War Within (Death's Contract Book 2)
Page 25
“Hey, do you want to –” I looked around the room; he was gone. Tracy’s shrugged and gave me warm smile.
“I’ll take you up.”
Death looked up as I plonked Sid’s Lucent Gun on his desk. “Not now.”
I sat on the tall, comfy arm chair directly opposite him, while Tracy perched herself on the armrest on my right. “Are we going to send Sid’s Lucent Gun back?” Death ignored me, trying his best to busy himself with some important document. I exchanged a look with Tracy who rolled her eyes at me. Should I go full bitch to get the angel’s attention? I sighed, leaned back and settled in.
“Before this crazy mess began, we had a talk in The Room.” His pen paused for the briefest of moments. I smiled; he was listening. “I told you that I didn’t know what I wanted. I’d just lost Stan and Greg. You told me that you could release me from my contract so that I could pass through judgment like every other soul in the waiting room. Or I could stay on board as a Deliverer and see this through to the end.” Death made a huge show of putting his fountain pen down, sitting up in his chair and crossing his hands in front of him on his desk. He regarded me carefully with his hazel eyes.
“When it was just me and Mortimer down there and he was pointing his Ombre Gun at me, I honestly thought that was it for me. As far as I was concerned, the mission had failed. Even if we had the Truth, we could not Cease him.” I laughed heavily. “Imagine, three Lucent Guns but no way to fire any of them. Before I disappeared forever, I just wanted to know one thing: why did he shoot Sid?” Death looked intently at me, the bronze shards in his eyes shining gently.
“Sid made a decision that he would turn on us out of love for his brother, not knowing that he would be Ceased by the same man. He tried to show him that he had loved him all along. He was just 50 years too late. When they were kids in the orphanage, he made a decision to tell Mortimer a lie that would slowly turn him into the man he was before he shot himself. Agatha made a choice to turn down his hand in marriage, thus removing herself as the only light he had in his life.” I looked into Death’s face, trying to read his expression. It was complex but unfathomable. I looked down at Sid’s gun.
“If Mortimer hadn’t let those things get to him, maybe he wouldn’t have ended up like this. It’s a war inside of us, the good versus the bad, and an eternal battle fighting for a hollow victory.” I looked up at Tracy whose lovely, almond-shaped face radiated warmth and friendship, warmth and friendship I barely had while I was alive. “I wasn’t sure for the longest time, but today I am telling you that I’m staying. I don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. What I do know is that I’m surrounded by souls who care about me and who I care about.” My smile faded a little as Tor’s tortured face swam up in my mind. “When Dante breathes his last breath, my time here will be up too but until then, I’m going to spend it as a Deliverer.”
Tracy draped her arm around my shoulder and squeezed me. Death leaned back and crossed his arms, letting a satisfied grunt out. “Greg and Stan said that you would say the same thing.” Death smiled as he saw my jaw drop. Tracy looked between me and Death with confusion.
“Say what?” She demanded. With her arm around my shoulder, she shook me insistently. “Greg and Stan are Ceased, they–”
“Death says that he can communicate with them,” I said narrowing my eyes at my boss. True to his word, he did tell me what Stan and Greg said about me from beyond The Edge. I just wasn’t sure if he’d made it all up just to get a decision out of me.
Now it was Tracy’s turn for her jaw to drop. “Death!” She exclaimed, visibly hurt. “All this time?” Death stood up, walked around to our side of the table and picked up Sid’s Lucent Gun. He held it up, just as some sunlight broke through the portal. Tracy’s hands balled into fists as she hopped off the armrest.
“Death!” She yelled.
Death ignored her as he continued looking up at Sid’s Lucent Gun, letting the sunlight catch its edges and corners. “‘A war inside of us’…” Death sighed as he lowered the gun. He slowly walked back towards his desk, opened the top drawer and placed Sid’s gun inside it. “It seems like the only thing separating the Deliverers and the Tormented is the side they choose to fight for.”
Her earlier outrage forgotten, Tracy looked at Death as these cryptic words left his lips. Death sat down and pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his temples. It seemed like he was struggling to come to terms with something.
I stood up, reached across the table and laid a hand on his. He tensed slightly, not sure of how to react. “What’s wrong?” I asked. He shut his eyes momentarily before looking up at me. The bronze flecks in his eyes were dull and had lost their luster.
“I think Tor is going to betray us and join the Tormented.”
Also by KJ Harlow
Rose Reborn
War Within
Souls Severed
Blood Betrayal