Reaper (Dragon Prophecies Book 1)

by Hickory Mack

  “For your… experiments.” She left that hanging between them, not hiding her disapproval of what they were up to.

  “Correct. There is another creature we are anticipating, pending a successful capture attempt. We’ve been working on him for several years now, actually. We will need help containing him as we transport him to the facility,” Callum explained.

  “You plan to capture a creature the entire Hunter Clan cannot contain without help, and you expect me to do it for you?” She laughed again. It sounded to her like they were running out of options if they’d come to someone they knew hated everything about them.. “Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?”

  “Muriel did it multiple times,” Marley told her. Elsie frowned. It sounded a lot like this Muriel woman had been worked to death, and it made her wonder what they’d had on her to convince her to stick around. Elsie didn’t have much interest in becoming a puppet.

  “We have people stuck over there, Elspeth,” Callum said impatiently, finally showing a little emotion. She glared at him. Few people other than her mother dared to call her by her full name, and Callum damned well knew it. “Please, we need your help.”

  “Why me, specifically? There are plenty of other reapers out there that you could ask. I’m pretty sure most of them are a hell of a lot closer to your little operation than I am. You’ve come a long way to get turned down.”

  “You spent most of your life among the Hunter Clans. You know how we work, and you know the creed, rules, and laws we live by. You owe who you are today to us, and we don’t think you’ll turn us down,” Callum said heavily. Elsie stood and stretched, letting Frida climb up to perch on the back of the chair.

  “Look, it’s been great catching up, but I’m going to ask you to leave. You’re wrong, Callum. I owe who I am today to my mother, who taught me what your superiors didn’t in over fourteen years. I refuse. I don’t care how much you’re paying,” she said, nodding toward the door. “You can see yourself out.”

  That’s when she made the second biggest mistake of her life.

  Callum reached up to pull the forest green hood down, and when she glanced his way, the mage moved. He crossed the tiny living room in two long strides and wrapped his hands around her wrist, muttering something under his breath. She sucked in a sharp breath, and her other hand came up to punch him square in the face. He stumbled slightly but wouldn’t be deterred, his lips moving fast.

  “What the fuck?” Elsie growled, trying to yank her hand away. He held on tight, his magic glueing her feet to the floor. Frida yowled, a loud, angry sound that dropped to a hiss.

  Elsie’s eyes widened, darting from the strange mage to Callum, her expression dripping with incredulity. Marley carefully avoided her gaze. Nobody attacked a fucking reaper if they didn’t want to be dumped in a hostile hell dimension. They must have insurance of some kind. Protection.

  Her wrist grew unbearably hot, and then the mage stepped away, rejoining his brothers as Elsie looked down at her wrist in confusion. There was a seamless silver cuff clasped there. She tried to slip it off, but it was too tight, and there was no way to get it off.

  “You’ve got thirty seconds to tell me what this is all about,” she growled, snatching the scythe from her bracelet. It expanded to its full size, giving weight to the threat she hadn’t spoken. One of the assassins had the good sense to take a step back, his eyes widening. “What the hell did you do?”

  “We know from experience how difficult it is to convince a reaper to help us,” Callum said bitterly. “But it just so happened that we knew of one who has recently parted ways from her powerful parent. A parent who controlled the most frightening beast in the land.”

  Elsie knew exactly what he was talking about, but she didn’t see how it was relevant. Wherever her mother was, Stolas was with her. She was sure of it. The man was the crown prince of multiple hell dimensions, including one of the most depraved she’d ever seen. He was completely devoted to Santa Muerte and had been Elsie’s mentor.

  “You want me to believe you know where my mother is? And you’re threatening me with what, exactly?” she asked, trying to gain clarity. They’d already given her enough reason to kick their asses, but she’d like the full story first.

  “You look confused instead of frightened, which is what you should be. Santa Muerte set him free when she disappeared, but he’s still contracted to her. We found him and brought him back where he belongs. With his family. Our gift to you,” Callum said graciously with an ironic little bow.

  Elsie heard a low growl, and every hair on her body stood at attention. Her mother had another pet, a creature who hated and resented her. Unlike Stolas, he served because he must, not because he chose it. She looked at the cuff around her wrist with a rising sense of horror.

  “Now she gets it,” the healer guessed. Marley’s voice was soft, almost as though she pitied her.

  “What’s the plan here, guys? I refuse to become your bitch, so you let him kill me?” she asked, trying to sound bored but failing miserably. Elsie was one step away from pure panic. Not even her mother could completely control the shadow wolf.

  “Nothing like that. He belongs to your family, after all. We thought you’d be grateful that we returned him to his rightful place! We don’t want him to kill you; that would be a step back after we went through all the trouble of catching the beast. You’d be useless to us dead. Besides, haven’t you been looking for a new companion after what happened to the first one?” Callum said smugly.

  Elsie’s hands shook with anger at his casual mention of the demon the hunters had thrust upon her. A gift she hadn’t wanted, one which had eventually broken her heart. Leaving Saint had been the greatest mistake of her entire life.

  “Just agree to collaborate with us and ask nicely. We’ll be happy to discard the beast for you. It’s that simple.” Callum shrugged. That drew her up short. The hunters always seemed to have a plan.

  “What do you mean, you’ll discard him?”

  “We will put him down. Though it may be that he would serve us better if we hold on to him to ensure your good behavior,” he said. Putting him down was the same thing they thought she’d done to Saint. She’d done what was necessary to protect him, her mate. Guilt tugged at her insides even as a snarl touched her lips.

  “You bastards can’t do this to people.”

  Chain links glowing the same ethereal blue as her dimensional magic began to appear, attached to the cuff around her wrist. Elsie held her arm out in front of her and watched with wide eyes as the chain grew long enough to trail along the floor, twisting and curling until it disappeared into the darkness of the far corner of the room.

  “I’m sorry to inform you that we can, and we have,” Callum retorted.

  “He’ll kill me.”

  “He will. You don’t have the power to control him like your mother does. I suggest you give your word to assist the Hunter Clan right now, and this can all be over.”

  “How were you controlling him?” she questioned.

  “An encasement spell woven by seven mages working together. It takes a mage to trigger the spell, which is why he’s here. Commander Grant knew you’d be difficult to persuade, so we really couldn’t afford to give you a choice, Elspeth,” Callum gloated.

  “Fuck off, Callum,” she hissed with more bravado than she actually felt. She was barely able to remain standing. She’d never been more frightened in her life. This was no ordinary demon at the other end of that chain. The growling sounded from the corner again, all the more frightening because she couldn’t see him. The monstrous creature that even her mother had never fully trusted.

  “If that’s what you wish. We’ll be staying in this little town of yours, waiting for you to change your mind. Just call out my name, and we’ll subjugate the beast and come get you. All you have to do is help us get to our people and work with us.” He made it sound like he was being completely reasonable and she was the one being a pain in the ass.

  “
Callum, there will come a day when I’m no longer bound to this monster. When that day comes, the first thing I’m going to do is come for you,” she snarled. A moment of fear passed through his eyes, but he tamped it down quickly, trying to appear strong in the eyes of his squad. He knew he’d never beat her in a fair fight, so they’d cheated.

  “You too, Marley. After everything we went through together, I thought we were family.”

  “I thought that too, until you left us without even saying goodbye,” Marley responded softly. “I’m sure you’ll get over it. You have a new demon to coddle now.”

  “I will destroy each and every one of you,” Elsie promised, glowering at her one-time friend.

  “I guess I’ll worry about it when the time comes,” Callum said flippantly. She still couldn’t believe they’d chosen him of all people to be their mouthpiece. The mage led the way as they filed out the door and down the stairs. Callum hung on the door for a second and offered her a smug smile. “Bye, Elsie.”

  She stared at the door for several long seconds in a state of shock. Those assholes had seriously just left her alone with this thing. The king of the shadow dimension growled from the corner, and Elsie got a glimpse of hellish red eyes glaring at her from the other end of the chain.

  Her cat stood on top of the chair, her back arched and hair standing on end. She looked ready to fight, but even in her spirit form, Elsie didn’t think the cat had a chance in hell.

  “Fuck this,” she whispered, grabbing Frida before breaking into a run. She heard him snarl, then claws scrambled against her worn carpet. Elsie snatched her phone off the counter on her way by, then slammed the bedroom door behind her. She locked it, flicking the heavy bar that she’d installed herself closed. If he wanted in, that bar wouldn’t be enough to stop him, but it should slow him down.

  Elsie crawled into the middle of her bed, wrapping a blanket around herself while staring at the chain that disappeared under the gap in the door. Nails clicked on the tile that extended from the kitchen into the hallway, and Elsie felt the impact of every footstep. She swallowed hard and clenched the dagger in her hand. She’d forgotten how big the motherfucker was.

  She silently rocked in place, clutching her necklace and sending another prayer to her mother. “Protect me from your demon.”

  Chapter 3

  Elsie spent the next several hours curled up under the blankets with Frida, flinching at every sound. The monster hadn’t taken long before beginning to destroy her apartment. The place had come mostly furnished, and she listened to him ripping out her carpet and tearing up her sofa. So much for getting her security deposit back.

  He let out a great, long howl, and Elsie clamped her hands over her ears, crying out in pain. He was loud, and the sound reverberated in her chest and head, like someone had struck a gong inches from her face. She could only hope nobody overheard him and complained. It was late enough that the store downstairs was closed, but who knew who could be lurking around?

  When the beast’s destruction reached the kitchen, she groaned. Glass shattered, and Elsie cringed when something metal screeched in protest as it was wrenched apart. Even Frida had an opinion about that sound, hissing and hiding under the covers.

  She held her breath and clutched her dagger when the door rattled against its frame, sounding like it would slam to the ground at any second. He pushed harder, his claws raking against the solid wood, and the growl from his side sounded almost half amused. Heart pounding and ears ringing, Elsie expected him to come crashing through, teeth flashing to put an end to her existence. Instead, he walked away to wreak more havoc in the living room.

  There was no tugging on the chain at all, and Elsie wondered just how much freedom of movement the beast had. She’d never seen her mother with a chain, but Santisima was a goddess. She didn’t need tools to keep the monster from causing destruction everywhere he went.

  It took a long time, but he finally quieted down out there. Instead of berating herself for freaking out, Elsie sat up and crossed her legs, setting the backs of her hands on her knees while leaving the dagger within arm’s reach. Using the silence to help her focus, she closed her eyes and regulated her breathing. She couldn’t think if she was too terrified to move, and she couldn’t plan if she couldn’t think.

  Frida curled up in her lap, and the knots in Elsie’s muscles relaxed. The tension headache she’d been plagued by eased, and she took a deep, free breath. She turned on the bed until she faced a large painting she’d done on the far wall.

  It depicted ya’axché, the first tree. The tree of life and death. Her mother’s people believed that souls could only reach heaven through the highest branches of the Kapok tree.

  She’d painted the tree to be gnarly and twisted, as the trunk of the tree represented life, and life could be both unpredictable and difficult. The crown was covered in bright flowers and fruits, signifying the rewards awaiting those who had reached enlightenment and would be going to a heavenly dimension.

  The roots were dark and went deep. They spread wide, showing the multitude of hells awaiting those who could not continue in the cycle of reincarnation. Those souls were too corrupted to save. Elsie’s domain was among those roots. She and her sisters escorted those lost souls to the dimension most fitting of their depravity.

  The crown belonged to her brothers. The light to balance the reaper’s darkness. Elsie would never meet any of her brothers. Their job consisted of finding the purest souls, guiding them away from the cycle of reincarnation and into the heaven dimensions.

  The souls in the middle were on their own, doomed to repeat another round of life until they got it right. Those striving to better themselves as people, or simply living a miserable existence and bringing the next set of life lessons on themselves. It was a beautiful system, and Elsie loved being a part of it.

  Every time she removed a corrupted soul from the cycle of life, the lives of those around it lightened, improving their chances of coming closer to enlightenment. It wasn’t until a soul understood itself and the world around it and could see through eyes unclouded by hate that it could move on.

  Thinking about the cycle and where she herself might be in her spiritual journey, Elsie closed her eyes. The trials she was enduring had to be happening for a reason. All she had to do was find a way to make peace with it.

  Several hours later, Elsie opened her eyes and frowned. She was calmer and far more centered, but she hadn’t found the answers she’d been looking for.

  She examined the cuff tethering her to the wolf somewhere in her apartment. There were small markings etched into the metal that she hadn’t noticed before, but she couldn’t read them. It wasn’t in the ancient language her mother had taught her. It was in the encrypted language the mages refused to teach any outside of their kind.

  The blue glow unnerved her. Mages did not have ethereal magic, which could only mean the tether was drawing its power from her. What would happen if she ran out of magic? Would the tether break? Or had they put something in the spell to prevent that from happening, like a fail-safe? She hated that she didn’t know.

  Elsie turned her thoughts to what she knew of the beast. He took the form of a massive, shaggy black wolf, but as far as she knew, he wasn’t a wolf or even a shifter. Santisima had told her he was the King of Shadows, but now that she thought on it, Elsie seemed to remember her mother had found something humorous about that title.

  He could do magic in his wolf form, and she’d seen him dissolve into smoke and disappear many times, leaving to carry out Santisima’s bidding.

  “Oh, how he’d love to take his revenge,” the goddess had cackled on more than one occasion, and the wolf had always responded by lifting his lips in a toothy snarl. Elsie had once watched him stalk her mother across the gardens then pounce. Santisima had somehow known he was coming, and the giant shadow beast had received a sound beating.

  It wasn’t his first or last attempt at killing the Goddess of Death even though his contract stated he
would die if he harmed her. He hated her enough to forfeit his life to get away from his servitude.

  Elsie tried to remember his name and failed since her mother rarely used it. But she thought maybe she’d figured out her bargaining tool. Maybe she could use his hatred of her mother to reason with him. Offer his freedom in return for not killing her. She could open a door into his dimension, wherever it was, and return him to his home. If he agreed, she’d need a back-up plan. If she didn’t come up with a plan to break the spell holding them together quickly, he might change his mind out of pure impatience.

  Santisima would forgive her for freeing her pet from this world. Maybe. Probably. She’d worry about her mother when the time came. The problem of possibly being eaten if she left her bedroom took precedence.

  If he refused, she’d have no choice. She couldn’t run from something like this; there was no point in even trying. She’d have to go along with what the hunters wanted.Elsie chewed on the tip of a purple-painted fingernail. She wouldn’t be able to stay here anymore. He wasn’t safe to keep around humans.

  She shuddered to think of what would happen if sweet Mara were to try and pet him, and she would try, even if Elsie warned her against it. Humans were kind of ridiculous that way. So many had lost their lives trying to befriend random demons because they thought they were ‘cute’ and wanted to cuddle them.

  She rotated the cuff around her wrist absently. She’d have to find someone who could read the spell, and she only knew one mage. Riven had been a temporary part of her squad, but she’d moved on to bigger and better things. She hadn’t been there when Elsie had left, but she would still have taken it hard. The girl was loyal to a fault, but she held a grudge. Elsie gave it a fifty-fifty chance that Riven would either help her or attack her.

  There had to be someone else out there willing to help. Even if it was just someone to keep the beast in check while she tried to figure out how to break the spell. There was someone who could help, she realized, her heart skipping a beat. He may even be willing, if he still held any love in his heart for her.