“I don’t sleep much, either,” I said as I fingered a chip and wondered if Grace, currently singing limericks in the light fixture, ate anything. Barnabas didn’t. “Late-night TV gets old after a few months.”
Late-night TV, uninterrupted Internet surfing, staring at the ceiling when Barnabas was through with me…not much fun when you had no one to share it with. The info on auras I’d gotten off the Internet hadn’t helped. Neither had the stuff on angels. Barnabas had laughed so hard he’d almost rolled off the roof when I’d brought out my laptop to show him before our nightly—and apparently useless—attempts at teaching me how to touch thoughts.I’ve been failing because I have Kairos’s amulet? I thought, fingering it. Maybe it was like trying to get a U.S. hair dryer to work in a British socket.
“So you’re dead,” Josh said around his full mouth.
The iced tea made my teeth ache, and I glanced at the clock.It’s been hours. Where are they? “Yup.”
“And that amulet gives you a body,” he prompted.
“The solid illusion of one, yes,” I said, fidgeting. “It also hides me from the black wings so they don’t suck my soul away. A soul without a body is fair game. That’s why they anticipate reaps, hoping to snitch some. They don’t show up at normal deaths—just when you’ve been marked early.” I pulled the crusts off my sandwich, but I didn’t have it in me to eat it.
He eyed the mutilated crust. “Keep your amulet on, ’kay? Black wings give me the creeps.”
“Not a problem.”I should have practiced more, I thought. Then again, if I had a dark timekeeper stone, my aura resonance would shift far from Barnabas’s when I tried to use it. More like Nakita’s.Maybe I could touch thoughts with Nakita?
“So…” Josh said hesitantly, bringing my wandering thoughts back. “Where’s your real one? Body, I mean.” His brow pinched. “You didn’t bury it in the backyard, did you?”
“Kairos has it,” I admitted, a sliver of fear flickering through me. “At least, he stole it out of the morgue when I…ran.”
Josh shifted his feet and bumped my chair leg. “That’s ugly. Kairos was that guy in the black car, right?
He’s a reaper?”
I winced, not wanting to tell him he was a keeper of time. It sounded so lame. “He’s actually the dark reapers’ head guy,” I said, thinking that was marginally better. “Barnabas is a light reaper. He tries to save the people that the dark reapers target.”
Josh took another bite and wiped the corner of his mouth. “Like you?”
“Yes, but he messed up because it was my birthday.” Fidgeting, I rearranged the chips on my plate. “He thought Kairos was going after you, actually.”
His chewing slowed as his eyebrows rose. “I didn’t know it was your birthday. No wonder you were all pissy. Set up by your dad on your birthday? That’s wrong.”
I smiled a lopsided smile, and he smiled back. From the light fixture, Grace giggled.
My eyes dropped, and Josh went back to his sandwich. “I sort of remember Barnabas. You said he can keep those things from getting me? Where is he? Uh…heaven?”
I shook my head. “He’s with Ron, his boss.” Tension was winding tighter in me as we sat and did nothing.Why am I playing tea party with Josh when death is looking for us? Brushing my bangs back, I gazed out the kitchen window to the empty street. “Kairos wants his amulet back. Ron thinks I should keep it.”What if they never show up?
“But Kairos has an amulet,” Josh said. “I saw it.”
Smiling grimly, I nodded. “Apparently it’s not as powerful as the one I took. As bad as I feel for him, I’d rather stay alive, thank you. He shouldn’t have killed me in the first place,” I muttered.
His expression thoughtful, Josh propped his elbows on the table. “Kairos came back for your soul at the morgue. That’s messed up.”
“Yeah,” I said, stifling a shudder. “He targeted me, killed me, then came back for me. They never do that.”Why me? I’m not special.
“So you’re a reaper now?” Josh said, looking uncomfortable. “Like in the books where if you cheat death, you take his place?”
“No freaking way!” I exclaimed. “Only a reaper can be a reaper. I’m just dead.”
That seemed to give Josh a measure of peace as he settled back and started on his second sandwich.
“This is so weird.”
I snorted and ate a chip. “You have no idea,” I said, then slid my sandwich to him, minus the crusts, which I picked at. Though I was upset, it was nice having someone to talk shop with besides Barnabas. I should’ve done this months ago. Not that Josh would have believed me, much less talked to me. I’d been spending so much time in my room e-mailing Wendy about nothing that I hadn’t tried to make any new friends.Maybe I should change that, I thought sadly. That is, if I survived. Where in God’s creation was Barnabas?
Josh began chuckling, and I eyed him. “I’m kind of glad you’re dead.”
“Why?” I asked, miffed. “So you can eat my lunch?”