It was midday when two people in suits and ties walked through revolving doors. Death and I stood in a large lobby. White walls, white floors, people in white lab coats, there wasn't much color aside from the hanging baskets filled with flowers. They were the only thing that distracted from the harsh lighting from the fluorescents and that from the large windows. Those very same flowers wilted as Death passed under them. The sweet, subtle scent, that of impatients bought for Mother's Day, switched with the heavy, depressing scent of decay.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" I asked, looking around. The reception counter was metal, probably stainless steel. Railings on the second floor were metal and glass. Automatic doors opened and closed as people scanned their access cards. The place was modern. Nowhere near as old as the place where we found Harper.

"Are you saying I don't know how to track an immortal?"

"Hey, you're the one who said they like older places. This place was built in the eighties." A shiny metal plaque was bolted into a wall. Etched into it in big block letters, Est. 1982 AD stood out along with the name of the institute.

"How do you know that?"

I gestured to the shiny metal plaque with Est. 1982 AD etched into it. "It says it on that."

"Oh." Death smiled and chuckled at himself; he shook his head.  "Well, we're not exactly in a new country, there was probably something a lot older here before. I'm still picking up a lot of energy." He looked around the room. I followed his example and saw a scientist wheeling a lab cart from one door to another. White lab mice scurried around in their sawdust beds, before the cart and the person disappeared from view.

"Are you sure it's not from the mice and rats and whatever else they test on?"

"I don't kill animals, kid. They don't really have souls. Sure, they end up in heaven, but anything they do can't be held to moral standards. Or mortal standards for that matter."

"Yeah, yeah. I know," I said with a sigh. "Good and evil are inventions, black and white, and all of that stuff. Now are we going to go find this guy or are we going to stand here until they call security?"

"I think we're a bit late for that." Death tilted his head towards the uniformed guard walking towards us.

"Great, I've always wanted to be thrown out of a research institute."

"Really?" Death asked, looking at me.

"Yeah, it was on my bucket list. Just after diving into shark infested water and getting kidnapped." I messed with my sleeve. My suit was crumpled and wrinkled and way too big for me. The tie looked like something out of my dad's closet, just as serious and no nonsense, though it probably looked ridiculous on me.

Death's suit fit him well. Mainly because it was his suit and not one pulled from the back of someone else's closet. He fixed his tie. He looked at his silver cufflinks and adjusted them, before looking at me.

"I feel like those are on very different levels, kid."

"Can I help you?" The security guard asked. He was barrel chested, clean shaven. He peered down his nose at me, like a parrot down its beak. My eyes automatically looked at his belt, noting the handcuffs, gun, and taser. Could I be tased? That was not a question I wanted answered.

Despite the obvious tension, Death smiled at him. "Do you know if Kai Hudson is in today? We were planning on surprising him with lunch."

I glanced at him with an eyebrow raised. The hard glint usually in his eyes when doing anything regarding the immortals wasn't there. He could've been there to take the guy out on a lunch date. I probably would've thought that, if I couldn't see Death's hand tightening around the scythe and if I didn't know beforehand that we were here to murder Kai.

"How do you know him?"

"He's my nephew," Death said. "I was in the city for some business and thought, hey, why don't I go see my only sister's kid?" He gestured to me, and I dropped my hands from my sleeves. "And this is my personal assistant, she's supposed to keep me from being late to my next meeting."

"Doctor Hudson left specific instructions that if a man with white hair shows up to not allow him access to the research labs. He says you'll destroy years of work." The guard's hand drifted to his taser. He expected trouble; so did I.

Death's response varied wildly from what I expected. I thought he would knock the guy out, and we'd have to chase someone with purple eyes through the streets of the city. What actually happened was a much tamer response of, "See this is what an argument from forty years ago will do to your relationships with your family, Tony." Death hadn't looked at the nametag. "You tell your sister she'd be a horrible mother, and she suddenly hates your guts."

"Did you really tell her that?" My eyes widened.

Death winked. "You've met her. You know I'm right."

"That doesn't mean you tell her!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask the two of you to-" The building shook. The hanging baskets swung on their chains, throwing dirt and dying plants everywhere, including in my hair. The floor settled and I thought that was the end of things. I was wrong. A loud noise, possibly an explosion, rattled the windows. Multiple people fell to the ground, hands clamped over their ears. One of the lab carts tipped over, knocking the lids and doors on cages open. Mice scurried around the floor, along with rats, guinea pigs, and pigs.

Tony stood up. His legs shook. "What was that?!"

"Building collapse,"  Death said, as if nothing had happened. He pulled his sleeve up and looked at his watch. "Huh, it's early. It wasn't scheduled for another couple hours. Guess everyone was in there."

"What are you talking about?!" Tony removed his taser from his belt. Death narrowed his eyes. He pushed me behind him.

"It doesn't matter." Death's voice was firm, daring Tony to try something. "We'll get out of your hair. Don't tell Kai we were here, okay?. Everytime I try to talk to him he flips out on me. Makes me wonder what his mom told him." Death turned around. "Come on, kid."

I nodded and followed him out through the same revolving doors we came in through. Death's suit shifted to his cloak, and it flared dramatically behind him. My clothes, unfortunately, stayed the same. Running was going to be a pain; Death leant me a pair of his heels. He at least gave me a choice in those, even though they were all too big for me.
Light flashed. My first instinct made me put my arms up to block. My second instinct was to quickly pick the scythe off of the ground. It was worse than failing to catch a pencil. The moment my hand closed around the smooth handle, Death took off. I followed after him. The world didn't blur anymore than it would if I was still alive.

"So," I said, forcing the words out in between breaths."I have a question."

"And I might have an answer. What is it?"

"Who actually does the whole destruction thing? Hurricanes and stuff like this?"

"If it's something I want done, it's either God or Lucifer, but it depends."

"On what?"

"On who's feeling more destructive. Usually Lucifer, but sometimes God has to get it out of his system. Hang a right."

I turned right and found myself in a sea of people, all of them alive and none of them Death. I groaned, turned around, and double-timed it to catch up. He wasn't hard to find. He was the only one running towards the scene of the building collapse, and the dark spot blotting out the sky. Plus, not a lot of people wear cloaks like his.

"That was left!" I yelled at him the moment I caught up.

"I meant my right." He didn't spare me a glance.

"We have the same right! Whoa." I skidded to a stop. Black smoke billowed into the sky as fire licked at the remains of the half collapsed building. Metal groaned and shrieked, failing in the high temperatures.

"This is going to be fun. Maybe if we're lucky they were all clustered together. Just a warning, we're not going to be." Death said. A second passed and he groaned. "Why can't these ever happen during meetings?"

"Do I need any of the list?"

"Nah, just look for souls and maybe people pinned under rubble. These are usually really easy. We should be able to get done with this in a half hour at most, and then we can get back to beating the crap out of an old man." Death punched his hand, a smile spreading across his features. His eyes flared with his excitement, and destructive confetti swirled around our feet. Ash started collecting in his hair, turning it a shade of gray close to mine.

"That, uh, makes us sound like horrible people." I rubbed the back of my head.

"It's fine, I'm older than him. Now hurry up, I want to do this before we have to track down the bodies. With any luck, the people who need to die will have been crushed."

"Okay, now you're really sounding like a bad person."

"Hey, it makes my job harder if they survive the initial collapse. Can you blame me for wanting an easy workload?" He looked at me, an eyebrow raised up and a crooked smile on his lips. "The less time we have to spend reaping the more time we can focus on tracking down the immortals. Watch out!" The kiddie leash appeared on me and he pulled me backward. Part of the ceiling collapsed in a shower of dirt and debris. When the air cleared as much as it could, a large charred piece of wood laid among the rubble.

"That-" I stared. "-would've hurt."

"Yeah,  I would've had to spend an hour healing you, and I doubt you want to know what it feels like to have your skull crushed. It wouldn't have destroyed you, but you would've complained the whole time."

"Would not."

"You can tell yourself that, but you would. Be careful and meet me back here when you're done." The kiddie harness disappeared from around me. I rolled my shoulder, wincing at the pain in it. The thin straps were too tight, I made a mental note to tell Death about that, even as I watch him duck under and around metal.

I narrowed my eyes, peering through the thick smoke. "Wouldn't it be easier for you to find me?"

He turned around and looked at me. He yelled, "Just hurry up."

"Of course, Mister Death, sir." Giving him a fake salute, I rolled my eyes. I wandered deeper into the building. Most of the time, I hated not being able to feel heat or cold. I couldn't enjoy a hot shower, a dip in the pool, even holding a warm mug between my hands. Though that last one also came with the downside of risking burning my mouth with almost no warning. But, in this instance, I was grateful. No matter how much the flames licked at my clothes and even my skin, I felt nothing. They didn't burn me, and my cloak didn't so much as smolder.

"I didn't ask for sass." Death's voice echoed around the building. The maze of destruction made it hard to tell where he was at, but I didn't care. My eyes caught on a shining light, a soul staring at the burning carnage around him. Did they think they were in hell? Maybe, but I couldn't read their mind. I sliced through their chain without a word, before replying to Death.

"But you're getting it."

Chapter: 2,027

Book: 36,253

How'd you like it?

I'm gonna get some food.

See yah