Shadow Reaper

by Debbie Cassidy

“Huh? What the heck you on about?”

  I looked at him down my nose. “Gina’s place as one of Daemon’s girls.”

  “Daemon’s what now?”

  Was he deliberately playing dumb? I sighed. I guess I’d have to spell it out for him. “I want to take Gina’s place as one of the humans you send down to him every month for his little orgy.”

  Remus snorted. “You’re either crazy or stupid or both, lass. No human in her right mind wants that gig, only the ones with more air than brain between their ears. You don’t strike me as one of those.”

  I leaned in and played the card I hoped would sway him. I just hoped I’d interpreted Freya’s information correctly. “I helped you the other day.”

  His eyes widened and then his jaw clenched.

  “If you do this for me, then we’ll be even.”

  “Fucking humans gossiping and eavesdropping! If we didn’t need you to hear, I’d have insisted they chop off your ears and cut out your tongues! Daemon likes his girls just the way they are and Gina is one of his favourites.”

  It struck me then that he had no idea that Gina was out of commission. “Um, you may find that Gina isn’t feeling too well. You’re responsible for picking Daemons girls for him and you need a girl. I want you to make sure it’s me.”

  He squinted up at me with his beady black eyes. “You’re a wily one, aintcha?” I was surprised to hear him chuckle. “Fine, you’re in. I’ll send someone to fetch you when it’s your turn. Gina usually goes last and lasts the longest, so if you’re taking her spot then . . .” He grinned, showcasing blunt, slightly yellowing teeth. “You sure you want this?”

  And then it hit me. I was going to have to have sex with a Shadowlander! At the look of horror on my face, his grinned widened.

  “I dunno what your agenda is, lass, but Daemon’s agenda is fucking, and fuck you he will. So, you go down there, expect to come back sore and used.” He waited, watching me with hooded lids.

  My heart was hammering and my throat was tight. Suddenly, I wanted to back out, but then I thought of Bernie, of Clay, and my people, of all I could achieve if I just got through this one thing. It was sex, just sex, and if it could get me what I wanted . . .

  “I’m sure.”

  ***

  All this time I’d been focused on getting to Daemon with the hope of talking him into helping. No other plan, no further thoughts. I hadn’t even considered that it might get as far as actually sleeping with him.

  Okay, now I was trembling.

  We were in a small room, which a guy I didn’t recognise had led me to. Down, down, down in the lift we’d gone, so it felt like it was descending forever, and then into this room, no preamble. I was wearing a silk shift that ended above my knees and nothing else.

  The room was ambient with low lighting and cushy seats—a waiting room.

  Remus’s fingers gripped mine. “I hope she’s worth it,” he said.

  “What?”

  He snorted. “Humans aren’t the only ones to gossip. I know what you want from him and you won’t find it, but I know it’s something you need to do for yaself.”

  I almost lost my nerve then, but I’d come this far. I had to do this. I had to know for sure.

  Remus turned me to face the door to Daemon’s lair before asking the nameless guy to tie on the blindfold. It was tight but not too tight.

  “Do not try and take it off,” Remus said. “He will hurt you if you do. Wouldn’t want to replace another human.”

  A nudge in the small of my back, a blast of heat, and I was moving into the lair.

  “Use your hands to feel your way. The corridor is narrow, but it will open up. Once it does, he’ll find you.”

  Why did those words sound so ominous? Oh, yeah, because I was walking into a Shadowlander’s lair, one that no human had actually ever seen. My mind conjured up all sorts of images and, believe me, the mind can be a powerful thing. I’m pretty certain nothing I would see would rival the pictures my mind was painting.

  My fingers trailed along the rock surfaces of the wall, heat blasted my face in wafts, and perspiration popped up on my brow. The stone floor was warm against the soles of my bare feet. As my heart began to thunder, I cursed myself. Why hadn’t I thought to pump Remus for information on what exactly Daemon was? I knew he was from Inferna, but that was it. In fact, I didn’t know what Avery or Jiva were either, but, I told myself, I didn’t need to know. After tonight, when I succeeded in convincing Daemon to help me, I wouldn’t need to know.

  A scent hit me—sweat and sex and incense. It grew stronger and then the walls went away. My fingers caressed nothing but air, and my heart climbed up into my throat because I knew I’d arrived.

  He’ll find you.

  Shit!

  I stood still, my knees trembling.

  Get it together. You can do this, you can talk to him, plead, beg, whatever.

  I felt his presence before I heard him.

  Feet scraping the stone.

  My feet had made no sound which led me to believe that he wanted me to hear him approach. Did he want me to be afraid? The possibility made me do the exact opposite. I stood taller.

  “You don’t scare me,” I said.

  The scraping stopped.

  “I need to talk to you, okay? I came to talk. Nothing else.”

  A low rumble filled the air and pressed against my chest. Was that a . . . a laugh?

  “Seriously, I only took Gina’s spot so I could see you.”

  A roar erupted around me, bouncing off the stone and battering my ear drums, filling my marrow with dread. I pressed my hands to my ears and bent double, suddenly so frightened I was sure I’d wet myself.

  What the hell? What had I said to piss him off? Then I knew I’d said ‘see’ . . . I’d said I wanted to see him.

  I held up my hands in surrender, standing tall again. “Sorry, bad choice of words. I meant meet you, okay? I need your help.” Damn, it would help if my voice didn’t wobble.

  There was a silence so deep that for a moment, I thought I’d gone deaf until he spoke and my insides vibrated in a strange symphony.

  “Come forward, human.”

  I shuffled forward a step or two.

  “Closer.”

  Oh, Mother, that voice, penetrating my skin, vibrating under it, skimming over it. I took another two steps. I felt a prickle over my scalp as strands of my hair shifted. The heat in front of me intensified, and then I felt his breath on my shoulder and tensed as he inhaled, slow and deep and long.

  Oh, fuck! He was standing right in front of me. I could feel him. The heat was uncomfortable, yet I wanted to curl into it.

  Something wet and warm ran up the side of my neck and I yelped.

  Had he just licked me?

  Another low rumble, no, more of a purr. He was purring? What the hell was he? More heat licked my skin, this time pleasant, almost soothing. My muscles relaxed. It was okay, this actually felt pretty good.

  “Look, I know you don’t have any reason to help me, but my friend was taken by Traders and—”

  His hands slipped under my shift and cupped my naked buttocks, he yanked me against him and I felt him, all of him, hard and huge and fucking awesome. I couldn’t help myself. I reached up, wanting to touch him, to get a taste, but he gripped my wrists with huge hands and pinned them behind my back. His tongue was at my throat again, his teeth grazed my skin. My head fell back. It felt so fucking good. Man, I wanted him. I had to have him inside me. Every fibre of me focused on his cock, rock hard and pressed against my abdomen—thick and hot and mine. I could almost taste it, wanted it inside me, stretching me, pounding me, fucking me.

  Girls get addicted, he gives them pleasure.

  The words popped into my mind just as he spun me and pulled up my shift, exposing my buttocks. He pushed me down onto something soft. A bed? A bed to fuck on. Yes, I wanted this. I spread my legs for him, waiting as his calloused hands ran up my thighs and gasped as the head of his cock pushed agains
t me. Yes! This is why I’d come, for this, for . . .

  Bernadette!

  I’d come for Bernadette. I needed to save Bernadette.

  My head cleared some.

  His fingers tensed around my hips and he froze.

  “I don’t want this,” I said.

  He released me and I felt him step back. I stood up, pulling my shift back down to cover my nakedness.

  He inhaled, his words floating on an exhale. “You smell human.”

  “That’s because I am,” I said.

  I felt him draw near and I tensed. His hands ran over me and, despite my better intentions, a moan slipped from my lips. He was pushing me onto the bed, his body on mine, his hands sliding up my legs, under my shift and over my hip.

  I fought the desire that clouded my mind. This must be his thing, his ability to induce desire, to make someone want him. It was working. I was wet and ready and holding on by a thread because deep down, I knew this wouldn’t help me, that I needed him to see me as more that one of the girls. I needed him to respect me more than I needed to throw caution to the wind and have him.

  “Stop!” I grabbed his roving hand and a growl blasted across my face.

  This time I didn’t cower. “I don’t want this. If you continue, you’ll be forcing yourself on me. Do you understand? You’ll be forcing me to have sex with you against my will.”

  I felt every inch of him that was touching me tense and then my skin was kissing air because he was off me.

  I felt him retreating. Shit, I’d totally fucked this up. “Please. My friend. I need your help to get to Inferna to find her.”

  “And I . . . need to fuck! If you’re not one of my girls then you can get the fuck out of here. Now!” The last word battered me with a wave of fiery heat.

  I cringed, my body trembled. His wrath was a sinuous snake wrapping itself around me. I could hear him breathing, erratic and fast.

  “Hurry, little human, before I forget myself and take you regardless. The animal is too close to the surface. Leave now before I . . . before he takes what he wants.”

  I didn’t need him to tell me twice. I stumbled off the bed, hit the ground, scrambled to my feet and started walking, right into a wall.

  That fucking hurt!

  I backed up and tried again, aware of him close behind, aware that at any minute he could change his mind and take me, put me back on that bed and . . . need rose up inside me in a wave so strong it clogged my throat.

  A low rumble, a groan that echoed my need, erupted behind me.

  “Run!” he said.

  And then I was ripping off my blindfold and running. I made it to the stone corridor and out the door just as a bellow erupted behind me cut off by the slamming of the metal door.

  ***

  Remus met me in the ambient room, his expression like thunder. “You stupid girl! What did you do?”

  The door vibrated and I glanced at it in horror.

  It vibrated again.

  Daemon was battering into it in an attempt to get to me.

  Reamus grabbed my wrist and yanked me to the lift and practically threw me in. He was pretty strong for such a tiny man.

  He smashed his finger against the button repeatedly, his eyes fixed on the door which now had dents in it—fist-shaped dents.

  “Fuck! Fuck!” Remus jammed his thumb against the button again and the lift doors closed just as the thick metal door erupted open. I caught a flash of red, a glint of pale, almost white eyes, and then we were moving upward, away.

  Safe.

  I sank to the ground, my body shaking uncontrollably.

  Remus kept his back to me until we reached our destination. The doors opened. He turned to me. “You have no idea how lucky you are to be alive. What the hell did you do to him?”

  I shook my head, my teeth chattering.

  “Go to your room, stay there. I’ll send up some broth.” He urged me out of the lift, and I pulled myself to my feet and obliged. He took a stone from his pocket, similar to the one Avery had on his desk, and held it up to his mouth,

  I caught his words just as the doors slid closed. “Send in all the girls. Yes, again. Now!”

  ASH

  It was over, everything was over. I was never getting out of here. I was never going to find Bernie. I’d cocked up good and proper, and now I was stuck here with my fate in their hands. I kept turning it over in my mind, trying to figure out if there was something I could have done or said to convince Daemon to listen, to help me. Maybe I should have just let him fuck me? I didn’t know the answer. All I knew was that a huge hole had opened up inside me, a black pit of helplessness. Up until now, I’d kept going by focusing on getting to Daemon, on making him help me. I’d refused to consider that maybe I’d fail. Refused to take into account what he was: an inhuman creature ruled by instinct and needs that I couldn’t possibly comprehend. What the hell did he care for one human life? What the hell did any of them care?

  Cattle. We were simply cattle.

  Freya found me like that, slumped on the floor by my bed, still in that damned stupid shift, hair wild, eyes bright.

  She slid to the floor beside me and held out a mug. I took it and drank.

  We didn’t speak for the longest time, and then she put an arm around me.

  “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  But I wasn’t. I was trapped in a world that wasn’t my own, a prisoner. Yeah, there was nothing but death and darkness outside, but there was also the Horizon, my people, Clay, and a chance to say goodbye, to die with those I loved, because I knew, despite the fact that there was no treaty preventing us from moving into the Shadowlands, we would never survive here without the protection of the Shadowlanders. They had no reason to give it to us.

  No reason to give us anything.

  “It’s not so bad here, ya know,” Freya said. “They’re not so bad once you get used to them, you just have to remember not to expect them to follow the same rules we do. Once you get used to that idea, it’ll be okay.”

  I didn’t doubt that one bit. The problem was, I didn’t know who I was if I wasn’t fighting, bringing in the bacon, and basically being . . . me. This place, it would make me soft, make me weak, and I didn’t want that because then I would become a person I wouldn’t be able to respect. It was as simple as that. If I couldn’t help my people then what good was I?

  “Ash?”

  I sighed. “I think my time’s up soon any way.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I shifted so I was facing her. “They only took me in because they thought I was different somehow. An anomaly, they said. Avery is waiting for this Oath Renewal thing to be over and then they’ll make a decision, test me, or whatever, and if I fail, then I’m out.”

  “He said that to you?”

  I snorted. “Not me. Cal. I kinda overheard them talking.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah.”

  “They actually said they’d get rid of you, kick you out?”

  I thought about it. Had he actually said those words? I couldn’t remember. “I’m not sure. Pretty much. They’ll stop giving me the VIP treatment, that’s for sure.”

  “You think this is VIP? You have no idea, you should see the girls’ quarters. They’re top notch.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I guess I don’t know what’s going on after all.”

  “It is weird that you can’t leave, though. We all stay of our own free will. You’re the first they’ve banned from leaving.”

  I grinned. “Guess I’m special.”

  Freya laughed. “Most certainly. I heard what happened with Daemon.”

  “You did?”

  “Everyone heard what happened. The bloody foundations of Apocalypse practically shook as he tried to hammer his way out of the lower levels.”

  “He was trapped?”

  “Safety precaution apparently. Daemon is dangerous. It took all eleven girls to calm him down.” She cocke
d her head. “So how was he?”

  “What?”

  She widened her eyes and looked down at my crotch.

  “What? No! I didn’t, I mean, he didn’t.”

  She stared at me, her mouth slightly parted. “He didn’t?”

  I shook my head. “I told him I didn’t want to, and he let me go, but then he chased me and I had to rip off my blindfold to find my way out.”

  “You took off the blindfold?”

  “Yes, and then I—”

  “You took off the blindfold?”

  “Yes!”

  “What did you see? Did you see him? ’Course you didn’t, ’cos if you did . . .” She trailed off, her eyes scanning my face as Remus’s words came back to me.

  If I’d seen him, he would have killed me. Only problem was, I had, some of him anyway. What I had seen? It made no sense.

  Freya slumped back against the bed. “Oh, hun, you did, you saw him. Fuck. You must be special.”

  We lapsed back into silence.

  After a long few minutes, Freya pulled herself to her feet. “I’m going to have a long soak and get some shut eye. I’ll see you tomorrow. I checked the rota; you’re back on the bar.”

  My brows rose. “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  She left me, shutting the door softly behind her. The bar again, with Henry, who wondered why I’d been saved and the woman he’d loved sacrificed. I sighed. I’d talk to him, smooth things over. He was a sweet guy, and if I was going to be stuck here for any length of time, then making a few friends couldn’t hurt.

  ***

  Henry had that face on him, the one that said I was the last person he wanted to see. I think, if I’d let him, then he would have spent the whole shift avoiding me, but I’m a persistent little bugger when I want to be.

  “Henry, we need to talk.”

  His back tensed, but he continued to put glasses onto the shelves behind the bar and completely ignored me.

  I rolled my eyes. “Look, I know about Vanessa.”

  This time he froze. “Who told you?”

  “Does that really matter?”

  His shoulders slumped. “No.”

  I sighed. “I’m so sorry about what happened, but I won’t let you use me as a target for your resentment. If you want to be pissed at someone, be pissed at Avery.”