Kate Evangelista - Reaping Me Softly

“She wanted to kill you,” Niko hissed.

Arianne couldn’t say another word. She barely considered Darla a friend, not after everything the other girl had done over the years, but Arianne never wished harm on her. For Darla to take things beyond a level of reason showed Arianne what Darla had been truly capable of. She’d been so caught up in mourning Carrie that she didn’t think of the consequences of what outing Darla could have been. Everyone in school must have known by now; the efficiency of the Pep Squad at spreading news was legendary. She could have handled things better the afternoon Darla had threatened Niko. But she hadn’t. Even if Niko had saved her, she was supposed to have died by Darla’s hand. What did it mean? What could it spell for Niko and her?

The blare of sirens in the distance filled her chaotic mind. They drowned out any answers she could come up with—a quick fix to her confusion. She didn’t think she wanted to deal with what would happen next. Where’s that getaway car when you need it?

After giving a statement to the police and making sure Darla was on her way to the hospital, Arianne asked Niko to take her home. She refused his offer to teleport them back, wanting to work out her thoughts a step at a time—literally. Well, maybe a few steps at a time.

She walked by his side with streetlamps for chaperones. They didn’t touch, but she stayed close enough for his warmth to provide comfort. It had somehow gotten late. Other than the commotion at the accident site, the rest of the neighborhood pretty much slept. They were the only ones left outside.

“What time is it?” Arianne asked after a block of silence.

Niko glanced up at the sky. “Around twelve thirty, give or take a few minutes.”

“You can tell that just by looking up at the stars?”

He lifted his wrist and pulled down the sleeve of his shirt to show her a digital wristwatch.

Arianne nudged him and he stumbled. She knew he allowed the action as part of the human veneer he maintained. “I can’t believe I didn’t figure out what you were sooner. Granted there’s not much literature on Reapers. Society thinks Death and Reapers are one and the same.”

“God, I missed you.” Niko laughed, but he sobered soon after. “I’m sorry about Carrie. I really am.”

Arianne let the tingle from the sound of his voice wash over her body like an April shower. “Was it really her time?”

He watched the pavement and nodded. “I read the Death Certificate too late. I wish I’d seen it sooner.”

The frustration in his voice reminded her of why she loved him. “What could you have done? Could you have stopped it?”

“I don’t know!” He ran his fingers through his hair. “All my lives I’ve served my master unfailingly. I did my duties with single-minded determination. This is the first time I’ve ever considered defying him.”

“Could you have saved Carrie?” Arianne sidled closer.

“I don’t know. Our job is to enforce the Certificates.” He groaned. “I’ve heard stories of Reapers defying our master, but the stories always end with the Reapers being dealt with. No real details as to how .”

“But you saved me.”

“I did. And now I don’t know what will happen.”

Niko’s tension started rubbing off on Arianne. “Then you should have just let Darla run me over.”

Niko stopped abruptly and gaped at her. “How can you say that?”

“You obviously regret saving me.”

He grabbed her arms and shook her with such force that Arianne stared at him in stunned silence. “Don’t put words into my mouth.” He let her go and began pacing back and forth like a caged animal in front of her. “Saving you was probably the best thing I’ve ever done in this life. Maybe even in all my other lives combined. I don’t like not knowing. Not being prepared. Or in control.”

No matter how agitated Niko seemed, Arianne braved the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his waist. She tightened her hold when he tried to back away. She looked up at him and said, “I don’t know what will happen either. But I love you, and I won’t let you go through this alone.”

Apprehension and surrender mingled on Niko’s features. He bent down until his forehead rested on her shoulder, returning her hug with one of his own.

“How touching,” someone said from behind them.

Arianne felt Niko shudder in her arms, then his muscles coiled as he lifted his head and turned to face whoever had spoken. He eased Arianne behind him. She peeked around his shoulder without leaving the protection he provided. A girl who resembled Madonna in the eighties stood with her feet apart and hands crossed over her chest at the end of the street.

“Janika,” Niko said with such venom that anxiety bloomed in Arianne’s gut.

“I have to say, Nikolas, you’re slipping.” Janika sneered. “I wouldn’t have thought the Reaper with the most anal retentive personality when it comes to reaping would actually defy a Certificate. To think, I would have made you my lover.”

Arianne’s ears prickled at the last word Janika spoke. “I’d like to see you try.”

“Ari—” Niko began, but Janika cut him off.

“Little girl, I’m here to make sure you die today, so if I were you, I wouldn’t be a bitch to me right now. I can make sure you suffer if you annoy me.” Janika moved her hands to her hips.

“As if you’d get past me,” Niko said.

“Niko?” Arianne swallowed in an attempt to push down the fear that came in the form of bile rising up her throat.

Ari, I need you to stay still and not speak. Can you do that for me, angel?

Niko’s voice in her head had her jolting back, but the malicious aura oozing from Janika kept her in the moment. Arianne felt that if she looked away for just a second it would be all over. Stand still, don’t blink, and don’t run. She reached out a shaking hand toward Niko’s bicep. She gave him a squeeze in response to what he’d said.

“So, how would you like to do this?” Janika asked. “Personally, I don’t want to hurt you, Nikolas—”

“Come now, Janika, you don’t have to lie to me,” Niko interrupted.

She shrugged her bony shoulders. “All right, I do want to hurt you. But it’s beneath me.”

“ Right .”

“All right! Not beneath me.” She sighed like an unconcerned socialite caught stealing a necklace from a store. “So, my In Between or yours? I’ll give you that much.”

Niko grinned. “Mine.”

Janika disappeared.

“What now?” Arianne asked.

He faced her. Their gazes locked.

“I need you to go home,” Niko urged.

“Fat chance.”

He gave her a bright smile that spoke of lazy mornings. “I had a feeling you’d say that.” Then, like a gray cloud covering the sun, he frowned. “But seriously, I don’t know if I can defeat Janika. She’s the Reaper of New York, third strongest among us. I don’t know if I can fully protect you.”

She framed his face with both her hands. “We’re doing this together or not at all.”

Arianne opened her eyes and found herself by a blood-colored lake and stormy skies. The pines had withered to resemble gray skeleton fingers reaching up from the ground like a corpse fighting its way out of a grave. The grass had dried to pus yellow and the air smelled of sulfur.

Janika leaned against one of the pines, filing her fingernails. “A tad overdramatic, don’t you think?” she said without looking up at them.