CHAPTER 14. Music rang out from the dark, the heavy, crunchy beat throbbing near my ear

Music rang out from the dark, the heavy, crunchy beat throbbing near my ear. I blinked and pulled the blanket over my shoulder, irritated by the interruption in my sleep, even as I was relieved by the end of my dream. Which was really more of a nightmare.

In my sleep, I’d been navigating a dark landscape dotted with peculiar, hazy landmarks. Misshapen, shadowy figures scurried and slithered all around me, always just out of sight when I whirled to face them. Farther out, larger shapes lumbered, and though they never came close enough to focus on, I knew they were following me. In the dream, I was looking for something. Or maybe looking for my way out of something. But I couldn’t find it.

In my room, the music played on, and I groaned when I realized it was coming from my phone. Still groggy, I flopped over, tangling my leg in the comforter, and reached toward my nightstand. My right hand grazed the phone, still bouncing around on the varnished surface, and the vibrations tickled my fingertips.

Blinking slowly, I held the phone up and glanced at the display, surprised to realize it cast a soft green glow over half the room. The number was unfamiliar, and no name was available. Probably a wrong number, but I flipped the phone open anyway, because of the time of day displayed on the screen. It was 1:33 a.m. No one calls in the middle of the night unless something’s wrong.

“Hello?” I croaked, sounding as alert as a bear in January. And almost as friendly.

“Kaylee?”

So much for a wrong number. “Mmm, yeah?”

“It’s Tod.”

I sat up so quickly my head spun, and I had to rub my eyes to make the lights on the back of my eyelids stop flashing. “Nash gave you my number?” That sounded suspicious even with sleep shrouding my brain like mist over a cold lake.

“No, I haven’t called him yet. I wanted to tell you first.”

“Okaaay…” Yet even with important information practically hanging from his lips, I couldn’t dismiss the hows and whys. “Where did you get my number?”

“It’s programmed into Nash’s phone.”

“And how did you get his phone?”

“He left it on his dresser.” Tod’s voice was smooth and nonchalant, and I could almost picture him shrugging as he spoke.

“You went into his room? How did you get in?” But then I remembered him disappearing from plain sight in the hospital dining room. “Never mind.”

“Don’t worry, he has no idea.”

“That’s not the point!” I groaned and leaned over to tap the base of my touch lamp once. It flared to life on the dimmest setting. “You can’t just sneak into people’s houses without permission. That’s trespassing. It’s an invasion of privacy. It’s…creepy.”

Tod huffed over the line. “I work twelve hours a day. I don’t have to eat or sleep. What else am I supposed to do with the other half of my afterlife?”

I leaned against the headboard and shoved tangled hair back from my face. “I don’t know. Go see a movie. Sign up for some classes. But stay out of—” I sat straighter, glancing at my own surroundings in suspicion as something occurred to me. “Have you been in my room?”

A soft, genuine laugh rang over the line. “If I knew where your room is, we’d be talking in person. Unfortunately, Nash doesn’t have your address in his phone. Or written down anywhere I could find without waking him up.”

“Small miracle,” I mumbled.

“He does have your last name, though. Ms. Cavanaugh.”

Crap. With my last name, and his convenient poof like travel method, it wouldn’t take him long to find out where I lived.

Maybe Uncle Brendon was right about reapers.

“Don’t you want to know why I called, Kaylee Cavanaugh?” he taunted.

“Um…yeah.” But I was no longer sure the information was worth dealing with Tod-the-reaper, who seemed more and more “grim” with each word he spoke.

“Good. But I should probably tell you that the terms of our agreement have changed.”

I bit my lower lip, cutting off a groan of frustration. “What does that mean?”

Springs creaked over the line as he settled deeper into whatever he was sitting on, and I could almost taste his satisfaction seeping through the earpiece. “I agreed to look at the list in exchange for your last name. I’ve done my part but no longer need the agreed-upon reimbursement. Fortunately for you, I’m willing to renegotiate.”

“What do you want?” I asked, pleased to hear that suspicion was just as thick in my voice as delight was in his.

“Your address.”

“No.” I didn’t even have to think about it. “I don’t want you sneaking around here spying on me.” Or revealing himself to Sophie, whose parents didn’t want her exposed to this brave new Netherworld.

“Oh, come on, Kaylee. I wouldn’t do that.”

I rolled my eyes, though he couldn’t see me. “How do I know that? You were in Nash’s house tonight.”

“That’s different.”

“How is that different?” I tugged my covers up to my waist and let my head fall back against my headboard.

“It…doesn’t matter.”

“Tell me.”

He hesitated, and hinges squealed softly again on his end of the connection. “I knew Nash a long time ago. And sometimes I just…don’t want to be alone.” The vulnerability in his voice resonated in my heart, only further confusing me. But then his actual words sank in.

“You’ve done this before? What, do you hang out there?”

“No. It’s not like that. Kaylee…you can’t tell him!” In spite of the earnestness of his plea, I knew Tod wasn’t afraid of Nash. He was afraid of embarrassment. I guess some things don’t change in the afterlife.

“I can’t not tell him. Tod, he’s supposed to be your friend.” At least he used to be. “He has a right to know you’ve been spying on him.”

“I’m not spying on him. I don’t care what he’s doing, and I’ve never—” He stopped, and his voice grew hard. “Look, swear you won’t tell him, and I’ll tell you what I found out about the list.”

Surprise lifted my eyebrows halfway up my forehead. He was willing to pay me to keep his little secret? Terrific. But…“Why would you trust me not to tell?”

“Because Nash said you don’t lie.”

Great. A grim reaper was holding me to my honor. “Fine. I swear I won’t tell him in exchange for what you found out about the list. But you have to swear to stay out of his house.”

For a moment, there was only silence over the line—Tod obviously wrestling with his decision. What could be so important about hanging out at Nash’s house? Why on earth would he need to go back?

“Deal,” he said finally, and I exhaled silently in relief. For some reason, I was sure he would keep his word too.

“Good.” I tossed back my covers. I was awake, so I might as well be up. “So did you get a look at the lists?”

“I caught a bit of a break there. My boss was out of the office for nearly an hour dealing with some kind of complication in the northern end of the district. And since I happen to know his password—”

“How do you ‘happen’ to know his password?” I sank into my desk chair and plucked a blue metallic pen from a clay jar I’d made in Girl Scouts a decade earlier, then began doodling on a purple sticky pad.

“Last month he accidentally locked himself out of the system, and as the only reaper in the office who actually lived during the digital age, I’m kind of the de facto tech guy.”

Oh. Weird, but I’d take it. “So what about the lists?”

“They weren’t there.”

“What?” I dropped the pen, anger blazing a white-hot trail up my spine, splintering to burn down to the tips of my fingers. I’d just bargained for nothing? Sworn to keep a secret from Nash only to find out that Tod couldn’t get a look at the lists?

“The names. They weren’t there,” he clarified, and relief drenched most of my irritation. Followed quickly by renewed fear on behalf of every girl I knew. “You were right,” Tod continued. “Not one of those girls was supposed to die.”

After talking to Tod, I couldn’t sleep. I needed to tell my uncle that my suspicion had been confirmed: one of Tod’s fellow reapers was working overtime on some unauthorized soul-snatching. But I saw no reason to wake him after two hours of sleep, even for news of this magnitude. None of the other girls had died before noon, so if the pattern persisted, we had a while before the next one would die.

I would tell my uncle and father at the same time, so I wouldn’t have to say it twice. And in the morning, so that hopefully I could avoid having to explain how a grim reaper got my phone number and why he’d called me in the middle of the night.

But telling Nash couldn’t wait.

My pulse thudded as I scrolled through my contacts list for his name, my heart heavy with what I had to tell him and with what I’d sworn not to tell him. I firmly believed that keeping secrets wasn’t good for any relationship; my family was living proof of that. But Tod had sworn not to go back to Nash’s house, so his secret was now harmless, and thus more than worth the lives that might be saved by me keeping it to myself.

Right?

The phone rang three times in my ear, with agonizing slowness. Yet part of me hoped he wouldn’t answer. That I could put off telling Nash for a few more hours too.

He answered in the middle of the fourth ring.

“Hello?” Nash sounded as tired as I felt.

“Hey, it’s me.” Too nervous to sit now, I stood to pace the length of my bed.

“Kaylee?” He was instantly alert, an ability I truly envied. “What’s wrong?”

I plucked a round glass paperweight from my dresser and rolled it between my palms as I talked, my head crooked at a painful angle with the slim phone pinched between my shoulder and my ear. “The girls weren’t on the list.”

“They weren’t? How do you know—” His breath hissed in angrily, and I closed my eyes, waiting for the explosion. “That bastard! He found you?”

“Just my phone number.”

“How?”

“I…you’ll have to ask him.” I’d sworn not to tell Nash, but I wasn’t going to lie.

“No problem.” Something scratched against the mouthpiece as he covered it, but I still heard him shout. “Come on out, Tod!”

“You knew he was there?” I couldn’t quite squelch a smile, even knowing how angry he was.

“He’s not half as stealthy as he thinks he is,” Nash growled.

I set the glass ball on my dresser and took my phone back in my hand, turning to avoid a glimpse of my bed-head in the mirror. “Neither are you. Your mom’s going to wake up if you don’t quit yelling.”

“She’s working eleven to seven at the hospital tonight.”

“Well, I’m sure Tod’s gone now.” Surely he hadn’t called me from Nash’s house….

A door squealed open over the line, and floorboards creaked beneath Nash’s feet. “He’s still here.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do.” Another pause, and this time he didn’t bother to cover the phone, because he was done shouting. “I’m not playing, Tod. If you don’t show yourself in five seconds, I’m calling your boss.”

“You don’t have the number.” Tod’s voice was unmistakable, even at a whisper. He had called me from Nash’s house!

Why? Just to rub my boyfriend’s face in it?

“I told you to stay away from her.” Nash’s voice was so deep with anger it was almost unrecognizable.

By contrast, Tod sounded as calm as ever, which probably pissed Nash off even further. “And I haven’t been anywhere near her, but that’s not because of anything you said. She just hasn’t invited me over.” Yet… We all three heard the unspoken qualifier, and even through the phone I could feel Nash’s rage.

Then I heard it.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, and his voice had gone soft and dangerous.

“I don’t answer to you, Nash.”

“Get out of my room, get out of this house, and stay away from Kaylee. Or I swear we’ll show up at the hospital tomorrow and make your entire shift a living hell.”

I froze in the middle of my fuzzy purple rug, horrified by the very thought of standing between a reaper and his intended harvest. “Nash, he was doing us a favor.” But they both ignored me.

“You come to my work again, and I’ll haunt your ass like the ghost of Christmas past!” Tod snapped.

“That was a one-night haunting,” Nash mumbled, but the reaper made no reply, and finally Nash sighed. Then springs squeaked as he dropped onto what I assumed was his couch. “He’s gone.”

“Why didn’t you tell me he was dead?”

“Because I was already throwing information at you left and right, and I was afraid one more supernatural fact of life might really freak you out.”

“No more secrets, Nash.” Irritated now, I sank onto the rug and plucked at the twisty purple threads in the dim glow of my lamp. “I’m not fragile. From now on, tell me everything.”

“Okay. I’m sorry. You want to know about Tod?” His voice went distant, as if he regretted offering before he’d even finished speaking the words.

I crawled onto my bed and turned off the touch lamp, then lay with one cheek on the cool surface of my pillow. “Not everything. But at least what’s relevant to me.”

Nash exhaled deeply, and I could almost feel his reluctance. Part of me wanted to take it back, to tell him he didn’t owe me any answers. But I didn’t, because the other half of me insisted I needed those answers. Tod’s behavior scared me, and if Nash had information that could help me understand what I was getting into, I wanted it.

“I’ve known him forever,” Nash began, and I went still to make sure I didn’t miss anything. It was weird in the best possible way, talking to him in the middle of the night, in the dark, in my bed. His voice was intimate, almost like he was whispering in my ear. And that very thought made my pulse whoosh harder and warmed me all over.

“We used to be close. Then he died a few years ago, and the reapers recruited him. He took the job because that’s the only way to stay here. With the living. But he had a hard time adjusting to the work.” Nash paused, then his voice became almost wistful. “That’s why I thought he’d be able to help you understand death—that it’s a necessary part of life. Because he went through the same thing, wanting to save everyone. But he got over it, Kaylee, and his adjustment came with serious consequences. He doesn’t think about things the way we do anymore. Doesn’t have the same values and concerns. He’s truly a reaper now. Dangerous.”

I frowned, thinking of what I now knew about Tod that Nash didn’t. “Maybe he’s not as dangerous as you think. Maybe he just needs…company.”

“He broke into my house to find your phone number. If he were human, I’d have him arrested. As it is, there isn’t much I can do, short of ratting on him to his boss.” Which was as good as killing Tod. “I swear, if he wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him myself. I’m sorry, Kaylee. I should never have taken you to him.”

Alone in my room, I sighed and turned onto my left side, holding the phone at my right ear. “He got the information for us.”

“Plus a little, it sounds like.” Nash exhaled heavily, and seemed to be calming down.

I sat up in my bed and slid my cold feet beneath the blankets. “He was trying to help.”

“That’s the thing—he’s not a bad guy. But since the…change…he only helps on his own terms, and won’t do anything that doesn’t benefit him. Putting yourself in debt to someone like that—especially to a reaper—is a very bad idea. We should have figured it out without his help.”

I had no idea what to say. Yes, Tod had crossed a very important line. Several lines, in fact. But by Nash’s own admission, the reaper wasn’t a bad person. And he’d come through for us—in a manner of speaking.

Springs groaned as Nash shifted in his seat. “So what’s the plan? We still don’t know who the next girl will be, or if there will even be one.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, unsure how he’d react to my news. “I called in the cavalry.”

“The what?”

“My uncle. And my dad.” Feeling mostly awake now, I touched my lamp again, and the room got brighter. “Uncle Brendon said they’d find out what was going on if I promised to stay out of it.”

Nash gave a gravelly chuckle that sent a bolt of heat blazing through me. “I knew I liked your uncle.”

I smiled. “He’s not bad. All the lying aside. I’ll tell them about the list in the morning.”

“Fill me in at the memorial?”

“On the drive, assuming you still want a ride.” A warm feeling trickled through me at the thought of seeing him again.

“I would love a ride.”