ARIANNE GASPED, TAKING IN THE FRESHNESS of mint into her lungs. The screech of tires and loud crash of crumpling metal followed by hissing steam made her flinch. Her heart seemed to beat everywhere at once while she pressed rewind and play on the scene. She had landed the starring role in a dizzying action sequence. It started with counting the pavement cracks, Arianne walking away from her grief. A flash bomb of headlights, followed by a whirl of glittering stars, then being pulled into a sturdy embrace—one she’d only experienced in her dreams lately. She actually felt her eyes pop out of their sockets when she focused on the here and now.
“Niko?” She looked up at him to see his Adam’s apple bob up and down in recognition of her voice before he met her gaze. She shivered. Oh, I missed those eyes. “I’m a little fuzzy. What happened? Why are you holding me?”
“You…huh…” He glanced over his shoulder. “I think I did something terrible.”
His uncertainty and fear infected her completely, picking up the pace of blood flowing through her veins. “What are you doing here?”
“Following you.”
“You…” Arianne processed the information, causing a total brain reboot. “You’ve been bringing me home, haven’t you?” He dipped his chin once, affirming the answer to her question. She punched his shoulder. “You jerk! Why did you do that? Why can’t you just let me be?”
“Because I love you.”
He said it so confidently, like it had been set in stone long ago, that she couldn’t quite believe him. “Right. How can that be true when you took Carrie away?” The pipes that had burst inside her when Carrie passed, miraculously still held water in them for her eyes to well up. Fury, her newest ally, aided her in blocking the coming deluge.
“I didn’t take her away, Ari.” Remorse filled Niko’s eyes, and despite herself, Arianne wanted to console him. “I don’t decide who goes or stays. I just escort their souls to be processed.”
“Processed?”
“I guess you can call it judgment or the afterlife. It’s above my pay grade to know what happens to a soul when I bring it to the Crossroads.”
“You didn’t kill her?”
The deliberate head shake confirmed the truth of his words. And his gaze, piercing yet tender, never wavered from her face.
Guilt followed Arianne’s understanding of Niko’s words. “Oh Niko, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to judge you.”
“Yet you did. But you didn’t know.” His hold tightened. “And I should have checked the Certificates before I enforced them.” The question on Arianne’s face had him explaining. “My Master, you know him as Death, signs what is called a Death Certificate. It’s indicated there whose time is up. As a Reaper, I enforce them.”
“That’s what you did with Carrie.”
“Yes.”
Arianne’s gaze traveled beyond Niko’s shoulder. A Honda wrapped around a tree came into view. “Oh God, was that…” She pointed at the car. “Was that supposed to hit me?”
Niko paled. His lower lip trembled.
“And you stopped it?”
He nodded.
Her jaw dropped. “Was I supposed to die?”
“I don’t know. But I feel like the answer to that question is most definitely yes.”
Before Arianne could ask her next question, a neighbor came running to them. “Is everybody okay?”
She took in where she stood. Apparently, while she and Niko had been speaking, half the neighborhood had gathered—men and women in various states of undress—robes and pajama bottoms everywhere. A few kept their distance, observers to the event that cut into the monotony of their lives. Others—emboldened by either courage or morbid curiosity—inched toward the wreck.
“We need to call an ambulance,” Niko said.
“They’re on their way,” said the man as he approached the car along with five others.
Arianne disentangled herself from Niko’s arms to follow, but she kept a hold on his hand, tugging him along. He was a security blanket that could whisk her away if anything earth shattering awaited her.
The man moved cautiously to the driver’s side. Smoke rose up from the car’s hood. He reached in and felt for a pulse on the driver who’d been slumped in the seat. “She’s still alive,” he said. “But I don’t think we should move her until the authorities get here.”
Arianne came closer and her world began to break, spreading around her feet in sharp shards. Goose bumps rose all over her arms and legs. The ever immaculate bob, now matted with blood, stuck to an oh-so-familiar face. A long gash ripped across her forehead. Her lips had turned blue.
Horrified, she folded herself into Niko’s arms. “I shouldn’t have outed her,” she whispered into his chest.
“She wanted to kill you,” Niko hissed.
Arianne couldn’t say another word. She barely considered Darla a friend, not after everything the other girl had done over the years, but Arianne never wished harm on her. For Darla to take things beyond a level of reason showed Arianne what Darla had been truly capable of. She’d been so caught up in mourning Carrie that she didn’t think of the consequences of what outing Darla could have been. Everyone in school must have known by now; the efficiency of the Pep Squad at spreading news was legendary. She could have handled things better the afternoon Darla had threatened Niko. But she hadn’t. Even if Niko had saved her, she was supposed to have died by Darla’s hand. What did it mean? What could it spell for Niko and her?
The blare of sirens in the distance filled her chaotic mind. They drowned out any answers she could come up with—a quick fix to her confusion. She didn’t think she wanted to deal with what would happen next. Where’s that getaway car when you need it?
After giving a statement to the police and making sure Darla was on her way to the hospital, Arianne asked Niko to take her home. She refused his offer to teleport them back, wanting to work out her thoughts a step at a time—literally. Well, maybe a few steps at a time.
She walked by his side with streetlamps for chaperones. They didn’t touch, but she stayed close enough for his warmth to provide comfort. It had somehow gotten late. Other than the commotion at the accident site, the rest of the neighborhood pretty much slept. They were the only ones left outside.
“What time is it?” Arianne asked after a block of silence.
Niko glanced up at the sky. “Around twelve thirty, give or take a few minutes.”
“You can tell that just by looking up at the stars?”
He lifted his wrist and pulled down the sleeve of his shirt to show her a digital wristwatch.
Arianne nudged him and he stumbled. She knew he allowed the action as part of the human veneer he maintained. “I can’t believe I didn’t figure out what you were sooner. Granted there’s not much literature on Reapers. Society thinks Death and Reapers are one and the same.”
“God, I missed you.” Niko laughed, but he sobered soon after. “I’m sorry about Carrie. I really am.”
Arianne let the tingle from the sound of his voice wash over her body like an April shower. “Was it really her time?”
He watched the pavement and nodded. “I read the Death Certificate too late. I wish I’d seen it sooner.”
The frustration in his voice reminded her of why she loved him. “What could you have done? Could you have stopped it?”
“I don’t know!” He ran his fingers through his hair. “All my lives I’ve served my master unfailingly. I did my duties with single-minded determination. This is the first time I’ve ever considered defying him.”
“Could you have saved Carrie?” Arianne sidled closer.
“I don’t know. Our job is to enforce the Certificates.” He groaned. “I’ve heard stories of Reapers defying our master, but the stories always end with the Reapers being dealt with. No real details as to how.”
“But you saved me.”
“I did. And now I don’t know what will happen.”
Niko’s tension started rubbing off on Arianne. “Then you should have just let Darla run me over.”
Niko stopped abruptly and gaped at her. “How can you say that?”
“You obviously regret saving me.”
He grabbed her arms and shook her with such force that Arianne stared at him in stunned silence. “Don’t put words into my mouth.” He let her go and began pacing back and forth like a caged animal in front of her. “Saving you was probably the best thing I’ve ever done in this life. Maybe even in all my other lives combined. I don’t like not knowing. Not being prepared. Or in control.”
No matter how agitated Niko seemed, Arianne braved the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his waist. She tightened her hold when he tried to back away. She looked up at him and said, “I don’t know what will happen either. But I love you, and I won’t let you go through this alone.”
Apprehension and surrender mingled on Niko’s features. He bent down until his forehead rested on her shoulder, returning her hug with one of his own.
“How touching,” someone said from behind them.
Arianne felt Niko shudder in her arms, then his muscles coiled as he lifted his head and turned to face whoever had spoken. He eased Arianne behind him. She peeked around his shoulder without leaving the protection he provided. A girl who resembled Madonna in the eighties stood with her feet apart and hands crossed over her chest at the end of the street.
“Janika,” Niko said with such venom that anxiety bloomed in Arianne’s gut.
“I have to say, Nikolas, you’re slipping.” Janika sneered. “I wouldn’t have thought the Reaper with the most anal retentive personality when it comes to reaping would actually defy a Certificate. To think, I would have made you my lover.”
Arianne’s ears prickled at the last word Janika spoke. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Ari—” Niko began, but Janika cut him off.
“Little girl, I’m here to make sure you die today, so if I were you, I wouldn’t be a bitch to me right now. I can make sure you suffer if you annoy me.” Janika moved her hands to her hips.
“As if you’d get past me,” Niko said.
“Niko?” Arianne swallowed in an attempt to push down the fear that came in the form of bile rising up her throat.
Ari, I need you to stay still and not speak. Can you do that for me, angel?
Niko’s voice in her head had her jolting back, but the malicious aura oozing from Janika kept her in the moment. Arianne felt that if she looked away for just a second it would be all over. Stand still, don’t blink, and don’t run. She reached out a shaking hand toward Niko’s bicep. She gave him a squeeze in response to what he’d said.
“So, how would you like to do this?” Janika asked. “Personally, I don’t want to hurt you, Nikolas—”
“Come now, Janika, you don’t have to lie to me,” Niko interrupted.
She shrugged her bony shoulders. “All right, I do want to hurt you. But it’s beneath me.”
“Right.”
“All right! Not beneath me.” She sighed like an unconcerned socialite caught stealing a necklace from a store. “So, my In Between or yours? I’ll give you that much.”
Niko grinned. “Mine.”
Janika disappeared.
“What now?” Arianne asked.
He faced her. Their gazes locked.
“I need you to go home,” Niko urged.
“Fat chance.”
He gave her a bright smile that spoke of lazy mornings. “I had a feeling you’d say that.” Then, like a gray cloud covering the sun, he frowned. “But seriously, I don’t know if I can defeat Janika. She’s the Reaper of New York, third strongest among us. I don’t know if I can fully protect you.”
She framed his face with both her hands. “We’re doing this together or not at all.”
Arianne opened her eyes and found herself by a blood-colored lake and stormy skies. The pines had withered to resemble gray skeleton fingers reaching up from the ground like a corpse fighting its way out of a grave. The grass had dried to pus yellow and the air smelled of sulfur.
Janika leaned against one of the pines, filing her fingernails. “A tad overdramatic, don’t you think?” she said without looking up at them.
“I thought it appropriate,” Niko replied nonchalantly. “But if you want green meadows and hopping bunnies, I can oblige.”
“Don’t patronize me, Nikolas.” She glared at him, a rattler ready to strike.
Raising his hands as if she had a gun pointed at him, he shrugged, “I only aim to please, lady Reaper.”
Arianne marveled at how easy-going Niko seemed despite the threat Janika presented to them. They might as well be sitting for tea from the way they addressed each other, but Janika’s toxic aura pushed down on Arianne. She could barely stand. Her knees quaked from the effort.
“I’m bored. Let’s get on with it,” Janika said. She held the nail file aloft and it morphed into a scythe. Its ivory staff resembled a unicorn’s horn. A giant pink bow, its ribbons curling to the ground, joined the staff to a wide, arched blade of midnight metal with blush floral etchings on its surface.
Arianne couldn’t hide her amazement and wonder. She stood there, staring at Janika in abject awe. She half expected Rainbow Brite or a group of My Little Ponies to join the pseudo-eighties pop star. Before she had a chance to point out the observation, she found herself encased in a glass bubble. She fell to her knees as it levitated a foot off the ground.
“Niko?” Her voice echoed within the sphere, sounding hollow to her ears.
“As long as you are in there and I’m alive, she can’t take you,” he said to her.
“Is that an invitation?” Janika twirled her scythe, first in front of her then behind like a majorette at the head of a parade. “Because I’d be happy to oblige.”
Niko made a fist. A shaft of some kind of black wood stretched out. One end had a silver stud, and the other a transparent blue blade that resembled ice, misty wisps rising from it. The flat side of the blade had holes of descending size from base to tip. Arianne couldn’t take her gaze away from its beauty. She’d seen it once before, when he’d gathered souls at St. Joseph’s. At the time, it represented pain. Now, it became a weapon to protect her.
Janika and Niko widened their stance. A tense moment passed between them. Even in the bubble, Arianne felt the static they generated. Then, like a whip crack, they moved. Their collision produced a loud bang, like a firecracker exploding. Their blades rubbed against each other, producing a screech similar to nails on a blackboard. Arianne covered her ears, gritting her teeth.
Niko executed back flips even the pickiest judge would score a ten. Cat-like agility and predatory grace had him dancing circles around Janika. The female Reaper matched each step with countermoves of her own. Close combat never reminded Arianne so much of the tango as it did while watching them. A hint of jealousy, which she found utterly insane, curled up next to the fire in her gut. If they didn’t look like they were killing each other, Arianne would have slapped an R rating on the fight scene unfolding before her. Their grunts and groans alone sounded too intimate, despite the punches and kicks and blood.
In a blink, they were back on opposite sides of the lakeshore. Janika swept the blade of her scythe over the grass and a gust of air hurled itself toward Niko. He countered by leaping over the attack. A second and third followed, which he dodged, not realizing a fourth came in their wake. It hit his hip, sending him falling. He braced himself, but before he touched down, Janika hovered over him, slicing into his chest. A massive shockwave burst outwards like a bomb had been detonated, sending pines toppling to the rippling ground.
Arianne covered her mouth to keep from screaming, certain that Janika had cut Niko in half. The dust hadn’t even settled when Niko—face bloodied, clothes ripped—rushed Janika and landed a solid punch on her jaw, producing a sonic boom as she flew into the hillside. He quickly called upon thunder by raising his scythe, sending electric daggers Janika’s way, further leveling the landscape.
Niko stumbled forward, using his scythe to keep him upright. Arianne suspected the thunder attack he’d used took a lot out of him. She gripped the edges of her sleeves.
Seconds later, Janika walked out of the rubble, dusting off her skirt and top as if she’d slipped and gotten back up. “Is that the best you can do? I’m a little disappointed.” She tossed her scythe from her left hand to her right. “You only succeeded in annoying my dry cleaner.”
“Just getting warmed up.” Niko wiped away the blood streaming over his eyes. He returned all his weight onto his legs.
“Good.” Janika licked her own blood off her bottom lip. “I’d hoped you’d give me a challenge. It’s been a while.” She charged—her blade aimed at Niko’s throat.
Niko somersaulted several times, dodging every advance Janika made. They both had wicked smiles on their faces. Despite fighting to the death, as Arianne saw it, both Reapers clearly enjoyed themselves.
A tug-of-war ensued as their staffs locked. Janika disentangled herself with a kick to Niko’s abdomen. The force sent him slamming into a large pine, splintering the dead tree into toothpicks. Janika tapped the crystal stud of her scythe on the water’s edge and a foghorn blared. Again, Arianne had to cover her ears.
A tornado touched down from the stormy sky and headed toward Niko. In no time, the funnel engulfed him, whirling him around like a rag doll. Arianne whimpered.
“That’s right, girly, be afraid.” Janika poked the bubble with her forefinger. “I’m coming for you next. It shouldn’t be long now.”
Arianne didn’t respond, too stunned by the fact that Janika moved so fast. She appeared out of thin air beside the bubble a second after Arianne’s eyes registered that the psychotic Reaper had been standing by the lake.
Then Janika’s eyes widened as she choked out blood.
Arianne screamed.
Niko pulled on his scythe, which he’d embedded between Janika’s shoulders. It left a gaping hole in her chest, soaking her shirt crimson.
“I thought I told you to stay away from her,” he said in a harsh whisper.
“How?” Disbelief replaced Janika’s previous cocky demeanor.
“I know a thing or two.” He snapped and the tornado Janika summoned subsided. “You forget who my mentor is. My domain, my control.”
“And you forget I’m the Reaper of New York.” Janika plunged her hand into Niko’s stomach and twisted her wrist before yanking back, his blood like a red glove on her hand.
Niko fell to his knees, covering the wound that bled like an angry volcano.
“Niko!” Arianne moved to him, only to collide with the glass she’d forgotten separated them. She got up and pounded on the barrier the bubble provided until her fists hurt.
Ignoring her, Niko drew a square in front of him and it opened a portal that connected to his basement, where Arianne counted dozens of souls.
“How dare you!” Janika yelled.
“I may not be able to beat you, but I’m certainly going to make sure you hurt for a long while.” Niko drew circular symbols in the air and the wind that had been calm picked up again.
“Niko, what are you doing?” Arianne asked, the excitement on Niko’s face scaring her more than if he’d shown desperation.
Janika couldn’t move, fighting against an unseen force. She cussed like a sailor returning from months at sea.
“This is where I bid you farewell.” Niko turned to Arianne, one hand on his wound, the other splayed over the souls, smoky tendrils seeping into his fingers.
Arianne shook her head. “Whatever it is, I can’t let you do it.”
“You don’t have a choice.” He closed his eyes.
One moment Arianne knelt inside the glass bubble, and in the next, she sat on her bed.