1 Graveyard Shift

by Angela Roquet

  My lip was busted and a real rainbow of a bruise circled my right eye, nothing that couldn’t heal in a few days’ time. But still, what’s a girl to think when her boyfriend’s a no-show after an ass-kicking like that?

  “What’s wrong?” He pulled away, running his hands up my shoulders, and gave me a puzzled frown.

  “Seth’s gone.” He was still too new. My pride was none of his business yet. I shrugged and pressed the button for the ground floor again. Maalik gave me a hurt look as I stepped around him and into the lobby.

  “I’m going to Hell Friday,” I said, turning around to face him. Paranoia crawled across his face. I sighed and rested a hand on my hip. “I need a vacation, and Amy’s Inferno Chateau is having its grand opening. I don’t suppose you would want to come with me, would you?”

  “Of course I would,” he whispered and chewed at his bottom lip. “I’ll do my best to be there, but with Seth gone....” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Let me deal with Grim first.” He reached for me again, forgetting the bystanders, and pulled me into his arms. I exhaled against his chest and all but purred when his wings brushed up my back.

  “I’ll come by this afternoon, I promise. Besides, it’s Thursday. Don’t you owe me dinner?” He smiled down at me and pressed his lips to mine in a warm kiss.

  “I do,” I breathed, pulling away from him with shaking knees. The sneaky bastard. I couldn’t be letting him off the hook with nothing more than a kiss all the time, but maybe just this once.

  Cindy Morningstar stepped around us and into the elevator. She wore a black dress suit, trimmed with a red collar and cuffs. Two of the fallen, yakking away on cell phones, followed her.

  Cindy cleared her throat and smiled at us. “Job well-done, Ms. Harvey. I look forward to dining with you this weekend.”

  “Thank you, Council Lady.” I blushed and ran a hand through my curls.

  Cindy turned to Maalik. “Going up?”

  “Yes,” he answered, giving me another of his sweetly confused smiles. “I’ll see you later, Lana.”

  Maalik crowded into the elevator with the demon princess and her crew, folding his wings back tightly to keep from unintentionally giving one of them a mouthful of feathers.

  I waited for the doors to close and turned around to find Horus scurrying into the lobby, trying to straighten his tie with a briefcase twisted in one hand.

  “Good morning, Lana.” He pressed the up button and stepped into an empty elevator without another word. Did everyone decide I was bad news today or what?

  At least Josie would talk to me, even though I couldn’t tell her about anything that was bothering me. But maybe we could just go shopping instead.

  Chapter 30

  “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep,

  so life well used brings happy death.”

  -Leonardo da Vinci

  Josie and Jenni’s apartment wasn’t much bigger than mine, but their exquisite taste and minimalist décor really opened the place up, making it appear three times larger.

  A vase holding a single white lily sat in the middle of their clutter-free dining table made of real oak and not some crummy imitation like mine. The living room was home to a full set of matching, olive green furniture. It gave the city dwelling a naturist appeal and went well with the sand colored walls. A stone fountain, resting on top of the entertainment center, transported me back to Meng Po’s garden pond with its bubbly music.

  So the place didn’t have the lived-in feeling of my apartment, but every time I visited Josie, I left feeling like I had just come from a spa, minus the pedicure, of course. It was refreshing.

  “Hey!” Jenni strolled into the kitchen in a silk bath robe. She sounded happy to see me. Normally I got a brief nod before she disappeared into her room to study. Studying is what she did best and most often, right after working and taking extra classes. In three hundred years, I had never seen her out on a date or drinking with friends. In my opinion, her life sucked. But she seemed rather proud of her accomplishments, and she was practically Josie’s idol.

  “I’ve got those notes ready for you. I’ll go get them.” She padded off down the hall, just as Josie emerged from her bedroom, yawning as she tugged on a tee shirt.

  “What are you doing here?” she snapped.

  “Good morning to you too,” I grumbled. “Would a cup of coffee be too much to ask for?” I sat down at the table and rested my chin over my folded arms with a sigh.

  “I guess not.” Josie glanced down the hall, and gave me a nervous smile. “Just let me, uh, brush my teeth first?”

  “Whatever.”

  She raced down the hall and slammed her bedroom door shut behind her. The panicked whispers that followed let me know she had a visitor. At first, I thought maybe Apollo. But she was being too secretive. Josie knew I approved of the god, even if dating him did break protocol. And it was obviously not Horus. That jerk was tied up in a council conference.

  A minute later, Josie stepped back into the kitchen and fired up her high-tech coffeemaker. Her cheeks burned with little red splotches of guilt as she hummed and circled the counter with a dish towel to wipe down the table.

  “Kevin stay the night?” I asked.

  Josie gave a little gasp of horror, and threw her hand to her chest, trying to look offended.

  “I don’t care. You know that,” I sighed and dangled an arm off the back of my chair. “I just wish Grim would have assigned him to you instead of me.”

  Josie dropped her theatrics and gave me half a smile before pulling out a chair. “Yeah, but mentors and apprentices aren’t allowed to have anything more than a professional relationship.”

  “Hey, don’t think just because you’re sleeping with him you won’t be helping me train him.”

  “I know,” Josie laughed and glanced down the hall again. “I think Kevin’s more worried about it than I am.” She giggled and lowered her voice to a girly whisper. “He’s hiding in my shower right now, so why don’t you go check on your hounds for a few minutes so I can send him home.”

  “Sure.”

  Jenni stepped up next to her and set a bundle of overflowing folders and notebooks on the table, giving them a worried but proud pat, like she was leaving a beloved poodle in the hands of an inept dog-sitter.

  “Well, that’s everything you should need next semester. Use it well, and keep it in order,” she demanded, giving me a stern eye.

  “Will do.” I picked up the pile and cradled it in my arms. Jenni smiled at Josie and gave me one of her familiar nods as I left the apartment.

  I almost tripped over Saul when I stepped through my front door. He was sprawled out on the kitchen floor, huffing bored sighs into the food dish nestled between his paws.

  “Hey there, pilgrim.” I reached down and ruffled his ears. His tail thumped once and Coreen let out a welcoming yap as I set Jenni’s notes on the kitchen table.

  My old couch was pressed up against the wall next to my bed. When Coreen tried to bite Kevin while we were moving it, I knew it had to stay. Saul had even compromised and let me have the bed to myself, since the couch was closer now.

  I filled their food dishes and checked the clock to see if I had given Josie enough time, before pulling on a jacket and stuffing a few coins in my pocket. I had quite the stash accumulating in a hat box. The thought of depositing Horus’s so-called thank you money made me nauseous. But that wasn’t going to stop me from spending it for all the grief he was causing me.

  “Tell me that’s not what you’re wearing to sign up for classes,” Josie groaned when I stepped back into her apartment. She gave my holy jeans a pained look.

  “Sign up for classes?” I slouched down at the table and grabbed the mug of coffee she had set out for me.

  “Don’t play stupid. We just talked about this yesterday.” She took a sip from her mug and finished buttoning up her silver blouse. I could still make out the fresh iron creases in her black pencil skirt. Josie dressed to impress for anythi
ng that had anything to do with work. If Grim ever held a generation reunion at a barn, you could count on Josie showing up in high heels and pearls.

  “Do we have to sign up today?” I whined. “I just wanted to go shopping.”

  “We can shop afterwards. And yes, we have to sign up today. The deadline for next semester is Saturday, when we’ll be vacationing in Hell. So this is our last chance.” She raised her eyebrows, waiting for my next excuse.

  “When did Gabriel tell you about the Hell vacation?”

  “Yesterday, after you left Meng’s,” she confessed, giving me a sneaky grin.

  “You’re not going to have a problem with Amy, are you?”

  “Gabriel’s a big boy. He can date whoever he wants.” She pressed her lips together and sighed. “I just worry about him sometimes.”

  “Yeah, me too.” I yawned and gazed out the window. The fog was creeping back in, but it was lighter and more transparent than the last batch. Zimble was using Halloween to perfect his rusty skills. An old god, trying to relearn all the tricks he’d forgot.

  “What class am I going to end up taking with you?” I looked back at Josie, too exhausted to argue.

  “Well.” She smiled and folded her hands. “There’s this really great wandering souls course I’ve been wanting to check out. The instructor this semester is Grace Adaline, the only active first generation reaper left. Wouldn’t it be amazing to learn from a colleague of Saul’s?”

  “Amazing isn’t the word I would use. You are talking about school, aren’t you? Where you sit in a hard chair for hours upon hours while some know-it-all tries to cram your head with an overload of information, half of which you’ll never even use on the job?”

  “And half of which may save your snotty little ass someday.” She sighed and swallowed down the rest of her coffee before glancing at her watch. “The academy should be open by now. Let’s get going.”

  The Reaper Academy loomed over Council Street on the far side of town, just down from Grim’s office. It glared down at me from a gentle hill that marked the end of civilization and the beginning of a small crest of wilderness that ran along Limbo’s western coast. Six stories of purely prison-styled architecture did not deserve a backdrop of cheerful evergreens. If only the irony stopped there.

  White tents spotted the front lawn, hung with bubble-lettered signs displaying course names and their instructors. Josie grabbed my hand and dragged me through the maze of tables, politely greeting fellow reapers along the way.

  We stopped in front of a tent advertising the wandering souls course. Grace Adaline reached out to shake my hand as Josie scribbled our names down on the growing list of students.

  “Welcome back to the academy,” Grace beamed. “An apprentice of Saul’s is always a pleasure in class. And congratulations on your recent success with Grim’s new specialty unit.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” I sighed. Specialty unit, ha. More like, last minute or we all die unit.

  Josie picked up a class syllabus, then snatched a second one and thrust it at me. “Isn’t this exciting?”

  “I can’t even find the words.” I stared down at the list of essays we had to write for the semester. The fundamentals of traumatized soul transportation was at the top of the list. I glowered at Josie. “Did you really just sign me up for this?” I smacked the page with the back of my hand and raised an eyebrow.

  “Come on, Lana. It’ll be fun, and I can proofread your work for you,” she pleaded.

  “I was thinking more along the lines of copying your work.”

  “Lana,” Josie hissed and glanced over her shoulder. “Are you trying to get us kicked out before the class even begins?”

  “It had crossed my mind.” I smiled at her aggravated scowl and stuffed the syllabus in my jacket pocket. “Can we go shopping now?”

  “Sure.”

  “I thought I might see you here.” Craig Hogan approached our tent and grinned with one of his perfect I’m-a-stud smiles. I folded my arms and glared at Josie as he plucked up a pen and printed his name below mine. Terrific.

  “Sorry, Craig, but we have some shopping to do.” Josie’s hand shot out and grabbed my clenched fist, pulling me back towards the street before I had a chance to scratch my name off the tainted list.

  “Yeah, let’s take a class together. It’ll be fun,” I squeaked mockingly at her, throwing my free hand up for dramatic measure. Tonight was calling for a long, therapeutic session with John Wayne.

  Chapter 31

  “Call on God,

  but row away from the rocks.”

  -Indian Proverb

  “What’s this called again?” Maalik asked as he twisted his fork around the noodles and sauce dripping from his plate.

  “Chicken alfredo,” I mumbled through a mouthful of garlic bread. It probably wasn’t the best food choice if I planned on getting any action later, but it was good comfort food.

  “Chicken alfredo,” he repeated. “It’s great.” He stuffed another forkful in his mouth, smearing sauce down his chin.

  He had changed out of his work robe and into a pair of jeans and a green sweater I had bought him while shopping with Josie. Athena carried a few angelic items, but the specialty angel outlet, recently opened by a nephilim duo, had a lot more to offer. Sure, it was kind of pricey, but so was having alterations made to a garment so you didn’t get your wings pinned in the process of putting it on.

  The sweater wasn’t quite as exciting or surprising as the hellhounds had been, but we needed something normal to ground our relationship, before it took off altogether. Yes, even Death needs a little peace and quiet.

  “Are you sure you don’t want any wine?” I reached for the bottle of expensive red I had set out just for the occasion and refilled my glass. Comfort food needed comfort drink to go with it.

  “I better not.” Maalik eyed the bottle with a regretful frown. “I’ll wait until this weekend, when we’re on vacation. I’d just hate to show up with alcohol on my breath if Grim decides to call another emergency conference.”

  “Yeah, that could suck.” I picked at a second piece of garlic bread and sighed.

  Coreen stretched across the old couch, periodically kicking in her sleep with little whispery barks. The few days of working with me were enough to bring on nightmares for anyone. After being kicked in the gut one too many times, Saul nipped Coreen on the rear and decided the next best place to nap was under the new dining table, curled around my feet.

  I donated the old table to the Kevin Fund. His apartment was starting to resemble a respectable bachelor pad. Of course, he had made more coin in his first week than most reapers made in their first three months. I had a feeling the I-hate-Kevin club was meeting more frequently than my club.

  “Are you ready for some John Wayne?” Maalik asked, wiping his napkin over his face and hands.

  “You have no idea,” I groaned and pushed my plate away.

  “Maybe some good news is in order first.” He raised an eyebrow and brought his hands up to rest under his chin, giving me a sneaky smile.

  “Good news?” The only thing good about all the news I had received in the past week was the extra coin that came along with it. I was still trying to decide if it had been worth putting my neck on the chopping block and praying that the blade would get stuck. So far, I had been lucky.

  I ran my fingers along the glossy surface of my new, mahogany table. It was bigger and sturdier and required advanced mathematics, Josie’s skills, not mine, to get it through the front door. Who knows, I might even learn to overlook the fact that it was purchased with Horus’s dirty coin.

  Maalik cleared his throat. “After Grim’s first conference, announcing Seth’s disappearance, Horus and Grace Adaline approached me, requesting my signature on a unit placement proposal for you.”

  “What?” I rubbed my hands over my face and through my hair. And just when I had some glimpse of peace in my future. Khadija had warned me though. Was it entirely stupid to assume she might have
been joking?

  “I thought you might want to know what unit you’ll be working with next year.” Maalik reached across the table and pulled my hands into his with a tender smile.

  “Unit?” I was going to kill Horus. Maybe Grace too. Units always meant more classes at the academy. Maalik would learn to hate school just as much as I did soon enough. Studying might have been a favorite pastime of Jenni’s, but for me, it was more like a very long bout of PMS. Things got thrown, people got screamed at, and I became about as pleasant as a migraine. Josie could vouch for that.

  “Meg Engles is leaving the Posy Unit and going back to freelance work so she can free up her schedule enough to teach at the academy next semester. And Grace said you signed up for her wandering souls course.” Maalik frowned at me. “That’s the first prerequisite for the Posy Unit. I thought you’d be happy.”

  “The class was Josie’s idea. I was planning on dropping it before it even started.” Wishful thinking.

  “Why?” Maalik tilted his head. He liked to blame his ambitious work efforts on his desire to serve Allah, but really, who honestly throws their hands together in prayer and say, “This buck’s for you big guy”?

  “Let’s just not talk about it tonight, please,” I said, squeezing his hands and giving him the begging expression Saul had successfully used on me to obtain a chicken breast while I prepared dinner.

  “Okay.” Maalik nodded. “We’ll worry about it after vacation.” He grabbed up our plates and carried them off to the kitchen sink.

  I tried to push the new bit of information out of my mind, which was about as easy as removing Gabriel from a bar. I should have guessed the Posy Unit. Where else would I come in contact with the most souls for Horus’s illegal job offer?

  The Posy Unit took care of some pretty messed up shit in the human realm. You might think the afterlife is a screwy place, but just look at the realm of those who created it. Genocide. Mass suicide. Who do you think has to round up all those traumatized souls before they figure out how to escape their bodies?