Light the Shadows (A Grimm Novel) (17 page)

Micah quickly slipped into her dress then watched as Sully buttoned the last few buttons of his shirt. She placed a hand on his back and marveled at the hard muscle beneath the soft cotton.

He glanced at her. “I’m going over to Thomas’s apartment to get a few things. I’ll meet you back at your place.”

She cocked a hip and placed a fist on it. “I’m going with you.”

Sully scowled then thrust his feet into the boots he’d abandoned beside the lounge chair.

Micah followed him through the house then hurriedly locked up. “Last time you went, the shadows threw you off the balcony.”

“Just go home,” he said in a tone that hinted the conversation wasn’t open to discussion. “Those shadows are malicious
, and I’m not going to let you put yourself in danger like that.”

Micah darted in front of him to place a hand on his chest, forcing him to stop. “I’m not going to let you shut me out again, Sully.”

Sully’s hands lifted to her shoulders. His hold was firm, but not painful. “And I’m not going to let you do something stupid and get hurt.”

Standing on tiptoes, she pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I’ll be with you the whole time. You can keep an eye on me.”

Moments later, Micah glanced at Sully who rode in the passenger side of the mini. He was cramped for space, his long frame squished into the too-small car. She bit back a smile because she knew he was unhappy about their compromise and didn’t want to give him more reasons to be angry with her.

She followed his instructions and parked in front of a very swank apartment complex. A low whistle escaped between her teeth. “So tell me about Thomas. You’ve been friends a long time?”

Sully directed her up the walkway toward the stairs that led to the second floor. “Yes. I met him right after I became a Reaper. Thomas is what’s known as a Grimm.”

“A
Grimm?” She tested the word on her tongue. It felt strange and alien. “What is that exactly? I thought that’s what you were … a grim reaper.”

“No,
Grimms and Reapers are two different things.” He extracted a key from his pocket and fitted it into the door’s lock. “Grimms get rid of shadows. Like what you did at the mausoleum.”

“Am I a
Grimm?” Micah asked. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest as she remembered the white light spilling from her fingers and driving the shadows away. A giddy rush of excitement overwhelmed her. “Is that why he wants me to talk to Thomas? We’re the same?”

Sully stared at her a moment. “I
sincerely hope not.”

The apartment was dark and smelled musty from disuse. When Sully flicked on the light, Micah gasped at the state of things. All of Thomas’s belongings were strewn about, drawers and shelves dumped on the floor. The couch was tipped and its cushions gutted.

“Did shadows do this?” Micah gripped Sully’s arm. For the first time since demanding she come along, she wondered if it had been a wise idea.

“Stay with me. Don’t wander off,” Sully
said then stepped inside.

Goosebumps prickled Micah’s skin. She couldn’t see them, but she could somehow sense they were being watched by shadows. She turned in a tight circle and peered around the room they’d just stepped into. The library was ransacked. Books and papers were everywhere, strewn across the floor, and lying across the broken bookshelf.

Sully crouched next to the overturned desk and rifled through the gutted drawers.

“You won’t find it. It’s not here.” A child’s voice sounded from the doorway. The little girl in a bloody dress drifted into the library and looked up at Micah with a sneering smile. “We’ve looked everywhere.”

Micah gasped as the youngster drifted closer. Bruises darkened her face and neck, and blood stained the front of her dress. She might have been a pretty little thing at one time, but now she was just macabre and scary. Her dark eyes searched Micah’s face a moment before she reached small, dirty fingers toward her.

Before Sully could shout a warning, Micah lifted her hand to stretch fingers toward the girl. Light shimmered at Micah’s fingertips, brightened the girl’s eyes and brought an awed look upon the child’s face. The girl glowed momentarily then darted backward before Micah had a chance to touch her. Then she disappeared.

Micah’s shoulders sagged, and she let out a slow breath.

Sully scrambled up and wrapped her in his embrace. “What the hell were you thinking? She could have hurt you.”

“But she didn’t,” Micah said, looking up into his worried eyes.

“Sullivan.” The shadow standing in the middle of the room was a good two or three inches taller than Sully. His dark hair was cropped close to the scalp, the color nearly matching his dark chocolate eyes. There didn’t seem to be a mark on the handsome man.

“Thomas?” Sully’s head whipped around. “Shit, what happened to you?”

“You’ve got to get her out of here,” Thomas said. “It’s too dangerous. The shadows are coming.” He looked at Micah solemnly. “They know another
Grimm is here.”

Then all hell broke loose. Shadows flooded into the room. Some came down through the ceiling, and others seemed to sprout from the floor. Many materialized out of thin air, while more drifted through the walls. There were too many
, and they kept piling in. There had to be a dozen or more by now.

Sully stepped away from Micah and allowed the scythe to slide into his hand. Thomas shrank back, seeming to press himself against the far wall as two more angry spirits glided in.

A woman, with a horrific cut on her face that revealed the teeth behind her cheek, yanked Micah’s hair. Another swirled around them then disappeared.

A man with a hideous, rotted face rushed at Micah from the side. Just as his skeletal hands reached out to grasp her dress, Micah scrambled backward. She fell across an overturned bookshelf
, and the shadows laughed. She and Sully were separated, just as they must have planned.

Sully swung his blade, but the shadows reappeared just as quickly as they disappeared. He tried to reach Micah, but the shadows kept getting between them, driving them f
arther apart.

Suddenly Sully’s scythe clattered to the floor
, and he jerked his shirt open, scattering black buttons everywhere. His hand lifted to his chest and came away with a smear of blood. Eyes full of confusion and pain, he crumpled to his knees then struck the floor.

Both Micah and Thomas shouted, “No!”

Micah crashed to her knees next to him. No longer caring that the shadows were descending upon her, she gathered him in her arms and smoothed a trembling hand through his hair.

The scar on his chest was no longer just a scar. The wound bled freely, newly opened as though he’d just been shot. Micah pressed her hands against his heart in an effort to stem the flow, but Sully’s life continued to leak between her fingers.

“Get out, doll.” Sully fought to keep his eyes open. One hand lifted to caress her cheek. “Hurry.”

“Not without you,” she said on a shaky whisper.

Sully’s hand fell away from her, and his chest rose once more in a gasping, bubbly breath. Then his body grew deathly still.

Hot, salty tears streamed down her face as she turned it up toward the shadows hovering around them. She screamed, “What did you do to him?”

Micah pulled Sully’s head up onto her lap and stroked his relaxed features. He couldn’t be gone. She’d just found him. Pressing her forehead against his, she allowed the tears to fall freely now. The shadows no longer concerned her. They could do as they pleased.

“Bring him back.” Her whispered plea went unanswered. Raising her head, she shouted to anyone who would listen. “Bring him back, please!”

Chapter Thirteen

Something touched Sully’s shoulder. Next was a hard jab that sent agony spiraling down the entire length of his arm.

“Get up.” A young, feminine voice demanded. He knew that irritating voice.

Opening his eyes, he struggled to his feet then blinked at the blinding brightness all around. A sinking feeling settled in his gut when he spotted Anna glaring at him in the stark white hallway.

“I’ve got to go back,” he said, then turned to look for a door handle. Finding none, he gave it a hard shove instead. The door wouldn’t budge. It hardly mattered. He’d break it down if he had to.

Anna watched him a moment then said, “Mr. Azrael wants to see you.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t have time to talk to him. I have to get back to Micah. The shadows …
she’s in danger.”

Anna’s gaze slid toward the door like she was considering helping him back through. Instead, she began walking down the hall with quick steps. “Hurry.”

Sully cast one last look at the doorway he’d come through then rushed to catch up with the teenage ghost. “What does he want?”

“I don’t know. He just said to wait for you to cross over.” She glanced up at him, doubt and worry in her eyes. “He was super pissed that I let her cross back over and jump into a new body.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

“Believe me, I told him. Apparently, she was supposed to come directly to his office, not body jump.” Anna shrugged. “How was I supposed to know? As soon as he was done chewing me out, I got the hell out of there.”

They paused outside a glossy black door. Anna said, “This is it, Mr. Azrael’s office.”

“Do me a favor?”
Sully turned to look at Anna. “Make sure Micah’s okay.”

Anna stared up at him, understanding in her eyes. “You really do care about her, don’t you?”

He gripped the silver door handle and gave it a twist. “Yeah, I really do.”

Sully entered the room and glanced around. The office was filled with tomes of dusty old books piled as high as the ceiling and stacked in every space available. The sound of something scritch-scratching against paper forced his attention to the back of the room.

A man with wispy white hair sat at a vintage desk. His head was bowed as he wrote at a furious pace in a rather large book. A dusty old derby hat was propped on a stack of books sitting on the corner of the desk.

“Azrael,” Sully said in a gruff greeting as he approached.

Azrael raised his eyes then went back to writing. There was no emotion on his face. He pointed the tip of his pen toward a chair in front of the desk. “Sit.”

Sully didn’t move. Besides, the chair was full of books. “What do you want?”

Death lifted his gaze from writing and frowned. “Sit. Please.”

Begrudgingly, Sully cleared away the stack of leather bound books. He planted himself in the chair and glared at the man seated across from him. “Could we hurry this along? I really need to get back.”

Azrael snapped the giant book shut and smiled. His voice was hoarse like a dry winter wind. “Ah yes, I’m sure you do want to get back to Kelly Banks.”

Sully’s brows dipped in a confused frown. “Who?”

Azrael said, “Micah Munroe. It took me a while to locate her, as she isn’t in her true body.”

“What do you want with her?” Uneasiness settled in the pit of Sully’s stomach. His fingers gripped the chair arms tightly.

Azrael opened the book he’d been writing in then scribbled another name inside. When he finished, he tapped the pen against his chin and smiled. “I’ve chosen her. She is of my blood.”

“So she’s a
Grimm. I suspected as much.” Sully narrowed his gaze on Azrael.

“You suspected, but you didn’t do anything about it.” Azrael held the pen above the book.

“Can’t you make an exception for her?”

“What would you have me do? Wait until she dies again
and then have her fulfill her duties?” Azrael glared at him. “She was born for this. She is from my bloodline.”

“
Micah isn’t prepared.” Sully clenched his fists. “Grimms are trained from the day they take their powers. She’s just found hers. You can’t expect her to take on this responsibility.”

Azrael’s lips twitched
, and Sully was unsure whether he was fighting a smile or frown. “Someone has to take Thomas’s place.”

“And if she doesn’t want to?”

Death tapped the pen’s point against the book and gave Sully a meaningful look. His murky gaze drifted to the crusty blood on his chest. “Then I will send you after her, Reaper.”

Sully pursed his lips and glanced at the books piled around them. “How long does she have to do this?”

Azrael smiled. “As long as I deem necessary.”

“For how long?” Sully asked, refusing to back down.

“For as long as she accepts the responsibility of the Grimm.” Blue eyes stared up at him, unblinking and emotionless. “Your friend Thomas grew bored with his task. He begged for an end.”

“No.” Sully shook his head, unable to believe this. Thomas had always done what was expected of him. He’d taken the title of
Grimm very seriously. “I don’t believe you.”

Seeming to read his mind, Azrael said, “I’m afraid it’s true. I gave him a chance, sent him back, but nothing changed.”