Can't Fight Time

Hey Everyone!

So, if you haven't guessed already, I'm kind of just posting these as fast as I can in preparation for the next book! I'm really excited about it! If you have feedback for me, please comment of message me! It'll definitely help me as I write Can't Fight Fate! Hope you enjoy!

-Rosi

***

"You shouldn't sleep in the hall next to a pile of your own vomit; it's not sanitary." A male voice chastised above Nina as she struggled through the cloud of exhaustion that had taken her over.

Rubbing at her eyes, Nina tried to ignore the sour taste in her mouth and looked up at the good-looking red-head above her. She extended her hand to him as goose bumps ran up her arm like ants."Help me up, please."

The red-head blinked at her with a baffled expression. "I'm sorry?"

Nina glared at him from her spot on the floor. "For a reaper you're not very smart!" she snapped, in a foul temper because someone had caught her in a vulnerable position. But not just that, she had

allowed

herself to be caught in a vulnerable position, and that alone pissed her off.

The red-headed reaper grabbed her hand and pulled her up as if she weighed nothing. Immediately Nina was yanked as if on an invisible string into his chest, and she shivered, her teeth chattering from the biting cold.

The man wrinkled his nose at her in disgust. "Sorry 'bout that. Used too much strength."

"Sorry if I smell terrible, but that's what happens when you throw up on yourself and then pass out." Nina pulled away from him and with far more strength than she felt, walked into her room and began rummaging through her dresser for some clean clothes.

"How'd you know I was a reaper? I could have been a robber or something," the redhead said behind her, his voice reflecting curiosity.

Nina pulled out a sweater and skirt set, threw it on her bed and then dug around for a bra and panties set. "I'm freezing cold and have goose bumps. Plus when I touched you I felt like I was freezing from the inside out. " Nina threw her undies on the bed.

"Excuse me," she continued, pushing past the red-head and heading towards the bathroom for some cleaning supplies.

"Well, you're not very nice are you?" the red-head muttered as Nina grabbed the supplies from under the sink, filled a bucket with water, and went to the stain in the hall. "And here I was going to introduce myself and make nice with my brother's new beau."

"So you're Grim's brother?" She pulled on a pair of gloves and began to scrub at the stain. "And for your information I'm not his latest beau. If anything, I'm his pity project."

"Yup. I'm Uriel, but everyone calls me Uri." He got down on his knees and took the cleaning brush from her hand. "Here. Why don't you go take a shower and change while I clean this up?"

Nina sat back on her haunches and looked at the red-head steadily scrub at the stain.

I don't think he knows what he's doing.

Nina watched him work as if she wouldn't know that he'd probably never cleaned a stain out of a carpet before.

But she was too tired, too emotionally drained, and too fragile to mutter anything but a quiet "Thank you" as she moved to the hall closet and grabbed a clean towel, then headed to the bathroom.

Locking the door, Nina turned on the shower and began shedding her clothes.

Wow! I look like shit!

She stared at her reflection in the mirror, the woman staring back at her looking nothing like her usual self. No, this woman had sunken eyes, pale skin, throw up in her hair, and white lines where tears had streaked down her face. All in all, the woman looked broken.

You are not broken,

her internal voice reminded her immediately.

Climbing in the now-steam-filled shower, Nina luxuriated in her first shower in a long time where she didn't have to worry about her father suddenly walking in on her, or breaking the door down. Despite what Grim had said about reapers not meddling in human affairs, his brother was in her hallway cleaning.

I think that constitutes as meddling.

Scrubbing at her face and skin until it felt raw, Nina washed and conditioned her hair until her scalp hurt and her fingers ached. Still she scrubbed, not even realizing the tears streaking down her face or the now-cold water raining down on her body.

Uri knocked on the bathroom door and broke her trance. "Nina, you okay in there? You've been in there for a while."

Her skin was bright red and hurt, but not only that; there was blood under her fingernails.

You're stronger than this! Pull it together!

She turned off the freezing water and wrapped a towel around herself.

Exiting the shower, Nina picked up her clothes and opened the lid to the hamper. She dropped her clothes and picked up her father's bloodstained shirt on top of the clothes pile. "What the hell?"

Stomach pain hit her suddenly and made her drop the shirt and gag. "Nina!" Uri yelled and pounded on the door. "You got three seconds before I ghost through this door."

Chucking her dirty clothes into the hamper, Nina turned on the faucet and grabbed the hand soap. She yelled at the door as she compulsively cleaned her hands. "I'm fine; my stomach just hurts!"

Satisfied that the blood was no longer on her hands, Nina pasted a fake smile on her face as she grabbed the knob, blew out a heavy breath, and opened the door. "I'm good, Uri, but thanks for worrying about me." She breezed by him and into her room, not shivering in the least. "Great job on the carpet, but you know you really should leave before my dad gets home and does—"

Nina froze as fear gripped her. It was suffocating, like silken ropes tightening themselves around every inch of her body. It started from her tones, a spasm of muscle and tightening of blood, until her neck arched and the dead ends of her hair felt alive. She crumpled to the ground a second later, and started to hyperventilate.

"Shit, I don't know anything about humans!" Uri quickly knelt beside Nina and waved his hands back and forth, rambling. "Tell me what to do, Nina. What can I do?"

You can't break down again, Nina. You need to get up, get dressed, and get out,

her subconscious told her in a no-nonsense tone.

You're stronger than this. Get. Up!

It took a few more minutes, but Nina was able to calm herself and draw on her internal strength. Everything in her world was falling down, but she would not crumble with it. She would keep moving; keep surviving, just like she'd done after her mother passed away.

Slowly Nina forced her body up, her knees shook badly as she stood; she forced herself to walk to the bed, and ignore the pain in her stomach. She had to face this and overcome it. No matter what the future held, she had to face it.

"I'm just hungry, Uri. It happens to humans," Nina lied, trying to assuage his worry.

"I know when humans are hungry, and they don't act like you just did!" Uri said vehemently, turning his back as Nina slipped on her clothes.

She struggled to slip on her clothes, but even with fingers that felt like blisters and bones that felt too brittle she managed. "Uri?"

He didn't turn around. "Yeah?"

"Will you take a walk with me?" she asked suddenly, surprising herself and Uri.

Slowly he turned around and nodded his head. "Sure."

Nina packed a small bag with some essentials. In the back of her mind she knew that, no matter what, she wasn't coming back here.

Grim had told her that no one could outrun their death, that it was inevitable. A practiced smile slipped into place on her face as Nina cautiously walked down the stairs and slipped on a pair of tennis shoes. She opened the door and let Uri out first before exiting and turning to lock the door out of habit.

She looked up, eyes catching on the clogged white gutters, and the streaked and weathered bricks. Her gaze followed the trail of memories that started at her bug-smeared window, and ended in front of her apple-red front door and rusted, gold door knob. Nina stood there too long, the metal warmed in her hand, and the memories faded to the back of her mind. The second she pulled away she felt cold; whether that was a good thing or bad thing, she did not know. Only one thing was clear in her mind as she strode past Uri onto the path.

I'll be damned if I die in this Godforsaken place.

Nina turned away, breathing out a heavy breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Together they walked, side by side with unspoken questions floating in the air between them. Uri was the first to break the silence. "Where are we going?"

Nina's answer was immediate, without hesitation. "The chapel."

"Why? Isn't it sectioned off?" His answer surprised Nina, but a second later a dark smile pulled her lips tight.

Nothing should surprise me anymore.

So Uri knew about the chapel, about the murders. She wondered what else he knew.

Nina's answer was purposely vague as she steered him up the hill that lead to her University's front gate and the chapel a few yards behind it. "To make sure it's the same smell."

As if on a tether, Uri stopped, but unlike her reaction with Grim she kept going only stopping once she noticed that he wasn't continuing. Cocking her head back at him, Nina raised a brow, giving Uri a questioning look and watching as he slowly walked to catch up with her.

Deja vu?

"What smell, Nina?" Uri's voice was deadly quiet. He placed his hand on her arm to keep her from continuing her walk, the touch deceptively gentle.

"You know exactly what smell," her voice sounded like a sharpened blade cutting through the darkness. She advanced on him with the wild passion of a woman whose world was being completely torn to pieces. "Did you think I wouldn't notice? That after all the signs, I would somehow choose to avoid it?"

"I don't know what you—" Uri put his hands up defensively, his eyes darting to the side.

"My father is a murderer," Nina whispered harshly, spitting the words out like they had a bad taste.

Tears streaked in a rush down her face as her emotions lit and exploded. Nina raged at him; "What is he? The Sweetheart Killer too? Is he going to kill me? Is that my fate? To be killed by my own father?"

Nina turned away from Uri, swiping at her tears and trying to compose herself. Only a few pieces remained on the puzzle board of her life, and then she could finally finish what was her life.

Only a few more questions.

"Why me?" Nina asked finally when she was able to lock her emotions down and turn back to him.

"It has to do with my mom, doesn't it?" Nina watched Uri's face pale even more until he looked like a sheet with myrtle green eyes. Her father's words rang with one of the last puzzle pieces;

just like your fucking mother!

Slowly her mind began to connect the dots, see the links between everything.

Mom was murdered. Same M.O. Victims look the same. Sweetheart Killer.

In a jumble of chaotic thoughts and memories, Nina found her answer. She solved the puzzle.

"My father killed my mom, and then started killing people that look like her—like

me

. He's advancing his way up to kill me as a way to somehow get back at her. That's how it all connects." Nina saw the truth of her statement reflected back at her in Uri's eyes.

"You're right," he said quietly after a few minutes. "But let's continue our walk, before we talk more."

The sudden change of topic startled Nina, but she realized the reason. They were still out in public, and she was yelling her head off about her family and serial killers.

Not my brightest moment. But I'm giving myself some wiggle room with the whole death-by-insane-serial-killer-father thing.

They continued their walk, this time moving a bit faster until they entered the chapel. Nina could see two officers standing watch, but Uri just grabbed her hand and passed the officers as if they were ghosts.

"They can't see us." It was a statement, not a question.

He ignored her observation and instead sat with her on the stone bench next to the now-inactive water fountain, and immediately released her hand. "Time passes differently in the Underworld," Uri began, turning to look at her seriously. "What you view as a couple of hours are like days to us."

Nina bit her lip, not in the mood to play guessing games. "And this has to do with my death how?"

Uri ignored her and continued, "I was able to learn everything about you in what was probably only

hours

to you, but was

days

to me." Uri looked at her searchingly. "Do you understand why I'm telling you this?"

For the life of her, Nina couldn't figure out why it should matter that time passed differently or that he had learned everything about her. Would any of it stop her impending death? She was pretty sure that answer was a resounding no.

"No," Nina answered tiredly, her stomach cramping with hunger pains and a migraine beginning to creep up on her.

Uri grabbed her arms tightly and shook her, and edge to his voice; "You're not normal, Nina. Your life wasn't fair, and your death is not going to be any better."

Was this supposed to be comforting?

Nina wondered hysterically as the pressure in her head seemed to increase like a hundred buzzing bees were flying around.

"I'm offering you extra time," Uri carefully released her and materialized a glass of water and some pain meds. "Take this."

Nina reached forward and took a sip of water, her throat burning harshly as she swallowed the cool liquid. Reaching forward, Nina grabbed the pills from Uri and shoving them in her mouth. Two painful swallows later she got them down.

"Can you please manifest me a banana?" Not a second after Nina asked the question, a banana was suddenly thrust into her hand and her glass was refilled.

Still a cool trick.

"Thanks." Nina smiled at Uri as she munched on her banana, trying to look as lady-like as she could and not just jam the whole thing in her mouth and then ask him to manifest some ribs and a chocolate cake. A banana was safe to eat; she wouldn't throw it up.

"What do you mean extra time?" Nina asked around a bite of banana, trying to stifle a grimace as the food hit her stomach with the impact of a brick.

"I mean..." Uri paused as if weighing the how much information to give her. "I can take you to the Underworld as a human under temporary contract."

Temporary contract? That sounds fishy.

"What's a temporary contract?"

Uri blinked at Nina like he was surprised by her question. "Didn't Grim explain the reaper history? He told me he told you everything." There was a touch of suspicion in his voice that made Nina forget her mortal pains for a moment.

"He only told me bits and pieces, but not the whole story," she responded vaguely. Whatever Uri was about to tell her was going to be important, but Nina didn't want to let him know that she was genuinely curious.

Curiosity can't kill a dead cat.

He seemed to puzzle over her response for a few seconds before accepting it. "It's a long story, so I'll give you the Spark Notes edition."

Nina blinked in surprise at his modern use of slang. The thought of Uri sitting down and watching reality TV shows to keep up on the lingo was almost comical to her. If they hadn't been about to discuss a way to get Nina some extra time from her impending death, she might have laughed outright. "I'm all ears."

"Well, you know how this world was created right?" Uri asked, and only continued when Nina shook her head no. "Well, the people that you worship as Gods are actually just super old and crazy scientists. When I met them, they introduced themselves as Yin and Yang, but that could have just as well been a joke.

"The world was created because they basically f'ed up an experiment. The Big Bang was them. And humans? That was just a fluke." Uri barked out a laugh and bated at invisible flies. "They can't even remember how they did it; just that they mixed some stuff, and poof! Humanity.

"After that, the world started to get too crowded because nothing was really dying. Animals didn't have the instincts to hunt, kill, or survive. They just sort of existed. Well, Ying and Yang decided that there needed to be a sort of balance—life and death."

"Is that how reapers were made?" Nina asked, fascinated by the story and completely ignoring the cold coming off of Uri in waves as she leaned forward to hear more.

He shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, yes and no. At first there was no medium. People just sort of died. Then Yin and Yang took their consciousness and fiddled with it. When humans first started they didn't really have a soul, just a conscious mind separating them from animals. But, over time, Yin and Yang developed that consciousness to be its own separate entity: the soul.

"They had to make mediums because the souls were overwhelming them and they were too lazy to really deal with everything. But don't say that to them; they'd be pissed if someone actually said it!" Uri said with a laugh, like he was talking about real people.

Well let's keep an open mind. They could actually exist. The world's first mad scientists!

"They constructed reapers out of the bones of dead humans. They did a little hocus pocus that gave us our powers, and that's how reapers were made." Uri winced as he continued. "Except we kind of freaked people out and a lot of souls refused to go on and just became wandering ghosts."

His voice dropped to an ominous purr that let Nina know he was about to say something critical. "It's said that the old reapers noticed this and tried to devise a way to safely get humans to trust them and go with them. But other people say Yin and Yang began experimenting again and that's how it happened. It doesn't matter either way, the fact is that male reapers began to mate with human women and have kids." Uri let out a loud sigh and ran a hand through his short red curls, looking so much younger than his centuries of existence. "But there were some hitches because it only worked with human women and after nine months the chicks died in childbirth."

For some reason Nina could only see Uri as Grim's mischievous sibling, and not actually a badass reaper like his brother. The two were so different that she wondered if they were from different parents. But the story fascinated her far more than finding out what their relationship was.

"So to protect the women and ensure that the women didn't refuse them, reapers bargained." Uri spared her a glance before looking down at his thumbs again. "It was a temporary contract that allowed the human woman to live in the Underworld during her pregnancy. During the time when this was being done, human life was hard and brutal. They didn't have modern medicine, and death was about as normal as the sun rising and setting.

"But"— he stretched the word out as he uncurled his arms.— "if you agreed to have a reaper's child, then you could go to the Underworld and live in the lap of luxury. Sort of like Persephone, but they weren't tricked; they wanted that life.

"You see, because time passes much slower there, a nine month pregnancy can be stretched into several years, practically an entire human life time. It was sort of like immortality because you remained whatever age you were when you got pregnant; you just increased so slowly that it was almost like you weren't pregnant." Uri turned to Nina then, and looked her dead in the eyes.

"Reapers aren't supposed to kill humans though, and however inadvertently, we were still killing them. We're supposed to be mediums, one foot in the grave type deal." The air around them dropped a few degrees. "Which is how the laws came to pass."

"What Grim did, talking to you, watching over you,

kissing

you—it's forbidden... because you're alive." Uri took her hands in his own as she felt a numb cold shoot up her arm. "See?"