Soul Screamers, Volume 1

I was skeptical, but willing to give it a shot to help Addison.

We’d just passed the front office, nodding politely at the nurse on duty, when Tod appeared behind us. The nurse didn’t even blink at his sudden appearance—she obviously couldn’t see him.

“Henry White.” Tod waved us forward with one hand. “Room 124. Hurry, it’s almost time.”

But even knowing I wouldn’t have to wail, I was less than eager to watch some poor old man die. I’d seen quite enough of death in what little of my life I’d lived so far. Unfortunately, even with me dragging my feet, we got there just in time for the show.

Libby stood in one dark corner, dressed in another variation of black-on-black leather, looking psychotic-scary in deep blue and gold eye shadow. Sweat stood out on her forehead, an obvious sign of the effort it took to suck in the dark substance leaking slowly, thickly from the wrinkled man lying limp on the bed.

Henry White was alone in his room, except for us and the monitor near his head, leaking a steady, high-pitched tone, which speared my brain almost as sharply as my own wail would have. I rubbed my temples, both surprised and sad that White’s only deathbed visitors were two bean sidhes and two reapers, one of which had come to kill him. Where were his kids? Grandchildren? Or even the poor man’s accountant, or money-grubbing lawyer? Surely he’d meant enough to someone to warrant a little company when death came a-knockin’.

Even as that last thought passed through my head, footsteps rushed down the hall. A heavyset nurse appeared in the doorway, wearing bright purple scrubs. She glanced my way and smiled sympathetically as she brushed past me to press a button on the monitor. “Are you family?” she asked, as the annoying beep ended and welcome silence descended.

“No.” I glanced from her to Henry White’s still form, then to the corner, where Libby was slurping up the last of the Demon’s Breath like some kind of putrid, ethereal sludge.

“We’re…visitors,” Nash finished, threading his fingers through mine when my hand began to tremble. Tod watched Libby in fascination, practically drooling as she wiped her mouth with one delicate, black-gloved finger. But I was so creeped out, chill bumps had burst to life all over my body.

If she burped up black smoke, I was out of there, no matter what she could tell us.

Clutching Nash’s hand, I backed toward the wall. I kept hoping the shock would wear off. That death would eventually become routine for me. But it hadn’t, and on second thought, I decided that was probably a very good thing. If death ever ceased to bother me, it would be because I’d seen entirely too much of it.

The nurse continued taking Henry White’s pulse, though it was obvious by that point that he was already gone. “Well, then, you’ll have to go,” she said, without looking up from her work.

I was happy to oblige. “Why didn’t she give him CPR?” I asked Nash on the way out of the room. We all knew she couldn’t bring him back, but she didn’t even try.

“Honey, he signed a DNR years ago,” she said, watching me with more of that weird, detached sympathy behind her eyes. She probably would have made a good reaper.

I glanced back at her from the hall. “DNR?”

“Do not resuscitate. He signed a form asking not to be brought back when his heart gave out. He was ready to go.”

Her words sent fresh chills down my spine. I had no doubt that if Henry White had known what his afterlife would consist of, he’d never have signed that paper. Or his demon contract.

Tod and Libby trailed us into the hall, though no one else could see or hear them. “Are you following me?” she asked Tod.

“Um, yeah. Kind of,” Tod said, and I turned to find him grinning up at Libby. “I’m, um, seriously interested in doing this. Collecting Demon’s Breath instead of souls. When I found out you were going to be here, I couldn’t resist coming to ask you a few more questions.”

“This job is not for children.” Libby’s eyes flashed fiercely. Her grim smile looked more like a snarl. “You have five minutes.”

Tod exhaled in relief, and the reapers followed us into the frigid parking lot, while Nash and I pretended to be alone, a skill I was getting pretty good at. Behind the nursing home, Libby sat on the hood of my car and lit a cigarette, watching Tod expectantly, and I wondered if passersby would be able to see the smoke she exhaled.

“Is that…” Tod’s words puffed from his mouth on a white cloud. “Does that help you hold the Demon’s breath?”

“This?” She held the cigarette up, flicking ash onto the asphalt. Tod nodded, and she shook her head slowly. “It just tastes good.”

Tod flushed beneath the light overhead. As uncomfortable as I was hanging out with a reaper who’d been old when the New World was discovered, it was almost worth it to see Tod too embarrassed for words.