Touch (A Reaper Novella)

by Jennifer Snyder

  “Hello, Rowan.” Damaris greeted me.

  I bowed my head slightly. “Hello.”

  “We see you’ve completed your first releasing of a soul successfully,” Evelyn said.

  “Yes,” I replied, wondering if this was the only reason behind their visit.

  “We also noticed the amount of knowledge you’ve gained from your Overseer and how close the two of you have become,” William added, his gray eyes dancing, making me feel like what Jet and I were to each other was somehow wrong.

  I thought of all the soft touches, hand holding, and embraces we’d shared over the last two weeks that they’d probably seen and averted my gaze to the white, tiled floor of the hospital. I wondered if I’d be punished, or worse, if Jet would. Were Reaper relationships forbidden? If so, Jet had never let on, but I had never asked either.

  “Unfortunately, we have become pressed for time,” Damaris stated, moving along to the true purpose of their presence.

  My eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean,” I said, choosing my words carefully.

  “Your mother’s intended position can no longer wait to be filled.” Damaris clarified his meaning, his caramel-colored eyes devoid of emotion.

  Panic pricked the surface of my mind. Was I going to be relocated again? If so, what would it mean for Jet and me?

  “You will be taking my place at dawn.” Cassandra’s voice sounded so fragile.

  I noticed Jet’s face fall and I was positive my expression mirrored his.

  “But I hardly know anything about being a Reaper,” I said. “How could you possibly want me in such an important position?” I sounded just as hysterical as I felt.

  “You will learn all you need to know over time, great-granddaughter, which is something you have,” Cassandra said.

  If I’d still had a beating heart in my chest, it would have stopped right then at the sound of the words great-granddaughter.

  “I’m sorry, but what?” I asked, astonished.

  William grinned. “Your mother was supposed to take Cassandra’s place as a Council member.”

  “Did my mother know about any of this?” I wondered.

  “No, Salene didn’t know,” Cassandra said. “No one in our family knows until it’s their time. Usually we skip a generation, but in your case that wasn’t possible.

  I cast a quick glance at Jet who stood motionless and looked as shocked as I felt. He’d been wrong about my hereditary Reaper theory after all.

  “You have until dawn and then you will take your rightful place so Cassandra may fade in peace,” Evelyn said, demanding my attention.

  “We shall see you at dawn, Miss Harper.” Damaris smiled, then the four of them vanished.

  Silence hung in the air for what felt like an eternity before Jet’s arm slid around my waist. “Well, we have until dawn, then.”

  I leaned into him and wrapped both my arms around his middle. He pulled my hair to one side and brushed his lips against my neck, sending ripples of swoon-worthy warmth through my body. A sensation I’d waited too long to feel, one that felt too amazing to make him stop. I closed my eyes, wishing we were any place besides a hospital, standing in the cancer wing.

  Jet’s soft lips slowly trailed up my neck and along my jawline. I gasped at the desire pumping through my body, centering itself in the pit of my stomach. My eyes sprung open to find the sterile hospital hallway gone and in its place an endless ocean.

  “How?” I breathed the only word I could manage.

  “How what?” Jet asked, pausing only briefly in his blissful kisses.

  “How did we get here? And how can I feel… especially this way?” I questioned, incredibly thankful I couldn’t blush.

  Jet cupped my hand and caressed my cheek with his thumb, before turning away. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” He gestured at the turquoise water and the white sand beneath our feet. “This is one of my favorite places to come when I want to be away from both the living and the dead.”

  I took in the entire sight before me, attempting to burn its beauty into my memory, not sure if I’d ever be allowed to come back. I was suddenly saddened by the thought that I had spent an entire seventeen years alive and never once seen the ocean. It wasn’t until after I was dead that I got the chance to witness its powerful beauty firsthand.

  “And as for what you feel…” he said, reaching to caress the back of my neck. “It’s sort of like a phantom pain, one of the many things your soul remembers. It will stay with you for the first few years, or so I’ve been told, maybe even longer. You have to remember, Rowan, we are not dead, but we aren’t living either… we’re someplace in-between.” His lips crushed against mine then, like he couldn’t bear to wait any longer.

  I reached up and twined my fingers in his hair, pulling him closer to me. Jet’s hands moved down my sides, slow and determined, until they rested at my hips. The warmth pulsated through me like a heartbeat when his tongue found its way between my parted lips. I slid my fingers down his back, impatiently untucking his crisp, black shirt before fumbling with its buttons.

  Jet reached for the hem of the black, knee-length dress I wore and pulled it up over my head. I held his gaze, fighting the timidness rising within me, until his eyes left mine to take in my newly visible, bare skin. I allowed myself to gaze at every inch of him, memorizing each line and muscle that made up his upper body.

  Jet’s hands slid across my stomach and wrapped around to my lower back as he pulled me against him again and down onto the white sand beneath us. With his face hovering mere inches above mine, he flashed me a crooked grin just before our lips met once more.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Dawn came faster than I’d wanted and the Council members found me exactly like they’d promised, only this time there were three of them. Cassandra was missing.

  “Rowan.” Damaris greeted me. “I trust you used your time wisely.”

  For a second time in their presence I was grateful my cheeks were incapable of betraying me by revealing my embarrassment.

  “I did,” I said, biting my bottom lip to suppress a smile and forcing my eyes to remain locked with Damaris’s.

  “Rowan Jade Harper,” his loud voice proclaimed, filling my ears with his authority and making me jump. “Step forward and accept your position.”

  I took a small step forward and wondered if I was supposed to say something then or wait to be asked.

  “We, the Reapers’ Council, stand before you, Rowan Jade Harper, and ask… do you accept your inherited duty as a Council member?” Evelyn asked, her face remaining eerily expressionless.

  “And if I don’t?” The words flew from my mouth before I had a chance to stop them.

  Evelyn’s blue eyes blazed at me as though I’d slapped her. “That is not an option.”

  “Then, I accept,” I said in a rush.

  Three hands reached out to me, filling me with a hazy white light, while slowly drawing me closer to them. Images of everything from my death up until this moment rushed through my mind until one single forgotten image, from what seemed like a lifetime ago, nudged itself in front of all the others.

  The crows, nestled in the bare-branched trees of my backyard.

  The moment the Council members’ fingertips made contact with my forehead, the image floated away, the way a feather slips softly toward the ground.

  “It is done,” William said. “Take your place.”

  Evelyn and William parted, creating a gap for me to fill. I did as I was told and saw the deep lines of sorrow cut into Jet’s face. The emotions that swelled within me were powerful enough to make me cry out rivers, had I been capable.

  “These lively tendencies you’re feeling are not something you will be allowed to give in to anymore. Your position is far too important for frivolous things to cloud your mind,” Damaris said, obviously noticing how much Jet meant to me, if he hadn’t known already.

  My hands balled into fists at my sides, but like a coward I kep
t my mouth clamped shut. I was one of the controllers now, and yet I was still being controlled.

  “Jet, you are free to report back to your original location,” William said.

  I watched as Jet bowed his head formally, and when he looked up, his sapphire eyes, free of the torment we both felt, met mine. “Thank you,” he whispered. His lips twisted into a cocky little grin just before he vanished.

  I stared into the empty space he’d once occupied and replayed his arrogant grin in my mind, swearing to myself we’d see each other again. Even if it meant keeping it our own little secret, because Love is the only thing that not even Death can kill.

  I hope you enjoyed reading Touch. Now, please read on for a bonus short story from Jet’s perspective.

  Choice

  A Reaper Short

  JENNIFER SNYDER

  I felt my entire life unraveling around the edges as I stared into Celeste’s steel-gray eyes.

  “Jet, did you hear me?” she asked, her eyebrows drawn together in concern.

  I blinked. “Yeah, I heard you.”

  I’d heard her loud and clear. She’d just confessed she was pregnant and all I could do was gape at her.

  “I told my parents,” she said, sending another jolt of shock reverberating through my body. “They’ve already called the clinic and scheduled an appointment for an abortion.” Her gaze never met mine as she spoke, instead it remained fixated on her thumb ring, which she continued to spin nervously.

  “Don’t I get a say in any of this? Or even my parents?” I knew how selfish I sounded, but didn’t care.

  Celeste’s eyes met mine again, and I knew I’d never forget the hurt and anger that pooled within them for as long as I lived.

  “They told me I can’t see you anymore,” she whispered.

  My heart dropped to my stomach and my fists clenched at my sides. “Y…you told them no though, right?” I stuttered.

  She didn’t answer, she merely continued to stare at her twirling thumb ring.

  “Celeste, please tell me you stood up to them,” I pleaded, reaching for her arm.

  “Don’t, okay, don’t make this any harder than it already is,” she muttered, jerking her arm out of my grasp. “You know I can’t tell them no, not with something as serious as this.”

  “Yes, you can,” I scoffed. “In four more months we’ll both be eighteen!”

  Tears swelled in her gray eyes and she sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It does to me,” I said. “This is our baby… our life…” The words fumbled from my lips, sounding oddly strangled and broken.

  The back of the condom box had been right—apparently they weren’t effective 100% of the time.

  “I don’t want it,” Celeste said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t want any of this!”

  She rushed past me, before I had time to think of a reply, leaving me feeling gutted by her words.

  I let out a loud breath and intertwined my fingers behind my head. What a way to begin spring break.

  Celeste didn’t return my calls or text messages for the next two days. By the time day three rolled around, I did receive a text saying she wanted to let me know the appointment was at two o’clock that afternoon and no, I wasn’t allowed to come.

  I slipped out of bed an hour later and stood in front of my bedroom window, glaring out at a picture-perfect spring day and hating it. Three crows had congregated in my front yard and my eyes zeroed in on them, focusing on the only blackness I could find. I felt like I was drowning in my own twisted emotions and raging thoughts that never seemed to clear from my head.

  A silver Toyota 4Runner squealed tires into my driveway, forcing the crows to scatter into flight and grabbing my attention. I knew who it was even before they’d parked—Travis and Wade, my two best buds. Also, the only two people I’d told the truth about my breakup with Celeste. I hadn’t even told my parents. There was no reason. At two o’clock today it would be like nothing had ever happened, no matter what anyone said.

  “Jet, come out here with your hands up or else we’re comin’ in to get you!” Travis shouted, slamming against the hood of his 4Runner with his palm.

  I cracked a grin, but it faded as guilt swelled within my chest. I shouldn’t be smiling, not when my life was about to be stamped with a horrible memory of something I was powerless to stop.

  “Jet Mathews, we repeat, come out with your hands up!” Wade demanded.

  “What’s up, guys?” I asked, leaning my elbows against the sill of my opened window.

  “We’re here to rescue you!” Wade yelled.

  “Rescue me from what?”

  “Your horrible spring break!” Travis answered.

  Three hours later I sat with Trav and Wade around a campfire, roasting a hot dog on a stick. Celeste was still the only thing on my mind and it was killing me that I’d agreed to camping with the guys by the river—a place which had absolutely no cell service. All I wanted to do was send her a text asking if she was all right. On the ride to our campsite, I’d counted down till two o’clock on my cell. Forty minutes later, I felt like a little part of me had died.

  “Drink up,” Wade said, tossing me an ice cold Bud Light from inside the cooler he’d been using as a stool.

  “Where did you get those?” I asked, setting it to the side until I finished cooking my hot dog.

  “Trav’s sister has the hots for me, haven’t you heard?” Wade grinned.

  “Yeah right, in your dreams maybe,” Travis said, punching Wade in the arm. He hated it when we joked about how incredibly hot his older sister, Amber, was—especially Wade.

  “I talked Amber into buying them for me this morning,” Trav said.

  I slid my hot dog into a bun and squirted it with ketchup and mustard before popping the top on my beer. Its frothy goodness slid down my throat with ease and was gone before I’d even finished eating my hot dog.

  By the time I’d downed my sixth beer and fumbled through the cooler for my seventh, darkness had fallen and more people from school had made their way to our campsite. The guys’ night out camping excuse we’d all given to our parents had turned into a full-on party by the river.

  Two hours later, I returned to my chair, eyes hooded with sleep and completely plastered.

  “You all right, man?” Wade asked, flopping himself into the chair beside me.

  “Yeah, just tired,” I slurred before closing my eyes, finally succumbing to my sleep-deprived body and the alcohol tainting my blood.

  I woke to the feeling of being carried and the grumbles of someone struggling under my weight.

  “What the hell?” I heard Wade yell from somewhere to my left, just before hearing a loud splash.

  I struggled to break free of the vise-like grip squeezing me tightly, but failed.

  “No sleeping allowed!” A husky voice grunted in my ear before I was flung into the river.

  Cool water soaked through my clothes as I plummeted into its rippling darkness. I gasped for air and started swimming back toward the edge of the river. Wade’s foul mouth filled my ears. He must have already pulled himself from the river and was confronting whoever had chucked us into it. I rushed up the bank to help, eager to take out my pent-up aggression on someone deserving.

  As I reached Wade, I saw him swing with all his might and miss, nearly falling forward. It was then I realized who he was attempting to fight—Jared and Benny, two guys who’d graduated last year. I’d never hung out with either of them personally, but rumor had it these two were into hardcore drugs and went looking for fights. Which they were obviously built for, because even in the dark I could see their bulging biceps.

  I stood, dripping with water, wondering who’d invited them when Wade got hit with a blow that could very well have knocked out his front teeth before he went spiraling to the ground.

  Before I could blink, Jared was on me, alternating pounds to the side of my face with his fist and a piece of drift wood he’d picked up. I managed to graze his j
aw twice, but never came close to a solid hit. At some point during my beating, drunk bystanders had gathered to cheer Jared on. I wasn’t sure if Wade had passed out or ran off; whatever the case, Benny and Jared began taking turns pounding me to a bloody pulp. I curled into the fetal position, hoping they would think I’d been defeated and leave me be, but it only made them resort to kicking me instead.

  Time shifted to slow motion as I drifted in and out of consciousness. I felt myself being lifted once more and then hands forced my head back under the flow of cold river water. What little bit of air I had left in my bruised lungs rushed out, becoming replaced with muddy water, tinged with the metallic taste of my own blood.

  “Wakie, wakie!” Jared shouted, flinging me back onto the river bank for round two.

  “That’s enough!” I heard Travis yell, just before I blacked out again.

  When I came to this time, I’d been propped up against the base of a large tree with someone’s shirt wrapped tightly around my head.

  “You gonna be okay, man? You need to go to the hospital or anything?” Travis asked, his voice sounding far away.

  I knew I must look bad, but I couldn’t feel it. All I could feel was nausea rolling in the pit of my stomach and an odd, tingling numbness in my limbs.

  “I’m fine.” I heard myself answer, but I hadn’t been aware I was speaking.

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah,” I said, my voice sounding as though I were in a tunnel.

  Darkness feathered my vision and I gave in to the drowsiness that tugged at my mind.

  I wasn’t sure how much time had passed or what had forced my eyes to open. It could have been the horrific cawing of birds that filled my ears, or the petite brunette kneeling in front of me, staring. Her brown eyes twinkled in the hazy early morning light and I swore she was an angel.

  It was then, gazing into her chocolate-brown eyes, that the crippling pain of my injuries made itself known. Panic and fear ate away at my mind, bubbling up thoughts of death to the surface.