Thousand Year Switch

Chapter 27

The cake making was messy, or at least, I was. It didn't take long for me to be demoted to "official stirrer of the batter", since that's all that was entrusted to me.

"Okay." Aden tried to grab the bowl from me. "I think it's stirred now."

I held it up out of her reach. "Hang on, Sunshine. If I'm only good for stirring I'm gonna do a damn good job of it!"

"You have." She grabbed for the bowl again and I continued to fend her off with one hand.

"You've done a magnificent job, now give me the bowl. It has to go in the oven now."

"Good try." I teased her as she snatched at it again. "Too bad you're way too short." I stuck my finger in the cake batter and dotted her nose with it. Aden gave me an outraged look that was clearly meant to intimidate me into giving up the bowl. It was less scary, more adorable."You've got a little something on your nose," I told her helpfully.

"You're impossible." she rubbed the tip of her nose, struggling not to grin.

"Hold on." I brought the bowl down to her level, ran the spoon around it a few more times and announced, "As the Mix-Master, I now pronounce this ready!"

She snatched the bowl from me. "Okay, Mix-Master. Hold the pan steady while I drop the batter in."

"What?" I pretended shock. "I'm allowed doing that too?"

"You're a funny man. Hold it still," she said sternly.

A half hour later we were sitting on the ragged love seat, each with a huge piece of chocolate cake. We hadn't bothered with icing, so I ate it like a brownie. Aden insisted on using a fork.

The smell of cake must have drifted down the corridors, because the others gradually drifted in until they were all there except Beefcake and Morgan.

"Cake!" The expression on Amazon's face reminded me of a kid looking at his Christmas presents, and she practically ran into the kitchen to join the other vultures in picking over what was left.

Aden grinned at me. "Good thing we got big pieces, because there's no seconds here."

"No kidding." I was conscious of how close we were sitting, how our legs were touching, how my arm would brush hers when I moved it. I wondered if the others noticed. I suspected they were too occupied with the cake.

Good plan, I told myself, phase one: distract others with chocolate cake. Phase two: move in on girl. I think I might be awesome.

"Where's the Malake?" Freckles said around a mouthful, "we thought she was with you."

Aden and I exchanged a look and shrugged.

"Huh," he grunted, "damn Angel. I don't like how she keeps disappearing."

Aden shrugged, "Morgan is fine. She's probably just wandering."

Freckles looked doubtful, but he didn't say anything else. Someone changed the subject then, they were talking about some Malake ha-Mawet thing, something about a Death Taker.

I interrupted, "What's that?"

They looked at one another, and for a second I thought they weren't going to tell me, like it was some big Mawet secret. Finally Amazon spoke up. "A Death Taker a Malake ha-Mawet who is present at the death of a human and chooses to take the death into themselves."

"So," I said slowly, "it means the human lives and the Malake ha-Mawet dies?"

"Yup," Amazon said. "It's almost unheard of, the last Death Taking was a few thousand years ago."

"Until now." Freckles put down his plate and leaned back with a sigh. "What a moron."

"What happened?" I said, curiously.

He shrugged. "Someone texted Dave this morning, apparently everyone is talking about it. One of us was digging through the wreckage of a building looking for lost souls and he found a family, a mother and father crying over the body of their little daughter. The Death Taker took her death."

Amazon shrugged her massive shoulders. "Likely he was tired of all this and wished to cease existing. The little girl was his gift to the world before he left."

"You can romanticize it all you want, "Freckles Guy said flatly, "it doesn't make him less of a moron."

I had been listening wide-eyed this entire time, and now I noticed Amazon nudge Freckles frantically and gesture at Aden. I looked sideways and was astonished to see she had tears in her eyes. Her face was pale, and she had her hands clenched tightly in her lap.

"Aden, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

Aden looked like she was struggling to say something, but tears choked her, and she shook her head and stood, leaving the room abruptly.

"Aden!" I shot off the sofa, looking around at the others in bewilderment, "What...?"

"Idiot," Amazon looked accusingly at Freckles, who groaned and slapped himself in the face with his palm. "Awe, damnit. I am an idiot. I totally forgot."

"What?" I said. "What is it?"

"Ask Aden," Amazon said firmly, "it's not our place to tell."

"Alright, fine."