Death has a Daughter (DHAD Series) (6 page)

Right after I ported from the insanity that had just taken place, I moved onto the next thing on my agenda for today
—Earl.  This soul was ninety-four and I had ranked him as the easiest on my list.  Since I’d already wasted so much time earlier, I would need a quick one to ensure I’d be the first to bring back a soul.

My feet walked up to his nursing home bed, which was surrounded by his family
, and gently placed my scythe into his chest.  He took a deep breath right before I put it in him, like he knew it was coming.  There were no Guardians here to stop me from getting his soul.  This made sense because of his age and illness.  He’d lost his mind—from what I could—tell months ago, and had stopped eating without the assistance of a tube before that.

We nicknamed these nursing home places
‘slaughterhouses,’ because they were just like the ones humans took their cows to, except not as cruel.  They both were in the same business of only selling one-way trips.  They were places you brought living things to die; they just differed in the delivery.

My scythe collected his soul, and I quickly transported it to the researchers
, who welcomed me with a high-fives.

“
We knew you’d be the first to bring one in!”  Richard, an extractor, who was one of Dad’s friends, said from behind the counter of the researcher’s claim facility.

“
Thanks,” I said, as I forced a smile and placed my scythe on the counter for him to extract.  This would have been a lot cooler if I hadn’t had such a crazy event happen earlier.  After seeing what a high-risk soul looked like, Earl just didn’t fill the edge.  At least I had brought him to his final resting, which his soul needed.  He’d looked like he’d been a pretty nice man, considering he had a ton of grieving family by his bed.  His destination was probably not going to be somewhere in the lower edges of my realm, which I found comfort in. 

“
It’s been quite some time since we’ve been able to extract a soul from this beautiful scythe of yours.  I’m sure it was quite happy to come out of retirement,” Richard said, as he pulled out the extraction tool from under his side of the counter. 

The extraction tool was one of the things that always amazed me.  It looked like a small
, dark-silver scythe.  Small, colored gems, meant to represent each family’s stones, started at each end of the scythe and lined up to meet in the center where a stone, four times the size of the others, lay.  The stone in the center held no color; it was crystal-clear until it was occupied by whatever soul it was receiving.  Once a soul was inside the scythe, the center stone appeared cloudy, like a thick mist on a muggy day. 

It was the only tool known to our realm that could extract a soul while not at a vulnerable moment.  It had to have this power or we wouldn
’t have any way to get the souls out of our scythes.  It also had to be strong enough to hold onto a soul.  Otherwise, there would be souls escaping during the transformation, leading to them wandering aimlessly. 

The extractor
’s job was to take the soul from my scythe’s ruby center, using the extraction tool, and temporarily hold it in one of the thousands of stacked, oak drawers that were behind the counter—each one meant to hold one soul at a time.  Each drawer had a dusty, gold knob and was labeled with a plated number.  After the correct documentation was completed, the soul would be placed in a drawer, where it would await final judgment.  Once judgment was made, the extraction tool was then carried to the soul’s final resting place in hell, by a filler.  Once the filler arrived at the soul’s destination, the extraction tool was given to the handler, who entered the extraction tool’s code, which then released the soul from its center stone.  Each extraction tool had its own lock that required a pass code known only by the handlers.  The code was entered by touching the stones that were on the outside, in a certain order. 

Richard put the
extraction tool up to my scythe’s center and I watched as the old man’s soul was transferred.  I said ‘thank you’ to Richard, and ported to my front door. 

Surely father would have some explanation for what happened today.

****

“
Hey Dad,” I said as I walked in and saw Dad on the couch.

“
Hey, what’s up, how did your scroll check out?” he asked, walking toward me with excitement.  I could tell he would love to still be out there.  He shouldn’t have retired so early, but he’d had to raise me alone since, my mother had died.

“
It’s um...good... except…”  I said, as I pulled out my scroll to show him, and his eyes lit up with excitement of seeing my list, it had been a while since he saw one.

“
Did you get anything higher than a level three?  I heard a lot of the dads saying their children didn’t get anything higher than a two.  They were upset.  I think they wanted their kids to get higher levels; it is only their first list though, I told them.  Seemed to help a little bit. How’d your list turn out?  I know you got at least some level three’s, possibly a four?” he asked.

“
Yeah, I have a few three’s and definitely one four. That’s actually what I...”

“
That’s amazing, Cendall!” he said, interrupting me with a huge hug.  “The boys are going to be so jealous when I tell them my daughter got higher-level souls.  Nice work!!!” he said with a smile and I just smiled back.  I couldn’t complain about my higher-level one now.  Surely, if I complained about the soul, they would take it away and question my abilities.

“
Why the grim face?  I know you’ll do great; I have no worries.  Are you worried about Drake finishing his list before you and people doubting your win at the Reaping?  I have no doubts that you’ll come out on top again, Cendall.”

“
You know it!”  I tried to say with confidence.  “I’ve got to go do some tracking; I’ll be home later.”  What the hell was I going to do now?  I couldn’t let anyone know about that soul now.  They would for sure think I was “complaining.”  If anyone else in my class got it they would be extremely happy, especially Drake. Everyone in the realm would have already heard about it. But, man, five Guardians to get around?  This was going to take some major work.  I would just have to follow her all day until I saw a good opportunity.  That was the only way I was ever going to get this soul.  I wasn’t naïve enough to think I could fight four high-level Guardians on my own.  I would have to become a stalker and wait for my opportunity.

Following the high-level soul for the last six months, was really starting to take a toll on my sleep schedule.  I’d even missed my own 17th birthday dinner that Dad and Dave had planned.  They waited all day at the house to catch me, but I never came home.  Saying ‘sorry’ seemed to work, because they didn’t seem too upset with me.  It was my birthday I’d missed, not theirs, so that made sense. 

The days just
blend together for me now.  While most Reapers have time to rest and rebuild, I use that time to get my lower-level souls. 

The day
when I would finally have her soul would be a nice break.  Yawning, as I came up to do my regular stalking of the day, I slid behind the oak tree that was across the street in her neighbor’s yard. It was always the same stalking routine—humans were such creatures of habit it made me sick.  She slept, went to school, went to ballet, attended church on Sundays, and then went home.  While she was at home during the week, she did the normal things that I researched human kids did.  She watched TV, did homework, and was constantly on the computer with something called Facepage.  She also played with her fat canine, which I researched to be a pug.  Crazy, chubby creature this thing was.  Short legs and rolls of ‘fluff,’ the girl called it, but its stomach hung barely two inches above the floor.  Stupid thing would always bark at me when I first got to her house.  You’d think it was another Guardian with how this thing wouldn’t leave the girl’s side.  To be honest, this dog, which I heard the girl call ‘Debbie,’ was all the protection this soul needed.  Why she had to have multiple Guardians boggled my mind, so whoever had given these Guardians the assignment, must have some overprotective-thing for blondes.

My fingers started counting down the seconds.  In ten
, she would be slipping out of her house to walk across the street and wait at the bus stop with the other teens.  They would then chat about the meaningless drama that was going on in their high school.  From what I gathered, from a distance, she was single and many boys were trying to change that.  She was what my textbook would describe as “popular.”  This would only add more complication, because when I took her soul, the less witnesses to see her die the better, since I had a feeling this one wasn’t coming easily.

My last finger counted down
, signaling ten seconds was up.  The soul stepped out of her house and looked up at the teens across the street to wave.  She did this each day with an honest smile, but, to my surprise, today the smile never came.  Instead, all that was on her face were wide eyes and a wide open mouth that was letting out a piercing scream.  My eyes flashed to the kids; none of them were moving.  No trees were swaying, no birds flying; all the surrounding area was still.  Five Guardians came out of their hiding places and were immediately by her side.  One blew some type of whistle thing and before I knew it six more came out of thin air.  Good thing I never got the confidence to try and collect her soul.  Noticing only five Guardians before, I’d clearly way underestimated the protection they had on this girl.  They all raised their weapons and seemed to be waiting for something.  Maybe they sensed me?  No, because if so, why weren’t they just attacking me?

It was then that my ears picked up on the laughter.  Not like children
’s, sweet and wholesome.  No, this laughter that echoed in my ears was of a different sort.  The sort that I’d sometimes heard as they passed over our realm to enter earth.  It was the dark, deep laughter of Demons.  By the sound of it, there had to be at least twenty of them.  Along with the laughter, I could hear the shrill, shrieking Harpies approaching.  Unlike the birds of this human realm, these harpies were bear-sized, with human heads, bird wings, and they smelt like rotting bodies.  The cool air forced my goose-bumps to rise, but this didn’t make sense.  Why would they be here after this simple girl?  A huge misunderstanding, perhaps?  They were seconds away; I needed to leave.  They were of no danger to me, as far as I knew, but Father had warned me about them.  He basically said, if they were around, they took over, and I should get out of their way.  My feet wouldn’t budge as I tried to rationalize the situation in my head.  Demons only came in extreme circumstances. 

The smell of rotting flesh hit my nose as a harpy swooped over my head
. I was stuck now.  The Demons and harpies immediately swarmed the Guardians, trying to get to this girl.  The sky was bleeding red as the harpies began to fly in and tear at the Guardians’ skin with their thick, sharp claws, at times carrying whatever flesh or body part they had detached from a Guardian.  While some Demons attacked physically, others just flew over the Guardians, muttering curses that were quickly killing them off.  There were so many horns, teeth, and fire—from the Demons—that came in-between the swarming harpies, I couldn’t even make out which Demons there were.

Occasionally, as the battle raged on, I
saw blue and gold lights send a Demon to its end, but it was a rare sight.  These Guardians were good, but they had been blindsided.  This would be over soon and the Guardians would be returned to their resting place.  The Demons would end this and take the girl’s soul.  It was theirs now; no way could I take it from them. 

The fight started to inch towards my direction.  Only three Guardians were left now.  The blonde Guardian
, who I recognized from the truck incident, was one of the ones left and he seemed to not even be fighting.  He appeared to be the blocker of incoming spells and objects that the Demons were using to try to kill the girl.  I took a couple of steps back and found myself at the side of her neighbor’s house.  Even so, the battle continued to inch closer to where I stood.  I wanted to run, or teleport out of there, but I couldn’t risk a Demon mistaking me for one of the Guardians.  Any movement would queue them in my direction, and death by Demon wasn’t in the cards for today.  Only a few minutes more, anyway, and they should have the girl and move on their way. 

Two of the last three Guardians fell as a Demon came down like a Toronto from the sky onto them.  Before it landed on the remaining Guardians, they had flung the girl and her blonde blocker only a few feet from me
, probably in an effort to sacrifice themselves in exchange for the girl’s life.  Their pupils dilated and the light left their eyes as they took their last breath underneath the Demon who had crushed them.  This left the girl and the blonde Guardian, all alone.

The Demon laughter
once again filled the air.  The one who had come from the sky let out a call that had all the other Demons assembling behind him.  This was no ordinary pigeon Demon.  He had four sets of horns that shined dark-silver.  Two of them, extending like a large bull’s horns, twisting from the top of his head into pointed tips.  The other two were like a ram’s—thick and on the sides of his head that pointed towards the realm that he called home.  Underneath were two metal spikes—one on each side of his head.  His face consisted of a skeleton structure with black, hollowed eyes that were staring straight at me as his Demons assembled behind him.  He let out a smile and I gasped at the sight of his teeth.  Each canine had a fanged tip and, like a shark, the rows of his teeth seemed endless.  I stared out at his hands.  They almost appeared human, until you saw the tips of them, which were long blades that seemed to be growing in length.  He extended both arms out, as if he were reaching for me.  His fingertips pointed straight at the soul, and then back at himself.  He was claiming the soul for himself.  He lifted his hands, like many generals did before starting a war.  I realized an ambush was going to end this. 

The girl must have noticed this as well.  In the seconds it was taking for the last Demons to assemble behind their horned master Demon, she grabbed the last
Guardian’s hand and ran my way.