True Loves (A Collection of Firsts) (68 page)

Jeremy’s dark eyes turn hard as he looks up at the noose. “I didn’t agree to this.”

An evil smile stretches across Rick’s face, and his eyes dance with cruel intent. “Yes you did. Your soul is mine. Therefore I’ll take it whenever I want to.”

“No! You can’t do this!” Jeremy pleads as he turns away from us. “I change my mind.”

Rick cocks his head to the side. “Too late. Nat, I need you to put that noose around his neck.”

My job as killer was pretty well defined earlier, so this time I don’t hesitate. The thick ropes are rough against my skin.

Pointing his index finger at Jeremy, Rick whips his wrist and our victim hovers in the air just inches from me. Jeremy thrashes his feet wildly, trying to break free from the invisible demonic grip. 

“No!” Jeremy cries. “I’ll do better. I’ll be better.”

I glide the noose around Jeremy’s neck and give it a yank to tighten it. With another flick of Rick’s fingers the rope squeezes even more.

Tears and snot pour from Jeremy’s face. “Please, God. No!”

Rick snorts. “God? You should’ve asked him for help when you were hurting your wife.”

“I’m sorry.” Jeremy’s cries are pathetic. He’s begging, asking for mercy while he showed his wife none.

“I’m not,” Rick growls before pointing his finger up toward the ceiling.

The noose yanks on the man’s neck, and a loud audible snap echoes throughout the house. His legs hang freely, swinging slightly from side to side. His tongue protrudes from his mouth, and his eyeballs practically bulge out of his skull. 

After I watch Rick collect the soul, he turns to me and says, “Come on. We have to go.”

I can’t tear my eyes away from the dead body swaying above me. The thought of leaving him here, hanging like that, seems cruel. But he doesn’t deserve any sympathy. Deep down I know that.

I turn toward the door, but stop dead in my tracks. His wife is still chained to a wall in the basement. If I don’t set her free, it might be a while before someone finds her. She could die down there.

Rick touches my hand, urging me outside. 

“We can’t leave yet,” I say.

He shakes his head. “I know what you’re thinking, but she’s not the one we came for, Natalie.”

“To hell with that. I know you’re not opposed to breaking the rules when it comes to deals.”

“I can’t hold time much longer. She can’t see you and tie you to Jeremy’s death.” 

I shake out of his grip and dash down the hallway. I find the door from my visions, the one he’ll never force her into again, and fling it open. I flip on the light switch and tear down the stairs. Jeremy’s wife sits on the floor, frozen in time, surrounded by her own excrement. 

Frantically, I search for the key rack that I saw in the images. I finally locate the pad lock key, hanging on a nail on the opposite side of the room. The woman jars and I freeze. Crap! Rick’s losing his hold on time. She stops moving and I run over to place the key in front of her. Hopefully she’ll see it and assume he just dropped it. This isn’t ideal, but it’ll have to do. 

I quickly climb the steps to the first floor and sunlight from the open door to the outside shines in. Rick leans against the doorframe. A faint smile dances across his lips, almost like he approves of my good deed before he waves me to come on. 

Once outside, Rick claps his hands to restart time and we bolt toward the car.

My legs fly beneath me and my feet pound the dusty path, stirring up a cloud of dirt behind me. When I reach the safety of the black sports car, I sigh heavily. Sliding into the car, my body quivers with the aftershocks of another intense adrenaline rush. 

Even though the normal reaction when someone dies is sadness, I can’t help but to feel relieved. Not only am I doing the world a service by ridding it of those evil men, but I’m helping myself as well. Two souls down. One to go.

Rick cranks the car alive and asks, “Are you okay?”

I nod, speechless for once. Awkward silence fills the car’s interior as Rick turns his car around.  

“You did good back there,” he says as he pulls out onto the road.

Still shaking, I wrap my arms around my body and stare blankly at the dash. 

He steals a glance at me. “Some deals are more difficult than others.”

The evil grin of satisfaction he had on his face back there makes me shake harder. “You creeped me out back there. It’s the first time I’ve seen you…”

He grimaces. “What? Look like a demon?”

“In this form, yeah,” I whisper. I’d seen him look plenty evil in his boy demon form, but this Rick I know doesn’t always seem so bad. It’s easy to forget he is the same person that tormented me with evil all my life. 

Taking a deep breath. I run my fingers through my hair and try to refocus my energy. “That asshole made me nervous. I started to wonder if he was going to take the deal.”

“Me too. They always have a choice. That’s the beauty of free will.”

Free will? I guess I had a choice too, if you count my mother dying in front of me as an option. “But you lied to him.”

He looks me in the eye. “I didn’t say I played fair.”

I hope he’s playing fair with me. 

Not wanting to continue this conversation with Rick any further, I turn my head, and gaze out the passenger window. The nature outside zings by as we head back into town. My body feels weak, like I’ve just finished running a long distance marathon, so I close my eyes and allow the blackness to blanket my mind. 

It takes another fifteen minutes to reach campus. Rick parks his car next to mine and cuts the engine. His dark gray eyes fixate on me and a weak smile plays on his lips. He opens his mouth, like he wants to say something, but then quickly shuts it. He scratches the back of his neck and sighs.

Before he has the chance to say another word, I fling open the door and hop out of the car. Clutching my bag to my chest with one arm, I dig in the pocket of my jeans for my car keys. I hear a car door behind me open, and two seconds later, Rick stands beside me. 

“Everything okay?” he asks.

I drag my eyes up to meet his face. “Fine. Just getting my keys.”

“Aren’t you hungry? We could go get something.”

I shake my head. I need time away from him to process everything I’ve been through today.

Not only did I participate in two murders, I found an evil part of me that actually enjoyed it. Delivering vengeance to the men that caused so many others pain made each heartbeat pound with pride. Maybe I am evil. 

Waves of nausea roll through my stomach as I think back on the men’s faces. Disgusted with the sick pleasure I got out of our activities today, I dig deeper for my keys, seeking an immediate escape from Rick. 

Finally, I retrieve my keys and unlock the car before throwing my bag in. 

“Natalie, if you want to talk about today…”

“No!” I whirl around to face Rick. “I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just get one more soul, so I can be done with all of this.”

He drops his head and rubs his thumb over his key ring. His long, dark hair masks his face. “This isn’t easy. Doing the things I do…it’s a lot to accept. I know. I’m trying to make this as easy as possible for you, Nat. I really am. I want you to trust me.”

I sigh, and the scowl drops off my face. “I know, I just don’t know why you waited this long to tell me who you are. If you would’ve told me when we met in the parking lot on the first day of school, I would’ve had weeks to get this done, not days.”

“I was hoping you’d remember me. It’s crazy. I honestly thought your memory would come back once we spent some time together, and…you’d want to be like me. Be together—forever, just like we planned before,” he whispers.

He’s still holding on to the hope I’ll love him. It’s all over his face. “Were you planning on telling me once you figured out I didn’t remember?” I try to read his expressions and when he doesn’t look at me, it hits me. “You weren’t going to tell me, were you?”

He shrugs. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.”

Heat creeps up my neck and my head feels like it’s about to pop off. “You’re fucking unbelievable!” 

He reaches for me, but I swat his hand away. I leave him standing there as I flop down in my car seat and slam the door. That asshole had no plans of ever telling me he is a demon—my demon. He was just going to let my life lines fade away and leave me with no other alternative but to become a demon and collect souls like him.

Revving my little four-cylinder and spinning the tires, I fling gravel all over the parking lot. In the rearview mirror, Rick fans the dust away as I tear out of the parking lot. 

My eyes sting as I fight back the millions of tears threatening to spill out of them. I roll down the window, allowing the cool fall air to whirl around my face.    

I make it home and run upstairs without saying a word to Mom. I can’t deal with that scene right now. 

Relief floods my body when I close my bedroom door. I let out a heavy sigh and slide down the door. My breaths feel labored and I grasp my chest. I can’t go on much longer like this.

L
ast night
I had to lie—well not exactly lie—about Rick and me breaking up. Mom’s under the impression he dumped me. It was the only reason I could explain why I locked myself in my room and cried myself to sleep. She’s better off left in the dark about most things, because truthfully, I don’t think she can handle much more drama. 

Dad didn’t come home last night. He probably thinks I told Mom about our little conversation. I think she stayed up and waited up on him for a while. She doesn’t know I heard her crying in her room well into the night.

I can sympathize with feeling betrayed and heartbroken. 

My Converse shoes squeak on the hard tile floor as I walk to my Statistics class. Alicia would just die if she saw me mixing this skirt with my old sneakers and torn fishnets. I hate wearing the high-heeled shoes she picked out. They kill my feet and they aren’t exactly conducive to soul collecting.  

My neck burns with every slight little movement from lying in the fetal position all night. I massage the area with my fingers, but it’s not really helping the pain. 

“Did you eat anything?” Rick asks, startling me, as he walks beside me.

I roll my eyes. “When? You mean last night?”

“Yeah, then and breakfast.”

Pain shoots down my shoulders as I shake my head.

He frowns. “You really should eat. Before and after. It helps with the…” Stealthily, his eyes dart around. “Muscle aches. After. You know.”

Most eavesdropping people would assume he’s talking about sex, not killing two big time sinners, and then stealing their souls. 

I avoid the topic and continue to rub my stinging neck.

He readjusts his backpack and sets his charcoal gray eyes on me. “I can rub it for you, if you want?” 

His hands stretch toward me, but I steer away. “No thanks. I think I got it under control.”

“Come on, Nat. Let me help you. Please.”

I groan, thinking of how nice some kneading on my aching muscles might feel. And maybe if Rick rubs it a little, I can get through the day. 

Quickly, I glance around. The coast is clear. I nod and then toss my bag on the floor. I pull my hair back and expose my neck to him.

Rick lets out a little gasp, but quickly starts rubbing.

I throw a protective hand on my skin, knocking his fingers away. “Is there something on my neck?”

“No.” His voice wavers a touch.

My eyes narrow. “You’re lying.” 

I crouch down and dig in my bag until I find my compact. Standing slowly, I search out the view of my neck in the mirror. 

My eyes bulge and I gasp. “What the…” I inch mirror closer for a better look at the faint black lines squiggled on my skin. “What the hell is that?”

My fingers scratch at my skin in a desperate attempt to erase the lines.

“Do you remember the tattoo on my chest?” My hand stills and I stare into Rick’s face, looking for answers. My brain pulls up the image of a shirtless Rick the night I nearly had sex with him. 

I’d like to forget that scary-ass, demonic tattoo—slithering snakes that formed a perfect circle and came to life—along with everything else I learned about him that night. “Yeah?”

His lips draw into a tight line. “Well, you’re kind of—”

My breath catches. “What? Getting one?”

He nods, his stormy eyes sad. 

I shake my head. “No. No, no. No! Why? I’ve still got one day.”

“Which is why you only have the outline. It’ll fill in as time gets closer.”

I stare at the lines in the mirror. “But if I succeed, it’ll go away right?”

He grazes his bottom lip with his teeth. “It should.”

“
Should?
” I growl and shove him away from me.

His brow crunches over his eyes. “I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve done this before. I only know what happens to a person changing into a demon. I’ve never actually helped a person back out of a deal. People usually die after I meet them, remember?”

My hair slides through my fingers and makes a black curtain over my neck, before squaring my shoulders. 

Great. One more way Rick’s completely ruined my life. 

I turn away and leave him standing there alone. My eyes burn, but I refuse to let my emotions take over right now. I need to be strong. All I have to do is help Rick collect one more soul and this nightmare will be over. I can do this. 

I head toward my next class. 

“Wait up.” Rick calls. I don’t stop, but he still refuses to go away. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be a dick,” he apologizes as his arm rubs against me. When I don’t respond, he sighs. “Natalie, please. Will you just talk to me?”

I roll my eyes. “What do you want me to say, Rick? That it’s okay about the hideous thing on my neck, and it’s totally not your fault?” 

He touches my arm. “It is my fault. I get that. I’m trying to make things right between us. I need you to see that.”

I shake my head. Now is not the time to piss him off. It’s hard to be nice when all I feel is anger toward him, but I have to play nice until I get my soul back. I stop walking and show him a faint smile. “I know you’re trying. I’m sorry I snapped at you. I’m sure it’ll go away, right. What does it mean anyway?”

He smiles, but his eyes are still sad. “It’s the devil’s brand.”

I bite the inside of my jaw. “Brand? As in what farmers do to cows?”

He nods.

“That’s sick.”

“It is.” He shrugs and runs his hand through his hair.  “But what can you do?”

We walk to my classroom door. “Nothing, I guess.” 

He turns to leave, but stops like he forgot something. “Natalie, meet me in the parking lot after you’re done with classes today. We have work to do.” 

“You mean…” My eyes dart from side to side to see who's listening. “We can get the last one tonight?”

His eyes crinkle as he smiles at me. “So I’ll take that as you’ll be there?”

My whole body tingles with excitement and I fight the sudden urge to cartwheel down the hallway. “Hell yes.”

His throaty laugh echoes down the hall as he takes a step back. The light from the fluorescent bulbs catch his eyes and makes them sparkle.  “Then I’ll see you later.”