Page 22 of Death and Divination
It was the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me. Weird and kinda creepy, but romantic.
“You’ve been holding off reaping souls forme?” I waited for his nod. “You’ve been allowing me and my co-workers time to bring someone back, because ofme? That man in the car accident two years ago? The gargoyle the other night? The goblin? The coyote shifter? The sylph last summer? The gnome with that tunnel cave-in? The vampire with the tanning bed?”
He smiled, and I got the impression it was the first time that he’d ever done so. “And the satyr.”
“The one with his…you know, stuck in the industrial-strength vacuum cleaner?” I asked. “The one who nearly bled to death trying to remove himself?”
He nodded.
“They all lived because…because you have a thing for me.”
“I delayed. I did not reap a soul until there was absolutely no possibility that the body would survive. And yes, I did this because of you.”
“Two years. All those touch-and-go cases for two years, all the ones that miraculously lived, that was because of me?”
His hand moved down and around under my hair to cup the back of my neck. “I couldn’t help myself, even though each time I died just a little. I saw how distraught you were, how much you wanted those people to live, and I found myself unable to take their souls.”
I felt the sting of tears. He’d done this for me. No one had ever cared about me this much besides my sisters. He’d let people live just because I wanted them to live. But what price had he paid for doing that? Was that why I’d had to trade my life for Sylvie’s? Was he one soul away from some sort of eternal punishment or oblivion? He’d said what he had done was forbidden. What would become of him once he’d taken my soul and sent me off to the afterlife? Would he go back to that cold emotionless existence he’d had before, where the only thing that happened was reaping souls? Maybe we werebothdoomed for tragedy.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, meaning that apology to encompass everything. “I’m so sorry.”
Then I stood on my tip-toes and kissed him. It was a soft, butterfly-light kiss, but something happened the moment my lips touched his. His hand tightened on the back of my neck, his other arm reaching around my waist to pull me closer. Fire roared up through me and before I knew it, I was pressed against the side of my car, yanking his shirt up as he kissed the holy hell out of me. My hands moved up the warm skin of his sides and I lifted one of my legs, curling it around behind him to grind myself against him.
“Hey!”
A spotlight shone on us and we froze.
“Knock it off, guys. This is a hospital. The maternity ward’s over there. Maybe you should make your way to that section, just in case.”
Ha, ha, very funny. I peered over Nash’s shoulder and blinked at the bright light.
“Ophelia? Is that you?” The man laughed and I realized, much to my embarrassment, that I knew him. Of course I knew him. This was Accident and I knew pretty much everyone in town. I especially knew the staff here at the hospital including the security people.
Nash moved to the side, keeping one arm around my waist. The beam from the flashlight lowered and I could see the Fetch in front of us. Fetch were doppelgangers, but here in Accident, we had rules that limited them to three distinct forms since that was the only way we could keep track of them.
“Hey, Daniel.”
The Fetch laughed again then flicked off the flashlight and ran a hand over his bald head. His eyes glowed bright green in the dimly lit parking lot. “Well then, you kids have a good evening. Use condoms. And get a room unless you don’t care about half the town seeing you getting porked in the hospital parking lot, Ophelia.”
He wandered off, whistling to himself and Nash turned to me with that puzzled, very human, expression on his face once more.
“Ophelia? What are condoms?”
