Read Death 07 - For the Love of Death for Free Online Page A

their clothes to the color of a bruise.
    I glance at Pax as the sun sinks.
    He blinks, and a thin iridescent sheath slides over his slate blue irises.
    Hang on.
    Spider sighs, waving his hand. “Get the sister.”
    Pax takes my hand. “The fuck you will.”
    One of the other's screams, “His eyes!”
    Spider's gaze arrows down on Pax and he bellows, “Get him!”
    Too late.
    Pax blinks again and we're gone.
    Yet we still remain.
    Pax has tried to explain it to me. As though our earth is a hard cover book from the past set upright, each page almost touches the next as it fans between the back and front cover, thinly separated.
    Multiverse theory. Proven by the late physicist Stephen Genning. Each paper-thin slice is another world. Another dimension. But Paxton can see the other worlds with his second eyelid.
    Proven but unexplored. Until now.
    He brings me against his side, and the assassins whirl around inches from us.
    Worlds from us.
    As long as Pax touches me, I can see too.
    When Pax begins to slide, I go with him.
    “ Pax!” I scream.
    Don't pass out!
    He falls to the ground in this world and I hang on. As long as I touch him, I can see.
    His eyes flutter. Then shut.
    The men in our world appear to swim behind a transparent veil, though it looks like a sheet of running water separates us. I'm on my knees next to my brother when I hear a furtive noise behind me.
    “Well, well. If it isn’t the bitch Dee-gan.”
    I look up, and Brad Thompson stands before me. Not the Brad Thompson of my world but of this one.
    His hair’s longer, I notice randomly . I swallow hard. “Get out of here, Brad.”
    I roll my lip into my teeth to keep the panic at arm’s length, gripping Pax’s hand so hard I’m probably cutting off circulation.
    “You just pop up like a bad penny, as they say.”
    His creepy use of Gramps’ expression deepens my unease.
    “What?”
    “I got rid of you, yet here you are. With your undead brother along for the ride.” He swivels his gaze to Pax, peacefully sleeping in an injury-induced unconsciousness.
    “That’s okay. It was so fun killing you the first time, I’m not going to question the unreality of you showing up again. This time, you’ll stay dead.”
    In that moment, I want to be a Body like Pax so much. I hurt with the want of it. I could crush his windpipe, protect myself with that Herculean strength.
    Instead, Brad tears me off Pax. The world goes black, our contact severed.
    I'm blind.
    Helpless.

CHAPTER SIX
    Caleb
     
    I jerk the receiver off the old rotary wall phone, punch in Gramps’ number, and wait.
    Maybe a thousand landlines still exist in all of America. Because of our house’s age, we’re grandfathered. Even with my penchant for the antique and vintage, it’s still awkward and heavy to use. I press the circular celluloid earpiece against my ear and wait through five rings. Of course, Gramps doesn’t have an answering machine. His thoughts would be, If he’s home, he answers.
    Jade’s wide eyes stare up at me.
    I shift my weight.
    “Hello?” Gramps voice bellows into the phone like falling gravel.
    “Hey Gramps, it’s Caleb.”
    “I know who it is. I’ve got caller ID as part of my bundle, y’know.”
    Caller ID . The most archaic thing on the planet.
    Jade’s lips quirk, easily making out his side of the conversation, seeing as how he’s shouting.
    “He needs another ear replacement,” she says quietly. I nod, putting a finger to my lips.
    “Right. Listen, Gramps… Deegan and Paxton are MIA. Ya know where they are?”
    Jade and I stopped at two kids. Felt like ten. There wasn’t enough protection in the world for our kids as Randoms. We still worry.
    The open line buzzes. “Both the kids were here. Pax and I changed the oil out on the Camaro…”
    Good , Pax needs that connection.
    “There was a little incident with Deedie.”
    Jade covers her mouth with a hand. I wrap her forearm with my hand. Images flow. She nods, taking a shaky