles away, I couldn’t tell where, but I could feel him coming closer, racing toward me with his dark ghost army. Their energy could only be described as black. It elicited fear and despair, the same feeling I got only an inkling of when I looked at the circle on the Gate that was meant for Hell. I could feel in my soul now that Luca belonged there. It was time to send him to his rightful place.

  His dark entourage rolled up onto my house like an ethereal storm, shrouded in that inky black smoke that announced their arrival. The air hissed with their presence, snaps of static currents whipping and crackling from the black fog that snaked from the corners of the walls and filled my living room.

  The black souls had me surrounded, but they kept their distance. Did they sense that I had changed, that I was now more powerful? Were they suspicious?

  Something emerged from the horde that encircled me, a black cloud that emanated a sense of authority and arrogance. The thick black smoke took on a new shape and solidified, a familiar body forming in front of me. And there Luca stood, a living shadow, hands in the pockets of his ethereal slacks and a smug smile on his dastardly face.