Shit. She was still alive. Just. That upped the stakes. I couldn’t let it claim another soul. No way. No how.
“You really think it’s that easy, Reaper?”
The one with the soul tilted its head and watched me with interest. Lifting a hand, it made a gesture and all sounds of motion behind me ceased. My heart lurched, stomach hitting the floor as I eased back, turning so I could see both the demon twins and the window. Troy and Tiffany were outlined in the busted window frame, but instead of scrambling out as quickly as their legs would take them, they were motionless. Frozen in place.
“Get out of here!” I yelled, taking another swipe at Toothy and Decayed. It hissed and blocked my blow, knocking the wood out of my hand. It clattered against the wall as I ducked another blow.
But they didn’t. Instead both turned around, going to stand next to the demons.
“Troy! What the fuck are you doing?” I tried to get between them, but the vacant, glassy expressions in their eyes warned me off. I backed up as far as I could and looked from one to the other. I blinked, pulling up the grayscape. Shit. Two more tethers joined Troy and Tiffany to the first demon. These were fainter than the first. Gray instead of black. Less of a link, but a controlling one all the same.
“You seeeee?” Toothy sang, amusement in its voice. “They’re already dead, or will be soon...there’s no way you can stop that, little girl. Same as you can’t stop us opening the gate.”
The world slowed to a stop, the time between one heartbeat and the next, an eternity, as the reality of the situation spread. This was it. I was it. The one person who could stop this from happening. Save the day, get the guy...you name it.
Me.
My gaze latched on to Troy’s battered face and the dead eyes, and fear paralyzed me, locking my muscles tight. I’m a Reaper, yes, but all that means is I have a fancy family tree with something not human way back when. My throat tightened. I couldn’t do this. How could I go against two demons and save anyone? I would lose Troy. The gate would be open and the town victim to whatever came out of the third hell. People, lots of people, would die.
I’d failed as a Reaper. As a person. Tears welled, blazing hot trails down my cheeks.
As the depressing thoughts burrowed into my brain, the Grimm fought back. It’s always been in the back of my mind—a separate thing, consciousness, call it what you will. It was not a part of me until I got the call to be a Reaper.
Now it was in the front of my mind. The second I started to plunge into panic, it surged forward, overturning the thoughts and exposing them as the demon’s manipulation. My eyes narrowed and I shot it a glare.
“Nice try, ugly. Not gonna work. Because you forgot one thing.”
The demon blinked. “Oh?”
“Sure, you’ve got the seers. Virgin blood and human sacrifice...yadda, yadda.”
I swirled my remaining sickle and let go of my human mask. I reached for the Grimm, no longer holding it separate in my mind but grabbing it and shoving it deep within me, into a dark pit where my soul would be if I were human.
The world exploded behind my eyes, all of human history surging through me. Every death was there, every death to come. All filed away. Everything. All mine.
In that heartbeat, everything made sense.
My bloodline is pure.
Undiluted.
I’m not a descendant of the Grim Reaper.
I am the Grim Reaper.
Opening my eyes, I smiled. The sickle in my now fleshless hand extended to a scythe, and when I spoke, a human voice wasn’t what emerged.
“You need a death to open the gate. And guess who controls death?”
I swung the scythe, my new robes swishing, and the demon’s head fell to the floor. It rolled toward me and I stopped it with a booted foot. The second demon swayed on the spot, looking at its headless companion with surprise. Then it looked at me and its expression crumpled.
“No! No fair. You were supposed to be just a Reaper!” It howled in frustration. “Just a Reaper, not Death itself!”
In the grayscape, the broken tether flailed around like a whip, looking for a new attachment, something to power the part of the demon hidden in the body.
“Yeah, well, thems the breaks, kid.” I shrugged and slapped the shaft of the scythe into my free hand. There was a click, rather than the fleshy sound of wood on skin. I was glad the mirror over the mantelpiece was broken. As awesome as being the big GR was, I really did not want to see my reflection. “The plan failed. Give them all a wave in the third for me. I think they’ll be stoked to see you. Ciao!”
With that, I swung the scythe, altering the composition at the last second so the blade only sliced the demon presence from the body rather than lop the woman’s head off like the other. The other one’s soul had been gone, devoured by the demon, but this soul I could save. The body no, but the soul...yes.
She staggered to the side and I lurched for her, but I didn’t reach her in time. Troy got there first, gathering her up before she hit the floor. She opened her eyes for a moment, clear of the demon’s presence, and smiled. In the Shade her soul rose above the body, a tear on an elderly face that had once been...was beautiful.
“Thank you.”
I nodded and swung my scythe, freeing her to take her final journey. Then, she was gone, sucked away by the brightest light I'd ever seen claim a soul. It was so beautiful I couldn't help but smile, even if my current face wouldn't move.
"She's gone." Troy looked up at me, his eyes clear and focused. Then he winked.
"Hey, beautiful, I know you were trying to lose weight, but don't you think that's a bit far? Digging the robes though, very sexy. Whatcha wearing underneath?"
I didn't get a chance to answer. Before I could open my mouth, a black web rose from the floor behind Troy. I screamed a warning and lifted my scythe, but it was too late. The demon remnant formed itself into a spear and slammed down into the center of Troy's back. He jerked, eyes wide, as the tip of the demon spear pushed through the front of his chest. Blood fountained down his chest in a waterfall of vibrant red. I reached out to try and stop it, but it poured over the bones of my hand. All I could do was hold him as he fell to the floor.
"Nonono," I moaned, dropping to my knees next to my fallen lover. "Please, Troy, stay with me. You have to stay with me."
He nodded, eyes fixed on me as the GR fell away like a discarded sweater. I saw the fear there and the darkness rising as I put pressure on the wound in the center of his chest. What remained of the demon had solidified into a hard as iron spike that impaled his heart. My hands fluttered uselessly. I'd spent most of my adult life around death and destruction, but I'd never taken a first aid course. Not once. What a fucking mistake.
"Don't you dare go," I threatened as his eyes began to dim.
He coughed, blood on his lips. I plunged myself into the shade. Already I could feel his soul slipping away, something that filled me with utter panic. Sometimes it happened, sometimes I didn't get to the soul in the shade quick enough to dispatch it, and it slipped through the cracks to fall into Purgatory. Once that happened, there was no coming back. Even I couldn't enter Purgatory.
I heard the sound of sirens outside the building but couldn't focus on them. It was all I could do to keep pressure on the impaled spike and wound in Troy's chest as I searched for his soul in the shade.