Grim Tidings by Caitlin Kittredge Read Free Book Online Page A

when I hit the tendon.
    Dad Reaper’s buddy was fast on his heels, and I grabbed up thebucket as the water streamed around us, swinging it in a wide arc. He threw up an arm to block me, but the water pooling around our feet made him slip and I didn’t miss again. The rusty metal left a nasty gash in his temple. “Hope you got your shots,” I muttered as I shoved open the door to the shower room. “Leo, hold your breath!” I shouted into the chaos inside, and then tossed the thermos at the feet of a trio of shocked reapers.
    Stick around for almost a century, and you learn a lot. Like how some of the most noxious stuff on earth can be mixed up with just a few household cleaners. The woman in the dress came first, choking and swiping at her eyes and mouth as she stumbled into the hall. Greasy fingers of smoke warred with the sprinklers in the hall. I pulled up the rag I’d found in the building manager’s office around my nose and mouth and dove into the mess inside the shower room.
    Leo was sitting with his chin tucked against his chest, trying not to breathe. His eyes were watering and the line around his lips was turning white. I pulled out the box cutter and sliced at the thick layer of tape holding his wrists and ankles in place. It was getting hard for me to see now, and every time I tried to breathe it felt like a small but very angry horse kicking me in the chest.
    â€œWhat did you do?” Leo wheezed as I helped him up. He leaned on me hard as we stumbled through the gathering water toward a blurry red square that I really hoped was an exit sign.
    â€œSaved your ass,” I said as we shouldered through a heavy door and into a blast of air that was both breathable and so cold I felt the sweat and sprinkler water on my face crystallize. “You’re welcome, by the way.” Outside, we both collapsed in a dirty snowbank. Gotta love Minneapolis in the dead of winter. Cars swept byin two fast lanes throwing up sand and more snow. We were in one of those industrial wastelands where nothing except warehouses, strip clubs, and bodegas stays in business. One of each sat across the street, complimentary neon offering a place to get a payday advance and a gaggle of XXX GIRLS to blow it on.
    Leo coughed, and then leaned over and vomited into the snow, flopping back with a low moan when he was done. “What the hell, Ava? I lie down at that motel hoping for a nap, maybe a little vodka and a hand job to ease the pain of going through a fiery car wreck, and I wake up tied to a chair in Satan’s locker room.”
    â€œYou’re pushing it with the hand job,” I said. “And at least you didn’t wake up hanging from the ceiling being yapped at by the Hellspawn’s answer to Gordon Gekko.”
    Leo’s face hardened, underneath the bruises and the crescent-shaped cut beside his eyebrow where someone wearing a ring had hit him. Owen was wearing a big crop of chintzy gold rings, I remembered.
    â€œDid they hurt you?” Leo asked. I shrugged.
    â€œNothing a few dozen Valium, a hot bath, and a bourbon won’t cure.”
    He shook his head, nostrils flaring. “I’m going to kill every last motherfucker in that place. This was my favorite shirt.”
    I stood up, brushing wet snow off my legs and butt, and offered a hand to Leo. “You have a dozen white shirts.”
    â€œYeah,” he said, accepting my hand. “And this one was my favorite.”
    Leo’s weight almost knocked me back into the snowbank. He grunted when he leaned on me, and I could tell a couple of his ribs were broken. “We can’t stay out here,” I said. The wind cutting betweenthe dark buildings around us made my teeth rattle. I aimed Leo at the intersection, punching the crosswalk button with my free hand.
    â€œI’m fine,” he insisted. “Just give me a minute to get myself together.”
    â€œFreezing to death for the second time in