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

cocktails. So, he'd come up with the idea of reaper agencies and allowed small bits of his power to be used by others. Most reapers just got the actual reaping power—the ability to open a path across the veil and escort souls over. But some select few also received other secrets of the original reaper. Tessa had been gifted the ability to conjure an actual scythe, which she had used only once so far.

"I can't believe they gave you invisibility! That's amazing."

Gloria's head bobbed as though she were listening to music. Tessa had never seen her so excited. "Yep. I guess Mr. Blade noticed me helping you at the convention and arranged for Lee’s secret to pass to me.” She winked. “This has been one of the best days of my life. When I was a kid playing superhero, invisibility was always my choice. And now it’s real—not just me hiding under a blanket.”

She giggled like the little girl in the memory. “Of course, I’m not supposed to go around all willy-nilly, just becoming invisible for no reason. Luckily, you’ve provided me with the perfect excuse!”

“I have?” Tessa wrinkled her nose for a second. “Wait, this is what you meant by getting creative? You’re going to use it?”

Gloria turned onto the road leading to Artemis Green’s suburb. “We are. Let’s see if we can find anything out from the source.”

They parked about a quarter mile down the road and walked toward Mr. Green’s driveway. Tessa could feel Gloria’s excitement increase as they got closer. Her arms shook with anticipation, and a smile stayed etched on her face.

Before they got into view of the security gate at the end of the driveway, Gloria stopped short and grabbed Tessa’s arm. “Okay. I’m obviously a novice at this, but I think if we stay in contact, I can extend the invisibility to you.”

Tessa eyed her friend for a second. “You know, my mom never would do this. When you said you were going to be a different kind of boss from her, you weren’t kidding.”

Gloria shrugged, and her eyebrows danced upward. “If you want to forget about this, we can go back to the office, and I can write you up for carelessness on the job. You know, for letting Silas follow you on a reap. That would be more bosserly, right?”

“For one, that’s not a word.” Tessa rolled her eyes. “For two, I can do without the write-up. But are you sure you want to do this so soon after your promotion? I’m pretty sure it’s not something upper management would get behind. In fact, I’m positive Mom would let the police sort it out. She’d say it’s not our problem and that I should keep my head down and do my work.”

“You do have a little bit of Cheryl in you,” Gloria said. “I can see it now. And you’re probably right. I shouldn’t be doing this. It’s a big risk.”

“But?”

“But the police seem pretty convinced they got their man already. I think if they’re going to do any sorting out, it’s only going to be to drum up more evidence to support their conclusion. They aren’t going to be looking for another suspect.”

“You’re right.” Tessa felt bad about bringing her friend into this. What if something happened—what if her mom did find out about this? Both she and Gloria would get fired. She couldn’t stand for that.

The trepidation showed on her face because Gloria said, “I guess we can leave your man to the whims of the local police department if you want. Even though you know for a fact they’re wrong.” She leveled her gaze on Tessa. “I’m good with risking getting my higher-ups a little irritated to do the right thing. But it’s your call.”

Tessa pursed her lips and didn’t even need to think about it. Everyone needed a friend like Gloria. Tessa held out her hand. “Let’s go.”

With a happy little hop, Gloria grabbed her hand. Tessa expected her to do something to activate the invisibility—wiggle her nose, maybe, or wave a hand. Maybe flap like a chicken. But she didn’t do anything. One second, Tessa was looking at Gloria, and the next, she was looking at the tree behind her, unimpeded by her friend’s image in front of it.

Tessa glanced down at her own body and gave a little squeak. She’d half-expected to still be able to see herself, but she couldn’t.

Disorientation sent her lurching forward when Gloria started to walk, tugging on her hand. Gloria stopped to let Tessa get her footing. “It helps to just keep looking ahead,” she whispered. “Don’t look down or over at me if you can help it. Your brain will object to the experience.”

Object to the experience. Yeah, that’s what her brain was doing all right. It made her vision blur and gave her nausea like a bad migraine.

Tessa took a deep breath, looked straight ahead, and started walking slowly.

This is better. I can work with this.

She ignored the remaining slight queasy feeling in her gut and kept moving forward beside Gloria.

They had to skirt around the gate at the end of the driveway which, thankfully, was meant to keep out cars and didn’t extend to a fully fenced-in property. They hurried down the driveway, hand in hand.

As the huge house came into view, Tessa could see there were three people, a man and two women, on the porch. A second later, she realized they were arguing.

The invisible reapers jogged forward until they were at the base of the steps, close enough to see and hear what was happening.

“Please don’t do this!” The speaker was a woman in her mid to late forties. She wore a white apron and tears streamed down her plump face. “I need this job. I love this job. Really, I don’t even know what else I could do.”

The man, who was bald on top but had a ring of dull-brown hair around the back of his skull and a poufy mustache, crossed his arms.