'Til Death We Meet Again (A Grim Awakening Book 3)

  ’Til Death We Meet Again

  A Grim Awakening Novel

  Book Three

  By Michelle Gross

  ’Til Death We Meet Again

  copyright © 2017 by Michelle Gross

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Artwork –© 2017 L.J. Anderson of Mayhem Cover Creations

  Books in Series

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Epilogue

  Another Epilogue

  Falling for Fear

  Author’s Note

  Books in Series

  ’Til Fear Do Us Part

  ’Til Grim’s Light

  ’Til Death We Meet Again

  Prologue

  Somewhere in the makings of time…

  God created man and, well, everything else. I don’t have to go into detail since the truth itself was as old as the time it began. And most of you have heard of the name Lucifer at some point. An angel who plotted to overthrow Heaven and take his place as King. He failed and God, disappointed and upset with himself for never seeing the darkness—the ugliness beneath the beauty—in Lucifer, cast him out of the skies and into the deep, dark depths of the earth. All of the angels that had plotted with him were cast out as well, where they would then become known as demons. It was in the pit of darkness where they fell to their own wickedness. Over time, their offspring mutated and changed into something more fitting to the monsters they were on the inside, making them something entirely different than the angels they once were. That was how so many different demons came to be.

  It was at that point in time where Lucifer became the King of the Underworld we all know him to be.

  Satan, the Devil himself.

  He was a darkness—a disease that could never be contained in the Underworld and it didn’t take his wickedness long to spread. He sent demons into the human world. Everyone knew of God’s love for the humans, so he found many ways to taint their hearts with bitter blackness.

  And it worked.

  So easily. So quickly.

  Because humans were and still are vulnerable, so easily swayed.

  Darkness grew and stretched in the realms of the human world. People died with the stains of their sins and could not be welcomed into Heaven. The balance was off, the souls of the wicked were among the living—there was no barrier between life and death, but that wasn’t the only problem. Evil humans made evil spirits—poltergeists that prayed on the living. The sinners were left to do as they pleased even after death.

  God’s once perfect system was ruined by the very angel he cast out of Heaven.

  And that was when he thought of me.

  He created me from all the evil dead that still lingered on earth.

  I was made from the vilest of mankind and demons alike. With the bones of fallen demons; I came to be. With my existence, the living and dead—the good and the evil—would have a balance.

  In a moments time, I appeared on earth.

  That moment was still engraved into my mind. I was nothing—I wouldn’t even consider me a thing, yet I knew everything I needed to know. I knew what I was made for, what I was meant to do.

  I was the shadow of death. People would later call me Death. And even later they would know me as the Grim Reaper. It was only natural that I took the names I were given since I had nothing when I came to be.

  Not even human emotions. Only a purpose.

  For the darkness I was made from, I was gifted with His light to balance my own darkness. The blue essence that hovered around and through my bones would be the only thing to tell me who I was created from. I would never know or speak to Him. The knowledge I needed was already there when I appeared on Earth.

  And I did what I was made to do.

  I wiped the evil from the lands. I sent the dead to Heaven or Hell. My existence made Satan furious. I was sending people down to his domain, disrupting his order. It didn’t take him long though to find enjoyment out of those that were sent down to him. He came to love torturing and preying on any who were unfortunate enough to fall to him. But what did matter was that I took away any chance of him destroying the human world. Yes, he loathed the very sight of me, but he would never be able to get rid of me. I could be injured, but I could never die. As long as the life existed, so would I.

  He did, however, create three powerful monsters called entities.

  Fear. Harvest. Jackal.

  I found out that I was also considered an entity, just not one made from Satan. I was different because of that reason, yet we were all the same: immortal.

  I had never met Jackal or Harvest, sometimes I wondered if those two even existed but then I would hear stories or I would be there to take care of the aftermath of their havoc in body counts. Piles and piles of bodies.

  Fear, on the other hand, sought out attention and fed on people’s fears and weaknesses. He never stopped taking lives since the moment he was created which kept him on my radar.

  …time passed and I lived a very, very long time. Only something that never should have happened, did. I began to develop… curiosity. And with curiosity came wonder. And there it was after centuries upon centuries of watching demons and humans alike, I developed actual feelings and emotions. I watched them eat. I watched them sleep, fight, and argue with one another but what gave me the most curiosity was the relationship between a man and a woman. They called it love. Only it was one of many versions of this so-called love. Foolish, absurd, it was. But nonetheless, I was drawn to it like a beacon in the darkness. Then I came to realize my harsh reality and the pain that came with having human emotion. I would never know this love. It was impossible. I was a being made of bones. I had nothing to offer. I had no lips to kiss her. No flesh to keep her warm.

  Then I heard something one night in the Underworld, beyond stupid it was… but I was desperate and just the thought of the whispers being true… I would try anything. The rumor was that of a merge between an entity and a demon. It was said that the entity Jackal had done just that and became one with a demon.

  So, as crazy as it seemed, I found a demon and tried the merge. At first, I wasn’t sure exactly how it was supposed to work and doubt ran through me as I gazed upon the demon. He smacked his lips
, studying me with the kind of intent I recognized—greed, power—something most demons possessed. I ignored it though because I was desperate and trapped by my own desires.

  I offered my hand, he took it, and I knew it began—the beginning of two becoming one. It wasn’t what I expected or wanted. The moment our minds linked, I could feel how wrong my mistake had been. Evil poured through me; pettiness, darkness became my thoughts. It was a sickening moment, and I pulled away from him. This demon wasn’t me. I could never be this sinister. I pushed him away and faded out of time to recollect myself. I realized it was wrong of me to have thoughts as I did. I was never meant for the things I craved. I thought I would never try again…

  I lived for a very long time after that, doing the only thing I knew to do—my job. But then I felt it. No warning or clue what it was—I felt a pull in my chest like nothing I had felt before. I followed that bone-deep feeling as it brought me to the City of the Dead. Demons were chanting that I had come to merge with a demon, and then it clicked. I was here for that very reason.

  He was here. I didn’t know who or what he was, I just knew I had come for him. My other half. The end of my suffering. This emptiness.

  I knew it was him that darted out from the crowd and into the circle where I stood. It was there where I became whole. Finally, I was no longer just the Grim Reaper; I was Killian.

  And I finally lived. Really lived.

  I discovered the touch of a woman. The caress of their skin beneath my fingertips. And I hadn’t been wrong about them. They were jewels meant to be savored and with the blood of incubi coursing through me, I knew how to please them.

  For the next two thousand years, the world grew larger. I could no longer keep up with dead or the living myself, so I created my own Reapers chosen from decent demons—those searching for a better life and purpose. I became something to these demons. Maybe they saw me as hope—an escape from their own darkness that begged to crawl out from each and every one of them.

  I created a home on the outskirts of the Underworld. It grew overtime. Creatures and demons came to inhabit my land. I never once stopped any of them from doing so, and sometimes I wondered if somehow my own thoughts drove them to be here.

  Like when every evil had reached it end, I could feel their presence against my skin and their every wrongdoing. It was what I felt every time something needed to die. You could say it was Heaven’s way of giving me permission to eradicate something from the world.

  And that was how I stumbled upon the dragons who were on the verge of extinction that were being hunted and killed by ogre demons. I descended every single one of the ogres and then afterwards, I offered the dragons my land in exchange that they would protect it and all that lived in it. They agreed and took over my skies.

  I wasn’t alone anymore but it wasn’t enough…

  I had yet to experience the one thing I wanted above all. Love. I had the company of women in the past, but nothing that ever made me want to keep them by my side to share everything with… to talk to and lay beside every night. I wondered if it even existed. I rubbed my chest every time I thought about it and knew that I wouldn’t think of something so much if it wasn’t real. Besides, I knew it existed because I had seen it enough times to know.

  Maybe it was me. Maybe it was my fate to live alone, and what a terrible fate to have: to feel so lonely yet never feel a connection with anyone.

  “Death,” a soft, melodic voice whispered into the darkness of my room one night. I saw the light bouncing off her skin before I saw her as I turned. Angels were so beautiful it was terrifying and the light that bounced off their skin was hard to look at it was so bright. And they rarely left the skies. This would be only the second time I had ever seen one, and it was the same angel. The first time she came to visit me was when I merged with Killian. I smirked as I thought about it, guessing it was to see if the demon had tainted me.

  “What do I owe this pleasure?” I asked the divine creature before me. She was a brunette. My eyes roamed over her body, but it was hard to make anything out because of the light radiating from her skin. Oh, right, I suppose the angels were right about the merge corrupting me because my incubus traits kicked in and I wondered if angels could have sex…

  She made a sound in her throat and I lifted my eyes away from her chest—not like I could see it with all the light anyway. She was glaring at me with disapproval. “You may be Death, but I can still read your mind.” I gave her my best smoldering look, and she merely flicked her hair from her shoulders in response. “I’ve come with news I think you would like to hear.”

  “Oh?” I arched my brow. When she made no hurry to continue, I motioned to her with my hands. “Go on.”

  “He knows what is in your heart, Death.” By He, I knew she meant God.

  I sighed. “There’s a lot of things in that dark place, you’ve got to be more specific.” My nerves were dancing along my skin, I was so curious and tried to play it off like I wasn’t.

  She gave me a pleasant smile. “A woman, Death; you have a lover.”

  I thought my heart was going to burst from my chest. I couldn’t even explain the racing of my heart. I darted across the room toward her. “What do you mean?” I realized I was yelling at the angel, but I couldn’t stop myself even if I tried. “Tell me!” The thought of having someone out there… someone to share every part of myself with… But then I stopped short, was love that easy? No, it wasn’t. I had been with countless woman to know better. Love didn’t just happen.

  “Your thoughts are right. Love doesn’t just happen. It’s not easy, either, but it’s there…between you and her. I can sense that connection waiting to bloom.” I didn’t like that she could read my thoughts.

  I shook my head in aggravation. “Angel, you’re not making any sense. If there’s someone… if I have…” I kept pausing. “If she’s to be with me, then where is she?”

  She dropped her gaze. “She isn’t born yet.” I could only look at her. She gave me hope then turned around and snatched it back. She let out a deep sigh. “I do hate hearing your gloomy thoughts.”

  “Then stop listening,” I interrupted her.

  She closed her eyes. “Believe me, I would if I could. And no, Death, she isn’t born yet but she will come to you in time. Wait and see.”

  I half-snarled, half-laughed, “You’ve told me what you wanted. Now go.” I turned away from her.

  I could tell that she was hesitant to leave things this way. “I only came to ease some of your loneliness,” she replied softly. “To let you know it won’t last forever.”

  “He made me to be lonely.” I let the words fall from my lips before I can think of what I said.

  “No, he brought you into this world, but you became who you are yourself. Nobody else, it’s all you, Killian, Grim Reaper.” I couldn’t hide my surprise as I turned back around to face her. I never thought I would hear an angel acknowledge me by Killian since that made me a part of the Underworld. “Have faith. Love will come.” Her laughter mixed with her words. “And it’s going to take you by surprise.” The angel tilted her head as she smiled off into the distance almost if she knew the future herself.

  She left me there to ponder that night and weeks and months after that. I even foolishly looked for someone that I knew wasn’t born yet… until slowly the thought of her faded out of my thoughts completely. And the thought of love drifted through my thoughts less and less.

  A thousand more years passed in the Underworld before I received a message from Heaven. A single note telling me that I had to protect the life of a human girl. Two other things were written on the letter. Her name and that she was the Vessel.

  All I had to do was think of her name and I could find her—I am Death, after all. I could find anyone. It was the night before her eighteenth birthday, and I found her standing in line at a movie theater—a place where humans go to watch a bunch more humans on a giant screen, acting. I didn’t get much out of the humans’ way of entertainment, b
ut I did occasionally find some of their movies… interesting.

  I couldn’t see her face because I was in the back of the line and she was closer toward the front. I knew it was her though, since I’m Death—maybe she was right about me being vain… but I’m getting ahead of myself.

  Anyway… the first thing I noticed about her was she was small and way too jumpy. That was also when I noticed the ghost standing in line in front of her and she was staring at him… wait, she could see them? I immediately tossed my presence around in the room, so that the ghost would know that a Reaper was present. I could tell he sensed me because it didn’t take him long to get gone.

  I visibly saw her shoulders relax, and the guy next to her never stopped smiling—correction: the guy never stopped smiling at her. Even when she wasn’t looking at him, he was always looking over and smiling at her. It made me realize I didn’t know what I was even doing here. Or more like, why did I have to be here? Why not send an angel if she was so important? Were they too good to come down here themselves?

  I rubbed my neck and didn’t like how uncomfortable I felt. I stayed away from humans. Not that I disliked them… I just found them weak and often that mixed with greed and yeah, that made some no better than demons.

  I walked around the theater not expecting anything to happen until finally, it did. I saved her the first time that night from a screamer—a fog-like looking creature that kept the soul of everything he killed—similar to what I could do with my scythe. She was crying out as she hunkered down on the toilet. She went silent when I stepped in front of the stall she was in. I walked away and left her there.

  I didn’t actually see her until the next night when Molly tried to kill her. That was how I figured out how much danger she was in. If the Vessel was as powerful as the rumors…then Fear could never get his hands on it.

  But then I saw her… and every thought flew out the window. I was taken by her beauty. She was running out into the yard and she kept looking toward the house as she ran for the car. Her blonde hair was tied back as it bounced back and forth. I was wondering why the hell I was standing on her roof staring while her life was in danger.