“I am Death. Showing up in khaki pants and a white polo shirt might, shall we say, lessen the impact.”
Okay, that was kind of funny, picturing him like that. I laughed, and I thought he might too, but then he just… vanished.
Great. I offended Death.
“I’m sorry!” I called out, my voice echoing across the black forest. Night creatures skittered through the underbrush, but otherwise, I heard nothing. Saw nothing. “I didn’t mean—”
“Is this better?”
I whirled around at the question, shocked at the sight before me—a man wearing dark jeans and a long sleeve red Henley pushed up to his elbows, with broad shoulders and narrow hips, and perfectly messy blond hair that fell in front of his eyes.
It was Death. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I did.
“You… You're, like, a normal new guy,” I said.
“I thought you might be more comfortable this way.” He ran a hand through his hair, revealing electric blue eyes that reminded me of Arctic ice. A little uncanny, maybe—not to mention the most ancient-looking eyes I had ever seen—but at least they’d stopped glowing. “Yes?”
“Yeah. I mean, yes. Definitely.”
“Good. Because if we’re going to work together, I’d prefer you not think me creepy.”
I couldn’t hide my smile. “I don't suppose this normal, non-creepy guy has an actual name?”
“Liam James Colebrook,” he said plainly.
I laughed. “Been saving that one up, have you?”
Death—rather, Liam—shrugged. “That was his name.”
“Whose—oh.” I clamped my mouth shut as the realization hit. Normal new guy wasn’t just a glamour Death had invented for my comfort. He was a vessel, a human whose body Death now inhabited.
“I didn’t kill him,” he explained. “It was his time.”
“So you’re… hijacking his body?”
“I prefer the term borrowing.” He ran a hand through his hair again. It wasn’t just blond, I noticed now, but copper too, streaked lighter in places by the sun. His skin was tanned as well, and I wondered where Liam had lived. California, maybe.
And then I wondered how he died. I hoped it wasn’t painful.
“If you prefer someone different,” Liam said, “I can—”
“No, Liam’s fine.” One presto-change-o was about all the excitement I could handle. Besides, Liam Colebrook wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes. If the goal was to make me more comfortable, Death could’ve done a lot worse in his vessel choice.
He was quiet for a long moment, taking in his surroundings as if he’d never seen them before. The change to solid form—to Liam—seemed to unsettle him a bit. I wondered if he’d ever done it before.
“Can you do—” I gestured from his head to his feet, indicating his newly solid form. “—on the physical plane?”
“Yes, but only for short bursts of time. A few hours. A day, perhaps.”
“So you never just drop in for a few weeks? Spy on us mere mortals?”
“I can’t.” He slid his hands into his back pockets, rounding out his shoulders. The gesture was so human, so unlike the Death I’d experienced. “Rather, Icould, but doing so would… complicate things.”
I nodded, not sure I was ready for a deep dive into that particular can of worms. I was having enough trouble figuring out how my own magical realm worked, let alone the metaphysical mindfuck of Death manifesting on Earth.
Magical realms. Magic power. Demons. Vampires. Witches. Hunters. It was my world, my universe, but sometimes it seemed like a crazy dream—the kind where you’re just the observer, watching someone else’s life play out on screen.
“Something is troubling you,” he said.
