Free With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent

hard
enough that the muscles in his arms stood out against his skin, and his weapon
slammed into Marco’s head with a dull thunk. Marco’s
legs folded, and he collapsed on the gym floor.
    Tod stood behind him, holding Emma’s three-inch-thick chemistry
book. “You know, next time you text to tell me you may need help, I could get
here a lot faster if you also tell me where you are. I’m a reaper, not a necromancer. Am I going to have to have you fitted with a
GPS chip?”
    “Sorry. I didn’t know where I’d be.” I glanced at poor Marco,
thoroughly unconscious and probably in a lot of pain, then stepped over him and
threw my arms around Tod. “And thank you. How’d you find me?”
    “I tried about eight different places, then I found Luca. He
said it felt like you were in the gym.”
    As a necromancer, Luca was like a compass for all things dead
but not yet decaying. Including reapers. And me.
    Tod let me go and ran one hand through his short curls, and the
blue-eyed gaze that met mine was intense. Scared. And kinda...angry. “You have
to stop doing this, Kaylee. You’re dead, not invincible. Reclaiming souls when
Madeline sends backup is one thing. That’s your job. I get that. But you can’t
just go around confronting hellions on your own. Even in a human body they’re
dangerous. Especially when that human body is bigger than yours, and they’re all bigger than yours.”
    The fear in his voice made my chest ache. “I didn’t know he was
possessed. And anyway, I can handle myself. See?” I made a sweeping gesture
toward Marco’s unconscious form. “Now he knows that being a teenage guy isn’t
all getting high and threatening girls.”
    “Yeah, and that was awesome, even if I can’t help but
sympathize with the pain he’s going to be in when he wakes up. But Avari will be
ready for that next time. One of these days you’re going to get in too deep, and
I’m not going to get there fast enough, and...bad things are going to happen,
and that will kill me more than my actual death
did.”
    “I think I was born ‘in too deep,’
and bad things happen every day. Sometimes I have to stab hellions. Sometimes I
have to frame friends for murder, and stab evil math teachers, and watch my best
friend die. Again. We deal with it, then we move on.”
    “Well, maybe next time you could let the bad things find you,
instead of searching them out for yourself. Or take someone with you. I know
Nash isn’t as much fun to look at, but he’d be decent backup, and even with a
broken arm, Sabine’s a force to be reckoned with.”
    “But I’m not?”
    “That’s not what I’m saying. I think the evidence speaks for
itself.” He glanced pointedly at Marco, still unconscious on the floor. “But six
hands are better than two. Especially when my hands aren’t close enough to get
to you.”
    “They’re close enough now...” I pulled him toward me, and I
could see that he was trying to resist a smile. To stay mad, to emphasize his
point.
    “That’s not gonna work.”
    I went up on my toes to kiss him, and he groaned. “Do you
really think this is appropriate on school grounds?”
    “Nope.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. “And I happen to
know there isn’t an appropriate thought running through your head right
now.”
    “Or any other time.” Tod pulled me close and held me so tight
my ribs almost hurt, but I didn’t want him to let go. Ever. “Just promise me
you’ll be more careful.”
    “I promise.”
    “So...” Tod tried on a grin, and I bent to pick up Em’s
textbook from where he’d dropped it. “What did Tall, Dark, and Evil want?”
    “The usual. Devour my soul. Mutilate my corpse. Dissect my
psyche. Just another day in the most dangerous high school in the country. Of
its size.” I nudged Marco’s arm with my foot. “Can you help me get him to the
nurse? He’s going to wake up with several unexplained injuries, and I don’t want
to be in the room when he starts asking