Unchosen. Part 9

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's about Mom. Just ... please, Molly. Meet me at the Zomporium. Like, right before closing, okay?"

I don't know how my little sister expected me to get to Las Vegas in three hours. It wasn't like I had a driver's license, much less a car. Or a way to make an eight-hour drive fit into ninety minutes. Of course, I did have a friend with a private airplane, but given my current distance from my Nekyia friends, I didn't feel right asking for any favors. Since Henry could get into trouble for helping me break the rules (like leaving campus without authorization), I didn't want to ask him for help, either. He'd already put himself on the line for me too many times. I felt protective of him.

Ally seemed really freaked out, and that freaked me out. Ally was rarely shook up by anything. In fact, she was the most emotionally steady person I'd ever met. (Except, of course, when it came to zombies. She was rabid about saving zombies.) "Molly?"

"Yeah. I'm here. Why can't you just tell me what's going on?"

"I need to show you."

"How am I supposed to get to Vegas?"

"You're half G.o.d. Zap yourself here, or something."

I heard the dial tone. Well, that was typical Ally. Did she really expect me to drop everything, skip out of school, and pop down there?

Of course she did.

There was only one person I could think of who might help me, and actually have a way to get me to Vegas ASAP.

Rath.

He didn't exactly carry around a cell phone, but I had Henry. Being a ghoul gave him a line into the other side. And he'd been able to get hold of Rath before, too.

"Henry!"

My friend appeared next to the bed. "Yes, miss?"

"Could you please find Rath for me? I really need to talk to him."

"Of course, Miss." He disappeared.

I barely had time to blink before Henry returned holding Rath by the shoulders. He let go of the reaper, and Rath stumbled forward. "Will there be anything else?"

I choked back laughter. Rath's expression was both incredulous and p.i.s.sed-off. A giggle escaped, and he glared at me.

"You're awesome, Henry. Thanks."

Henry acknowledged my praise with a slight nod, and then popped out of my room.

"Why the h.e.l.l did you send your ghoul after me?"

"How else am I supposed to get hold of you?"

"Most people call."

"You have a cell phone?"

"Reapers don't need phones, Molly. You have a scythe and a familiar."

Oh, remembered now that he'd said my raven had gotten him for the ol' zombie battle.

"If you're trying to reach another reaper," continued Rath, "your scythe is like a cell tower. It'll reach me."

I'd never seen Rath's token, or knew where he kept his scythe. Tokens were supposed to be kept secret, and a reaper never revealed the hiding place of his scythe. I'm not sure why, but it probably had to with acc.u.mulation of power, Anubis, reaper wars, or some archaic rule I didn't know about.

"Sorry. I'll call you by scythe next time. I didn't know that was an option."

Rath's expression softened. "I keep forgetting that you're still learning everything. Plus, you're alive, so you're not used to the stuff we dead people can do."

"Well, I forget that you're dead."

"To you, Molly, I'm not." He crossed his arms, and lifted an eyebrow. "What was so urgent?"

I slid my legs off the bed and sat up. "I need to get to Vegas. Ally called. She's really upset, and said she had to show me something." I heaved out a nervous breath. "Something to do with my mom."

"Conventional travel is out, huh?"

"Yep."

Rath held out his hand. "It just so happens we can take a shortcut. C'mon, brown eyes. I'll show you have to travel reaper-style."

I took his hand, and immediately the color of the earthly plane bled away until only gray remained. My entire body felt chilled to the core. Eventually my room faded altogether and I found myself in a gray landscape known as the Shallows. This was the in-between of existence, the place reapers used to as a doorway to the hereafter.

The soil beneath my feet was like ash, soft and powdery. Around us were craggy rocks, and above us there was no sky, just an endless black. Fog drifted like ghosts throughout the place. The silence was as thick and soft as cotton.

I s.h.i.+vered. "I don't remember it being so cold."

"I don't feel anything." He put his arm around me and brought me in close. "When you're dead, you don't worry about the temperature."

"Reapers get all the perks."

He chuckled. "That's one way to look at it."

"How do we get to Vegas?" I asked.

"We think our way there." He let go of me, and gestured at the Shallows. "Reapers don't have bodies, Molly. I can take human form, but I'm still dead. Usually, only souls and reapers can enter the Shallows. You're the exception."

"What about G.o.ds?"

"I guess so, but they don't need to use the Shallows like we do. The G.o.ds are made of different ... um, stuff. It's one of the reasons why they protect human souls. You think the heavens are just a reward for good acts on Earth? Or the bowels of the Underworld are meant only for punis.h.i.+ng the wicked?"

"I don't know," I said. "I haven't thought about it much."

"Where do you think G.o.ds get the power they need to exist?"

I frowned. "Wait a minute. You mean, human souls are like batteries?"

"That's a simplified explanation," offered Rath. "Everything is connected. The G.o.ds need souls, and souls need the G.o.ds."

"I get the connected part," I said. "But I'm not sure how the soul thing actually works. Especially since it has five parts."

Rath reached out and tapped my nose. "That's a lesson for another time, brown eyes."

"Good," I said. "Because my brain was starting to cramp."

"You're smarter than you think." Rath held out his hand, and I took it once again.

"Now what?"

"Now we go to Las Vegas. Where to? Your house or the Zomporium?"

"Ally said to meet her at the Zomporium."

"You got it." Rath pulled me closer. "Oh, and one more thing."

He brought me fully into his embrace, dipped his head down, and kissed me. At first, it was a gentle exploration of lips. That was enough to get my heart thumping. Then he split the seam of my mouth with his tongue.

My stomach squeezed, and I latched onto his shoulders, and followed his lead. I wasn't an experienced kisser, but Rath didn't seem to mind.

After a long moment of our mouths meeting and parting and going back for more, Rath finally pulled back-just a little.

I blinked up at him, feeling dazed. Actually, I was felt as though I were floating, just like the fog drifting around us. "Wow."

One corner of his mouth curled upward. "I want you to know how I feel about you, Molly."

"I like you, too." It seemed like such an inadequate thing to say, but Rath broke into a full smile.

"I'm glad we got that cleared up."

"Ditto."

Rath kept a tight grip on my hand. "We need to think about the Zomporium. As we think about it, it will appear. Then we step into the s.p.a.ce, and leave the Shallows."

It sounded fairly easy. But I got the feeling that only an experienced reaper traveled this quickly through the Shallows. I wondered how much more knowledge waited for me after I was dead. Okay, that was a creepy thought. But I knew for a fact death is not the end. Souls lived on, and according to Rath, they were energy. And I think that if human souls fueled the G.o.ds, then they also fueled everything else. In a way, the soul is like a star. Death was not really death. It was just a transformation.

"Are you ready, Molly?"

I nodded. I closed my eyes and thought about Big Al's Zomporium. I wasn't exactly sure where Ally wanted to meet me. But I a.s.sumed she didn't expect me to walk through the front door. So, I envisioned Dem's s.p.a.ce-where he made the zombies. As I did so, I explained the details to Rath so his thoughts would give power to mine.

"Molly, you don't have to close your eyes."

I opened my eyes, and looked at him. "Huh?"

He laughed. "You need to be able to see your destination. See?" He pointed in front of us, and there was the sahnetjar. "Let's go."

Rath stepped forward, into the image, and pulled me with him. As we stepped into the zombie-making room, the gray dissipated the color brightened. The familiar smells of the sahnetjar reminded me of how homesick I really felt. Then another scent caught my attention."

"Is that smoke?" I asked. I ran toward the door that led to the little waiting room. From there, we could go down the hallway to my dad's office. Then go to the reception area to nab Ally and Nona. Worry sickened me. Were they okay?

Rath grabbed my arm and yanked me back. "What are you doing? You're supposed to run away from fire!"

Smoke billowed from underneath the door I had just been about to touch. All the same, I wouldn't let Rath drag me away.

"My family's in there," I cried. "We have to help them!"

"We have to go. Now. You can still be killed, Molly. You're not invincible." He grabbed me in a bear hug, and then flipped me over his shoulder, holding me tight as he headed in the opposite direction.

"No!" I screamed. "No!"

"It's easy to forget that reapers were once human and had families, connections to those who still lived on the Earthly plane. In time, all whom reapers knew and loved pa.s.s on to the other side, and so, too, did the sorrows and joys. Reapers are compa.s.sionate by nature, but they soon forget what it means to be human."

~Secret History of Reapers, Author Unknown.

"Zombies deserve kindness. Dead humans deserve has much respect as alive humans."

~Citizens for Zombie Rights.

Chapter 8.

RATH BARRELED OUT of the building. I clung to his waist, bouncing up and down, and I couldn't stop screaming.

My family was in the fire.

We couldn't just leave them in the smoke and flames to die!

"We have to go back!" I shouted.

"You stay here." Rath put me down and held me by the arm. "I will go back and check to see who's there. I'm already dead."

His calm tone dampened my panic. I nodded slowly. Tears dripped from my eyes as I thought about the fate of my family. What had happened? How had the Zomporium caught on fire? Were they in there?

Rath touch the side of my face. "Stay here. Please. I'll look for your family."

"Then go already!" He turned, but I grabbed his hand and then I kissed the top of his knuckles. "Thank you."

"I'll do anything for you, brown eyes." Rath disappeared instantly.

A flicker of movement at the top of the building caught my eye. Flames licked the rooftop. I was absolutely sick about our family business being destroyed. I backed up because I could feel the heat of the fire, and I knew it was beyond awful. As I dazedly watched the flames erupt from the top of the building, I frowned. I swear the fire was outlined in black. Glittery black ... like reaper magic.

Impossible.