Read Grim Love - A Novella Online

Authors: Grae Lily

Tags: #romance, #paranormal romance, #paranormal, #love story, #young adult, #afterlife, #grim reaper, #new adult, #novella romance

Grim Love - A Novella (9 page)

BOOK: Grim Love - A Novella
13.28Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Although Evangeline had worked with Gabriel
for almost fifty years she’d never asked him about his life or how
he became the leader of the guardians. That's something she would
change in the future, but right at that moment, it seemed hard
enough to find the words she needed to thank him for everything.
She’d be able to continue her relationship with Jasper. She hadn’t
been expecting that to come true. The two men she worked for liked
her so much they wanted her to be with them for longer. Evangeline
didn't know what to make of all that had happened. In death, she'd
been given so much more. That realization humbled her.

“Thank you.”

Gabriel shook his head. “You don’t need to
thank us. We need to thank you. There's always a chance this
wouldn’t have happened and I’m so glad it did because having you by
our sides means that we’re doing much more than we ever could
before to help people. I have more guardians working for me. Lucius
has more reapers. There are fewer poltergeists. Eternity has
changed for the better. Being able to imagine something like this
didn't seem possible, but we did all hope it could happen, and it
has. So, when you’re ready, let’s get those contracts signed.”

Lucius asked Evangeline for the job of taking
Jasper’s spirit to the world of the dead and she’d said yes only
because she knew what would come next. She didn’t want to spoil the
surprise.

A younger, vibrant looking Jasper stepped out
of his old, weary body. Their eyes met so Lucius could see his
confusion at finding him there and not Evangeline as he’d been
expecting to be for his transition. Thanks to all of the practice
Lucius had dealing with the new reapers, he could wear his grimace
with confidence, knowing what would happen next. None of them
wanted Jasper to know yet.

“Sorry. We have a four car pile up on the
highway and we need her there. You can wait in my office for her,
if you’d like, because none of us want you to miss being able to
say goodbye.”

After spending hours talking to Jasper,
Lucius had come to like him. They’d be able to continue their
friendship since it wasn’t often Lucius came across someone who
could match him story for story, especially as he had a couple of
interesting new stories to tell everyday. None of them were
available in the world of the living, but as the grim reaper, that
meant he got certain gifts no one else ever did. With one hand on
Jasper’s arm, Lucius stepped between the world of the living and
the world of the dead.

Gabriel sat waiting in Lucius’ chair. Lucius
raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Gabriel grinned at him
before turning to Jasper, “I hope Lucius hasn’t already told you
this, but I’m here to offer you a job.”

Jasper’s reaction seemed to be comparable to
the one Gabriel said he’d gotten from Evangeline. After several
impatient seconds, Lucius pinched Jasper’s arm. “Say
something.”

“Words?”

“Yes, words. Words would be useful. Remember,
you can speak.?”

“I like to talk.”

“Has the offer scrambled your brains,
Jasper?”

Jasper nodded. “I’ll get to be with
Evie.”

“For at least a hundred years more, you
will.” Gabriel smiled. “We extended her contracts a couple of weeks
ago and ever since Lucius has been…”

“Don’t spoil it. I didn’t tell Jasper about
your surprise, so you won’t tell him about mine.”

“Okay.” Gabriel laughed, putting a piece of
paper on the desk in front of Jasper. “Signing this might be
easier, Jasper. This is a hundred year contract. You'll be one of
my guardians, so you’ll be reporting to me, and for the first year,
you’ll be trained by Evangeline.”

“Why Evie?”

“I get the feeling you’ll make some of the
same choices as her. She always chooses people who are taking the
same path she did and if you do the same thing, then, it will be
helpful if you’re trained by someone who understands that urge to
try to help people who often don’t want to be helped.”

Evangeline, after dealing with the mess on
the highway, stepped into Lucius’ office. “No survivors.” She
blinked away tears as she saw each of the bodies again, but all of
the spirits had been guided to the world of the dead. “We weren’t
expecting there to be, but it would have been nice.”

“Yes, it would.” Jasper crossed the room to
give her a hug. “When did they tell you?”

“Gabriel told me a couple of weeks ago.
Keeping it from you has been the hardest part. Well, that’s over
now, so we can go on with living our… well, this isn’t life, but
I’ve done more living during my death than I did during my life, so
I guess, this is more my life than that had been.”

“Well, I have one last surprise for you.”
Lucius smiled at them. “If you’d both follow me.”

Confused, Evangeline took hold of Jasper’s
hand, knowing he had no idea how to follow Lucius, and took him
through the gap Lucius left for them. “That's weird.”

“After a while, you do get used to it. It’s
just a case of working on where the gap’s been left if you’re
following someone. Gabriel told me that should be one of the first
things that I teach you.”

“Okay…”

“I promise you, it will make more sense once
you’ve tried it a couple of times. Lucius wasn’t a patient teacher,
so I got thrown into the deep end more than once.”

“You found your way back.”

“One time it took me three days, Lucius,
because your office kept moving.” Evangeline glared at his back. “I
know you were doing it on purpose and I hated you for it.”

“This will make up for it.” There stood a
cottage in the middle of the woods on the back of Lucius’ property.
Evangeline looked between it and Lucius, trying to figure out where
this came from all of a sudden because he couldn’t mean what she
thought he meant. “It’s yours for as long as the two of you are
working as guardians.”

“Why?”

Jasper squeezed Evangeline's hand. “Thank
you, Lucius, we appreciate the gift.”

Lucius laughed. “It’s yours because I care
about both of you and I want you to have a place that you can call
your own. Evangeline, we both know it isn’t the sort of thing I’d
normally do, but you two are special to me, in more ways than I
could ever have imagined when you first became my reaper, so this
is my gift to you for helping me more than I ever thought
possible.”

“Do you want anything in return?”

“You’re already going to be working for me
for another hundred years, so no, there’s nothing I want in return.
Not any gifts, Evangeline.” Lucius shook his head. “Now go inside,
have a look around, and let me know if there’s anything you want me
to change. It can be done any time within the next couple of weeks,
there’s no rush. Take your time.”

Moments later Jasper was at the front door,
but Evangeline was still looking at Lucius, trying to work out why
he’d done that for them. She knew he cared about her. She knew he
cared about Jasper. Yet Lucius had created a cottage for the two of
them, which was something he would never have done for anyone else,
so she had questions, which really shouldn’t surprise him. Their
eyes met.

“The time may come…”

“Of course.” Evangeline stepped forward and
wrapped her arms around Lucius. “If it does, then, we’ll talk.
There’s no chance of me walking away and we both know I’m capable
of taking over, if that’s what you need me to do.”

“Sorry.”

“For being tired?” She shook her head.
“You’ve been doing this job a long time and you’re allowed to be.
Let me have a couple of days with Jasper. Then, we’ll start working
out what our next steps should be, Lucius, but make sure you talk
to Gabriel first. He should be able to help you find her, if she’s
still in the world of the dead, and that’s what you want to
do.”

Lucius watched the girl who'd just been his
reaper walk to the cottage she'd share with her lover. Of course,
she understood the reasoning behind the gift. They’d talked before
about what might happen in the future because he'd grown tired and
he wanted to find the woman that he’d had to walk away from to see
if they could have a happy ending in the same way that Jasper and
Evangeline would.

From the doorway of her cottage, Evangeline
watched Lucius walk away and Jasper wrapped his arms around her.
“You think he’s going to move on?”

“I do, Jasper. He’s been guiding spirits to
the world of the dead forever. He deserves to live his own life,
and if that’s what he wants, I’ll take his place.”

“That will change things, won’t it?”

Evangeline nodded. “It'll be the first time
someone like me will have been in control of the reapers and I’ve
been talking to Gabriel as well.” She sighed. “He might not seem
like it, but he’s tired too.”

“When the time comes we’ll deal with it the
same way we have before, Evie - one step at a time. Now come
inside, because it’s been a long time since I've been young enough
to do the things I really want to be doing to you right now.” He
kissed her neck. “I love you.”

Evangeline turned in his arms. “I love you,
too.” She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss. “Hurry up.
Let's start on the bed this time.”

~~~

 

 

 

Thank you for your purchase! Please, take a
few moments to leave an honest review.

 

For
interviews or book reviews, please, contact me directly at:
[email protected]

 

Visit my
website to find new titles and updates here:
http://novelistgraelily.wix.com/graelily

Or,

Follow
me on Tumblr:
http://graelily.tumblr.com/

 

 

Other Titles Available:

Fool's Errand

BOOK: Grim Love - A Novella
13.28Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

A Purple Place for Dying by John D. MacDonald
Mind Your Own Beeswax by Reed, Hannah
A Changed Life by Mary Wasowski
Waterfalls by Robin Jones Gunn
The Pure Land by Alan Spence
Dead Body Language by Penny Warner
The Other Man by R. K. Lilley
Autumn Storm by Lizzy Ford
No Way Out by Alan Jacobson