I’d be a fool to let her know that. Yes, she was irritating, but I could just imagine what she’d be like knowing she had me spellbound.
When she tried standing and wobbled, I was quick to reach out and scoop her up. The tank fell over and her tiny frame was like air in my arms. She was soft and warm, though, and the stirrings of wrath snaked over my heart. No! I froze, and her smile disappeared as she studied my face.
“What’s wrong?”
Anger fumed my gut as I watched my essence circle around her once.
“What…?” Gwendolyn gasped, hands reaching out for my power. “Why does this stuff always show around you?”
Fear zinged in my chest as my essence slipped beneath her pajama shirt. Wrath! What the fuck? I had no clue what my sin was doing with the human, but I plopped her back on the boulder and backed away from her.
Wrath retreated and settled around me once more. “You shouldn’t be able to see that,” I told her again like the last time she’d pointed out that she saw it.
“But I can,” she said, tilting her head at me.
Good luck figuring me out.
I didn’t know what was going on with Gwendolyn and my curse.
It was a bad idea bringing her there. Even worse, I kept her there after watching my essence travel over her body.
Regardless, I didn’t take her back to the hospital like I should. Once my essence normalized, I took a deep breath and looked at her.
“Ruby. River. Come to her.” I said to the dragons without taking my eyes off them.
Gwendolyn groaned. “I would have much rather stayed in your arms.” Her lips puckered, and my spine tingled and burned.
“Don’t pout,” I warned her.
“I know.” She rolled her eyes. “It apparently doesn’t work on you.”
Exactly what she had to believe. The last thing I needed was to pluck stars from the sky for her or some other shit. Her slight control over me was terrifying.
What was it about this human that stirred me so much? A sharp pang filled my chest as I realized I’d never find out. She’d spend her afterlife in a place I couldn’t go.
“Hold your palm out,” I instructed, and she listened.
When Ruby swooped in and placed her snout underneath her palm before River could, Gwendolyn wheezed, flinching slightly. River grunted. He pushed his sister out of the way and rubbed his nose into her fingers. Gwendolyn chuckled as the two dragons pushed and shoved one another to gain her attention.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Same.” Her breathing was audible with every word she spoke. “My chest and lungs burn, but it’s nothing I haven’t experienced over the last few days. Which one is which?” She was too close to her death date to be comfortable.
“River is the one with the blue eyes.”
“Ah!” Her mouth parted at Ruby. “I get it. Ruby red for her eyes.”
Ruby made a sound something like a grumbled purr in agreement.
I watched the labored way her chest caved in and out. “Are you okay?”
She sighed. “I’m more than my sickness, Reaper. Do you see that I’m also a woman?”
I averted my gaze and scratched my jaw. Too much. I was all too aware she was a female. Heat pooled in my stomach for a mere girl too fragile to touch.
She doesn’t have to be.
Panic seized me as my heart ricocheted in my chest as I thought the unthinkable. There were so many ways I could keep her here. So many ways to steal her humanness and make her something that could live in the Underworld.
But that meant denying her an afterlife.
My job was to make sure she got through the pearly gates. Not preventing it.
The fact that the idea crossed my mind made my anger stir, and the hairs on my arms stood on end.
How could I think that way? Who knew what would happen with the end approaching? We had no leads on how to stop it which left too many fucking what-ifs for me to even think of being selfish.
And yet…
I glanced at her. Her brows were slanted, and her nose crinkled as she glared. Fucking Hades.
Her expression gave me pause. A moment to think beyond my turmoil. I could ask her. The more I entertained the idea, the more impatient I became.
Because of my wrath, I’d never dared to want anything. But before Gwendolyn, I’d never met something—or someone—I wanted.
In the safety of my mind, I could freely admit to my desire for the young girl. In doing so, my curse calmed.
Did I let nature take its course, sending her to the peaceful afterlife she deserved? Or, did I chance everything and intervene, keeping her with me?
My chest tightened, and pain settled in the back of my throat. That was the reason I’d brought her there again—to show her the beauty and foolishly ensnare her.
Maybe I was becoming like August and his greed.
I needed time to think on the situation further. Until I was sure what I’d do, I’d give in a little to the dimpled cheek cutie.
“Do not tempt me, Gwendolyn,” I said in a grave voice. “I’m old and immortal and solitary.”
“I’m young and dying and lonely,” she whispered back. “But I don’t feel so alone right now.”
I dropped onto the boulder beside her. “I’m dangerous, Gwendolyn.”
“Yeah, you’ve got anger issues. You told me.”
“But I’m not so angry now.”
Her eyes lit up at my admission. I didn’t understand what was going on. The last time I encountered her, my curse was on the verge of making me rage. That wasn’t the case at that moment. I was kind of all warm and fucking fuzzy on the inside.
I wasn’t the only dangerous one. She was a problem for me.
Too fucking bad I didn’t care.
She leaned into me, and I didn’t stop her. Her chest heaved in and out sharply as she placed her hand on my chest. Her green orbs blinked up at me. “Reaper, I’m going to kiss you now,” she stated and my cocked throbbed.
I should tell her my name, I thought as I reached up and dragged my thumb over her bottom lip before pulling her chin forward. “No. I’m going to kiss you.”
And I did. Pulling the canula aside, I bent down and stole her lips. Her tongue darted out and licked my lips before kissing me back. Heat pooled in my stomach as she dragged her mouth against mine. Her tongue swept in and rolled over mine.
Fuck. Me.
That was too much. She was enticing me too far for someone barely breathing.
Regretfully, I pulled away from her. She sucked in a breath in the process and I scowled. “A kiss, Gwendolyn. Fucking damn, don’t suffocate yourself trying to stick your tongue down my throat. Dying isn’t worth it.”
“Oh,” she panted with a smile. “Believe me, it was definitely worth it. Reaper, remember how we said once I’d reached a limit, to let you know? I’m there.” She touched her chest and winced. I stood and scooped her up in my arms instantly. “You’re going to leave me again, aren’t you?”
“I have a job to do,” I told her honestly.
“Reaper,” she mumbled.
“What?”
“I don’t want to die.” She pressed her face into my chest as she wheezed.
It was like ice enclosed my lungs. I couldn’t handle her broken sob against me.
“Death is a new beginning,” I told her. That was also the moment I made my decision. I gripped her closer to me. “Gwendolyn, even if it’s against the rules of what I am, I’m going to keep you.”
Through her loud pants, I wasn’t sure she heard me. When I faded to the hospital room and laid her on the bed, Gwendolyn reached for my hand. “Don’t…leave…me.”
The moment I hooked her back up to the monitor and turned it on, an alarm sounded. Her heart rate was fluctuating. I wished death would come for her, so she didn’t have to suffer another day. Then I could take her earlier. Despite her suffering, her date hadn’t changed.
My heart ached for her.
“Gwendolyn
! Gwendolyn!” Her adoptive mother screamed as she rose from her chair. The woman called for a doctor as I gripped her hand and squeezed.
“I will stay until I cannot,” I promised which wouldn’t be long. There was work that needed to be done. Demons who thought it was smart kidnapping humans had to be killed.
Rage filled my stomach as I realized that I couldn’t do anything to help Gwendolyn. I’d be there when she passed, but I’d already determined that I’d keep her.
I would let Grim bestow Reaper powers to her. Her ghostly figure would then become a new body. Her soul would take the form of her deceased one, but she’d be alive again and healthy.
As the doctors and nurses rushed into the room, they barked out orders. Several slipped through me. They guided Gwendolyn’s mother out of the room as she cried while they tried to stabilize Gwendolyn.
I stayed there until that happened. Hours later, when she fell asleep, I had to leave. My Reaper senses were tripping. Demons were on the move.
“I’ll come for you soon,” I said to her.
Then I left.
Chapter 8
Gwendolyn
“Gwendolyn, even if it’s against the rules of what I am, I’m going to keep you.”
Slowly, painful awareness took root inside me as I fluttered my eyes until they opened. With what waning strength I had, I glanced around the room. Since I couldn’t lift my head, it took a while, but the pang of disappointment was instant in my stomach.
The Reaper’s not here.
He said so many things that confused me.
Keep me?
How would he keep me?
I wished he’d fill me in so that I knew more. I could feel that I was dying with every ounce of my being, and I feared that I didn’t latch on hard enough to him.
I was already drawn to the Reaper, but then he showed me his softer side, making it so much worse.
Life was great about reminding me how awful it could be.
Reaper, please don’t disappointment me.
I was okay with being the foolish girl that ran off with a stranger in the night. If that stranger was my Reaper.
Darkness claimed me again.
______
Loud voices stirred me awake. They were male, but a little strange and nasally. “Are you sure this is the one?”
I slowly cracked my eyes open and noticed the empty chairs beside the bed first. Harold and Helen must have stepped out or went to get some food.
“Yes,” another answered.
“But she’s almost dead.”
Smack! That sounded like someone had slapped someone. “Are you questioning Harvest?”
I peeked around the room and saw no one until I caught movement around the corner where the bathroom and the exit door were. I couldn’t see who was there, but their shadows played on the wall thanks to the TV being on.
One shadow looked like a man. The other? I wasn’t sure what it was.
I was so weak that I didn’t feel afraid of the two strange men in my room. All I could do was listen.
“He said there’d be a mark to prove her tie to the Reapers.”
Sweat dampened my forehead. The scary shadow freaked me out. The creepy images, especially if they didn’t belong to humans, told me that my Reaper wasn’t the only thing mankind didn’t know about. And they said something about the Reapers—meaning more than one?
“What kind of mark?” the nasally one asked.
“The mark of wrath—a lion.”
“Where is he getting this information? How is this human important to them? She’s dying. I hardly see this as a message.”
“It’s not a message.” He laughed. “It’s showing who’s winning. Harvest wants to show the Reapers he knows even what they don’t.” Silence filled the room, and then he added, “I’ve heard from a witch that he’s captured an angel.”
Someone gasped. “An angel?”
My thoughts exactly. What was I eavesdropping on?
“That’s how he knows about Grim’s offspring and their mates. The angels foresee things. The siblings don’t even know they were already paired off with lovers before they were cursed with their sins. The witch said it can take days before the mark shows after they meet, or it can appear instantly. Supposedly, cursing them was preordained. Even the Devil doesn’t know that his curse was destined. He’ll know about the marked soulmates soon if he doesn’t already. Since the entire reason Harvest is searching for the unpaired ones is to find which daughter the Devil is—”
“Shh! Don’t say his name. What if he hears?”
“I have confidence in Harvest.”
“Let’s just get this over with before the wrath sibling shows up. I want our job done before he finds out.”
They both chuckled, and my skin crawled as their shadows turned on the wall. They were headed in my direction. I gripped the sheet tightly. Should I pretend to be sleeping or keep my eyes open to witness what was about to happen?
What was going to? What did they want with me?
With the spike in my heart rate, the monitor began beeping rapidly. I wheezed as they came into view. Can’t breathe... The oxygen mask fogged from my panting. Fear would smother me before my heart gave out.
As the men approached me, I noticed how normal one of them appeared. He was blond with a nasty glint in his eyes. His pal was totally abnormal with glowing white spikes covering his face and body. Even his skin was icky pale. It was his red eyes, however, that terrified me the most.
My chest rose and fell. The blond guy smiled at me. “Uh-oh, she must have been listening. I can smell her fear a mile away.”
“Quick. Check for the mark before that thing alerts someone.” The spiked one pointed at the monitor. “It’s going crazy.”
The noisy contraption should have notified someone at the nurses station.
I tensed as the normal one neared, and his eyes raked over me. “Pretty thing, it’s a shame you have to die.” He yanked the blankets off me.
“Stop…” I sounded just as weak and horrible as I felt.
“But then again, maybe you’re not the one.” He tore at my pjs, snapping the buttons in the middle. The cold air bit into my skin. I tried to cover my thin white sports bra with my hands. The lecherous fool’s blue eyes turned black, and then he yanked at my pants. I was too slow to react despite the adrenaline racing through my veins.
Their attack was so different from when the Reaper was in my room. I could calculate how much fear I should have around him, but with these two, it overwhelmed me. I was too close to dying to stop them from ripping off my clothes.
Tears pricked my eyes. But then again, my Reaper wasn’t anything like those two.
“Stop scaring her. He’ll be pissed if she dies before we kill her,” Spikes barked.
Ice filled my veins.
“If she’s not the one, I’m turning her before she does,” the blond muttered, eyes roaming over my bare legs. “Be a shame to let her go.” Then he froze. “Well, shit. It is her.” He lifted my leg and showed my ankle to his buddy.
“Red lion.” He grinned.
I didn’t have any tattoos or markings. I would remember if I had gotten a lion symbol on my ankle—especially a red one. I wheezed as I saw what they did. Even without the light from the TV, the bright red glow would have been impossible to miss.
The blond one dropped my leg. He leaned over me until his face was inches from mine. “I’m sorry, little one. I would have liked to have sired you.” He shook his head. “But that doesn’t seem to be your fate.”
“What are you doing?” I rasped.
“Killing you isn’t enough. We must get rid of your soul. At least they’ll know who you were to wrath after you’re lost to him.”
My scream came out muffled as the evil man yanked out the IV and monitor cords. He scooped me up in his arms.
I was confused, frightened, and alone.
There was only one of those I was used to being.
I was already fading from
this world, and I wasn’t sure where I was going.
My Reaper…
Where was he? I connected him to whatever was happening to me. I knew I heard my attackers say Reapers.
But he said he’d keep me. Death wasn’t what scared me. Not knowing what the strange men meant to do to my soul was a different matter entirely. As was the thought of the Reaper abandoning me.
Spike pressed a black device in his hand and a dark tunnel opened. He entered it followed by the blond carrying me. My breathing became more difficult with each step he took.
Chapter 9
Barron
“Wipe their memories,” August muttered, shoving an unconscious human girl into Joy’s arms.
“Why can’t you?” She huffed and tried to get a better grip on the girl.
“I sense at least twenty more demons near a portal on the north side of the Underworld. I’m heading there before they cloak themselves.” It was surprising to hear August give someone an answer. He normally did whatever and never explained himself.
I studied him curiously.
Our days might be limited yet we seldom got a break. I knew how it affected my sin, but I had no idea what each of my siblings went through. Satisfying their sins had to take a backseat when saving the world was a twenty-four seven job.
“Go. I’ll make sure we return each human to their home,” she said with a deep, determined slant in her brows. “You too, Barron. I got these. Go to the next place.”
There were at least a dozen or more unconscious humans around us. All rescued and unharmed. We killed a variety of different species of demons trafficking humans into the Underworld.
August faded out. Before I could, my Reaper senses tripped.
Oh, fucking Hades. No. No. No.
Gwendolyn.
Only it differed from the last time. Instead of getting a premonition she was dying, I received quick imageries of her in the arms of a vampire—in the Underworld.
My red essence flared and burst through my skin. I wasn’t raging. My skin was still intact, but not for long.
Instead of fading to the human world, I went straight to the vampire that had Gwendolyn. He ran through a cluster of dead trees in the woods. Gwendolyn wasn’t supposed to spend her last moments in a lifeless world. Why would a demon kidnap a dying human for the festival?
Conjuring Wrath (Seven Deadly Book 3) Page 6