She stood there staring at me, her red eyes blazing. “You are merely mortal. Your soul can and will belong to me.”

  I laughed. “You’re forgetting something here.” I rushed towards her, letting my scythe disappear, I grabbed her wrist and willed us back to the human realm. “This is my gateway.”

  She backhanded me and claws came scratching across my face. My blood dripped down to the ground the seal shuddered.

  The sounds of fighting around us seemed to pause for a moment.

  “I have your back, Death,” Pete called out, and the others echoed. I could feel the power of the seal beneath my feet, powered by the blood of the demons they had been fighting for who knows how long.

  I wiped the back of my hand against my cheek. “You drew blood.” I summoned my scythe. “You broke the truce.” Here was hoping that I would be able to take her down.

  She laughed, and her wings unfurled behind her as she summoned a sword. “Give it a try, Little Death, you’ve forgotten one thing. I was a great warrior before I was cast out of heaven.”

  I reminded myself that I couldn’t kill her and I didn’t have to. All I needed to do was wound her so that blood hit the seal and then drag her down to Hell and keep her there.

  She took to the air, and I heard the whistling of an arrow. She dodged the arrow, but then swooped down to attack me.

  I blocked her blow with the staff of my scythe and used her momentum to throw her against the ground. Dust and debris flew up around her as she landed.

  She folded her wings behind her back and watched me. She gave a wicked smile and shadows started to move around me as black, clawed hands reached for me. I jumped away from the damned souls, landing outside their reach, only to find a hellhound at my back, snarling.

  I spun around and cut it in half with my scythe, and it disappeared. When I turned back around, Lucile was gone.

  My heart pounded. Had I screwed up and let her go back to hell?

  War jumped to my side, covered in blood and breathing heavy. “Focus, trust us to have your back.”

  I knew exactly what he was talking about. I’d spun around, worried about the hellhound. “Okay.”

  I was going to have to trust them to handle the damned souls, hellhounds, and demons.

  Lucile shot down from the sky, and War shoved me aside so that her blade missed me.

  I focused on the Devil and tried to keep my brain from telling me I was in danger from everything else. I could trust my team to keep me safe.

  I spun my scythe, and I could feel the power flow through me. I was Death. I had the speed, the strength, and the agility that could match her. I’d defeated all her temptations already, and now it was just her and me fighting.

  I shifted my stance and attacked with my scythe before she could get too far away. The blade caught her shirt but didn’t draw blood. It wasn’t time yet, I need to draw the fight out a little bit longer or the seal wouldn’t be strong enough.

  I roar sounded behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder to see a huge green-scaled demon climbing out of the ground. I turned to Lucile, keeping my back to the demon.

  She raised a brow. “So trusting. Do you think Pestilence will have your back? Or Famine?”

  They would because I was a Horseman, and without me, Death would disappear. I didn’t bother answering her.

  She rushed forward, her wings adding to her speed and her sword striking down. I blocked with the staff again and twisted it to shove her away from me.

  My breath caught at the weight of the attack, and I forced myself to remember to breathe and let the motions flow through me. “My dad should have done this a long time ago.”

  “Your father was a weak man who should have killed you to seal the last seal. Had he, it might have worked.”

  I didn’t bother with the arguing. Something caught my back, and I felt blood drip down it. I glanced behind me again to see the Horsemen working on the demon.

  “Sorry, Little Death,” War called. “The tails always cause problems.”

  The seal beat under me again as my blood dropped to the ground. It wasn’t a distraction that I could afford.

  Lucile had her sword to my throat within a minute, but she was in front of me. I stepped backward and brought my scythe down low, knocking her legs out from underneath her.

  She used her wings to help keep her balance. The crashing sound of the demon going down echoed through the walled city, and the seal started glowing brighter.

  I smiled and looked at Lucile. I gave my scythe a quick flick, and the blade caught her side. The blood dripped down in a trickle onto the ground. The seal hissed, and an explosion of red light erupted, blinding me while Lucile’s screams echoed in my ears.

  When the light cleared, I found myself in Hell again. Staring at Lucile. Her mouth was open in a silent scream, and her hands were clenching her head. The seal floated above me, and I reached up with my scythe and imagined myself pulling the seal down. I didn’t know how it was going to work, but it just felt right. I pulled it down over us. Something clicked inside me, and Hell disappeared.

  I found myself standing back in the walled city, standing there breathing heavy. It was done. She was sealed away in Hell. War walked up to me and held his hand out. “Good work.”

  I let my scythe disappear and shook his hand. He pulled me into a strong hug. “Your dad would be proud.”

  Pete came running toward me, his bow and arrow disappearing as he threw his arms around me. “You were in Hell for over half the battle.”

  I hugged him and then stepped back. “You’re covered in blood. How much of it is yours.”

  He laughed. “Probably too much of it.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Let’s go back and get cleaned up.”

  I saw the others slowly making their way over, all of them favoring their wounded bodies. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

  We all disappeared and went to Death’s…my realm. We all walked into the house, bandages and rags waited for us on the table. We all sat down, and I looked at the faces of War, Famine, Pestilence, Aeron, Pete, and Kaleb. Everyone had wounds and blood covering them.

  “Thank you, for having my back and trusting me.”

  Famine chuckled. “I didn’t think you were going to pull it off, but you did. You knew exactly what you were doing.”

  “No, I didn’t. I didn’t expect to be in Hell until Katie told me. But I did know about the Sins and temptations.” I glanced at Pete and remembered what Lust had promised. I shook my head. “There’s no stopping them, all we can do is lessen the influences.”

  I reached for a roll of bandages and a bowl. “Let’s get everyone patched up.”

  We all helped each other patch up different wounds. All and all we’d been lucky with the amount of damage. When we were done, we all sat around the table, staring at each other.

  “Now, Little Death, you’re officially a Horseman,” War boomed. “We’ve survived another apocalypse.”

  But in the back of my mind, I knew there would be another one in my lifetime. If not more. “Now what?”

  “We get to relax.” Kaleb laughed. “We can go back to parties and watching for signs.”

  “Take out the occasional escaped demons.” Aeron flexed his hands. “Keep our skills sharp.”

  Pete met my gaze. “We wait for you to have a kid so we can teach him or her about our ways.”

  That hit me harder than I thought was possible. A harsh reminder that I wasn’t one of them anymore.

  Pete cracked a small smile. “We enjoy our lives until something else comes up.”

  War placed a heavy hand on my shoulder. “And you, Death, learn your abilities, reap the souls, and study on anything and everything that might help humankind so we can keep the next apocalypse shorter.”

  I leaned back in my chair and looked around at my new life. It’d be awfully lonely in my realm. I looked at Aeron. “When you have a new house, I’m coming to crash your parties.”

  “As long as you don’t get drunk again.” He winked at me. “Almost ending up with a Sin and all.”

  Famine stood. “And we’ll be around to visit too. We don’t often hang out, but you’re young, you’ll need some reassurance.”

  It was probably the nicest thing he’d said to me since we’d rescued them.

  “But for now, I have to go make sure the famine is disappearing.” He bowed his head and left.

  War nudged me. “You take care, Little Death. I need to minimize the brewing wars.”

  “And me, I just need to make sure that the plague gets back under control.” Pest stood. “You know, it’s time to keep balance and all that.”

  And I knew here in a few minutes I was going to need to reap souls. The death count was still high, but I knew would slow down in the coming months. All the Horsemen left, leaving me with the guys.

  “You’re always welcome to come hang out Sammy, but there’s always a risk of you appearing in the world. How do you think people got the images for the Grim Reaper?” Pete leaned back in his chair. “We can come here too.”

  I sat there and looked at my friends, my partners, and tried to remind myself that I couldn’t go back to normality. “I know, and I know you’d have my back if I ever called on you. I don’t plan on staying here for my lifetime. I’m too antsy for that.” I laughed. “But I understand that I have responsibilities, and I need to step up to them.”

  “Sounds like you’ve had a change of heart about being a Horseman.” Aeron smiled. “Stepping up like a true child now.”

  “You know, when I was in Hell…I saw each of the Sins. One after another. Each one tried to tempt me with something I wanted. And with each illusion, I could point out what was wrong. I know this is where I need to be and you, and the other Horsemen, are who I need to be with.”

  Kaleb snickered. “Great, so now Little Death has become Big Death, and she’s going to be tagging along with us?”

  “No, I can’t fight the demons. Remember? They’re scared of me.” I laughed. “From Little Death to Grim Reaper. My how things have changed. This wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to find when I got to college.”

  Pete made a grand motion with his hands. “Mesa University, find your career path and follow your dreams. Well, you did find your career.”

  We all laughed, and for a moment, everything felt normal.

  38

  I walked into Aeron’s house and saw the crowd of people. Months later and the human world was starting to resemble the world I remembered from before. I looked around at the college-age students bumping and grinding against each other. The hot and heavy air stuck to my skin, and I moved through the people to find Aeron. He’d insisted that I needed to come tonight, and though I had been partially joking about crashing his parties, I hadn’t really wanted to come.

  “Hey, Sammy!” I saw his hand waving over the crowd, and I moved through the people to get to him. He stood behind a table that held a giant plastic bowl of punch. I knew very well what was in the bowl.

  He poured me a cup of jungle juice and then poured himself one. “Back to normal.” He grinned and held his cup up for cheers.

  “Back to normal.” I clicked my plastic cup to his. “Amazing that after all the shit that has happened that we ended up back here. Right about where it all started.” I took a swig of the jungle juice and cringed as the Everclear burned my throat.

  Aeron laughed and took a sip. “Yeah, we’ve all been missing you, so we had to get you down here, somehow.” He motioned for me to turn around. Pete, Kaleb, Katie, and Mary stood there all grinning and leaning on each other. “Pete especially,” Aeron whispered and then motioned to them. “Go party, have fun. Do not, I repeat, do not try to join in with catching frogs. Okay?”

  “Still doing that contest?”

  He shrugged. “What can I say, I like to see people attempt the impossible.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Joining us, Little War?”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  I walked over to the group and was greeted with big hugs and shoulder squeezes as we all made our way out back. I didn’t know how Aeron had managed it, but he’d gotten another house near the lake. Just like last time, women and men were jumping into the lake attempting to catch frogs.

  Pete nudged me a little bit as we walked. “So what’s it like?”

  “What’s what like?”

  “Being Death.” Kaleb walked up to my other side. “Being a Horseman.”

  I shrugged. “Boring. I can see everyone’s timeline if I look at them hard enough, know what decisions will lead to their death. I collect the souls, I ride the horse, and I check on the seal on occasion.”

  “Why?” Katie frowned. “Why would you keep going back to it?”

  I didn’t look at her. The truth was because I could still hear all the Sins and Lucile calling out to me, crying to be released and trying to bargain. “Just to make sure it holds.”

  She nodded slightly, and Mary pointed to the lake. “Really?”

  I turned and saw what she was pointing at. A few people were diving in, and I saw the outline of wings behind them. “At least they are enjoying themselves.” I took a sip of my drink. “Things are starting to get back to normal.”

  “College is up and running, no famine, no plague, war happens when it should, and Death has returned. I’d say that’s pretty back to normal.” Pete laughed. “Did you see the new dorms?”

  I shook my head. “No, I came straight here.”

  Pete motioned to the street. “Why don’t we take a walk.”

  I wasn’t sure why he wanted to drag me to the college. The only person who was determined to go back to college life was Aeron with his wild parties. Kaleb had settled down at a library, heading up the technology department. And Pete…he’d never said what he went to do.

  “What are you doing now that the world is back together?”

  He smiled and dragged me to the road with a hand on my wrist. “Trying to find something to entice you to spend a bit more time on Earth. I know that Death doesn’t typically need to be on earth, but you’re still young, and with the Sins and Lucile locked away, you need something else to occupy your mind until you meet the angel of your dreams and produce your own child of the Apocalypse.”

  Yep, I was certainly too young to be thinking about that right now. I gave up and willingly followed Pete toward the college. He stopped me mid-block and turned me towards the dorms. They looked just like the old ones, brick buildings with tiny balconies on them.

  “They look well put together.” I turned to him. “Really, that’s what you wanted to show me to keep me here on Earth?”

  “Well.” He pointed to one. “That would have been yours and Ruthie’s room, but clearly you’re not going to college.”

  He spun me around, and Katie and the others stood there, in the arched brick doorway of a new shop.

  ‘Ruthie’s Corner’ was written on a little wooden sign with a halo hanging on the ‘R.’

  “Surprise.” Pete motioned to it. “I mean, it’s not much, but it’s yours.”

  I walked passed the grinning group of friends and opened the door, books rescued from the apocalypse filled the shelves, and a small angel statue sat on the corner by the register. There was a small sign hanging on the front: In honor of Ruthie, karaoke every Friday night.

  I blinked back the tears and turned to give Pete a huge hug. He hugged me back, and I felt him relax.

  “I take it you like it then?”

  “Perfect, a great place for Death to spend her downtime.”

  Everyone cheered and Katie stepped up. “We’re all going to help run it because really, who better to do such?”

  I looked at everyone and realized that this was my life now. Collecting souls and running a tiny bookshop that hosted karaoke. I’d be waiting in the wings for the next apocalypse to start, and we would stop it in its tracks.

  I’m Sammy Zadkiel, and I am Death. I came into my abilities and my responsibilities when the Devil killed my father. Now, with the Children of the Apocalypse by my side, we are ever vigilant for when the Devil makes her next move, and we will be ready.

  Also by A.L. Kessler

  Here Witch Witchy

  No More Black Magic

  Deathly Magic

  The Trouble with Ghosts

  To Skin a Wolf

  Of Life an Death

  Everyone Has Their Demons

  Between the Lines

  Blood Catalyst

  Parlor Tricks Mysteries

  Rabbits Out of Hats

  Disappearing Coins

  About the Author

  A.L. Kessler is a paranormal romance author residing in beautiful Colorado Springs, Co. Since she was a teenager she has loved spinning tales. She can easily be won over with gifts of coffee or chocolate.

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  A L Kessler, Children of the Apocalypse Complete Trilogy

 

 

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