Reaper Undone (Deadside Reapers Book 5)

by Debbie Cassidy

  I veer in front of her, my wing grazing hers, and pull up to hover in the air, blades at the ready.

  “Darkites…” The queen looks from Mammon’s spies back to me. “Only five? What do you say, runt?”

  My grin matches hers, but I shake my head. “Go, I’ll slow them down.”

  “And leave you to have all the fun?”

  The darkites are almost on us, bat-like creatures with sharp ears and humanoid faces. Their bodies are hairy, hands tipped with venomous claws. They’re lethal to other daemons, but only if you let them get too close.

  “Fine, but I lead,” I call out.

  She doesn’t argue; this is my job, after all. I am her Blade and Blades like to cut. The darkites swarm us, and we attack in unison. Slicing and stabbing, grabbing and twisting wings. Lilith is a formidable fighter, a warrior, and even her time cloistered in the Keep hasn’t softened her to a brawl.

  The darkites scream, desperate to get their claws into me, to push their venom into me, but my blades are fast. I move with assurance in the air to avoid the scrape of their talons, delivering the sharp edge of my blade.

  They fall one by one until only two remain, battered but fiery-eyed and eager.

  “Go!” Lilith orders them. “Go now, and I will spare your lives. I have no quarrel with your kind.”

  One darkite hisses; the other throws back its head and screams. Knowledge stirs at the back of my mind. Something to do with the darkite’s scream.

  Oh fuck.

  I fly forward, ducking to avoid the hissing darkite, and then my blade is in the screaming one’s throat, and he’s finally silent. But it’s too late. I feel the change in the air. Hear the beat of bat wings. More come. Too many more.

  I’m an assassin, a creature of stealth and cunning. My advantage lies in taking my victim unawares. Of sidling up behind him and slicing his throat, but I am well versed in the way of the battlefield, and I will fight till my last breath to protect my queen.

  “Mistress, you need to go. Now! I’ll hold them back.”

  Lilith’s eyes are on the horizon, her huge crimson-tipped wings beating the air to keep her in position. Yes. I see them too—a black cloud headed this way. A real swarm.

  “You can’t,” she says. “You can’t fight them all. You’ll die, and I won’t get away, and my son Azazel will die.”

  I want to argue, but I’m not a fool. The odds are against us. “We have no choice but to try.”

  The swarm is almost upon us; another minute, and we’ll be overwhelmed. “Go, please.”

  Instead, she flies closer and cups my face. “Save him, Keon. Save my son.”

  Pain slices through my head, and a symbol blazes bright in my mind. The rune. I know what it is. I know it now.

  I open my eyes and stare at her.

  “GO!” There is compulsion in this command and my stomach twists. She shoves me away from her and turns away. “I order you to go and save my son.” Compulsion sears me. “Save yourself and live to fight another day.”

  Her wings propel her toward the swarm even as mine obey her command and carry me away from her. I try and fight, to turn back to her, to save her, but her compulsion cannot be broken. I watch as she is consumed by the swarm, and then I can watch no more because my vision is no longer clear.

  Tears spill down my cheeks, and my mind fractures. I fly away into a kaleidoscope of memories. Her laughter as she holds me above her. Her scent as she hugs me close. The soft caress of her palm against my cheek, and then I’m sitting cross-legged on the cold floor, charcoal in hand, as I etch out a picture.

  “What will you do?” a male voice asks.

  “I don’t know, Cardinal,” Lilith says. “I made a vow, and I broke it. I was weak, and he was so…He was formidable, and for a brief moment, he stole my heart, and now I have the last of his kind in my care. He may be born from a moment of weakness, but he belongs to me.”

  “Lord Samael may not see it that way.”

  “I know. We agreed to be monogamous, but things have been tenuous, and he left. When he returns and sees…I can’t lose his love. I won’t.”

  “And you wish to keep the evidence of your tryst?”

  “I can do nothing less.”

  “I can help you.”

  “How?”

  “You will become a benefactor, a Master. You will become a keeper, and this evidence will become your Blade. You will keep him close to you, but you cannot love him as your own. Can you do this?”

  “He will live?”

  “Yes, he will live. Already he grows faster than Azazel. No one will suspect. I will make it so, but to do so, I must make him forget.”

  “Keon? Sweetheart.”

  I look up at the woman, so perfect, so beautiful, and my heart swells with joy. “Yes, Mother?”

  “I love you, so very much.”

  I jolt from the memory, my heart too big in my chest. The rune is a blazing sigil in my mind. The rune that can only be passed down a bloodline.

  Lilith passed it to me.

  Not just my queen, but my mother.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Cora

  “Come back, woman, you can fight this.” Ice grips my neck and shakes me.

  My eyes snap open, and Jasper’s face, twisted with rage, fills my vision.

  “What the fuck?” My words are a weak croak, and then I’m free of his grip.

  What happened? Where am I? The fucking Dread bitch did something to me. My head. I sit up on the bed.

  My bed.

  I’m back at the Dominus quarters.

  Wait? “Where’s Fee? What happened to the others?”

  Jasper is standing with his back to me. He turns to face me, eyes blazing with incandescent fury. “The others? I don’t give a fuck about the others. You almost fucking died.”

  I rub my temples, urging the fuzzy feeling to ebb.

  “If not for me, if not for my connection to you, you’d be gone. That thing would have sucked the light out of you.”

  He’d saved me. Yes. He’d stopped Evelyn. “Thank you.”

  He snaps his mouth closed and takes a deep, shuddering breath. “Why did you do it, Cora?”

  “What?”

  “Why did you go after the Dread female? You know what a Dread can do. You’re not unaware.”

  “Fee asked me to stop her, and I—"

  “Fee. It’s always fucking Fee.”

  I bristle and push to my feet. “I don’t like your tone of voice, Jasper. You don’t get to talk about my best friend like that.”

  “Your best friend literally put you in the path of danger.”

  “She didn’t do it on purpose. We all reacted under pressure.”

  “Really? Then why not ask her lover or the blue daemon to stop the Dread female, huh?”

  I know what he’s getting at. I know what he’s implying, but he’s wrong. “No one understands the unique dynamic that exists between Fee and I. The connection. The bond. I would literally give my life to save her.”

  His brows shoot up as if to say, there you go.

  My life… for hers.

  “Do you see now, Cora?” Jasper says. “Do you understand now?”

  I lift my chin and meet his gaze. “She’d do the same for me.”

  “Maybe,” he says. “But what if it was a choice between her mate and you. If it was a choice between her soulmate and you. If it comes to a choice between you and her guys…”

  I want to tell him to go fuck himself, but the words don’t come.

  “She has other people now,” Jasper said. “And you may have manifested, but you haven’t taken full control of your life.” He bridges the distance between us and grabs the back of my neck, hauling me close. “I will always come for you, Cora. Me. Not her, not anyone else. Me.”

  His mouth is too close. He’s too close, and my body reacts to the proximity. “Let go of me.”

  His grip tightens a fraction, and then he releases me abruptly. “You’re not a fool, Cora. You know

what you have to do. Don’t leave it too late.”

  He vanishes, leaving me standing in my room with a million fucked-up thoughts going through my head.

  My door bursts open a moment later, and Mal enters. “Oh, thank fuck you’re okay,” he says.

  I shake off Jasper’s warning. “Fee?”

  “She’s safe at the pack house. She sent me to find you.”

  Sent him. Didn’t come herself. A pit opens inside me. I would have gone to find her. I would have put everything aside for her.

  Mal is looking at me strangely. “Cora?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “No, you’re not. Fee would be here, you know that, right? But Azazel is in a bad way, and we have Uriel who—”

  “I’m fine.” I hold out my hand. “Let’s get back to her.”

  Fee flies to her feet and launches herself at me as soon as I enter the room. I hug her on autopilot, my gaze slipping over her shoulder to fall on the figures laid out in the lounge. Azazel looks close to death, and Uriel is like a limp noodle covered in herbs.

  “Cora?” Fee pulls back, her gaze tracking across my face. “What did she do? Did she hurt you? Your mind…”

  “I’m fine.” But my voice comes out sharper than intended, and Fee flinches.

  She takes my hand and draws me out of the lounge and into the lift. We don’t speak as it rises, we don’t speak as we exit or as we enter her alpha chambers.

  Finally, she turns to me, her eyes huge and filled with regret. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t think. I should never have asked you to stop that bitch.” Her eyes fill with tears, and then she’s cupping my face, and I feel it. I feel her regret, her love, and the ice that Jasper’s words have built around my heart melts. “I love you so much. If anything happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  I believe her.

  And then we’re hugging, and the tension seeps out of my body as I relax against her.

  “I should have come straight after you, I wanted to, but Jasper had you, and I knew he’d keep you safe. Azazel and Uriel had no one to keep them safe, and so I sent Keon to the Underealm to get a solution to the death rune, and I went to Vi about Uriel.”

  If it comes to a choice between you and her guys…

  No. I push Jasper’s poisonous words out of my mind. She made the right call. She made the leadership call.

  Fee is a leader now.

  And what are you?

  Fuck off. “What can I do to help?”

  She takes my hands in hers. “Just be with me, Cora. Just be here with me.”

  That I can do.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Fee

  It was deathly quiet in the pack house. All day, the Loup had tiptoed around me as I watched over Azazel and Uriel. Grayson came and went, liaising between Vi and me, and Mal split his time between me and the kitchen, where Bobby made sure there was always a pot of coffee on the go.

  Cora sat with me, distracting me with stories of the time before—the office and the house and our escapades. Usually, I’d find comfort in the old memories, but not today. Today it felt like the memories belonged to a stranger, as if I were looking at them through frosted glass. My heart, my mind, and my very soul were trapped on the sofa inside Azazel’s prone body.

  The day slipped by like sand through an hourglass, and before I knew it, we were slipping into the early hours of a new day.

  I’d ordered Cora to get some sleep, and Dean offered his room to her. Despite our conversation, despite the fact that she said she was okay, my gut still felt squirrelly when it came to Cor.

  The way she’d looked at me when Mal had brought her back, like I was a stranger. I’d inadvertently let her down, and it made me sick. There’d been a time that no one would have come between us. No one would come above her, but things were changing, and I wasn’t sure how to stop it. The bonds I’d tied myself to were powerful, driving forces that altered my perception and my actions. Why hadn’t I gone after Cora immediately?

  Why?

  I looked at Azazel’s still form on the sofa beside me and leaned my head against his cold hand. My butt was numb from being parked on the floor, but I didn’t care. A shadow fell over me, but I didn’t need to look up to know who it was. Grayson’s scent gave him away. My Loup rousing gave him away.

  “Fee, you should eat something.” He crouched beside me and took my hand in his.

  “He’s getting worse, Grayson. I’m scared.”

  Grayson looked down with a sigh. “Vi called. She’s had no luck with the runes. I’m sorry.”

  I closed my eyes, riding the wave of disappointment, and nodded. “It was a longshot anyway. Keon’s our main plan.”

  “How long would it take to and from the Underealm?” Grayson asked.

  “It took us a day, twenty-four hours…but, we got waylaid, and…I’m not sure how long it’ll take Keon.”

  “He should be back soon, then?”

  “I hope so.”

  The black network of veins had reached Azazel’s face, crawling over his jaw to claw at his alabaster cheeks like jagged evil fingers. I couldn’t reach him, and the silver soul bond that bound us was getting dimmer.

  He was dying, and the knowledge was a numb spot in my chest, which threatened to expand and consume me.

  Mal joined us in the lounge. “You should sleep, Fee.”

  “Agreed,” Grayson said. “Mal and I can take turns watching over Azazel.”

  Panic flooded me. “I’m not leaving him.”

  Grayson and Mal exchanged worried frowns.

  “I’m fine. I can lie down here with him.”

  “You need to be rested when Keon gets back with the rune,” Mal said. “Azazel is going to need your strength. Your soul bond is probably what’s helping him fight off the siphoning and slow it down. You need to sleep in a proper bed.” Mal looked to Grayson.

  Grayson held out his hand.

  Maybe they had a point. I reached for Grayson and Azazel’s body arched off the sofa. He made a strange keening sound and then began to convulse.

  “Azazel. No!” I held onto him. “Somebody do something!”

  Bobby appeared with a wooden spoon, and Grayson pried the handle between Azazel’s teeth. My soulmate bucked and groaned, and then black shit began to leak from his nose and his eyes.

  “Fuck!” Mal cried.

  “Get Petra now!” Grayson ordered.

  I held onto Azazel, biting back a scream as his body fought to survive.

  “Out of my way.” Petra insinuated herself between me and Azazel, and Mal wrapped his arms around me, holding me against his chest.

  “What is it? What’s happening?”

  Petra placed her hand on Azazel’s forehead, and his body went still and limp again. She closed her eyes, humming softly.

  I wanted to scream at her to hurry the fuck up. I wanted to shove her away from Azazel and hold him. Just hold him, but none of that would help him. Petra could help him. She had to.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she opened her eyes and removed her hand from his head.

  “Petra?” Grayson asked grimly.

  She shook her head. “He doesn’t have much time left. He’s too weak to fight off the effects of the rune. The siphon is speeding up.”

  A raw sound of pain filled the air. Me, that was me.

  Mal hugged me to him. “Hush. It’ll be fine. Hush.”

  “Petra…” I implored her with my eyes. “How long?”

  “I…I don’t know. An hour, two maybe.”

  My lungs were imploding, my insides were being crushed. I was dying. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t—

  A sharp sting rocked my head to the side. “No!” Cora stared at me, bright-eyed with anger. “You do not get to check out on me, do you hear me?”

  I blinked back tears.

  “He needs you to be strong. If you fall apart, if you give up, he’ll feel that. He’ll feel there’s no hope.”

  She was right. I sat on the floor and took Azazel’s hand, dropping my shields and reaching for him through our soul bond. It was there, weak but still there.

  Fight for me, Azazel. Come back to me, please. I need you, I love you so fucking much. Please come back to me.

  His fingers curled around mine.

  I love you.

  The words were clear as a bell in my head, and they should have provoked hope, but dread filled my head, an instinctive, primal foreboding. I turned his hand over and felt for a pulse.

  “Fee?” Cora touched my shoulder.

  I dropped his hand and reached for his neck, looking for a pulse.

  Nothing.

  I grabbed his shirt. “No. No, you do not get to die on me. Wake up. Fucking wake up!”

  Hands grabbed at me, trying to pull me away, voices, so many fucking voices, but I held on to Azazel, on to the wisp of a soul bond that was still linking us. He was still here. Not completely gone. I could bring him back.

  “Fee, he’s gone,” Grayson said softly.

  No, no, no—

  “No.”

  My head jerked up at the sound of the voice, and then my knees buckled. “Keon…”

  He didn’t speak, just pushed through the crowd and pressed his palm to Azazel’s forehead. I stared at the blue daemon’s harsh profile, then back at Azazel.

  What was he doing? What was this?

  My gut told me to hold still, to let Keon work. My instincts warned me not to intercede.

  Long agonizing seconds ticked by, and then Azazel’s eyes flew open, and he took a sharp breath. The soul bond between us thrummed and brightened. I let out a sob and reached for him.

  “Azazel. Oh, God. You’re okay. You’re okay.”

  Keon stepped back, and I fell into my soulmate’s arms, raining kisses on his face.

  “Motherfucker,” Mal said. “You scared the shit out of us.”

  I looked up, searching the room for Keon, but he was gone.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  I found Keon outside perched on the hood of the Rover. Azazel was asleep, but this time, it was a normal, healthy, restorative sleep. It was almost dawn, and the sun would be up soon, and we’d barely slept. I was exhausted, but I needed to make sure my daemon friend was all right.

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