Grave Intentions Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    David knelt down beside Adam, who was lying flat on his back. “You okay?”
    “Yeah, just fucking peachy.” With a grunt, Adam pushed up to a seated position and let out a long, hacking cough. Aside from some scrapes, bruises, and the complete and total lack of eyebrows, the kid looked relatively unharmed. “Good thing I didn’t put money on gunshot wounds.”
    “Stay here,” David said, brushing the dirt from his jeans as he stood. “I’ll take care of this one.” He slid on his sunglasses and walked toward the remains of the shed.
    The souls were already rising from the shells of their former selves, not yet fully understanding what just transpired. David moved in quickly, harvesting the first before it acclimated to its new condition.
    The second soul seemed more reluctant, moving pensively in David’s direction like a skittish animal. Darkness tainted this one; no wonder it wasn’t in any hurry to venture into the great beyond. Impatient, David stepped closer, inexorably drawing the soul to him like a magnet to true north.
    Yep, this one was definitely going to hell, David thought as the soul merged with his body. If he had to do this godforsaken job for a hundred years, he’d never grow accustomed to the unsettling sensation of cold, black evil surging through his system. Malevolence ran thick and strong, leaving wicked trails of hatred and depravity in its wake. When the soul realized it held no anchor to the living, when it realized its next destination was an eternity of damnation, it let out a shriek of despair that echoed through David’s body like nails on a chalkboard. God, it never failed to make his flesh crawl.
    So preoccupied with wrangling the souls, David failed to notice the flames spreading toward the far end of the trailer, to a tank of natural gas bolted against the side.
    The resulting blast was deafening. Common household objects shot through the air like missiles, embedding into trees and cars. And David.
    “Dude, you okay?” he heard Adam’s muffled voice say when he regained consciousness. A hand gripped his shoulder and shook him lightly, sending ripples of pain through his chest. “Come on, man, don’t die on me.”
    David cracked his eyes open and found Adam staring down at him, his face tight with concern. For a moment, he wondered why everything looked so weird but then he noticed one of the lenses from his sunglasses was missing.
    “I’m fine,” he said on the heels of a groan. Which was a lie. He actually felt like he’d been run over by a truck and then set on fire. Not like that happened. Much.
    “Oh thank God.” Adam blew out a heavy breath and scrubbed a hand across his jaw. “I thought I was going to have to learn the rest of this shit on my own.”
    “We’re reapers,” David said with a huff of annoyance. “We can’t die, you idiot, we’re already dead.” Sometimes that was a major downer. He’d been dead for so long he’d forgotten what it felt like to be truly alive.
    Remembering the souls he’d just collected, David did a quick inventory to make sure he hadn’t inadvertently lost anyone in the blast. Yep, all present, pissed off, and accounted for. The first soul continued to wail over the loss of its corporeal form, a cold swirling mass of misery and confusion, while the other raged against its newfound prison, desperate to escape before being sent to its final destination.
    “Could have fooled me,” Adam said, not sounding the least bit convinced. “You took a pretty heavy hit.”
    David tried to push himself up but was met with a sharp wave of pain and nausea. Looking down, he saw what Adam was talking about. In addition to the shards of glass and metal that pierced his clothes and stuck in his skin, a steel rod was imbedded deep in his chest, the only visible evidence a two-inch stub sticking out from between his ribs. No wonder he felt so damn lightheaded. “Aw, shit. This was my favorite shirt.”
    “Want me to pull it out?”