"Don't change the subject, Asher. I know all about you, and your Death persona. "
Charlie stopped again and turned to look at her. This time, she stopped as well. "Lily, I know I've been acting a little strangely since Rachel died, and I'm sorry you got in trouble at school because of me, but it's just been trying to deal with it all, with the baby, with the business. The stress of it all has - "
"I have The Great Big Book of Death," Lily said. She steadied Charlie's hamsters when he lost his grip. "I know about the soul vessels, about the dark forces rising if you fuck up, all that stuff - all of it. I've known longer than you have, I think. "
Charlie didn't know what to say. He was feeling panic and relief at the same time - panic because Lily knew, but relief because at least someone knew, and believed it, and had actually seen the book. The book!
"Lily, do you still have the book?"
"It's in the store. I hid it in the back of the glass cabinet where you keep the valuable stuff that no one will ever buy. "
"No one ever looks in that cabinet. "
"No kidding? I thought if you ever found it, I'd say it had always been there. "
"I have to go. " He turned and started walking the other direction, but then realized that they had already been heading toward his neighborhood and turned around again. "Where are you going?"
"To get some coffee. "
"I'll walk with you. "
"You will not. " Lily looked around again, wary that someone might see them.
"But, Lily, I'm Death. That should at least have given me some level of cool. "
"Yeah, you'd think, but it turns out that you have managed to suck the cool out of being Death. "
"Wow, that's harsh. "
"Welcome to my world, Asher. "
"You can't tell anyone about this, you know that?"
"Like anyone cares what you do with your gerbils. "
"Hamsters! That's not - "
"Chill, Asher. " Lily giggled. "I know what you mean. I'm not going to tell anyone - except Abby knows - but she doesn't care. She says she's met some guy who's her dark lord. She's in that stage where she thinks a dick is some kind of mystical magic wand. "
Charlie adjusted his hamster box uncomfortably. "Girls go through a stage like that?" Why was he just hearing about this now? Even the hamsters looked uncomfortable.
Lily turned on a heel and started up the street. "I'm not having this conversation with you. "
Charlie stood there, watching her go, balancing the hamsters and his completely useless sword-cane while trying to dig his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. He needed to see that book, and he needed to see it sooner than the hour it would take him to get home. "Lily, wait!" he called. "I'm calling a cab, I'll give you a ride. "
She waved him off without looking and kept walking. As he was waiting for the cab company to answer, he heard it, the voice, and he realized that he was standing right over a storm drain. It had been over a month since he'd heard them, and he thought maybe they'd gone. "We'll have her, too, Meat. She's ours now. "
He felt the fear rise in his throat like bile. He snapped the phone shut and ran after Lily, cane rattling and hamsters bouncing as he went. "Lily, wait! Wait!"
She spun around quickly and her fuchsia wig only did the quarter turn instead of the half, so her face was covered with hair when she said, "One of those ice-cream cakes from Thirty-one Flavors, okay? After that, despair and nothingness. "
"We'll put that on the cake," Charlie said.
Chapter 11
11
THE GIRLS CAN GET A LITTLE DARK AT TIMES