Charmed (Death Escorts) (38 page)

“So what’s the plan anyway?”

He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Kill the Target and trade the soul and the bodies for my freedom.”

“And you think the Reaper will go for it?”

“I’m not going to give him a choice.”

We were halfway down the stairs when Olly stopped moving and in one quick move pulled the gun out and used his arm to usher me behind his body. I was afraid to talk, to ask him what he thought was going on; because it was clear he thought we were no longer alone.

My body went on high alert, listening for every little sound that could mean something. I watched the bottom of the stairs like a cat about to pounce on my dinner, but I still didn’t seem to hear what he did.

After several very tense moments, his shoulders seemed to relax and he started moving again down the stairs, keeping the gun at his side.

We made it all the way downstairs and into the yard.

The Grim Reaper seemed to appear out of nowhere. I couldn’t understand how one minute we were walking along with nothing in our path and then there he was, standing in front of us with electric-blue energy crackling from his fingertips.

Olly’s muscles bunched beneath his clothes and he turned, shoving the gun at me. “Safety is off. If he takes one step toward you, shoot his ass and don’t stop.”

“You cannot kill Death,” the Reaper intoned. I don’t know if it was because I was scared or because it was dark out, but his voice was much more ominous and frightening than it had been at my apartment.

“No. But she sure as hell would slow you down.” Olly pinned me with a stare. “Shoot and then run.”

“What about you?” I whispered, clutching the gun.

“Don’t you worry about him,” the Reaper called. “He knows when Death has someone in its sights, it always gets what it wants.”

Without warning or any kind of pause, he threw out his arms and tossed some of that electric-blue energy at us. Olly didn’t seem surprised. He didn’t duck. He didn’t run. He planted himself directly in front of me and he
absorbed
most of what came our way.

“Go to the Jeep,” Olly said. Then he threw out his hands, tossing back more of the same energy.

Did he think I could just leave him there?

“Go!” he yelled when I just stood there debating.

Apparently he did.

“I won’t leave you here!” I argued.

The Reaper laughed and raised his hand, pulling like he was holding an invisible rope. A red cloud appeared around Charming, half in, half out of his body.

“Come along, Charming,” G.R. called. “You’re supposed to be locked up tight until the clock runs out!”

I watched as Olly seemed to stumble forward like his body was following his soul. I reached out and grabbed his hand, holding on like I could keep him right there with me.

The Reaper laughed again and pulled harder. Olly’s hand ripped from mine and he fell forward onto his knees. Red was a giant cloud around him, growing bigger every second, and the more red I saw, the more limp his body became.

I wanted to scream. To scream and never stop. I’d never seen such a thing before.
Is this what everyone looked like inside? Could the Reaper just rip out my soul right here and now?

I didn’t scream.

Instead, I raised the gun, pointing it at the Reaper.

I didn’t hesitate.

I pulled the trigger.

The bullet slammed into his shoulder, knocking him backward, but not hard enough to knock him off his feet. The shock was enough to get him to stop doing whatever he was doing to Olly, and his soul snapped back into his body, the red disappearing from sight.

He scrambled to his feet, pushing me backward, toward the side of the house. “Get the hell out of here, Frankie. Go, now!”

Over his shoulder I saw the Reaper recover. I saw him look up at us and smile. He released more of that energy from his fingers and sent it spiraling right at Olly.

“Look out!” I yelled.

But it was too late. Just as Olly turned, the energy hit him directly in the chest. He flew backward, hit the ground, and slid into a large shrub that lined the property. I rushed over and fell to my knees beside him. Blue energy glowed around him before fading away into the darkness.

“Olly,” I worried, leaning over his body so I could see his face.

“Find Storm.” He said the words so low I barely heard them, and then he leapt up so fast that I fell backward from surprise. The Reaper had been closing in, taking advantage of my preoccupation over Olly. When our eyes connected he smiled. He was going to kill me.

 I lifted the gun once more.

But I never got the chance to shoot it.

Olly was there, throwing himself between us and plowing into the Reaper like a bulldozer. I screamed, watching the man I love come into contact with the man whose touch kills.

Olly made a sound of pain and he shoved the Reaper away, but then he jumped back and stayed steady on his feet. “I’ll go with you now if you leave her be,” he said, out of breath.

“No!” I protested, panic taking hold.

“How about I kill her now and take you after?”

“If you kill her, I’ll make sure those bodies are burned and that soul is dropped to the bottom of one of the many oceans on this planet.”

The Reaper’s eyes flashed violet. His eyes flicked to mine and then back to Olly. Then he waved his arm and a doorway appeared out of nowhere. “Come along, Charming. It seems locking you up in the
body you stole
will make it more convenient to keep you contained.”

Olly walked toward the door; he didn’t look back. Just as I was about to rush forward, to do something, anything that would keep him here with me, he turned, looking at me over his shoulder. He shook his head slightly. “Remember what I said.”

He stepped into the makeshift doorway and it closed instantly. I was left standing there all alone with trembling hands.

I didn’t completely understand what happened in Scotland, how Olly had disappeared without a trace so easily. I understood now.

The only difference was this time I understood what was happening. This time I wasn’t going to go home and cry. Olly left because it was the only way he knew how to make me one hundred percent safe. He became an Escort because it was the only way he knew how to keep his mother and his sister safe. Olly had been fighting for a long time… fighting for his family, then for his job, and now for me.

Who had ever fought for Olly?

No one.

Chapter Forty-Seven

“Making plans - stupid.”
*Definition provided by Charming.

Charming

Making plans was stupid. That’s why I was the kind of guy who liked to wing it. I liked to make decisions based on the here and now and not before things happen. Because things always change and a man needs to be flexible.

I should have spent less time making plans and more time thinking things through. Like going back to my house. I shouldn’t have gone there, but really, what were my other options? My wallet and all my credit cards and keys were in Scotland. I needed access to money and I really needed to get out of those hideous khaki pants.

So now in an attempt to keep G.R. away from Frankie
again,
I was back here in his office
again
. “I see you got the place put back together from my last visit.”

“Don’t even think about making a mess,” he said. “You’re just passing through on your way back into confinement.”

“As much as I’d love to stay and be locked up by you, I think I’ll pass.” I walked toward the door. I wasn’t staying here. I came to buy Frankie some time to get away. That was accomplished and now I was leaving.

If he wanted to try and stop me he could. I was up for a fight.

“I was there the night you died.” His voice was calm, almost conversational.

Something in my stomach hardened, but I kept walking, knowing he was just playing games. “I think that’s obvious.” I wouldn’t be in this fun position now if he hadn’t been there.

“I was in the crowd, watching the fight. My money was on you.”

My steps faltered. Those words…
My money’s on you.
I knew those words. Someone said them to me right before… right before I died.

“It was you,” I murmured, pushing through the ninety years of memories to bring back the night I spent a lot of time trying to forget. “There was a man. He came up to the ring, helped me with my water.” He had dark hair and a wide forehead.
“It was you.”

“Ahh, you do remember,” G.R. said. “I knew you would make a good Escort. I could see it in your face. Your determination. Your stubbornness. Your unwillingness to back down from someone who desperately wanted to hold on to his title.”

“I should have won that fight.”

“Yes. You should have.”

I glanced up swiftly. Had he somehow interfered with the fight? Had he somehow made me lose?

“That was your downfall, you know. You underestimated your opponent. You let your human side get in the way. You didn’t expect someone to cheat—someone to kill for what they wanted.”

He was right. That was my downfall. I hadn’t been expecting a dirty fight. My entire life I’d been honest; I’d worked hard. I thought that was the way to get the things I wanted. The respect and recognition I deserved.

But there were people out there who didn’t care about hard work or integrity. There were people out there who wanted to take the shortcut to success and their shortcut involved knocking down the people in their way.

“Your loss was my gain that night,” G.R. said. “I knew you would become my greatest Escort. I was right. All you needed was a little push.”

“A little push?”

He smiled slyly. “All I had to do was get rid of the humanity that seemed to hold you back.”

Dread began to build within in me. My humanity? After I died, the only humanity I had was…

My sister.

“You son of a…” My words trailed away as the knowledge of just how bad he played me was born. “You killed her. You killed my sister.”

 “I thought maybe as time went on, your preoccupation with her would diminish, but then you killed that boy. You broke my rules and you killed someone who wasn’t a Target.”

“You knew?”

“I know everything. I knew the minute you killed him. But I wasn’t ready to Recall you. I knew your potential, but in order for it to be realized, she had to go.”

Fury burned through me. It swept over my entire body like a forest fire in a bone-dry mountain of trees. He killed my sister. He robbed her of her life. He robbed my mother of her daughter. If I hadn’t hated him before, I hated him now.

“It worked,” he taunted. “As soon as she was gone, you became the perfect killer. So quick and precise. You never strayed from a job and the charm you exuded was the perfect bait for just about any Target.”

I thought she killed herself. I thought what I had done made her end her life. All these years I carried around guilt that some days threatened to crush me when all along I hadn’t killed her at all. It was him.

My sister lost her life so he could create the perfect Escort.

I flew across the room, leaping over his desk and grabbing the chair he sat in like it was his throne. Moving fast, I grabbed the chair and hurled it, sending him and the black leather monster spiraling against the wall of closets behind him.

The chair crashed to the floor, half pinning him to the ground, and one of the closet doors sprang open, revealing the row of neat bodies.

G.R. tossed the chair away and stood, swiping at a rivulet of blood that trailed from the corner of his lip, and faced me. I sent a swirling ball of white-hot energy at his chest, making him leap to the side out of its path. The energy hit the bodies, blowing them off the racks and scattering them on the floor. I went over and snatched one up, snarling at the ugly-ass khakis and threw it at him. “Better pick a new body now because when I’m done with the one you’re wearing, it won’t be worth salvaging.”

He caught the body and lowered it to the ground like it was delicate and then turned his eyes to the other bodies that lay around my feet.

He barreled toward me, and I knew he was going to try and touch me. From the last time, I understood just a simple touch from him wouldn’t kill me like a regular human, but any longer contact would completely kill the body I was in. This was my body and I wasn’t about to lose it.

I rushed around the end of the desk and lifted, using it as a shield against him. All the contents that sat on top slid down and rushed across the floor, making the Reaper dodge the falling office supplies.

I shoved the table away, pushing it toward him, and it teetered on its one side before falling over, crashing toward him. He narrowly missed being crushed, and the desk landed on the floor with a hard smack.

His office door flew open and several of the Escorts rushed in, looking at G.R., the mess, and then settling on me.

I smirked and looked at G.R. “You didn’t fire them after the ass kicking I served them last time?” I shook my head. “Your business is going to hell.”

His response was to shoot more of that electric-blue energy that crackled from his fingertips. This time it connected.

I flew backward, hitting the sofa in the center of the room and knocking it over. I landed behind it on the floor and lay there stunned for a few minutes.

One of the Escorts (the blue one) hauled me up and drew back his fist to punch me, but I kicked him, sending him sprawling into the one behind him.

All three of them went down like dominoes. It’s like they were the three stooges of death.

I faced the Reaper once more, my brain rapidly running through ideas of how I could cause him extreme pain.

But my thoughts were stalled when I heard the telltale cocking of guns behind me.

I looked over my shoulder to see the three stooges hadn’t come alone this time. They’d brought some friends. Friends that were much more lethal than they were. And right now all three of their friends were pointed at my head.

Well, damn.

My options just got a lot more limited. I could (and would) fight back, but the odds were at least one of them would get off a good shot. If this body died, the chances of getting G.R. to give me another one were slim to none. Not to mention not having a body made moving around a real pain in the ass. I didn’t have time to get shot.

G.R. smiled like he knew he won and made his way through the mess to dig out his chair and press the button underneath of it. The secret wall slid open, revealing the doors inside.

“Your new home awaits,” he said, gesturing toward the room.

I wasn’t going back in there. I glanced at the closets, at the closed doors lining the small hideaway.
Keep him talking,
the voice in my head told me.

“Why did you keep my body? My sister’s body?” As I talked, I moved slightly toward the wall, pretending I was going to do what he wanted. All three guns followed my movements.

“After she was gone, I decided to put her body away for safe keeping, your body too. In case I ever needed something to control you. In case that humanity reared its ugly head again. I never thought it would end like this, Charming. But you’re becoming a liability. And that is why I must Recall you.”

His words angered me all over again. He had taken so much away from me, so much more than I ever realized. He’s the reason I was who I became, and now he wanted to punish me for being too good at exactly who he wanted me to be.

“You’re not Recalling me because I’m a liability.” I snarled. “You’re trying to get rid of me because you’re scared. You created me a little too perfectly and now that I’ve decided I won’t be your puppet anymore, you know you won’t be able to control me. That was your mistake. You gave me too much power.”

I saw the truth in his eyes. The acknowledgement of my words. I was right. He was scared of me. I wasn’t being punished because I overlooked what Dex had done. That was just an excuse. If it hadn’t been that, he would have found something else. I was being punished because he saw me as a threat.

I took my opportunity and grabbed the closest gun that was pointed at me. I ripped it out of the Escort’s hand, snapping his wrist in the process. He howled in pain but didn’t go down like I thought he would. Instead, he plowed into me low, catching me around the legs and sending me forward to fall over his back. I fired the gun, but the shot went wild, the bullet burying into the wall.

“Get him!” G.R. demanded.

I fell onto my stomach and rolled, trying to bring up the gun from beneath me to fire again. But before I could get a shot off, one of the Escorts was there, using the butt of his gun and slamming it into my temple. I collapsed back onto the floor.