Mortal Scream (Harbingers of Death Book 1)

by LeAnn Mason

  Continuing to talk about the clearly conflicted girl as if she weren’t there, Jess snorted delicately. “If she wasn’t, I’d wager the little lamb should be by now.”

  Ember swung her legs over the edge of her perch. “Psh. Cole is a puppy. He wouldn’t hurt a fly… a living fly. Can’t say the same about this one.” She pointed in Aria’s direction. “Violent. Rash. A danger. There was the rock incident.”

  Aria’s eyes dropped to the cement floor in some amount of shame… or perhaps to hide a smile? Sly minx. Jessica’s interest stirred despite the circumstances and revelation. It was a primal reaction she couldn’t fully quell.

  Ember’s teasing abated, returning to the concerns she’d been airing with her teammates before Aria’s intrusion. Namely that Aria was a hindrance. “And whatever crime she committed to cause her to be admitted here.” Her hands spread to indicate the dingy cement walls and woefully weak-framed beds.

  “Murder,” Raven supplied without inflection.

  That seemed to snap the subject in question from her silent stupor, and Aria finally stepped into her own cell. “I didn’t commit any crime,” She gritted out, leaning against the bars and crossing her arms, defensive.

  It was mouthwatering how sanguine Aria’s cheeks became when her anger was piqued. But she was like a mewling kitten compared to Ember in a rage—and their teammate had been getting close to boilin’ for a minute there ‘til, like a damp towel on the flames, Aria showed up.

  “I was wrongly accused. I’m innocent. I didn’t kill anyone. I was just in the wrong place at… the wrong...” Aria blinked, seeming to make a connection. “Holy mother. That’s why I screamed… when that guy was stabbed. I knew he wasn’t going to… to make it. I’m a fucking banshee.” She tested the word, uncertain. Her knees buckled, sending her sliding down the bars to rest against the cement flooring as she attempted to come to terms.

  “According to Seke. Well, not the fuckin’ part. And our captain is never wrong.”

  Pale eyes swung toward Jess. “Because he’s a god. An actual freaking god. Not just an expression describing his looks. Cole said he’s a hellhound and you’re a siren.” It was a question and a statement all rolled into a babble.

  “That’s right.” Jess displayed a little more tooth while the girl played supernatural catch-up.

  “And you’re a… raven? Based on your nick-name, Brenna, and your shower trick.”

  “What’s it to you?” Raven snapped. Jess saw Raven’s fingers twitch, itching to release their talons.

  Aria missed it, her attention migrating naturally to the fourth supernatural in the room she hadn’t yet labeled. “What kind of … creature are you?”

  Ember cocked her head, red pixie-cut hair sticking out at all angles. “Cole didn’t say?”

  Aria shook her head, silver tresses sliding across the porcelain flesh of her neck, over the pulsing jugular…

  Ember hopped off the bed onto the floor with grace, almost floating she landed so gently. Aria cowed back against the cell bars as the smaller woman rose from her crouch and light-footed closer. Jessica suspected the old bird was tired of training newbies. She had gone through many iterations of teammates over the course of her endlessly looping lifecycles. And that wasn’t part of their job she’d reminded them earlier. “I die—over and over and over again.” One hand swirled on her wrist with each repeat of ‘over.’ It was an answer and it wasn’t.

  The crease between Aria’s brow meant she ruminated on what creature that might be, and they let her have that time for various reasons: Jessica liked the game, Raven had no interest in the conversation, and Ember was testing Aria, reading her.

  Jessica tapped a nail on the toilet tank to garner Aria’s attention. “So, you know all about us. Now, tell us about you.” She dropped her chin onto a palm, elbow pressed into a knee, and winked. “Why didn’t you know what you are?”

  Aria squinted at her audience from her spot on the floor. “That’s a load of bull. I don’t know anything about you besides your names and your… breeds? And that you’re all on some kind of team, which if I didn’t have these weird urges to scream, I would label some freaky cult.”

  Ember hissed, stepping into the banshee. “Breeds?! We’re not animals.”

  Rising to loom over the phoenix, Aria snapped back, “I only just learned I’m a freaking beacon of death, and that’s why I’ve been seeing murders. Cut me a break! I don’t know the terminology.”

  “Now, now, ladies. Let’s show a little compassion for each other,” Jessica intervened, popping up and toppling the trash. “You forgot one.” Pointing at the spillage of waste, Jessica ambled toward the pair, ready to pry them apart with her teeth if needed. The remark was intended to lighten the tensions of their fiery friend. As much as interrogating the confused supernatural wasn’t their job, killing her wasn’t either.

  However, the unintended result of Jessica’s trash maneuver was Aria’s seething gaze veering toward the siren and Ember snarling, “Stay out of this.”

  “No can do. Like she said, we’re a team.” Jessica shook her head but made the wise move not to proceed physically into the midst of that barrel of cats.

  As expected, Aria twisted her chin aside in surrender. However, she didn’t let the words go. “A team of what?” Aria’s hands flew above her head then slapped her thighs.

  “Y’all are makin’ it hot in here.” Jess fanned her face. “And not in a good way.”

  It was an even hotter moment before Ember swiveled on a heel. She returned to Aria’s bed with a bit of crude “try and stop me” in her narrowed eyes. Aria decided to slide along the bars until she was against the wall opposite the bunks and drop to the floor again, keeping them in her sights and her periphery on the outside. Smart gal.

  Jessica stepped in, knowing that Ember had spoken her last for the time being. She paced back to her perch and took her seat, attempting to appear friendly…. and to take herself out of reach of temptation. Aria was looking more and more like a juicy forbidden apple. Doubly forbidden because not only was she not their target, but turned out the girl might become a colleague. It wasn’t in Jessica’s taste to eat where she worked. “We’re supernaturals with … morbid skills. Useful, but morbid.”

  “Harbingers.” Raven sat up slowly, using a moderate tone. Yelling was something Jessica had never seen their Raven do. She was chillier than a snowstorm in December. “Harbingers of Death.”

  ◆◆◆

  I tried to process what the hell that meant. The kind of creatures they were… morbid wasn’t the word I’d use. Scary as fuck and … deadly.

  “So… you kill people?”

  That damn Barbie kept sizing me up. Flashing those teeth, she giggled innocently and turned to the mirror under my gaze. Preening, she smacked her lips together and floofed up her loose curls before deigning to explain what she thought was so funny. It’s not like I had any clue as to the world they were in before about a day ago, and I thought the question made a lot of sense—especially since they kept threatening me. “No. We help them cross over. We all play a part based on our skills.”

  I squinted at her. “What exactly are your skills?” Cole had said she was a biter, but I wouldn’t exactly call that a skill. There weren’t any oceans here to drown lured humans in.

  She opened her mouth.

  The next thing I knew, I was across the room, standing in front of the toilet, blinking into her eye-shadow and mascara-heavy eyes. Her lips were tilted in a seductive lure. “I lead witnesses away. We prefer to stay unnoticed—quiet.” She winked and bopped me on the nose then snapped her teeth. I stumbled back and peddled hard in reverse until my back hit the bars again. Bitch. She could’ve just said instead of showing me. The comment, too, was especially hurtful, though the siren didn’t know it, because it was the presence of “witnesses” that had gotten me caught.

  “In a pinch, though, Seke can call the shadows and Cole helps us become…” Jessica checked her nails. “...uninteresting if you
will. Those around tend to look through and past. Don’t want any ol’ human noticin’ us supes.”

  “That explains that,” I muttered to myself, recalling both the strange light when I interacted with Seke and the feeling of being utterly ignored when walking with Cole. Handy.

  Screaming my head off didn’t seem so handy.

  Some got dealt all the good supernatural powers.

  “And you two?” I asked my cellie since the redhead was giving me the silent treatment.

  Raven knocked Ember’s shoe off and tickled her bare sole in a bored fashion like it was the only thing to do around here and we weren’t having a life-changing, mind-blowing conversation about a secret group of beings who carted away the souls of the dead.

  “Quit that,” Ember kicked Raven with her other foot. “And don’t answer her. That’s need-to-know, and she doesn’t need to know.”

  Guess Ember knew about the information-is-power thing my parents taught me.

  I didn’t think Raven would ever give me anything anyway.

  Screw those two. I had enough to internalize. I watched their antics in a bit of an out-of-body blankness. It was such a mundane, simple thing, but I was over here having an epiphany that was pretty hard to chew and swallow.

  I wanted to know where the souls went. Would I find my parents there? Had some Harbingers of Death team helped them cross over? And where were they for that guy in the alley? Why were they on a team and left totally alone? Why were my skills showing up now whereas these people seemed comfortable with theirs?

  First, though, I had one more person’s skills—the most important ones—to ask about and hope they’d tell me: mine. “And I… scream at the person who’s about to die? That seems fucking counterproductive in terms of keeping things … unnoticed.” I wanted to ask Seke my questions, but seeing as I was stuck with his team in my bedroom without my permission, I’d have to make do with what I had at my disposal. Like my parents trained me to do.

  Thoughts of the gorgeous, hope-giving god waylaid my thoughts. Would I ever see him again? Was he really going to get me out, or had that been a ruse to check if I was the supe Cole thought I was? I assume that asshat tattled on me. The urge to go back to the court and scream at them, I didn’t kill that guy; I was just being a harbinger of his death! was strong. “Why would you want me on your team?”

  Raven sat up fast, causing Ember’s foot to bounce off her head. “What?” She shoved the appendage aside.

  “Oh, honey.” Jessica laughed. Didn’t she get bored of flashing her pointed teeth at me? I tried not to look for bits of flesh caught between the serrated daggers since her last floss but…

  So… they weren’t trying to recruit me to join them? I got to stay in loner central?

  Ember lifted her feet under her. “You’re not joining our team. You’re just in the way. Seke asked us to educate you so that you don’t go drawing attention to yourself—and the rest of us supes.”

  Oh. I deflated.

  He’d seemed interested in me, but maybe he just found me an unusual study for not knowing the truth already. He’d sent his team to fix that and now… Was he not going to get me out? Was that just something he said as a false reason for organizing our meeting? My heart sank. He’d seemed so sincere and supportive.

  supes? Were there a lot of supernatural beings? Even different... Species? I assumed so seeing as each of the five I now knew existed, varied from one another.

  “We—” she spread her palms. “—are your friendly neighborhood Harbinger Prison Unit.”

  Raven swiveled her shoeless feet flat onto the floor. “We’re here for a reason. Like you, we’re not here because we’re criminals.” The knock was coy. “We’re here to do a job.”

  “Someone will die, and we’ll take care of it. Like we always do. And you are getting in the way of that,” Ember finished the thought smoothly, showing how well-connected they were as a team. Just like the espionage trio I’d thought them to emulate, they were a real covert group of operatives.

  A sinister thought infiltrated my mind, not for the first time. Were they the people my parents wanted me to avoid? Was that why they’d hidden the supernatural world from me?

  Ember snarled, “Now that you know your deal, I expect you to keep your trap shut about us and leave us alone. All of us.”

  “Wait a minute.” That dismissal was unfair and hurtful. I mean I, too, wanted nothing more than to be rid of these inconsiderate and taciturn jerks. They could start by evacuating my area. They’d been lurking in wait like some kind of terrifying surprise party from Hell.

  But they hadn’t told me a key piece of personal information. “You haven’t told me how to keep my trap shut.”

  “Not our job.” The redhead’s irritation was rising, I could tell. Her hair almost seemed to peak in spikes around her head more sharply than before as if static electricity held the strands aloft.

  Jessica’s hair tossed. “Anyway, how would we know? We’re not banshees like you are, sugar. Never even met one before,” Bafflement dripped from her tone.

  I jumped to my feet, my own anger heating rapidly. They knew about the supernatural world. They might not have—or want—a banshee on their team, but they knew more about them than I did. And they knew that. At least they could put me in contact with a banshee who could teach me to get a handle on my outbursts.

  “Free time ends in half an hour, ladies,” a guard shouted in the distance.

  The redhead, who I suspected to be either a zombie, vampire, or phoenix—maybe ghosts can die repeatedly?—dismounted from my bunk and bent at the waist to retrieve her shoe and put it back on. “Let’s go. We need to get back to work, be vigilant. Unless Aria here is the one to kick it, we’ve got others to watch, and it could be any of them. This is a waste of our time. We need to be ready.”

  Jessica followed dutifully, and Raven stood, sliding into her shoes, all three of them done with the conversation.

  But I wasn’t done.

  “You’re right, it’s not me.” I gave a smirk as close as I could to mirror Jessica’s sinister grin. I didn’t know they weren’t aware of their own target—seemed a half-assed way to run an op.

  Jessica bounced off Ember’s back when the little spitfire stopped marching. “Ouch.” She placed a hand over her chest.

  Oh, yeah. Powershift to the banshee.

  Glaring at the women who’d paused at the threshold of my abysmal excuse for personal space, I boasted, “I know who it is. I know who will die.”

  “Who?” Ember demanded.

  The best way to get something you want is to make someone want to give it to you.

  Guess Ember hadn’t learned that from her parents the way I had. Did Phoenixes have parents if they just got reborn from their own ashes?

  Too many questions; no one to answer them. My parents were now part of those mysteries. They had given no lessons on using my training to stay out of the way; they didn’t say anything about supernatural skills. Their “lessons,” however, stuck.

  No such thing as free.

  “Tell me how to stop the screaming, and I’ll tell you,” I negotiated.

  I’d happily leave them alone, but I wanted my own peace too. If Seke did get me out, I didn’t want to get caught expelling my lungs like a lunatic at another death. If not, well, sharing a dorm with Raven meant suffocating unless I got a handle on my emerging nightmare screams. At least until their… target… died. Would they leave then? Once they accomplished their task? Would they leave me here?

  “She’s bluffing,” Jessica hedged, brushing a curl from her face with derision.

  Raven considered me, those unnerving peepers staring at me like soul-sucking probes. “I don’t think she is. The nightmare… and in the yard. Bertha?” Raven cocked her head, showing the avian nature of her… shifter side. Were they like one soul, two bodies? Or did she house a separate entity—?

  My curious thought was cut off. “Half an hour, ladies.” CO Michaels warned. Walking past their ce
ll, he tapped on the bars with a baton, repeating his warning while proceeding around the unit and out into the yard.

  My attention cranked unwillingly toward Michaels, and it felt like slow motion as a sensation balled deep in my diaphragm and began to surge its way upward, an eruption about to happen. I slapped my hand over my mouth as it opened without my conscious thought.

  “Not Bertha,” I heard Raven say.

  “Ah heck,” Jessica muttered.

  The harbingers tackled me before the scream could escape my throat and draw Michaels’s notice. Nevertheless, I had just given them the only leverage I had.

  Fuck.

  16

  Kicking and scratching really did happen when women fought—regardless of their supernatural status. That truth I learned the hard way on the floor of my cell. The three otherworldly women vied to keep my emerging scream from expelling though I was pretty sure the fact that my head hit concrete and multiple feet found my supine body was just a happy coincidence. Through their sledgehammer tactics, my lungs still tried to expel the breath; my larynx wanted to create the ear-splitting pitch that would announce to everyone that CO Michaels was not long for this world.

  And now, these deathly creatures knew it.

  The only reason to cover my scream was to keep attention from them and probably to get a few licks in while doing so.

  Knock it off!

  My mental voice actually cut through the pitch lodged in my mouth, and the scream… died. I relaxed instantly, my body deflating like a popped balloon. The hands, formerly restraining, slowly pulled away.

  The women looked at each other questioningly as they retreated, confusion plain on their ethereal faces.

  I’d meant to direct the thought at my wrestling opponents, but… “Looks like I gave us all the answers we wanted. Go me,” I groaned, pulling myself from the ground to a sitting position.

  I needed a moment. “Thanks for all the extra care you put into silencing me, ladies.” I grasped my smarting ribs for emphasis as I glared up at the surrounding menaces. “I’m fine now, thanks.” I shooed them away, moving to stand.