Free Grave Intentions by Lori Sjoberg

you’ll be born, and she knows when you’ll die.”
    “She knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake,” David said, his words thick with sarcasm.
    The attitude wasn’t lost on Samuel. He shot David a withering glare. “Keep it up and I’ll add another fifty years to your sentence.”
    “Well gee, it’s been so much fun, why not make it a hundred?”
    The chuckle died in David’s throat when an invisible force wrapped around his neck, closing around his windpipe and cutting off his air.
    “Not so funny now, is it, boy?” Samuel rounded the bar and leaned in close, his face an inch from David’s. “I’m only trying to help you.”
    The grip on David’s throat tightened and his vision blurred around the edges. Mouth agape, he dropped to his knees, his palms braced against the tiles to keep from falling flat on his face. Another five or ten seconds and he’d lose consciousness. “Really?” he said on the tail end of a strangled gasp. “You got a . . . strange way . . . of showing it.”
    “Just remember what I told you.” Samuel’s voice deepened to a low growl. “Don’t screw it up.”
    The pressure on his throat released, and David found himself facedown on the kitchen floor, alone, gulping air like a fish out of water. He stayed there until his breathing returned to normal, then scraped himself off the floor and propped himself against the counter.
    Meanwhile, Fate’s message played in his brain on a continuous feedback loop, his mind grasping for the true meaning. “The fork in the road will expose the true nature of your character, but the light will chart the course for the remainder of your journey.”
    In spite of David’s pessimism, the seed of hope took root. Redemption. Deliverance. Salvation. He’d been harvesting souls for so long, he’d begun to doubt it would ever happen.
    And what about Adam? Was he training his own replacement? The thought hadn’t occurred to him before, but it would certainly explain why Samuel had such a hard-on about getting the kid trained so damn fast. If that were the case, he’d have to make sure Adam was ready to roll within the two-month time frame. It would pose a challenge—some reapers took years to fully develop their talents—but it was certainly within the realm of possibility.
    He’d just have to push the kid a little harder.

chapter 5
    Sarah waved her key card over the security scanner, eager to kick the new day into gear. The little green light blinked twice, followed by the distinctive click of the lock disengaging. The door slid open and she entered Cava Tech’s main lab facility, enjoying the solitude associated with being the first person in. After driving past the gauntlet of protesters at the main gate, the peace and quiet felt like a slice of nirvana.
    Under the harsh glow of fluorescent lights, she logged onto the computer, sprayed the lab prep table with antiseptic, and retrieved fresh tissue samples from the incubator. Angelo wouldn’t be back from his meetings until later in the day, and she wanted to be way ahead of schedule when he returned.
    She worked in silence for the first hour, determined to complete the preliminary prep work necessary to begin the new round of tests. She was still angry with herself over the prior test’s failure. For the life of her, she couldn’t pin down the source of the contamination. And while the government entity sponsoring the trials had voiced understanding over the setback, Sarah knew a second mishap would not be met with the same level of tolerance. If it happened again, they might cut their funding. Or worse, demand a new research team.
    Through the glass partition dividing labs, she saw the lights in the adjacent room flicker to life. Then the door swung open and Jackie entered the lab, holding a coffee cup the size of a Big Gulp. Sarah took a moment to give a friendly wave. Jackie waved back, and a few moments later she sauntered over to Sarah’s side of the