Charmed (Death Escorts #2)(80)
Author: Cambria Hebert

This could be good… I nudged Frankie toward the exit.

“Yeah, but sometimes it hurts.”

“But you can do it. And what about the soul already in the body?”

“It’s still in there. I just take over.”

“What else have you been doing without me realizing?” he said shrewdly.

“I was just bored. I was gonna tell you,” Storm said. I could hear the nerves in his voice.

“Of course you were,” he replied. “What else can you do?”

“Well… I’ve sorta been becoming more solid.”

“But you can still get into another person’s body?”

What was his obsession with getting into another person’s body?

And then I knew.

The soul in a jar. She said she needed a body.

“That soul, the one I took? She said she needed a body, that she couldn’t get into any of the ones you tried.”

“That’s none of your business,” he snapped.

“No. But it seems to me that Storm might be able to teach her how to borrow a body. You know, one that isn’t empty. Maybe that’s the kind of body she needs.”

I saw it in his face, the intrigue, the desire. And here was where his weakness lay.

“The Target is dead,” I told him. “That’s what you wanted. Does it really matter who killed her?”

G.R. looked at me.

“Let me out. Completely out, free of being an Escort and free of being Recalled. I’ll give you back the soul I took.” I looked up at Storm.

“And I’ll teach her how to borrow a body,” he added.

It was then that Piper rushed into the house, calling out for Frankie. She dashed around the corner and stopped, staring at us all standing there over a dead body. “You were gone a long time. I was worried.”

“I’m fine,” Frankie told her. “Go back out to the car.”

“Wait,” the reaper called, stopping her.

He was looking at Piper like she was some sort of miracle or something, like he was enthralled with her.

“I’ll agree to this. If she lets me touch her again.”

“No!” Frankie shouted immediately. “Kill us all now because that isn’t going to happen.”

The Reaper shrugged. “Fine.” He stepped toward Frankie.

“Wait!” Piper cried, rushing over. “If I let you touch me, you won’t kill them? Any of them?”

He stared at her, taking in all of her face, scrutinizing every detail about her as if he were committing it to memory. “I will not kill or Recall any of them.”

He lifted his fingers, looking at her again.

“Piper, no,” Frankie insisted.

“He’s already touched me once, Frankie.”

“But what if it was just a fluke?”

Piper bit her lip. “Guess we’ll find out.”

The Reaper chuckled eagerly. “Can I touch you now?”

“Wait,” I said and he looked at me, annoyed. “I want your word that Frankie and I will be completely free of you.”

“You have my word,” he said, looking back at Piper.

“She can’t do this,” Frankie argued. “I won’t let her.”

Piper looked at me. “Hold her.” I wrapped my arms around Frankie, locking them into place, and she struggled against me, begging Piper not to do this and telling me she would never forgive me if I let her best friend die.

It was a risk I was willing to take. This was it. We were down to no other options. If this didn’t work, we would all be dead in minutes.

“Do it,” Piper said, looking directly at the Grim Reaper.

While Frankie continued to struggle, G.R. reached out tentatively, extending his hand like he was touching something so delicate it might shatter with the merest hint of a touch. He drew closer and Frankie began to cry.

Piper just stood there, stock still, waiting, and then the tips of his fingers brushed her cheek.

She blinked.

She drew in a deep breath and smiled, looking over at Frankie, who practically collapsed in my arms.

“It’s been so long,” he murmured, becoming braver and cupping the side of her face with his palm.

Piper stiffened at his caress and lifted her foot like she wanted to step away, but she didn’t. She glanced at me instead.

“You got what you wanted,” I told him.

It’s like he didn’t even hear me speak at all. He was so entranced by her that it was like he saw nothing else. He began stroking the side of her cheek like she was a treasure he had searched out for hundreds of years. “You’re soft. And warm. I forgot how warm live skin could be.”

Okay, he was just being creepy now.

“We had a deal.” I reminded him, my voice hard.

He drew away from her slowly, like he didn’t want to let go. Maybe he didn’t. I would think that never being able to touch anyone ever would make a man feel a certain hunger—the kind of hunger that never really went away. It was the kind of hunger that not even Death would be able to get away from.

When he stepped away, Piper let out a huge sigh of relief and stepped back.

The Reaper looked at me. “Charming, I release you from the employ of myself, the Grim Reaper. From here on out, you will no longer possess immortality. You will no longer have the abilities that were bestowed upon you during your work. You will live and die like any other human who walks this earth. You have my word that I will not come for you or the girl.”

I was free.

Free from death. Free to live. Free to love.

It was something I never once thought was even possible and now it was mine.

Frankie wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. Her laughter made me smile and then my smile turned into a laugh.

I am free.

“Now I want what’s mine,” G.R. said, cutting into my happiness.

I nodded. “We can go right now.” I pulled away from Frankie. “Go wait in the car. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

She bit her lip and glanced over at the Reaper. I couldn’t really blame her.

“I do not go back on my word,” G.R. said. Then he looked at Piper. “Perhaps we will meet again.”

That got Frankie moving. She grabbed Piper’s hand and towed her toward the door. G.R. watched Piper until she was out of sight. Once they were gone, he turned abruptly, pinning Storm with a hard stare. “You’ve been very busy.”

Storm didn’t say anything, but his cloudlike body shifted.

“You’re going to make it up to me.”