Grim Love - A Novella (7 page)

After a moment she took it. “Evangeline.”

“Evangeline, the reaper. You’re much too
pretty to be a gatherer of souls. I would have thought whoever did
these things would have made you a guardian angel instead. Who knew
reapers could look like you?” Sam looked at her as if the red cloak
hid nothing of her features.

“Like I said…”

“You made a mistake. I know. Yet, here I am,
still walking through the city so I can’t help thinking that, if
you didn't make a mistake, I'd be dead by now. Since I'm alive, I’m
willing to help you with whatever difficulties you've found
yourself in.”

“They aren’t something I think you can help
with.” Evangeline brushed her hand through her hair. “I fell in
love and we can’t be together.”

“Because you’re a reaper.”

“Well, yes. I don’t think Lucius would have
had much of a problem with the two of us being together, which
still surprises me, but the problem is Jasper's supposed to die and
Lucius thinks it will shatter me.” She sighed. “When I agreed to
become a reaper I signed a hundred year contract, not knowing that
I'd end up falling in love with someone or I'd be so desperate to
help him live a normal life. You were my second job, Sam, and
Jasper, well, he should have been my third job. I keep messing
things up.” Recalling what he said, “You can see me? I mean, I look
normal to you? Not dead?”

“Sure can. You don't look like any Grim
Reaper I've ever seen in movies. Anyway, why are you so desperate
for him to live a normal life?”

“I died young and I regret the choices I
made. I had a normal life. I didn't see it, but I did. Jasper
didn’t. He went through so much as a boy. Before we met, he wanted
to die. His spirit turned out to be too strong to let him die. I'd
been sent to gather his soul, but I couldn't. I don't know why. So
I helped him to sort himself out because, I guess, I cared about
him. I knew I shouldn’t have let things go that far. I couldn’t
bring myself to walk away from someone who needed my help the way
he did. I fell in love with him.” She smiled, remembering. “I’d
never been in love before, Sam. There had been people, dates,
flings or what have you, but nothing that mattered. Falling in love
now has been a surprise. Leaving him like this, feeling the way I
feel, is impossible. I've seen him. His life is moving on – without
me.”

Of course, there's a reason Evangeline saved the drunk
man,
Lucius thought as
watched the two of them, hoping Sam could talk some sense into her
before she did something stupid. Lucius knew she'd been keeping a
close eye on Jasper. It didn’t surprise him.

Walking away had been the hardest thing she’d
ever had to do, so he could understand why she'd been making such
terrible choices, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to have to
do as he threatened if she tried to save Jasper’s life. It'd been a
long time since Lucius needed to make use of that cell. He smiled.
The last time had been when he dealt with another compassionate
reaper who'd been doing her best to save the lives of people she
thought deserved a second chance. Those who were in charge of that
sort of thing made her into a guardian instead. He believed
Evangeline should be a guardian, too.

Being a reaper meant Lucius saw more of the
dead than anyone else, so he knew who'd be capable of being a
guardian. Guardians weren’t angels because angels had a different
job altogether. They were spirits who did the same job that
Evangeline had done with Sam except they had more knowledge of the
ins and outs of such things. Very few reapers were ever lucky
enough to become guardians and that's why he hadn’t said anything.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t trying to convince the leader of the
guardians to assign her. Most reapers were simple. They did the
job. A few, like Evangeline, were much more difficult because they
were more compassionate or have this belief that they know who
should be dead. He’d often found that those are the very ones who
go around killing the type of people who should be in prison for
certain crimes.

He knew of one who went around killing wife
beaters because she’d been in that unfortunate position during life
and she wanted them all dead. Lucius had done his best to convince
her that it wasn’t her choice who lived and died. It seemed obvious
she held a grudge against one specific type of person. Although
understandable, but she couldn’t keep doing it. Some people who
were meant to be reapers just weren’t ready for the job no matter
what he did or said. That forced him to make difficult choices. A
contract had been signed, though. So, he’d sent it off to someone
who could make changes to them, which meant that instead of killing
wife beaters, she'd be better suited to guide them to their
deserved afterlife. Maybe in her next life, she’d let go of all
that pain, but she’d never be a reaper again.

Evangeline would never be a reaper again
either if she became a guardian. It would be a better position for
her, he felt. She'd still work under Lucius most of the time since
she'd still have the ability to know when people would die - the
same way the other guardians did. She'd have to report to the
leader of the guardians, too. At least that leader would be someone
she could talk to if she found herself helping someone she didn’t
connect with on a more spiritual-emotional level. Lucius just hoped
he'd be able to make it happen before she tried to save Jasper’s
life again.

“Sometimes you have no other choice but to
leave the one you love behind, Evangeline.” Sam explained. “My wife
would have stayed if she could, but she had terminal cancer and the
doctors exhausted all their options. They did all they could do for
her. They made her comfortable and she died at home. After that I
sold the house because I found myself unable to live there any
longer, and spent most of that money on booze in an attempt to stop
myself from thinking of her. Thinking of her had been more
difficult than I could have imagined until you saved me. If it
hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t be here now, trying to put my life
back together, so I thank you for the mistake you made. It reminded
me that she would have wanted me to live my life.” He sighed. “I
haven’t seen our three children since I sank to the bottom of a
bottle. Once I’m better, I need to apologize to them for being so
selfish.”

As Evangeline thought through what Sam said,
she knew he might be right. She needed to walk away. The thought
made her shiver. She might be able to save Jasper’s life and if she
could do that, then, she should. Evangeline didn't realize she had
that kind of power until she became a reaper. “I understand what
you’re saying, Sam. Maybe I'm wasting my time as a reaper focusing
on him. I can’t help thinking I wasn’t meant to be a reaper in the
first place, no matter what Lucius thought.”

“Talk to Lucius. If you tell him what you
think he might be able to help you.”

“I’m trapped in a contract and he’s already
told me there’s no way out of it.”

“No way out of it doesn’t mean there’s no way
of changing it.” Sam started. “You say you don’t think you were
meant to be a reaper, but maybe you were meant to be whatever the
opposite of a reaper is because you saved my life and I don’t think
you understand what that means to me. Telling me I should have
died, makes me even more convinced you're something other than a
reaper and whatever you’re meant to be is so close to being a
reaper that Lucius misread it.”

“Do you mind if I go now?” She could feel
Jasper would be safe for the moment and talking to Lucius seemed to
be the best option because he'd know much more than she did. “I
promise I’ll come back and let you know how things go.”

“You don’t have to do that. As long as you’re
doing something to sort things out, that’s all I care about. Dying
early doesn’t mean you don’t deserve happiness.”

Nodding, Evangeline went to Lucius’ office.
He sat, staring down at his desk. “I wondered how long it would
take you to come here.” He looked up at her. “Sam got you thinking,
didn't he?”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I have to be careful about what I do and
don’t say. There's an opposite to the reaper, a guardian, but there
are no guarantees that you’re meant to be one. I think you may be
one of them - unless you’re just a compassionate reaper that I’m
going to have to keep a close eye on over the next hundred years.”
He shrugged. “When we first met, I sensed a connection. Both of us
know, it’s that connection that terrified you into agreeing to help
me. I thought I was doing my best not to scare you.”

“You were?”

“Being a reaper means spirits find me
terrifying. If we’d met on the street, as unlikely as that would
have been, you wouldn’t have felt the same way. Now that we’ve been
working together a while, it’s getting easier to talk to me, isn’t
it?” She nodded. “Look, if you aren’t meant to be a guardian
there's very little I can do. You are…” He sighed. “You died a
different person from the one you are now. Saving Sam was only the
first step along a path you might not have taken if you weren’t
where you needed to be to do that. If you hadn’t been that person
you might not have wanted to help Jasper. Every decision you’ve
made has turned you into the person you could have been if you were
still alive and that means you're not in the best position to be a
reaper.”

“
Okay…”
Evangeline studied him. “If I hadn’t saved Sam, you wouldn’t be
talking to whoever it is in control of the guardians because I
wouldn’t be
this
Evangeline.
Do you think I would have walked away from Jasper?”

“I do. If you’d come across him a day
earlier, you wouldn’t have chosen to help him. Maybe that’s a bad
thing.”

“We both know it’s not, Lucius.” A voice came
from the door of the office and Evangeline turned to find herself
facing a giant of a man. “So this is Evangeline. Come here. I’m not
going to hurt you, but I do need to study you if we're going to
make any sort of decision. Lucius thinks you’d make a good
guardian.”

She looked between the two of them. “What if
it’s not what I want?”

“You can continue on as a reaper. We’re not
forcing you to do anything.” Lucius smiled at her. “It’s up to
you.”

After taking one step toward the leader of
the guardians, she felt something she didn’t believe she'd feel.
“I’ve got to go.”

Chapter 7

Lucius looked at Gabriel, who grinned. “That
really does tell me all I need to know, Lucius.” He shook his head.
“What are you going to do now?”

“I have no idea. She must know I felt it too,
but that doesn’t matter because it’s Jasper.” He couldn’t stop
himself from smiling, even though he knew he shouldn’t be. “I told
her if she tried to save him I’d lock her up. There are deaths that
are meant to happen and I think Jasper’s is one of them. Unless, of
course, he happens to live through this one as well, which is
possible, but I don’t think he’s been away from her for long
enough.”

“We both know it’s not about long enough.
Jasper asked Evangeline to leave and that's something he’s going to
hate himself for no matter how logical he seemed at the time. If he
happens to get through this one, tell me. She’s both, you know -
one of the unusual spirits who's both guardian and reaper. Get her
to sign a contract with me and I’ll assign her the man she loves,
if he survives without her help.”

“That means locking her up.”

“Do it then.” Gabriel shrugged. “Sometimes we
have to be cruel to be kind, especially when it comes to someone
like her. She can’t be allowed to get involved. You need to stop
her and you need to do it now. Do it yourself. The two you have
working for you now, they aren't cut out for this sort of
thing.”

“It’s not their job. I’ll talk to you later.
I hope he does pull through this because she's going to fall apart
if he doesn’t.”

“You might be wrong about that. She’s strong,
even stronger than you, and we both know what that means.” Gabriel
warned.

“She’s not going to take my position.”

“No one can, but she might be able to work
alongside you if she's the person I think she is and that will take
some of the weight off your shoulders. You need someone there after
all this time of doing it alone. I’ve told you before, you need to
learn to delegate.”

As Lucius laughed, he shook his head. “There
hasn’t been anyone I trusted enough to delegate to. Every single
one of them has been here to do the job for a while before moving
on. They weren't born into this like the others. I’ll keep what you
said in mind. Maybe she's the one I’ve been waiting for.”

He left Gabriel in his office. The most
important thing would be to get to Evangeline before she did
something silly. Lucky for him, he got there at the same time she
did. She glared at him. She had to have known that he'd follow her
when she went to help Jasper. Again, her mortal feelings were
clouding her afterlife judgment.

“Yes, I know. I shouldn’t be here, but how
can I not, Lucius?” Evangeline stared at Jasper, trying to decide
what she should do, but with Lucius there her options were limited
because she knew he wouldn’t let her help Jasper if something did
happen to him. “If he does die, he’s going to want to see a
friendly face.”

“Evangeline…”

“With you here, I can’t help him. You’ll lock
me up in that cell of yours and I don’t want that because, if he
pulls through, I want to be there for him.”

“Let me finish. Gabriel told me if Jasper did
survive you'd be assigned as his guardian, which gives you
different powers, but he has to survive it without your help. Help
him and the offer is taken away. Even though you'll be his
guardian, you'll still have your reaper duties to fulfill.”