Welcome to Tales from the GrimVerse: Grim & Bare It – Killion’s POV, an urban fantasy novel I’m republishing with scenes from the original story but told from the Master Vampire’s point of view.
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She had no idea what she was doing, but I admired the way she marched down the hall, determined to get it over with.
“Hey,” she yelled at the ghost. The nurses’ station was in such commotion that no one looked her way.
Talon Harris did. He pulled up in mid-air, did a double-take when he realized Chloe was staring at him, and raced back to her. “You can see me?”
She paused, shivering slightly at his noncorporeal chill, then said, “Quit being a jerk and meet me in your room.”
Marching again, but the wrong way, she appeared nevertheless to be on a mission. I grabbed her arm, pivoting her the opposite way. “Room 303.”
“Right. I knew that.”
“You can’t have a dog in here,” a nurse’s aide called as she strode past the desk.
She didn’t look at the overwrought woman and kept going. “Therapy dog,” she replied.
Hiding my grin, I fell into step beside her. “What’s your plan?”
“I’m kinda new to this, in case you haven’t figured it out. Is our ghost following?”
“No, hence the suggestion you develop a plan on how to handle the situation.”
“Forgive me, Your Royal Pain in the Backside.” She hesitated outside the door. “You threw me into this with no training or guidance, so don’t lecture me about a plan, or the lack thereof.”
My mother, a human, raised me to be a gentleman. I opened the door for her. “Pull out the scythe, get him near it, and let it do its thing.”
Ghost barked, as if in agreement.
Chloe appeared slightly queasy at the idea. “Do I have to swing it at him?”
The room was quiet except for a ventilator and heart monitor. The shades were drawn. Talon’s body lay immobile, a wad of white bandages around his skull. His chest rose and fell mechanically. “Hopefully not, if your ability to use it last night is any indication of skill.”
As we neared the bed, Ghost leaped from her arms and landed on Talon’s stomach. His belly depressed, but his body emitted no response beyond that.
“The snarky comments aren’t helpful,” Chloe said.
“My bad.”
Studying my face, she narrowed her eyes. I waited for a snarky comment, but she held it in.
I schooled my features. “Sincerely. I apologize for my lack of manners. I wasn’t expecting to mentor a new grim.”
“Imagine my surprise at becoming one.”
Those beautiful eyes of hers sucked me in. “You’re actually doing better than—”
Talon’s ghost materialized between us and sneered. “What do you want?”
The connection between us was gone, and Chloe opened the gym bag to withdraw the scythe. “For you to go to the afterlife where you belong.”
Talon, being the noncompliant he was, glanced at the weapon and laughed.
His ghost flew under the bed, came up, and shot overhead. It then vanished out the door—going right through it.
“Well done, rookie,” I said.
She heard the smirk in my voice, even though I kept my face neutral. “Excuse me? Like you could have done better. You said to get this”—she shook the blade—“near him and let it do its thing.”
Ghost jumped up and down on the man’s stomach, wagging her tail as if enjoying our bickering.
The lights in the room flickered, someone screamed in the corridor, and Chloe shoved the scythe back inside the bag. Regardless of not having a plan, she seemed fired up enough not to care that things were going sideways. I pressed my lips together, suspecting she was going to take a swing at him if I offered further comment.
“Come on,” she said to the dog, scooping her off the bed.
Outside, call buttons buzzed and nurses and aides yelled. Tension zinged in the air as their screeches and bellows echoed in the hall.
Talon emerged from a patient’s room and entered its companion across the way. Another beep was added to the cacophony.
Neither the sick, nor their caregivers, were having a peaceful night, and it was time we put a stop to this ghost’s obnoxiousness. The scythe bounced around inside the gym bag, attempting to get out, seemingly ready to do just that.
Without knocking, she slipped in. I gave her a moment, considering the best option for me. Should I accompany her or leave her to figure it out on her own? My vampire senses tuned in to what was happening inside and I drew closer, fighting with the urge to protect the new grim at all costs.
A frail voice filtered through the door, along with a chaotic surge of nighttime talk shows. “What’s happening out there?”
“Don’t worry,” I heard Chloe reassure her. “It’s just a malfunction of the power hub down the street. Nothing will hurt you. It’ll be fixed shortly.”
“What a precious dog.” The woman was talking about Ghost. “What’s her name?”
“Petunia,” Chloe lied.
Talon’s energy was as chaotic as the TV flipping between channels. In the hall, a nurse hurried by but shot a glance at me. “Can I help you?”
I should have cloaked myself. “Just visiting my grandmother.” I pushed through the door. That got Talon’s attention, and he stopped playing with the remote and prepared to dart out.
“Touch the wall,” I growled at Chloe.
As the woman made over Ghost, oblivious to me and Talon, she did as instructed and reached out. I blocked the door and also placed my palm on the dingy wall. A silver light ran around the edges of the room, tickling Chloe’s hand with a low-energy buzz.
She gaped at my face, my features the same, but my eyes had changed. They always did when I used my magic, ringing my pupils with red.
Talon raced for the wall connecting this room to the next. He didn’t get far and bounced off. Trapped.
“What are you doing?” he cried and slammed his body against his new fortress. My magic flared and knocked him backward.
Struggling to unzip the bag, Chloe took a deep breath and focused. My energy was flooding her system and the blood I’d shared with her was responding. For some reason, this seemed to cause her mild relief.
I felt it when her hearing sharpened, as did her vision. The moment the zipper gave, the weapon flew into her palm. Talon, still bouncing around off the walls and swearing at us, whizzed past our heads, then stopped and frowned. “Pink daisies?”
Confused, I glanced at the blade. I saw the cold steel and wooden handle, glowing with a similar light that infused the walls of the room.
Talon hovered closer to Chloe. “Those were my mom’s favorite. How did you know?”
The scythe acted as if it would bolt from her grip. Words tumbled from her mouth. “She sent them.” Chloe nodded, warming to her own story. “She wanted to let you know it’s safe for you to…cross over…to the afterlife. She’s waiting for you.”
His eyes met hers. “She is?”
There was so much longing, so much grief in those two words. So much hope. Chloe nodded again. “The world hasn’t been easy for you, has it, since she passed? She knows how hard you’ve struggled. It’s time to release all of that and rest. She can’t wait to see you again, Talon.”
His eyes took on a glazed expression, focused on the scythe and mesmerized by the flowers he saw. “I miss food,” he said, longing lacing his voice. “I went to the cafeteria just to smell it.”
The woman on the bed laughed at Ghost and the dog licked her wrinkled cheek. Chloe glanced at me, realizing I was the cause.
“I’m sorry,” she told Talon. “I don’t know about food in the afterlife, but I hear there are lots of other perks.”
His bottom lip trembled. “Can you put me back in my body?”
She glanced at me. I shook my head.
“I’m afraid that’s not my area,” she told the ghost, “and I wouldn’t be here if that were an option.”
The flowers continued to draw him in and he took a step closer. “I miss her.”
“I bet she was a good mom.”
His eyes shone with tears. “Always believed in me. I let her down.”
“That’s in the past, and she was always proud of you.” She held the scythe as still as death. “She loves you and wants to see you again.”
He reached out. “I want to see her, too.” His fingers floated centimeters from the blade. “Does it hurt? When you…you know?”
I shook my head once more when her imploring gaze swung to mine.
I could sense her relief. “No,” she told Talon.
A snore suddenly echoed from the bed. Ghost had put the patient to sleep. As Talon touched the scythe disguised as flowers, two things happened at once—the weapon swung and Ghost morphed.
Not into her psychopomp form, but into a kindly-looking woman who had Talon’s nose. “Hello, sweetie,” she said to him. “Let’s go home.”
The psychopomp and the ghost disappeared.
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I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter! Don’t miss what happens next when Chloe experiences the bliss of retrieving a soul.