Reaper Mine: A Reaper Novel

by Palmer, Christie

  “Who is Aldon?”

  “The man controlling the Freaks. The master mind behind all the voodoo,” Kyra said with a smile.

  “Was anyone going to tell me?”

  Kyra gave her a strange look. “Actually, I’m surprised Victor hasn’t told you already. But those Reapers the Gods themselves don’t know what they are thinking.”

  Elle had to agree with her on that. “Let’s go down and get some breakfast. I’m not allowed to cook anymore but I’m sure one of the boys has thrown something together.”

  “Why aren’t you allowed to cook?” Elle asked following Kyra out of her room and down the hall..

  “Because she poisoned us one to many times.” one of the Trackers she didn’t know said, coming through a door, as they passed.

  Kyra introduced them. “Elle, this is Bowen. He runs all the electronics and gadgets.”

  Elle nodded at him, and then looked back at Kyra. “Poisoned?”

  “It was an accident,” Kyra said in her defense.

  Bowen’s laughter followed behind them, Kyra glared at him over her shoulder. “It really was.”

  “The first two times we sure thought it was,” Bowen said.

  “The first two times?” Elle asked.

  “That is why she isn’t allowed to cook,” Bowen said as he pushed passed them. “Kyra would kill us all with her cooking.”

  Ryder was the one standing in front of the stove cooking when they came into the kitchen. When he turned and saw Kyra he smiled at the woman and turned back to the stove. Victor immediately stood up from the table.

  Elle walked over to him “Who is Aldon?”

  “What are you talking about?” He looked past her to Kyra, giving the Elemental a dirty look.

  Elle stepped in front of Victor so he had to look at her. “I asked you who Aldon was.”

  “I have no idea.”

  Elle felt like punching him in the face, instead she turned on her heels. If he wasn’t going to give her the answers she wanted she would get them herself.

  “Where the hell are you going?” he demanded.

  “To find out what is going on?” she said over her shoulder.

  “And where do you think you will get your answers?”

  She stopped and turned on him. “I’m pretty sure those things at the gate will be more than happy to answer my questions.”

  “Did you just growl at me?” she was so stunned she was frozen in her tracks. Victor grabbed her arm and forced her over to the table and into a seat.

  “You are not going back out there. You are going to sit here and eat breakfast.” She pushed him away.

  “Don’t you dare start treating me like a child.” Elle slapped at his hands and tried to rise from the table.

  “Then don’t act like one,” Victor snapped. “You need to build your strength. Or you won’t be able to fight off those things and find out what the hell Aldon is.”

  Elle stopped pushing at him. “You don’t know what Aldon is?”

  Victor rolled his eyes and sighed. “No, now will you eat?”

  “Well why didn’t you just say so in the first place? Why do you always have to make everything so damn difficult?” she reached past him to the plate of eggs Ryder had just put down on the table. She smiled at the Tracker and dished some onto her plate.

  “I’m difficult?” Victor looked at her and then to Ryder.

  “Of course you are,” Elle said taking a bite out of a piece of toast Bowen had handed her. She smiled at him, as well. Skylar loaded some bacon onto her plate, while a different tracker she didn't know, loaded her plate with potatoes. Kyra handed her a glass of orange juice. "You never give me all the details. Why don't you start with those?"

  “Yes, why don’t you?” Skylar asked.

  “Shut it,” Victor snarled at the Tracker.

  “Be nice.” Elle waved her fork at Victor as she ate. She smiled at Skylar. “What is the plan?”

  “First on the list is find out how those damn things are tracking you. And then find out who Aldon is,” Victor snarled.

  “Don’t forget I need your blood,” Kyra said.

  “Why do you need his blood?” Elle thought it a morbid request over breakfast.

  “The wards won’t allow him in or out. If he is going to be able to Flash in and out of the wards, or any of his kin, I will need their blood as well.” Elle nodded. It made sense, but she didn’t know if she liked the thought of Victor leaving her, and it must have showed in her eyes because Victor immediately sat down next to her. The irritation he had been showing her all morning instantly gone.

  “I have to return to the Infernos to report to Dante what is going on. As well as bring some of my brothers back to help fight. I promise not to be gone long.” He reached under the table to squeeze her clenched fists.

  “I have some questions.” A large Tracker said, striding into the kitchen. He was easily the largest of them all. Long dark hair brushed his shoulders, and dark green eyes pierced her with cold intent. She couldn’t help the shiver running down her spine.

  Victor squeezed her hands again. “Don’t let Falcon intimidate you. He thrives on scaring people.”

  “We are running out of time.” Falcon shoved Victor out of the way, and sat down across from Elle at the table. “You may continue eating. How are they tracking you?” he demanded.

  Elle felt her mouth sag open. Victor reached over and closed it with the press of his index finger on her chin. She pulled away from him. Then shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  She shoved more eggs into her mouth as Falcon glared at her.

  “You have to know, you just don’t know you know.” He tapped a pen on a pad of paper. “Where have you lived lately?”

  She told Falcon about living up and down the east coast, for the last couple of hundred years. Of settling in Maine, the last sixty years or so. About her secluded little cabin in the mountains there. How she didn't have neighbors for miles. She didn't mention she could let down her walls. Her wards kept her safe from mortals and Others.

  “Doesn’t make sense,” Falcon said gruffly. “There is nothing about you that would interest anyone.”

  “Thanks,” Elle said, pushing the rest of her breakfast away.

  Falcon huffed. “No offense, but you just aren’t a person of interest.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” Kyra said. “She is a demi-god after all. They as a race are very interesting.”

  “A cursed demi-god,” Falcon offered just as disgusted as before.

  “Again thank you,” Elle said.

  Falcon shook his head. “Look sweetheart, if you are going to spend any time with us, you are going to have to get a little thicker skin. I call it like it is. You are neither interesting nor have anything worth taking. I’m not sure I would cross the street to sniff your skirts.”

  “Um…” had he just insulted her?

  Victor confirmed her thought by leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. “What’s your point Falcon?”

  “There is more to this than meets the eye. We don’t have all the pieces and I don’t like playing the game without all the rules.” With that he stood and walked out of the room. “I’m going to kill something,” he said over his shoulder. The rest of the Trackers followed him, obviously liking the idea.

  Victor snorted. “This is my queue to go to the Infernos.” He turned to Elle. “You stay out of trouble.”

  Elle stood with him. “And exactly what am I supposed to do?”

  “Actually.” Kyra drew the word out. “Fiona would like to speak with you.”

  “Fiona?” Elle wasn’t sure she wanted to know who that was.

  “Fiona is a Druid High Priestess. She is who made the tonic that helped you heal, and she would dearly love to have the opportunity to speak with you about the curse you received.” Kyra explained.

  “Received?” Elle asked. “You say it like it was a gift.”

  Kyra nodded. “It’s all the way you look it at it, Elle. How
you decide to perceive it. How you choose to live your life, now that you have it.”

  Elle felt hot anger rise from deep in her stomach. “Do you know what it feels like to die, Kyra? What the hand of death feels like?”

  “Yes,” Kyra said without blinking, taking Elle by surprise. Taken aback, Elle just stood there for a moment.

  “May I?” Victor looked at Kyra who nodded. “Kyra accidently opened a Pandora’s Box and for a time was touched by Dante.”

  Kyra waved off Victor’s words, but it didn’t make Elle feel any better. “It’s over and done with, but don’t expect Ryder to ever forgive Dante. Anyway, I could never hope to understand what you go through, Elle. And what the horrible Druid did to you was unthinkable and I’m sorry for it. But let us see what we can do to help you.”

  Elle doubted very much they could do anything, but they had made her feel better so talking to them wouldn’t hurt. “Fine.”

  “Wonderful. First I need Victor’s blood. Then Fiona,” Kyra said. The darkness Elle saw in her eyes faded as quickly as it had come.

  “I’ll bring her out in a minute,” Victor said to Kyra.

  As soon as they were alone Elle couldn’t help herself. “Do you really trust these people?”

  “They are not my family. But they will do,” Victor admitted.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Elle asked.

  He cupped her face so he could look into her eyes and she felt so small. “It means, that I can’t stand the thought of leaving you alone. But, if I don’t go back to the Infernos and check in, Dante may rip me from this plane without my consent. And trust me that is a very unpleasant experience.”

  “What’s it like in the Infernos?” she couldn’t help but ask.

  “Home,” he whispered.

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “It’s a feeling.” He released her and placed a hand just below her collar bone. “Just here, a warmth that seeps into your soul. Warms you from the inside out. Makes you heavy and light all at the same time because you know it is where you truly belong. Then the colors burst before you like an artist’s palette exploding, oranges, reds, yellows, purples and blues and black flowing through each other to the point it’s almost painful to watch but you can’t look away. Because you know if you look away you’ll miss the most amazing thing you’ll ever see.”

  “The Infernos are a contradiction, Elle.” His voice caressed the skin of her cheek. “It is the most beautiful and horrible thing you will ever see in all your existence.”

  She turned into him, so his lips brushed against her jaw. And they both caught their breath. “Why?”

  “One moment you will see colors race across the sky that will take your breath away.” He ran his thumb along her collarbone and Elle leaned toward him farther until his lips connected with hers. Victor moaned, and pressed closer capturing her lips with his. Elle didn’t think she had ever been kissed like this before. Colors cascaded through her brain as Victor deepened the kiss.

  As his lips pressed hers opened, reds, oranges, pinks and purples flooded her brain as his tongue swept into her mouth. He tasted of exotic forbidden fruit. And she soaked it deep into her bones. Elle wrapped her arms around Victor sinking into him, anchoring herself to him. She felt safe this close to him and didn’t want to let go. How had she come to trust him, this Reaper, in so short a time?

  Elle pressed herself closer to Victor wanting the kiss to go on forever. Wishing it would erase all the darkness surrounding them. She wanted nothing more than to drown in those colors Victor painted of the Infernos, wanted to drown in Victor. But she knew this was fleeting, he was a Reaper and her life was limited to snatches of life and death. One moment here, and then those horrible bone-breaking and soul-stealing moments of returning.

  Elle forced herself to break the contact and step back, the images he created turning to shadows and she choked them down barely holding back the urge to cry out.

  “You make the Infernos seem like a beautiful place, when it is filled with the souls of the damned,” she accused.

  Victor’s eyes turned cold, and his hands fisted at his sides as he released her. “Deserving of their fates, Elle, never forget, we don’t just grab people from the mortal plane willey nilly.”

  She needed to put distance between them even if it hurt. She snorted. “You’ve never taken a soul by accident?”

  “Never,” he said without hesitation. “I rule over Violence, Elle. The souls there are black and tortured and more than deserving of their fates. If anything they should be sent to the pits of Hell.”

  Elle shivered at the thought. “And who does your collection while you babysit me?”

  “My Abda. They are bonded servants to the Reapers, they help in the collection. After all, we cannot be everywhere at once. There are also the Death Ringers.” That really had Elle shivering. She had encountered one of those before. Small little creatures flittered in and out touching mortals here and there marking them for death. They moved with the speed of light and if you saw them it was a miracle or a seriously bad omen.

  “You’ve seen a Ringer before?” Victor asked.

  “Only once,” she admitted.

  “For you?”

  Elle shook her head. “No. It was during one of the plagues, I was dying. Or I might have been coming back. I don’t remember. But it was between.” She shuddered. Victor reached for her but she stepped away from him. The thing had been small, but human looking with long white hair. Long flowing robes, it had jumped from person to person not actually touching everyone but the people it did touch, Elle could see started to breathe differently and she had known without being told they were dying.

  A dark figured had stood in the shadows. Elle had refused to look deeply into the shadows at that one figure. She hadn’t wanted to look, because she had been terrified to. Afraid if she looked into the eyes of a Reaper and she died if her soul was taken she would never find her body again and therefore never be reborn again. Or whatever it was that happened to her that brought her back to life when she died and came back. But the figure in the shadows hadn’t moved when people had died. And light didn’t shine for them either.

  Elle had prayed for them hoping they had gotten where they had been meant to go.

  “All souls end up where they are meant to be Elle,” Victor reassured her.

  “Can you read my mind?” she accused him.

  Victor snorted. “Of course not.”

  She wasn’t sure she believed him. He often said or answered questions she had before she even knew she was asking them. “Don’t you have somewhere you should be?”

  “Yes, in point of fact, I do. Do you have your walls up?” He asked. Even though he shouldn’t care, he did.

  She rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

  “Humor me,” he growled. “I don’t know how long I will be gone.”

  “Just go already.” She brushed past him. “I’m sure I will survive while you are gone. Believe it or not, I was able to keep myself alive, long before you came along.”

  “Really because the last couple of days were such a stellar example of your ability to take care of yourself,” he shot at her.

  She continued walking down the hall, she was not going to let him goad her into an argument.

  “And if I recall, it was you that asked for my help. You called me remember? You essentially, begged me for my help,” he reminded her. “And, if it wasn’t for me, you’d be fodder for Aldon, and his pets. And he would be doing gods only knows what to you! I mean, each time they’ve gotten their meaty paws on you, they have killed you!” he ended. Bellowing the last words.

  She saw red and turned on him; he was so close to her, she ran into him. She pushed him away. “You are an overbearing asshole. You realize that, don’t you? If I recall I begged, pleaded for you to leave. I ran away from you, twice. This isn’t your fight,” she screamed back.

  “You made it my fight when you summoned me,” Victor shouted back.

&
nbsp; “I unsummon you.” Elle dusted her hands off. “Problem solved. Go back to the Infernos, back to your life. I don’t want you here anymore. ”

  His eyes turned nearly black and he walked away from her. Elle just stood there unable to believe he had walked away from her without saying a word. The moment he left, she felt the crushing wave of emotions settle around her. Thank the gods her internal wards were strong enough to hold them back.

  “He didn’t even say goodbye,” she whispered to herself, and tears rose up to choke her. She swallowed past the lump and the tightness in her chest. She suddenly felt alone and looked around not sure exactly what she was supposed to do or where she was supposed to go. She didn’t know these people. Didn’t know what they expected from her? She was a burden on them, and she had put them all in danger.

  It wasn’t just the emotions crushing down on her; it was the weight of the lives here as well. And, she could blame it all on Victor. When next she saw him she was going to kick his ass. If he came back. She wasn’t sure he would after the way she had just treated him.

  Elle lowered herself to the floor, and rested her chin on her knees. It was a horrible position she was in and she had no idea what she was going to do. And right then, she didn’t even know who she could trust. It was all she could do to hold back the tears.

  That was exactly where Kyra found her, like a child, sitting on the floor trying not to cry.

  “Hi.” She said it quietly as if speaking too loudly would frighten Elle.

  Elle looked up at her, noticing how strong Kyra looked. As a Druid, and an Elemental Enforcer Kyra must have her shit together. It only made Elle feel that much more insignificant. “Hi.”

  “I know things look pretty bleak, but I’m sure we will come up with a solution,” she offered.

  Elle couldn’t stop the hysterical burst of laughter that came tumbling out. “Are you being serious?” she asked.

  Kyra lifted her shoulders in a casual shrug. “I’ve seen worse. Been in worse circumstances.” Kyra offered Elle a hand. “Let’s see what Fiona has to say.”

  Elle really didn’t have any options open to her so she took Kyra’s hand and followed her down the hallway, and down a flight of stairs. When they came to a large doorway made of iron Elle stopped in her tracks. “Um, so not going to happen.”