the dragon turned its deep blue, angry eyes on mina and changed directions to chase after her. mina screamed in fright when she reached the doors and pushed them closed as soon as she exited. turning, she could see the dragon bearing down upon her through the glass slits. clenching her teeth, she thrust the crowbar through the metal handles of the door just as the dragon tried to bust through the doors. mina fell onto her backside in fear and watched as the large metal doors held firm. smoke billowed out beneath the door every time she pushed against the crowbar, but they didn't budge. a large blue eye pressed against the door pane and looked at her angrily.

she swallowed back her fear, dusted herself off, and ran back upstairs toward nan. praying that the doors would hold until nan was safe. once she was back on the fourth floor, she walked quickly down the hallway, noticing the red and blue lights flashing on the wall when she passed a window. someone had finally called the police. and now with police on the premises, all she had to do was get nan out of the hospital and somewhere safe. she could try and track down the reaper again and get the grimoire back on a different day. she knew that the reaper wouldn't give up; she would eventually try and kill mina. but by then, mina would have found a way to kill a dragon.

mina came to room 413 and quietly opened the door slipping inside. the room was dark and the drapes closed with just a flicker of red and blue lights dancing on the ceiling. she couldn't hear any music, which meant the impromptu concert was officially over. walking over to the bed, mina stumbled over something on the floor. she reached around in the near darkness to move the object, and her hand came in contact with a warm leg, and it was attached to a body. mina pulled her hand away quickly and looked up to see that nan was still asleep and her heart monitor was still quietly beeping.

slowly, she moved around the bed and reached for the light switch next to the hospital bed. her hand shook with fear. quickly, like pulling off a band-aid, she flicked on the light and looked at the body on the floor. it was dr. martin. there was a large lump on the side of his head and blood on his forehead.

mina reached down to touch dr. martin's neck to feel for a pulse, and he moaned softly. he was still alive! a soft beeping sound came from across the room, and mina looked to the corner to see a man sitting silently in a chair watching her.

he was dressed from head to toe in black with a long leather jacket that reached the floor. the man reached over and touched the alarm on his expensive watch, shutting it off. she looked at the clock in the room and back to the man in the chair. it was midnight. he slowly stood up and walked toward her, his hand reaching for a long wooden object leaning against the wall.

she shook her head in confusion. not understanding and not believing who she saw. she recognized him. it didn't make sense.

he clicked a button on the side of the wooden staff and a sword shot out. "you are just in time," karl spoke gruffly. "for the reaping!" he swung the sword at mina's head.

chapter 24

mina fell backward, tripping once again over the prone form of dr. martin. karl smiled cruelly and easily pushed the hospital bed with nan on it out of the way, exposing a direct path to mina. what could she do? he could, kill any of them at any moment. she could only do one thing. stall.

"why now? why didn't you kill me earlier when you had the chance? i mean, come on now, you had me and let me go. that doesn't sound like you are a very good reaper," mina taunted, forcing herself to sound braver than she was.

karl stopped and bared his teeth angrily, and then he did something unexpected. he laughed. a deep menacing chuckle that only got louder and louder.

he stopped laughing and smiled at her. "it has been quite a few years since i killed my last grimm, and truthfully, i wasn't expecting to almost run one over."

he moved to the left, and mina mirrored his movements by moving to the right, keeping out of reach of the sword.

"well, obviously, we are not all dead," she taunted again, eyeing the blade.

"i had caught wind of a new one arising and was hunting the grimm." karl eyed her up and down carefully. "i wasn't expecting one so young. for you to actually lie and tell me you were this girl," he nodded to nan sleeping in the bed, "was brilliant."

"if i had known who you were, i would have instantly killed you in the woods instead of delaying my kill." he reached into his jacket and pulled out a black leather bound book. mina stiffened when she saw it. it was the grimoire, although it looked different since it had changed shape to accommodate its new master.

"that's mine," mina demanded.

"was yours." karl waved the book around. "it's probably the only thing that saved you that night. i hadn't planned on finding this. i didn't recognize what i had, and when i finally figured out it was the fabled grimoire and that you had lied about who you were, it was too late. someone had alerted the rangers to where we were. so i took my prize and let you escape. but i knew that if i baited you, and killed this nan taylor, you would come to me." he opened his hand in an inviting way and pointed to mina. "and i was right: here you are."

"so you are the one imprisoning the fae in the book," mina accused.

karl shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "they all had it coming. actually, all of the fae have it coming, including you."

"what about jared? what did you do to him?" mina yelled.

karl looked at her confused. "i didn't capture a jared. well, not that i know of," he laughed.

her mouth pursed in thought. she was out of time. she heard a commotion in the hallway that was coming closer, and so did the reaper. karl yelled loudly and raised his sword high in the air when the door burst in and nurse diedre rushed in jumping directly into the path of the sword. she screamed and halfway changed shape midair right as the sword cut down onto her silver-scaled shoulder. it imbedded deep into bone. her scream dissolved into a roar of pain as she collapsed to the ground. the sword had broken in two; half stuck in the dragon diedre, the other half held pathetically in a very nervous reaper's hand.

the old nurse, beaten and battered, pulled herself up and changed fully into her dragon form, backing the reaper into the corner. he tried to dive right, but she clawed at his jacket and ripped open the pocket containing the grimoire.

mina saw it fall out and skitter across the floor. she dove for it, but so did karl. right when he grabbed the grimoire, diedre bit down on his leg. he screamed and reached into his jacket for another of his reaping weapons--a wickedly curved blade which he stabbed into the dragon's nose.

mina didn't look back; she didn't have time. she fumbled and pulled dr. martin up to a standing position and rolled him onto the foot of nan's bed. he was barely on. she unplugged nan from the machines and began to roll the hospital bed toward the opened door. giving thanks, that the new hospital rooms were large enough to accommodate a moving bed and a large dragon.

she swung the bed into the hallway and looked back toward the door to see a large gust of flame erupt out of the room. she could hear the sound of fighting and smell the smoke of the dragon. mina needed to get people out of the hospital and fast. on the wall was a red fire alarm, and she pulled it. immediately, the alarm went off, and the few night staff that weren't downstairs watching the police commotion outside began to evacuate the hospital rooms. thankfully, nan's room was the only one occupied down her hallway. when a nurse began to run toward the room filled with fire, the dragon, and reaper, mina intercepted her.