by K. C. Hamby
“Not a chance, Reaper,” I snap and kick myself off the ground.
“Good.”
Her fist flies at my face again, but I’m ready. I’ve learned. I duck out of the way and kick her in the stomach.
The air pushes out of her in a gag, and she hits the ground rolling. But she pops up with the grace of a panther and her arms are flying at me, throwing punches with deadly accuracy.
One, two, three punches. She spins attempting another hit with the back of her fist. It’s perfectly thrown as if this is her favorite dance and I am a mere bairn crawling to keep up.
I am finally able to block her enough to go on the offensive and I throw my own punches her way. But she is so much faster now. She ducks under my fists, blocking me with her forearms…
I swipe my foot beneath her again.
I catch her off guard, sweeping her legs out from under her. She hits the ground, and I don’t hesitate. I jump on top of her and punch her smug face over and over again.
She catches one of my fists, grinning with blood coating her lips.
No, she won’t do it.
She licks blood off her teeth and with a small chuckle, she twists.
I try to flip with the move so it doesn’t break any bones…
But I’m too slow.
The cracks of bone splinter quickly up my arm, causing me to involuntarily shift back to my person.
“Fuckin’ cunt,” I roar and scurry backwards on my arse to put some distance between us. My other hand holds my stinging arm tenderly against my chest as I glare with all the malice I can muster at the wench.
“That’s not very nice, Eddie,” Falen tells me as she stands, straightening her shirt before wiping the blood dripping from her perfectly healed nose.
Babe? What’s wrong?
Ash.
Your fuckin’ cunt of a sister just broke my fuckin’ arm!
He takes a long pause, disbelief flowing to me from him. Shit. I’m coming.
“Isnae very nice to break your pal’s arm, you wallopin’ weasel,” I scream at the smug fool as she stares down at me.
“I didn’t think pals called each other shitty names,” she tells me, squatting to look me in the eyes. “I told you I would make you regret hitting me. It was time to pay the Reaper, so to speak.”
Someone drops into the Pit and shakes the ground when they land before I can kick Falen in her doaty fucking face.
“Fal, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Ashy growls as he slides down beside me. His large hands grab my arm, and they heat, fixing all the broken pieces under the skin.
“Oh, what? It’s not my fault she can’t handle fighting me,” Fal groans, standing and crossing her arms over her chest. “Besides, she has her idiot slave to come heal her anyway.”
Ash stills with hurt flowing to me in our bond.
“Watch your mouth, you twally wench,” I snap and stand.
Ash stands as well with a hand on my elbow for balance, facing off with Falen. “What is your goddamn problem, Fal?” He looms over her, covering her entire body in shadow.
I tried to tell him she’s not the same…
She laughs.
“You’re not going to intimidate me, so you might as well stop trying.” She smirks up at Ash, but somehow the look is like she’s glaring down her nose at him. “It’s pathetic how you’re older than me, but I am so much better than you in everything. Hecate literally loves me more than you. You weren’t even Chosen, for goddess sakes.”
“Falen, what the hell is the matter with you?” I scream when Ash takes a step back.
“I’m just telling him what he already knows to be true,” she purrs, lip lifting in a predator’s smirk. Her amber eyes fall back on Ash and her lips fall. “You’re pathetic. You have been given the opportunity to control Death. To be Death. And you scurry away, too fucking scared to do anything other than be your lame ass self.” She laughs, giving Ash a horrible once-over. “But that’s fine with me. I’ll take all the power. I don’t need you.”
I push myself in her face, fire lighting my temper enough to make me combust. “You’re talkin’ out your fanny flaps and you best stop before you ruin the few relationships you have.”
She breathes a chuckle in my face. “It’s cute you think I care.”
“Ed!”
“Oh, for fucks sake,” I groan as I back away from Falen and look up at Raven staring down at us with a smile, burn mark still on her cheek from my punch.
As if there isn’t enough bullshite being flung around right now.
She drops into the Pit and I step back again to stand with Ashy. The brave lad is trying to put a mask over his hurt and I’m trying not to run away from Raven.
“Are you here to fight?” Falen asks, terrifyingly calm as she watches Raven waltz in front of her like she has every right to be here.
“What? No. I came to see Ed,” Raven snaps over her shoulder at Falen and walks toward me. “Where have you been, lass?”
Falen brushes off her bloodstained shirt and flips her hair over her shoulder. “Well, it’s fucking annoying you interrupted my sparring time.” She takes a calculating step toward Raven. I can see the wrath hiding there in the blackening of her eyes, but she holds it back, stalking prey like a tiger. Biding her time.
“Ach, am I ‘sposed to give a shite?” Raven growls, glancing over her shoulder once again to Falen.
So, Raven ignored Lilith and Nina, but Falen is the one that gets under her skin. Not hard to understand, truly.
Falen gives a closed mouth, laughing breath. It’s off-putting and haughty and the smirk that follows isn’t reassuring in the least.
Her arm snaps out faster than a striking snake and her fingers wrap around Raven’s neck, nails digging into the skin near her jugular. She picks her up, grinning like a devil the entire time Raven gasps, clawing at Falen’s hand trying to get away.
“You should know,” Falen explains slowly like she is speaking to a child as Raven’s skin beneath her grip turns black, “the people who piss me off don’t fare well. Because I do monstrous things, and I do them very well.”
I can’t help the elation running through my blood like a strike of lightning at Raven’s pain.
“Put…me…down!” Raven gasps, eyes bloodshot and wide.
“Since you asked so nicely,” Falen drawls and throws Raven on her arse.
Raven lands on the ground in a heap, gasping and holding onto her throat. The blackness fades in a few seconds, but blood trickles slowly from the nail marks dug into her skin.
“Are you fuckin’ insane?” Raven chokes out, glancing at the blood on her fingers briefly before her eyes stay on Falen, fear deep in the depths.
Falen’s lips break out into a sinister smile. “Am I insane?” She chuckles, squatting down beside a terrified Raven. She keeps her gaze on the ground with that disconcerting smile plastered on her mouth. And her amber eyes snap up to Raven’s face, pure darkness and malice in the look. “Absolutely.”
A layer of heavy energy settles in the Pit, infecting everything it touches with dread. It’s hard to breathe in here and every breath I do take has my thoughts plummeting into the shadows of my mind.
Falen can wield the darkness in her energy. I wonder if the lass knows.
“Are you gonnae let her talk to me like this?” Raven screams at me, peering around Falen, mouth twisted in annoyance.
It yanks me from that darkness waiting to consume me whole and I clear my throat before wrapping my arm around Ash’s. “You’re the one who pissed her off. I’m surprised you still have a head, you fuckin’ loose-tongued jizzmonger. Maybe you’ll learn to keep your gob shut.”
Raven’s eyes glow with fury as she realizes I’m not doing shite for her ever again. She has no control over me, and it enrages her.
“Fal?”
I break Raven’s stare with ease this time, having Ash by my side and touching my skin. We all look up and find Nina peering over the edge of the Pit with a wary smile gracing he
r lips.
“Is everything okay?” Nina asks, chuckling a little in her anxiety.
“Hey there,” Falen growls low as she stands and…I’m instantly uncomfortable. “Everything is perfect.”
I’m usually the one who makes Falen blush with my dirty talk to her brother. I never thought the tables would be turned on me. With Falen of all people. And she didn’t even say anything dirty.
Nina’s face reddens before she stares at the ground. Her finger finds a wavy piece of hair to play with. “Um, we should probably pack. Our flight is at six, remember?”
“Of course I do,” Falen assures her and bows her head. When she turns to me, her right eye is cloudy again for an instant.
Hm.
“Ah, the flight to see your da? You excited, Nina?” I ask, looking up at her with a smile, not wanting to let her know the change in Falen or what she said to her brother. It would destroy Nina. Call me protective, I don’t give a damn. But Nina needs this trip to be easy. I’ll tell her when they return.
“Yeah! Super excited. I haven’t seen him in a long time.” She squints at me with a growing frown. “What happened to your face?”
Falen snorts and crosses her arms, watching me with a raised brow.
“Ach, just a wee fun, right Falen?” I guess Ash only healed my arm.
Shit, sorry babe.
“Oh, definitely. I had plenty of fun. I suppose we will have to do this again later, though. I’ll be sure to dispose of any uninvited guests next time.” She glares down at Raven with a sneer, hair shielding her darkened eyes from her Mate.
Raven is smart enough to back away.
Nina watches Falen with deep confusion scrunched between her eyebrows. I’m not surprised she knows something is wrong. She’s all about energy and can probably sense the darkness in the air. But she smooths the questions from her face when Falen climbs out of the Pit.
“So, Ed…” Raven starts when Nina and Falen walk out of sight with a wave. “Our kiss the other day...”
I turn on her, blood boiling and hair flying around my face. “Kiss? Kiss? You mean when you pinned me up against the goddamn wall and touched me with your foul lips without my consent?”
“Ach,” she stands, bruises already bright around her neck. “Dinnae act like you dinnae want it.” She takes a step forward, tongue flicking at the hoop in her lip. “I ken what you like.”
Ash growls low behind me and, by the smirk on Raven’s face, this is what she wanted.
“I ken you like it rough. You always loved it when I made you do what I wanted,” she purrs and bites that pierced lip.
“Gimme your wrists, Ed,” Raven growls, marching from in front of her dirty mirror to where I lie.
“Why? I dinnae want to be tied up,” I murmur, cold and naked on a messy bed in the dark of Raven’s apartment. “I still have bruises from last time.”
“Give me your fuckin’ wrists!” she screams and takes them in her hard grip.
The drugs are too heavy in my system for me to pull away, to flinch, to do anything but lie here, completely vulnerable.
She gave me too much again.
The rope digs into my skin, cutting already hurt areas. It burns me, the cuts, as I’m dragged down into a murky pit of shame, completely at the mercy of someone who is supposed to care for me.
I hate when she is high like this. She gets angry. She gets violent.
I shove myself from the memory.
“You dinnae ken anythin’ about me. And it drives you mental because you cannae control me anymore. I dinnae wantae fuckin’ talk to you. I dinnae want anythin’ to do with you. I dinnae give a flyin’ pig’s arse what you ever havetae say to me. I’m done with you. I’ve been done with you.” I advance on her, seeing nothing but red and fire. My snarls are loud enough to draw the whole island over here, but I don’t fucking care anymore. “As I’ve told you before, you’re a fuckin’ steamin’ piece of hot shite out of a donkey’s arse and I wouldnae give a goddamn if you ran into the ocean right now and drowned in water as shallow as you are,” I snap. “In fact, nothin’ would make me happier.”
Before she can try to guilt me, before she has anything witty to say to surely lure me into killing her, Ash and I climb out of the Pit and march in no clear direction.
I just need to get away.
Chapter 44
Nina
“Hey, I’m only bringing two suitcases. You should be proud of me,” I tell Fal as I zip up the last one. I mean, they both barely zip, but that’s not my point. I managed to fit all my crap into two bags. Two.
“I am. I didn’t think such a task was possible for you,” she chuckles, folding up clothes and placing them neatly into her one black gym bag. The smile is soft on her lips, but there is a hardness in the lines of her face.
When she looks up at me, her right eye is cloudy. I blink several times to make sure I’m not hallucinating, but the cloudiness stays.
What does that mean? I guess she is a little different after she Burned. More…I don’t know. Maybe wound up is the right description? Like she can’t relax? There is something to this cloudy eye thing though. I can feel it, but I don’t understand yet.
I shrug it off to think about later and head into the closet to dig out the outfit I’ll wear on the plane. The hangers on my side of the closet are…nearly empty.
Okay, maybe Fal has a point when she insists I pack way too much.
Some black leggings are sticking out of one of my emptied drawers. I yank them out and slide them on. Not too bad and absolutely comfortable for the long flight. I jump a little to grab the yellow, bee-covered shirt from the top rack and slip it on.
Why don’t I ever wear this? It’s so soft.
I tie it at the bottom and twirl a little, admiring how it billows just enough to be exciting. I top it off with a worn denim jacket and what my daddy calls ‘Jesus sandals’.
“Are you nervous about meeting my dad?” I call from the closet.
Fal snorts loud and obnoxious. “No. Should I be? Is he going to greet me at the door with a shotgun?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” I grumble as I walk out and back to my bags. He’s definitely pulled out a shotgun before.
“Even if he does, he will never get the chance to hurt me.” Her sneer is off-putting as she gives me a once-over.
Not a good once-over, either.
“Right. I mean, he wouldn’t hurt you unless you hurt me.” The air in here is getting really thick and heavy. I swallow down my discomfort and bite the inside of my cheek.
“Which is something I would never do,” she tells me with a raised brow.
“Okay…well...just...I told him you work for the government and your job is CIA level secret so he won’t ask too many questions. He already believed you worked for the government, so I figured we could just go with that as an explanation. Just play along, okay?”
“I’m not stupid, Nina,” she snaps and violently zips her bag closed, right eye back a bright amber.
My mouth opens and closes like a confused fish. She just snapped at me. Fal doesn’t do that anymore. “I…didn’t say you were…”
“Then stop fucking acting like it!”
My head jerks back and I retreat a step. She knows I don’t like being yelled at. “You need to check your attitude and stop yelling at me.”
“Don’t tell me what…” she starts but trails off, eyes glazing over.
“Fal?”
She doesn’t answer. Instead, she stares into nothingness.
Oh no. It’s the look.
A growl leaves Fal’s lips before she disappears into a cloud of smoke.
“No! If you make me miss this flight, I’m going to be so pissed at you!” I yell after her like she might actually hear me. Or care.
I had my doubts before, but this Shadow Reaper Death goddess Fal is turning out to be a total jerk.
Chapter 45
Falen
I land in a nice neighborhood, right in the middle of a grove
of magnolia trees. I’ve never seen them in person before and I never knew their leaves are waxy and the white flowers so large. The scent is interesting. Not like anything I’ve ever smelled before.
It’s thick and damp but soft all the same.
It calms me.
Where am I?
I close my eyes and feel for the area; where my place is on the map, essentially. It’s an internal skill I gained when taking my place as the goddess of Death. The Shadow Reaper.
South Carolina. Interesting.
It’s dark and silent, the air too warm and humid against my skin; like I’m in a sauna.
Or hell.
The itching pushes me down the street, so I amble down the sidewalk, trying to look as normal as possible. I’m not trying to deal with cops because a concerned, nosy grandma thinks I’m a suspicious individual planning on robbing a neighbor’s house. It would be too much of an inconvenience.
I walk in front of a huge, Victorian style mansion. All is quiet. All is normal.
And yet, I’m here.
I continue past the house and blend into the shadows of a huge magnolia tree when voices touch my ears. They are coming from a sketchy white van parked a few houses down.
When are bad guys going to learn beat up vans definitely say, ‘hey cops, I definitely have a dead body in here’?
Fucking morons.
The vision I received before I Moved here was vague. There was a baby sleeping peacefully and dirty hands reaching into its cradle like they shouldn’t be there. That’s all I have to go on. And this goddamn itching deep in my being.
I turn my head a little, listening.
“It’s that one, George,” a woman’s voice explains, thick with southern drawl. “3745.”
I turn around. The Victorian mansion I passed moments ago is 3745.
“I left the window in the nursery unlocked. It’s the one in the back on the far left. Now, go get my baby.”
“Karen, it’s not your baby. Yet,” a guy, who I’m assuming is George, replies. “I’ve gotta get out of there alive, first.”
“Oh, pish posh. It’s easy. You’ve done it plenty of times before. You’re just whinin’. Go. And hurry up.”
