Reaper (Dragon Prophecies Book 1)

by Hickory Mack

  Elsie pulled a hoodie over her sweater. It was the best she had since the damned shadow wolf had destroyed her jacket. It was nice during the daytime, but the mosquitos loved the night.

  She glanced at her phone one last time and walked out of the bedroom. In the living room, she glanced at the window and pressed her lips together. Mrs. Cutler would already have left for the day, so she grabbed four trash bags and hauled them down to the dumpster. There was something to be said for the strength of the fae.

  It took six trips to get everything taken out, including the remnants of her furniture. When she was done, the dumpster was full and her apartment was empty. Guilt ate away at her stomach, and Elsie dropped enough gold coins on the counter to cover the damage and the labor to repair everything.

  She also left a note, hoping it would be enough to explain.

  Mrs. Cutler,

  I’m sorry about the mess. There was a demon, but I’m taking him away from here so he won’t bother anyone again. I hope this is enough to make up for it.

  Love, Elsie

  She lived like a miser so she didn’t draw attention to herself, but she had a small fortune in a pocket dimension that she used as a wallet. It was a tiny dimension she’d created herself, and she could open and close it at will, keeping her money tucked away there so she’d never have to worry about thieves. She’d stored their food and a few other items there, too, so her bag wouldn’t be so heavy.

  Elsie pulled her go-pack on. It was a rucksack that she always had packed in case she needed to leave fast, a habit from her time working in the field. She couldn’t quite get over the idea that she always needed to be prepared to leave everything she owned behind. This situation was just proof that she’d been right.

  She glanced down at her cuff. “Well, Precious, we’re leaving. Do you want to say goodbye to the old place? Fond memories and all that?” she asked sardonically. He didn’t show up in a puff of smoke, but she hadn’t really expected him to.

  Elsie harnessed Frida and tucked her into her hood to keep her safe and warm. She closed and locked the door behind her and made her way down the stairs with a heavy feeling in her stomach. She was fond of the sleepy town where nothing interesting ever happened, but now she’d never be coming back here. Going around the front of the building, she slipped the key through the mail slot, then turned and walked away.

  At the back of the building was a tumble-down shed. It housed rakes, shovels, a decrepit lawn mower that rarely saw use, and Elsie’s motorbike. She rolled it out and looked it over. It had accumulated some dust while sitting abandoned, but otherwise, it looked the same as it always did.

  Chipped black paint covered the bike with a faded gold outline. She had no idea who the original manufacturer was, but it didn’t matter, not anymore. All that mattered was that the machine worked the way it was supposed to. Elsie disconnected the battery attached to the fold-up solar panel set up alongside the shed. She never left the battery in the bike, hoping to make it last longer.

  Quickly connecting the battery, she then grabbed the solar panel and slipped it into its own dedicated saddle bag. Once everything was situated, Elsie straddled the bike and kickstarted it. It growled to life on the second try, and she gave the hunk of metal an appreciative pat.

  Giving it a little juice, the motorbike rolled forward, down the driveway and onto the street. The sidewalks sucked, but roads within the limits of Providence were actually pretty well kept considering that they consisted of patched up bits and pieces. Each resident did their part in maintaining the part of the road in front of their home and business, making it a better experience for everyone.

  She accelerated without fear of hitting anyone. There wasn’t any traffic anyway, but especially at this time of night. Even though there weren’t many demons here, the population had been instilled with the same fear of the dark as everywhere else. They’d be especially keyed up after Sam’s murder of that little girl. Town officials might even raise the dosage of the sedatives in the water until the extra anxiety died down.

  It had never made much sense to Elsie—their fear of the dark. Sure, things could hide more easily then, but demons moved in the daylight just as frequently. Some of them even preferred it. In her experience, the time of day didn’t matter. It was the demons who looked almost human that gave her nightmares.

  Those were too powerful to easily hide all of what they were. Saint had taught her that the hunters’ classification was set too low. What she’d considered a high-class demon was only a lesser in his eyes. The true upper-class demons, and the Lords, by his standards, were terrifying. She’d only faced two in her entire hunter career, and she never wanted to again.

  Lords usually had something, some clue. Sometimes, it was obvious, like horns, or a tail, even wings they couldn’t put away. Sometimes, it was more subtle. A fire in their eyes that wasn’t quite human. A smile that stretched too far, revealing wicked fangs loaded with venom.

  They were ruthless and often commanded an army of lesser demons. That had been the case with both of the Lords Elsie had fought with her team. Riven had been their saving grace both times.

  One had been a demon of wrath, and they’d barely survived the encounter. Saint had dealt with a limp for nearly a week before finally healing properly after some rest. It had been a bright, sunny, cloudless day, and until they’d run into that demon Lord, everything had been perfectly idyllic. Her team had been so light-hearted, joking and playing around, but everything had changed in an instant. Elsie shuddered from thinking about it and turned her thoughts elsewhere.

  She thought of the climate in the South, well aware that she didn’t have the wardrobe for dealing with the summer heat where she was heading. The cuff around her wrist warmed, and the chain shot out, the blue burning brighter in the dark. Elsie caught glimpses of red eyes and a shadow running alongside her as she rode, and she gave him a grim smile, looking at the speedometer. He was running forty miles an hour.

  “Not bad, Precious!” she called to him, then slowly sped up. There wasn’t much of Providence left, and she wanted to push him, see what he was capable of. They hit fifty, and he grew back to the size he’d been in every memory she had of him with her mother. He was truly impressive, loping alongside her with ease.

  Elsie pushed it again, making it to sixty and letting out a whoop of excitement as howling resounded through her head. She laughed and let out a shout. He hadn’t paused to actually howl, but he’d gotten his point across.

  As they reached the edge of town, Elsie slowed and turned on the bike’s light. She’d have to be a lot more careful, but it would still be faster than if she were running. The shadow wolf snarled at her the first time she swerved closer to him to avoid a pothole large enough to swallow both of them. After that, it became a game.

  He’d leap over debris as she maneuvered around, and he kept an ear pointed in her direction, paying attention to her movements. He wouldn’t let the bike get that close a second time.

  They continued for over an hour, dodging downed trees and boulders. For a stretch, Elsie had ridden through the woods where a huge section of the path had been washed out, leaving only a gaping hole in its place.

  It was fun to have someone running next to her again, and the demon was obviously enjoying himself. It made Elsie wonder how long the hunters had held him. The shadow wolf’s tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted. This was clearly harder on him than he was letting on, though he could go back into the cuff if he wanted.

  She eased the bike to a stop and shoved the kickstand down before turning it off. The wolf looked at her curiously, and an inquiry that couldn’t be more clear pressed down on the top of her head. “Why have we stopped?” he seemed to say.

  “I don’t want Callum thinking he can track us, and we should be far enough from town. I don’t think they have the ability to use ethereal magic, but that mage can probably detect it, which is why we left town before using my reaper magic. By the time they get here, any trace of the
magic will have dissipated,” Elsie explained. The wolf tilted his head, and her lips twisted to one side. It was the cutest thing she’d ever seen him do. Clearly, she hadn’t explained herself well enough.

  She removed the charm from her bracelet and let it expand. It was still shaped like a scythe from the last time she’d used it, so all she had to do was change the blade position from the war scythe to a proper reaper configuration. She held it out slightly to the shadow wolf.

  “We’re looking for Riven. I don’t know if she can help with the curse, but she might be able to help with us being forcibly attached. I’m hoping she’ll be able to do both. We’re not going to drive the entire way because she’s somewhere in what used to be the continental United States. It’ll take too long to find her. She used to hang out in the West, so we’ll start there. To get there faster, we’re going to dimension hop. We’ll go somewhere fun,” she promised.

  The wolf’s ears perked up with interest. He’d obviously enjoyed going for a run, but this was an opportunity for something new. It was enough to make her wonder if he’d been able to jump worlds before her mother contracted him. Some demons could.

  Elsie thought of which world they should visit. It had to be something near enough to this one that she’d find multiple connection points. Places where she could tear a hole to get somewhere else in this world. Not every dimension had more than one place connecting to this one.

  There were creatures out there who’d stumbled upon how to access the ethereal, and they created havoc wherever they went. If they didn’t quickly destroy themselves by attempting to open a hole to a place they couldn’t survive, a reaper would go after them and put them down. Santisima had scooped some of those accidental discoveries up and taught them how to use it properly.

  The shades were among those who passed the knowledge down from one generation to the next. Some of the fae knew how to use it as well, though they tended not to bother, only using the knowledge to find alternative ways in and out of Underhill where they’d been hiding since shortly after the collapse of humanity. They’d taken themselves out of the power struggle between demonic races, making it far easier for the demon Lords to rise.

  Nobody was sad to see them go, and though she was half fae, Elsie had no desire to see their return. The fae were dangerous, and not even the courts had the power to keep all of them in check. Some were older and more powerful than the courts themselves.

  Those of faery kind who hadn’t gone to Underhill spent their days on Earth in hiding. Elsie didn’t know much about why, but even the hunters were well aware that purebred fae were being hunted by something else. Ravens scoured the planet in search of wayward fae who were dumb enough to get caught. Nobody knew what happened to them after that; they just disappeared without a trace. It was safer to stay in Underhill, but some weren’t welcome there, like the dryads. Half-breeds like herself were safe, even with royal blood in her veins. Ravens had stopped to look at her many times in her travels, but once they realized she wasn’t pure, they moved on, seeking better prey. Elsie blinked a few times, clearing her head.

  She decided which dimension they were going to, and the Staff of Sanaia began to glow, the runes lighting up along the scythe’s blade. The shadow wolf gave a soft ‘woof,’ and he came to stand a few feet away. Momentarily distracted, Elsie glanced up at him, once again appreciating how huge he was. Saint could get as big as a horse, and this thing was easily twice his size.

  In her mind, Elsie pictured where she wanted to go, seeing the lines in the air where she could safely cut through. A little gathering in the air that kind of puckered like fabric sewn a little too tight. They were all over the place; everywhere she looked was an invitation to cross over into another world. The one she wanted shimmered a faint blue, making it stand out from the rest.

  Someone had used the one she wanted before, and they hadn’t closed it up very neatly. There was a small fissure allowing some of the energy from the other dimension to leak through. Elsie doubted very much that it had been one of her sisters. Probably a shade or a shadow walker.

  It was a good thing they were in the middle of nowhere. Small anomalies like this one would cause havoc if it was among a population of people. It could do something small, like mess with time, or something big, like allow a creature from the other world to slip through. It was irresponsibly sloppy, and one of the first things Santisima had pressed firmly into her mind.

  Elsie focused until the connection point she wanted was the only one she saw. The others fell into the background, removing any danger that she might cut through the wrong one. With one slice, she was through, opening a hole into another dimension with little trouble. A pink glow came from within while warm and cold air mingled, sending steam into the sky.

  “I’ve been to this world a lot of times. It’s mostly peaceful, so long as you don’t disturb the inhabitants. They can be extremely moody,” Elsie warned.

  The shadow wolf stepped forward eagerly, his ears folded back, his nostrils working as he took in a deep breath. Elsie did the same and smiled. It smelled like summer after a fresh rain. He gave a loud bark and lunged forward without hesitation, Elsie laughing at the fact that he hadn’t even waited for her. She restarted her bike and drove it through, then turned and closed the hole properly, sealing them away from Earth and the Hunter Clan.

  The other dimension took a few minutes to get used to, as it always did. Elsie stood beside her bike, watching the wolf roll in the bright red dirt. Everything here had a red tinge to it—from the trees that weeped golden sap with blood-red, triangular leaves, to the sky itself, which was a deep pink.

  There were no hills or mountains anywhere in sight. It was all one long, flat plain as far as the eye could see, and the only things breaking up the monotony were the trees, huge sentinels that climbed into the sky. Elsie looked up into those trees, the tops so high she couldn’t see them.

  This planet’s apex inhabitants lived up there, an entire civilization hundreds of feet above the ground. They rarely came down here, though, which was fortunate. They tended to be violent when confronted with strange people, and to them, Elsie was an alien creature.

  She’d never taken Frida to another world before, and now the little cat climbed out of Elsie’s hood and transformed into her spirit form, her ethereal magic protecting her from the sudden change.

  Her creamy fur turned the brilliant colors of a peacock: a shining royal blue over her back and shoulders, dripping down her legs. Her chest was emerald green, and the dark mask around her eyes had become a deep navy blue. Sprouting from her shoulders was a pair of wings, the color matching the mask around her eyes. Frida’s back legs had become those of a peacock and her tail had become a long, sweeping train of glorious feathers dripping down Elsie’s back. Atop her head was a matching crest as long as her whiskers.

  Frida preened in the light, showing off the rosettes that dappled her fur, while her legs were adorned by bright stripes. She was an alebrije in her full glory.

  Frida tried to jump down, but Elsie wouldn’t let her touch the ground. The ground in this place consisted entirely of a mineral called cinnabar. It was on Earth, too, but in much smaller amounts. A beautiful mineral for a certainty, but every ounce of cinnabar carried traces of mercury. It was toxic to humans and soft little beasties like Frida.

  “It isn’t safe here, so you have to stay on my shoulder,” Elsie scolded, picking up one of the stones. It couldn’t hurt her, but she wondered if it would hurt her less blooded cousins, the hunters. Bred by humans with the specific purpose of protecting them, they were the mutts of the supernatural species. The originals were like Elsie, split fifty-fifty right down the middle. Half witch, half fae.

  The hunters of today had any number of other species added as more fae went underground. The fae the humans had captured for breeding purposes had long since killed themselves. No easy task. Elsie tossed the rock and wiped her hand on her jeans. She didn’t want to transfer any of the dust to Frida’s fur or fe
athers.

  The wolf didn’t seem to have a care in the world. He’d run so far ahead of them he was a stark black dot in the distance. The chain stretched far, the blue standing out garishly against the red. He just kept going, with no sign that the chain would stop him anytime soon.

  He was going the wrong direction, and she didn’t have a way to call him back. She glanced at the cuff, but it offered her no clues on what to do. Elsie got back on her bike and chased after the wolf, pushing the chase to sixty miles an hour, being extremely careful to avoid crashing into any of the trees. Elsie wasn’t dumb enough to give the people from above reason to come down.

  She wasn’t gaining any ground on the damned shadow wolf. There was a place ahead that would open into a vast empty field with tall grasses that were such a deep red they were almost black. If she couldn’t catch him by then, she was going to turn and find their exit without him.

  He’d just have to catch up on his own because there was no way in Hell she was going into those grasses again. She’d learned her lesson the first time, when she was running from two of the sky people. Even they hadn’t gone among the grass. They’d just stopped and waited for her to come out, but she was every bit as stubborn as they were.

  That grass had torn the skin from her flesh like a fillet knife. Every direction she turned, she was cut by blades that brushed lightly against her. In the end, she’d curled up in a ball and bitten her tongue to keep from crying out every time the wind blew, sending the grass flaying about. When the sky people had gone back to their trees, she’d crawled through the grass as quickly as she could, then lay bleeding in the shade for hours.

  She’d never forget that experience, and neither would the wolf, if he were dumb enough to go in there. Elsie took the risk, sending out her senses as far as they could go while pushing the bike faster. Her nerves tingled with every tree she passed, weaving in and out of them with hairpin precision. She couldn’t afford to crash at this speed.