“Never?” He seemed surprised. Most people were.
Sometimes a reaper showed up early, before a person had actually died. That usually freaked them out.
“No scythe—no cutting a person down?”
“No cutting a person down.” She didn’t mention Death’s scythe. That was probably the most lethal device in existence. It could destroy anyone or anything, even a god—small g, not the big G. The head reapers had lesser versions, but those were still deadly in their own right.
Alexei dug his computer out of his knapsack and powered it up.
“What are you doing?” she asked. Curious, she scooted closer. She was very aware of him as a man. As much as she tried to keep her mind on what was important—staying alive—she couldn’t do anything to stop the way her whole being seemed to come to attention whenever she was near him. Now that he’d defended her, it was even worse. He’d put his life on the line for her. What woman wouldn’t be enticed by that kind of strength of character?
And then there was his body. Some women might be put off by his size, but not her. It was a huge turn-on that he was big enough, brawny enough to carry her several miles through the snow in the middle of the night.
She’d been so strong for so long. It was nice to have someone to lean on, even temporarily. And she wouldn’t apologize for that. It didn’t make her weak. It made her human, which she wasn’t. Not really. She wasn’t sure what she was classified as. Paranormals didn’t consider them one of theirs. They were outsiders.
Maybe that’s why she’d been so fascinated with people, how they loved and lived. Their lifespan was so short, but they packed so much into it.
“Cassie?”
“What?” Crap, had he been talking to her? This was no time to get distracted. She had to focus her attention.
He angled the laptop so she could see the screen. “Forgotten Brotherhood? You guys have your own website?”
“We can keep track of jobs so we don’t get in one another’s way.”
“Yeah, I bet that wouldn’t be good. There was an incident, wasn’t—” She broke off and nibbled her bottom lip. There’d been an incident all right. She remembered now. Reapers had been pulled off other jobs when there’d been a mass slaying, totally unexpected. It had happened a long time ago, likely before his time.
“We used to use a mail drop in the early days. This is easier. One of us per job, if we chose to accept it.”
“Like Mission Impossible, the television show and the movies?” She’d watched a lot of television this past year and loved it. There were so many diverse shows from comedy to police dramas. Not to mention reality television, which had very little to do with reality, in her opinion, but was downright entertaining.
Alexei chuckled. She smiled and pointed. “I did it. Made you laugh.”
He shook his head but kept on grinning. “Like Mission Impossible. Once we accept a job we see it through. Which is why we investigate a target before we act.” He shifted the screen back around and typed in a message.
“What are you doing? Who are you contacting? The less people involved in this the better.”
“Don’t worry. Maccus can handle himself.”
“The Hunter?” Jeez, he did move in some dangerous company. There’d been a shakeup between Heaven and Hell not long before she’d taken off that had resulted in a lot of tension. Even Death had taken an interest. But things had settled down before they’d had to get involved.
The angels managed their own affairs, and Lucifer was in charge of his demons. But reapers had to collect any casualties. She’d never understood why they weren’t involved in the affairs of the angels, fallen or otherwise, but questions weren’t encouraged.
That had become a problem for her.
“How do you know about Maccus?” The frown on Alexei’s face would terrify children and give grown men nightmares. Why was he so upset?
“Everyone knows about him. There was an incident last summer before I left the family business.”
“So, you’ve been gone since then?”
Too warm all of a sudden, she unzipped her coat, slipped it off, and ran her hands over her jean-covered thighs. “Yeah.”
“Why?”
That was the big question, wasn’t it? How could she make him understand? “I had one job.”
“Collect souls.”
She sat back on the sofa and started to pull her feet up, realized she was still wearing her boots, and took them off. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she stared off into space as memories swamped her.
“We do more than that. We’re there when a person leaves their physical form. Everyone is frightened, at first. Or angry. We help them transition to whatever comes next.”
“How do you know?” Alexei stretched his arm along the back of the sofa so his fingers barely grazed her shoulder.
“Where to take them?”
He nodded.
“That’s predetermined. Depends on what kind of creature you are, what god or gods you worship. Death makes the final decisions in any dispute, and we carry them out.”
His hand slid up until he cupped her neck. She angled around so she was looking at him. “Doesn’t it get hard to just do as you’re told?”
“Oh yeah.” That had been part of the problem. “But there’s always a cost when you don’t follow the rules.” She shivered and pulled her legs closer to her body.
“Tell me.” His voice was soft as a whisper, as though he knew how difficult this was for her.
“A reaper once decided a person was too beautiful, too special, to die. That the world needed them.” Her eyes welled with tears, but she blinked them back. She’d never shed a tear before she’d muted a part of herself. The longer she lived among humans, the more she resembled them.
“So he refused to take a soul and the person what? Came back to life?”
“He put the spirit back into the body. Similar to what happens naturally in a near-death experience. If a person isn’t supposed to die, but something happens, they can be guided back until it is the proper time. It’s rare, and it’s always sanctioned by Death himself, in consultation with whomever it is that makes those decisions with him.”
“Don’t you know?” He seemed surprised.
“We’re worker bees. We don’t have access to that kind of information. Above our pay grade.” Some of her bitterness seeped out. “I get it. I do. Don’t reap someone who is scheduled and you can set off a whole series of catastrophic events. People die when they’re not supposed to. Others might be born way before their time. It’s a mess and it has to be cleaned up or the whole balance of history could be at stake.”
“Why did you leave?” He rested his forehead against hers, his closeness bringing her comfort. “I can’t believe you did something bad enough to justify a hit on you.”
His faith warmed her, but he was wrong. “I did something unforgiveable.”
Alexei lifted his head and simply stared. There was neither disbelief nor condemnation there. Only a quiet acceptance. Long minutes passed. There were no more questions, no pressure or demand for more information.
“I couldn’t do it anymore,” she blurted, unable to keep it pent up inside. “Not for any high-minded reason. Not because I thought someone who was supposed to die should live. I simply handed off my cases to a co-worker and disappeared before they could stop me.”
“I don’t understand. What’s so wrong about that?”
How to make him understand. “In the history of the world, I’m the only one to ever walk away. But imagine if others decided to do the same. Who would reap? Chaos would ensue. People would be lost in the in-between, maybe forever. World order would be upset.
“I may be the catalyst that ends the world as we know it.”
Chapter Eight
This was big. Like apocalyptic big.
The woman sitting beside him might bring about the end of the world simply by walking away from a job. It was mind-blowing.
“That seems a tad excessive.”
Cassie blinked and then burst into laughter. Should he be insulted? Uncertain, he shrugged and chose not to be. It was better to see her laugh than to have her upset and sad.
“Why couldn’t you just take a vacation?” Everyone needed a break from work on occasion. A thought occurred to him. “How long have you been doing it?”
She wiped a tear from her eyes. “Reaping?”
He nodded, wishing she hadn’t stopped laughing. She was pretty when she laughed, so uninhibited with her head thrown back, exposing the slender column of her neck. That made him wonder what she’d look like lying in his bed, her head thrown back in ecstasy.
“Since the beginning of time.”
“What?” Her quiet words made his sexual fantasy disappear in a puff of smoke. Had he misheard her?
“When I say I’ve been doing this forever, I’m not kidding.”
At a couple hundred years old, he felt ancient. Some of the Brotherhood had been around a very long time, and no one speculated about Maccus. As a fallen angel, he’d seen and done it all.
But Cassie was in a category of her own. “Forever?”
She nodded and rested her head on her knees. She seemed so small beside him but was probably the oldest immortal he’d ever met. Only the gods might be older. And he wasn’t even sure about that.
“No wonder you left.” When her lips trembled, he couldn’t take it any longer. He lifted her and settled her onto his lap, hoping she’d ignore his erection. This was about comfort, not carnal pursuits.
Not that he didn’t want to heat the sheets with her, but that could wait.
“It was my job,” she needlessly reminded him. “Not just that, a divine responsibility.”
“But to do it forever…” That was going to take a while to wrap his brain around. “That seems excessive and unfair.”
Her soft pink lips turned up at the corners. “No one ever said life was fair. Death doesn’t always seem fair, either, but at least there’s a plan.”
He cupped her face in his hands, loving the way she gave him her complete attention. “You needed time off. Nothing wrong with that.” In his opinion, the entire situation was totally unfair. How could you expect someone to do that kind of work for eternity and not imagine they’d get tired of it?
Didn’t seem smart to him.
She shrugged and rested her hand against his chest, right over his heart. “I think the fear is that if one of us takes a vacation, we won’t want to return. And that’s valid.” She bit her bottom lip, pulling the plump flesh between her white teeth.
He groaned and desperately did his best to ignore his throbbing cock.
“Is everything okay?” Concern reflected in her expression.
“Fine,” he gritted out. “Do you want to go back?” His arms banded around her. Just by asking such a question, he feared he might cause her to suddenly disappear.
“Humans are so different from us. They feel everything so deeply. I never really had emotions, not with this intensity.”
She hadn’t answered his question. “Do you like it?” He couldn’t imagine not being able to experience love or happiness. It was probably a blessing in her line of work. That way she didn’t have to deal with pain or sadness or guilt every time she collected a soul.
When she tilted her head up, her short black hair tickled his chin and neck. “Yes.”
Totally captivated, he stared into her green eyes. Cassie was different from any woman he’d ever met, and not just because she was a reaper. She raised her hand and stroked his beard. It pleased him that she seemed to be fond of it.
“We are here for the day.” The sensual teasing sent all his blood rushing to his penis.
“You sure?” His first instinct was to get her as far away from here as possible, but he knew nothing about how her people hunted. This was her area of expertise.
“I’m sure they’ll keep an eye on the town for a day or two, until they get called elsewhere. If we stay hidden, whoever hired him might write Damian’s death off as an accident. A stroke of bad luck. Nothing more than two immortals fighting.”
“Do you believe that?”
“Not really. We’re not big on coincidence, but who knows? Maybe it was his time and this whole thing was predestined. It’s more likely an unscheduled event, but they do occur naturally from time to time. Everyone has free will, and things don’t always go as planned.”
“Huh.” Seemed confusing to him. How did anyone know if any death was really part of a plan or just happenstance? “Won’t they know what happened? Isn’t there some way they can find out?”
A quick shake of her head. “We know when and where we’re supposed to be. The why of the death isn’t really our business.” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “I’m sure Death knows or at least could find out, but with so many people crossing over around the world every day, I doubt he’d bother unless someone reports back to him. Best case scenario, the reapers take the spirit, hang around for a while to see if they can figure out why he died so unexpectedly, then move on to their next job and forget all about this.”
Her lashes were dark and thick. Why had he never noticed that before?
Alexei squeezed his eyes shut and tipped his head forward. He really was being an idiot. Allowing himself to get emotionally involved, to be attracted to her, could lead to a quick death—his. He needed to be thinking about a way to get them both out of this situation alive, not daydreaming about getting her into bed.
Was she being truthful? One thing he’d learned early on was that you didn’t talk to the mark. Once you did, if they thought you had any kind of emotional attachment, they’d try to talk you out of killing them.
After his first job, he’d learned to hang back, keep his distance, and then move in and do what needed to be done.
Much like a reaper.
Except, if she was telling him the truth, her kind didn’t cause death. They were simply there for the spiritual cleanup.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“That it’s stupid to get attached to you.” She went rigid in his embrace before scrambling to her feet and moving away from him. He should have kept his big mouth shut, but lying to her wasn’t an option.
“You’re right. You’re a professional hitman. Whoever hired you assumed I’d out myself to stay alive. They’re using you to find me.” Her words were matter-of-fact, but there was pain in her eyes, disappointment too.
“Cassie,” he began.
She held up a hand. “No. No, you’re absolutely right. It’s not sensible for us to get attached. You saved me earlier and I appreciate it. I do. But I need to get out of here.”
He shot to his feet before she’d finished speaking. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Why not? You going to stop me?” Holding her arms out by her sides, she faced him without fear.
Lust exploded inside him, flooding every cell of his body. With her skin flushed with anger, her lips parted, and her green eyes flashing, she was a sight to behold.
“You can’t end me.” She was on a roll and showed no sign of slowing down. “Only Death himself or maybe a group of head reapers can take me down. They’re banking on me having to defend myself against whoever they send against me.”
“No one is going to hurt you.” The thought of a world without Cassie made his heart hurt. Fear snaked down his spine, threatening to choke him. For the first time in a very long while, he was afraid.
He stomped over to her and peered down at her familiar face. They barely knew each other, but she’d wriggled her way into his heart. Yeah, it wasn’t smart. He could practically hear Maccus and the others warning him against getting personally involved.
; It was the biggest mistake any assassin could make.
“Why not? You going to stop them all?” She waved her hand in a dismissive manner and turned her back on him. He gripped her by the shoulder and spun her back around.
“Fucking right I’m going to stop them.”
Confusion spread across her face. “I don’t understand. You were hired to kill me. Now you want to protect me. Why?”
“I have no fucking idea.” Frustration tearing at him, anger burning in his stomach, and lust riding him hard, he kissed her. Would she accept him or reject him? It would kill him if she pushed him away.
No way would he allow her to physically leave. She wasn’t going out there on her own with no backup. But he would never force his attention on a woman if it wasn’t welcome.
She held herself aloof, remaining stiff and unmoving. There was fire and passion inside her, but she kept it locked down. It came out in subtle ways—the color in her clothing, her sparkly earrings, the way she really lived in each moment.
Defeated and disheartened, he eased away, his arousal deflating under her cool response. A whimper escaped her. She surged forward, throwing herself against him. A lesser man would have been knocked flat by the impact.
Relieved, he wrapped his brawny arms around her. He hadn’t been mistaken. The connection, the passion that existed between them, was too explosive to ignore.
He slammed his lips down on hers, tasting her passion, savoring every sweet inch of her mouth.
…
She wanted him. It was as simple and as complicated as that. She was under no misconceptions. Her stint of running was coming to an end. It was only a matter of time until someone found her. It was a miracle they hadn’t already done so. Then she’d face the consequences of her actions.
Total annihilation would be her fate. There was no afterlife for reapers. Did they even have souls? She assumed so but couldn’t be positive.
When they died, they were simply gone. No reaper had ever been called to guide another. Of course, only a handful had been executed over the eons. And it was always for failing to carry out their duty.
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