Death has a Daughter (DHAD Series) (17 page)

Oh shit, I
’d forgotten all about her. Hell, I’d forgotten about everything.  I then tried to gently push Trevor away, but he wasn’t getting the message.  He was glued to my upper chest. In seconds, his journey would be at its first stop…my right nipple.  “Trevor, I get the point; you win.”  But he didn’t move.

“
LACIE and I get the point; you’re not all BS,” I said, saying Lacie’s name loud, hoping to key into him that we had an audience.  It took him a second after hearing ‘Lacie,’ but then he let me go.  Making my body instantly go cold and my soul feel empty, like he’d taken a piece of it with him.

“
I’m never calling BS on you ever again.  That was insane.  I swear, at one point you were like glowing from the heat of that.  I thought you two were going to…” she said as she looked up at both of us.

“
NO!”  Trevor and I shouted together.

“
That was just to prove a point, which I’ve done…so I’m going to go find us something to eat.” Trevor practically sprinted into the woods.  When he was no longer in view, Lacie stared at me.

“
What the hell was that?” Lacie asked, and I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves—and my whole damned body—down.  It took each and every brain cell I had to control my throbbing body from chasing him into the woods and jumping on top of him.  “So how was it compared to the other times?  I mean, it looked like you were really enjoying yourself.”

“
It was much different.”  But why was it different?  He just tasted so amazing. Remembering how his full lips felt on mine gave me a mental image of what would have happened had we not stopped.  Would he have continued down my body to taste all of me?  My temperature shot up at the thought.  With Drake it had been aggressive, and sinfully delightful, but was purely a physical thing.  With Trevor it was like we were on our own separate plain, where bodies and minds connected as one.

“
Hello...Cendall...are you still with us?” Lacie asked while waving her hand in my face, breaking my thoughts.

“
Yeah, I’m here; sorry, I just...”

“
Want to do it again?” she asked.

“
Yes,” I blurted out, and immediately put a hand to my lips.  “No, I mean ‘yes’ to the first question—I’m still here.”

“
Sure, that’s what you meant.” She giggled and my face flushed red for the twentieth time today.  “If it makes you feel better, I think he enjoyed it as much as you did.  And I think it’s freaking him out too,” she said, and a smile hit my lips as I playfully gave her a small punch on the shoulder.  It was so different having a female to talk to about personal things.  I couldn’t help but wonder if this was how sisterhood felt.  I’d never known the difference, being an only child.

“
Oh, shut it.” I laughed with her.

“
So what are you going to do now?”  Lacie asked.

“
You are just full of questions today.  I honestly don’t know. I’m just going to play it out, day by day, and hopefully something changes so I don’t have to leave my realm.  I’ll be back tomorrow. I need a good night’s rest—alone—tonight.”

Three
make-outs in one day; if father knew, he’d freak.  I awoke to him moving around downstairs.  Slowly, I got up, threw on some yoga pants and a black hoodie, and walked downstairs.  He was sitting on the couch reading a Time magazine—something he’s done since I could remember.  I’d teased him several times about reading a magazine made for humans, but he claimed it helped him scout back in the day.  Considering that he was retired now, he couldn’t use that excuse, but like they say, old habits die hard.

“
Hey Dad,” came out between hums as I headed towards the fridge.

“
You’re in a much better mood, considering the news you got yesterday,” he said, and I stopped humming.  I’d forgotten for a second. Thanks for the awesome reminder, Dad.

“
Yeah, I’m still pissed. I just got some good news, so I’m trying to focus and be happy about that instead,” I told him, and his head perked up from magazine.

“
And what news is that?” he asked.

“
Dave has found
‘his one’
,” I told him, and left out the rest of my eventful day yesterday.

“
That was fast.  You guys have only been out on your own for a couple of months.  Is he sure?”

“
One-hundred percent.” 

“
Well, when you know, you know.” He laughed.  “No matter what logic your brain throws at you, the heart just knows what it wants.”

“
Yeah, how did you know?” I asked, suddenly having the urge to ask about my mother, which hadn’t happened in a while.

“
I told you this before when you were younger. Do you not remember?” he asked, and I tried to think but it came up blank.

“
Not really.  All I remember you saying is that we had the same looks and attitudes, except for our hair color.”

“
Correct. Hers was blonde,” he said as a huge grin stretched across his face.  It never made sense to me.  My father’s hair was long, smooth, and pitch-black, so if hers was blonde, where did my red hair come from?  “Okay, well, we met on earth.”

“
Duh.” She was human. But he began to blink rapidly, like I’d missed something.

“
Okay, and well, when I first met her, I was speechless.  She was just so beautiful.  She hated me at first.” He laughed deeply.  “But something just kept drawing us together, and even though her harsh, strict beliefs told her ‘no,’ once I showed her my charm, she couldn’t resist.”

“
Her beliefs?”  He didn’t tell me anything about that before.

“
Yeah, strict catholic she was,” he said and his eyes went back to his magazine.  I’d missed something.  “I’m so sorry you won’t be able to do that,” he said with sad eyes looking back up to me.  “You have to know it was honestly the only way; I’m sure you will learn to love Drake.  Who knows, he might be your one,” he said and tried to flash me a false smile.

“
Doubtful,” left my lips, and he frowned.  “I’ve got to do some late scouting tonight.  I’ll see you sometime tomorrow.” 

“
You’ve been out all day.  Don’t burn yourself out, Cendall.  I know you want to finish first, but everyone needs a break.”

“
I know.  I will soon.  See you tomorrow,” I said as I walked back out the door and into Dave, who was sitting on my porch.

“What’s wrong with you today?  Well, more like the last week?  You’ve been so down.  And it’s the most I’ve seen of you in a long time….Is there something going on?” Dave asked.

“
No,” I lied.  “Can we walk?  My dad’s inside.”

“
Sure,” he said, and we walked in silence until we were outside the gates on the bridge before the meadows.

“
You’re not mad at me for me asking you to kiss me yesterday, are you?  I really only needed that for the help.  If you feel awkward around me now, I never wanted it to be that way.  It’s just, you ported out of there without saying a word,” Dave asked.

“
That was because of Drake.” Dave must have still had his eyes closed when Drake tackled me and ported us out of there.

“
Dave, I don’t feel awkward around you. To be honest, I really forgot what had happened.”

“
That means I’ll need to practice more, if it was so non-monumental that you’ve already forgotten about it.” He snickered.

“
That’s not it at all.” I laughed.  “I’ve just had a lot on my mind, that’s all. You kissed just fine.”  I gave him a punch in the arm, and a smile hit his face.

“
Good.” He laughed, looking relieved. “But now, tell me, what is all this that you have on your mind?  What is wrong with you?  I was just so excited about finding her that, well, afterwards I’d thought about it more and realized you didn’t look right when I saw you.”

“
I told you, nothing. Just thinking too much about stuff that doesn’t matter, that’s all.”

“
You’re lying, Cendall.  You know, what you need is a good date.  We should go around searching for someone.”

“
No, I know that won’t help,” I said and a laugh escaped.

“
Did you already find someone and you’re holding back on me?” he asked.

“
What would be the point? I’m going to be married to Drake.”

H
e started laughing hysterically. 

“
You—marry Drake? Come on now.” He stopped laughing when he noticed that I wasn’t laughing with him.

“
You like Drake?” he asked, thoroughly looking confused.

“
No, I’m sorry, I wasn’t supposed to let that slip.”

“
Whoa, whoa, whoa…stop for a second. What do you mean you weren’t supposed to let that slip? You can’t be serious.  You’ve been hiding a relationship with Drake from me this entire time?  Is that why you haven’t been around much?”

“
No, Drake is not the reason why I haven’t been around much.  Please, I don’t really want to talk about this, and you can’t tell anyone else.”

“
Okay, but at least explain it to me, because right now my mind is jumping all over the place.  You’re making me feel like I’ve lost my best friend.  Friends talk to each other about this stuff, and don’t find out just out-of-the-blue that they’re marrying their worst enemy.  I told you immediately when I found her!”  Dave’s voice raised.  “I thought we were closer than that and that you could trust me with things like this.”

“
I can.  I just didn’t want you to have to stress out about it as well.  It’s just that, well, I don’t know if you remember, because, hell, we were four at the time.  But there was a lot of dispute on whether or not I should be allowed in the training program.  And, well, after the long debates, they agreed that I’d come from a strong family line, but they still didn’t want to let me in because of the unknowns of letting a female into an all-male program.  Their answer to my dad was ‘no’.  That is, until someone made the suggestion that if they allowed me to go into training, once it was completed, I would have to marry another strong Reaper bloodline.  They made the point that I would produce some super Grim Reaper baby, because usually a Reaper is bred with a human female so they only get half of the strengths, so to say.  When it’s Reaper on Reaper, well, the possibilities are endless, they proposed.  So the condition they gave to my Dad was that they would let me in if he agreed to have me wed to another Reaper.  Heaven forbid I would train and marry another human, because it would be such a waste, when I could mate with another Reaper.  No one ever had been given that opportunity before, so we had to do it their way.  If he would have said ‘no,’ they would have not let me train and would have kicked me out of the realm to live on earth, as a human, never knowing where I came from or what I was.  So my dad, given the options, chose the first, and you can guess which bloodline they picked for me to marry.”

“
Drake’s.”

“
Yup.”

“
Oh shit, Cendall; I’m sorry.”

“
Yeah.”

“
There has to be some loophole around it, though.”

“
Not one that I’ve found, and I’m sure if there had been one, my father would have already thought about it.”

“
Cendall, you can’t marry Drake…”

“
Who said I would?” I said as I looked into Dave’s eyes and he seemed to understand.

“
I will miss you so much,” he said as tears filled up his eyes.  “When?”

“
Soon. I will let you know.”

“
Oh god, Cendall. I’m so sorry.  How will I ever see you after you leave?”

“
You won’t.  I’m not having you get in trouble for my doing.”

“
I will find a way,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me and I felt the stress leave my body.  His hugs would be on the top of the list of things I would miss when I left.

After talking with my father and Dave
, I ported onto a bridge on a small island town in Alaska.  It had just started to snow.  The temperature had just hit that point where water started to turn to glass on the cement.  So cold that, when you could let out a deep breath, thin smoke escaped.  Due to the conversations I’d had before this, with Dave and my father, I would be late to see Trevor and Lacie, but I would be able to explain why.  They should trust me enough by now anyway. 

I couldn
’t leave this bridge right now.  The sun was about to set and I knew the souls I needed to collect would be here soon.  The name Riddell appeared with the number “4” next to it.  When it’s just a last name and a number that meant a whole family would die at the same time.  The four Riddell’s and Lacie were the last ones on my list.  I’d had an odd feeling for a few days now that this family would be ready to collect. 

The location had only
come to me late last night when I jumped into the shower before bed.  I’d expected the shower to be warm.  As I hit the freezing water, the word ‘Alaska’ popped into my mind.  It had been like this for all of my souls. 

My father always said to listen to my instincts
, and that’s basically all I’ve done.  Maybe it was because it was my first list, but I always knew when the souls were going to be ready.  When I’d researched the souls’ location, when I had first gotten my list, it said they lived in Michigan.  Maybe they’d left to go on vacation or something.  I would just have to trust my instincts, like I always did. 

Due to them
, I hadn’t even run into a single Guardian, except for Trevor.  I wonder if every Reaper was having it this easy.  Well, except for the whole Lacie thing.

Would I really be able to collect her soul once it came
into jeopardy again?  I would have to…wouldn’t I?  She was on my list, and there was no editing these things.  Sure, they had carryovers.  But this was my first list and you didn’t typically get carryovers until you were a higher-level Reaper.  Eventually I would have to make a choice, but, for now, I needed to worry about a family of four that I needed to take to their final judgment.  I would worry about Lacie’s soul when it got closer to me making the decision about leaving the realm.  I told Dave I would leave, but as I stood here, waiting, I began to rationalize the situation more.  The kiss hadn’t been that bad with Drake.  Maybe I’d get over my hate for him.

According to my scroll
, the Riddell family’s youngest was only twenty-three.  I gracefully ported from my spot on the bridge onto their car and prepared myself for impact.  They were about to make it as their tires hit the ice on the bridge. 

There wasn
’t a Guardian in sight.  I really needed to discuss the lack of Guardians being around with my father when I wasn’t mad at him anymore.  The car started to slide on the black ice that the father hadn’t seen.  The car swerved to the left, and, foolishly, the father slammed on the brakes and tried to turn the steering wheel to the right.  The tires screamed, along with the passengers, as they slammed into the guardrail.  The rail shattered from the impact and part of it plunged into the driver’s side door, and into the father’s body. 

Climbing to the
father’s side, I placed my scythe into his heart as he made his last breath, and I collected his soul.  He was inches away from death as it was, so the soul went calmly into my scythe.  He was, what humans called, ‘dead on impact.’  There was no way he would have survived, even if I hadn’t been there.  The rail was dug into his body, making a red, steady stream of blood flow out of the side of his body and onto the map on his lap.  I must have been right about the vacation thing.  Along with the bloody map, there were brochures of Alaska all over the dashboard.

“
Dad...DAD,” the girl who was the oldest sister started to say as she came to.  The impact had knocked her and her sister unconscious when they slammed their heads on the seats in front of them.

“
Chloe,” the girl said, as she gently shook her sister, who was seated, passed out, next to her.  Chloe...where had I heard that name?  It sounded so familiar.  I went over to check out the mom.  She had hit her head pretty hard.  She would be next, but I would have to wait until the soul was the most vulnerable, and that would surely be when the car was deep in the freezing water below.

“
What?” the girl, who I now knew as Chloe, said in a raspy voice.  She had blood dripping from her head, but she seemed to be coming to.

“
Can you shake Dad to wake him?” the other sister said with a sob.  “I can’t reach him. I think my leg is broken.  It’s stuck under Mom’s seat,” she said, and I knew I would collect her right after her mom.

“
Dad…Dad…DAD,” Chloe yelled, as she tried to shake her father.  She pulled herself over the seat and screamed as she saw the rail in her dad’s side.

“
He’s...He’s….Omg…” She started to cry.

“
No... He can’t be…” the other sister sobbed.  “Can you reach Mom?” the sister asked, and Chloe slowly obeyed, probably dreading the worst.  She put her hand over her mother’s mouth and let out a small smile.

“
She’s still breathing…but she doesn’t look good, Jamie,” Chloe said, and then finally looked around.  “Don’t move, Jamie.”

“
Can’t.  Remember, I’m stuck under the seat. But why?” Jamie asked between sobs.

“
We’re halfway over the bridge, Jamie,” Chloe said, and I could tell she was beginning to lose it.  It wouldn’t be long; they would be over the bridge soon.  Chloe looked towards her sister in the strongest, saddest eyes I’d ever seen on a human. 

“
We can get out...we just have to move slowly, and balance our weight, just like when we went surfing two years ago, remember?” Chloe said, trying to get her sister to calm down, because the tears were flowing from her face.

“
I can’t move my legs, Chloe; you have to go.  I’ll stay with Mom and Dad,” Jamie said, looking serious.  Humans were much stronger than our realm surely thought them to be.  I felt a tear roll down my cheek; this was awful.  Why couldn’t they all just die on impact?  I did not like seeing this part of death.  It wasn’t bad when I was taking the souls when it was their due time, but this was different because it was an accident.  I really needed to stop hanging out with Lacie; it was making me have a soft spot for humans.

“
No,” Chloe said, and surprised me.  This was why the whole family was probably on my list.  Surely Chloe would have been able to get out of this if she left the car.  But the absence of her weight in the car when she got out would cause it to fall, but at least she would be alive.  She grabbed her sister’s hand and looked into her eyes. 

“
We go together, and then we’ll get Mom out.  I love you, Jamie,” Chloe said, as a tear rolled down her cheek and fell onto their connected hands.  Hands that had a really exotic-looking, silver ring with a green emerald in the center.  Wait a second...that’s...oh shit. It all came to me then.  No wonder the name sounded familiar. I stared again at Chloe.  How many Chloes existed on earth that were about five foot one, had light-brown skin, and had forest-green eyes? 

This was Dave
’s Chloe.  Who the hell had come up with my scroll?  This wasn’t funny.  Dave would not be able to get over this.  We only had one person that was
‘the
one.’
Shit...Shit...Shit….There’s no way I could save another soul though. How would I get away with this one?  Think, Cendall…Think….Shit.  The car groaned as I watched Chloe lean over and undo her sister’s seatbelt. 
Stop moving
, I wanted to scream at her.  That probably would have freaked them out, seeing me suddenly appear in the car.  What was I going to do?  I could just let them fall like planned, and take their souls to the researchers.  Surely they would all go to the right realm, and Dave would never know it was me who had brought them there.  He would probably search forever, and be miserable for the rest of his life, but I wouldn’t lose my job.  Lose my job? Could I really betray Dave this way for a job, after all he’s done for me?  I needed to think about this. I teleported onto the street, and tried coming up with a plan. 

There really was only one option. I had to do it for Dave, but I would have to reveal myself so they could see me.  I hoped they would think I was just a “good Samaritan,” or whatever the Bible calls it.  Casually, I walked toward the Explorer and took off the glamor, which would allow me to reveal myself to the human eye.  According to them, I would have just happened to walk down the street and help them out of the car that was going to carry them to their demise.  Yes, that would work. That plan ended when I heard the Explorer moan and begin to tip over. 

I ran over to it
, trying to think of a way to put some weight on it so it wouldn’t fall.  The car began to tip, and I looked at Chloe, who must have moved too quickly to try and unbuckle her mom.  She had the unbuckled belt in hand and was frozen over her mother, probably hoping that by not moving the car would stop tipping, but that wasn’t the case.  The Explorer would be going down any second.  A loud scream escaped the car as I watched the back-end tip back.  It slid slowly, until the car was only hanging on by its two front tires, then after one more scream, it fell over the edge, and away from my view, towards the river below. 

My legs
jumped off the bridge and I dove, headfirst, through the front window.  Shards of glass pierced my skin as I passed Mom and Dad in the front seats.  I grabbed Chloe with one arm, and her sister with the other, and pinned them to the back seat to brace for impact. 

The slam into the water ripple
d through my whole body as I tried to continue my hold on each of them.  It felt as if my arms were being shredded by icepicks, but I somehow held on.  We were sinking quickly to the bottom of the river, because the back window had broken on impact, allowing the river to swallow us quickly.  I let out a small yelp as the cold water reached us; it felt like needles hitting my skin as my body began to numb.  This must be what they called going into shock.  I’d never felt water so cold.  It made the cold shower last night seem more like a hot tub. 

When we finally hit the bottom
, I climbed out of the car through the window I’d busted in on, and pulled Chloe out.  She stared at me in shock, but I signaled for her to wait a second as I went to get her sister.  Her sister was a bit more difficult because she was stuck.  I couldn’t just rip her leg out from under the seat.  The seat would have to be moved first. 

Ballin
g up my fist, I shoved it into the mom’s side window, and it shattered, taking several chunks of my hand with it.  The mom’s seat was the one that Jamie’s leg was stuck under.  I felt the mom’s neck for a pulse; very weak, so her time was near.  She was still unconscious, and from the impact of the river, her neck had snapped.  Quickly, I threw my scythe into her heart and collected her soul while moving her onto their father’s lap.  Then I ripped the seat forward enough so that it released Jamie’s leg, then broke Jamie’s window and pulled her through it.  As I gripped her under my arm, I was shocked to see Chloe waiting for me.  Holding her breath, staring at me, still by the car.  Once I reached her side, I put my free arm around her waist, and then, with the only power I had left, jolted us all up and out of the water and onto a small bench at the side of the river. 

Chloe began to spit up water and cough as I tended to her sister
.  Her sister had some water in her lungs and remained unconscious.  All it would take would be a small sliver of my scythe into her heart and she would also be off my list.

“
Is she alive?” Chloe asked, finally catching her breath.

“
Barely.” 

“
Do you know how to give mouth-to-mouth?” she asked frantically.

“
No, I don’t.”  Well, I learned it once, but was I going to let another one go?

“
Shit, I knew I should’ve paid attention in health.  Well, I’ll give it a try.”  She ran over to her sister, opened her mouth, and attempted to breathe into it.  What she was doing just didn’t look right.  And it must have not been, since her sister wasn’t coming to; I could feel her fading into darkness.  My scythe started calling for her. 

“
It’s not working…I can’t lose her…can you please try?” she asked, and I felt compelled.  I went over to her sister and breathed slowly into her cold, wet mouth.  Nothing happened.  As I came back up, I looked back at Chloe. 

“
TRY AGAIN,” she screamed, now in tears.  I bent down and was about to breathe again when I felt water being spit into my mouth.  Disgusting. I spit it back at her.  Chloe pushed me out of the way and held her sister in her arms as her sister spit out the rest of the water that had been in her lungs.

“
Thank you so much…” Chloe said between tears as she held her sister.  I heard sirens in the distance.  Someone must have seen them go off the bridge.

“
An ambulance is coming. I have to go,” I said to Chloe, who was holding her sister as they both cried, grieving the loss of their parents.

“
You can’t go; you have to get checked out…what if you broke something?  And thank you again,” Chloe said with a small smile.