Reaper Uninvited: Deadside Reapers book 2

by Cassidy, Debbie

  Her fingers closed around mine. I began to walk. A meter or so and the smell got stronger.

  “It’s getting stronger.”

  “Intersection ahead,” Nox said.

  Sariah led me left, and the smell was so strong it made me cough.

  I shook my head. “No, not that way.”

  She steered me right. The smell followed, lingering, but then it began to abate. “It’s working. It’s not as strong here.”

  We continued like this for several minutes, using my nose as a guide, until the smell was all but gone.

  We took another turn, and Sariah let out a sharp cry.

  “What is it?”

  A new smell hit me, coppery and fresh. Blood. My eyes popped open, and I stared at the ground, at the pool of blood. His scent was everywhere. Woodsy and pine. Grayson’s blood. He was hurt.

  Nix ran up to the turn ahead. “This is it. The first corridor. This is where he scouted ahead.”

  “How didn’t we see this.” I stared at the dark pool.

  “Because the spell had us,” Sariah said. Her jaw ticked. “And now it doesn’t.”

  I barely knew Grayson, but seeing his blood, knowing he was hurt, made something inside me snap. A cold determination sliced through me.

  The vamps had Grayson, and I knew just who the fuck to shake down to get answers.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I spotted Killion by the bar, drink in hand, looking relaxed, and then he spotted me, and his lips curved in a smarmy smile. Anger rode each pulse of blood as it pounded through my veins. I strode toward him, and he pushed off the bar, eyes going wide because yeah, he could see the snarl on my face and the deadly intent in my eyes. My hand was around his throat before he could bolt, and then he was dangling off the ground in a pretty damn good imitation of what I liked to think of as an alpha hold.

  I glared up at him. “Where is he?”

  Killion kicked out, eyes bugging in his head.

  “Where the fuck is Grayson?”

  Because he knew. He had to fucking know.

  “Fee, he can’t tell us anything if he’s dead,” Sariah reasoned.

  But my grip didn’t want to loosen. I wanted to hurt him, to steal his air. “If he dies, then I’ll interrogate his ghost.” My smile felt jagged in my face. “I’m a Dominus, after all.”

  Realization flitted across Killion’s face, and he made a desperate sound of protest. There was a commotion behind the bar, exclamations around me, but Nox and Nix could deal with that.

  “Fee …” Sariah lightly touched my arm.

  Fuck. The blood. Grayson’s blood. He was hurt. We had to get to him. I inhaled and exhaled, then carefully lowered the weasel to the ground and peeled my fingers from his throat.

  “Talk, or I will gut you.”

  Nox and Nix flanked him.

  Killion hugged his throat protectively with his hands, droplets of sweat beading his brow. “I just look the other way. That’s all.”

  “Bullshit. You’re in on this. You’re in deep. Where is their nest?”

  His eyes widened. “You don’t understand. It’s not like it used to be. They’re fucking everywhere. They have power now, and if I tell, they’ll find a way to make me pay.”

  “And if you don’t, I will slit your throat right now.” My blade kissed his jugular.

  I meant it. I meant every word, because Grayson was hurt and taken and the clawing thing inside me would do anything to get him back. Fee, rational, empathic Fee, had taken a backseat.

  I pressed the tip of my blade into his skin and drew blood.

  “Okay, okay,” Killion said. “The portal leads to the old museums in the Southwest district.”

  I slid a glance toward Sariah.

  “Which one?” Sariah demanded. “There are several boarded-up buildings there.”

  “The one that used to be the Natural History Museum,” Killion said.

  I recalled that place. Aunt Lara had taken me as a child. I’d been fascinated by the artifacts from the time before. The museums had shut down a decade ago when the Department of Cultures’ budget was cut to pay for the upkeep of Soul Savers Inc.’s offices across the country.

  Now museums could only be perused in an online virtual environment, every item carefully scanned and displayed in a pixelated world.

  It just wasn’t the same.

  The bloodlust inside me abated a little as the memory brought the Fee I recognized back to the surface. “If you’re lying to us, I will be back. I’ll find you, and I’ll kill you.”

  “It’s the truth,” he pleaded.

  I stepped back, taking my dagger with me. “It better be.”

  * * *

  The reapers didn’t speak until we exited the club, and then Sariah stopped on the pavement, hands on hips.

  “We can’t go get him,” she said.

  I frowned. “Why not?”

  “The museum is on the Rising Pack’s territory. It’s off-limits to reapers.”

  Off-limits? “I thought we were in charge here.”

  They blinked at me and exchanged glances, but it was Nox who spoke. “We have jurisdiction based on the contracts the Underealm has with the human government and the outlier factions. We aid in the clean-up, but we’re not the only ones hunting. The Rising Pack keeps their own territory clean. They monitor the outliers who live there, and they don’t recognize Underealm authority.”

  My mind began to whirr. “There’s a vamp nest on their territory. I think they’ll understand if we encroach.”

  “It doesn’t work that way,” Sariah said. “We’ll need to get approval and—”

  Heat flared in the pit of my stomach, sharp and impatient. “How long?”

  “What?”

  “How long will that take?”

  “A few hours, maybe a day?”

  “No.” I walked off around the side of the club. “Hey, Regency Pack.”

  Two pairs of glowing eyes moved toward me, and then two hulking guys slipped out of the shadows.

  They both looked over my shoulder, but the stockier one spoke. “Where’s Grayson?”

  “The vamps have him. They’ve portaled to the Natural History Museum.”

  “Rising Pack territory,” the other one snarled. “Fuck.”

  More Loup Garou joined me.

  I met their glares, unflinching. “I know what the protocol is. I know we need to get permission to encroach on their territory, but if we wait, Grayson may not make it. So, I’m going in. If you want to come with, then feel free. Otherwise, stay out of my way.”

  “Why?” The voice stopped me.

  I turned my head to look at the speaker—a smaller Loup Garou with soulful brown eyes.

  “Why what?”

  “Why would you risk your life for one of us?”

  He had a point. I didn’t know Grayson. Technically, he wasn’t my problem. He was his pack’s problem. I could tell myself it was because I needed to stop the vamps, and an hour ago, that would have been true, but now that was simply a small part of it. I needed to save Grayson with a primitive, instinctual drive. And there were no words to explain it, and no way to fight it.

  I clenched the back of my teeth to hold back all those words and gave the only answer that might make sense to them. “Because you don’t walk away from someone who needs help.” I needed to save him because there was no other option. “Because if I don’t, he’ll die, and I’ll never forgive myself.”

  Growls erupted around me. “We can’t breach Rising territory,” one of the Loup said, and surprise, surprise, it was the one Grayson had choked earlier.

  “You would say that, Bastian,” brown eyes said.

  Bastian lunged, snapping his teeth at the younger Loup. The Loup flinched but didn’t cower.

  “Leave him alone,” the stocky one said. His gaze was fixed on me. “I’m Grayson’s second on this mission, and I don’t leave my men behind.” He bared his teeth in what I guess was supposed to be a smile. “We’re coming with you.”
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br />   “Good. Then keep up.” I walked away down the street. I had a train to catch, and an alpha to save.

  Chapter Sixteen

  It turned out that the museum had three entrances all on different streets. The place was huge. We’d scouted out two and found no breaches. This was the last entrance. There had to be a way into the building via this street.

  “Stay here,” Sariah said. “Nix and I will look for a breach.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Grayson’s second said.

  His name was Dean. I’d found out that much on the way here. The train car we’d ridden in had been empty of humans, and demons and Loup rode it together. There could be a joke in there somewhere, but I wasn’t feeling the humor right now. My mind was sharp, my insides seething, my muscles crying out for action. It wasn’t natural. It was something else, but my mind didn’t have the energy to detangle what the fuck I was feeling.

  My team and Dean, the Loup leader, slinked off into the night toward the boarded-up monolith of a building.

  “The vamps are probably on a lower level,” soulful brown eyes said. “They like being close to the earth. They prefer underground nests, usually.” He gnawed on his bottom lip, his huge eyes soaking in the moonlight.

  “Shut it,” the dickhead Loup snarled.

  “Leave him be,” one of the others said wearily.

  Brown eyes tucked in his chin, and I resisted the urge to ruffle his messy dark hair. How old was he? Sixteen? Seventeen? He couldn’t be much older than that.

  “What’s your name?”

  He looked up sharply at me. “Bobby.”

  “Thanks for the info, Bobby. I didn’t know that.”

  He smiled shyly at me. “But aren’t you the Dominus?”

  “Trust me, having a title doesn’t mean you know everything.”

  “And knowing everything doesn’t get you a title.” His eyes were shadowed by sadness.

  I wanted to give him a hug, but instinct told me that would probably be a bad thing, not for me, but for him. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that these Loup rewarded and prized alpha male behavior, and this little guy was no alpha. He was a poet or a scholar.

  “They’re headed back,” dickhead Loup said.

  Sariah reached me first. “Around the side of the building, the boards are off, and the windows are broken. We figure that’s the way in.”

  I nodded. “Okay, we split into two teams once we get inside. We have comms. So, Dean, if you take one of my team, you can stay in touch with us.”

  “I’ll go,” Sariah said.

  “I’ll give you a wolf.” Dean jerked his head toward a stocky specimen with shoulders that bulged above his short neck. “Henry’s a rabid fighter.”

  “I’m sure he is. But I’ll take Bobby if you don’t mind. I have brawn.” I indicated Nix and Nox. I’d love brains.” I smiled at Bobby.

  Dean’s hard expression softened slightly. “Bobby is the smartest Loup we have.”

  Bobby blushed.

  “Great, then it’s settled. Let’s do this.”

  * * *

  The inside of the museum smelled of dust and chemicals. At one time, the arched roof of the central chamber had been made of glass, allowing sunlight to stream into the vast space, but now it was boarded up, allowing only slivers of moonlight in through the narrow gaps between the crisscrossed boards. It was more than enough to see by, not that Bobby had an issue. His eyes glowed in the dark as he led the way along the right side of the vast chamber. There were pillars to our left and rooms with arched entrances to our right. The place was massive. The fuckers could be holed up in any tiny part of it.

  I spotted Dean and his team on the far side of the chamber just before they ducked into one of the exhibition rooms.

  Bobby stopped and sniffed the air. “Blood,” he whispered.

  I couldn’t smell anything, but then he was a wolf, and I was a demon.

  We followed him into an exhibition room up ahead. Posters littered the unswept floor, and a couple of empty crates sat up against the wall. Empty exhibition cases dotted the room and shafts of moonlight sliced across it like ineffectual silver lasers while motes of dust danced in the light.

  “There’s nothing here,” Nox said.

  “The blood is strong here,” Bobby replied.

  A faint hint of copper hit my nose. “I smell it.”

  Nox shot a sharp glance my way.

  Bobby walked further into the room. His eyes closed. “I remember reading about this place. I went online for a tour. They said there were vaults where they kept the most valuable artifacts and tunnels between the three museums.” His eyes popped open. “But to be able to smell the blood from this floor … There has to be a lot of it.” He crouched and touched the ground. “There has to be a room beneath here.”

  “So, let’s get down there,” Nox said.

  Nix tapped a message into his comm to let Sariah know what we’d found, and we headed back toward the main chamber. The pillars holding up the balcony were a couple of meters in front of us, and the main chamber lay beyond. Sariah emerged on the other side of the room. She raised her hand in greeting, and I was about to do the same when my scalp pricked and the hairs on my nape tingled.

  “Stop.” I held out an arm to warn the others not to step out from under the balcony.

  Sariah’s eyes widened, and then an arrow whizzed through the air and embedded itself in the ground with a thunk. Shit. Another arrow followed the first, landing in the same spot and vibrating with the force of impact.

  A show of excellent aim.

  A show of power.

  “Come out,” a female voice called out. “Come out, you mangy wolves, and we might kill you quick.”

  Wolves? They didn’t mention demons. I tapped a group message into my comm.

  They don’t know there are reapers here.

  They didn’t pick up the scent.

  Nox and Nix nodded as they read it.

  This was our advantage.

  I leaned in to whisper to Bobby. “Is there a way up there without going into the main chamber?”

  He closed his eyes for a long beat, then nodded. “Yes, the exhibition room up ahead. There’s a stairwell. Same on the other side.”

  I tapped the information into the comm and waited. Sariah read it and turned to Dean, leaning in to inform him of what I’d said. He nodded. My comm lit up.

  Dean is going to play mouthpiece. I’ll circle around and meet you up top.”

  I gave her a thumbs-up, then led my team toward the exhibition room we needed. We were shielded by the balcony ledge, but the threat up above us was an acute awareness on the top of my scalp and a cold grip on the back of my neck.

  I ducked into the exhibition room just as Dean’s voice rang out across the chamber.

  “We just want our alpha. We don’t want to fight.”

  Lie. But if it bought us time, then good. Dean had seven wolves, and I had three reapers. I needed to know what number of vamps we were up against. The fact they were utilizing such a huge building was a worry, though. Why did they need so much space?

  This room was darker and smaller than the others but housed a narrow stairwell to the upper floor.

  “They renovated this not long before they closed it down,” Bobby explained. “The staircases are new.”

  But surely the vampires would know about these. “We better expect a guard at the top.”

  “Good point,” Nox said.

  And then he and Nix took the lead, blades at the ready. I went next, and Bobby made up the rear.

  “No one up top,” Nix whispered back.

  “Just be careful.” My senses were going haywire, screaming that danger was close. Too close. Like almost on us, and then the scent of magic hit me. My vision blurred. There was a shadow up ahead. A glint of silver.

  I grabbed the back of Nox’s and Nix’s shirts. “Get down!”

  They both ducked as something silver whizzed over our heads.

  A muffled curse drifted down the staircase, and then a feral growl filled the stairwell. A dark shape shot over our heads from behind. There was a shriek and a snarl followed by the nasty sound of flesh tearing. We ran up the stairs to find a slender dark wolf standing over the prone form of a man. The man’s throat was ripped out. He was dead.

  Bobby lifted his canine head, brown eyes glowing amber, maw coated with blood, as if to ask, did I do good?

  I resisted the urge to pet the wolf and settled for nodding.

  “Vamp,” Nox said.

  “He was invisible,” Nix added. He gestured at a green gem hanging around the vamp’s neck. “More fucking magic.” His gaze slid my way. “You smelled it.”

  Later. “We have to keep moving.”

  We were on a landing, and another archway was farther up to our left.

  Bobby bounded in front and through the arch. He led us through an empty room and then slowed down as we approached a door.

  “There’s nothing you can give us, Loup,” the female vamp called out. “Let this be a lesson to you. The Pires are rising. No longer will we cower and hide. No longer will we scavenge for scraps. Together we are strong.”

  “We can come to an arrangement.” Dean’s voice drifted up to us.

  This was the top balcony. The one that looked down on the main chamber. It was beyond this door. I sidled up to it and peered through quickly. Five vamps? Maybe six with their backs to us and, oh, God … They had Grayson, bound and bleeding on his knees. So much blood. His golden hair was spattered with it, falling across his cheeks like a curtain to hide his face.

  My stomach churned, and my chest filled with rage.

  “But he tastes so good,” the female vamp drawled.

  One of the other vamps yanked back Grayson’s head and sank his teeth into the alpha’s neck. Grayson didn’t make a sound, but his face contorted in agony, and my body burned with the need to rush onto the balcony and attack.

  I pulled back instead, eyes burning with suppressed rage. Vampires liked Loup blood? I’d have thought the opposite. There was still so much I didn’t know.

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