Reaper's Dark Kiss

by Ryssa Edwards

  “It’s hard to say why,” Sky said. “But when I took the stone, I knew he wasn’t going to kill me.”

  Julian could almost see Greg letting Sky get used to the idea that she’d die someday, but he wouldn’t be the reason. That didn’t make up for what he’d almost made Sky do, or how much fear he’d made her live with. First, Julian would give Christian a chance to avenge his sister’s suffering. If he didn’t, it wouldn’t matter, because as far as Julian was concerned, Greg’s death scroll was signed and delivered for execution.

  “Where’s the stone now?” Julian asked.

  “I don’t know,” Sky said.

  “What happened to it?”

  “My place got robbed in March. The stone was in my computer bag. It got stolen.” She heaved a deep sigh. “It’s not worth a war and people dying and you going into exile. Just let Vandar have me. It’s not like it’s forever. The contract runs out, doesn’t it?”

  Five years? Julian’s beast growled. Not even an hour. He would slaughter every vampire in New York, every vampire on the continent. He’d wipe the Dominion off the face of this world if that was what it took to keep Sky with him. And he’d start with Vandar.

  “Julian?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re too quiet. What are you thinking about?”

  Protective gear. He’d need it to stake Vandar to a glacier in Antarctica in the summer. Twenty-four hours of sun there. No one knew why, but it took months to die on the ice, a slow burn until the sun finally went down.

  “Summertime,” he said.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “You’re thinking evil things, brother.”

  Sky hadn’t heard Viper come back with Harli. Viper was right. Julian’s face was fixed. His fangs were showing through his slightly parted lips.

  Standing in front of Julian, giving him a look that would have made a sensible man run, Viper said, “Do I have to get your female away before you bite her, or do you think you can start acting like a warrior?”

  Ouch. But instead of getting mad, Julian took Sky’s hand and kissed her palm. “Sorry,” he said. “Shouldn’t be scaring you like that.” To Viper he said, “I know where the heart stone is.”

  “Where?” Sky said.

  “Right where Oracle told us it would be,” Julian said, talking to Sky but keeping his eyes on Viper.

  There was a table near the farthest wall with short legs that put it maybe a foot off the floor. Viper made fat gold cushions float from the far wall and dropped them around it. “Come tell us,” he said.

  They sat cross-legged at the round table. It was made of warped wooden planks, deeply scarred, as if something big and angry had clawed at it. As Julian spoke, Sky had the odd feeling of hearing her own story unfold from someone else’s lips. When Greg’s name came up, she felt a stab of fear. Julian sensed it, took her hand, and went on talking. Suicide didn’t come up, and Julian glossed over the drinking.

  “What are we going up against?” Julian said. “Oracle practically gave us the bridge. He doesn’t give anything for free.” He looked at Harli. “What do you know about the heart stone?”

  In the legends, Harli told them, it said nine stones came from the skies.

  “Meteorites?” Sky asked.

  “I don’t know what that is,” Harli said. “The stones fell like hail on fire, but they didn’t burn up.”

  “When did this happen?” Julian asked.

  Harli tilted his head back, thinking. “When the Before Time ended. The legend says they were pieces of the subliminal ground of the Furies.”

  There was that word again, Sky thought, furies. This close to sunrise, she didn’t ask.

  “Sublime ground?” Julian asked.

  “Maybe,” Harli said. “That part was in Sumerian.” He looked from Viper to Julian to Sky to see if there were any more questions. When they said nothing, he went on. “After a long time, mortals found the stones. They could do things, like cure sickness or let a blind mortal see.”

  “How do you know all this?” Julian said.

  Harli looked away. “You leave me in your library to read history scrolls. I read Oracle’s scrolls.” He gave Julian a nervous glance, waiting for him to disapprove. When he didn’t, Harli said, “He wrote down legends. Lots of them. His writings say only true believers can find a stone. Legends say the heart stone saves innocents from dangers that come from being in love.”

  “So where is it?” Viper asked Julian.

  “Pier 16,” Julian said.

  “It’s a big place,” Viper said. “Where?”

  “This side of the forever bridge,” Julian said. “Oracle talks in riddles. Pier 16 is the only place Sky saw the bridge. It’s the only place that makes sense.”

  “You better be right,” Viper said, “because we only have until sunrise. After that, we’re on the downside to noon. After that, our last trick is to kill Vandar and start a war with the Dominion.”

  “It’s all we’ve got,” Julian said. A tiny smile came. “Reminds me of Rome—sun’s rising at our backs and—

  “We turn and burn, or fight,” Viper finished.

  * * * *

  Outside Viper’s place, Sky felt the city coming to life around her. There was a feel to predawn New York, like a pride of lions rousing itself from sleep and making ready to stalk down prey. Viper took a step and disappeared. Julian told Harli to go. He’d meet them there. Then he was gone too.

  Sky scanned the horizon. Nothing. “Where’d they go?”

  “They went high and fast,” Julian said.

  A sudden breeze picked up Sky’s hair, blowing it back from her face, making her shiver. In the wind, she felt dark deeds coming. “Julian? Promise me something.”

  He turned to Sky and looked down at her. “Don’t ask me to do something I can’t do. I’m not handing you over to Vandar.”

  Sky got that feeling again, as if Julian were tremendously strong, incredibly brutal, a soldier who’d fought in so many wars, he’d never remember them all. His face went still, as if it were a mask. Something primitive and feral gawked at her through his eyes, giving her an unblinking stare, and then it was gone.

  “It’s not our way,” he said.

  “You can’t just—”

  “In the Shadow World, we say the longest path is made of many steps.”

  “What?”

  “One step at a time,” Julian said. “We fly to the pier. We look for the bridge. We find what’s on this side of it. Then—”

  But Sky cut him off. “Then you won’t kill anyone you don’t have to.”

  “Then,” Julian said, as if he’d spoken the same words a thousand times, “I won’t spill an ocean of blood if a river is all the killing that needs doing.”

  Sky had a choice. If she’d been born perfect, she would have turned around and put one foot in front of the other, determined that no one would die because of her. But if she did that, she’d be walking into a lonely life. She’d be walking to a sunless place, a place without Julian.

  She wasn’t perfect.

  She was in love.

  “I’m scared,” she said, taking Julian’s hand. Scared because she couldn’t walk away, scared because Julian was a relentless warrior, scared because she knew if she walked away, her heart would go on beating, but she’d be dead inside.

  Julian gave a little laugh. “Good,” he said. “I’d be worried if you weren’t.” He wrapped her close and said, “It’s better if you shut your eyes. We’ll be going like Viper and Harli—high and fast. If it gets hard for you to breathe, tell me.”

  * * * *

  Flying felt like cold invading every cell of her body. Before Sky could do more than struggle to take a panicked breath, Julian was setting her on her feet.

  “Seatbelt light’s off,” she heard him say. “You can open your eyes.”

  Pier 16 rushed in at Sky. It stuck out off Manhattan like a long wooden spike. The musty chemical smell of the East River drifted past her. Water hit the wood underne
ath, making it squeak and shiver. The bulks of the Ambrose and the Pioneer, two out-of-service ships, loomed on either side, throwing inky blackness onto the pier.

  The Ambrose used to be a Light Ship, calling sailors to safety in the harbor. But Sky saw no safety here. All she saw was a place that terrified her with memories. She felt caught in a nightmare where she stood on the edge of the pier and didn’t give a damn that the wood was crumbling under her feet.

  “Easy,” Julian whispered, taking her hand.

  “One step at a time,” Sky said and thought, Find the stone, get off the pier. She repeated it like a mantra.

  Viper eased into the dull glow of a streetlight, swiveling his head left to right, hands hanging loose and ready. He looked like a soldier on patrol with absolutely no rules of engagement. Sky felt like a hypocrite because she loved seeing the cool intent to kill in his hard eyes. He turned his back on Julian and Sky, drew a knife, and stood facing the water.

  That was extreme, even for Viper. “Is someone here?” Sky asked.

  “Dominion territory,” Viper said, barely turning his head to answer Sky. “We’re on our own.”

  “Last contract gave this land to the Dominion,” Julian said. “Hunting grounds north of 42nd Street is theirs. South of 42nd Street is Creed.”

  “You gave them the Financial District?”

  He flashed her a shark grin. “We got the park.”

  A huge shape broke away from the bulk of the Ambrose. Sky fell back farther behind Julian, certain for a wild moment that it was Greg rising up silently from the water, bearing a final warning.

  “Sorry to frighten you,” Harli said, carefully enunciating each word, as if Sky might misunderstand.

  “Not your fault,” Sky said. Find the stone. Get off the pier. “I’m jumpy.”

  “Look at the water,” Viper said.

  Julian and Sky turned together. A nearly full moon was riding a cloudless sky, shedding silvery light over the water. She suddenly saw it. The moonlight laid a silvery streak on the East River, a sight she had once called the forever bridge. On the wooden pier, the silver beam became more solid. They followed it to a building that was caught squarely in moonlight, like a target.

  “How could I forget that?” Sky muttered to herself.

  “What?” Julian asked.

  “The Seaport Museum,” Sky said. “That’s where I researched ‘Death Afloat,’ an article on serial murders at sea. I couldn’t sell it. Nobody wanted to read about Jack the Ripper on a cruise liner.”

  “Wherever we’re breaking into,” Viper said. “Let’s do it.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “I don’t know how to get past alarms,” Julian said to Viper. “Do you?”

  “Yeah,” he said and headed toward the building captured in moonlight, moving fast.

  Julian glanced at the horizon, then got hold of Sky’s hand and rushed after his brother. This close to sunrise, “subtle” was a word Viper didn’t know. He was ready to smash glass and shatter brick.

  Harli hung back, guarding them from behind.

  “Here?” Julian asked Sky when they got to a warehouse on a corner.

  She nodded. “How do we get around the alarms?”

  The warehouse had been there since the 1820s. Julian remembered when it used to be full of mortals working through the night, packing fish on ice for transport. He didn’t know how long it had been a museum. The four-story brick building had tall, narrow windows. Their clear glass panes, framed in four rows of three, would let in enough sunlight to burn Julian, Harli, and Viper to ashes in seconds.

  “Viper’s got a plan for the alarms. Go with Harli a second,” Julian said to Sky. Talking to Harli he said, “Get her behind something.”

  Before she could say anything, Harli grabbed Sky, hauled her back, then turned away from the building, using his body as a shield.

  The entrance stood on a corner, two sets of doors meeting in a concrete column. The doors were mostly glass, framed into two narrow columns by thin wood. More windows led off on either side of the ground floor. There wouldn’t be any hiding from the sun in a place with that much glass in the walls. They had to find the stone fast. Julian and Viper gave each other a look before they both turned to the flimsy doors.

  “We could just smash a pane,” Julian said, knowing better.

  “The alarms go off either way.” Viper smiled. “Why pass up a chance to do this?” His smile became a grin. “On three.”

  They kicked on two, like they always did. Wooden splinters and rock chunks flew past them. A few bounced harmlessly off Julian’s face and hands. His skin was too tough to be damaged by flying wood or exploding concrete.

  Sky was suddenly next to Viper. “You said you knew a way around the alarms. What are you doing?”

  “Julian said that,” Viper told her, assessing the damage they’d done.

  “We’re in,” Julian said, sweeping a path through broken glass and splintered wood. “We’re around the alarms. I don’t know how long we have, Sky. Start looking for the stone.”

  The inside of the museum was old, even to Julian’s eyes. The nineteenth century warehouse had been rebuilt, but some parts were the original. Giant rusted rivets had been built into brick walls that had stood for over a century.

  “Ships in bottles.” Harli pointed at an exhibit. “Maybe they have stones in bottles somewhere.”

  They raced through the displays on the first floor, looking for anything that could have the heart stone inside it. Julian and Sky squeezed into a room with roughly an acre of table covered with what a plaque told them were shipbuilding tools. They looked like good weapons, old and iron, sharp enough to rip and tear.

  “No stone,” Harli said from the doorway.

  Distant sirens sounded. Viper was prowling other rooms, to the sound of heavy things crashing over onto wooden floors. “We’ll be hiding from the sun in the basement if we don’t hurry up,” he said, his voice echoing off walls between them.

  “Found some rocks over here,” Harli said.

  Julian ran toward the sound of Harli’s voice, barely avoided smashing into a dead end, then hurried Sky back the other way. They found Harli in the biggest room they’d seen yet. One of the brick walls was studded with colored stones, as if someone had tried to build a mosaic but couldn’t decide what it should be. The stones in the exhibit were shiny, dull, big, small, round, oval—all of them embedded into the brick like jewels. The ceiling had been knocked out. To Julian, it felt like being on the floor of a valley, surrounded by four lethal stories of paned glass.

  “See anything that looks right?” Julian asked Sky. He tried to keep his voice calm, but he could feel sunrise beating at the horizon. Dawn was less than fifteen minutes away.

  The sirens drew closer. The mortal law wouldn’t be a problem for the Shadow Worlders, but Julian wouldn’t let the police capture Sky and trap her in daylight, beyond his reach. He forced his mind into battle calm. He let his thoughts run wild until he focused on nothing. He let himself see everything, looking for a pattern, looking for a way into the puzzle in front of them.

  “Only a few thousand stones here,” Viper said, passing his fingers over the nearest ones. “How do we find it?”

  Sky spun around a hundred and eighty degrees, looking up at the four-story walls. “There isn’t enough moonlight,” she said. “Oracle said what we needed was on the near side of the forever bridge, but we can’t see where it starts in here.”

  The windows let in broken moonlight. Beams, scattered by the wood-framed windowpanes, dotted the wall of stones.

  Harli was already on the move, rising as he spoke. “Give her your coat, Julian.”

  He barely had time to throw his duster over Sky and pull her close before Harli started busting out windows on the opposite wall. A violent storm of glass showered down.

  Harli called out, “Got enough moonlight?”

  Pulling away, Sky examined the wall in the wash of silver light falling over the stones. A single b
eam, no longer split up by glass panes, came through an empty window space, separated from the others. It struck the center of a row in the mosaic.

  “That’s it,” Sky said, jabbing a finger at the wall. “The black one streaked with red. That’s the stone Greg gave me.”

  Taking his duster from Sky, Julian didn’t have time to ask if she was sure. He passed a hand over the bricks. They were soft with age. He made a fist and pounded close to the heart stone. The brick shattered and fell away, but the embedded stones crumbled along with the brick.

  “Can’t do it without tools,” Sky said.

  She took off running, skidded on shards, found her footing, and disappeared around the corner. Julian went after her and found himself in the shipbuilding room. The table full of glittering iron tools was protected by a glass top.

  “Break it,” Sky said and turned away, lodging herself in a corner, hands over her head.

  Using his fist, Julian smashed his way in until he could reach for gleaming iron. It felt good in his hands.

  “That should do it,” Sky said.

  The sirens were louder, almost on top of them. “If they catch us,” Julian said, trying to make scary into funny, “don’t worry, I’ll bail you out.”

  “If they catch us,” Sky said, running past him, “I’ll be in debt to the city the rest of my life.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “The sirens are really close,” Sky said.

  Too close, Julian thought. Soon blue light would be flashing over the walls.

  The heart stone was embedded near the upper right corner of a brick. Behind them, Sky paced. Julian, Harli, and Viper used the shipbuilding tools to pry at the seams around the brick. They worked with the precision of a death sculptor carving final words into a tombstone.

  “Almost there,” Julian said.

  “Glad you’re family, Sky,” Viper said, levering his way patiently under the brick with a broad, flat-bladed tool. “Because if you weren’t, Marek would hang me up by the fangs for this.”