Can't Fight Time Ch. 04

Hey Everyone!

So, I know a lot of you are mad, but the book is already out. This is just a revision, because my teacher encouraged me to do it and she was right. I'm adding a couple pages to the book, fixing some errors and what not. Alright, I hope you like.

-Rosi

***

Nina wasn't an idiot. In fact, she prided herself on being pragmatic in the extreme, except for those rare times when she completely lost her marbles. But this wasn't one of those times.

Fact: He appears out of thin air and apparently has the ability to control people. Now, either he's a fantastic magician or telling the truth.

Nina cocked her head and regarded his side profile as they walked. A strong jaw and chiseled features made even clearer in the light of day. His skin seemed to be super pale as if he was sick; but the slight olive hue, recalling a Mediterranean background, was still there. And goodness, was he tall! Though what his height had to do with him being Death or not, Nina refused to examine, because she knew deep down she wasn't just looking at him objectively anymore.

"You look young for Death," Nina finally said as they began to get closer to the school mall. The sun was bright, but she was still freezing; like she was near an open freezer. Nina couldn't help but wonder if it was Death. If I touch him, will I die? Get frozen?

"My body reflects the age that I became a reaper. I stopped growing when I was... hmm, I think twenty-eight, but it's been too long for me to be sure," Death responded.

Interesting. "Growing? Were you born? Aren't Grim Reapers supposed to have died? And then, like, be brought back or something?" Nina dug through her mind for the romance novels, movies, and general lore she knew about Death and Grim Reapers.

Am I really doing this? Nina walked across the mall, the sun shining brightly as she watched several girls tanning and guys playing Frisbee without their shirts, sweat glistening on their skin. And yet, I'm freezing in long sleeves, jeans, and a scarf. It's definitely got to be Mr. Death.

"I was born. Reapers cannot be made in the way you think. They must be born from a human female or a female reaper. But I'm very curious to know why you're not running for the hills or laughing at how ludicrous this conversation is. I would've assumed you to be too rooted in science to believe in myths." Grim's voice was an interesting combination of deadly undertones, refined notes, and a strong tone. It reminded her of steel roses, the baritone fitting perfectly with his beguiling and cajoling appearance.

Goose bumps appeared on her skin when he leaned closer to hear her response after calling her out. There was not much she could say: Nina wasn't humoring him, and, in all honestly, she didn't think he was crazy or psychotic. She didn't get a dangerous vibe from him, or even an off-his-meds one. No, the vibe she felt from him was of ancient power wrapped in the guise of a twenty-something, good-looking college guy. He clashed so distinctly with the image of Death she had in her mind, that Nina couldn't surmise any other explanation than for him to be the real Grim Reaper.

Nina stopped under the shade of a tree, her lecture hall right in front of her. Reaching out, she grabbed his arm, feeling a numbing cold shoot up her hand and straight to her heart. "I am rooted in reality. I believe what I can see and touch with my own hands. And I'm touching you, ergo you must be real. That's the only probable explanation to the fact that you seem to be as cold—no pun intended—as Death."

She paused and pulled her hand away. Her throat was a bit parched and her lips felt cracked like she'd been out in the cold. Nina grimaced as she wiggled her fingers and tried to pump warm blood back through her hand. "Not only that, but you're able to control people's will. I accept that you are Death. But I'm curious... How am I seeing Death? I'm alive and breathing."

Nina watched Death closely, daring him to tell her she was wrong or laugh and say it was all a joke and he was just one freaking awesome magician. But of course reality was never like the movies. Aperson could anticipate someone's actions only to be disappointed when they were utterly wrong, and Nina was utterly wrong.

"I could tell you the truth, which would likely ruin your day or we could go and grab a cup of coffee and I'll let you ask all those questions I'm assuming are buzzing around in your head. Which would you prefer?" Death asked, with such politeness Nina almost missed the whole 'ruin your day' thing. But she wasn't an idiot, as she liked to remind herself often.

She'd read somewhere that if given the choice to know that they were going to die, most people would like to know. Maybe that was because they wanted to stop it, or live however they wanted for as long as they had left. But to Nina it didn't matter; death was inevitable, so why fear it? The uniqueness of life was death.

"Coffee and questions." Nina gave her lecture hall a longing look as she watched her money going down the proverbial drain. She turned and started walking again, this time in the direction of the small cafe on campus. "But, before I forget: do you have a name besides Death? It would be weird if someone heard me calling you that."

"You're quite a curiosity, Amica," Death chuckled beside her. Nina cast him a sidelong glance with a questioning brow, Name?

"You can call me by my nickname, Grim," he said finally.

She snorted: "Should've known."

The laugh that flowed from him was throaty and sexy all at once, and made Nina squirm uneasily as she walked. Stupid! You can't be attracted to Death! He'll literally kill you! That thought cooled Nina's ardor quickly as they continued to walk towards the cafe.

***

Five hours, two lattes, and a turkey panini later Nina had all but exhausted her questions. The old adage, 'curiosity killed the cat,' didn't apply to her for two reasons: one) talking to Grim basically meant she had one foot in the grave already, and two) it didn't kill the cat, it killed her very grounded belief in what she could see, hear, smell, and touch, because some of the things he described sounded like they came right out of a Monsterpedia.

Still, Nina's fascination at talking with someone who was literally a living relic far surpassed her suffocating fear that she would die soon. In fact, talking with Grim she'd all but forgotten he was Death. When they'd started talking about history and the modern world in comparison to the vagabonds of the 12th century, the attraction she'd first felt spark inside her ignited like a roaring fire.

Even now, nursing the last few sips of her vanilla latte, Nina couldn't help but lean closer to him and lower her voice to a seductive purr. Amazement and wonder colored her tone with a hearty dose of attraction she just couldn't hide. "So, you're telling me that you were actually there during the Great Flood?"

Of course, she wasn't blind, and neither was she celibate. In all honesty, if the reaper sitting in front of her blatantly asked her to drop her pants and fuck him on the coffee table in front of God and everyone, Nina would have been hard pressed to say no.

The man was an irresistibly sexy, walking history book! And Nina could appreciate that as the fact it was.

Grim chuckled, dark and exotic with that hint of an accent she had detected a few times and which he had admitted came from his time in Athens. "Amica, I was in the flood. Died a few times actually, but that was when I was first getting used to my power. I was still a fledgling back then."

Nina hoped her jaw didn't dislocate from being dropped so long, but goodness the man was interesting. And funny, sexy, smart... Nina swiveled her stirring straw around in her cup as she regarded him through the curls covering her eyes. If only he wasn't Death and I wasn't going to die.

The thought came unbidden and added a harsh light to the last five hours. The truth was that he was here, which meant that, very soon, she was going to die. And even if he told her all of his knowledge, all of his memories, what good would any of that be to a corpse? But that was the point. He had the luxury to tell her all of his secrets, all of his weaknesses, and just watch them die along with her.

She finished off her now tepid latte and thought about her next question. Grim was relaxed, sipping at his drink of choice, mint tea. At one point, she remembered asking him "Why mint?" His response: "Because it calms me." The line had been almost comical. Death needed calming? I thought he was the very definition: silent, deadly, and calm.

Nina stuffed a napkin in the now empty cup and turned to him. "Tell me about the Underworld."

Grim seemed to think about it, stroking his slight five o'clock shadow, while leaning forward to place the tea on the table. "It's not very interesting."

Nina paused, looking at him for any sign that he was lying to get her away from the topic. He was completely relaxed, watching her through half-lowered lids like a lion might watch a mouse. But she wasn't scared by that, because the fact still remained that he was a lion and she was a mouse, and at any time he could readily slaughter her.

But Death doesn't kill. Grim had told her that. It wasn't their aim to kill, but to guide. They were mediums for spirits (basically ferrymen without boats) who shuffled souls on to the next world. Everything she'd learned in the course of five hours from a walking encyclopedia namd Grim.

"It doesn't matter if it's not interesting. It's something that we haven't talked about." Something I don't know about you.

Grim paused, stretched, and then got up. "We've been here too long. Why don't we take a walk and I answer your question?"

Nina was up in a heartbeat, stiff muscles protesting their sudden use. "Sure. A walk would be nice."

Nina gathered up her school bag, their trash, and threw everything away, trying to be as quick as possible. What she'd learned over the course of five hours with Grim was that he didn't sugar-coat the harsh realities he had faced, or try to make it more palatable for her to digest. He spoke from experience and answered her questions outright.

They were outside walking, with the midday sun shining a bit too brightly overhead, when Grim finally began. "As I said before, the Underworld is ruled by monarchies. Within their kingdoms are different provinces managed by Guardians and Peacekeepers. Watchers keep track of all the finances, and record the history of the Underworld. Ambassadors and envoys ferry messages to Royal Guards in the different kingdoms." Grim clasped his hands behind his back, and walked straighter.

Nina frowned when he didn't keep going. "How many kingdoms are there?"

Grim cast her a sidelong glance, the gesture deceptively innocent, but Nina could still see the steel behind his blue-diamond eyes. Did I step on a nerve?

"There are three royal families," Grim began quietly, his voice sounding far away. "The Castoff, the Bloodspurn, and the Darklore. Each of these names reflect the history of their family.

"The Castoff kingdom on the Northern plain. It is the wealthiest kingdom, and collects souls in Africa, all of Europe, part of Russia, and the Middle East. The second is the Bloodspurn, which is known to have the fiercest reapers. They control the Americas, Denmark, and the Queen Elizabeth Isles. The last is the Darklore, the only kingdom where the monarchy is matriarchal. Their queen is the oldest reaper to date, and she controls all of Asia, most of Russia, and Australia and New Zealand."

"The Guardians act as mayors or governors. They watch the provinces and come together every new human century to revise the rules. But what they usually do is report issues and problems to their respective kingdoms.

"Have their been many problems recently?"

He turned and looked through her not at her. It was like he was calculating, sizing her up as a threat or ally. "Yes. There have been reports of reapers in the Darklore and Bloodspurn Kingdoms going missing, their ashes being found."

Grim paused and gave Nina a weary smile as if with that gesture he could lessen the impact of his words, and warm the deathly chill in the air. He didn't return the smile, but instead regarded her with that carefully blank and calculating look. "The only way to truly kill a reaper is to burn them down to ash, so not even their magic survives. We call it the et mors, or true death."

Keeping her face calmly pleasant, Nina watched Grim, following the subtly shifts in his blue-diamond eyes. "Who is killing the reapers?"

A chilling smile cut across his face. "There is a rumor that the Castoff kingdom is responsible for the incidents; but without any concrete proof, the neither the Darklore or the Bloodspurn Kingdom will accuse outright. There is a power struggle in play, an ancient one."

Nina nodded as she listened, understanding dawning on her as he explained the rules of his world. "It sounds very complicated. How do souls even get collected with all the inplay going on?"

Grim paused in his walk for a heartbeat and gave her an unreadable look, before a smile split his face and he resumed his relaxed stride. "Souls are one of the constants. No matter the politics, Collectors and Messengers will always have a job to do."

"Collectors and Messengers?"

"Yes. Collectors take souls from the human world and deliver them to Messengers. Messengers then sort and distribute the souls."

Grim continued with his description of the different kingdoms while Nina listened next to him. There was something he wasn't telling her, something that the didn't want her to know; Nina couldn't be certain, but it almost sounded like he resented the kingdoms, harboured some ill will towards the monarchies that went far beyond the surface.

"Grim?" Nina asked quietly, making him pause and look at her.

He'd seemed so consumed in his description of the royal families that Nina had wondered if Grim would even hear her. "You are under the Bloodspurn kingdom, right? You're a Collector."

Grim stopped his walk and, as if on a string, Nina did the sam. He raised a questioning brow at that, but Nina didn't want to think of her reaction to him, because she'd realized early on that she had one. Subconsciously she matched his breathing, even though he said it wasn't necessary for him to breathe, and that he was just trying to appear human. If he leaned back, she leaned forward. If he licked his lips, she followed the action with her eyes. Nina didn't want to examine why she was doing these things, or the many others that she refused to cop to.

"Aren't you cold?" Blue-diamond eyes flashing with restrained power, and something like irritation.

As if on cue, goosebumps popped up on Nina's skin and her entire body shuddered. Grim smiled slowly, and his smile changed into one the Big Bad Wolf might have given Red Riding Hood right before he ate her.

"Here you are, standing with Death, and you're not cold or frightened?" Grim took a menacing step towards her only for Nina to take a step back. "Did you somehow think you were safe?"

As soon as she retreated, she stopped herself. I don't retreat! The thought stuck in her mind like glue. She didn't back down or cower. If he had lied about not killing her and he was going to do it now, then she'd make damn sure she was standing on two feet and in his face while he did it.

"Are you threatening me?" Nina snarled, pointing her finger at his chest as she took a brazen step towards him.

She watched Grim cock his head in contemplation, and giver her another of those right-through-her looks. The thought scared Nina, and her defensive instincts kicked into high gear. "I'm not some dog that will lie down when threatened. If you want to kill me, Grim, then you better be prepared to take me kicking, clawing, and screaming, because I'm not frightened of your alpha male horseshit!"

Grim just stood there and blinked slowly, looking like he was observing some type of new animal. After a moment, his features began to relax and his body took on the relaxed looseness that characterized most people his 'age.' Very calmly he took a step back smiled with a lopsided grin and continued walking."You are a curiosity, Amica."

This time, Nina hung back and tried to get her emotions—and her fears—under control. She watched Grim stop and cock a brow, before she begrudgingly readjusted her bag and began walking towards him.

"You'll have to forgive me, Nina, that was rude. But my... position is a sore subject with me," Grim apologized as they crossed a street and began walking down a biking trail.

Still feeling a little pissy because of his earlier behavior, Nina's reply was clipped and sour. "You don't have to talk about it; I'm not going to force you. So we can just walk in complete silence."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Grim's lips twitched in an obvious attempt to hold off a smile, but she ignored him. Only his exaggerated sigh drew her attention; "Amica, you wound me. I said I would answer all your questions, and I will," Grim said with a slow, confident smile, drawing the word "all" out and putting some unnecessary heat behind it. Unnecessary because even though he was a prick a few minutes ago, I could still jump his bones now.

Nina chose to ignore that blatant invitation to ask him all the questions on her mind, and waited for him to continue.The trail shifted from concrete to dirt and the thin grove of trees thickened

"I am of the Bloodspurn kingdom, but I am not a Collector. "

Well, that's a weird way to say it, Nina thought as Grim's natural cold began to penetrate through her layers of clothes again. Can't he turn that off?

Nina rubbed her arms as she they continued walking further onto the trail, the scenery beginning to take on that weird serial killer movie vibe. Wait! He said 'of' not under or a part of. Actually if you just change kingdom to line, than it sounds like he's saying he's a royal.

"You're a royal." It wasn't a question.

Nina had been pragmatic about her entire conversation with Grim, trying to look objectively at her situation. Finding out he was of some weird reaper royal birth didn't even chart with her top ten most interesting things Grim had said. If anything, finding out he was someone higher up on the food chain explained why he was just lazing around and talking to a human instead of out collecting souls.

Again Grim stopped, and Nina turned to regard him, crossing her arms under her breasts. She didn't like when he stopped, or rather she didn't like it now. Last time he had been a class-A prick and she didn't have the desire to see that side of him again. But then Grim was, if nothing else, full of surprises.

"You are a curiosity, Amica. Never have I met a human so utterly fascinating. You are perhaps the only human I have ever met who has accepted what should be impossible without even a blink of your pretty chestnut eyes," Grim said to Nina slowly, raking his gaze down the length of her as his last comment penetrated her mind. He thinks my eyes are pretty?

She just shrugged, and struggled not to blush as her eyes caught the very obvious tent in his jeans. "I see the world for what it is, and like I've said this entire time: if I can see it and touch it, it must be real. No hallucination would last as long as you've lasted and no psychotic episode would have this amount of clarity and cohesion. If I had been having some sort of episode or breakdown, then it would have probably ended a while ago, or there would have been a lot more signs that this isn't real." Nina shrugged again and uncrossed her arms to shove her cold fingers into the back pocket of her jeans, staring at the pebbles dotting the path. "None of that has happened."