Death Becomes Me (Call Me Grim Book 2) (11 page)

12

The busy streets of Chicago bustle with activity as Ruth leads us through town. The pleasant smells of food drift and mingle with the cloying scent of car exhaust. We never did eat lunch.

Ruth impatiently peeks back at us as she runs like it’s painful for her not to fly or zip down the city blocks at the speed of sound. If it was just me, I’d have no trouble keeping up with her, but Aaron’s normal now. Flying and zipping are no longer options for him. Not to mention his frequent need to jump out of the way of cars, bikes, and the occasional peeved pedestrian.

“Watch it, buddy.” a guy in a pair of highlighter-yellow biker shorts says when Aaron accidentally slams into him.

“Sorry,” Aaron says as he skirts around the guy.

I catch his hand and pull him closer to me, hoping my creepy Reaper-vibe will keep people from running into him. There’s only so much I can do with Ruth barreling down the sidewalk like she’s running from the mob.

She looks back at us again and this time her eyes drop to our joined hands. A soft smile lifts her cheeks and she mutters, “God, I’m a pushover,” under her breath. Her breakneck sprint slows to a more manageable jog after that.

“Where are we going?” Aaron says between sharp, labored breaths. His red face drips with sweat.

“The Gateway,” Ruth answers, without pause.

“Wait. What? Hold up a minute.” I grab Ruth’s arm and she cranes her neck to see me over her shoulder, but she doesn’t slow down. “I thought you weren’t turning us in.” I yank her to a stop and swing her around to face me.

“Who said I’m turning you in?” Ruth tosses my hand off her arm. “You want to know how that Reaper managed to keep one step ahead of Abaddon for years, right?”

“Yeah …” My voice shakes with distrust.

“Well, the only way to get there is through the Gateway.” She points over her shoulder, gesturing in the direction we were heading before I forced her to stop.

My response is a scowl.

Ruth studies my skeptical frown for a moment, then huffs a derisive laugh. “Hey, you’re the ones who asked for my help. I didn’t have to give it. If you insist on staying far away from the Gateway, then you’ll have to leave my territory to get to where you want to go, which means you’ll be on your own. Aaron’s dying soul will attract the Reapers in every other territory in Chicago, like flies to honey. And chances are those Reapers won’t be as nice as I am.”

“Wait. There’s more than one territory in Chicago?”

“Well, yeah.” Ruth rolls her eyes. “If you hadn’t noticed, Chicago is huge. And I’m only one person. How could I possibly reap the entire city by myself?”

“I don’t know,” I mumble. My cheeks flush with heat as I shuffle my feet against the sidewalk. “I guess I thought you all shared one territory.”

“Umm…No. It doesn’t work that way. Only one Reaper per territory.” Ruth gives me a sideways glance, like she wonders if I’m really a Reaper at all. “The city is divided into twenty slices, like a pie. The Gateway is in the middle, easy to access from all twenty slices.”

“I guess that’s the difference between small towns and the big city,” Aaron says, thankfully drawing Ruth’s critical attention away from me. “Our territory is less populated, so it isn’t divided like that.”

He lifts his t-shirt and swipes sweat from his brow with the hem. Ruth’s eyes drift down to his bare mid-section, then quickly shoot back up. A hint of a smile touches her face and there is nothing I want more than to punch it off of her.

“Right,” I pipe up, desperate to get Ruth’s mind off of Aaron’s scarred yet incredibly toned abs. “There’s only one territory per Gateway where we come from. Right, Aaron?”

“Actually, no,” he says. “Our Gateway serves two territories. Carroll Falls on one side, and Wendton on the other.”

“Oh, right. Wendton.” I shove my hands into my pockets, suddenly very interested in the cracks in the concrete under my feet. I had no idea our Gateway serves Carroll Falls and Wendton. “Who reaps Wendton, again?”

“A kid named Joe.” Aaron struggles to get the words out between breaths. “A bit of a loner.”

“Whatever,” Ruth says with a flick of her wrist. “Do you want my help or not?”

“Yes, we want your help,” Aaron says. When I start to protest he squeezes my hand gently. “We have no other choice, Libbi. That Reaper could be our only chance at a life. If we want to find him, we have to trust she’s telling the truth.”

“I am. I promise I won’t turn you in.” Ruth settles her hands on her hips and her almost black eyes glimmer with mischief in the sunlight. “If I was going to do that, I would have dragged you to the Gateway when I had ahold of you before.” She tilts her head and her chin tips up toward me. “You wouldn’t be able to stop me if you tried.”

***

I feel the Gateway before I see it. The energy of the place thrums in my bones like a live wire and stands the hairs on my arms and at the back of my neck on end. Strange. The Carroll Falls Gateway never affected me this way. It was creepy, for sure, but I never felt like I licked a car battery when I got close to it. I wasn’t a full Reaper then. That might be the difference.

The finger-in-a-socket feeling surges and Ruth slows to a brisk walk. The Gateway must be close, but I still don’t see the place. Brick buildings and parked cars line the seemingly endless street. A few trees grow sporadically in the dirt between the sidewalk and the curb, but none of them are arranged in a circle. Where is the damned thing?

Ruth stops. Thankfully I notice her rapid halt before I crash into her back.

“This is it.” She whips around. “We’re here.” Her hands slip into her pockets and she tips her head toward the ornate building beside us.

White granite steps lead from the sidewalk to a pair of double wooden doors with an elaborate pattern of crosses carved into them. Two statues flank the doors. The names of the saints escape me, but I’m sure Gran would know who they are.

“A church?” Aaron frowns. “The Gateway’s inside of a church?”

“Not exactly. Follow me.” Ruth takes the steps two at a time and we follow. At the top of the marble stairs, Ruth pauses. Her small hand drifts up and she places it on the aged wood, directly over the crack between the two doors. “Stay close behind me,” she says without looking back at us. “Keep quiet and let me do the talking. Got it?”

“Yeah, sure.” Aaron’s hand tightens around mine.

“Who do you plan to talk to?” Of course, I can’t just agree and follow her through the door. That would be too easy.

Ruth lifts her shoulder in a noncommittal shrug and lets out a puff of air. She pushes her hand through the wood like she’s reaching into a wall of dark water. Once her whole body has disappeared into the church, I close my eyes and step in after her.

The smoky scent of burning incense permeates the dim vestibule and coaxes memories of every funeral, christening, and wedding I’ve attended from my brain. Before my eyes can adjust to the darkness, Aaron heaves the door behind me open from the outside and sunlight pierces the gloom. His silhouette steps into the bright stripe of light on the floor as he enters the church. The sound the door makes as it eases closed again is soft, like a sigh.

“This way,” Ruth whispers, though I’m sure the old woman kneeling in front of what looks like a thousand candles couldn’t hear her even if she yelled. The woman’s soul is too bright for her to hear a Reaper.

The clap of our footsteps ricochets around the huge space as we make our way down the center aisle. Ruth pauses in front of the altar and bows her head. She touches two fingers to her forehead, then to her chest, then to her left and right shoulders in the sign of the cross. I quickly copy her movements, not because I’m Catholic, but because it seems important to Ruth, and I don’t want to offend her. I nudge Aaron to do the same.

She turns away from the altar and leads us to another much smaller and less ornate wooden door to the right of the sanctuary. “The Gateway’s through here,” she whispers.

I take a step toward the door, but Ruth throws her arm in front of me.

“Wait. Let me check it out first.” She leans forward at the hips and her head disappears into the wood. A moment later, she straightens and says, “All clear.” She waves for me and Aaron to follow as she steps through the door.

We’re back outside. But instead of the endless rows of buildings punctuated by the occasional scraggly tree, green surrounds us. Tall hedges line the courtyard and the thick canopy of trees cast the space in soothing shade.

The Gateway looms in the middle of the courtyard, enclosed inside a perfect circle of white garden stones, each the size of a large pumpkin. The grass inside the circle is shorter, darker, sharper, than the grass on the outside. I wonder briefly if the living notice the difference, or if that’s something only a Reaper can see.

In the exact center of the circle of stones, a white lattice arch curves over a transparent, shimmery disc of air that hovers like a mirage inside. The church probably uses the arch for outdoor weddings, but I know the disc of shimmery air inside has nothing to do with holy matrimony. Looking at his pale cheeks and wide eyes, so does Aaron. I wouldn’t choose to have my wedding anywhere near that creepy lattice arch.

“This is where things get a little tricky.” Ruth places a hand on Aaron’s arm.

It’s a small gesture to get his attention, but that doesn’t stop the bubble of jealousy from forming in my chest. Jeez, I need to relax. Wasn’t I the one who didn’t want Aaron to feel trapped with me?

Ruth points to a pair of white garden stones directly across the circle from where we stand. “Do you see those two stones over there? Behind the arch with the Gateway inside?” Aaron and I nod together and she continues. “Libbi and I will stay here while you walk through the circle and between those two stones. Don’t get too close to the Gateway, unless you want Abaddon to know you’re here. Which I’m pretty sure none of us wants.”

“Why does he have to go in the circle at all?” I twist to catch her eye. “Why can’t he just go around the outside of the circle and avoid the Gateway completely?”

“If he does that, he’ll walk through nine other territories, broadcasting his come-get-me-I’m-dying vibe in every one of them. You don’t want to attract those Reapers to our little party. There’re only two Reapers I trust with this, and only one whose territory meets at this Gateway.” She scans the courtyard. Her eyes rest briefly on the spaces between the white stones. “Listen. Inside the circle is common ground; it doesn’t belong to any of the Chicago Reapers. They won’t feel Aaron’s soul if he’s in there. He just has to stay away from the center.” Ruth turns back to Aaron. “Can you do that?”

“Yeah,” Aaron’s eyes narrow. His lips form a thin line. “Of course I can.”

“Good. Once you’re on the other side of the stones, stop and wait. Your faded soul will attract Millie. She’s the Reaper in that territory and the person who can help you find who you’re looking for.”

“What about you and Libbi?” Aaron crosses his arms over his chest and scowls down at her. “Where will you be?”

“We’ll stay right here.” Ruth widens her stance. Even with her petite stature, she looks unmovable, like Abaddon himself couldn’t shake her. “I think it’s safer if Libbi stays with me, for now, as insurance.”

“Hold up a minute.” Heat crawls up my neck. “You’re using Aaron as bait and me as insurance? I thought you said you could trust this Reaper.”

“I do. Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“Look. There’s only one way to get Millie here, and that’s with the draw of a dying soul. I used up my strength for Scythe travel going to see your friend.” Ruth shoots me an exasperated glance. “Once she gets here, I don’t know how she’ll take all of this. I can guess, but I don’t know. If she decides not to help and wants to turn you in, she won’t be able to take his soul without you killing him first. And she can’t do anything to force you to kill him if you’re all the way over here, in my territory. Right?” She grins and looks back and forth between me and Aaron. “See? Insurance.”

Aaron uncrosses his arms and his eyes rest on Ruth, wide and full of curiosity.

“Why are you doing this?” His voice drops to a hushed whisper. “Abaddon would torture you nearly to death if he found out.”

“I know.” Ruth shudders. “Believe me. I know.”

“Then, why are you helping us?”

“I don’t know.” Ruth chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. She heaves a weighty sigh and her gaze drops to the grass at her feet. “Maybe I know what it’s like to lose someone you care about over stupid rules,” she says softly. “Maybe I hate to see it happen to someone else if there’s something I can do about it.”

Aaron touches her elbow. Ruth startles and looks up to meet his eyes.

“Thank you,” he says with a slight quiver in his voice. He clears his throat and says it again, stronger this time.

“Don’t get all misty on me, now.” Ruth snakes an arm around him and shoves him in the middle of his back toward the two white stones that mark Ruth’s entrance to the circle. “Go.”

“One minute.” Aaron turns toward me. His blue eyes dance over my face as his arm circles my waist and he pulls me close. Shivers travel down my spine as he combs a hand through my hair. “Libbi, I—” he says, but I get up on tip-toe and cut him off with a kiss.