The smell of weed hung in the air, drifting toward the parking lot where I stood, mixing with the scent of pizza. Elliot had mentioned getting high behind the restaurant, so I made my way toward the back.
The guy had long hair and a scraggly beard that didn’t quite fill in. He held a cigarette to his lips but dropped it when he saw me.
He tensed. “I don’t have any money, man. I swear.”
“I’m not here to rob you. I’m a friend of Elliot’s. He sent me to pick you up.” Not the truth. It was Morgana and Grym who had sent me, but Joel didn’t know who they were. Dropping Elliot’s name was a much better way to gain his trust.
“You’re with Elliot’s hot guy, aren’t you?” High or not, the guy was pretty observant to have reached that conclusion already.
“Grym. Yeah, I am.” I stepped closer, and when the guy patted the milk crate beside him, I sat. “I’m Ossy.”
“I’m Joel.” Joel reached down, picked up the joint, and held it out to me. When I shook my head and held up the bottle, he shrugged. “To each, his own.”
“I’m drowning my guilt.” I nodded to Joel’s hand. “What about you?”
We all had a reason. Even if it was just to relax at the end of a hard day, it still buried our troubles deep enough that we didn’t have to feel them anymore.
“Trying to forget that my mom isn’t here anymore. I’m good at it.” Joel held up the joint and smirked. “She always told me to keep at the shit I was good at.”
“Is it working?” The alcohol didn’t work for me. Phin was still there, in the back of my mind. He never left. Not even when I’d wanted him to. Thoughts of what Donn could do to him plagued me. Was Phin afraid of the dark? That was the question I’d landed on, and it wouldn’t go away. I didn’t know the answer, and I should. After all the times we’d spent together, I still didn’t know him as well as I should have. The tragedy of that wasn’t lost on me.
“Nope. But it helps me remember the good things about her. There weren’t many of them.” Joel sucked in more smoke, held it for a moment, then let it out. When he spoke again, his voice was husky from the big puff. “Gotta focus on the good times. Am I right?”
“That’s right.” Maybe I should focus on the last time I saw Phin. He’d been in the supply closet, mad at me. But he’d let me smooth out the prickles.
“That’s a deep conversation for just meeting.” Joel gave me the side-eye.
“Kinda, yeah.” I really liked Joel. He was easy to be around.
Joel chuckled. The mood shifted back to serious just as quickly, though. “Elliot was on the schedule today. Do you know if he’s alright?”
“He’s great.” Getting fucked six ways to Sunday made him better than most. “Just preoccupied.”
“That means it’s working out with the hot dude.” Joel eyed my cloak. “What’s with the getup?”
I could have lied, but I thought better of it. I’d gained Joel’s trust from the start and didn’t want to lose it so quickly. “I’m a reaper.”
“Am I dead?” If he was bothered by the thought, he didn’t show it.
“No, but you are in danger. I’m going to need you to come with me.” I fully expected him not to believe me, but he just shrugged.
“Where are we going?” His eyes were half-lidded and grew more bloodshot the longer we sat there. Maybe the weed made him easygoing in that moment, but I got the impression he was that way most of the time. The circumstances might have changed that if not for the weed.
“To Elliot’s house. You can stay there. It’s safer.” I stood and held out my hand.
He took it. “K. But I need to tell my brother I’m having a sleepover at Elliot’s. He’ll worry.”
“I can take you home first.” That turned out to be the worst idea I’d ever had, because Miles, Joel’s brother, was a colossal pain in my ass.
Chapter Four
Ossy
Aphone call was all I had, so I sat at the kitchen table with Tan’s whiskey half gone and my phone in hand. Joel and Miles argued in the living room about how shady their new situation was. I agreed with Joel. It wasn’t that shady, considering they were in Elliot’s house. It wasn’t like I dropped them in the Between or anything like that.
Miles seemed to like being in control. He wasn’t exactly the daredevil type. He probably didn’t even watch scary movies. Whatever, man. Maybe it was baked into his personality. I didn’t blame him. A guy in a cloak said, “Come with me.” Blindly following was stupid in most cases.
I dialed Phin’s number for the fourth time in twenty minutes. He was ignoring me, which, of course, he was. I didn’t have to teleport into his living room to know he was watching late-night television and chewing his lip every time the name Asshole Reaper popped up on his phone screen. And before you ask, yes, that was how he had me saved in his phone. And then he took a picture of me with jelly on my cheek to remind himself of the mess I’d made of his life and that he shouldn’t have startedfucking me in the first place. I knew Phin better than I knew just about anyone. I knew how his mind worked. And I knew exactly why he wasn’t answering my calls. He thought I was flaking on him again.
