Dalton Burke had made a career out of studying Death – its myths, its mysteries and its mayhem. But little did he know that Death, in the form of Azrael, had also been studying him. Not to relieve him of his life, but to ask Dalton for a favor.

I find that the stories I write (or have at least written in my head) come from simple questions. Complex issues rarely conjure up interesting scenarios in my mind; rather it is the short simple question that gets my gray matter swirling. In the case of Azrael, I found myself wondering after the death of a friend, what if Death just got tired of his job? Is there a retirement plan? And from that, this story arose.