Page 31 of Grim

ReprimandsandRSVPs

The OtherWorld

A s I step through the OtherWorld into Death’s Door, LLC, the scent hits me like it always does—a punch of ozone and burned offerings. The sights and sounds of this place always feel heightened. But today feels especially oversaturated.

I head for Big D’s spa, my shoes echoing across the onyx floor. Crimson light beats beneath my steps in a telltale thrumming, as though the OtherWorld itself has a pulse, even though its denizens do not.

He’s waiting in his private atrium—if one could call a gold-and-black pearl bathhouse surrounded by floating skulls and cascading water fountains an atrium.

Big D reclines on a skeletal chaise lounge half submerged in black water, wearing a blinding lamé Speedo and a silk robe open down to his navel.

Twizzlers trail down his chest like candy leis, and he’s sipping something electric blue from a chalice shaped like a spinal column while using a Twizzler as a makeshift straw.

“Kane!” he shouts, arms wide. “To what do I owe the pleasure? Let me guess. The girl died before her time again , and you tried to mess with time again .”

“She assisted on a reap,” I say flatly, stepping onto the marble platform circling the pool.

Big D sits up so fast that the water sloshes over the rim. “She did what?” Big D’s voice booms, rattling the walls of his bathhouse. The sound would probably have me shaking in my Stefano Ricci shoes, if I was wearing them. D’s bath house rules: ‘Shoes kill the vibe’ .

“She assisted on a reap,” I repeat, not responding to his theatrics. “She helped a soul cross,” I say. “Willingly. There was peace. She talked to him, calmed him. Listened.”

“Why was she even there?” he growls, his candy falling into the dark water around him. “You’re supposed to be babysitting the body, not holding reaper orientation week.”

Choosing to ignore him referencing Rue as the body , I stretch my neck before speaking. “Well, she’s my responsibility until her official crossover date. That was the arrangement. You and the Sisters were pretty clear on that.”

He stands, and water steams off his skin. Subtlety, thy name is Daryl .

“Yes, she is your responsibility because you told her everything. Kane, you handed her AfterLife information without waiting until she was in the actual fucking AfterLife.”

“You don’t need to yell. I am aware of the situation.”

“There can be no slips in this, and yet here we are, on our back with a banana peel on our face. You gifted that mortal unknowable knowledge and forgot to hang on to the receipt.”

“I didn’t mean to! I already apologized. What else do you want me to do?”

“I can tell you what you should not do, and that’s take a mortal on your assignments like she’s on a school field trip to the zoo.”

“She’s twenty-six, D. She can just go to the zoo if she wants.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Big D fumes, and I can literally see smoke come out of his ears as he paces.

He reaches down, yanking a Twizzler from the bubbling water, and takes a bite off one end before pointing it at me like a sword.

“This isn’t a buddy-cop comedy, Kane. She’s not your sidekick.

She’s your burden. You supervise her. Until she crosses. Got it? ”

I bristle internally. Big D always grates on my nerves, but his flippant tone and dismissive attitude where Rue and her last days are concerned twist a particularly sensitive spot inside me.

“I cannot tie her up every time I have to leave her side, D. That’s ridiculous.”

“Of course you can. And you will. This is a run out the clock situation, Kane. Make sure she doesn’t play any tricks on Fate and Time. You don’t want to piss them off any more than you already have.”

“Got it, boss,” I say in a clipped tone.

“You’ve reaped thousands, maybe tens of thousands of souls, Kane. She’s just one more.”

The second he utters the glib remark, I cannot stop the thought from forming.

Rue is so much more than just another soul to me.

Her spirit brims with untapped energy and shines with an earnestness I’ve never seen before.

She deserves so much more than she’s gotten out of life, and she will get as much as she can from her last days, even if it means sacrificing my own soul in the process to make that happen.

“Watch your tone, D.” I speak in a low growl, the words coming unbidden.

Now the center of his dark black eyes sparks with flame.

I’ve done it again. Why can’t I keep my mouth shut?

Big D’s mouth breaks open in a huge grin. “She is just another soul, right?”

My spine straightens. “Sure,” I say quietly, unable to say anything else. Apparently, that works, too, because my silence is speaking volumes to him.

He claps his hands once with thunderous effect.

“Oh Kane, don’t tell me you’re getting sweet on her.

” At my blank response, he laughs—a deep, resonant sound that physically moves the air around us.

“This is too good. You’re growing feelings for the mortal whose timeline you distorted, and now you’re dancing very close to the realm of Fate’s tapestry.

I can’t imagine she’s got enough thread to weave you into Rue’s picture.

Oh, I cannot wait to see how all this plays out.

” He brings his hands in front of his mouth and claps obnoxiously before dancing his fingertips against each other like a cartoon villain .

“She’s kind,” I murmur, jaw tight. “Kind in a way I haven’t seen in centuries. She listens, even when she’s scared. She believes in people, even when she shouldn’t. She stayed to comfort an old man who had nothing left in the world but a dog.”

Big D quiets. Just for a second. His smirk falters. “So, you’re willing to put your position of privilege in my very regimented society on the line because she had a chat with a doddering old man?”

“I’m willing to make sure her last days matter.”

His black eyes spark gold, then red. “You’re getting reckless, Kane. This is exactly what Fate warned about.”

“She’s not hurting anyone.”

“ Not yet. ” He throws up his hands and spins toward the bar cart. He stops abruptly, his right hand flying to the top of the cart.

D presses an intercom button, and a squeaky voice immediately speaks. “Yes, sir? What is it, sir?”

“April, make me one of those free-standing popcorn machines. With the good butter.”

“Whatever you wish, sir,” April, his receptionist, responds, no hint of confusion or surprise in her voice. She must field ludicrous requests from him on a regular basis.

“She’s not a source of entertainment,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Oh, but she is,” Big D hums, pouring a drink. “And it sounds like you might be the leading man in the tragedy to come.”

“I’m not developing feelings, D. Unless you consider pain in my ass to be a feeling.”

“Methinks the reaper doth protest too much.” D smirks.

There is a moment of silence that stretches. Big D simply stops talking. His eyes take on a vacant stare.

Finally, his attention returns to the present. “Oh, you’re still here. You’re free to go.”

I turn to leave.

“Wait. No, there was something else I needed to discuss with you. Shit, it was very important.”

I turn back to face him .

He snaps his fingers, and I can almost see the light bulb above his head going off.

“That’s right! Big D’s Devilishly Deviant Dress-Up Dance is in two days. I haven’t received your RSVP yet.”

“That’s a lot of Ds.”

“That’s what the nymph said at her first orgy.” He laughs heartily at his awful joke.

I cut off his wailing. “Why don’t you just call it a masquerade ball?”

Big D’s face turns extremely serious. “Because I love alliterations, Kane.”

“Same,” I concede.

“Everyone does. Almost as much as the nymph loved her first orgy.”

“Okay, D. I will be there. Consider this my RSVP.”

“Good, because attendance is mandatory.”

“Then why did you need my RS—you know what? Never mind. Thanks for the chat, boss. See you in a couple days.”

“Not if I see you first.” He giggles again.

“Seriously though Kane, do not do anything to further upset the Sisters. Your attendance at that catastrophe was no mistake. And if you misstep, overstep, or even Texas two-step with this Rue person any further, I do not want to know what tortures those two might have in store for you.”

“Yeah, okay. Thanks for the heads-up.”

I turn to leave, but just before I reach my hand out to open the door, Big D’s voice carries down the length of this humid room and stops me in my tracks.

“Oh, and Kane, in light of your recent situation ”—he emphasizes the last word to great euphemistic effect—“I will go ahead and put you down for a plus-one. Since it’s so hard to find a sitter on such short notice.” His laugh follows me down the corridor.