by Nicky Graves
When he dropped his hand, I asked, “Why do you keep this apartment?”
“I keep it because it’s a reminder and a warning.”
“You can never get back the past, but you still have a future.”
It made me wonder if I was stuck in my past. I had been just some mortal girl who didn’t know her dad and who was content to drift through life. I still wanted that life. Was I like Lawson, clinging to a past that I could never go back to?
I was hanging on to my old thought patterns. My old limitations. But I needed a mind shift. I needed to move on, just like Lawson needed to move on from this apartment and his old loves.
And while I didn’t want to be Azrael’s daughter, he was a part of me. Which meant that anything he could do, I had the potential for doing.
I could be like Azrael. I could be like him and beat him at his own game.
Was it truly possible? Or was I lying to myself to feel better?
Closing my eyes, I focused on being a little bit more like Azrael. Thoughts of Azrael’s smoke cloak swirled in my mind. The tendrils slithered along the ground. I felt the robe as if it was on me, covering me, enfolding me into a dark hug.
Was I bonkers for thinking I could be like Azrael? That I could have power like him? Probably. But I still tried. I had to believe. I had to. Options were dwindling, and it might just come down to him and me. I had to at least try.
And seeing Lawson so affected by the past made me not want to ever get stuck like him.
He was lost.
I wanted to be found.
Concentrating harder, I felt the robe as it wisped along my skin. There was power in it. Something that took energy from me but gave it back. It was a flow of give and take.
“What are you doing?” Lawson asked. “You have smoke coming out of you.”
Opening my eyes, the thin tendrils of smoke dissipated as soon as I broke my concentration. There hadn’t been much of a robe, but even the fragile smoke curls were more than I had thought I could do.
I grinned. Without the aid of the stones, I had power.
“What were you trying to do?” he asked, reverting back to all-business Lawson.
“Make a cloak like the one Azrael wears. I thought, if he can do it, I should be able to do it.”
“Just be careful,” Lawson said.
“What do you mean?”
“Be careful with any powers you discover. While you might be his daughter, you aren’t the same. Not in here, at least,” he said, placing a hand over his heart. “Azrael’s never been mortal. It’s a weakness and a strength. Don’t try to be like him.”
Azrael had another weakness too. The guardians.
While I knew I had to find a life stone to hopefully sway the guardians to help, I also had another thought brewing.
I needed training. Not reaper training. Reaper training would be useless against Azrael. I needed to be the opposite of Azrael. I needed to be more like Life.
And I knew exactly who was going to train me. This time, I wasn’t taking a no from the guardians.
But, first things first.
I needed to find another stone.
18
While shielded in invisibility, Lawson and I wandered through the Friedman Museum. I hadn’t realized how huge it was. But there was building after building, and room after room. I was becoming fatigued from all the walking and reading the plethora of plaques that hung on walls and glass cases.
I was pretty sure we had searched every place that we could, and I was losing steam after the long, weary day.
I reminded myself that the daughter of Azrael would never give up. The daughter of Azrael wouldn’t need a break.
However, my human side was exhausted.
“Let’s take a break,” I said.
“We just have two more rooms to go through,” Lawson said.
I scowled at him. “You said that ten rooms ago.”
He gave a small shrug. “I’m telling the truth this time.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
I sat down on a bench and stared at a Monet painting that was ahead of me. The soft-focused meadow sprawled before me showed ladies having a picnic. It was a serene landscape that clashed with my mood.
A guy sat next to me and looked at the painting as well. If I was profiling, he didn’t seem like a person to hang out at the museum and gawk at Monets. His jeans had too many holes to be considered fashionable, and his Metallica T-shirt was ripped at the shoulder. Long dark hair hung just past his shoulders.
I glanced at Lawson. “I wonder why he stopped at this painting.”
The man turned to look at me, flipping his hair over his shoulder. It was then that I got a good look at his face. He was a decent-looking guy with intense blue eyes. Possibly my age or a year or two older.
“You can see me?” he asked.
“Yes. Can you see me?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I glanced from him to Lawson with a questioning brow. “Why can he see me?”
“He’s a ghost,” Lawson said.
“Like as in someone who hasn’t been transitioned yet,” I said.
Lawson gave a nod. “You can tell from his dim glow. If we were in better lighting, you’d see that he doesn’t have a shadow.”
Lawson was right. There was a slight glow to him. Nothing that I would have noticed had I not been looking for it.
Lawson looked at the man. “When did you die?”
The man looked puzzled for a moment, and then he said, “Ninety-two, I think.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It’s quiet here.”
“Is there a reason you’re sticking around Earth?” I asked. “We can transition you, if you want.”
“Transition?”
“Return your energy to the world,” I said.
“Nah. There’s a movie I want to see next week.”
I glanced at Lawson, who shrugged. “We can’t transition right now anyway.”
“Why not?”
“Did you forget who the elders sided with? If we show up at the transition room, we’d have them breathing down our necks.”
“But what happens if I get the call?”
“Ignore it.”
“It’s kind of hard to ignore. Lots of pain and stuff.”
“It will pass.”
Maybe for someone like Lawson who had been a reaper for five hundred years it would be easy to ignore the call, but I had already experienced the pain, and I didn’t think that was something I could just ignore.
I turned to the ghost. “Have you heard about any stones or crystals here at the museum?”
He shook his head. “No, but if it’s really valuable, they might keep it in the vault.”
“Where’s that?” Lawson asked.
While we had scouted many areas in the museum, I knew the items out for public viewing were only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the museum actually had—and what high-clearance employees could access.
The ghost stood and strolled away with his thumbs hooked in his pockets.
“I guess we follow him,” I said.
Lawson gave a hesitant nod, and I wondered if he didn’t quite trust the ghost.
We walked downstairs, following him through a long hallway and past a sign that stated it was for employees only. When we reached the end of the hallway, there was a door with a code panel on the wall next to it.
“Do we shift in there?” I asked Lawson.
Lawson looked thoughtful for a moment and then shook his head. “I’m not sure how sensitive these alarms are.”
“But we’re shielded,” I said.
“We can still trigger sensors. But a ghost shouldn’t be detected.” Lawson looked at the ghost. “What’s your name?”
“Dean.”
“I’m Lawson, and this is Riley,” he said, pointing to me. “Can you go in there and see if there are sensors?”
Dean walked through the doo
r as if it wasn’t there. After a few moments, he returned. “I don’t know much about alarms,” he said, “but I’m pretty sure there are motion detectors.”
I looked at Lawson. “Even if we were to trigger one of the alarms, no one would be able to see us. We could slip out unnoticed.”
“True, but I really don’t want anyone to figure out what we were looking for. If they discovered a stone is missing, the news might get back to Azrael. He’d come after your family again.”
“Azrael?” Dean asked. “As in the Grim Reaper?”
Lawson looked hard at Dean. “What do you know about him?”
“Not much. Just that he’s the Grim Reaper. Some of the other ghosts talk about him from time to time.”
“What do they say?” Lawson asked.
Dean gave a shrug. “Just that he’s the king of death and he’s got this wicked scythe. I was told if I ever see him to run the other way.”
“That’s all?” Lawson asked.
Dean gave another shrug and then looked thoughtful. “Newest thing I heard was that he’s supposed to have a daughter. Something about her ticks him off.”
“What else do you know about him? Anything else about the daughter?” Lawson asked.
Dean shook his head. “No, not really. Just that he wants to kill his daughter, which is pretty messed up.”
“Yes, messed up,” I repeated.
Lawson looked at me. “Let’s go into the vault. We’ll just have to see what happens and hope for the best.”
“Hang on. Who are you guys?”
Lawson held out his hand for me to take. I slipped my hand in his. “We’re no one important,” I said.
“That’s what somebody important would say if they didn’t want anyone to know about them,” Dean said just as Lawson and I shifted into the vault.
When I thought of a vault, I expected something smallish. Like a bedroom size or smaller. But this was the size of a football field, and it was filled with long stretches of shelving. Pristine boxes packed each shelf without any extra space in sight.
“I think we’re good,” Lawson said as he listened. “Spread out. I’ll take one side and you take the other. If anything goes wrong, retreat to my pod immediately.”
I gave him a half-hearted salute and turned on my heel to walk to the row on my right. I wearily eyed the shelving filled to the ceiling with treasures. At least the boxes were categorized and labeled.
There were many artifacts. Some Egyptian and some from civilizations that I had never heard about.
As I scoured through the aisle, I couldn’t find anything that said life stones or crystal. Would the curator even know a life stone if they had one? Maybe they would archive it under a different name. If that was the case, I’d have to look in every box.
I bent down to look in a box on a lower shelf.
“So, really, who are you guys?” Dean asked from behind me, making me yelp. I jumped, banging my shoulder into a shelf, jostling the contents.
“You just triggered the alarm,” Dean said.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“It’s a silent alarm,” he said. “I feel the energy current.”
“Lawson,” I hollered, “I set off the alarm.”
“Keep looking,” Lawson yelled back. “Just stay invisible and stay out of the security guard’s way. If something goes wrong, return to my pod.”
“I can help you look if you tell me what you’re looking for,” Dean said.
“Just look for anything that says it’s a stone or crystal.”
“That’s really broad,” he said.
“I know, but I don’t know how it would be categorized here.”
“What should it be categorized as?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter. Just find whatever you can and let me see it.”
Dean looked as though he wanted to ask more questions, but instead, he drifted over to the next aisle and began searching. With three of us working, hopefully we’d find it soon and get the heck out of here.
However, I had small hope of finding a life stone here. If the Friedman truly knew what they were holding, it would be out for display, not in a box.
Within a minute or two, the area flooded with security staff sweeping through the aisles. I dodged a few of them. While they could walk through Dean, Lawson and I did not have that ability.
Sidestepping a security officer, I continued my search. However, another one rounded the corner and banged into me. The security officer stopped and looked in front of him as if unsure what had happened. Hesitantly, he reached out to feel the space in between us. I was able to back away before he touched me.
I was wishing he might think he had imagined it and continue, but he spoke into his radio for a supervisor.
“Lawson, I’ve given us away,” I said.
“Get to the pod.”
“Where’s the pod?” Dean asked.
“Nowhere you can go,” I said. But just as I began to shift, Dean reached out and grabbed my arm.
“Why did you do that?” I asked when we reached the outside of Lawson’s pod.
Dean glanced around him at the silver spheres that dotted the gray landscape.
“You’re not supposed to be in this realm,” I said.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“The dead zone.”
Lawson poked his head out of his pod and frowned at Dean. “What’s he doing here?”
“He grabbed my arm when I shifted,” I said. “I’ll bring him back to the Friedman now.”
Lawson shook his head. “The place is swarming with guards and police right now. Let’s just lay low. I don’t want to take chances.” He shooed us into his pod.
Dean scanned the living room. “Rad. This place is bigger on the inside than on the outside.”
“They’re all like that,” Lawson said before scratching his jaw. “We’re going to have to keep searching the Friedman when it’s safe, just to rule it out.”
“At least the guards will find nothing was stolen,” I said. “Maybe they’ll just think was a faulty alarm.”
“Something was stolen,” Dean said.
“What?” I asked.
Dean took a black velvet pouch from his pocket. “It was listed as a stone. There was a warning on it not to touch it.”
Lawson held out his hand, and Dean placed the bag on it. Lawson peeked inside. Stunned, he glanced at me. “I think it’s Clarness the Yellow.”
19
I stared at the black bag, dumbfounded. A life stone was in a museum vault. Was it possible?
“Yellow? Like as in a yellow diamond?” Dean asked, trying to peer into the pouch.
Lawson handed it to me. “Take a look.”
I peeked into the bag and almost cried. It was a life stone. Maybe the guardians would take me seriously now.
“Are you going to bond with it?” Lawson asked.
“Should I?” I asked, contemplating. “Every time I do, Azrael or Lucifer just takes it from me. Maybe you should bond with it instead.”
“You know I can’t. Only you can.”
“Wait a minute,” Dean said, backing away from me. “You’re Azrael’s daughter?”
“No,” I lied.
“Yes, you are. This all fits. You’re the Grim Reaper’s daughter.”
“I think it’s time to take him back,” I said to Lawson.
“No, wait,” Dean said.
“Time to go.” Lawson reached out to touch Dean’s arm, but Dean flickered out of his grasp.
“Dean, you don’t want to get into the middle of this,” I said. “Trust me. I’d rather be doing anything else right now.”
Dean appeared next to me. “Admit you’re the Grim Reaper’s daughter.”
“Fine. But anyone who knows about me or the life stones is in danger.”
“Not me. I’m a ghost.”
“Reapers, including Azrael, can transition you.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. So, tell me what’s going on. What
’s with these life stone things?”
“Can I talk to you a moment in private.” Lawson didn’t really ask me. It was more of a statement. He pulled me to his bedroom and shut the door. “We can’t trust anyone.”
“I know, but he’s just a ghost. What can he do that’s worse than what Azrael or Lucifer have done so far?”
“He could be a spy for one of them,” Lawson said. “I don’t want him tagging along.”
“That hurts,” Dean said as his head appeared through the door. “All I’m trying to do is help.”
“This is a private conversation,” Lawson said.
“I’m a ghost, remember?” Dean said, making himself comfortable on the bed. “Nothing is private when you’re dealing with me. You need me. I can get into places. I’m an asset.”
“He’s got a point,” I said. Lawson scowled at me, so I amended, “A small point. But he also found the life stone.”
Lawson turned his scowl to Dean. “And there’s nothing stopping him from giving that information to Azrael.”
“You’re right,” Dean said. “I could be a spy. But I like rooting for the underdog. And it seems to me like the daughter of Azrael would be the underdog. So, you can either take my help, or you can try to get rid of me. But you’ll be better off with my help. Now that I know where your little hideout is, I can just pop in any old time.”
Lawson’s scowl deepened. “Your spirit can’t handle the dead zone for long. Ghosts are bound to Earth.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Dean said, not looking concerned.
Lawson turned his narrow gaze to me.
“It’s not my fault,” I said. “He grabbed onto me.”
Dean grinned.
“I say let’s give him a shot,” I said. “We need all the help we can get.”
“I don’t like this,” Lawson said.
“You don’t have to like it,” Dean said. “I’m here to help Riley, not you. So, what’s our next move?”
“I’m off to see the guardians,” I said. “You can hang out here with Lawson.”
Lawson’s glare deepened to a point that I thought his frown lines would be permanent.
Dean shook his head. “I’d rather go see these guardian people.”
“The guardians don’t even want me around,” I said. “They will not be excited to see you as well.”