Kitty’s mouth dropped. “I do! Oh, my…”
“Let me see your ankle,” Maureen said as she pushed me onto a seat. She parted my cloak and lifted my leg until she found what she was looking for. Kitty squealed as she noticed the red lion’s head.
I wrinkled my nose. “What do you mean by Barron’s mark?”
“How much has he told you about us?” Maureen asked.
I laughed. “Nothing. I just learned his name.”
They both frowned. Maureen whispered, “That’s not possible.”
“You have to be in love before the marks appear, don’t you?” Kitty said skeptically.
“You fell in love at first sight?”
I felt my cheeks warm. Why was Maureen asking me such a silly question? I would say mildly obsessed with him, not in love, but all of their talk about love was only further confusing me.
“What?” I rubbed my temple and groaned. “Please, stop talking to each other and just tell me.”
Kitty resumed eating. “She’s demanding. I like her already. Barron needs a better handle on control even if it means someone takes control of him.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Maureen added with a chuckle. “But I agree. Well, Gwendolyn, what do you want to know?”
“Are you guys Reapers too?” They nodded. I looked down at my ankle and rubbed the mark. “The demons kidnapped and killed me because of this thing.”
“What?” Maureen glared. “You…” She gasped. “With that said, I can see how your death happened. I’m sorry. No wonder he’s so out of whack. Did he see it happen?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see him there, but when I came to he was with me. Since there were demon corpses surrounding us, I’m assuming Barron saved me from whatever they planned to do with my soul. He was so adamant about sending me to Heaven after that. When he tried, the passage spat me right out, and I was no longer a ghost.” I tugged on the cloak. “I was—”
“Apparently, the marks don’t appear because of mutual feelings like we previously thought,” Kitty said with food in her mouth.
“That seemed to be the case for Jackal’s mark,” Maureen replied. Once again, they were talking to each other and leaving me out of the conversation.
“Maybe it’s a contact thing.”
It amazed me at how skilled Kitty was at talking with food in her mouth.
“Contact?” Maureen’s brows creased in the middle.
Kitty nodded. “Yeah. Like maybe once the fated pair interact with each other, it appears within a certain amount of time.”
“So, you’re saying I have a mark similar to Barron’s?” I piped in, desperate for answers. Before the demons kidnapped me, I thought I heard something important. When I tried to remember it, I came up blank.
“Yours isn’t similar, Gwendolyn. You have Barron’s symbol. The curse and sin of wrath,” Maureen informed me.
“Curse?” I asked.
“There’s something you should know about our family. All of my siblings, including myself, are cursed with one of the seven deadly sins.” Maureen flicked her ponytail and finally took a seat with us at the large table.
Kitty raised her hand. “Gluttony over here.” Oh wow! That explained her constant eating. “Pretty sure the Devil placed a hole in my stomach.”
“My sin is pride.” Maureen exhaled. “Since the human world’s been ending, two of us have fallen in love with those that bear our marks. Pretty shitty if you think about it. It’s like the fates are spitting out our lovers when we’re destined to fade away once the Devil rises.”
Like soulmates? The thought alone ignited my skin, like a fire bursting through me.
Kitty watched Maureen. “The fact that you can talk so easily about your love life says enough. Jack’s presence has…”
“Jack’s mine. Why wouldn’t I claim him?” Maureen stared at her sister like she was an idiot.
Kitty rolled her eyes. “There she is.”
“So, he knows about us being soulmates,” I grimaced at the thought of him pulling away from me. “I thought he wanted me safe when he pushed me away...”
Oh, God. What if he hated being bound to me in such a way?
“So,” a male voice came from behind me.
I jumped. My gaze bounced around until I saw Sebastian propped against the doorway with a lopsided grin on his face.
“I’m taking it you met and got chummy with Barron before the whole kidnapping charade?”
I blushed, unsure why my silence made Sebastian smile.
“Barron doesn’t talk to anyone.”
“He’s right,” Maureen added. “Barron’s not personable or talkative. He’s a loner.”
“Everything sets him off,” said Kitty.
Oh. My heated flesh must have given me away. Barron and I had gotten close for a brief time, and he spoke to me openly. I wanted that again, but I didn’t dare think of being some destined lover. Did such things exist in their world? Apparently, they thought so.
Barron’s anger issues, as he had called them, weren’t issues as much as it was a curse. Although I was grateful that his siblings filled me in, I had no problem with his jerky attitude. Rather, I liked everything about Barron.
But the curse and being marked mates only confused me. Was this why he tried to get rid of me? Was it a desire to keep me safe? Or, was it that he couldn’t bear being with me for an eternity?
A sense of rejection pierced my gut and sliced into my heart.
Fortunately for Barron, he shared a mark with someone who’d rather be by herself than force her presence on others. I’d lived with enough families who took me in for a monthly check. I was done with that. Barron didn’t want me? I frowned, rubbing the sharp pain away in my chest. I couldn’t dismiss the idea like I did everything else in my life. In a such amount of time, Barron became something to me. Was it because of the fateful mark on my ankle?
Did it matter when the thought of him not wanting me pained me so?
Stop, I told myself. At that moment, I could only focus on what I could do. What I wanted was my life and preferably a pair of skates. I had a body—a Reaper’s body—but it came with responsibilities. That was more than I had lying in a hospital bed.
“I’m a Reaper now, right?” I changed the subject. “Doesn’t that mean I have things to learn? Is there a place I can stay? Does Gluttony share? I’m suddenly famished.” It was like I hadn’t noticed how starved my new body was until watching Kitty eat and eat and eat for the last five minutes.
The three siblings stared at me. “Although you’re confused beyond belief, you can be straight to the point.” Maureen crossed one long leg over the other and peered at Kitty. “I like her too.”
Being unwanted wasn’t new to me. Being in a stranger’s home nor was taking what I could when available wasn’t either. Even after death, it seemed like nothing was forever. Everything for me was fleeting. How long before that life chewed me up and spat me out like every other home I’d been in?
Chapter 13
Barron
“You guys knew about the mark!” I gripped one of Harvester’s goons by his shirt. I planned to find out why Gwendolyn was targeted before I knew the truth about her. “How?”
“As if I’d tell you.” The werewolf spat in my face.
I closed my eyes, willing my curse not to go berserk. It wasn’t helping. My skin felt like hot magma waiting to explode and destroy everything. Anger prickled my neck and spine. I needed to find an open field and pray for it to happen. Since the end began—even more so since Gwendolyn—my wrath was constantly begging and tearing at me. I needed a release in the worst way. That ever-present turmoil was eating at my sanity and pushing me to kill innocents. I tried my hardest not to go over the edge, but going somewhere secluded and letting go seemed like the best solution.
Only with Gwendolyn around, I doubted that would happen. Most likely, I’d continue to fester and fester until… Until what? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
That small reprieve with her in the woods felt so long ago. My body, a web of angry energy, yearned for that moment.
Guilt churned my already festering gut of furious energy. Even then, a sinister part of me rejoiced at her being stuck there with me despite everything.
Fucking Hades!
I wanted to kill everything in sight. The one thing I wanted most of all was in another part of the castle, right there with me, and so far out of my reach because I wouldn’t give myself the luxury of her presence.
Not when everything that’d been done to her was my fault.
Inhaling, I slammed my fist into the werewolf’s nose. Crack went the bone. My sin danced to the sound. The creature howled. I leered. Then, I saw the shift. His skin undulated as muscles and bones rearranged. Fuck, no! I punched him again. The change stopped.
“All right, take it easy,” Payne muttered beside me.
I ignored him and leaned in closer until my forehead hit the werewolf’s. “How did he know Gwendolyn bore my mark?”
He chuckled through the blood coating his teeth and lips. “Just kill me. I’ll never utter a word against my lord.”
“Lord?” August scoffed from another part of the room. “Jesus. Harvest has them brainwashed.”
The Harvester sneered in August’s direction. “You all parade around like you’re so untouchable. Fate’s no longer on your side, Reapers.”
“We don’t parade,” August’s voice dropped an octave as he approached the werewolf. I tightened my grip on the creature’s shirt. “We keep you fuckers in check and that pisses you off.”
“Not anymore.” There was a gleam in the fiend’s eyes. He truly wasn’t afraid of dying. He was a twenty-something-year-old pup, and yet, he didn’t care about defying Reapers. Demons like him honestly believed darkness would win. We were the scary stories demon parents told their kids at bedtime. Harvest was to blame for demons thinking we were irrelevant.
Just thinking of the havoc they’d create once the Devil rose reminded me of how we could never let that happen.
“He won’t give you answers about your girl,” Payne told me. I growled. “Step aside, Barron. You know the real reason he’s here.”
Grinding my molars, I flung the demon to the ground. “He’s a follower. He likely knows shit, and it’s why he’s not saying anything.”
“I know everything!” the follower screamed like I knew he would.
“You think you know,” said Payne. He reached over his shoulder, unsheathed his sword from its holder, and flipped it around. A scare tactic. “What did you think you were doing kidnapping humans and bringing them to the Underworld?”
Sadly, I really didn’t think the demon knew much although he claimed otherwise. We needed someone higher up on Harvest’s pyramid of lackeys.
The demon tried scooting back as he watched Payne. “Why else? The human festival.”
“That will not happen,” said August.
The demon laughed. “My one regret is that I won’t be alive to witness all of you making fools of yourselves on the night of the blood moon.”
August chuckled darkly. “Yeah, it’s a shame you won’t be around to see the fuckery we’ll make of every demon that night.”
Sebastian faded into the room. “What did I miss?”
“Your brothers and Payne are having a conversation with our guest,” Grim said from the couch where he watched the questioning.
“Hi, Joe,” Sebastian flashed his teeth as he said the demon’s name. “I’m the nice one. Well, I am for as long as you allow me to be.”
I scoffed, catching Sebastian’s attention.
“Barron, I’ll remember you killing me earlier when you come running for advice on your new lover.” He rubbed his neck as if it was still sore from me breaking it. “Oh, and Gwendolyn knows about the mark.” He clucked his tongue, grating on my nerves. “You snapped my neck to keep me from spilling the beans, but she found out anyway.” He shrugged nonchalantly.
Fucking Hades. Who let the Sloth in? My fingers twitched with the urge to kill him again.
“I’m the one that gets to kill the demon,” I gritted out. The erratic flair of my essence flared around me and dared anyone to say otherwise. Sebastian shut his mouth while Payne gripped his pants pocket. He most likely held the syringe to knock me out if needed.
_______
I rushed out of the room like a stick of dynamite was stuck in my shoes. After taking care of Joe, thoughts of Gwendolyn pierced my fucking mind. I turned my head left then right, sensing her presence. Something hot and dangerous filled my stomach as I focused on how much of her new essence mixed with mine. That same menacing, chuckle suddenly vibrated through my skull, and my right eye twitched.
It couldn’t be my sin laughing inside my head like that, could it? Maybe I was losing what little sanity I had.
Gwendolyn was supposedly in the kitchen with Maureen and Kitty. Sebastian hadn’t been lying. She definitely knew about our curses.
It pissed me off, but I couldn’t blame my siblings for telling Gwendolyn what was happening to her. I knew I never would have told her if I could have gotten away with it. I would have kept it from her to protect her. That was what mattered above all. Maybe if I kept us separated, her soul wouldn’t connect with mine any further, and I could prevent her from fading away.
Far, far away from me.
I’d find a way to get her to Heaven.
“No!” My eyes bulged as I heard my own withering voice raging in my head. “You will keep her like you want.”
My sin? My essence swept around angrily.
I didn’t get time to ponder the warning after I heard the laughter from the kitchen. I stopped inside the entrance. My skin crawled right along with the timbre of August’s voice. How did he get to the kitchen so fast? The bastard faded. Blood running hot, I tapped on the doorway to alert them of my presence. Gwendolyn faced me, and her smile disappeared. She turned toward my siblings, dismissing me completely. August arched an amused brow, simpering in a way that had me seconds from murdering him or raging out. The first choice sounded more plausible since I wasn’t raging normally. Instead, I was festering and growing into a bigger monster thanks to Gwendolyn.
“There you are.” Something about Maureen’s crooked grin and raised brows warned me that she would have her fun. “August just offered to help Gwendolyn master her Reaper powers. Isn’t that great?”
The steady crunch, crunch, crunch of Kitty eating was the only sound in the room. My growing irritation ignited Wrath. Gwendolyn’s eyes widened, and she scooted in her chair to get away. I didn’t even think she knew she was doing it until her chair hit August.
“No.” My sin’s protest filled my mind “No.” It was always when I spoke calmly that everyone knew I was in bad shape with my sin. “Mom or one of you can show her."
August’s amusement stretched on his face. “Her powers are sure to differ from other Reapers. After all, Grim didn’t give it to her.”
Maureen piped in. “It’s more like she’s stolen someone’s essence.”
Mine. She was referring to my essence.
Satisfaction dampened my anger a bit along with curiosity. Woven throughout Gwendolyn was the truth of why she was in my world. I hated myself for being so pleased because my essence seeping into hers was also the reason Heaven denied her.
Typically, when Mom or Grim gave Reaper powers to a demon, it only allowed them to sense when death was happening to someone and then guide him or her. They’d also know which demons needed to be eradicated. Other than that, Reapers didn’t get any other special gifts. Grim handed out cloaks. Sometimes weapons if the demon needed it but nothing else. I stared at the delicate scythe propped against the table next to Gwendolyn. She was something else entirely. She was channeling my power—my very essence. She shouldn’t have a scythe or any power. I studied her, a mixture of euphoria and fear raging inside me. What exactly was she there to do to me?
Nothing I could allow. Wrath stormed around me the
second that the thought crossed my mind.
“We’ll test out some theories tomorrow,” August added.
“We have work to do.” Wrath grew stronger as I clenched my jaw. “Leave her to Mom.”
“Don’t I get a say?” Gwendolyn asked. Her youthful features pinched tight as she glared at me. “This is my life now. I should get a say in what I do with it.”
“Do what you want,” I said flatly. I’d just kill August before he showed tomorrow.
“He says that, but his eyes are saying something else.” Kitty’s gaze narrowed.
“Get her set up in a room,” I told Kitty so that she would get off my case.
Kitty set her fork down a second. “Don’t worry about Gwendolyn. Go on about your duties. We’ll take care of her since you won’t.” That was an obvious jab at me. Kitty’s purple essence spiked out around her—it circled her once before it calmed. I’d made her mad.
“I can take care of myself,” Gwendolyn rose from her chair. “Want to show me where I’m sleeping?” She glimpsed over at Kitty. My sister stood and slapped a Slim Jim in her mouth. Gwendolyn grimaced as she came closer to me. Wrath seeped from my pores, desperate and fucking needy for her. Since I no longer trusted my curse, I didn’t dare move. August, smirking like a lunatic, must have noticed the weirdness between Gwendolyn and me.
“You want nothing to do with me,” she said with that fucking pout that twisted my organs.
Oh, how fucking wrong she was. But I couldn’t speak the truth when I was planning to get her to Heaven.
“But I wanted to say thank you. I’m unsure what you did, but I suspect you’re the reason I exist. Those demons—or whatever they were—had planned to do something with my soul. You stopped them.” Then that same pout curved into something wicked. “I wonder how long you can keep me safe like you so desperately want when you can’t stand being around me? Why can’t you stay close to me? Don’t worry. I’ll make use of these powers I have thanks to my soulmate.”
A web of bliss rolled over my bones and heated my skin.
Soulmate.
Fucking Hades!
Conjuring Wrath (Seven Deadly Book 3) Page 10