“I remember.” My mind shied away from remembering the black void of being recalled.
“So you would give it all up, the money, the cars, the immortality…” He said the last word with deliberate pronunciation. “You would give it all up for a girl?”
I would give it all up forher.
But saying that out loud would only put a bigger target on her so, instead, I replied, “I’ve tried out the lifestyle and decided that immortality doesn’t look good on me.”
G.R. laughed and stood from his chair. “Perhaps a new body would make immortality more appealing?” He flicked his wrists and all the closet doors behind him opened. My eyes went to the spot where I knew he kept my body.
“It’s still there,” he said, following my gaze. “Waiting for you to complete your assignment and claim a spot as a permanent Death Escort.”
I looked away from my body. “No.”
He must’ve heard something in my voice that he hadn’t before. Maybe it was the ring of finality because a great change came over him. The closet door slammed shut and a cold wind blew through the room. His cheekbones seemed to strain against his skin and his lips drew into a fine, hard line.
“So you would take from me, then?” he began in a deep, relentless voice as he came around the desk. His dark, beady eyes speared me with cold fury. “You would spend my money, live in my house, and drive a car I paid for and give me nothing in return?”
The floor beneath my feet shook with a slight tremor that I did my best to pretend I hadn’t felt.
“You can have it all back. You can take this body and my soul—do whatever you want to me—if you leave Piper out of it.”
He smiled and I knew I’d revealed my weakness to him.
“All in the name of love?” he said gently, almost whimsically. Then he slammed his fist on the edge of his desk and screamed, “Death doesn’t care about love!”
“I won’t let you take her,” I ground out.
“You think your bargain is of any prize to me? I already own your body and your soul. The money and the house will not be lost. We had a deal. No one goes back on a deal with the Grim Reaper.”
“I said I would kill someone. So pick someone else. Anyone else. I’ll do it.”
“It doesn’t work that way. The Target has been made. A deal was struck. You are going back on your end of the deal and you will be recalled!”
With that, he held out his hand, palm up, and spread his fingers wide. With a jerk of his arm I felt a tug and a deep pull within. I started to gag as I sank to my knees and purple mist began to lift out of my skin.
I never got to say good-bye.
It was all I could think of. I would be gone and Piper would wonder where I went…
And then Charming would come for her.
I watched helplessly as the purple mist that was my essence began swirling around the body that contained it. I couldn’t make a sound to beg. I could do nothing but watch as he claimed what he thought was his.
“Wait!” he cried suddenly, the fingers in his outstretched hand curled in toward his palm. Everything around me stilled. The purple, translucent mist seemed to stop and suspend in the air around me.
Then G.R. made a pushing motion and all the mist—all my essence—went right back into my body.
I scrambled to my feet as he said, “Recalling you now would be too easy. I think a more fitting punishment for your betrayal would be to watch the very Target you wanted to save be taken anyway. Then you shall be recalled. Then you will fully understand that no one refuses the Grim Reaper.” His chin was tipped down and he stared up at me, giving his face a hollow, savage look.
Just then the office doors swung wide and Charming burst through. He stopped short when he saw me standing there and then he glanced at G.R. and a sly smile broke over his features. “Ah, so you know,” he said.
“Know that this boy is a complete and utter disappointment?” G.R. sighed. “Yes. I was just about to go collect the Target he refuses to kill. You can stay and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid while I am gone.”
“With pleasure,” Charming said, coming farther into the room.
I watched as G.R. paused beside his coffee table to study the bowl of smooth stones. He debated for long seconds before choosing a very pale-colored one with a crack in the side. He glanced at me.
“It would’ve been the perfect stone if not for this damned crack. Very fitting, I would say, that it be the representation of the death that should have been yours to claim. You would have been the perfect Escort… but it seems you are also cracked.”
