“There’s more.” He stood frozen in place, refusing to let me free. “What aren’t you telling me?”
I slipped out from under him and stilled. The dead were calling. So warm and sweet. The scythe in my holster wasn’t as patient. It burned my hip through the leather and the thin white barrier of my dress.
“I have to go,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “I’m sorry if they come back. Really, I am…but I can’t stay here. Just remember what I told you. Keep calm. Keep control.”
Cash sagged against the Bronco, watching me. “This isn’t over, Anaya. Not even close.”
Chapter 13
Cash
I was done. Huddled in the corner of Emma’s bathroom surrounded by shadows, so thick I felt like I was sitting in a cloud of ink, I’d never been more sure of anything. I pressed my head between my legs, trying to block out the stench and the sound of them. It didn’t work. They were too close, all around me, all over me. A hiss sounded next to my ear and I reached out to bat it away.
“Fuck!” Pain flared across my arm and I jerked it back against my chest. As if it sensed the weakness, another shadow pounced, wrapping around my other forearm, and a matching pain blazed across my skin. The burn was so at odds with the chill running through me that I bolted to my feet.
Two long red burns marred both of my arms, the skin blistered and stinging . Son of a bitch. My gaze traveled down to the puddle of writhing darkness below me and I blew out a pent-up breath.
Anaya said they couldn’t hurt me. She lied to me. Why the hell would she lie to me about this?
“Break it up!” a voice boomed across the bathroom. Shadows scattered and escaped through the cracked window. They slipped and slithered across the cream-colored tile until they found refuge in the dark bathtub drain. Noah grabbed one by the neck as it reared up to take a bite out of his throat.
His eyes were glassed over and cold as he squeezed it until it wiggled and screamed, tore and twisted under his fingers. A black, glittery ooze melted across his wrist and he cursed before dropping it onto the tile, allowing it to scurry away.
Noah watched it spiral down the drain and rubbed his wrist. “Well…that was fun.”
“You’re back,” I said numbly, not really caring. It didn’t matter if he was back. I was done here. So, so done. I pushed away from the bathroom wall and Noah backed up a few feet to give me space as I rummaged through the medicine cabinet.
“I’m a man of my word,” he said, his voice trailing off as I popped open a few pill bottles.
There wasn’t much to choose from, mainly just leftover antidepressants and pain pills from Emma, but it would have to do. I just hoped Anaya was ready, because it was time to fix this black hole of an existence that had become my life, whether she was ready for it or not. If ending it was the only way, so be it. Anything had to be better than this. Who knows, maybe I’d see Dad again. Maybe I’d get a chance to make things right with him.
Noah stepped up beside me and examined one of the pill bottles. “Mind if I ask what you’re doing?”
I shrugged my jacket off and rolled the sleeves of my white shirt up to my elbows. I braced my palms on the counter and stared at my pathetic reflection in the mirror. Black hair that usually stuck up in disorderly spikes lay damp and limp across my forehead. My skin looked ashen against my white shirt and red tie. Dad’s red tie. I didn’t own one, so I’d had to raid his closet. Even now, hours after I’d watched them lower him into the ground, it felt heavy and wrong around my neck. And those eyes, dark and dull, full of pain, who the hell did those belong to? I didn’t know who this kid was staring back at me. I just knew that I didn’t want to be him. Not anymore.
“Sorry, Em,” I whispered, then brought one of the opened bottles of pills to my mouth.
“Whoa!” Noah slapped the bottle out of my hand, only allowing me to get a couple down before he raked the spilled pills and the rest of the bottles off the counter. “What the hell are you doing, man?”
Triggered by anger, I shoved Noah against the bathroom door. I hadn’t been in many fights, but I was ready to knock someone flat on their ass if they tried to stop me. Dead or alive. “This isn’t any of your business. Stay out of it. You don’t want to watch? Then fucking leave.”
Noah’s gray eyes opened wide as they flicked down to my finger jabbed in his chest. He held up his hands in surrender. “And what are you going to do if the shadows come back before she does?”
All that waited for me on the other side with Anaya was a big question mark. Unanswered questions.
At least I knew where I stood with the shadows. I was nothing more than a meal to them. At least I’d be gone. There would be nothing if they got me first. I stepped away from Noah and my arms fell to my sides, the pain a dull throb now.
“Maybe that’s what I’m counting on,” I said. My body didn’t seem to agree with this plan. Fear filled up my chest and my heart started to pump with life behind my ribs, as if it was trying to prove to me that we could still beat this.
“I get it.” Noah stared down at me, looking a little panicked. “I promise I get it. I’ve been there, and
I’m telling you this isn’t the answer. There is another way through this, Cash. A better way.”
I lifted my chin to face him, feeling the lump in my throat swell to an unbearable size as I tried to wrap my mind around what I was doing. The pill bottles scattered across the floor caught my attention. What if Emma had been the one to find me, just a few feet from where she slept? What would that have done to her? A choked sound seeped past the lump and I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes.
“You’ve got a better way than this?” Please say yes. Please show me, because I’m ready to do anything.
Noah’s hand rested against my shoulder and it felt as cold as I did. “Better than letting that bastard upstairs and his reapers make a slave out of you? Yeah, man. I’ve got a better way.”
“Show me,” I said.
Noah grinned and his hold tightened around my shoulder. “I thought you’d never ask.”
A tingling sensation started in my veins, buzzing under my skin, and light exploded around us. I felt like I was going to burst out of my skin, leaving tiny pieces of Cash strewn all over Emma’s bathroom, but then…we weren’t in the bathroom. My vision swam in darkness and a dripping sound echoed somewhere behind me. I blinked, searching my surroundings. Brick walls surrounded us and wet pavement settled under my feet. The sound of a car alarm sounded somewhere in the distance. We were in an alley. Cold, damp air ruffled my hair and I shivered, feeling a wave of nausea roll through me. Noah’s hand fell from my shoulder and he took a step away.
“You all right?”
I nodded, bending over to brace my hands on my knees, and stared at the oily puddle I was standing in. “I feel sick.”
He chuckled. “That’s normal. You’ll get used to it.”
I stood up, swallowing excess saliva, and glared at him. “Get used to what? Tell me what the hell is going on or I’m not taking another step. Tell me what you are.”
He nodded and a breeze blew a slash of his blond hair into his face so it covered one eye. “I’m a shadow walker.” He paused and folded his arms across his chest. “And so are you.”
I studied the hard angles of his face, the tense set to his shoulders. He was serious. “Am I supposed to know what that is?”
“You think your reaper girl has power?” He raised a brow. “She is doomed, Cash. Doomed to be a slave for all of eternity. Doomed to walk the Earth and afterlife as nothing more than an echo of the corpse she used to be.”