“I love you,” she whispered.
If I thought I knew happiness moments before, it was nothing compared to this. If my heart had been deflated before, it was overfull now—to the point it was about to burst with joy.
I dipped her backward, holding her tight, and leaned close.
“I love you.”
Then I kissed her.
My lips brushed over hers, meeting what was the most satisfying taste I’d ever known. She kissed me back, her lips claiming what was left of my heart and tucking it safely within her. I would’ve kissed her for hours. I would’ve kissed her for a lifetime… but as my lips covered hers, something reminded me that this single moment would have to do.
That our first kiss would also be our last.
As my lips melted with hers, the very dark voice of the Grim Reaper filled the room.
“I release you, Piper McCall, from the claim I made on your life. You are free. You will no longer have to fear death by the hand of the Grim Reaper. But you, Dexter Allen Roth, my claim to you holds strong,”
Beneath my kiss, Piper’s lips trembled. “Dex?” she asked against me.
I kissed her harder. I kissed her for the first time, the last time, and all the times in between. I devoured her lips and tightened my arms around her until there was no space between us, knowing if I had to die, this would be the way to go.
I felt that familiar tug inside me and I knew G.R. was making his claim right now. Down the hall I heard the nurses exclaiming and security coming toward the room, but I pushed it all away.
I held on to Piper while I could, and I kissed her with a passion that would have to last the rest of her life. She kissed me back just as fiercely, gripping my face like she knew it was going to be gone in a matter of seconds, and mingling with our desperation was the taste of her tears.
When there was almost nothing left inside my body, I had to pull back. I looked in her eyes for the final time, blocking out the purple mist that curtained us from the rest of the room, and I whispered two words.
“Be happy.”
She squeezed her eyes shut as more tears fell over her cheeks and shook her head quickly.
And then I was a ghost. I no longer had a body and the purple mist that made up my essence was being pulled away—toward G.R. and wherever he would take me.
I held on to the sight of her as long as I could, and my final words seemed to drift around us like they, too, had become mist.
Be happy.
And then there was nothing.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
“Grief - keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss;
sharp sorrow; painful regret.”
Piper
I stared down at the body lying at my feet. He was nothing now but a heap of skin and bones. What was once animated was now lifeless. What used to be so full was now empty.
I dashed away the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing and looked up at the man who caused all of this.
“What have you done to him?”
The man looked at me with pleasure on his face. “I have merely held him up to his end of the bargain. He didn’t do what he agreed to do so he paid. With his life.”
“You’re sick and cold!” I yelled.
“No. I’m a business man.” He glanced at the door where the security guards were gathering and then he stepped toward me.
I took a step back as the door opened and Frankie pushed her way through the guards, shutting them out.
“Leave her alone!” she yelled at the Grim Reaper.
“Frankie, don’t touch him,” I warned, the vision of her death still haunting me. I couldn’t bear to lose her too.
The old man smiled. “For the first time ever, my claim on a human life has been broken. Dex might not have been able to save himself, but he saved you.”
He reached down and grabbed the body, lifting it like it was a doll, and then the doorway that we came through earlier opened and he stepped through without looking back.
Just as it closed, the door to my room opened and the security guards entered. All I could do was stand there. I stood there in a room full of people and I felt entirely lost and alone. Dex was gone. He sacrificed his life for me… again.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I blinked, looking up. It was Frankie. Somehow she’d managed to clear the room of people and it was just she and I standing there.
“I thought I told you not to come,” I said, my voice watery.
“You didn’t actually say that. Besides, I thought you might need me. I was right.”
I leaned into her side. She was right. I did need her.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” she said.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I whispered, staring at the space where Dex’s body had been.
“At the beginning, but not until you’re ready.”
She ushered me toward the door and I felt a moment of panic. I wasn’t ready to leave. I dug my feet into the floor and turned back to where Dex had been.
But he wasn’t there.
I would never see him again.
Being in this room wouldn’t make me any closer to him. It wouldn’t bring him back. As more tears spilled over my cheeks I looked back at Frankie.
“I’m ready now,” I whispered.
We walked out of the room, past the prying eyes and whispering mouths, but I scarcely paid attention to them. I was too busy wondering how I was going to say good-bye to a man that had impossibly found his way into my heart.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
“Heaven - the abode of God, the angels, and the spirits of the righteous after death; the place or state of existence of the blessed after the mortal life.”
Dex
This time around, dying didn’t hurt. I wasn’t lying on a frozen street, my body wasn’t crushed, and I didn’t struggle to breathe. It didn’t hurt to lose my body—it was never really mine anyway. It was almost a relief to be out of it, to not have to live in a place that I didn’t really belong.
I was back to the purple mist—the translucent body that really had no form. I looked but didn’t see the body anywhere. I didn’t see G.R. either. I thought for sure he’d want a front row seat to watch me go into hell—to watch the beginning of my eternal torment.
But I was in a place that was completely quiet, completely devoid of anything.
And then a yellow glow seemed to open and spread before me. It started out small but expanded until it was all I could see. It was beautiful and it was warm. From out of the yellow glow stepped a man in a charcoal-gray suit with a white flower in his lapel. I blinked against the light as he came forward, almost as if he were floating.
When he stopped in front of me, I realized he wasn’t a stranger.
“Hobbs, what are you doing here? Did you die too?”
Hobbs smiled with a joy I’d never seen from him before and something behind him unfolded. Wings. Huge white wings unfurled from his back, covered in downy, snow-colored feathers.
“I didn’t know butlers had wings,” I said, still staring at them.
“Butler’s do not, but angels do.”
Why would I be with an angel? Was the bright, welcoming light he came from heaven?
“There was no butler job really, was there?” I asked, thinking of the night he showed up at my house for a job I hadn’t been hiring for.
He smiled. “No, but being your butler was highly amusing.”
“Then why?” I asked, wanting to understand. I stepped closer because the warmth around him was so inviting.
“Because you were lost and you needed a guide. You were really never meant for hell, and it was my duty to make sure you stayed that way.”
“But I’ve done horrible things.”
“Most of earth’s population does horrible things. God is very forgiving and he forgives you.”
His words washed over me and something inside me that I hadn’t known was broken and began to heal. It felt wonderful and I felt
something I never felt in all my life … peace.
“I don’t know if I deserve it,” I whispered, desperately wanting it anyway.
“That’s exactly why you have it. You have been tempted—tempted with promises and riches and infinite lives to live. Yet you resisted. And you loved.”
He held out his hand.
“Come. Your eternity will not be of torment. It will be of light and peace.”
I looked at his hand and once more at the yellow glow around him. I reached out slowly, afraid what little form I had would evaporate and hold me back. But that didn’t happen. An outline of electric purple formed around me and held me together.
My hand slid into his and instead of going right through him, our hands caught and held.
“Welcome, my friend,” Hobbs whispered and then together we stepped into the brightest part of the light, and it wrapped itself around me. For once, I didn’t feel cold and I didn’t look back, not once. I didn’t think about what I was leaving behind. I only thought about where I was going.
Finally, there was somewhere I truly belonged. Finally, I was home.
Yes, I always thought I was going to hell…
I was wrong.
Epilogue
“Impossible - Incapable of having existence or of occurring.”
Piper
I wrapped my hands around a steaming cup of coffee and shivered against the cold. It was the coldest morning yet this year. Dex hated the cold. I hoped he was warm wherever he was.
I felt the rush of tears to my eyes and I didn’t bother to blink them back. It had been a week since he was recalled. A week since I watched his spirit pulled from his body. I kept hoping he would come back, that he would find a way back to me.
I looked for him everywhere I went—in faces of everyone on the street, in the clinic, and in the diner. I searched stranger’s eyes for just a glimpse of someone I knew. I would take him in any body, but the more days that passed, the more I realized he really was gone.
He died so I could live. He did so more than once. And I was so very afraid that death would not be his only punishment. I didn’t want him to suffer.
I loved him.
I probably always would.
I knew being with him wasn’t our destiny, but I would’ve at least liked to know wherever he was, he was happy.
I walked to the window to look out at the snow-covered street, but my eyes never made it that far. They zeroed in on the frozen flower box that decorated my windowsill. It was iced over and mounded with a white cap of snow. Yet, in the center something grew…
It grew impossibly—wonderfully—right out of the snow and ice.
Its green stem was sturdy and it stretched up toward the morning rays of sun. Its petals, wide and smooth, were completely open and welcoming. It was the most perfect daisy I’d ever seen and it was growing in the middle of winter.
It wasn’t lost on me that this was mine and Dex’s flower. It represented so much.
And it was an answer.
I sat my coffee aside and opened the window, laughing when snow fell onto my slippers. I ignored the harsh biting wind to reach out and tug the perfect flower from the ice. It wasn’t cold like it should be.
It was warm.
It radiated heat in the center of my palm.
I knew then without a doubt that Dex was okay. He was better than okay. He wasn’t being punished for the things he did.
A single tear fell from my eye and landed on one of the perfectly formed petals. When the moisture touched, it shimmered purple and then soaked in.
Dex was in heaven. He was safe and warm… He was at peace.
I knew someday I would meet him again and whenever that was, it wouldn’t matter what form either of us took because…
We would be together.
The End
Acknowledgements
The definition of success is “The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted.” (Note: all definitions in this book are courtesy of http://www.thefreedictionary.com). One could say finishing this book is a success. To be frank, sometimes I wondered if there was other life during/after the Heven and Hell series (my first fabulous publications). I wondered if that series would suck all my writing mojo right out of me and leave me empty and soulless. Okay, I never worried about being soulless… That’s just creepy and weird. But I did wonder if I would ever write again. Yes, I am dramatic.
Anyway, so when Dex started talking to me about bodies in the closet and how he hated wearing glasses (apparently, I am not the only dramatic one around here) I decided to keep Recalled a super secret project in case I couldn’t hack it. That brings me to the reason I gave you the definition of success. I not only finished Recalled, but I rocked it out. Ha ha ha. Note: that’s my personal opinion. But it IS a success.
But don’t let the fact that this was a super secret project fool you into thinking I did this all on my own. I had help—as every author does. That’s what this section is really for, to acknowledge those people (and not for my longwinded monologues—I’ll save those for my husband!).
As always, I would like to acknowledge my family. To my husband, Shawn, who read the first twenty pages of this book (when that was all that was written), declared it was going to be a good read, and then I never looked back. Thanks for never doubting my writing mojo. To my children, Kaydence and Nathan, for never complaining too much when I sit at the computer for too long. To my mommom, Aurora, for always buying copies of my books and then sharing them with all your friends. To my mom, Elizabeth, for babysitting my “angelic” children and my very hairy, sporadically peeing dog.
And to my other family who aren’t relatives, but still family all the same. These are the people I go to for writing support, for advice, and to talk about the business of being a writer (Yes, people, it’s more than sitting around a computer, looking fabulous). To Jennifer Pringle, for being the first to read Recalled in its finished, uncut draft. For always telling me that I can do it even when I think I can’t. To Cassie McCown, a true book doctor, who sees my writing naked and still doesn’t laugh (my writing wears polka dot undies). Thanks for using your shovel to get rid of my favorite word: that. Thank you to Regina Wamba for designing me a cover that makes my heart race and for being patient through the process of working with me.
I want to mention my fellow writing buddies—Airicka Phoenix, Cameo Renae, Amber Garza, Melissa Andrea, Alexia Purdy, Ella James, Alivia Anders, Tara Brown and Ambear Shellea. When I first started in this business, I didn’t know any other writers and now I have a list… a list of women who inspire me every day. It’s awesome to be in your company.
Also, I want to acknowledge Gladys Gonzales Atwell for your enthusiastic support. Someday you will wear a color besides black… one as vibrant as the rest of you. To the maker’s of Puff’s Plus tissues, I like that lotion you put in your tissues. I did a lot of crying when I wrote this book but my nose never got red. And finally, to the maker’s of Lipton tea. I practically lived off Ginger Twist tea while I wrote this book… and now I can’t find it anywhere. I’m going through withdrawals…. Please, someone find me some of that tea!!!!!
P.S. If I forget to mention anyone, we can just blame it on my withdrawals. Ha ha ha ha.
Cambria Hebert is the author of the young adult Heven and Hell series and the Death Escorts series. She loves a caramel latte, hates math and is afraid of chickens (yes, chickens). She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured, her characters will always have good hair. She currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and children (both human and furry), where she is plotting her next book. You can find out more about Cambria and her work by visiting her fan page on Facebook or her website http://www.cambriahebert.com.
Please turn the page and
enjoy an excerpt from Airicka Phoenix's novel, Games of Fire.
Chapter One
Grandma Valdez had a saying, bewar
e surprises that come with gloomy weather. Sophia had never put much stock in the prediction. Grandma was a ninety year old woman who thought tux wearing mice were giving her winning lottery ticket numbers. But during that rainy January, Sophia Valdez became a believer and it all started with the enormous white truck parked next door.
“We’ve got new neighbors.” Dishtowel wringing between slender fingers, her mother joined her at the living room window. They peered out over the quaint, cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood with its neatly trimmed lawns, soft, pastel tones and nosy housewives.
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