Authors: Alicia Dean
Gaylen moved closer. “Because
I’m
ready for this one. That’s what matters. Come on, let me take him.”
“I can’t let you screw with the natural balance.”
“What if that was Audra lying mutilated on the bed? For shit’s sake, man. They’ll never catch this asshole. He
lives
in Boon Springs. Audra could end up being one of his victims.”
Dimitri’s chest tightened, but his voice was steady as he replied. “Then it would be fate.”
“Fate, my ass. Audra’s sad enough about the boy. You really want to watch her gutted by this asshole?”
“Shut up.”
“You don’t like to think about it, do you?” Gaylen smiled. “You might actually show some human emotion if something happened to Audra. Am I right?”
The killer shook pills out into his hand, then tossed them into his mouth and swallowed them dry.
“Come on. It’s going to be too late soon. Just walk away. Let me take him. Audra knows about the killings. She’d be happy if this guy was history. She’d feel safe. She’d know other young girls wouldn’t have to suffer. Don’t you want to make her happy? I know you don’t like to see her sad.”
Dimitri thought back to the tears glistening in her hazel eyes as she wept over the boy’s death. It hadn’t been easy. Listening to her gut-wrenching sobs...watching her heart break.
He placed his hands on the chair arms and pushed himself upright. “You’re right. I don’t like to see her sad.” The admission was difficult—especially making it to Gaylen. But no use trying to hide it. The asshole knew Dimitri had an unwanted, uncontrollable affection for Audra.
“So, you’re out of here? He’s mine?”
Dimitri slowly shook his head. “No way. There’s something I can do for Audra, but it doesn’t involve feeding your twisted urges.”
~*~
The next evening at the beginning of Audra’s shift, Mary Lou called her in to her office. When Audra was seated across from her—eye-level with Camellia’s smiling face in her cheerleading picture—Mary Lou slid the incident form across the desk. “You should be getting fast at completing these by now.”
Audra nodded, but didn’t meet her eyes as she leaned over the paper, filling in the information.
“You know.” Mary Lou picked up the photo of her daughter. “I can’t imagine losing a child. We see it often, but it’s never easy when it’s a child, you know?”
“Yes. I know.” Audra tried to keep the hoarseness, the guilt from her voice.
“You can’t really know, though, can you? Not being a mother yourself.” She shook her head and went on as if she hadn’t just added salt to a wound that had been open in Audra for years. “No one can understand until they have a child of their own. I wouldn’t want to go on if something happened to Camellia.”
Audra slid the paperwork back to Mary Lou and stood. “I’m sure you wouldn’t. It’s unthinkable.”
Mary Lou nodded, but her attention was still riveted to the photo, and Audra slipped from the office.
At the nurses’ station, Wilton patted Audra’s arm, and Tonya clucked sympathetically. “Are you going to be okay? Three patients in less than a week. Tough.”
Audra nodded. “I’ll be okay. I’m just sick about Trevor. Poor kid. Never got a chance to live.”
Wilton said, “Can’t believe the mom’s still hanging around. Some people just can’t let go, I guess.”
“Hanging around?” Audra asked. “Cheryl’s here?”
Tonya nodded. “Right now, she’s in Trevor’s room with the priest. Good thing we don’t need the bed yet.”
“Priest?”
“The one who was with Trevor when he died.”
“But...no one was with—” Something wasn’t right. Her heartbeat stuttered. “Excuse me.”
She moved quickly down the hallway, stopping when she reached Trevor’s doorway. Cheryl sat in her usual chair. A man’s black-clothed back was to Audra. Cheryl’s face seemed to glow. Not exactly with joy, but with something like contentment...calm.
When Audra entered the room, Cheryl’s head rose. “Audra.” She smiled through tears. “I want you to meet Father Sarantos.”
Audra held her breath as she waited for the man to face her. When he did, she gasped in shock. He wore a white collar, black priest garb, and his face was assembled in a properly pious expression. But those piercing blue eyes were the same.
Dimitri.
“This is Audra Grayson,” Cheryl said. “The nurse who took such good care of my son.” She looked at Audra. “I thought my baby died alone, but Father Sarantos came to see me, found me here in Trevor’s room. He told me he was with Trevor when he...passed.” She let out a sob and lifted a hand to her mouth. “I’m sorry. I’m just so...happy. No. Happy’s not the right word. I’m at peace. I’m relieved that this kind man was with my baby.”
Cheryl could see him? She clung to Dimitri’s sleeve. She was touching him?
Dimitri held out a hand. Fear locked Audra’s muscles for a moment, and a frown creased Cheryl’s brow. “Everything okay, Audra?”
“Yes, sure. I—I’m just so surprised. I didn’t know anyone was with Trevor.” She reached a hand out and Dimitri closed his over hers. She caught her breath at the warm contact. The tendrils of electricity were there again, but this time, they were warm, human tingles. She tugged her hand away.
“I heard about his mother’s grief.” Dimitri’s rich timbre was smooth, comforting. “I thought I should pay her a visit.”
Audra narrowed her eyes. What was his end game?
“Thank you,” she forced out through stiff lips. “That’s very kind of you.”
Dimitri’s mouth quirked in a grin, and he inclined his head. “Anything I can do to help. After all, that’s my calling.”
~*~
It was after midnight before Audra got home. Having a harrowing experience and being blind-sided by tragedy and grief didn’t mean an RN could clock out early. She’d had to finish out her shift, even though she could barely concentrate on her duties.
As if Trevor’s death wasn’t enough, she had the encounter with a now human Dimitri to wrap her mind around. How could he do that? Just turn human?
She let herself in the house and went straight to the kitchen, trying to decide between a glass of wine or warm milk.
The wine was edging out the milk by a nose.
When she flipped on the kitchen light, a figure moved toward her, and she let out a scream. Then she recognized Dimitri and closed her eyes, shaking her head. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You just pop in any time you want? I have no privacy now? What if I’d been in the shower or something?”
A lazy grin came over his face, and his gaze dropped down her body. “That’s just something I’d have to try to get over.”
She stalked to the counter. Wine had definitely kicked milk’s ass. She took a bottle down from the cupboard and grabbed a glass, filling it to the rim.
“So, is your last name actually Sarantos?” she asked after a few unladylike gulps. “Or is that just an alias you use when posing as a priest? Oh yeah. And let’s not forget, posing as a
human
.”
“Sarantos is my last name.”
She emptied the remaining wine in her glass and tossed the bottle into the trash can.
“You don’t recycle?” Dimitri asked.
She whirled to face him. “What? Did you just ask if I recycle?”
He frowned. “Uh. Yes. You really should, you know.”
“Please tell me you’re not lecturing me about recycling after all the bullshit you’ve done.”
“Listen, if you’d seen the way the earth has changed over the past few centuries, you’d understand how important it is. I mean, the landfills have gotten way out of hand.”
“Jesus,” she muttered. She bent into the trash can and retrieved the wine bottle, slamming in on the counter top almost hard enough to break it. “Happy now, Mr. Green? Anything else I can do to make Earth a better place for you to hang out while you destroy human lives?”
“Come on. Back to this? I wanted to come see you, talk to you. I’m sure you have a lot of questions about what happened earlier tonight.”
“Uh, yeah.” She refilled her glass and threw back another slug of wine. This time, it made her a little woozy. Sent a warm, languorous, yet numbing feeling through her body, to her legs.
Yes. That’s more like it.
“Newsflash. You can become human?”
“We can. Once in a twenty-four hour period and only for a limited time.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s one of the abilities we were given to keep us somewhat...emotionally balanced, for lack of a better term. If we’re allowed to turn human occasionally—and for a brief time—it enables us to continue to feel empathy for the human state. If, however, we were allowed to stay human for as long as we wanted, we be tempted to set aside our reaper nature...remain human indefinitely. So, we have the ability to turn human, but it’s not without risks...consequences.”
“What consequences?”
He sighed and shook his head. “It’s complicated.”
She moved toward him, but not too close, pointing a finger at his chest. “I’m sick and tired of you answering every one of my questions with
it’s complicated
. Do you think I’m a freakin’ moron? Why were you in Trevor’s room today? Why did you become human and pose as a priest? What the hell kind of game are you playing?”
“It’s not a game, Audra. You were sad because his mother suffered at the thought of her son dying alone. I wanted to calm her. I couldn’t stop Gaylen from taking her son, but I could stop her from thinking he’d died alone. That’s it. That’s all.”
“Whatever.” She harrumphed. “Like the hero Cassie says you are.
Right
.” Her words were starting to slur. She set the half-empty wine glass on the table.
“So, you met Cassie?” Dimitri’s mouth split in a grin, and Audra saw what could only be affection in his expression. She felt an unwanted and unreasonable twinge of...something. Jealousy? No. No way. She must be drunk.
“Yeah. I met her. All kinds of reapers in my world now.” She wagged her finger in his face. “Oh yeah, and your buddy, Gaylen? He asked me a favor. Has some kind of plan. Wants me to let him taste my breath.”
Dimitri’s jaw clenched, and his eyes darkened like an indigo sky. “He what? You know you can’t let him, right?”
“Would it be that big a deal?”
“It would be a very big deal. Trust me. You don’t want to even consider whatever insane notion he has.”
“I don’t want to consider anything either of you have to say, but the two of you aren’t leaving me a lot of choices.” She lifted a hand and rubbed her fingers across her forehead. “I’m tired. I feel a headache coming on. Can you please just leave now?”
Sighing, he gave a slight nod. “Fine. We’ll talk later.”
He moved to the back door. Would he open it and exit? Or just fade through? She leaned a shoulder against the wall as she waited to find out.
He paused before doing either. “If you never listen to another thing I tell you, you must listen to me now. You absolutely cannot trust Gaylen. Whatever he suggests, you must refuse. Listen to your head and be very afraid of him.”
“Hmmm.” She tapped a finger on her chin. “But I shouldn’t be afraid of you? I’m not sure your advice makes a lot of sense. I’m a big girl. I’ll make my own choices, thank you very much.”
He growled, and before she knew what was happening, he was no longer at the door. He was right in front of her, so close she could see her reflection in his eyes. His face twisted in fury.
She gasped and pushed herself against the wall. “Dimitri? What are you doing?”
He slapped a hand against the wall on either side of her head. Even though she knew he was transparent, that he didn’t really have her trapped, she froze in place, her heart pounding like it might fly from her chest.
“Yes,” he gritted through clenched teeth. “You should be afraid of me, too. I’m a fucking reaper, got it?”
“Got it,” she choked out.
His heavy-lidded eyes dropped to her lips. “You’re panting. Your breath is coming out in puffs that you can’t see, but I can. Did Gaylen tell you I want to taste you too?”
She tried to regulate her breathing. Tried to think straight. What was happening? Dimitri had spent all this time convincing her he meant no harm, and now he was trying to terrify her?
“What are you doing? Stop—”
“What if I can’t stop, Audra? Just like Gaylen wouldn’t be able to.” He lowered his head and his lips were a mere hairsbreadth from hers. “If he starts, if he tastes the sweet nectar of your breath, he’ll lose control.” His voice was husky, and the wine combined with the fear made her insides do funny things. Things that weren’t entirely unpleasant. “Is that what you want, Audra? For him to take, and take, until you’re breathless?”
She shook her head, too breathless now to respond. Her legs turned to rubber. His eyes locked on hers, so close she could see nothing but midnight black pupils surrounded by fiery sapphires. Even if she wanted to—and she didn’t know that she did—she was unable to look away.
“Are you afraid of Gaylen?” His low, husky tone now held a demanding edge. She nodded. “Are you afraid of me?”