“Surprise,” I mocked with wide eyes.
She sighed. “Don’t think I don’t appreciate the humor, but this is a serious matter and you taking light in it is not helping the situation.”
Ouch. I wasn’t used to being put in my place but I held my tongue as she continued.
“We have to stop him. Liam thinks that by killing doubles of you it will bring him closer to where life meets death. That he’ll be able to bring you back from the other side. He doesn’t know you’re … Grim … and that your kind never comes back, even if it were possible to bring someone back to life.”
“So you didn’t believe in all this shit in the first place? And you told him?”
I swear, I was this close to killing this girl on purpose, rules be damned.
She bit her lips nervously. “Everything I said was hypothetical. If it were possible to open up the gateway between life and death … he demanded that I tell him. So I told him the truth … that only a blood sacrifice would suffice. Like a blood relative.”
I frowned. “I don’t—”
“You have none, so he picked the next best things. Your twins, your doubles, your doppelgangers. Anything to get you back.”
“Obviously it’s not working,” I muttered.
“He doesn’t seem to realize each kill is turning him darker and darker, slowly obscuring his existence. Eventually he will be immersed in an evil so potent that not even you, his precious best friend, will be unable to recognize him. He’ll pull you into the darkness with him.”
I’m already there.
“I can’t,” I said instead. “We can’t interfere. The law strictly forbids reapers from human dealings other than as Grim. Perhaps this is a job for the Abiders or something.”
She didn’t say anything for the longest time, and for a second I thought she didn’t hear me.
“Sometimes the laws have to be broken.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“MY NAME’S SABINA, by the way.”
“Julie.”
She looked at me, skeptical.
“What?” I said with a shrug.
“Your real name?”
Oh. “Sophia.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Sophia,” she said, sticking a hand out. “I wish it were under better circumstances.”
I hesitated, before grabbing her hand and giving a shake. “Likewise. So, Sabina, how are we going to do this?”
“He took another girl this morning.”
“I know. That gives us less than forty-eight hours to come up with a solution.” The formal was tomorrow and I had a feeling a reap or two was in the making. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to deal with the Liam issue without Ethan finding out, once our job was done and we left the university.
“Do you remember where he kept you?”
I had given Sabina the quick run through with my encounter with Liam as the Crimson Killer during my time as Mia.
“Barely,” I said. “I remember being strapped to a bed. I was in one room and my friend, Amy, was in another. My name was written over and over again in red. Not much else. I was this close to escaping before he returned to the room.”
“Who would know?”
I thought of Ethan.
She saw the look on my face and nodded. “You have to tell him. He can help us.”
I shook my head firmly. “He wants me to have nothing to do with this. For some reason he believes in the system.”
“But he knows where Liam kept you, right?”
“He’s the one who found me.”
I ignored Sabina’s persistence to tell Ethan about Liam. I would handle this on my own and Ethan will be none the wiser. Glancing at the clock on the wall, I saw that Ethan would be done with classes soon.
I stood. “I have to go,” I said, grabbing a pen on the table and scribbling down the cell phone number to the phone Ethan had given me courtesy of the Grim operatives.
I tossed her the paper. “Don’t call me unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
“What do I do in the meantime?”
“For now, nothing. Go to your store, sell things. Try to forget the name Liam.”
I nodded at her and walked over to my table, grabbing my things and hightailing it out of the library. Before I could walk past Sabina’s table, she grabbed my wrist. I looked down into her haunting eyes. “It’s hard to forget the name of someone who haunts you in your sleep.”
The words rang through my head over and over for the remainder of the day. I tried not to show how much my mind was preoccupied with the day’s events. I didn’t mention to Ethan the most recent missing redhead, or my encounter with Sabina. I pretended everything was okay, tried to be Julie around him, which was silently breaking my heart.
I tried contacting Liam in his dreams. I figured since I was able to do it with Ethan when I was alive and he dead, perhaps I would be able to do so as a Grim.
It was different this time. Instead of willing myself to sleep, missing the comfort of familiar arms wrapped around me as I dozed off, Ethan was right here beside me. I stared at his sleeping face, saddened.
Here I was, almost cheating on him in a way, wanting to dream about another. I knew he would disapprove with what I was doing.
I moved closer and kissed him softly on the chin before settling into his arms, eyes closed. I focused all of my energy on familiar brown eyes and a head of dark hair.
When I opened my eyes, I was confused. I wasn’t expecting darkness. It was almost like my time with her in my dream-like state, only this time it wasn’t merely a voice keeping me company.
A guy with hair shaved low to his head, and tattoos running up and down his brown arms, approached me earnestly from out of the shadows. “You shouldn’t be here.” His voice had an almost hollow tone to it.
“Why?” I asked, frowning when my voice also took on that hollow quality.
“Your soul, it isn’t safe here,” he supplied, looking around at the darkness that seemed to be enclosing us, his piercings in each lobe giving off a flicker of light.
“Where’s Liam?”
He seemed to know who he was, but he glanced away, saying nothing.
I grabbed his arm when it looked like he would leave. “Just tell me where he is.”
“Do you even know where you are?”
I looked around, seeing the darkness, feeling the heat.
“You’re six seconds away from Hell, Red. I suggest you wake the hell up and forget everything. Forget Liam.”
He seemed to know a lot. “Are you another Grim?”
“Was another Grim,” he corrected.
“What happened?”
“You really don’t remember.” He walked over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, “Perhaps that’s a good thing. Forget about this place and wake the hell up, Sophia!”
•••
I WOKE UP abruptly, staring into the darkness. For a minute I thought I was still stuck in my dream, in whatever hellhole I’d ended up in, until arms wrapped around my waist.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan asked.
I glanced over at him, smiled softly, then kissed him on the lips.
“Nothing,” I said, pulling back. I tried erasing the fear from my face. “Just a bad dream.”
He studied me. “That looked like more than just a bad dream, Kitty Cat.”
“It was nothing.” I lay back down on the bed and Ethan followed my lead, resting his head against the pillow next to mine as we both stared at the ceiling.
“Are you worried about tomorrow?”
I looked at him. “The dance?” I shook my head, trying to forget the words of the tattooed stranger echoing in my head. “No.”
He knew my name.
“We never got to go to our dances in high school.”
Focus, Sophia.
I forced a smile. “That’s because you never wanted to go.”
He looked at me, brow raised. “And you did?”
I thought about it for a split second, then
laughed, trying to lighten the mood. “Hell no.”
“We’ll have fun tomorrow,” he said, drawing me into his arms. “We’ll dance to our hearts’ content, drink spiked fruit punch, and make sure our reaps don’t kill each other.”
I pressed my lips against the column of his neck, then settled comfortably against him as I closed my eyes. “Unless they’re supposed to,” I added dryly.
I feigned sleeping until I felt Ethan’s body relax, but I was wide awake. Liam’s soul was teetering between life and death. Some stranger ex-Grim apparently knew who I was, but I didn’t remember seeing him in any of my lives. What did it all mean, and what didn’t I remember?
All I knew was that I needed to bring back the Liam I knew. I refused to let the darkness that took over Ethan and me affect Liam as well. I decided that after dealing with my current reaping with Ethan, I would go forward and fix this once and for all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
THE FORMAL WAS here. I wore the green dress I had shopped for earlier in the week with Jeanette and Libby, and stared at myself in the mirror.
Thank you, Grim allowance.
Yes, there was actually an allowance that Ethan and I had to live off of.
Making a face, I sighed as I continued to look at my reflection. It was like staring at a stranger. I swear, I didn’t know who I was anymore.
Was I Sophia, Julia, or some random persona I had taken these past months?
Was I Mia?
Slowly counting to ten, I took a deep breath before exiting the bathroom.
I was surprised to see Ethan standing in the middle of the bedroom, eyeing me expectedly.
“You’re beautiful,” he said, slowly skimming my body as if he were trying to commit the view to memory. Each and every section his eyes hit on my body caused a spark to erupt on my skin.
I glanced away, smiling softly. Walking toward him, I drew my hands up to his chest, my fingers trailing over the soft material of his suit. He was a sight for sore eyes, dressed all in black, except for the emerald green handkerchief in his front pocket.
It matched my dress perfectly.
“You don’t look half bad yourself.”
“Only half bad?”
I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Yeah, right,” I said. “You know you look fine as hell.” I kissed the side of his jaw, then looked up into his face.
“You’re beautiful,” I said.
He grinned, lifted me up, his strong arms wrapping around my waist. He walked me to the nearest wall, slamming his body against mine.
His gray eyes laughed at me. I was ready to explode from our nearness. “I think you just stole my line, Kitty Cat.” He teased the straps of my dress, bending his head as he licked the skin on my collarbone. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“Ethan…” I breathed. He ignored me, sprinkling kisses along my skin. I tipped my head, encouraging him, squeezing him tight with my legs wrapped around his waist, the firm grip I had on his back.
“Ethan,” I said again, snapping back to reality. “Babe, we need to stop. We have an assignment.”
He immediately stilled, then sighed against my skin. Slowly settling my feet back on the floor, he stepped back.
“Right. The assignment.” He glanced at me, shaking his head slightly. “For a moment there I looked at you and forgot about everything going on. It was like that time at the bluffs. You, me, and no one else.” He motioned for me to take his hand and I grabbed it firmly.
“Let’s get on with it, shall we?”
By the time we arrived on campus, the room was in full swing. I personally couldn’t stop my nose from twitching as I looked around.
I was in Heaven.
Cheerleading, formal wear Heaven.
Which meant I was really in Hell on Earth.
There were balloons, for crying out loud. Pink, baby pink, bubble gum pink, hot pink, you name it, it was there pink. Balloons all over the freaking auditorium.
“Holy shit!”
Ethan stared at me at my outburst, but I did nothing but sputter for a few seconds.
“It’s Amy,” I exclaimed, shocked.
In all her glory, Amy Nolan, dressed from head to toe in pink, except for her signature black choker wrapped delicately around her neck. Head tipped back in glee as she laughed, she jumped up and down.
Ethan gave a start, brows raising. “Holy shit is right. I guess Kaede finally let her out.”
“It’s not like he could stop her anymore. Not with Dante no longer here. And it’s redheads Liam is after, anyhow.” I was still in a daze, not believing after so long I was finally seeing Amy again. It brought back so many memories.
“Do you want to go talk to her?”
I turned to Ethan, eyes wide. “I can? I didn’t think I’d be able to.”
Ethan shrugged. “It’s not like she’ll be able to remember. We’re bound to bump into our pasts now and again.”
I quickly squeezed Ethan’s hand. “I’ll be back.”
I watched Amy as I approached her, unable to look away. She finally noticed me staring at her and broke off her discussion with the people around her, taking a step toward me.
“Hi!”
I smiled. “Hello, Amy.”
She grinned back at me bashfully, question in her eyes. “How do you know my name?”
I didn’t know how to respond. “You don’t know me but I knew you from … long ago.”
Amy began twirling a strand of her long white-blond hair around a finger. “Oh? Really? Like in another life?” she asked eagerly.
“Something like that.”
Amy eyed me, coming closer as she grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I always knew stuff like that existed! You’re a witch, right? I bet you’re a witch.”
“Uh … no.”
“A fairy then, yeah? With those eyes you’ve got to be a fairy.”
I raised my brow, amused. I remembered when she had referred to me as a kitten.
“No…” I tried changing the subject and drew up a hand, tugging at her choker. “Don’t you ever take this off?”
She took the bait. She looked at me like I’d suggested she murder her puppies. “Never!” she exclaimed. “Do you want to know why?”
I was actually curious. “Yes.”
She leaned close like she was telling a big, dark secret. “Kaede gave it to me on my eighteenth birthday.”
Kaede. Of course. “Are you happy, Amy?”
She was startled by my question. I could tell by the slight widening of her eyes. “Yes,” she said simply. “Kaede … he makes me happy.”
I nodded. “That’s good. I have mine too … the one who makes me happy.”
The one who makes my toes curl, I thought, thinking of our conversation a lifetime ago.
“I had a brother once,” she said out of the blue. “He would have liked you.”
My eyes smarted with tears and I looked away.
“Are you crying?”
“No.” I shook my head and turned back to her. “Just something in my eye.”
“Anyway, Dante, my brother, he would have liked you, but he died. He would have thought you were so pretty, like an angel. I do miss him so.”
I moved forward and embraced Amy tightly, missing her, missing him. She returned the hug, squeezing tightly. I whispered in her ear, “You take care of yourself, Amy.”
I let go and stepped back, smiling for the last time. As I walked away, I could have sworn I heard her reply, “You too … Mia.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I SAW SABINA at the dance but tried my best to ignore her. I had told her to stay the hell away from me, and I was pretty sure she didn’t even attend the school. It was hard though, she stared at me so much all night long that even Ethan finally noticed.
“Do you know her?” he asked curiously.
I shook my head then smiled up at him as we rocked back and forth. “She must have a crush on me.”
“Well, you do look hot to
night.”
“Only tonight?” I scowled up at him while he kissed me lightly on the lips.
“Every night,” he murmured against my mouth. “Every day.”
“That’s more like it.”
A commotion caused us to look over to see CJ and Jeannette by the punch bowl having another argument.
Ethan and I looked at each other, then broke apart, walking over to the pair.
I placed a hand on CJ’s shoulder, while Ethan pulled back Jeannette by the waist when it looked like she was about to pour fruit punch all over CJ.
“Let’s dance,” I said to CJ.
He grinned down at me and I tried not to gag when I smelled the alcohol on his breath. “Let’s do that, babe. Ryan here doesn’t mind, do you, Ryan?”
“Not at all,” replied Ethan, laidback.
Jeannette made a face at Ethan. “I would.” She whirled over to where CJ and I stood. “Get your slutty hands off him!”
I realized she was talking to me and I immediately stepped back, surprised.
“Huh?”
“And you!” she continued, pointing a finger at CJ. “You break up with me and then you sleep with me and then throw me away like trash again? Why do I keep coming back to you?”
“Because you love feeling like trash.”
“Ahh,” she screamed, stomping her foot. “I hate you, CJ!”
“And I’m over you.” He took another swig of the punch, then slammed it back on the table. He walked toward the entrance, but not before tossing back, “You suck the fun out of everything, Jeannette! You’re a fun-sucking leech.”
As CJ left, I cautiously turned to Jeannette, who stood there shaking, her face progressively getting redder and redder in fury.
Ethan stepped back, closer to me. “She’s about to blow,” he whispered.
“Hell, yes.”
“CJ, I’m going to kill you!” she screamed, running off the dance floor as everyone tried moving out of her way. She vanished through the double doors.
I felt sorry for the girl, really.
“You really think she’s gonna kill him?” I asked. “It’s not like I blame her, but I didn’t see it going down like that.”
Never Letting Go (Delphian Book 1) Page 13