Winged Reaper

by Shelley Russell Nolan

  Chris frowned. ‘I found him, but I’d hold off on going to him for help. He’s moved to a property out passed Greenlakes. It’s huge, with plenty of room and privacy for any number of Tr’lirians to hide out.’

  Greenlakes was a sprawling housing estate ten minutes north of Easton, with five acres the minimum block size, giving its residents a rural setting. Some of the blocks were closer to twenty acres, plenty of room to hide.

  ‘You really think there are more of them?’

  ‘I know it.’ He reached into the centre console, pulled out a yellow envelope and handed it to me. ‘Had a hell of a job convincing my private investigator this was a set for a movie.’

  The envelope was crammed with photos of winged Tr’lirians, all of them holding weapons. There were also plenty of armed people without wings, and one of them was Killian.

  ‘There are dozens of them.’

  ‘I know, and it looks like they’re preparing to go to war,’ said Chris, his deep voice grim.

  With Killian wanting us dead, it would be suicide for either of us to go near the compound. Now how was I going to save Emily?

  18

  A loud beeping made me jump, and I fumbled for the call button on the phone Talaom had left for me. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Do you think it was a good idea to leave your friend up on that mountain all alone? You know what happens to people you care about when you’re not there to protect them,’ said Malia.

  I gasped. ‘What have you done to Sam? If you’ve hurt him I’ll–’

  ‘He’s fine, but unless you and I come to a new arrangement that could change. It would be terrible if something bad were to happen to such a handsome young man. He’s rather tasty, isn’t he? I’m not surprised you chose him over Chris. Although I understand your former lover is quite the catch in his new body.’

  ‘Where is Sam?’

  ‘He’s busy explaining to his colleagues how he managed to subdue three Wraiths without help, although I am led to believe he calls them “zombies”. Talaom had to explain to me what your young man was referring to. Nasty creatures. Wraiths are much more civilised.’

  ‘Civilised? They’re murdering innocent people.’

  ‘There are no such things as innocent people. Everyone ends up with blood on their hands at some stage in their life.’

  My fingers hurt from gripping the phone. I wanted to throw it out the window, to deny Malia any control over my life, but with Sam in jeopardy I couldn’t afford to. ‘What do you want?’

  ‘I’m keeping this body. I’ve grown to like it and I will not give it up. Try and take it from me and my people will swoop on your precious Sam within seconds. They are watching him from the astral plane and he will never see them coming.’

  I shook my head, unable to believe I was back in almost exactly the same position I’d been in on Thursday night. I would have to sacrifice Emily’s soul to keep Sam safe.

  I gulped down my horror at what I was about to say, hoping I wouldn’t live to regret it. ‘No deal. I want Emily back. If you don’t give me proof her soul is safe before ten o’clock tomorrow morning, I will come after you.’

  ‘Do that and Sam is a dead man. He will be dead, and so will you, and nothing will stop Almorthanos from taking your brother’s body.’

  ‘Almorthanos is never getting out of Demania, not while I hold the key.’

  ‘That necklace is part of me and I will get it back, and when I do your pathetic attempts to stand in our way will come to an end.’ After that parting shot, she hung up.

  I faced Chris. ‘Turn the car around. We have to go back.’

  Chris shook his head. ‘Not happening. Lockwood wants you as far away from the crime scene as possible.’

  ‘He’s in danger. Malia said she’ll kill him if I try to get her out of Emily’s body.’

  ‘The worst thing you can do right now is run up there and get yourself into trouble with the police.’ He pulled over and I realised we’d come down the mountain and were now at a small parking area that marked the end of a walking track snaking along the road leading to the turnoff.

  No sooner had he stopped than two police cars and an ambulance roared passed, taking the turnoff and heading up the mountain.

  ‘Lockwood will have company soon enough and I doubt Malia is going to make a move on him today. She was just trying to shake you up, let you know you have more to lose on this than she does,’ he said, his reasonable words doing nothing to stem my fears.

  I rubbed at my temples, trying to rub away the dull ache building behind them.

  ‘Migraine?’

  I shook my head slowly. ‘Not yet.’

  ‘You left some of your medication at my place.’ He wore a grim smile. ‘Guess you were in such a hurry to escape my company you forgot to pack it.’

  I dropped my hands and stared out the window. ‘I can’t stand the thought of Malia roaming around in Emily’s body. Who knows what she’ll do to it.’

  ‘Ah, so we’re avoiding the topic. I know you think you hate me but if we’re going to work together on getting your cousin back and keeping Lockwood alive, we’re going to need to talk about what happened.’

  I sighed. ‘I don’t hate you, Chris. But I don’t trust you anymore.’

  ‘If that’s the case, why is this the second time in as many days I’ve received a call to bail you out of trouble?’

  ‘Sam called you, not me.’

  ‘Lockwood didn’t call me last night, you did,’ he said with a knowing smile.

  I shot him a haughty glare. ‘Only because I had no one else to call.’

  ‘Are you sure about that? I know I hurt you, and you have no idea how sorry I am for that, and for my part in the accident that killed your mother. But my feelings for you have not changed. I love you, Tyler, and no matter how much you try to fight it, how angry you are about what I did, I know you have feelings for me too.’

  ‘You’re damn right I’m angry. I have every right to be. All my life my father has treated me like rubbish, telling me over and over again how I was responsible for my mother’s death. That I was not worthy. To find out twenty-five years later that it was your fault, after I’d just sacrificed what I thought was my mother’s soul for you, it burns.’ I growled. ‘There are no words for how angry I am.’

  ‘But it wasn’t your mother’s soul.’

  ‘I didn’t know that at the time.’ I threw my hands up in the air.

  ‘Would you have really handed me over to Grimm, if you’d known what I’d done and that your mother’s soul was never in danger?’

  ‘That’s not the point.’

  ‘Sure it is. You couldn’t bring yourself to sacrifice my life because you have feelings for me. I know it, you know it, and so does Lockwood. That’s why he called me to come and get you.’

  I rolled my eyes at him. ‘He called you for the same reason I did. There was no one else to call.’

  ‘No way.’ Chris shook his head with apparent relish. ‘He knows I’m the only one who can share in every part of your life. He certainly can’t. No matter how reasonable he’s being now, the minute the reality of you being a reaper sets in he’ll back off, back to his safe and predictable little world.’

  ‘You’re wrong. Sam wouldn’t do that,’ I said, worried he would turn out to be right. It didn’t help that he’d nailed the main reason I’d been so determined to avoid telling Sam the truth. All my talk about protecting Sam, I’d really been protecting myself from the possibility of rejection.

  I gave another low growl, furious at him for making me doubt Sam’s ability to understand and accept who I was, needing to lash out and hurt him back. ‘I wouldn’t have handed you over to Grimm because I didn’t want him finding out how to get Almorthanos a new body. But that doesn’t matter now because I screwed up and Emily paid the price. So they don’t need you anymore or I’d trade you for her in a heartbeat.’

  ‘No you wouldn’t. Though, I’d be happy to let you trade Lockwood for Emily.’ He gave me an apolo
getic smile. ‘Malia will make you choose between them. When it comes down to it, who will it be? Lockwood or Emily?’

  I glared at him, hating to hear it stated in such bald terms. But he was right. Malia would not hesitate to kill Sam if I attempted to get her out of Emily’s body. As horrified as I was by Emily’s death, I wouldn’t risk Sam’s life to bring her back.

  ‘Well?’

  I leaned my head against the headrest. ‘There has to be another way.’

  Chris reached over and took hold of my hand and brought it up to his lips. ‘And we’ll find it, together.’

  I pulled my hand free and crossed my arms in front of my chest. ‘Can you please not do that? We’re working together, that’s all.’

  He gave me an intense look. ‘For now. But I’m not giving up on us and I promise I won’t let you down again.’ He finally pulled out onto the road and neither of us spoke during the drive back to his penthouse.

  Once we were inside, he handed me my migraine tablets and I swallowed one with water, hoping it would be enough to stop my headache from becoming a full blown migraine and not make me drowsy. I couldn’t afford to have my wits dulled.

  I started to pace, but Chris interrupted me after my first lap of the lounge. ‘Come and sit down and we’ll go over what we know, figure out what resources we have.’

  I huffed out a sigh. ‘Fine.’ I flopped down onto one of the chairs at the dining table and he took a seat opposite me.

  ‘Don’t sound so enthusiastic.’

  ‘I want to be doing something, like tracking down Malia so I know where she is for when I get Emily’s soul back. Not stuck here wondering if Sam is okay or if Grimm is about to launch another Wraith attack.’

  Chris snorted. ‘Lockwood can take care of himself.’

  I scowled at him. ‘Three Wraiths just tried to kill him.’

  ‘But you stopped them, and I want to know how.’

  ‘I told you, I blasted them with a burst of aether. But taking out three of them left me exhausted. If there’d been four, Sam and I wouldn’t have been so lucky. I need to find out what else my necklace can do if we are to have any hope of taking on Malia.’

  ‘I bet she was pissed off to discover it could bring you back to life, but not her because she had no body to go back to,’ he said with a smirk. ‘Of course, if they hadn’t burnt her body, the necklace would never have been created.’

  ‘I don’t imagine she’d have been happy even if she could have been resurrected. She was old when she died, and she’d still have been old if she’d been resurrected. But now, thanks to me, she has a plan that will keep her looking young and beautiful forever.’

  ‘Reproduce and create a never ending supply of bodies to hop into whenever her old one starts to wear out. It could work.’

  ‘I know,’ I said with a groan, ‘and that’s why I can’t stand the thought of her in Emily’s body. What if she’s out there now, trying to get pregnant to create her next victim? What if I manage to get Emily’s soul back into her body and then I have to explain to her why she is suddenly having a stranger’s baby.’

  Chris shook his head, a smile on his face. ‘I doubt Malia would do anything of the sort, at least until she has got Almorthanos out of Demania.’

  ‘You don’t know that. You didn’t see her prancing around in my white dress, minus her underwear. She didn’t strike me as the time of woman who would hold off if she found a man who caught her eye.’ I shuddered at the thought of the things Emily’s body might be subjected to.

  Chris threw his head back and laughed, a deep belly laugh that had his broad shoulders shaking.

  I scowled at him. ‘It’s not funny. How would you like it if somebody like Cade took over your body and did who knows what with it?’

  At the mention of his body’s biological father, his laughter petered off. ‘Okay, I see your point,’ he said with a frown. ‘Although, I’m in the same situation as Malia. This body isn’t the one I was born with.’

  ‘No, but you got tangled up in it by accident. You didn’t murder the original Chris Bradbury just so you could come back to life.’

  ‘I can’t honestly say I wouldn’t have if I’d known it was possible. The chance to live again and do all the things I cheated myself out of in my first life would have been an incredible lure.’ He gave me an apologetic shrug. ‘I’m sure lots of people wouldn’t hesitate if given the same opportunity.’

  ‘No, no way. I would rather die than take over someone else’s life.’ The very idea made my stomach churn.

  ‘Yeah, well, not all of us are as noble as you,’ he said with a strange look in his eyes. Before I could decipher whether he’d meant his comment to be complimentary or sarcastic someone knocked on the door.

  ‘Sam.’ I got up from my chair and ran across the lounge, throwing myself into his arms once Chris let him in. ‘You’re okay.’

  He smiled down at me. ‘Was there a doubt?’

  Chris cleared his throat. ‘Malia called Tyler and threatened to have you killed if she tried to get Emily’s soul back.’

  ‘Hey,’ said Sam, his arms tightening around me. ‘I’m not that easy to kill. You do whatever you have to do to get your cousin back. I can handle a couple of zombies.’

  ‘You don’t understand.’ I wanted to shake him, make him take this seriously. ‘She had Tr’lirians watching you from the astral plane.’

  He frowned. ‘Are they watching us now?’

  I glanced over at Chris and he shook his head.

  Sam’s eyebrows rose as he stared at Chris. ‘Don’t tell me, you’ve got Tr’lirian detectors set up in this place?’

  Chris smirked, leaving it to me to explain. ‘He can see into the astral plane.’

  Sam looked back down at me. ‘Can you and Connor do that?’

  ‘Connor has never mentioned seeing things, and as Killian didn’t know it was possible I’m guessing Chris having been a reaper gives him the edge. As for me, I might be a reaper but my Tr’lirian blood is more diluted. It’s only because of the necklace I can enter the astral plane when I’m called to reap.’

  Sam pursed his lips. ‘It also lets you zap zombies. What else can it do?’

  ‘That’s what we were just discussing,’ said Chris as he retook his seat at the table.

  Sam kept a hand at my back as we walked to the table, only removing it when we sat down across from Chris.

  ‘We know Malia’s power is stored in the necklace, but so far I have only managed to use it to draw on aether,’ I said. ‘But the power must still be in there or she wouldn’t want it back so badly. I just need to figure out how to access it.’

  ‘Didn’t it zap her, when she tried to take it from you?’ Chris leaned forward.

  ‘Yes, but I can’t count on that stopping her. It may have changed shape and colour after I used it to fight Grimm, but it is still a piece of her and she seemed confident it would respond to her once she had a chance to reconnect with it.’

  ‘Let’s make sure that never happens.’ Sam nudged my shoulder with his.

  ‘You got it.’ Despite my bravado, fear nibbled its way into my head. There was so much we didn’t know about what we were dealing with and time was running out for all of us.

  19

  We discussed possible scenarios for what seemed like hours, but when I looked at the clock it was early in the afternoon. So much had happened, it felt like I’d lived a lifetime of ups and downs in one day. As time passed, sure Malia was solidifying her position, a ball of dread formed in my stomach. It was almost a relief to have my necklace go cold.

  ‘I have to go,’ I said. ‘Someone is dying.’

  Sam shot to his feet. ‘Where? Who are they?’

  ‘I won’t know until I get there.’ Reluctant to take to the astral plane with Sam watching on, I turned to Chris. ‘Can I use the guest room?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Sam followed me down the hall. ‘Is it okay with you if I stay? I’d like to know what it’s like, to reap.’
>
  ‘It’s not that exciting,’ I said as I entered the bedroom and lay down on the bed. ‘You won’t actually get to see anything.’

  ‘I still want to be here for you, for when you come back.’

  ‘Oh, okay.’ I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, trying to pretend he wasn’t watching me as I took hold of my necklace.

  Immediately, I was pulled out of my body and floated up and through the ceiling. I streaked across the sky, looking down at Easton and its citizens as they continued to live their lives oblivious to what was going on around them.

  Shapes flitted around me once again, lost souls, their form not as distinct as mine, though occasionally I caught a glimpse of a face. Their mouths were moving, arms waving at me, as if they were trying to tell me something. I could tell they were scared, but had no clue as to what it was they were so afraid of.

  The lost souls vanished in an instant, and I had a new escort. Five black winged Tr’lirians appeared around me, all male, chests bare. They flew in v-formation, the astral plane casting a light haze over their bodies. They flew in close and the flap of their wings buffeted me about. If I’d been one of the lost souls the wind they created would have sent me reeling through the sky, but the draw of my client kept my course steady.

  My silent escort followed me all the way to my client and hovered over the man sprawled on the grass in the middle of a hockey field. They set down, wings furled, and watched me.

  I glanced over at the creek where I had found the body of one of Andrew’s victims almost a week ago. That was the night I’d discovered Chris was the reaper Grimm had me searching for. I pushed those memories aside and made my way between the still silent Tr’lirians and moved over to the dead man.

  ‘Oh no.’

  Logan Miller, my ex-boyfriend, lay flat on his back, arms spread. A large knife stuck out of the middle of his chest, a knife that looked exactly like the largest one from the set in my kitchen, the one I’d used that morning to slice bananas for breakfast.