Hunter just stared back at him with what he hoped was a blank stare on his face, he knew one of his eyes was swollen shut because he was only seeing out of the other one, so he wasn’t sure on the effect he was having at the moment. But Banner ground his teeth together, “You want to see these women tortured?”
Hunter just stared back, “You think I won’t do it?” Banner asked.
“You obviously will,” Hunter said drily. “But I have nothing to give you.”
Banner pulled a gun from the back of his pants, pointed it and shot one of the women on the floor. The shot went directly into her forehead. Hunter thanked the gods it was quick and painless. The other woman flinched but said nothing. He could see Tabatha taking steading breaths and he sent up a silent prayer Tabitha would keep her shit together, the last thing he needed was for the hot-tempered Daughter of Eve to lose it now.
Banner motioned for someone to enter the cell, and Hunter stiffened when a cloaked figure came in. It walked over to the body before throwing off the hood of the cloak. Hunter recoiled as if someone had struck him.
“What the fuck.” Hunter swore straining to get as far away from the creature as the chains he had on would allow. It was a man, but just below his skin swam something else. Hunter took a deeper look and saw the souls, which were trapped there. “Bloody hell.”
“You don’t approve?” Banner asked. As the creature reached forward with a thick muscular arm.
Tabatha let out a scream and attacked the thing, but it turned and backhanded Tabatha sending her sprawling across the floor chains and all. Tabitha didn’t move and Hunter lunged toward her but his chains pulled him up short. Hunter was left groaning in pain as his chains tightened, Hunter backed up and pressed himself against the wall in a subjugated way and warily watched as the creature reached over the dead female.
“You’re going to enjoy this,” Banner said with a laugh. “Don’t look away or you will miss the good part.”
Hunter watched in horror as the thing coaxed the soul out of the dead woman and then, holding it in its meaty fists he turned his head, his eyes black and dead to Hunter it opened his mouth and swallowed the soul whole. The light passed through his mouth and down its throat, passing his Adams apple, and then slowly went out as it went down into the things chest. The thing gave Hunter a smile, the souls just under his paper thin skin still moving and shifting about.
“What the fuck are you?” Hunter snarled and tried to swallow the bile clawing up the back of his throat. But Hunter wasn’t sure if he could get past it. In all his existence he had seen nothing so unholy as the creature staring him down right then.
“What you could never be,” it growled. His voice held the cries of all the souls he held and made Hunter want to cover his ears and run from him. “I am the new age of Reaper. What the Reapers should have always been, what you could only hope to be.”
“You are an unholy piece of shit,” Hunter shook his head in dismay. The Tribunal had gone too far this time.
“The Tribunal needed to have new Reapers to replace the old ones. Once you all have been destroyed, didn’t they?” Banner laughed.
Hunter turned to Banner, “This is unholy. That is not a Reaper that is…” Hunter couldn’t even begin to put to words what that creature was. And they thought Dante was playing at being a god? Hunter watched warily as the creature left the cell and then he turned to Banner. “You need to have that thing destroyed, those souls need to be released. Holding them like that is inhuman, Banner. It is warping whatever that man used to be.”
Banner laughed, “We know what we are doing, now tell me what I want to know or another female dies,” Banner said motioning to the women on the floor.
Hunter shook his head, “Banner listen very carefully to me. That creature is walking a very thin line. I don’t know how you created it and I don’t give a fuck but if you don’t discharge those souls and release whoever that man used to be you will have an apocalyptic type of situation on your hands. One body is not meant to shelter more than one soul at a time and he had hundreds.”
And they couldn’t all be good souls, Hunter couldn’t imagine the different types of souls the thing was carrying around. The damage they were doing to each other, trapped in that body. Hunter shuddered just thinking about it.
Banner walked forward and backhanded Hunter, it was enough to rattle Hunter in his current situation. “Banner, I’m not fucking around.” Hunter spat out blood, his head was hanging on his shoulders. “You got a bigger problem here than me not telling you what Lailah is or your stupid ass Guardians.”
Banner slugged him in the stomach, and Hunter grunted. Shit it hurt, and Hunter had to suck serious wind. Banner followed it up with several punches to his already bruised and broken ribs.
Hunter spat out more blood, “Why the fuck do I care?” Hunter muttered. Then he caught site of Tabatha she had woken up and was crawling toward the two women on the floor. Oh right, he still needed to protect the innocents left here. And despite the fact, Banner was a son of a bitch he didn’t deserve to die the way that creature would take him out when the sanity switch was flipped because the Tribunal turned him into some kind of serial killer Tribunal Reaper.
Unfortunately, his body couldn’t take much more and he passed out soon after.
He woke up to Tabatha bathing his face with a cool cloth. “Where did you get that?” he asked.
“It was in the bucket of water,” She said.
“Ah, the water torture bucket,” Hunter said pushing away the towel. “I would rather you just leave the blood thanks.”
Tabatha shrugged, “Have it your way. Is it true? Does the Tribunal have their own Reaper?”
Hunter looked at Tabatha and felt sorry for the woman, she had been through a lot. And the Reaper in question probably had a good number of her sisters trapped within it. She wouldn’t like it, but he didn’t lie to people he worked with or knew well. He had dwelt with lies and deceit too much, so he made it a promise to himself not to lie to family and friends. It was just how he worked. And Tabatha might not be family or even someone he would consider a friend but she was Elle’s best friend so for that reason alone he wouldn’t lie to her.
“Yes, the Tribunal has created their own Reaper. And he is one fucked up peace of shit,” Hunter told her.
“But from what they are telling me, there is something seriously wrong with him?” It was more a question than a statement.
Hunter wasn’t sure if Tabatha really wanted to know the answer to the question. The answers were sick and twisted but he wasn’t going to hide the truth from her Tabitha had the right to know what was going on, she was deep in this shit as much as he was.
“I was kidnapped in a bid for Banner to get Guardians as payment from a deal gone bad. Plus someone the Angels had Touched, someone they placed a Guardian on. Banner doesn’t know why this Touched is so important. And I can’t tell him,” Hunter explained.
“Do you know why this Touched is so important?” Tabatha asked.
This Hunter had no qualms about holding the truth back, if it meant saving Lailah pain, or helping her he would do it. “No.” he didn’t even hesitate.
“And you can’t get the Guardians?” Tabatha said sadly. “It is hopeless. And the Tribunal Reaper?”
“I don’t know how they did it, but he is holding the souls inside of him. A mixture of good and evil. They should never be in such proximity they will bleed together and contaminate one another. Whichever is more dominate and from what I saw evil is winning. A mortal body is only capable of possessing one soul, an Other body may be able to possess more souls but only for a short period of time. This creature had hundreds I could see them seething under his skin. When he spoke their voices were layered one on top of each other. It was painful to listen too, it won’t be long before it he just has to many souls inside of him.”
“I’m afraid to ask.” Tabatha said, but she took a deep breath then asked, “So when he exceeds capacity, what happens?”
“If t
he creature isn’t contained it will be apocalyptic. All those souls whether good or bad going in have now been contaminated within that creature and they will be let loose on the mortal plane. They will wreak havoc on everything they can get their hands on. They will shoot from him, and everything they touch they will contaminate with their evil.” Hunter shuddered at the thought. He couldn’t imagine the situation being any worse.
“But he took—” she motioned to her friend’s body still on the floor. And then she shook herself. “I am going to kill Banner several times over.” She spat, her eyes shining with fire.
Hunter nodded, “If you want someone to blame you should blame the Tribunal. They are at the heart of this problem, not Banner.”
Tabatha turned on him, “Trust me, Hunter, I will get to them. I haven’t forgotten who ordered the destruction of my sisterhood. But the first thing we need to do is get the hell out of here.”
Hunter gave her a sad smile, “Good idea, you have a key?” he asked rattling the chains the held him to the brick wall behind him.
* * *
“I’ve done it,” Sky screamed. Running into the back of the bookstore where they were all hiding since her apartment had been blown to bits. It had only been four days but to Lailah it felt like an eternity. She just wished she could know that Hunter was okay.
Everyone came from the different locations in the building to find out what the Tracker was screaming about. Skylar better have some good news because she pretty sure if he didn’t someone was going to kick his ass everyone as so on edge at the moment.
“What?” Victor asked.
“With the information X found about Banner, and Bowen and Falcon’s help I think we have finally found where that slimy bastard has buried his ass,” Skylar said with a smile.
Everyone just stared at him in shock, then everyone was moving. “We move out in five,” Victor shouted above the din.
“Wait,” Skylar said making everyone stop in their tracks.
“No,” Victor barked. “We move in on this bastard now before he moves or realizes we might have found him. Banner has had Hunter for four days and the gods themselves only knew what he might have done to him in that time.”
“Oh, Falcon and Bowen are already moving in on him to make sure the intel is good. We just need to wait and see if it’s good. I just didn’t want you all to get your hopes up,” Sky said with a smile.
“What is wrong with you? Why would you send in your brothers? Why wouldn’t you bring the information to us?” Lailah had the urge to slap Skylar upside the head.
Skylar gave her a guilty look, “I didn’t want to waste any time, and they were closer to the warehouse. Falcon and Bowen moved in while I came here.”
“What if Banner gets wind of the Trackers and moves out or tries to get rid of Hunter?” Lailah asked. She felt sick at the idea she didn’t know what Banner would do, he was a man on a mission and he was capable of just about anything.
Skylar shook his head, “He won’t see or hear Falcon or Bowen,” Skylar said proudly.
Lailah wasn’t so sure, she didn’t know the other Trackers. Her only concern was getting Hunter back. Lailah had all this power now and knowledge but none of it would bring back Hunter. They might as well tie her hands behind her back, it was making her nuts.
“So what are we waiting on then?” Lailah asked trying to put all the pieces together in her head.
“Just waiting to hear back,” Skylar said. “Don’t worry Lailah, Falcon won’t let us down.”
Lailah wished she had the same type of confidence but she was so worried she couldn’t bring her mind into line with Skylar. So she walked away from him and into the main part of the bookstore. Lailah had no idea what she was going to tell Sally, she and the Reapers, Uriel, Eric and the Trackers had kind of taken over the bookstore when her apartment had been blown to bits a several days ago. The bookstore was still closed and they hadn’t done anything to the bookstore but Lailah still felt like she was intruding on Sally. They needed to move on soon, but to where she had no idea. Her only thought had been getting Hunter back and then they could find someplace else to hide.
Eric found her walking through the children’s section. “Everything is so tiny.”
Lailah ran her fingertips over the branches of a plastic tree holding several different books about trees. “You don’t spend much time with children do you?” Lailah asked.
“Gods no.” Eric shuddered. “Why would I?”
Lailah laughed, “Because they require tiny things.”
Eric pulled up one of the small chairs and sat down. “Lailah?” he asked motioning to a chair.
Lailah pulled up a chair and sat down. “Eric?”
“You need to calm down. Do you realize since your transition you haven’t stopped glowing once, and when you’re upset you give off pulses of power?” Eric asked. “You won’t be any good to anyone if you can’t hide some of your awesome cosmic power.”
“This isn’t something I can control. My transition happened before I was ready. If I could control it I would,” this wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have right now. She had more important things to worry about. And she stood and tried to move past Eric.
“Don’t run away from me please?” Eric asked. “Just hear me out.”
“Eric, I just went through my transition. What exactly do you expect me to be able to do?” Lailah couldn’t keep the defensiveness from her voice.
“I know. We all know. But I am here to help you. If you will allow it,” Eric offered.
Lailah wasn’t sure how Eric was going to help and said as much, “Do you have some spell you’re going to cast? Some kind of ward you’re going to put up around me? Are you going to brand me again?” Lailah held up her now smooth palm, it now didn’t hold any trace of either brand. It was one of the first things Lailah had checked when she had woken up the other day. Just like Uriel and Eric had first thought her transition had erased her brands.
Eric laughed, “No something much simpler. I thought I would teach you some mindfulness breathing. This might come as a surprise but I had some anger issues in my past, something I don’t like to talk about. But suffice to say I needed to learn to channel my anger or my Elemental abilities would have burned me out and killed me.”
Lailah was more than a little surprised by Eric’s admission she had seen snatches of temper from him but Lailah would never have thought he had an out of control temper.
“Okay.” Lailah really didn’t have anything to lose, and to be able to control some of the amazing power she now possessed would be wonderful.
Eric gave her a blinding smile, “So to start with, close your eyes.”
Lailah narrowed her eyes at him and Eric laughed softly. “I’m not Skylar. You can trust me.”
Lailah closed her eyes, “Now this is the hard part. I want you to attempt to clear your mind,” Eric said. Lailah had so much information in her brain, it was always working on something. Plus, the Collective was feeding her information constantly. Information she didn’t really give two shakes about. Adding to everything else going on with Hunter. She really didn’t think she could clear her mind.
Opening her eyes, Lailah sighed, “Eric do you have any idea how much information is up there now?” Lailah said slapping her forehead with her palm. “It’s so full, I don’t think I can clear it.”
“Let’s try anyway.” Eric said reaching forward he closed her eyes. “Think about everything you have going on.”
Lailah saw everything in her mind’s eye, the overwhelming information. Lailah felt her body start to heat and knew she was glowing. Exactly what she was trying to avoid.
“Take a breath, Lailah.” She did as Eric suggested. “Hold it.” Eric started counting for her, and after a count of three, he had her release it to the count of four. “Hold your breath,” Eric said, his worlds a soft calm. He counted to five. “Now breathe in, and let everything go.” Again Eric was counting. “Hold it.” At three, “Release.” Four.
“Hold.” Lailah did, for a count of five. “Breathe in. And release it all.”
This continued for more breaths then Lailah could count and all she knew was Eric’s soft murmuring voice telling her to breath in, hold, breath out and hold. Before she knew it her mind was clear and she felt her body relax and grow heavy.
“Now, Lailah, I want you to think of something, anything that makes you happy,” Eric said his voice so calm it was like an anchor to her in the fog of her calm. The first thing that flew into her empty mind was a picture of Hunter smiling at her. She felt the corners of her own mouth turn up.
“Very good, Lailah. I want you to hold onto that image. This is the image I want you to cement in your head. Anytime anything gets out of control this is the image, the place you will go. You will take a breath in.” Lailah did so now. In she breathed for a three count held it in and then released it in a four-count holding it for several seconds and then taking another breath she held the image of Hunter smiling down at her.
“Can you still see it, the image that makes you happy? Calm? Relaxed?” Eric asked?
Lailah nodded.
“Good, you can open your eyes now.” Lailah slowly opened her eyes and let the world around her come back into focus. The worries and thoughts slowly coming back. And for the first time since her transition she wasn’t glowing. She wasn’t sure if she was going to throw her arms around Eric or jump up and down with happiness.
“You need to practice this several times a day to make it stick. I will be happy to work on it with you for the next couple of days,” Eric promised. “But it’s something that you need to practice in order for it to work.”
Lailah wanted to hug Eric because she felt in control for the first time since her transition but thought better of it. Then she thought what the hell, throwing her arms around the Elemental Enforcer she felt one tear roll down her cheek, “Everyone thinks I should either have all my shit together because I’m this Arch Angel, or I should have the answers. But I don’t have any idea what I’m doing, I’m making things up as I go along. I might have this cosmic amount of information in my head but it’s not really helping me out yet. But what you just did, it helped me, thank you.”
Reaper Dreaming: A Reaper Novel Page 21
