"What?" asked Barron.
"What?" Lucas asked calmly not knowing what the reaper was so surprised about.
Not waiting, Barron came at Lucas who had stepped away from the door as well as the reaper, on his way to continue his work before picking up the lantern to only step aside for the reaper to reach its hand through nothing but empty s.p.a.ce.
Before the reaper tried to grab Lucas by its bony fingers, Lucas had turned around to raise the lantern to the level of the reaper's hand for the reaper to hiss at the heat. Though the fire didn't burn reapers, it didn't let one know how hot it was which touched the cold bones of the reaper that didn't burn the dark robes it wore.
"I will take your soul right away," Barron, the grim reaper threatened Lucas in anger as it seemed that this mere mortal was trying to make a fool of him.
As Barron moved its bony fingers to get to Lucas, the butler moved his hand along with the lantern in the same direction and the grim reaper hissed, retreating its hand before it could feel the uncomfortable heat it was not used to, "You sound like a snake. Were you one in your previous life?" Lucas taunted Barron in such a patient voice that it annoyed the fourth card easily.
Out of the twelve cards of the Grim, Lucas knew most of them. The fourth card was a card of mischief that enjoyed turning the vessels sick for no particular reason and funnily the higher-ups who belonged to the realm of the dead overlooked every action of this reaper without causing any penalty.
As easy was his ability to kill people and get the souls without having to wait for the soul, Barron was easy to provoke. Being the youngest grim reaper, the fourth reaper was childish and a little impulsive perhaps thought Lucas to himself.
Barron wasn't happy with this butler calling him names, "Your arrogance is widening with every word you utter."
"Hmm," Lucas hummed, dropping the lantern back to his side he asked in an extremely polite tone, "Why don't you finish what you came for initially and we can all carry on with our lives, Sir?"
The reaper chuckled, he referred to him as 'Sir', it seemed that fear was finally creeping into this mortals' body, "Finally knowing your place," said Barron, its jaw clacking every time it spoke, "I have met mortals like you thinking too highly of yourself. Is it because you are a butler? You are an insignificant little thing, I can crush you with my hands and I will show you how it's done, not that it will be of any use to you," Barron cackled as if it were laughing at a private joke.
Seeing Lucas not laugh along with it, the reaper stopped laughing but the smile on its face widened, "You must be a high-quality soul."
"Why do you say that?" Lucas asked in a curious tone, humoring the reaper who was taking its own time to take a soul.
"You can see the great me standing right in front of you and you are able to see-" the reaper stopped talking for two seconds before telling, "You could see me back then too, isn't it? You were only acting as if you couldn't see me."
The reaper looked at Lucas, its entire body pausing still before it moved again, "I will take you with me and fetch you for a higher price. That's right. Come here, mortal."
Lucas gave out a tired sigh, "You should have been named as the yapper who keeps talking over and over again, Barron. Now I cannot even let you go," hearing this, the reaper snorted.
"Says the mortal."
Lucas had already prepared himself for this knowing how stubborn Barron could get and therefore before the reaper could get to him, he dodged and slipped into the next room.
When Barron followed the butler, he saw that the butler had vanished without a trace to only find him standing outside the mansion. Blowing the salt from the window, the reaper finally met the butler outside. It didn't want to waste any more time and it went directly to pull the soul through from the butler's body.
But every time Barron's fingers went to reach for the butler, the butler would grab its hand and throw it away from him which wasn't supposed to happen! A mortal couldn't touch a reaper like this.
After trying to grab his soul for a good ten minutes as they moved in the garden with Lucas dodging its hand, the reaper finally stood without chasing him. Barron was more than annoyed because he realized the mortal butler was playing around with him.
"Tired already?" asked Lucas to the reaper.
"You aren't a human, are you. Not even a vampire," said Barron with its red eyes watching the butler standstill in his place and his hands getting inside his pockets, "You are not alive. You are dead," Lucas smiled hearing this, "You even know my name. You are a reaper."
Lucas didn't confirm it but the subtle smile and his gaze told it all.
Barron huffed, "No wonder you are able to see and touch me but what are you doing here," the reaper asked in a humming question as it tried to figure out what Lucas was doing here instead of collecting souls. It was a protocol for the reapers to go find lost souls or deliver the souls to the gates, "What is your name reaper?" Barron couldn't help itself at thinking how famous it was as the reaper knew its name. Only the infamous Grims names were known across the realm of the dead while most of the reapers who worked below them were nameless people no one cared about.
"I am a mere reaper, Sire. Why don't you do your job and leave from here else you wouldn't like it," Lucas said, wanting to wade off the fourth card of the Grims but the creature was stubborn.
"For a lowly reaper, you show a lot of strength of courage in front of him. You should know I am the fourth card of the Grims, who brings plague and illness that cannot be cured. Be it humans, witches, vampires, or the stuck up pureblooded vampires. Nothing can affect me," the smile on Lucas' face fell and Barron continued to say, "You have the nerve to speak to me in that tone as if you are higher than me. I am going to drag you to the gates and I will see who is going to speak about chipmunks or garbage cans."
Lucas chuckled, "I thought nothing affects you but looks like the garbage did get on your nerves. Forgive me for speaking something so rude towards you," the butler bowed his head to the reaper's satisfaction, "I didn't mean to call you an animal who eats one bite and throws it on the ground."
"Keep asking for forgiveness but it won't work. You have made me very angry," said the reaper pulling its own scythe while Lucas had put his scythe behind him that had turned invisible.
"Your weapon looks rusty," Lucas commented to receive a cackle from the reaper.
Barron whispered the words that pa.s.sed in the wind, "It is because it is old. I am older and stronger than you. Wiser and I will take you now. Tell bye bye to playing butler," saying this, the reaper moved towards Lucas who didn't move an inch.
"I am sure you are," he saw the butler speak and before his scythe could touch the butler's neck, the reaper's non-existent eyebrows moved up when the man raised his hand to catch hold of his robes and throw him across the garden floor. The reaper this time moved in such speed to only have Lucas catch hold of his skeleton neck and push him against the ground.
The reaper couldn't believe this nameless creature he was dealing with was strong enough to push him on the ground. Only a reaper could fight off another reaper, to the rest of the world, they were nothing but phantom beings.
Barron tried to move and get away but even scythe appeared to be useless and it tried to knock the soul that was in the butler's vessel. It tried to worm its way out, twisting and turning until it laid on the garden floor face flat with Lucas sitting on top of it to hold both of its bony arms.
"You are going to pay for this!" the reaper hissed at Lucas.
"Are you sure you weren't a snake in your last life?" upon Lucas's question, the reaper only riled further and before it could say anything more, he said, "Only I am allowed to be that arrogant of who I am and yet here you are. What a child," came the calm words from Lucas' lips.
Barron twisted his arms tried to jab its way out of the hold, "Let me get hold of your soul. You will cry when that happens."
"I don't think I am interested in that offer. I am sure you will enjoy your life here," Lucas hummed, stepping his knee on the creature's hand, he placed one hand on Barron's head while the other hand pulled something from his vest that he had been carrying since Belle had gone to sleep.
During the time in this mortal world, Lucas had come to learn to combine the magic that pa.s.sed through both the worlds- The land of the dead and the land of the living. The thirteen Grims of the land of the dead, they weren't all the same. They were made differently and to handle each of them, the technique was different. Though he hadn't found it for all the Grims, the fourth one appeared to be the lucky one where he had explored earlier, sharing the same characteristics as the card of eleven in the Grims.
In a blink of an eye, the reaper disappeared and moved to the object he held in his hand.
"Who the f.u.c.k you think you are?! Let me out of this s.h.i.+tty cotton bag! I will burn you, I will rip your eyes out and feed them to the h.e.l.lhound!!" the reaper screamed unable to move its arms or legs.
"Now be a good toy else I will throw you in the fire. Actually, you know what? I will enjoy burning your hands and legs. I am positive you will love it," Lucas said it smiling.
