Frederic pushed the door open. He drew a breath, then turned to me with a grin. “It’s our beachfront dream.”
I returned the smile.
“Is this heaven?”
“Perhaps it’s your version.”
“Right.” Frederic drew a deep breath. “I can smell the ocean air and the coconuts. The sun-warmed sand.”
Frederic was still talking as he walked through.
Ferrying Frederic was among the most satisfying experiences of my career.
I kept a smile on my face until I met Ossy in the hospital hallway outside Frederic’s room. His family’s cries were muffled by the closed door but still audible.
Ossy paced in the hall. He pulled his bleach-blond hair into a ponytail.
When he saw me, he looked relieved, then dissolved into a panic I’d never seen in him before. Ossy wasn’t prone to dramatics, despite the way trouble seemed to follow him like a rabid dog. It was something to behold. He always came to me whenever he needed to wiggle his way out from under something without HR on his ass.
“We have a serious problem.”
“By we, you mean you. Don’t hurt my chances for that promotion, Os.”
Ossy didn’t take the bait. He didn’t have his signature sheepishness, which always accompanied an explanation of the stupid shit he’d done. This time, he just shook his head and gestured for me to follow.
“What’s going on, Os?” I had two more people to usher into the afterlife. They’d arrive at the emergency room in just a few minutes.
As we moved through the hospital, Ossy stayed quiet, which only deepened the dread in my stomach.
“What are you doing here, anyway? The hospital is in my sector.”
“A soul from mine was visiting her son. She had a heart attack and died in the ER.” Ossy shook his head. “Doctors don’t diagnose heart attacks in women as often as they should.”
“Is this about the woman? Was the woman supposed to live longer?” That happened to Ossy once. It was always the women who went too soon. They were often targets of madmen and enslaved by a healthcare system that didn’t support them. Whenever a reaper delivered someone too early, HR investigated. Demon detectives asked questions that rarely had answers. Or if they did, the reaper had no answer beyond,I was just doing my job.
“Not this time.”
We stopped outside the ER doors. Ossy turned to me. “This is much worse.”
We walked through the double doors and then to ER room thirteen. The ER room doors were made of glass, with a curtain on the inside. Room thirteen’s curtain wasn’t drawn closed all the way, so I could see the occupant.
The man’s dark hair was matted with blood on the right side of his head, and his eyes were closed.
“He’s someone special to us, right?”
I didn’t answer right away. My chest ached, and it took me a moment to figure out why. The man was supposed to be in my life and while, I had lots of questions I couldn’t answer, knowing it was pretty concrete.
“He’s very special.” Very special indeed.
We entered the room. I stood at his bedside.
“I felt it the second I saw him.” Ossy was right. There was something about Elliot Coyne, something that made him unique. “But I don’t know what makes him that way.”
I didn’t know what it was either, but I knew one thing. Elliot Coyne was scheduled for transport into the afterlife soon, but not tonight. “We don’t have a lot of time to figure it out.”
“How much time?” He wasn’t on Ossy’s transport list. He was on mine, so Ossy didn’t know when Elliot would die or even what his name was. It was close enough to his death date that I had a knowing where Elliot was concerned.
“Tomorrow night.” I ran the back of my finger down Elliot’s cheek. His skin was warm. Maybe too warm. His body was working to heal itself, so he had a slight fever—nothing the nurses wouldn’t notice and report to the doctor.
