Death Defiant

Chapter 4

CADEN

“The f**k you want?” Tristan growled at me as he picked the phone up.

“Wow, great to talk to you too.” I replied, rolling my eyes. You’d think the prick could be civil. While Ethan and I got along fine, Tristan was a different matter. He was a grouchy son of a b***h, and had been that way for centuries.

“We found Death.” I said. “Where are you?” That question was quickly answered when I heard an accordion in the background.

“Nevermind, I see you are in Purgatory. Ethan and I will be there in about an hour.” Tristan practically growled into the phone before ending the call.

“So?” Ethan asked, his eyes curious.

“He’s in Purgatory, told him we’d be there in an hour.” I shrugged, and we headed back to work. The hour dragged by, and while Ethan and I both worked at the grocery store, despite knowing we could get better gigs, we had figured this may be the best way to sniff out Death, and it had been. We had found her, unlike Tristan, with his lavish lifestyle. While Ethan and I lived together and worked together, Tristan preferred to keep us and everyone else at arm’s length. Our working relationship was decent enough, but he just had a perpetual stick up his ass. I just wanted work to end so we could meet Tristan and deal with this, because now we found her, how were we going to convince her she was Death?

Work finished and Ethan and I got home as quickly as we could. As I had given my ring to Amara, we would have to use Ethans to get there. Our rings were what tethered us to Hell, or rather our ability to come and go. He took his ring off and it morphed into a key, the metal changing shape and taking on a life of its own. Putting it into his bedroom door and turning it, we were met with a falling and spinning sensation before we were spat out in Purgatory, right by Hans.

“Guten tag boys!” He exclaimed, giving us a little five-fingered wave as he raised his eyebrows at us. Mostly due to the fact we were still in our work clothes, and in a heap on top of each other on the floor. Getting up clumsily, I met Tristan’s ice cold gaze; he was always silently assessing and judging, the asshole. Not everyone had a life like he did. Sure, Ethan and I could have easily had that, but we had our minds on the mission. Though Tristan had originally as well, someone did need to work the upper echelons of society just in case he said. It was solid thinking, Death may be among the most corrupted; but apparently she wasn’t. Just some normal, boring girl, who puked….A lot.

Taking a seat at the bar beside him, Sher floated over, bringing me my usual. We tended to meet up here, mostly because Tristan didn’t enjoy the other circles even though Caden and I had certain ones we liked.

“So, you found Death?” Tristan asked simply, raising his glass to his lips.

“Sure did!” Ethan called, from where he was getting fitted for a scarf from Hans. “And it’s a GIRL!”

Tristan’s drink shot out of his mouth, before looking at Ethan angrily and he wiped his face with his sleeve.

“A woman?” He asked me, his eyes hard. “It's not supposed to be a woman.”

“Well, it is definitely a woman,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning back in my chair, taking a swig of my drink. Sher always made it just the way I liked it, sweet and sour at the same time with just enough alcohol to get me feeling good without sending me over the edge. Tristan made a humming noise and took another sip as Ethan plopped down beside him, a new sparkly scarf around his neck. I eyed it suspiciously.

“Seriously, E? You really shouldn’t encourage him.” I shot a look at Hans, his black glitter stilettos peeking out from under his robe. He was putting his knitting up, the basket of it placed next to his accordion, before he turned back to his drink, slurping loudly.

“It’s fun. Besides, it does get cold topside.” Ethan hedged as he fingered the ends of his new accessory. I rolled my eyes, but he had a solid point.

“Can we get back on topic?” Tristan demanded, and Ethan shot him an annoyed look.

“Sure, we found Death, or rather she found us.” I replied, “She is sick so I gave her my ring, now she will have to see me again, and we can tell her who she is.”

“Sick?” Tristan asked in alarm. I nodded.

“Yeah, it seems like she is physically suffering, and once I touched her she was fine. I’m not sure why, I have to guess it's because she didn’t have any sort of contact with us, while the three of us have known each other since we came topside.”

“That makes sense. I guess without the ability to go back and forth and feed her nature she has been suffering.” Tristan mused, then his eyebrows pinched together as he glared at his leg.

“For f***s sake Ember!” He growled, grabbing the imp and holding her out to me. She dangled there in her sailor’s outfit, tiny skirt and high heels, looking rather pleased with herself.

“I don’t want her,” I said, shaking my head as he offered the creature to me. She made a noise at me, and I huffed in annoyance, taking her from Tristan. Placing her on my shoulder, she draped herself around my neck much like Ethan’s scarf, her tail tickling one of my ear lobes.

“Don’t get any ideas you overgrown housecat” I muttered at her as she stroked my other earlobe with her hand. The damn lusty thing had the hots for Tristan, and to be honest it was pretty damn hilarious and I didn’t feel the least bit bad about it.

“I assume you have a way to contact this woman?” Tristan said, and it sounded anything but kind. I knew he was probably expecting the fourth horseman to be a man and not a horsewoman? Horse person? f**k it. It was what it was, and no amount of being unhappy about it was going to change facts.

“Yeah, we exchanged numbers” I said, taking a pull of my drink while Ember climbed up on top of my head. She settled there like a hat and I just let her, sometimes it was better to let her have her way than continue to fight.

“And then?” Tristan asked.

“And then nothing. I said I would contact her for my ring back, but we need to retrieve hers first otherwise she will be sick again.” This was not a task I was looking forward to. Trying to explain to this sickly looking human that she was none other than Death, the fourth horseman and on top of it that we were her counterparts. Yeah, this was going to go well. If she thought I was completely insane I couldn’t blame her, my eyes flicked to where Ethan was, considering maybe he was the better man for the job. He had a carefree and friendly attitude, I could pull it off but I didn’t think I made people feel as at ease as he did. Tristan was a hard no, the arrogant asshole would terrify the poor girl.

“Well then, I suggest you get on with it. We need to bring her in ASAP and not be wasting time.” He said, a hint of annoyance in his tone. “We’ve been looking far too long to let this chance pass.”