Deadly Kisses (12 page)

I twirled her hair around my fingers. “I knew it would work.”

“You were always a good friend to all of us—and me.”

“I would have done anything for you.” Little did she know I gave up my afterlife for her, and I didn’t regret it.

“Why, why would you do anything for me? We weren’t that good of friends after middle school anymore.” I pulled back, but she wouldn’t let me. When she came forward, I grabbed her elbows so she wouldn’t lean into me too far. I didn’t want her to know the mortal wound where the tree impaled me was still there, and it hurt. It would probably gross her out, the way the wound blackened around the edges. A wound the size of an orange would never heal, even with Bee’s gift.

“Stop retreating from me, Aiden. Please,” she begged.

“You’re so damn annoying. Do you know that?”

“You are, too. You drive me nuts with all those secrets bottled up with no one to share them with.”

My mouth twitched.

“In different ways we’re the same.” I leaned into her rainbow of energy. My lips brushed her cheek and she stood still. The licorice flavor came into my mouth. I shook my head and fisted my hands.

“I keep forgetting your kiss is deadly, because you haven’t changed. It’s like you never died.” She went to her brother who slept peacefully on the bed, and put her hand to his forehead.

I was irritated and pulled at my hair. “We can’t! My kiss will kill you. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“I know, I know . . . I can’t help it.”

“You’re so frustrating. I mean, the stuff you do. You’re so impulsive, think it through.”

“And you think too much. Go with the flow, except the kissing part. You stopped me from committing Grim Reaper suicide.” She went to her brother’s drawers and looked through them.

“You won’t find drugs in there. Marlin helped him.” She took out a shirt and sized it up.

“I know everything. Jaleb told me, and I know that’s what kept us from being together. That, and the two-year-age thing.” Bee chuckled. “Tell me about Marlin. Jaleb never mentioned her.”

“She’s a powerful psychic and a whiz with herbs. The legal kind, of course. She knew about you.”

“Jaleb’s fever is breaking. Her tonic worked, but she’s really weird.”

“She wasn’t always like that. She gets images and messages from other people and it stresses her out. Her mother had her committed when she was younger, not understanding her psychic abilities. She hates when they take her over, but she means well.”

“That’s kind of sad.” Bee found a pair of jeans at the bottom of the drawer and checked the tag before pulling them out. “Come here.”

“Fine, but don’t put those lips near me again. My will power isn’t that good. You have to know the way our souls feel inside each other.”

Bee placed the jeans against me, eyeing if they fit.

“I can feel that you’re holding things back from me, but don’t worry I’m going to find out what big regret you think you have for not wanting to ascend. You can’t want this for eternity.” She went to the closet and found a jacket.

“Don’t your parents keep tabs on you?”

Bee let out a breath of frustration. “Not really. We were a close family until Sabrina died. I told them about the Grim Reaper following her. It gave us closure, but the whole family became withdrawn. I think they became afraid of what I can see. My mom helps me with schoolwork, we spend the afternoons with the twins, and I’m free after that. My dad drowns himself in work, and I don’t see him until late.”

She picked up the clothes and walked to her room. “I gave Jaleb one of my mom’s sleeping pills. He’ll be out for a while. We have a date. Just you, me, and lots of old stuff.”

She closed the door to her room and threw the clothes at me. “Lose the cloak and get dressed, Aiden.”

“But it’s after midnight.”

“What do you care? Do you sleep? Anyway, I’m not tired and I want the fun promised to me.”

“Yes, I sleep, and pee too, if I drink. I’m a dead human, life goes on, except I’m invisible and I’m an assassin for a living.”

“How appealing. I would ascend, no questions asked.” She sat on the bed. “Can bad people become Grim Reapers?”

I slipped the cloak over my head and threw it to her. She caught it, making a face at the drab thing. I kept my back to her and faced the poster.

“No, but once you’re a Grim Reaper you can go as bad as you want. That’s what has become a huge problem. My boss, Abe, is on a crusade to stop the Ancients. There needs to be order on my plane.” I turned and she stared at my bare backside. I thanked her continuous flow of energy that skin grew back not just on my hands, but my whole body—well, except the one spot on my chest.

I slid up the jeans. They sat low on my hips, but it felt good to have pants on again. Her soft hand on my back sent my heart racing. She opened her hand so her fingers lay across my shoulder blade. My eyes closed and it felt good to be touched—especially by her. “Please don’t.” It pained me to urge her away.

“I have something to give you.”

“After I put on the shirt.” I clutched the black tee against my chest because she had her hand wrapped around my bicep. I turned against better judgment, holding the shirt to my wound.

She looked to the shirt and then back to my eyes. She could feel out my emotions. My calm and cool were lost somewhere down the River of Lost Souls when her hand trailed from my arm to my chest.

Her fingers pulled at the edge of the shirt and I clutched it more. “Don’t be scared, Aiden. Let me see what you’re hiding.” I let go of the shirt, hearing her velvet voice soothe me.

She gasped and stepped back.

“I tried to spare you.” I hurried and put the shirt on. It clung to my cold skin. Her eyes seared through it. “Nasty wound, huh? It’s my fatal wound where the tree got me.”

She took a step forward, and I backed up. I couldn’t let her touch me. I was damaged and would never be what she deserved. I was dead, and Bee was everything life should be.

I bumped into the wall and my back was flat against a poster of a pony in a field.

“I want to hear your version about that night. I’ve told you mine already.”

“No.”

“I need to hear it. Please!”

“If this is your attempt to make me ascend, it’s too late.” I put my head down and blonde strands fell into my face.

She lifted my chin. “Please Aiden, for me, for Sabrina. I beg you.”

I fought to hold on to my guilt because I deserved to be miserable. “Your brother was supposed to bring Sabrina home, but he ditched us for some chick after the concert. I drove her instead. I think she was going to tell me everything—about you—about her.”

I paused, taking a deep breath, and continued. “It was hard to see that night because it was raining hard. It was the fifth day straight and unrelenting. Anyways, Sabrina and I were still hyped up from the concert and goofing off. I drove that road every day and didn’t give it much thought.

“I . . . I had plenty enough time to stop if I had paid attention to the road as I should’ve been. I should’ve seen the large crack, the collapsed bridge. I slammed on my brakes, but it was too late and we went over. The windshield cracked and a tree impaled my chest. It didn’t hurt, but I couldn’t move. The car was somehow teetering on a boulder and the fallen tree. Then water rushed at us. It tore the door open and Sabrina lost consciousness. She started to lean toward the open door. I tried grabbing for her hand, but it slipped out of mine. I couldn’t move to grasp it again. I realized if I didn’t do something it would be too late, so I managed to pull the tree branch out of my chest. Blood poured out, and the last thing I remember is seeing Sabrina open her eyes and reach for me, screaming.” Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my face. I struggled to breathe.

Bee took me in her arms and cradled my head in the crook of her neck.

“I tried to save her. I tried! I really, really tried! I remember darkness and then I was on a river with a dead president. Reina rowed next to us in her gondola. Abe was going to take me to a better place, and he soothed me. I was so scared. I begged him to tell me what happened. It was Reina who told me Sabrina had drowned, and I had crashed the car. I refused to ascend.”

She grasped my face in her hands, forcing me to look her in the eyes. “Look at me, Aiden Grant. It. Is. Not. Your. Fault. At first I thought it was my fault, Jaleb thinks it’s his fault. You think it’s your fault, and its fate. Stay still so I can get rid of that nasty wound.”

“I have your necklace with the key on it. I don’t ever remember you without it.”

I half smiled. “It was a reminder of what I wanted in life. I didn’t want the life my mother had. I wanted the dog and beautiful girl. I wanted to make it on the Billboard Chart, I wanted it all, Bee.”

“Your band would’ve made it. Do you ever visit your family?”

“My mother, the drunk, and my estranged father? No way. People pegged me as a loner or weird, but I didn’t want to be seen as the poor kid with the drunken mother. So, I didn’t let anyone in. I think that was my biggest mistake in life.”

Tendrils of white energy flowed through Bee and into me. My cheeks were flushed. I couldn’t tell if it was her or her power that made my blood run hot. “Why are you letting me in, even though I only get bits and pieces?” Bee asked.

“What, and let you bug me until I tell you anyways?”

She squeezed my waist and I laughed. “Because, you’re not the only one who has nothing to lose.”

“I’m glad I’ll be missed when you take my soul.” I was anxious to tell her about how I saved her, but I needed to tell Jaleb first. It wouldn’t take any convincing for him to stay a Grim Reaper and help me.

“There’s something different about you. It’s there in the background just on the edge of your soul. I feel it too. Are you okay?” She scrunched her eyebrows together.

“Nah, I’m fine because you’re with me.” I pulled her into me until there was no space between us. Bee snuggled into my chest and closed her eyes, content and relaxed.

“I don’t want to reap your soul, and I’ll try my hardest to do right by you.” I smoothed her hair down to her shoulders and more heat seared through her fingertips to me. “Sheesh, I’m the worst Grim Reaper of all time.”

The skin under her hand bubbled up. Bee pulled it away, but I caught it, catching her hand in mine. I rubbed it on my face before I brought it to my lips. I kissed, gentle at first then harder until I took my lips off her hand and brought my eyes to hers.

Her feet lifted off the ground until she reached my chin and leaned into me. Desire rocketed into my veins. The smell of flowers seeped into my nose. I kissed the top of her black, silky hair. She looked up at me and my brain went numb.

I wanted her lips on me and I wanted to taste them. I moved in closer. Her soul egged her on and mine did the same. When we were mere inches apart, black licorice overtook my mouth. I winced and pulled away. “No, Bee. Back up now.” The dark was in me because of Ivar and it wanted souls more than anything. I wasn’t sure I could suppress it.

Her eyes were bright and she cleared her throat. “Look at your wound. Wow, am I handy with the healing or what. This gift, I could live with. Think how many people I could help.” She touched where my fatal wound once was and smiled. Smooth skin was left with a jagged scar, but I was healed.

“You’re amazing with your healing, but we better go before I kill you with my kiss.” Now that I had saved her, I had to be extra careful not to kiss her.

“Yes, we better get going. Are you ready?” she asked.

“As long it’s not to a concert, large crowds, or having to watch you dance with anyone.” I shuddered thinking about the club and our altercation with the Ancient Grim Reapers. I didn’t want to be bonded to them any more than a dog wanted to eat vegetables.

“Are you jealous, Aiden? Because it’s not a secret I want you.”

“Having the kiss of death doesn’t go over well with mortal girls.”

She pulled my hand. We went through the back door into the still night.

“Do you know I would have gone out with you in a heartbeat?” Bee slung a backpack over her shoulder.

“I know, but your brother needed me more. I had to make him better. The reason he started using was because of my awful mother.”

“She’s mother of the year material.”

“Oh, definitely. She didn’t even want me. If she knew about her pregnancy, she would have aborted me. She told me every time I was in her way.”

She squeezed my hand. “That sucks.”

“I’m over it.” I shrugged. I didn’t care how my mother was doing. She had made my life terrible. I was glad to have my friends or life would have been worse.

We walked to the edge of Bee’s yard and I looked over my shoulder, afraid her parents would catch us. She’d snuck out before, but not this late at night. I hurried her to the edge of the woods before she put the flashlight on. The light of the moon was blocked by heavy clouds. The ground was wet from dew and would become crunchy frost by morning.