The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3 by Paula Lester (best ereader for comics .txt) 📗

“Well, that was my trick, of course. It was actually April who discovered the loophole, but she never understood it well enough to manipulate. Luckily, I was able to grasp the finer points and use it to my advantage.

“You see, if a death is cheated somehow . . . the person doesn’t die as they were destined to . . . that allocation is up in the air, to do with as anyone pleases. I just have to use my managerial access to the reaper app, add the unused allocation number, and optionally the victim, then be the first to take it off the queue.”

“All I had to do was prevent a few eastern deaths and voila! They became allotments for me. I figured I could use them to my advantage twice—once to add to my side’s total and help me win the award, and once to remove a couple of April’s best reapers from the equation. Doing that could help me win for years to come.”

“But how do you manage to prevent those deaths? Doesn’t their reaper see you intervene?”

“Ah. Now you’re using your noggin.” He pushed himself away from the door and started pacing in front it, a few steps in each direction. He reminded Tessa of a professor giving a lecture. “They didn’t see me for the same reason no one saw me take Art or Cynthia across the veil.” He gave Tessa a sly, sidelong look. “Because I received secret knowledge from the original reaper. A secret I can tap into at will. I can become invisible.”

“Corwin Blade gave you the ability to go invisible?” Tessa was shocked.

“It was many years ago. Long before I was the western district supervisor. He said I was a promising reaper. So promising that I deserved a special gift.”

Promising. The word rang in Tessa’s mind. Blade had said something like that to Tessa at the pool.

Tessa’s mind kept scrambling to keep up. “Okay, you showed up and prevented three deaths from occurring in April’s territory—”

“Four deaths,” Timothy corrected. “I caught on after the first two. He wasn’t fast enough to take the other two from the app. I took them as soon as I saw the allotment, then gave the first two Lydia. That’s why I followed her. I was hoping to figure what was going on—because even her reap went to him.”

“The invisibility,” Lee sneered. “She only thought she did that reap. I was guiding that man along the whole time.”

“And Dani?”

“It was nothing personal.” Lee cleared his throat. “After the first two, with Timothy hot on my trail and you snooping around, I knew I could no longer choose my victims from the reaper community. I had to venture out. I let the app decide.”

It seemed like Lee was getting bored of talking. Tessa wanted to keep him talking. Maybe, just maybe, Cheryl would be looking for her. And maybe, just maybe, she’d come up here.

“You know, there’s still Dani’s allotment unaccounted for.” He reached into the back of his waistband and pulled something out. “And lucky for me, I was just plugging it into my phone on the elevator.” He brandished a blade in front of his body, pointing first at Tessa with it and then at Timothy. Then, with his other hand, he pulled out his phone. “The only remaining question is who the lucky one will be. Stabbed to death. What a way to go.”

Timothy choked out a mini-sob and shrank further back against the headboard. Tessa glanced at him before retraining her eyes on Lee’s knife. She knew Timothy wouldn’t be able to fight Lee much if at all. His hands were bound by the magical invisible handcuffs. If they were both going to get out of this alive, it was Tessa who was going to have to make it happen.

Lee’s knife seemed to quiver indecisively for a second before it settled on Tessa. “Maybe it’s finally your time to go, Ms. Randolph. After all, you’ve already cheated death once. You can’t do that forever.”

“That debt has already been paid,” Tessa ground out, thinking of her father taking her place—dying so she didn’t have to when she was a teenager. No way was she going to let this maniac make it so his sacrifice was for nothing.

Slowly, she got to her feet, keeping the bed between her and Lee.

“Be that as it may,” Lee said, “I can see you have an annoying rebellious streak. Timothy here will be easier for me to control. I’m sure we can work out an agreement, can’t we Tim? May I call you Tim?”

“No.”

“Come on. It will be nice to have someone in April’s office who’s under my thumb. I’d like to smoke her out of the water by dozens of allocations next year. That will be much easier if I have an operative working right under her nose.” He stepped around the end of the bed toward Tessa, gripping the knife hard and still fidgeting with the app, attempting to type with one thumb. “Yes. I think today is your unlucky day.”

As Lee moved in front of a big mirror on the wall, his reflection caught Tessa’s eye for a moment. Only it wasn’t only his reflection. There was another person visible there.

Blade.

She jerked her head to look for the man in the room, but he wasn’t there.

Once again, Tessa thought of their conversation by the pool. What had he said? That the power of the scythe was hers to use as needed. She had only to wish for it.

She hadn’t understood at the time that he meant it literally. But Lee’s confession that the Grim Reaper had given him access to invisibility had made it clear to her.

Lee kept moving. He kept drawing closer, distracted by the phone.

All of a sudden, Timothy, who had apparently used his blubbering and weeping as a cover to disguise the fact that he’d maneuvered himself into a crouched position with his feet