But Lisa had allocated five, and from the looks of it, was going for a sixth.
Fuck this.
I was out of my office and at the processing desk in less than ten seconds. The bitch was already in the purgatory file and inputting Dotty’s details.
Dotty’s eyes fixed on me through the blue-tinged ward wall. “Seraphina, help me.”
Lisa’s shoulders tensed, and then she turned to me with a concerned expression on her face.
“Oh, Miss Dawn, I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve never done a purgatory allocation before, but I’m afraid Ms. Meadows has admitted to wishing to do harm to the living. I feel, based on her admission, that she should be placed onto the purgatory pickup.”
I nodded slowly. “She did, did she?”
Dotty shook her head vehemently. “She’s lying.”
“I am not,” Lisa snapped.
It was literally her word against Dotty’s, or it would have been if I hadn’t been watching.
“Tell me, Miss Tripp. Why do ghosts make the journey here?”
Lisa opened and closed her mouth a couple of times.
An ember of anger sparked in my chest. I offered her a cold smile. “Let me remind you. They come here to find peace because they’re dead, and they’re stuck, and we’re the only people who can help them move on.” The spark of anger burned hotter behind my eyes. “We’re the only allocation center for several hundred miles, and it’s our duty to ensure the dead are taken care of until the reapers can swoop in and do their job. It’s our duty to be compassionate, kind, and, above all, patient.”
Lisa blinked up at me, and for the first time in a long time, I was grateful for my five-foot-seven height.
“I was patient,” she lied to my face.
“No, you were uninterested and rude. You’ve also allocated five souls to purgatory in the past week.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, then pressed her lips tightly together. “They were dangerous.”
Father of devilish lies! Indignation momentarily stole my words. I inhaled through my nose and fixed a cold smile on my face.
“No, Lisa. The only dangerous person here is you. Pack your shit and get the hell out of here. You’re fired.”
“You can’t fire me. You don’t have the authority.” She stood taller.
My tenuous grip on my inner zen slipped, and lava bubbled up inside me. My hand was around her arm before I could stop myself, and my body went into auto mode, hauling her across the front office and out into the back.
I released her with a shove. “Get the fuck off this floor. Now.”
I slammed the door in her face and walked back over to Dotty, who was flickering with agitation.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble. I just … I want to move on.”
I took a breath to compose myself and push the anger back down. “I know, Dotty. I know.” I signed Lisa out and logged into the system. “Let me see what I can do, sweets. Just give me a moment, okay?”
As I accessed the allocation database, I couldn’t help but wonder how the hell the five erroneous allocations had slipped past Justine in auditing?
Justine from auditing was away from her desk when I called. Processing was the first step, an important step, but Justine’s department double-checked all allocations on a daily basis.
How had Lisa’s allocations been missed?
I’d have to catch her later.
I took the stairs to the fourth floor two at a time, ignoring the burn in my thighs. I had to make room for the calories I was about to consume in the cafeteria, and working a double shift meant I’d have to miss out on the gym tonight.
Shame.
Not.
My butt ached from the climb. I paused for a breather by the promotional poster taped to the wall.
Necro City, the hub of all things untethered. A hot spot for the dead, and favored vacation spot for the living looking to engage with the spirits.
Ha, there were just as many of the latter as the former. Soul Savers Inc. was one of several allocation agencies across the country and one of a hundred around the world.
Several decades ago, a bunch of nutty scientists decided to try their hand at creating a drug to stop aging. Long story short, the drug got released into the atmosphere before it was perfected. It had little effect on humans aside from fucking with their brain chemistry so they could suddenly see ghosts. It did, however, have an impact on reapers, the psychopomps responsible for carrying souls to the other side, whatever the other side was. Yeah, the drug killed a bunch of those, leaving the reaper system severely short-staffed. It wasn’t long before the world was filled with spirits waiting to move on.
That was how the allocation centers were born. The organization called Soul Savers Inc. was funded by the same government who’d fucked us over and managed by the underworld administration. We received procedural updates via email from [email protected].
As for the reapers? I’d never seen one. The shit had gone down way before I was born, but my Aunt Lara had told me the story of the day the reapers came, swooping through the sky with their massive wings and hot bods. I’d seen pictures of the main four since then, and damn, she hadn’t been exaggerating. They call the main four the Dominus reapers, sons of Lilith and wielders of the scythe. Official titles matter, apparently.
I paused at the fourth-floor entrance and took a moment to catch my breath. Enough calories burned for a donut? Methinks so. They had the best selection of baked goods at Soul Savers. One of the perks of working here, or in my case, one of the downfalls, because I had a serious weakness when it came to baked goods. You could even call it my Achilles’ heel. My waistline hated me, and my hips would probably slap me if they could, but my taste buds thanked me for the tribute.
The cafeteria was buzzing with activity as usual. Ghosts with level three influence served food and coffee behind the counter while allocation agents chatted in groups at the neat round Formica tables.
I grabbed a mocha and a donut with rainbow sprinkles and tucked myself into my favorite spot up against the wall. It had the best view of the whole cafeteria, perfect for people watching.
A spirit stepped out of the men’s loos, a look of disgust on his face as he pushed a bucket and mop toward the ladies’. Another wiped the tables and picked up empty plates and cups.
In Necro City, everyone served a role, and spirits that were powerful enough to touch and move shit were put to work. The rest were allocated to hauntings—cemeteries, old buildings, and even homes. You’d be surprised how many lonely people were happy to share their homes with a ghost.
“Musing much?” Coraline slipped into the seat opposite me.
Coraline Vincent, twenty-four for life, dead but loving it. Her motto, not mine. And she was looking less ethereal than usual today. Not a good sign.
I took a casual sip of my mocha. “Who’d you siphon?”
She pouted. “No one. This is natural.”
Yeah, I’d believe that if she was a level five or above; those spirits were able to maintain a solid form by siphoning residual energy from the air around them. But Cora was a level four, and the only way she could look the way she did right now was from siphoning directly off the living, and the penalty for that was purgatory. It fell into the thou-shalt-not-harm-the-living bracket.