Death has a Daughter (DHAD Series) (13 page)

A large yawn escaped my mouth as I opened my eyes to realize I was the last one up.  Trevor wasn’t on the couch across from me any longer, and I could hear Lacie doing something upstairs.  Only one thing could get me feeling awake.  I walked out onto the deck and glanced below to the running stream. Feeling lazy, I ported down to the edge of the deck and stepped onto the rocks that led to the stream. 

My foot was inches from entering the water when I caught
site of something in the corner of my eye.  A spider was there, and way too close to where I’d been about to get into the water.  The spider was a muddy-brown color, and the size of my palm.  Large enough for me to be able to count each fuzzy, brown hair it had on its body. 

Avoiding the spider, I
took a few steps farther down the stream’s edge and dipped them in.  A chill slid up my foot, as the water was much colder than I’d expected.  It still felt refreshing though, and was starting to wake me up. Slowly, I walked into the stream, wishing I could have just jumped in—to get it all over with at once.  Instead, I had to relive the sting of the cool stream piece by piece, because there was no jumping into this stream.  It wasn’t like a lake or a pool, because it was on top of a mountain, so nothing was level, as the stream’s bottom was full of jagged rocks.  The water had just touched my stomach when I felt my foot slip.  I couldn’t catch myself in time, so my entire body dunked into the stream.  At least I’d found the dip in the stream’s rock bottom.  Just as my head surfaced, I let out a shriek as I felt a nibble at my ankle.  Fish must hang out in this drop-off as well, and they didn’t like me stopping by.  My legs managed to get out of the dip and finally found a flat piece of rock to stand on.  This left most of my body still in the water.  My eyes looked up to see Lacie making her way down the deck steps.

“
This house is like a cabin mansion.”  She smiled. She must have gotten a good night’s rest.  Her feet reached the water’s edge and, as she took a step in, she let out a scream.

“
So you’ve met my friend, Charlotte?” I laughed.

“
That thing is huge.” She took a few steps to her right and stuck her foot in the water again.  “It’s freezing.”

“
Refreshing,” I replied.

“
You know there are like four bathrooms with showers in that place, right?”

“
Yes, I used one last night. I’ve just always liked it out here.”  Listening to the water splash onto the rocks, as the stream flowed down the mountain, always relaxed me.  The temperature of the water also helped wake me up.  “You should try it.”

“
No way am I swimming with spider woman over there.  I came down to tell you Trevor said we’re leaving soon.  He doesn’t want any more of your friends showing up.”

“
Drake is not my friend.”

“
I wish he was mine,” she said as her cheeks turned a light-rose color.  She rushed up the stairs, and I followed behind.  She opened the door as we made it up the deck stairs, and entered the house.  Trevor was just coming out of the house and onto the deck.

“
Why are you still here?” he asked, and I stayed out on the deck with him as Lacie went inside.

“
You’re usually gone by now. Is something wrong?  Are they coming?” he asked as his eyes checked the perimeter.

“
No, she asked me to stay during the day when we were talking last night before bed,” I told him.  She had said that, but after what happened with the Demon yesterday, and with Drake last night, I needed a day off.  I’d usually spend a day off by myself, but something told me I needed to not be left alone with my thoughts today.  My mind could figure out the actions and consequences of everything I’d done in the past few months later. Once this was all over.

“
Hmm. Why?” he asked, but actually didn’t seem too upset by it, which shocked me.  Maybe he was starting to trust me a bit.

“
She just did.”  I smiled. “Says you’re not much to talk to.”

“
I’m just fine to talk to,” he argued.

“
Doubtful.”  I spit back at him.  “Let me guess what you talk about…battles, lectures, and your world?”

“
Well, yeah…”

“
You know she is a human right?” I asked him.

“
Of course.”

“
Well, I mean you’re the ‘
ultimate Guardian’
so you might know this better than me,” I mocked.  “But in my tracking and studying I’ve found humans like talking about other things, you know, that have something to do with their life.”

“
How do you even know what she’ll want to talk about?  Just because you track humans, it doesn’t make you an expert on them.  Have you ever even talked to one before?” he asked.

“
Of course. You know we have them in our realm, right?  You know Reapers do marry human women and they, well, tell us stories and things.”  And Dave and I always used to sneak to the human realm and watch them and TV when we were really bored.  But I wasn’t telling him that; he’d probably make fun of me even more.  Along with the sneaking around, I’d only studied human life for the past fifteen years of my life.

“
So you get your knowledge from women who condemn themselves by agreeing to marry a Grim Reaper?”

“
Well, yeah.”

“
Whatever. You can stay to talk to her about those things.  It will give me more time to try and figure out how to get in contact with my brothers.”

***

Trevor had decided that we should walk along the trails in the mountains near the cabin.  He said it might look like they were alerted, if he and Lacie just left all of a sudden—if Drake decided to stalk us—so we would be able to get away through the trails of the mountain.  I heard a rush of water and looked up ahead.  There was a waterfall coming up.

“
Oh wow, look how pretty that is!” Lacie said as she ran ahead up to it.

“
It is amazing,” I said as I quickened my pace to catch up to her.  We were at in seconds.  It was a small one, but it had a nice looking pool at the bottom of it.  It looked tempting.  We didn’t have waterfalls in my realm, so I was finding myself quite amazed by it.

“
Can we please go swimming?” Lacie asked me.

“
Swimming?  I don’t care,” I said.

“
No,” said Trevor as he came up to us.

“
But we’re not doing anything else,” she pleaded.  “And look—there’s a nice pool at the bottom, and there can’t be that much of a current, because it’s barely moving,” she pleaded.

“
Fine, but only for a short time.  And only because, after taking three showers, I still feel like I have that Demon’s remains on me.  After a quick swim, we have to keep moving, though,” he said.

“
Not really.  Wherever you’re trying to go, I can just port us there,” I said honestly, and his eyes lit up in fury.

“
No. Well, I mean yes, I know you can do that.  But during the day we have to do activities to keep up our strength, so we prefer to walk.”

“
He’s just feeding you BS.  He’s really trying to find another Guardian.  He’s hoping someone from a town he knows will see him and he’ll be able to get back home.  But it’s pointless, because we don’t see like anyone, because we are not around any sort of population.  But he refuses to be around a lot of people because it’s too
‘risky.’
Demons have
‘so many spies,’
and he cannot put me at risk when he’s not at his full abilities.  So we wander the woods on the impossible chance that someone from his realm will decide to go hiking,” Lacie said, in her best Trevor impression, as she threw off her shirt and pants. 

She was only in her bra and underwear
, as she approached the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, jumping in with a loud splash.

“
It’s so much warmer than that stream behind the cabin,” she called to us.

“
I can’t believe she told you that,” he said, as she began to swim.

“
I don’t really know why you’d feel the need to keep that from me.  I mean, if anything, I want you to find someone who will recognize you.  Then I’m off duty, remember?” 

“
I hadn’t thought of it that way,” he said.

“
Aren’t you guys coming in?” she called from the middle of the pool.

“
No, I’m not really a swimmer,” I lied, not wanting to be in just my bra and underwear around Trevor.  My uniform had almost dried from my swim earlier, and I didn’t want to get it wet again.  It was harder to move in while wet.  Since Lacie had just stripped down to her underwear and bra, if I didn’t do the same, it would scream that I was embarrassed or shy, displaying a weakness to him that I know he’d exploit.

“
Oh come on, it feels great. Stop being a bummer.  You were in the stream just this morning,” Lacie shouted.

“
She probably doesn’t know how to swim,” Trevor teased as he threw off his uniform, and stood in black boxer briefs.

“
Yes, I do,” came stuttering out of my mouth as I looked at his perfect washboard abs and golden bronze skin.  He was all muscle, and perfectly toned.  He had no hair on anything below his head.  He had to be smooth as glass.

“
Where have you swum then?  Perhaps in the Vaitarna River?” Trevor asked.  I tried to open my mouth to correct him, as you wouldn’t want to swim in the Vaitarna River.  One, because its shores were lined with bones crusted in rotting flesh-filled mud. And two, because you physically couldn’t swim in the river, because it was filled with tainted blood and yellow, boiling pus—you’d die instantly. But nothing came out as my eyes looked at him from head to toe.

“
No. I just—” Still couldn’t take my eyes off his body.

“
Can’t swim?” he said with a laugh, and ran toward the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.  Once he reached the edge, he jumped high in the air and tucked his whole body in, making him appear to be in some kind of ball as he hit the water.  It made a huge splash that sprinkled over my feet.

“
See, I told you,” he said to Lacie when he came up from the water.  “She can’t swim.  She is just a mere Reaper, so why would they know how to do that?”

“
Come on, Cendall.  Prove him wrong!” she shouted, and it was all the encouragement I needed.  I stripped off my black top and pants.  I watched as Trevor’s eyes started at my head and then traveled down my body.  Ha, I had proved him wrong, because he seriously looked shell-shocked as I ran to the water and jumped in head first.

“
See, I can swim, Guardian,” I said as soon as my head came above the water.

“
Yes, but can you battle in water!” he said and he grabbed my head and dunked it back under.  I almost panicked, thinking he’d decided to try and kill me, but he quickly released.  I could hear Lacie laughing as I came up out of the water.

“
Ha-ha,” she bellowed, but her laughter was cut short as Trevor dunked her underwater as well.  If he did it to her too, this must be some sort of a game.  Games were right up my alley.  My head went underwater and I opened my eyes.  If he wanted to play games, I would play.  I could hear his laughter ripple through the water as Lacie came up from her dunking.

“
Where did Cendall go?” his muffled voice traveled through the water, as he checked the scene and noticed I wasn’t there.  I rose up right behind him, placed my arms on his shoulders and with all my strength, pushed him under.  He fought slightly, but I had the upper hand on this one.  My hand shot up in victory as his head went under.

“
Good one, Cendall,” Lacie said with a laugh.  I laughed along with her for a second, waiting for Trevor to rise up out of the water and complain.  Seconds passed and he still hadn’t come up.  He was going to try and sneak up on me.  No way I would let him sneak up on me like I’d done to him.  I’d have to swim for the edge of the water.  Then I could get out and see where he went. The rush of being chased fueled my speed as I made it to the edge and got myself out.  As soon as I stood up and looked for him I saw his body.  He had been chasing me but I’d won.  His head finally raised above the water.

“
You’re a fast swimmer.” He laughed.  “You win, I surrender,” he said and slowly got out of the water to stand a few feet in front of me. 

“
You—surrender? That’s something I never expected to hear from you,” I said with a laugh.  He had a look of odd playfulness in his eyes as he began walking closer to me.  When he stood a foot from me he held out his hand.

“
Truce in the dunking war?” he said with a smirk.

“
Truce.”  Maybe I would finally get some respect from him.  I held out my hand, and to my surprise, as soon as my hand was in his, he pulled me into his body in a death grip.  The heat from his bare chest touching mine sent tiny sparks racing through my body.  He ran to the water’s edge, as I tried to squirm out of his grip, but it was useless.  His rock-hard muscles were containing me.  My pulse started to race as he jumped and both of our bodies collided with the water.