Jeremiah slipped out of his jacket, tossing it carelessly to the floor. “They did. Their job is done. They had to be real dumbasses to not realize they were signing up for a suicide mission.” Jeremiah glanced over at Thomas, a wide, unnerving smile on his face. “Don’t be a fucking dumbass, Tommy.”
Tommy looked like he was going to be sick as a strip of torn metal flew over my head, crashing into the shelves and sending bottles of liquor shattering across the floor. There was a rush of heat, and Leon’s arms were around me, enveloping me, holding me close and safe in his arms. His shirt was damp, stained with blood, the metallic scent of it sharp in the air.
I could guess what had happened to Nick and Will.
“Oh, bravo, what a show, Leon.” Jeremiah clapped his hands. “A little slow there though, I actually expected you” — he glanced at the watch on his wrist — “nearly a minute ago. Damn. And here I thought you cared about your precious little human fleshlight.”
Behind him, Jeremiah’s nameless friend chuckled. “You should give her up to someone who’ll use her better —”
Leon’s arms left me in the same moment that the man’s head left his body. The headless corpse swayed for a moment, blood spurting, before crumpling into a heap. I clapped a hand over my mouth, nausea overwhelming me. Thomas began to scream, the sound ringing hollow in my ears until it choked off with a liquidus gurgle; Leon’s hand wrapped around his throat from behind, squeezing tighter, tighter, crushing his windpipe and then — with an audible crack — his spine.
My head was light as I stared at the carnage. Leon rolled his shoulders, moving himself back between me and Jeremiah. I pressed against his back, despite the blood on his shirt, whispering frantically, “Get me out of here, please, let’s go, let’s go, please.”
“Easy, baby girl.” He pulled me around under his arm, kissing my head. “Sorry I took so long.”
Jeremiah shook his head. “Damn, you’ve really got that sweet, caring monster act down to a science, don’t you? It’s pathetic how much she’s fallen for it, honestly. Impressive, Leon. I’m going to have to punish you for killing my father, but after that, I might still give you the opportunity to serve.”
Leon laughed. “Punish me? You’re about to go the same way as your father, boy.”
This time, when Leon left my side, I managed to preemptively cover my eyes. I expected a scream, a spray of blood — I didn’t expect the sounds of struggle.
Leon had Jeremiah pinned on the floor, his veins bulging thick in his arms, his sharp teeth bared as they grappled. Grappled. Jeremiah was matching his strength, somehow holding back those claws from going through his throat. It should have been impossible. It was impossible. No human could match a demon barehanded. I’d seen what Leon could do.
But something was wrong with Jeremiah.
His eyes were glazed, like fog had seeped over his irises. He was expressionless, the only real sign of his struggle being the bulging muscles in his arms and twitching in his legs. As Leon leaned down with his jaws open wide to bite, a drip of dark, thick liquid seeped from the corner of Jeremiah’s mouth.
They tumbled, a sudden flurry of movement before they clashed again and skidded apart. Leon rose slowly, his eyes narrowed, as Jeremiah remained crouched on the ground, panting.
Jeremiah was laughing.
Leon pushed me back, toward the ruined metal security gate. Jeremiah raised his head, coughed, and more thick black goop dripped from his lips. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and stood, clenching and unclenching his fists, gazing at his arms as if in wonder.
“Goddamn,” he said softly. “Oh, that is a gift…”
His eyes darted over to us, slowly deepening to their normal color. I was torn between running outside, and staying close to Leon, but then Jeremiah spoke. So softly I could barely hear him, he said, “God chose me. It chose me.” He laughed again, nearly hysterical in pitch. “I made my sacrifices. Two, two in my name.” He held up two fingers as if to drive the point home. “God rewards sacrifice. God rewarded me.”
“Get to the truck, Rae,” Leon said. “Now.”
I backed away, stumbling and nearly falling on the ruins of the security door, my shoes crunching on broken glass. The cold air outside smacked reality into me as I jogged toward the trunk, trying not to stare at the torn, broken body lying on the concrete, or the second corpse splattered against the side of the market.
What the hell just happened? How could Jeremiah be that strong? How?
I climbed into the truck, clutching my head in my hands, and jumped when only seconds later, Leon was getting into the driver seat. The tires screeched as he backed out and he slammed on the gas as he hit the road, pushing the truck to its limit. He avoided Main Street to take the long way home that curved along the bay.
“What happened?” I gasped, trying not to scream — or cry — or keep replaying the gore I’d just witnessed again and again. “Leon, how…how —”
“Jeremiah gave himself over to the God,” he said grimly. The words didn’t make sense, but they tightened that knot of anxiety inside me until I thought I might vomit. “That strength isn’t his. It’s God’s.”
I really wanted those chips and cookies.
But Thomas’s screams, and the decapitated body of the nameless man, lingered in my mind and curdled in my stomach until it was all I could do to hold down the little I’d eaten that day. Just as haunting was the memory of the cold, pale fog in Jeremiah’s eyes, the black liquid seeping from his mouth. It was as if something was rotting him from the inside out.
Jeremiah’s reward for the sacrifices he’d made was supernatural strength that his mortal body could barely contain.
“A human isn’t meant to have strength like that,” Leon said. “Mortal bodies begin to break down from the effort of maintaining it, so Jeremiah won’t survive like that forever. But that doesn’t make it any less of a problem.”
“Who was the second sacrifice?” I was pacing in the house, unable to sit down, afraid that if I didn’t keep myself distracted, I’d break down entirely. I’d seen Leon kill monsters before, but never humans. Watching humans die was something else entirely, even though it was for my own protection.
I could watch horror films all day and love them. I could revel in gore when I knew it was fake. But this was real. Far too real.
“The sacrifice must have been Victoria,” Leon said. He was in the bathroom, washing the blood splatter from his hairline. It was only at my prompting that he was bothering. He didn’t really seem to notice when he was spattered with gore. “One of the Hadleigh children is destined for death. Considering Jeremiah is walking around with the God’s favor, I’d say he made quick work of his sister.” He shrugged and turned off the water. “The only thing left on his list is you. You’ll get his full attention now.” He frowned, prodding curiously at his tattooed arms. They couldn’t be seen through the ink, but I’d heard him grumbling that Jeremiah had bruised him.
I could hear sirens faintly in the distance. When I’d briefly scrolled Facebook earlier in an attempt to distract myself, it hadn’t taken long to see someone post that Food Mart was on fire.
Would they find the bodies? Would there be security footage of what happened? Maybe if the police could just see what Jeremiah had done, maybe…
No. The police couldn’t help me. It was me and Leon — and somewhere out there, Juniper and Zane were still out for vengeance against the Libiri. The bloodbath wasn’t over.
It was only just beginning.
Emerging from the bathroom, Leon snatched me up and carried me to the couch, settling me onto his lap in front of the TV. He tugged my thumb from my lip — the nail of which I’d absolutely destroyed by chewing on — and held both my hands secured in one of his.
“Look at me.” He tipped my chin up, running his thumb over my pouting lower lip. “A man like Jeremiah isn’t allowed to spend this much time on your mind. Who do you belong to?” I pouted a little more, and his hand moved from my fa
ce to my breast, teasing gently over the piercing there. “Who do you belong to, baby girl?”
“You,” I said softly, and despite the anxiety pressing down on my lungs until I couldn’t breathe, I smiled when he kissed my forehead.
“You’re mine, and I don’t let what’s mine get taken away from me. I protect what’s mine. Is that clear?” I nodded, and he settled me against his shoulder. “Jeremiah is still just flesh and blood. He may be strong, but he’s mortal. He tried to take you and already sealed his own death for that.”
A few moments passed in silence. I never wanted to leave that place, that feeling: the absolute safety and comfort of his arms around me. The knowledge that he would fight for me, that he was prepared to take on anything for me, made my heart ache.
There were words my brain wanted to say but my tongue refused to form. Words like, “I want to take your deal,” that really just meant “I want you to have my soul” because he’d already gone against the deal he’d offered. The price for his protection wasn’t paid, but here he was. Even when the danger was greatest.
I really hated planning for the future, I hated thinking of big, scary decisions, but this? This didn’t feel so scary anymore. It felt right. It felt like safety. It felt like opening a door to the greatest adventure I’d ever take.
I wanted to say it.
There was something else I wanted to say too, words that set me on fire and settled me at once, words that terrified me. Three simple words that rang true in my heart but balked before they could leave my mouth.
But I could be brave.
“Leon —”
The house creaked, and he tensed. The ground shook, the beams overhead groaning and the lights flickering. Cheesecake scrambled out of the kitchen, bolting upstairs to hide under the bed, his tail puffed up.
The shaking stopped. Only the flickering lights remained.
“Earthquake?” My voice sounded too loud in the silence that followed. Leon shook his head, staring at the light above. It flickered faster, faster, the electricity audibly crackling until —
The bulb burst, raining glass onto the floor, plunging the house into darkness. Leon got up slowly, his eyes bright in the dark. I could hear him sniffing, every exhale creating a cloud in the rapidly chilling air.
Goosebumps went up my arms. The temperature had dropped so low, so rapidly, that I was shivering. Leon’s arm was still around me, my only heat as I watched the window panes frost over.
“What the hell is happening?” I whispered. “Leon, what —”
A cry, a howl, filled the night. It carried through the forest, a scream from the darkest depths of oblivion, both too bestial and too human. It wasn’t the cry of an Eld, or the snarl of a Gollum. This sounded...bigger.
“A Reaper,” Leon murmured. “He summoned a goddamn Reaper.”
There was another cry, and I had to cover my ears as my stomach lurched at the sound. It was so unnatural, so viciously primal and alien. A sound like that shouldn’t exist on earth, it shouldn’t be heard by human ears. But there wouldn’t be a single person in Abelaum who didn’t hear it. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t even attempting to hide.
“You need to get out of here.” Leon was handing me my keys. I hadn’t even realized he’d moved to get them. “Get the cat. Start driving. Don’t fucking stop. Not for anything. Get as far away from here as you can.”
I stared at the keys in my shaking hand. Leon was at the door, staring off into the trees. The yard’s motion light flickered on as three deer ran across the yard, followed closely by a possum with her babies clinging to her back. Squirrels scurried over the deck and away, and crows were cawing overhead.
The animals were fleeing.
I dashed upstairs, and dragged Cheesecake out from under the bed. I barely managed to get the terrified cat into his harness before I dashed back downstairs. Leon was still exactly where I’d left him, shirtless as he stood on the deck, his claws out and his back tense.
“Leon, I’m ready, let’s go.”
He turned back to me, and something on his face made my heart plummet like a stone. “Give me five minutes to make sure it’s distracted. Then start driving.”
I gulped, shaking my head. “No. No, you’re coming with me.”
“Five minutes, Raelynn. You need to do as I say.” His face was grim, the cocky determination I was so used to seeing there utterly gone. I felt sick. I was so cold.
“Then you’ll catch up with me,” I said firmly. “I’ll start driving first, and you’ll catch up with me. Right?”
He turned, walking back inside. His bare feet left steaming prints on the freezing deck. He reached into the pocket of his jeans, and pulled out a folded piece of yellowed paper.
“When you’re far away from here, try to summon me back.” He held out the paper, and when I couldn’t bring myself to take it, he forced it against my chest. I put Cheesecake down, holding onto his leash, and unfolded it.
I recognized it immediately.
“This is your mark.” My eyes were stinging. “From the grimoire. You said...you said you hadn’t found it yet…”
“If the Reaper doesn’t kill me, you can summon me again.” He grinned, but it didn’t reach those smoldering eyes. “I’ve never given anyone permission to summon me. But if you can, bring me back to you.”
I knew what this was. I didn’t want to acknowledge it, because it hurt so bad, but I knew.
If the Reaper doesn’t kill me...but he didn’t believe that. He was saying good-bye.
He was saying good-bye, and I…
I threw my arms around him, squeezing as tightly as I could. I didn’t want to let go, he couldn’t make me let go, but he wasn’t holding me back either. He was gently – so very gently – pushing me away.
“I’m sorry.” The stinging in my eyes was welling over now. He couldn’t do this. Not like this. “I’m so sorry, Leon, please, please don’t —”
“Don’t say you’re sorry.” His voice was just a whisper as he backed away, putting distance between us as if he was afraid I’d cling to him again. “No human is ready for forever, and forever is all I have. But you gave me a part of your life, when mortal lives are so short.” He laughed softly. “I suppose saving your soul could be as good as owning it, so you’d better fucking survive.” He glanced back at the trees, as a freezing wind ruffled his hair and another cry shattered the night. As the awful sound faded away, he said, “You should know that I love you, for whatever that’s worth. Stay alive. Don’t waste that mortal life.”
That was where he left me, standing there in the door with tears streaming down my face and his name in my hand.
The ground was crawling with insects. Centipedes and creeping spiders fled beside mice and rabbits. The birds had been roused from their roosts, taking flight with a rattle of leaves and flutter of wings. A fox and her pups paused when they saw me, then hurried on, heads low as they ran.
Only I went against the tide. The youngest plants — little seedlings, sapling trees, fresh grass — were withering and dying. The air was sharp with the scent of blood and mold, cloying in my nose, like a butcher’s slaughterhouse.
There was a hierarchy in Hell: Demons, Archdemons, and Reapers above all. They were once executioners, having made a delicate pact with the Archdemon royals to only kill those demons who had been outcast.
But Reapers couldn’t be trusted. Demons hunted souls, Reapers hunted death. They craved it, hungered for it. They were as old as the Gods and nearly as dangerous.
I’d heard legends of magicians attempting to summon them. Kill enough people in offering, and maybe you could get one to show up. They couldn’t be contained like demons, nor commanded as we could. Offer them an intriguing enough task, and maybe they’d take it.
Or maybe they’d kill you for bothering them.
The forest had gone deathly silent. It was as if the world had been draped in a heavy cloak, smothered and breathless, the air eerily still. I paused, breathing deeply, my ears str
aining for the slightest sound.
It had to be close.
A twig snapped, and I whirled around, claws outstretched — nothing. Just that empty, dark forest. Would it pass me by? Would it head straight for Raelynn? She would be driving by now — so long as she didn’t get any foolish, hard-headed ideas. Fucking hell, she had to obey me this time. She had to.
But it was likely the Reaper wasn’t here for her. It was here for me. It was here to get me out of the way, permanently, and leave her vulnerable. Once I was dead, the Libiri could go after Raelynn without fear.
I’d fight death as long as I could if it meant giving her more time to run.
The Reaper didn’t arrive with snapping twigs and howling. It arrived with an ice-cold breath on the back of my neck. I turned, slowly, raising my eyes to the otherworldly beast looming over me.
A black shroud obscured its features, except for the pale ghostly glow of five blinking eyes. A collar of jagged bone, antlers, and claws guarded its neck. Massive black wings stretched from its back, and it towered above me on long skeletal limbs garbed in armor of blackened metal and stone.
It raised a hand, taut with gray skin stretched over long boney fingers adorned with black rings. Strings of teeth, bones, and shriveled bits of flesh hung from its chest. It was a walking amalgamation of death, rot, and pain.
“Demon.” Its ancient voice rattled through me. “Have you come to submit to death?”
I smiled. My veins throbbed black and tight beneath my skin. Strange how the most alive I felt was in the moments before death. “Never.”
“Oh good.” A rumble, its booming laughter, shook the trees. “I do like it so much better when you struggle.”
I didn’t expect its speed. One knock from the back of its hand crushed the air from my lungs, and in the seconds it took my dazed brain to realize what had happened, I was lifting my head from the ground hundred feet from where I’d once been standing, the tree at my back splintered open from the force of my impact against it.
Her Soul to Take (Souls Trilogy) Page 30