“Louisa! This is crazy. You know me. I have no idea what the hell’s happening or why. If you do, you have to tell me.”
“That’s just it. I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I was told I couldn’t, and now I don’t know what to think.” I gripped my messenger bag, making sure the book was still intact. “I have to get home. I have a meeting this afternoon.”
“A meeting with whom?”
“For the job I told you about. I have to drive out to LIU to meet with human resources.” I lifted my chin. “Are you planning on tagging along?”
“You’re being ridiculous, and a little crazy!”
I stormed off, leaving him standing by the benches, not sure who I was angrier with. Me or him.
Chapter Twenty-two
“I THINK YOU’RE SET. If something else comes up, I’ll be sure to call, but I doubt there’s anything. Direct deposit will take a week or so, but now that you’re in our system it should be pretty seamless.”
The head of Human Resources stood from her desk, holding out her hand. “Welcome to the LIU faculty family, Ms. Jericho.”
I shook her hand. “Thanks. I’m looking forward to diving in.”
“The library is open, and I know the director is in even though it’s technically summer break. You should pop over and introduce yourself. Take a look around.”
“Hey, stranger,” Marcus interrupted, poking his head in the door. With a wink for the HR head, he leaned on the doorjamb. “So? Am I looking at our new Rare Books Curator?”
“You are.” I inclined my head, trying not to fall for Marcus’s infectious smile. Wendy had left the building, even if Peter Pan stuck around.
“Feel free to stop in if you have any questions, Ms. Jericho. My door is always open to faculty.”
“Thank you.” I got up from my chair with a nod and turned for the door with Marcus quick at my side.
“If I was a betting man, I would have lost big time,” he joked, walking with me toward the Administration Building exit. “I’m not only surprised you met with HR, but I’m floored you took the job. Thrilled, but floored.”
He held the door open, and I stepped out into the warm air without comment. The spring semester was already a month done, and the first summer session in full swing. Students sat on the grass studying or just hanging out. The atmosphere was relaxed as well as collegiate, and I felt right at home.
“I owe you a proper cup of coffee,” Marcus said. “How about I buy you a cappuccino? There’s a decent coffee shop in the Student Center across the way.” He pointed to a wide glass and brick building.
I knew he was trying to be upbeat without recreating the stalker vibe from our last meeting. I appreciated the effort, but I wanted nothing from Marcus at this point other than fellow colleague. Still, coffee was a good way to set professional boundaries right here on campus.
“Is it real cappuccino, or that powdered International Coffees stuff?”
“Wow. Still a coffee snob.”
We walked side by side on the path leading from the Administration Building, and the camaraderie brought back so many memories. Wendy and Peter were good fighting pirates together, but when it was time to go home? Not so much.
“I’m going to take that non-answer as a no on it being real coffee.”
He laughed. “Not at all. It’s real enough Italian roast with exceptional foam. You’ll like it. Me? I think it’s strong enough to rival drain cleaner.”
“Then why suggest it if you hate it so much?” It felt like he should be carrying my books and asking me to summer formal with the way he laid on the charm.
He shrugged. “Because you like it.”
Note to self. Setting boundaries was going to be harder than I thought.
We settled at an outdoor table, and Marcus went to grab the coffee. He came back with one cappuccino and one iced tea, and two scones oozing with real blueberry, and crusted with coarse sugar.
“Wow. Looking at those I think your coffee shop just redeemed itself. Huge and covered with sugar. The only thing better would be if they were chocolate.”
“I asked, but they were out.” He put the scones down on their waxed paper and then handed me my coffee.
Except for croissants this morning and a banana after the funeral, I hadn’t eaten since Alistair’s first audit and my fight with Cade.
My heart clenched thinking about the words I threw in Cade’s face. Alistair witnessed the whole fight. He told me I needed to watch myself and my words as much as he did, warning me not to fall into the same mindset of assumptions and circumstance.
When did my ghostly charge get so smart?
I checked my phone for texts or missed calls. There was one missed call from Thea, but nothing from Cade.
I owed him a huge apology, but if marriage to Marcus taught me anything, it’s that all the apologies in the world can’t reverse the trajectory of sharp words once they’ve pierced home.
Was I always this short-tempered and stubborn? I thought about Alistair’s warning. Was I just as guilty of being self-absorbed with a taste for the sound of my own voice? Could I see it in others but not myself?
I thought about my favorite quote from Harry Potter that speaks to words as magic, capable of healing as well as hurting. Is that what Em saw in me when she chose me to take her place? To take the pendant?
“You’re a million miles away. Everything all right?”
I nodded, breaking off a piece of scone.
“Good, because I was afraid it was a case of buyer’s remorse and you’d quit your job before you even start. I know I came off heavy-handed the last time we sat across a café table, and I’m sorry for that. I can see now what we had in the past, needs to stay in the past. I’m sorry for it, but I respect it.” He lifted his iced tea. “Here’s to a fruitful working relationship.”
I met his iced tea with my coffee to-go cup and smiled. “I appreciate that, Marcus, and I’m glad to be here. I’ve always loved this campus. I visited with a friend a few times when she came to see her daughter. She’s a grad student working on a master’s degree in history. Perhaps she’s one of your students.”
“Not likely. I only teach undergrad, but I do have a couple of teaching assistants.” He angled his head, looking past my shoulder, as if seeing something in the distance. “Speak of the devil.” His hand shot up, waving someone over.
The pendant at my chest flared in warning, and I winced at the stirring hot flash sensation. Fucking hell. It’s like I couldn’t escape whatever stalked me, and my mind scrambled while I still had control. Should I cut and run?
I had burned a bridge with my big mouth when it came to Cade, and probably Angelica by extension, leaving me a sitting duck with my ex-husband.
Every muscle tensed for the onslaught of heat and pain. Marcus chattered on about nothing, clearly oblivious. I had hot flashes when I met him for coffee that first time. Horrible hot flashes. I calmed them, but they never fully waned.
I watched him across the table. Was it him? Had I been so blinded by my history with him I couldn’t see?
We had been together for at least a half hour, and the pendant didn’t flare. Even with Cade, the incidents were damningly circumstantial, but not consistent.
Before I stuck my foot in my mouth and ended up in a sweat pool on the floor anyway, I had to know. I gripped the pendent through my blouse, and stormed the beach.
“Louisa?” Marcus looked at me. “What’s wrong? Are you having chest pains?”
I shook my head. “Marcus, what do you see in my hand?” I held out my palm face up with the Keeper mark loud and proud for him to see, and the puzzled look on his face told me what I needed to know. Marcus wasn’t the rogue. His inability to see my mark confirmed it.
“Lou, you’re scaring me. Should I call 911?”
Fire and ice clashed in my body, getting worse every second. My extremities froze to the point of pain when I moved, but I willed myself to get up from my chair.
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Whenever you need me, call me.
Em’s words came back just as I needed them. I closed my eyes, whispering my plea. “I need you, old girl. And bring reinforcements.”
I gritted my teeth. Heat seared my flesh, charring my fingers to the bone, but I didn’t let go of the pendant.
Knowledge flowed through the Keeper collective almost instantly, as if a door had been unlocked, and my eyes flew open.
The pain was a trick. An illusion aimed to incapacitate, that grew with each strike. My fingers were not charred, and my feet and hands not frost-bitten.
Hell! Was this rogue freaking Houdini?
The sudden knowledge siphoned power back from the conjuring source, and I swore I heard an expletive in my head. Hell yes. Score one for the Keepers.
The pain ebbed enough for me to focus, lessening by the second. I inhaled a steadier breath, steeling myself for who approached.
“…but she’s my friend. Don’t do this!”
I’d know Marigold’s voice anywhere, and that meant whatever stalked me had taken my friend hostage. A brassy taste coated my tongue at the thought. Adrenaline spiked, sharpening the metallic tang, but knocking out the rest of the subliminal pain. All that remained was the Keeper’s pendant, lit up like the Fourth of July.
I whirled on my heel but stopped short. Marigold was with her daughter, Ivy. Goldie looked awful, but was still Goldie, but Ivy didn’t look like Ivy at all. Something was wrong.
Marigold’s eyes flooded as she looked at me. “Forgive me, Louisa.” Her lips trembled. “I had no choice. She’s my only child.”
“Shut up, woman! Keep this up and I’ll have no use for you at all!”
“What’s going on?” Marcus demanded, but I pushed him back.
“Something you can’t understand. Just stay behind me and out of the line of fire.”
“Listen to the little Keeper, professor. We wouldn’t want the teacher’s pet to hurt the teacher by mistake, now would we?”
Ivy’s voice carried the same double-timbre and susurrated cadence as that of the reaper at the hospital. I refused to believe it. I knew Ivy, and this wasn’t Ivy.
Maybe the rogue took over the young woman the same way Em took over Thea. From the anguish in Marigold’s face, I needed to hope.
“Who are you and what have you done with Ivy?”
The laugh that followed was pure evil. “What you see is what you get, Louisa. Only new and improved. I want what you have, and you’re going to give it to me, or Marigold will pay the price.”
Ivy’s image shifted from the smiling kid I knew, to the proud young woman I watched graduate, to the reptile-eyed creature I saw in the hospital, including a male version, which explained the essence Thea sensed on my roof, and so much more.
I couldn’t believe it. Had Ivy traded her soul and then gone reaper rogue? If so, when?
This made no sense.
I searched for some shreds in the suddenly strange face. Were there shreds of the kid I knew?
“You’re not Ivy. The Ivy I know would never do this to herself. To her mother. She would never consign herself to darkness. Not when her future was so bright. You are NOT Ivy.”
The creature laughed, and there was no mirth in the sound. “Spoken like a haughty Keeper. You have no idea the freedom I now have. I tapped into power even the Grim can’t fathom.”
“Wow. Including arrogance, I’m sure. Are you really going to stand there and mock a celestial entity older than time? She may play the sly seductress and busy herself with fashion like her sister, but you’re fooling yourself if you think they’re unaware of what happens in their domains.”
“Perhaps. But it’s only a matter of time until my kind run this bitch.”
My kind.
Ivy was just a host.
Its own superiority had tipped it cards, and I went for it.
“You’re not Ivy, and the Grim will fry your ass if you so much as touch her or me. That’s if the Angel of Death doesn’t get to you first.”
The creature’s bravado failed for a moment, and her eyes darted side to side at the mention of the respective queens of death. Her reptilian eyes took in three hundred and sixty degrees in seconds. Angelica and Morana weren’t here, and she knew it.
“Looks like your angel baby hung you out to dry. Now, hand over the pendant, or I’ll kill the girl, her mother, and the good professor. I’m a little low on my quota of souls this month, so that’ll top off my numbers nicely.”
I scoffed at that. “Reapers are forbidden to touch the threads of life. Keep courting the fire and you’re bound to get burned.”
“Forbidden doesn’t mean we can’t. Just ask that arrogant prick from the library. Loopholes, Louisa. Lots and lots of loopholes.” It grinned, showing rotted teeth. “Or maybe that pendant isn’t as powerful as the whispers say, and I’ve wasted my time.”
I didn’t take the bait, though my stomach turned inside out at what she implied.
“I didn’t pull the trigger.” Its taunts continued as it circled Marigold. “But a little coercion goes a long way in getting others to do what I want. Like getting an MTA driver to squash that little prick like a bug.”
More bait.
“Just look at your stupid friend. She fed me all the information I needed about you, thanks to that gossipy medium. Including where you’d be today. Oh, and I thoroughly enjoyed your little Keeper clash. You blamed that hottie Level Five for all my fun. Priceless.”
The creature giggled, and the tinkling laugh was completely incongruous against her lizard-like eyes. “Of course, the old man was a harder nut to crack.”
“George?”
She made slurping sounds. “I practically sucked him dry in three days. I warned the old lady I would do it, but she gave him the pendant anyway, and the stubborn old goat wouldn’t give it up.”
I lost it and lunged for her, but strong hands held me back. “Let go of me, Marcus, or I swear I’ll hurt you, too! You don’t understand!”
“Sorry, love, but I do understand. More than you think. In fact, I understand everything now.”
Cade.
My entire body sang with relief, even as his hands held my shoulders in an iron grip. “Let Morana handle her own shit,” he said, letting a soft kiss brush my hair. “I know you want to shred this little bitch, but leave that to the queens.”
My exhale was for more reasons than just the cavalry showing up. Cade had forgiven me.
“Isn’t he a wonder?” Morana materialized between us and the creature. “Such a shame.” She angled her head at me. “I almost wish I was into sharing.”
“Keep your head in the game, sister dear.” Angelica materialized as well. “Especially since I’m cleaning up your mess once again.”
“Well, you took your time figuring it out,” Morana sniffed back.
The two were identical except for their coloring. Even down to their clothes. An incarnate representation of opposite sides of the same coin.
The outdoor patio and the surrounding campus froze in time, insulating the outside world from what was about to happen.
The creature had Marigold by the throat. “Touch me and she dies.”
Angelica waved one hand, and Marigold disappeared, leaving the creature holding nothing but air. “Still think you can run this bitch?” Another wave of her hand sucked the reaper from Ivy’s body.
The poor girl slumped to the ground, but before she could blink, she disappeared as well.
“Angelica, where are my friends?” I didn’t care that my blurt interrupted her gambit.
“They’re safe and sound, and won’t remember a thing.” She spared me a quick wink. “And I think it’s time you called me Angie.”
“Yeah, yeah…blah blah blah.” Morana sidestepped her sister front and center. “My turn.”
The creature hissed, uncoiling from its crouch. Its true form was hideous. A cross between a lizard and a human, but unlike anything I could imagine.
It was outnumbered,
but it still postured. Was it really that arrogantly stupid? If it shimmered out, we’d be screwed. It would go to ground, and we’d be shit-out-of-luck to find it again.
Morana was powerful and so was Angelica, but this rogue happened on their watch. Maybe they were both a little too far removed from things. Emmie should’ve said something as well. We needed to be Team Death. Not Keepers and Reapers. Looking at the sisters, I knew that would never happen, but they had struck a tentative truce, so there was hope.
Cade’s grip on my shoulders had relaxed, and I took advantage to step forward. I wasn’t sure how either queen would take the intrusion, but I had to do something. Alistair and George had lost their lives to this mess, and no truce could change that. I needed to make sure this rogue was done and dusted, and that any others with big ideas got the message loud and clear. Don’t even try.
I pulled the pendant from my blouse, and held it skin to silver. Wrapping my hand around the mosaic, I invoked the pendant Keepers, hoping they’d answer.
A susurrated hush rose like whispers on the wind, and their mingled voices unified with singular intent.
The reaper’s head whipped side to side, not knowing where to look. Angelica and Morana joined hands as a circle formed around them and the reaper. The three were enclosed in a celestial ring guarded by justice and past sacrifice.
“Shall I do the honors?” Morana wiggled her fingers.
“For heaven’s sake, Rani! It’s your reaper. My Keepers have granted you a perimeter to minimize collateral damage. Just do it already.”
Raising one hand, Morana’s visage changed from sexy elegant, to holy-shit-sleep-with-the-light-on scary.
The reaper keened as if it knew what was coming. Its skin bubbled red in seconds, and its screech echoed on the air. Agony crumpled the entity to its knees, and my nose wrinkled at the god-awful stench of burning flesh. Its scales charred black, sloughing layer upon layer until there was nothing left but a strange, bony skeleton. The reaper stayed crumpled where it fell, its heart still beating inside blackened ribs.
“Holy shit.” I didn’t mean to utter the words out loud, but Angie looked at me and nodded. “Indeed.”
Jeepers Reapers: There Goes My Midlife Crisis Page 19