“He reanimated you,” she said. “Once you learn to control your abilities, you’ll be able to walk among the living fully corporeal, heartbeat and all. But you also have the ability to lose that for easier passage between worlds. Balthazar says you’ll have a better chance at nabbing escaped souls if they are under the impression you’re just another oblivious human.”
I sighed, trying to wrap my mind around it all. “Why can’t you do that?”
“You’re a very powerful soul. Most of us don’t have even an ounce of the power it takes to pull something like this off.”
I nodded. “So…I’m still sort of alive. But if I want I can do stuff like walk through walls.”
“Yes.”
Okay. This was freaky as hell, but I could live with it. It’s more than I’d hoped for. I could still have a life. See Emma again and tell her I was okay. That everything had worked out. She might not look at it that way, but I’d seen the other side. I’d seen how this could have turned out. Sitting here in my bed, with a heartbeat in my chest, and the hottest girl in the universe at my side…yeah, it definitely could have been worse. Suddenly, I felt lucky. I felt…good. I took a deep breath and my lungs swelled without hurting. They just tingled and hummed with artificial life. I wrapped my arm around Anaya’s waist and pulled her close enough so that our thighs touched. My other hand rose and she touched her palm to mine, lacing our fingers together in a perfect weave. I had to focus to keep it that way, but it didn’t take much.
“Look at that.” She smiled. “Already getting the hang of it.”
I glanced down at her hip, looking for her blade…it was gone. So was the brown leather belt that usually held it in place for her. My eyes connected with hers and I realized they were different too. A rich deep brown with flecks of gold swirling in the depths. A smile lit up her face.
“Where’s your scythe?” I touched her face, her lips. “What happened to your eyes?”
She placed her hand over mine and pulled it away. “I got a promotion.”
“What kind of promotion?”
“I’m your guardian,” she said. “The shadows aren’t going to forget about you. Especially since you’re one of the only two shadow walkers left in existence now. And while this body and these abilities may seem like a gift now, they are only going to make you more vulnerable to those of the underworld. Balthazar said you were much too valuable to be on your own. So I signed a contract to be your personal guardian.”
“And he let you do that?”
She shrugged and snuggled in close to me. “He didn’t think he’d be able to keep us separated anyway, and there is no rule saying we can’t be together now that you’re technically not one of the living.”
I started to smile but stopped. “I thought you were going to get Heaven for turning me in.”
Anaya’s hand slid up my chest, over my collarbone, and into the hair at the nape of my neck. I shut my eyes, burning for her by the time her lips touched my ear.
“Heaven isn’t the forever I was working for, Cash,” she whispered. “You are.”
I pulled back to see her face, and the energy between us felt raw and electric. I wanted her more than anything. And there wasn’t anything stopping me from having exactly what I wanted. Not anymore.
My lips didn’t need any help finding hers. They knew the way there, as if it was a well-worn path to home. Alive, dead, in Heaven or Hell, Anaya was home. She was everything. I wrapped my arms around her tighter, my palm finding the small of her back. She opened her mouth under mine and I groaned, pushing her back onto the bed. Anaya’s arms wrapped around my bare back and my hands slid up her sides, wanting to feel something other than the cotton dress covering her.
“Please tell me this comes off,” I said against her lips.
Anaya laughed. “If I want it to, it does.”
I kissed my way down her neck to her shoulder and nudged the white strap over with my thumb. She arched underneath me and I just about lost it. “Please, tell me you want it to.”
Anaya hesitated for a second, long enough for me to wonder if I’d gone too far, and then the sensation of her skin against mine sent all my rational thoughts out the window. My hands itched for a paintbrush, or maybe that was just an itch to touch her. Anywhere. Everywhere.
I leaned back a little to look at her and my heart pounded out a frantic rhythm in my chest. It may have been new, but it was getting a workout. I touched a fingertip to her chin and let it slide down the smooth, tan column of her throat.
“I want to paint you someday,” I breathed against her neck. “Just like this.”
Anaya wriggled under me. Her lips found my jaw. And that was it. I was a puddle of worthless goo in her hands. I probably wouldn’t have been capable of holding a paintbrush in my hand by that point.
“We have at least a thousand years to work on that. But how about this time, you kiss me instead.”
My stomach fluttered and I smiled against her mouth. “Now that I can do.”
Chapter 36
Cash
I stood in the empty hallway of Lone Pine High School. It felt so small. So insignificant after everything I’d been through. I wasn’t here to go to class anymore. Now I was here for the escaped soul that wandered the halls. There was no telling how long he’d been here. But I knew he was a kid. The same kid I’d seen in the bathroom that day, back when nothing made sense. I hiked my bag up over my shoulder and looked behind me. Anaya leaned against the lockers, arms folded across her chest.
She’d traded in her white dress for a pair of jeans and a white tank top that made me want to fall to my knees. Her braids were gone, replaced by one thick, loose braid she kept pulled over her shoulder. She said it was time for a change. I was still convinced she was just trying to distract me. Next thing I knew she’d be in a bikini, then I’d never get any souls collected.
“I’m right here if you need me,” she said.
I nodded and headed down the hall, letting the prickling cold sensation guide me. It felt like a glittering rope of energy, stretched out in front of me, tugging my chest. I passed Ms. Abernathy’s AP lit class and stopped at the blue metal door that led to the men’s restroom. It was where I’d seen him before. My heart pounded in my chest and I crossed my fingers that this went down the way it was supposed to. It’s not like there was a vo-tech course for shadow walkers. Sure, Anaya had given me some tips on how to handle souls, but I still didn’t exactly feel prepared. I pushed through the door and the room exploded with cold. The energy crackled across my skin like sparks. He was definitely here. I looked up in the mirror and there he was, standing behind me. I spun around, slowly, and dropped my bag to the floor.
“Why are you here?” he asked. He was so dim; he looked like a faded image flickering in and out of existence, reminding me of the old black-and-white movies Dad used to watch late at night when he thought I was asleep.
“I’m here to help you,” I said, unsure what he would want to hear. Also, praying that what I said was true. “It can’t be fun, being here all alone all the time.”
“Is the other one here?” He peered around me looking for Noah.
“No.” I shook my head. “He’s not coming back.”
He looked unsure, but finally shook his head and dropped his gaze to the floor. “You could stay with me. We could play.” He looked up at me, hopeful. “I know some games.”
I nodded. “How about I take you somewhere you don’t ever have to be alone again. Someplace where there are other kids to hang out with. People who care about you.”
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his worn-out-looking overalls. “No shadows?”