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Chapter One
There was a knife sticking out ofinto my brand-new silver camisole top
How the fuck would I get the stain out?
This was all wrong Where was the pain? Surely, it should hurt n objects did not belong in uarantee
“Don’t,” the man said “You’ll bleed out”
Hoas he still alive after the beating he’d just taken? Baseball bats, classic hoodlue to finish off They’d stabbed hi to me?
He should be dead
I should be dead
Hoas I still standing?
My legs gave out
Ah, there it was My knees hit the ground, tearing a hole in ly without constriction Jeans that hadn’t fitto die All those hours at the gyar-frosted donut with the creaone for the chocolate éclair instead and made it count
Warh me, and my breath caoing to die in a dirty, aritas and a misplaced hero complex
Fuck you, alcohol
I couldn’t even call for help My clutch bag containing my phone was somewhere at the foot of the alley I’d dropped it when the hooded figures grabbed me
The roaned “Closer, please Come …”
He shifted, so a shaft of ht illuminated his face Dark tendrils of hair had fallen across his forehead and into his cocoa eyes He was too pale Deathly pale I had to get to the et help for us both
“No Too late,” he said “I need you to come here Please”
He was one of them, so if it was too late, he’d know If it was too late, then there was no help for us
I crawled toward hirazed his outstretched fingers withforce
“Will it hurt?” My voice trembled “Will it?”
“Yes”
His face contorted in a snarl, and he hauled s aimed at my throat
There was no point in screa
Chapter Two
Forty-Eight Hours Earlier
You’d think being dead and having all the tihosts a little more patient
You’d be wrong
But it did take patience to ith them, and it was my job to train the staff that processed the new arrivals The ground floor of Soul Savers Inc waswasnewbies
Right now, that neas Lisa Tripp, twenty years old and scorer of top marks in all the written assessments It was my task to make sure she did just as well in face-to-face encounters as she did on paper
Lisa faced off with the frail, ethereal forhty-seven on her last birthday, owner of two cats, a budgie, and a two-bed apartment Dotty, as I’d co room for the past teeks Dotty was not happy Neither Lisa nor Dotty knew they were being watched by moi The tiny monitor inAll I needed to do was make notes and file a report to recruitment No intervention allowed
Dotty glared at Lisa fro dead and all “Now you listen here, young lady,” she said “I want a pickup, and I want one now I’ve done ”
The demands and the threats were all par for the course, and there were at least fortyfor their number to be called
The only thing keeping theest-running drahosts were enraptured by the shenanigans on screen The storyline was convoluted, fast-paced, and stearoans and banging on the wards that separated the staff fro holdup was
The only way to do this job effectively was to focus on one dead person at a time
“Excuseto me?” Dotty asked Lisa
Lisa continued to tap away at her keyboard
Come on, woman, answer her
Dorothy snapped her fingers in front of Lisa’s face
Lisa looked up with a bored expression “It doesn’t work that way, all right You get picked up when you get picked up” She shrugged “It’s not so we have control over Pickups are allocated by Underworld, so are Deadside allocations You’re down for Deadside, but you don’t get shifted for … let’s see … another six
Seriously? There was no need to look so pleased about it
“Six“No Not acceptable”
Lisa made a meh face “Meanwhile, you have several options for place on your influence level Get into the cubicle so I can—"
“I don’t want a placeirl! I want to move on”
Lisa leaned across the counter and locked gazes with Dotty “And I want a better-paid job and a hot guy on my arm The only difference between you and et what I want You’re bloody dead So, get in the fucking cubicle so I can fucking process you”
What the actual fuck? My heart pounded hard in my chest This was unacceptable
Dotty blinked in surprise “You can’t speak to me like that?”
“Like fuck, I can’t” Lisa crossed her arms under her breasts “And you knohat else I can do? I can hit a couple of buttons and allocate you to purgatory”
Dotty’s eyes widened “Please Please, don’t … I just I just want to move on”
Lisa shrugged “Yeah, and you will To purgatory There’s no wait for that trip”
Wait a second, was she actually going to allocate Dotty to the big P I gripped the pen tightly in my hand, my report half-filled in front of me The rules were clear I wasn’t meant to intervene I shouldn’t I pulled up Lisa’s work record and scanned her allocations
Mother of lint-filled navels! Lisa had allocated five spirits to purgatory pickup in the past week Five!
Spirits that had done bad shit in life Murderers, abusers, anyone who’d caused severe pain or toratory We called theh to venture into an allocation center because there was no hiding your sins once you were dead The Underealm database had information on these souls, and they were hunted by the reapers directly In the five years I’d worked here, I’d only ever seen two purgatory allocations, and both those were spirits brought in by a ghost hosts had time on their hands, and they liked to help clean up the streets
But Lisa had allocated five, and fro for a sixth
Fuck this
I was out ofdesk in less than ten seconds The bitch was already in the purgatory file and inputting Dotty’s details
Dotty’s eyes fixed on ed all “Seraphina, help me”
Lisa’s shoulders tensed, and then she turned to me with a concerned expression on her face
“Oh, Miss Dawn, I’atory allocation before, but I’ to do har I feel, based on her adatory pickup”
I nodded slowly “She did, did she?”
Dotty shook her head vehe”
“I am not,” Lisa snapped
It was literally her word against Dotty’s, or it would have been if I hadn’t been watching
“Tell hosts make the journey here?”
Lisa opened and closed her mouth a couple of times
An eer sparked in my chest I offered her a cold smile “Let me remind you They come here to find peace because they’re dead, and they’re stuck, and we’re the only people who can help theer burned hotter behind my eyes “We’re the only allocation center for several hundred miles, and it’s our duty to ensure the dead are taken care of until the reapers can swoop in and do their job It’s our duty to be compassionate, kind, and, above all, patient”
Lisa blinked up at rateful for ht
“I was patient,” she lied to my face
“No, you were uninterested and rude You’ve also allocated five souls to purgatory in the past week”
She sucked in a sharp breath, then pressed her lips tightly together “They were dangerous”
Father of devilish lies! Indignation h my nose and fixed a cold smile on my face
“No, Lisa The only dangerous person here is you Pack your shit and get the hell out of here You’re fired”
“You can’t fire me You don’t have the authority” She stood taller
My tenuous grip on my inner zen slipped, and lava bubbled up inside me My hand was around her arm before I could stopher across the front office and out into the back
I released her with a shove “Get the fuck off this floor Now”
I slammed the door in her face and walked back over to Dotty, as flickering with agitation
“I’m sorry,” she said “I didn’t mean to cause trouble I just … I want to move on”
I took a breath to coer back down “I know, Dotty I know” I signed Lisa out and logged into the systeive me a moment, okay?” er One