Last Chance for Love(8)

“I’ve missed you so much,” he said, maybe not even hearing her words. “So much, baby.”

And then before Ripley could do anything, he pulled her into his arms, wrapping her in them so tightly she felt dizzy.

“Katie, Katie, Katie,” he chanted, little kisses peppering over her head, her cheeks, her face.

Her heart thudded, and she closed her eyes as tightly as possible, desperate to keep some semblance of control. Her Nick was kissing her, something she’d thought she’d never get to feel again. The soft touch of his lips, the feel of his breath. Dead they might be, their human bodies no more, but the sensations of the soul were just as intense. Just as real.

A kiss on her cheek, so close to her lips and Ripley shivered. “Nick, you have to stop,” she whispered, though God had to know she wanted nothing more than to let Nick wrap her in his arms, take her lips, and kiss the last five years away.

“I’ve missed you so much, Katie,” he said, pulling her into his arms even tighter—their soul bodies not even a hair’s breadth apart. “The last years without you have been their own kind of hell. I guess I should be upset that I’m dead shouldn’t I? Damn, I don’t even know how I died! But I’m not upset at all. I’m just so thankful. You’re here. You came for me. Everything is how it should be.”

The words tumbled from his lips and dizziness hit her all over again. She pushed back against him until she could look into his eyes. “It’s not what you’re thinking, Nick.”

“We’re both dead now,” he said, again as if he hadn’t even heard her words. “But we’re both still here. Hell, it doesn’t even make sense but I don’t care. The main thing is that we can be together again. Just like we were always supposed to be.”

Ripley shook her head about the same time her heart shook in her chest. “No, Nick. This isn’t me coming to collect you so we can be together again.”

He pulled back, confusion writ plainly across his face. “I don’t understand.”

“I came to collect you because this is my job now, and because of that job….” She paused, so not wanting to say the words she knew she had to say. “We can’t be together.”

“What the hell do you mean we can’t be together?” he demanded. “I’ve waited so long, wanted you for so long. Do you have any idea how I’ve missed you? Longed for you? You took me with you when you went, Katie. You took everything.”

She shivered, desire pushing through all the emotions and rippling over her skin. “I know. I’ve missed you too, Nick.”

“Then why? Why say these things? I just don’t understand.”

Ripley rested her head against his chest, hearing the beat of his soul’s heart quite plainly in her ear. How many nights had she lain on his chest listening to that very same sound? She’d once thought to do so for more than years than were even conceivable to her now. Finally, she took a deep breath and lifted her eyes to his.

“Come,” she said, even though it was against the rules in so many ways. “I’ll show you why, and then you’ll understand.”





Chapter Ten





Nick’s head was a whirl of confusion. Maybe because you’ve fucking died, a voice said but he shook the thought away. He didn’t think that was the reason. All he could think of was Katie. That she was here. Stood right next to him in her strange black robes. Her face as lovely as it had always been. Her magnificent hair falling over her shoulders like the very sun itself. And her eyes…the blue was as brilliant as he remembered—no wonder she’d kept her gaze lowered—and he wanted nothing more than to take her back into his arms and kiss away the worry he could see clouding them.

She took his hand in hers and held tightly. “This is completely against the rules, Nick. I’ve never done it before. It won’t mess up your entry don’t worry. I have you now. The Hell Reapers can’t take you, but I might get disciplined for doing this. Just so you know.”

Confusion swirled again, and he shook his head. “Katie, I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about. You’re not making any sense.”

“Look at me, Nick,” she whispered, and he did. “What do you see?”

Heat radiated through him. “My Katie.”

“Look closely,” she insisted. “Look at my robes, look at what I am holding in my hands.”

He felt a jolt go through him. Of course, how could he have forgotten? The robe, the scythe, what he’d thought the moment he had seen it…her…Death.

“Katie, you’re….”

She nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“But how? Why? I don’t understand.”

She shrugged and glanced down at the scythe. “You will.”

A moment later, they stood in a room Nick was all too familiar with, and he gulped in shock. One minute they were one place and now they were somewhere else with nothing to even indicate that they’d moved. Why it should surprise him, he didn’t know. He was dead after all, and his Katie was Death. Why should anything be shocking anymore?

“What are we doing here,” he whispered.

“Look around,” she whispered back. “It’s obvious.”

So he did and it was, because they were in the hospital. The relative’s room to be precise. An elderly man stood in front of them, and quite plainly, he could not see them at all. Nick felt a wave of memories overwhelm him. He’d stood in the exact same spot the elderly man was now standing at all those years ago. Pacing back and forth and up and down. No doubt, he’d had the same look on his face. Worry and terror and a million other things—each as horrific as the other.

“He’s not what we came for,” Ripley said and ushered him towards the door.

They seemed to float down the hallway. Their movements different to before, so that even though they walked, it was like walking on a cushion of air rather than the actual tiles of the floor. Nick couldn’t quite understand it, and he wanted to ask a million questions but Katie’s face was set in a hard mask, and as they approached a door with the letters ‘ICU’ on it, she pulled her hand from his and lifted her robe.

“You must stay back,” she said. “Do nothing but observe.”

A moment later and her face was hidden from him once again, her scythe held high, and Nick shivered. Death. Katie really was Death. He couldn’t quite get his head around the idea, or how it could possibly have happened, and he had no chance to really consider it further. The inside of the room was frantic with activity, capturing his attention. Doctors ran around the bed, nurses handing them implements, and the steady beep, beep, beep of the life machine was audible above it all. On the bed lay a grey-haired woman. She had to be in her eighties at least and looked so frail.

“It’s time,” she groaned. “It’s time. Just make sure Edward is okay, make sure he takes his pills. It’s not his time.”

“No it isn’t,” Ripley whispered. “He’s not on the list.”

“Then….”

“Yes.” Ripley sighed. “She is.”

Nick was horrified and made to move forward. The desperate man in the waiting room crossed his mind, and he halted his movement, turning instead to Katie. “But she’s…he’s…can’t you do something?”

“I’m here to do what I have to,” she said. “That’s the point. It’s all I can do. Now wait. Do not interfere.”

She pushed him back towards a corner of the room, trailing her fingers along his arm as she did so. Nick’s heart leapt even as the situation bore down on him, and his brain worked in overtime, trying to understand.

Katie moved through the doctors, almost as if they were not even there, though they did not see her. Did not even notice her amongst them. The beeps of the machine were increasing in pace, nothing more than a pause between them. The elderly woman’s heart was reaching a crescendo. Nick gulped when he imagined what that meant.

“It’s time.” She groaned again and pulled back onto herself, stretching her arms out. The machine gave one final beep and then as he knew it must it stopped. Flatline. And the woman’s mouth made a small “oh,” before going slack.

Nick knew she was dead.

The doctors fussed around, pushing against her chest, encouraging, and fighting, but it was pointless. It had to be, didn’t it? Otherwise, Katie would not be here.

Everything seemed to slow, the movements of the people in the room, the sound of the flat-lined machine, everything but Katie. Then the woman’s screams pierced through it all, through him and no doubt through her, and Nick stepped forward. His ears ringing.

Where once there had been a normal woman there lay something else entirely. She, it, whatever, was on top of the other woman but then in her, too, and her brightness overwhelmed the body that had been there before. Nick rubbed his face trying to understand it and knew that it was the woman’s soul. Just like he had been his.

The woman screamed again and opened her eyes. They latched onto Katie and widened. “You’re here,” she whispered. “Here for me.”

Katie spoke in the same musical voice she’d used with him a little while ago. “Yes I am. But it’s okay. Everything is okay now.”