Reaper Unleashed: Deadside Reapers: Book 7

by Cassidy, Debbie

  “Then what is this? Why are you here? What do you want with the super vamps?”

  “Yes, super vamps, that’s how she thinks of them.” His smile is almost fond.

  “She?”

  “My sister. Her mind is a wonderous place filled with wonderous information.”

  Wait…so that’s how he found out about the existence of the super vamps. And then he infiltrated the Magiguard HQ by head hopping to find out where they were located. The guards’ weird behaviour made sense now. They’d tried to resist his influence. They’d known he was in their head somehow.

  “Cain, what do you want with the vamps?”

  “That is none of your concern. Now…” He raises the control in his hand. “If you’re done stalling, I would like to take my precious cargo and leave.”

  Shit, shit, shit. Where is the Magiguard team? We can’t let him leave with the super vamps.

  As he raises the control to hit the open cell button, I do the only thing I can. I make a jump to his side and grab for the control.

  Pain lashes across my face. My vision blurs with tears, and then I hit a wall of solid muscle.

  “Cora!” Hunter hugs me to his chest and yeah, I’m so fucking stunned by the blow that I can’t do any more than cling to him like a fucking damsel. “You bastard.” Hunter’s voice is saturated with venom.

  He lunges toward Cain, his body morphing, shirt tearing, and slams into an invisible barrier that propels him back toward me. It’s my turn to grab him, but he’s no lightweight, and we both fall on our asses.

  “I warned your friend what would happen if she got in my way,” Cain says. “I’m a man of my word.”

  Suddenly I can’t breathe. My throat is tight, like it’s being squeezed, and then I’m being lifted off the ground.

  Hunter makes a grab for me, but I’m propelled across the room and into the wall.

  “You brought this on yourself,” Cain says.

  Hunter is trapped in place unable to get to me, muscles bulging, veins popping in his neck as he tries to break free of Cain’s hold. My vision dims. Breathe, I need to b—

  A crack splits the air and I’m free. Jasper stares at me with an unfathomable expression, and my heart swells at the sight of him. He came. He fucking came for me, and I know it’s what he does, because I am what I am to him, but the relief still brings tears to my eyes.

  He hauls me into his arms. “If you want my attention, all you have to do is call.”

  My body tingles, signaling a jump. “No.” My voice is a croak. “We have to stop him.”

  He turns to Cain, and for the first time since I encountered the immortal, I catch a flicker of doubt in his eyes.

  “You,” Cain says.

  Jasper tucks me to his side. “I don’t like people damaging my property.”

  Cain looks from me to Jasper. “She’s yours?”

  “Yes, she’s mine. Touch her again, and I’ll obliterate you.”

  Cain rakes Jasper up and down, and the tension radiating off him ebbs a little. “No.” he shakes his head slightly. “You won’t. You don’t have the power. Not like this.”

  What’s he talking about?

  Jasper flicks his wrist and Cain’s arms shoot out, boots sliding across the ground as if someone just shoved him hard in the chest. I look up at my malevolent saviour and yes, there’s confusion on his face. He hits Cain again, and this time the immortal laughs, unmoved.

  This can’t be happening. Jasper is powerful. Dark and dangerous power wreathes him like a cloak, but Cain… Cain is more powerful. Then Cain throws up his hands, palms out and a blast of energy ripples the air propeling it to toward us, Jasper counters, blocking the wave. There’s a fizz, and then the smell of burning.

  Oh fuck…

  Cain tried to incinerate us.

  “As fun as this is,” Cain says. “I should be going.”

  Shit. “I won’t let you take the vamps.”

  He smiles but his eyes are tired, almost as if this whole thing is super tedious.

  “Oh, I won’t take them all. There are few that are defective. Those, you can keep.”

  What?

  He hits the button on the control and the cell doors lining the chamber open with a whirr. There’s a moment of silence, as if the world is holding its breath, and then super vamps spill out into the chamber—crimson eyed, fangs bared, ready to puncture, and… Talons? What the fuck?

  The super vamps we fought on the Island didn’t look like this.

  Cain vanishes, taking eighty percent of the vamps with him, and there’s no time to analyze the situation because we’re under attack.

  Hunter’s roar batters my ears, and then he leaps into the fray, already in half shift, tearing at the fucked up super vamps as if they’re confetti. Nine. No, there are ten of them. I try and break free of Jasper to get to Hunter, but his grip is unforgiving.

  “No,” Jasper’s tone is a whiplash.

  “I’m not leaving without him.”

  “Not my problem.” He wraps me in his arms.

  “Damn you. He can’t fight them alone.”

  Hunter whirls and slices, lunges and tears at the vamps. But there are too many of them.

  Jasper gives a long-suffering sigh and strides forward into the midst of the carnage is if he’s going for a fucking stroll. A series of sharp cracks resound throughout the chamber and every defective super vamp drops dead, neck broken.

  Jasper gives me an arch look and holds out his hand. “You owe me.”

  “Now isn’t the fucking time, okay? Did you see what just happened?”

  “Like I said, not my problem.”

  He keeps saying that, like nothing touches him, but it does. I saw it in his eyes when he was face to face with Cain.

  Hunter picks something out from between his teeth hawks and spits. “Fucking vamps, taste like garbage.”

  But my attention is still on Jasper. He hasn’t left. He’ll want me to go with him, and there’s a huge part of me that wants to do just that. The part that’s depraved and hungry. The part that craves him.

  His eyes narrow and he bridges the distance between us, lips curving in a smug smile. Fuck, does he see it? Does he see that I want him?

  I grit my teeth and lift my chin. “What? What are you smirking about?”

  “Sort out what you need to, but get it done by tonight, because I’ll be back, and I will be collecting.”

  And then he’s gone.

  I take a breath and look across at Hunter to find him studying me with interest.

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry,” he says.

  “For what?”

  “For you having to put up with him.” He wipes at his mouth. “I have one too, but he’s just a voice in my head.”

  There’s a vulnerability about him that makes me soften, and I get it. I get exactly what he means.

  “That voice is no malevolent spirit, Hunter. That’s the dark part of your conscience, and only you can exorcise it.”

  He frowns at me. “How?”

  “By believing in yourself. By believing you deserve to be happy.”

  The thunder of boots drifts through the open door and Magiguard poor into the chamber.

  Ursula leads the charge and comes to a skidding halt at the sight of the carnage.

  I cross my arms. “Seriously? What took you so long?”

  “We had to crack the ward Cain put on the building.” She frowns. “But you got in…”

  I don’t even have the mental energy to go there right now. “He got away, and he took a bunch of super vamps with him.”

  “He left these behind,” Hunter says.

  “They didn’t react well to the antidote,” a small voice says. A woman peers around the doorjamb. “They mutated, and the others were resistant.”

  “How many resistant?” Ursula demands.

  “Twenty…” The woman ducks her head. “On this floor.”

  Shit. The white van outside, the weird noises. Cain had already c
leared a floor before we got here.

  “This is bad.” Ursula says.

  “He took the vials,” the small woman says.

  Ursula pales.

  “What?” Hunter demands. “What was in the vials?”

  “The Reaper virus.”

  “The what?” I step over the dead body of a super vamp to get closer to her. “What did you say?”

  “The Reaper virus,” the small woman says. “A concentrated version of the virus that enabled humans to see ghosts and decimated the reaper population a couple of decades ago.”

  “Why would you have that?” Hunter demands.

  “An insurance policy,” Ursula says.

  They continue to bicker, but I can barely hear them because the blood rushes in my ears as Cain’s intentions are suddenly clear.

  He doesn’t want to hurt humans.

  He wants to attack demons.

  He’s headed to the Underealm.

  Oh fuck.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Fee

  It was so fucking dark. Where was I? What was this place. It smelled bad, like rotting things and the ocean. The air was moist and clung to me as I forged on. This wasn’t real. I knew it even before I began to climb rocks, my hands barely visible, but clearly belonging to a male.

  My heartbeat sped up.

  I was dreaming.

  This was a dream. Part of me wanted to wake up because this was too claustrophobic, but the other part, the one born of instinct kept me rooted in this moment.

  The trickling of water drifted to my ears and then there was a light up ahead turning the darkness into a gray haze. What I wanted lay beyond the gray. I had to keep going. The gray grew brighter and brighter until it was a pulsing white light, and then I was in a rock cavern, standing on a ledge that jutted out over an abyss.

  But this abyss wasn’t inky and forbidding. No, this abyss was filled with blessed light and the writhing shape of a multitude of ethereal forms that writhed and wove together as if to a symphony audible only to them.

  The Dread.

  These were the Dread, and this would be my power source. I reached into the abyss, sinking my hands into the glorious light, and squeezed. Screams tore the air, high-pitched and soul-wrenching.

  No.

  What was I doing? I needed to stop. Stop it right now.

  Heat travelled up my arms, and into my chest, potent and powerful, making my heart pound too hard and my muscles expand.

  No. This wasn’t me. It wasn’t me!

  And then another voice joined mine in my head. “Hello, sister.”

  Ice filled my non-existent veins.

  Cain!

  “I warned you not to invade my mind,” he said coolly. “I spared you once, but I won’t make that mistake again. I’m coming for you.”

  Oh shit. I was in his head, and I needed to get out.

  The screams of the Dread rose around me, desperate and in pain, and then Cain sank his arms deep into the light and began to feed.

  * * *

  “Fee, wake up!” Mal shook me gently.

  I starfished, smacking him in the cheek. “Babe, sorry.”

  He rubbed his face. “It’s fine. You’re fine now.”

  “I had a dream.”

  “No shit. You were moaning and thrashing. You mumbled the word Dread.”

  My heart was still hammering as I sat up and pulled the covers to my chest, clutching them like a security blanket.

  “I was in Cain’s head and…I think… I think he devoured the Dread.”

  Mal looked at me in confusion. “What?”

  Shit, it was all getting fuzzy now, but the memory of his voice was clear as a bell. “He knew I was in his head. He knew, and he said he was coming for me.”

  Mal hugged me and rested his chin on my head. “If he comes for you, that fucker will have to get through me, Az, Samael, and a whole fucking demon army, so fuck him.”

  The knot in my chest eased a little. “Mal…He was feeding on Dread…What does that even mean?”

  “I don’t know,” Mal said. “But whatever he’s up to, we’ll figure it out, and we’ll stop him. I’ll send a phoenix to Necro first thing in the morning. Uri will pick it up when he checks in.”

  “You asked Uri to check in to the quarters?”

  “Yeah, just in case.”

  Okay, it was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine. Right now, I needed to focus on Lilith and the trip to the pit. Cain would have to wait. I’d find him afterward.

  But there was a little voice in the back of my mind that whispered… Unless he finds you first.

  * * *

  Breakfast at the Keep was taken in a grand room with high-backed chairs with velvet cushioned seats. Chandeliers hung overhead, and the floor was like polished obsidian. Candelabras hugged the walls, giving the place an old-world air, despite the evidence of technology.

  Way too many plates, hosting way too many breakfast options, covered one end of the table built to hold twenty. We’d commandeered one end and Azazel sat at the head with me on his right and Mal opposite me.

  Samael hadn’t joined us. In fact, we hadn’t seen him for two days.

  I took a bite of my eggs, lightly salted, fluffy, and delicious. “Is Samael okay?”

  Azazel sipped his coffee. “He’s been doing the rounds of Imperium., showing his face to the troops. It builds morale to see him. There have been so many rumours about his fate over the decades, and this puts those to rest and gives the people hope that we will prevail against Mammon.”

  The truth of our predicament was out of the bag. They knew Lilith had been taken and that Mammon was behind the attacks on Imperium. But seeing Samael, their lord, the most powerful original fallen, would stem any panic and rally the troops.

  “I wish Keon was here.”

  Mal gave me a sharp look across the table and my neck heated, but I locked gazes with him, willing the warmth to subside.

  “So that we can find the map and get on with saving Lilith.”

  Mal sucked in his cheeks as if to say, yeah right.

  God, he was a dick sometimes. I knew the score when it came to Keon, but that didn’t mean I could switch off my feelings for the daemon. It didn’t mean I could turn off the attraction. This wasn’t easy for me, but I was going to do it, because it was for the best.

  I arched my brow. “I just want to get this trip over with so we can all breathe.”

  The side of my face grew warm, and I turned to find Azazel studying me intensely.

  “What?” I gave him an innocent, wide-eyed look.

  “Why do I feel like you’re hiding something from me?” Azazel asked.

  His silver eyes raked over me, as if he could extract the hidden information with a pointed look.

  Heat rushed over my skin and I knew I was blushing.

  “Fee?” Azazel’s expression softened with concern.

  Mal puffed out his cheeks.

  I had two options. I could deny or I could confess. Mal had cautioned me not to tell Azazel about my feelings for Keon, and if Azazel hadn’t asked directly if I was holding something back, then I’d have been able to keep my mouth shut, but this… Denying there was anything hidden, felt too much like lying to my soulmate.

  That, I couldn’t do.

  I turned in my seat, and Mal made a sound of protest.

  Azazel frowned. “What is it?”

  “It’s nothing,” Mal spoke for me.

  I could feel his attention on me, searing and willing me to keep my mouth shut.

  I couldn’t do that. “I have feelings for Keon.”

  Azazel went still as stone, and my heart hammered against my ribcage. “I kissed him in Limbo to save him, but…I enjoyed the kiss. I mean…I wanted to kiss him, and then back at quarters we had a moment. We’ve grown close and I see a side of him others don’t, but I know what he did to you. I know he’s a puppet for Lilith and that if she asks him to, he will kill me, so I’m not going there.”

 
The words tumbled out in a rush and then I was done. It was my turn to study his expression, to watch for the tell-tale sign of anger, disappointment, something.

  His jaw ticked, and his eyes darkened like the beginning of a storm, the only outward signs he was pissed.

  “Babe?” I winced and touched his arm.

  He didn’t pull away, but his hand balled into a fist.

  “Azazel, talk to me.”

  “He touched you?”

  “Yes.”

  “He kissed you.” His expression was flat giving nothing away.

  “Yes, but I was willing."

  His jaw flexed and he closed his eyes.

  “Azazel?”

  He locked gazes with me. “I love you, Fee, and I want you to be happy, but there are certain things I will not compromise on. Keon is one of them.”

  He was calm. Too calm. The eye of a raging storm calm, and the tiny sliver of hope in the deep recesses of my heart that had hoped his reaction would be different, died.

  “I won’t go there. I promise.”

  He reached out to touch my cheek and his exhalation took the tension gripping his body with it. “For you, Fee, I can forgive Keon’s crimes against me. He was merely a Blade after all, but I would never forgive myself if your heart was broken, and Keon will break it if Lilith asks him to. He’ll have no choice.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I know.”

  “Good. He leaned across to kiss me lightly on the forehead before turning his attention to Mal. “Next time, don’t ask my soulmate to keep shit from me.”

  Mal held up his hands. “How was I to know you’d take it so well.”

  Azazel’s smile was a jagged thing. “Who said I’ve taken it well?” He pushed back his seat and stalked from the room.

  I looked across the table at Mal. “Um, what just happened?”

  Mal’s mouth parted in revelation and then he shoved back his chair. “Keon got back late last night.”

  What? “But I asked you earlier?”

  “No, you said you wished he was here, like at breakfast with us.”

  “That wasn’t what I meant, and you know it.”

  “Yeah,” Mal admitted. “But—"