A Grim Love: Can't Fight Time (7 page)

“Well,” Uri began with a shrug, turning away from her. “You’re going to die soon anyway. Plus from the looks of it, you’re not going back home, and it just so happens we got an extra room in the house.” Uri said nonchalantly, like he made this sort of bargain often.

But from what’s he’s told me, he doesn’t. So then what’s in it for him?
“What’s in it for you?” Nina asked slowly, carefully watching his reaction.

“Since we’ll be under contract, no other Reaper can touch you. And if they try than I have every right to beat the crap out of them.” Uri said with an shit-eating grin and reached up to trail a finger down her arm. Nina stared at the finger curiously as she felt a strange heat trail in its wake.

Of course!
Nina rolled her eyes, her mind returning to their conversation.
Sibling rivalry. Something like: ‘I got your toy! Nana nana boo boo, stick your head in doo doo.’
But for extra time to have some semblance of a life, Nina would take sibling bullshit any day. But one question still remained. “How much time will I have on this temporary contract?”

Nina watched as Uri scratched his arm and rolled his head, thinking about how he would answer.

“Give or take three months in the Underworld. Something like the equivalent of three human days. It’s plenty of time to finish a bucket list, but not enough time to get pregnant or cause a lot of suspicion in the human world. It’s like 48 hours until a missing person report is filed, right? So one more day shouldn’t have the dogs out sniffing for you,” Uri said with a nod, scratching at his neck.

Three months. That’s how much time I get.
It wasn’t really a bad bargain, in fact. But Nina could read between the lines and know that Uri would still get in trouble if they went through with it. Though probably not a lot of trouble, it would still be there.

Yet the selfish side of Nina acknowledged that she didn’t care if Uri got a little banged up if she got to live for three more months. A quote from what seemed a lifetime ago, popped up in her head:
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

Would I be able to die after this bargain? Accept the inevitable after living on borrowed time?
Nina wasn’t afraid of death; she’d met him, and he’d been nice. No, her biggest fear was the way she would die. Maybe she could have accepted getting hit by a car or even shot during a mugging-gone-bad. But death by serial killer father? Even Mark Twain would sympathize with her.

“I’ll do it,” Nina said, with a sharp nod. At the moment the option seemed like her best shot and, ever the pragmatic woman, Nina could accept when she was out of viable options.

Uri nodded solemnly. “Your hand,” he said, turning her hand over so that her palm faced down.

Nina gave him her hand, and a burn of ice and fire raced over the top of her hand, up her arm and into her heart. The whole world seemed to stand still as her heart gave a few heavy beats before settling into the slowest rhythm Nina had ever heard. Like her heart was on the cusp of death, just waiting for that last push.

Surprisingly, the cold Nina had felt around Uri was gone, replaced by just the slightest chill, like the chill from a fan set on low in the summertime. She looked down at herself to make sure she didn’t have gray skin, or anything weird like that. But, all in all, she was absolutely fine.

Staring at the mark only about the size of a quarter just below her thumb, Nina was amazed at how painful the small mark had been. On closer inspection, the little mark was very intricate, twisting and curving around strange lettering in the center.

“What does it say?” Nina asked curiously, poking at the mark.

“In the middle is my name and around it is the contract.” Uri said.

“Can it be removed?” Nina asked curiously, staring up into his myrtle green eyes.

Uri smiled and reached for her hand, placing a kiss on the mark. “Trying to run away from me already?”

Nina raised an incredulous brow at him, her look saying that she wasn’t interested in the least. Uri snickered and lowered her hand. “It can only be removed by me or someone more powerful, and only with your permission. The minute you feel unsafe the mark will trigger and it won’t be able to be removed.”

Nina nodded somberly and placed her hand at her side, resisting the urge to scratch at it. It wasn’t that it was itchy, but it was strange to suddenly have a tattoo looking mark on her hand. The closest that she’d gotten to a permanent mark on her skin was the slight scar on her ankle from when she’d broken her ankle as a kid.

“You ready to go?” Uri asked her pleasantly, like they were talking about grabbing a bite to eat instead of going to the Underworld.

“Um? I guess so,” Nina said after a pause, getting up and watching Uri move with her. “Is there like a bus or something?”

Uri laughed out loud, tears springing to the corners of his eyes. “Nah,” Uri said around a laugh, wiping at his eyes. “We’re going to use this. But next time we’ll take the d-death bus!” Uri said, bursting out laughing and clutching his sides.

Nina glared at him with her hands on her hips. “I was being serious! I mean, you’re wearing an Ed-Hardy T-shirt for goodness sake! A bus doesn’t seem so improbable if you look at it that way.”

She watched Uri look down at his shirt and laugh again as he swung his arm and a portal suddenly appeared. “Yeah,” Uri said around his last fit of giggles, “I guess you're right. But seriously, not everything you read or watch is true. Only some of it,” Uri said with a waggle of his brows, making him look like he was a high school prankster.

Nina smirked as she grabbed his extended hand and walked through the portal as if she was walking through someone’s front door.

CHAPTER SIX

Grim pressed his seal into the last envelope and leaned back in his chair, stretching  his body in an entirely too human gesture.
Guess I was there too long,
Grim thought as he smiled and flexed his hands, watching the skin draw back against the bone and blood rush through the veins in a parody of a human body.

“Samuel!” Grim heard his mother screech, rattling as she entered his study with a flurry of black cloth and ivory bones. “I don’t know why you insist on wearing that form when you have already shed. It disgraces your lineage to wear the guise of a human,” she said with a scathing, haughty air, scythe trailing after her form as she rounded on him.

Fog enfolded Grim once again as he resumed his skull-and-bones look, the epitome of a Grim Reaper. “And that fog! It’s so annoying! I wish you would stop using it. It’s not as if we all haven’t seen you transform!” she snapped loudly, shaking her head as she gathered up the cards in front of him.

Just because you’re used to it doesn’t mean that I am!
Grim wanted to snap back at his mother, but wisely kept his bones quiet and his power firmly in check. Fighting with his harridan mother had never helped either of them. The only thing that helped was his extended absence from her presence.
Not that that’s going to happen anytime soon.

Even now, talk of the coming succession and marriage were abuzz in the castle walls, taunting him with the life he was about to be forced into.
The life all kings were forced into.
His father had reminded him of that, harshly, when uncertainty had crept into him and he’d sought comfort and understanding.

Fat chance of finding it here
, his consciousness taunted as the words that had been said to him for the last hundred years whispered through his mind.
It’s a political alliance, a truce of mutual assured destruction to both the Castoffs and the Bloodspurns. It is a necessary evil.

“Stop looking so grim, Samuel.” His mother hissed at him, shuffling through the envelopes to make sure he had sealed each one.

Of course the irony of her comment wasn’t lost on him.
Grim Reapers being grim; there’s a pun in there somewhere,
he thought, pushing back from his desk and rising. “I apologize, Mother, if I am not ecstatic about signing over my future happiness to a child I’ve never even met!”

There was a harsh pause in the room, a length of time when both mother and son wondered who would break the tension, and whether by doing so they might do more harm than good. A sudden whistle of air in the castle’s portal room alerted them to an arrival. The power that followed it let them know who it was.

“Damn that child! This is all your fault, Samuel! Going to the human world to play and relax--you are inciting a rebellion of my sons!” his mother said dramatically.

Grim rolled his eyes and bit back a sardonic smile.
Apparently I’m not her son anymore.

“Mother, stop being so dramatic!” Grim said irritably, the sound of his birth name starting to grate at his nerves. Only she ever called him that, and it was only because she’d raised him.

“What Uri does on his own is his business. I have no control over his choices.”

The sound of a heartbeat forestalled the other unkind things he was about to say. No one in their kingdom had a heartbeat; the last human-reaper child had died and begun shedding centuries ago. The only possible explanation was--

“Human!” Grim heard his mother scream as she streaked out of his study, a cloud of black and gray.

Grim was right behind her, praying he was wrong, hoping that Uri hadn’t done what he thought he’d done and signed a temporary contract with a human. But then, what did he expect? Uri did whatever he wanted and damned the consequences, because many times there were none!

“Uriel!” Grim whispered harshly, speeding down the corridor to the portal Uri had just come out of.

“Come on, guys. You can’t really do anything; it’s already been--Oh! Hey, Mom. And hello--” Grim heard Uri begin casually, a laughing note in his tone that made Grim lash out with his power and start to choke Uri.

“Uri!” The husky voice he had been craving for a chance to hear once more screamed, dropping to her knees beside his brother as Grim continued to choke the life out of him. “Stop it!”

“Samuel, don’t be childish!” his mother chastised, her bones rattling with indignation.

A dozen guards surrounded Uri and Nina, forming a semicircle around the--if Grim had currently had a tongue he would have bitten it off with the next word. Anger, betrayal, and fear clawed through the remnants of his body, whipping his power into a frenzy he could barely control.

Uri had taken Nina from him, signed a temporary contract with her, and for what? For the glory of rubbing it in his face? Another pawn in the game of ‘who wants to be the next Bloodspurn king’?

“You have committed a grave offense, Uri. By bring a human here you have broken one of our most sacred laws. You know what the punishment must be,” Grim said ominously, his voice sounding cold, harsh, and forbidding even to his own ears.

Beside him his mother moved to speak but he raised a hand to silence her. He would be the king in only a matter of weeks; in this arena she had no power, and it was best she learn that quickly. “Step aside,” Grim commanded, watching his guards lower their eyes and bow their heads as they moved away.

I’m scaring her again,
Grim thought fleetingly, his emotions seeping out even as he tried to think objectively.

As if he was unclenching his fingers, Grim pulled back his power, allowing Uri to breathe freely. He drew back his hurt and his rage, until the power was once again curved around him, coiled tight.

Seeing Nina, arms wrapped around Uri as he slowly began to breathe again, made Grim want to stop what he was doing. To stop everything, wrap her in his arms, and tell her everything was going to be ok. To assure her that she was safe. But he couldn’t, he wouldn’t.

Grim measured his steps carefully until he was only a few paces away from Nina and Uri, his scythe a deadly promise at his side. Looking down at them, he listened for the slow beat of Nina’s heart, barely there.
Yes, they had signed a temporary contract.

“Uriel of the Bloodspurn line,” Grim began formally, making sure everyone in the room could feel his power stroking over them like a harsh caress, “Together with the human, nullify your contract and accept your punishment.” Grim leaned over them until neither of them could see past him.

Uri was scared shitless, obviously not expecting this kind of reception, even if he had broken a law. Yet what puzzled Grim the most, was that Nina didn’t seem frightened or scared; in fact, her heartbeat hadn’t sped up once. “Human,” Grim addressed her, trying to scare her into submission. S
he had to die.

“My name is Nina Marie Strathmore,” Nina said slowly, her voice gaining in strength as she turned her face up to his. “I have been through--” she began, her voice rising as she moved away from Uri and began to pick herself up, making Grim lean back and away from her, “--Hell and back! And I don’t give a flying horseshit what law Uri has broken, because he saved my life!” she screamed, advancing towards him with a pointed finger, her body shaking in rage.
Or was it fear?

“So I don’t care that you don’t want me here, because F.Y.I, I don’t even want to be here! I just want to be able to have a few more days where I don’t have to worry about being tracked down and killed by my father! So can you please take that righteous high-and-mighty attitude and shove it!” Grim heard her scream, feeling the wall pressing against his back as Nina literally backed him into a corner.

“How dare that insolent little--” Grim heard his mother began as Nina continued to stare fire at him. She whipped her head around to glare seething hatred at his mother. “Will you shut up!”

The feeling began in his ribs, slowly spreading up until it engulfed him. Grim found himself laughing, his bones rattling wildly as he clutched at his side, bent over and laughed. The guards paused before following suit, and soon the whole room was laughing except for his mother and Nina, who were glaring at each other.

“Enough!” Grim boomed, laugher still rattling through his bones. “The contract can’t be nullified unless both parties accept, and the human does seem willing,” Grim came close to Nina and trailed a bony finger down her cheek. He was impressed by her bravery as she stood her ground, refusing to flinch away. She truly was the most interesting human he’d ever come across.
And the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen,
his subconscious added as he leaned forward until they were only a breath apart.

“Welcome to your new home,
Amica
. Well... at least temporarily,” Grim said, watching a flare of recognition light Nina’s eyes before she lowered her lids and tossed her head away.

Does she recognize me?
Grim wondered as he watched Nina go back to Uri and help him up.

“Thank you...” He heard her soft voice trail off, obviously waiting for his name.

Nina didn’t know Grim’s title; all she knew was that he was a royal. She didn’t even know his birth name; he didn’t tell it to many people or even like it when people used it. But he still didn’t want Nina to find out who he was just yet. She was in contract with Uri, and he had to remember that.

“Heir Apparent to the Bloodspurn Kingdom, Samuel Bloodspurn; you may call me Highness,” he added, just to needle her and find out what she would do.

A tiny line marred Nina’s brow, but it was quickly replaced by a sardonic twist of her lips. Grim wondered if he had even seen the confusion on her face or if it had been a trick of the light. “Thanks, Sam.”

Grim smiled, as much as he could as a skeleton, and waved his hands to dismiss the guards. “Come, Mother,” Grim said, turning to leave, not sure if he was doing the right thing by letting Nina continue to stay or the wrong thing by not letting her die. He didn’t know.

“But Samuel--” His mother began to whine.

Grim’s temper flared and he snapped at her: “It wasn’t a request.”

Beginning to walk away, Grim paused and looked back over his shoulder. “Enjoy your stay, Ms. Strathmore. I’m sure we'll meet again. In better circumstances, I hope.”

Behind him, he could hear the soft rustle of cloth as his mother finally followed, and also the grunted retort that Nina bit off: “Not if I can help it.”

***

“Uri?” Nina asked as they walked to his rooms, where she would be staying. Well, the room adjacent to his, because she had already mentioned about a thousand times that there was no way they were sleeping together, no matter how many years of practice Uri said he had.

“Yeah?” He answered, hands tucked into his back pockets as he nodded at yet another guard they passed. The guards barely even glanced at her, and if they did, it was usually a glare.

This place has to have more security than the Pentagon,
Nina thought. “What does ‘amica’
mean?” she asked aloud. The question had been bugging her after the scary-as-all-get-out reaper had called her it, because Grim called her
Amica
too. She would have thought it was a reaper thing, but so far Uri hadn’t used it at all, which confused the hell out of Nina.

“It’s an endearment, like ‘sweetheart’ or ‘darling.’ Why? Someone call you that?” Uri asked, wagging his eyebrows at her.

Nina smiled and rolled her eyes, ignoring the information he was oh-so-subtly fishing for. “Where’s it from?”

She watched him shrug and lead her down another hallway.
God, this place is big! I swear I just walked a mile!
“Attic Greek. The language died long ago, but certain reapers like to hold on to the past.”

Nina nodded, as she walked down the corridor and thought more of the reaper who had called her “Amica.”
Could he have been Grim’s friend? The--guy?--seemed like a dick, but maybe they know each--
All at once memories started to flood into her head, tearing into her mind like bullets.