The pain only got worse.
My entire body throbbed with pain, every muscle clenching, my limbs like heavy stones. That sharp, burning agony where the amulet had sunk into me was like a fiery-hot knife jabbed into my back — and not in a fun way. There was nothing even remotely enjoyable about this pain, despite my best attempts to make myself feel a little better.
I couldn’t heal. Every ounce of my strength was sapped away, and my blood was seeping away with it. Jeremiah had sent his men after Juniper — they were walking straight into their deaths if she was still back there in the trees. He crouched over me, and in my blurred vision, all I could see was his smiling face, teeth stained with black rot.
“Bullets are expensive,” he said, casual as fuck as he looked down at my broken body. He was muttering, not talking to me so much as he was talking to himself. “And goddamn does it take a lot of them to even make you fuckers flinch. The amulet worked better than I expected…but there’s too much risk…”
“Fuck you,” I growled. “Fuck you and your fucking monologuing.”
Perhaps I was lucky he ignored me. “But you know what’s better than bullets and tiny charms? A Reaper.”
He may as well have kicked me in the gut; I felt as stunned as if he had. Jeremiah shouldn’t have even known what a Reaper was. They were Hell’s executioners — massive, intelligent monstrosities with whom demons had formed a tentative pact. If a demon ever became so unruly that the Council decided to destroy them, a Reaper would be called in to do the job.
I laughed, but the sound was choked up with pain. “You’re…fucking psychotic…if you think…you’re going to get a Reaper involved.”
“You think I can’t?” His foot ground down on my chest. “Who do you think I am, demon?”
“You’re just some pathetic —” Pain or not, I wasn’t going to shut up. But what followed next wasn’t pain. Not exactly. It felt as if something cracked open my head and wriggled inside the crevices, wrapped itself around my brain and began to squeeze.
Unbidden visions of a long dark tunnel flashed through my head. Visions of blood — of viscera — the sound of a thousand voices screaming in unison, in agony. At the end of the tunnel, a face…a figure…draped in light and color, covered in a thousand blinking eyes, constantly morphing, ever changing…tightening Its hold…
I forced It back, but he’d made his point clear: it wasn’t Jeremiah who knew anything about Reapers.
It was the God.
His fingers poked and prodded my wounds, smearing the blood over my chest. “Demonic blood calls a Reaper to do its duty. I’m sure it won’t mind if the blood doesn’t belong to its intended victim. It can have you too, as a treat, once Leon is dealt with.”
I was merely the offering. Leon stood between Jeremiah and Raelynn, but not for long. Leon couldn’t win against a Reaper.
Jeremiah was going to execute him. He was going to kill Leon, and he was using me to do it. My nails dug uselessly into the grass, clawing at the dirt. I would have rather died. I would sooner let myself be destroyed than be the catalyst to Leon’s death.
But there was nothing I could do. Nothing.
The haze clouding my vision became darkness. I was too weak now to even manage to send myself back to Hell. I didn’t have the strength to open a gateway and escape this. Energy was gathering around me, Jeremiah’s muttered words calling into the aether, beyond Earth, into the deepest depths of Hell.
He shouldn’t have known the words to do it. No human being could.
Suddenly, even through the dark and the pain, I heard her. I could sense her near. I could smell her.
Juniper.
“What the fuck did you do to him? What did you do?”
I should have known better than to think she’d run. My little wolf didn’t run. But fuck, she needed to. She couldn’t possibly understand what was about to happen.
“Careful, Juniper.” Jeremiah chuckled. “I’ve made your demon useful.”
My nose filled with smoke, harsh and thick. It felt like a hand had reached between my ribs and was squeezing my insides, wrenching them around and tying them into knots. Flashes of light and feral growls emanated from the darkness thickening around me, and I managed to turn my head. Juniper stood there, wide-eyed and blood-stained, her shotgun aimed.
Fuck, it hurt to even try to speak. “Go, Juniper.” My voice grated out of my throat, my tongue swollen. “It’s a Reaper…he’s summoning a Reaper…go…”
Then the darkness obscured her, and something massive moved through the smoke above me.
It was almost funny. All these years I’d been so determined not to do anything to piss the Council off, yet there I was, under the claws of a Reaper anyway.
Fucking hell.
There was a sound of cawing crows in the darkness, and the temperature dropped until my breath formed clouds in the smoky air. Worms and beetles crawled out of the ground beside me, frantically scurrying away as frost formed over the grass. The outline of a huge, bat-like wing moved over me.
Five blinking eyes, emitting a strange silvery light from behind the dark shroud that covered its face, looked down at me. Its voice was cold and deep, vibrating in my bones as it rumbled, “Hello, little demon. Do you submit to death?”
I sighed heavily. “No, unfortunately, I don’t. Actually, I’d like to lodge a complaint. Killing me is…uh…severely uncalled for.”
The Reaper chuckled, the sound unpleasant enough to make me shudder. Hundreds of sharp teeth hung from its neck, like jewels: trophies from its victims. They rattled together as it laughed, its armor of stone and black metal groaning as it moved. “Is that so? And yet, an Ancient Lord has called me with your flesh and blood.”
“It’s not his blood I’ve called you to spill,” Jeremiah said, his voice far too loud for such a small, insignificant mortal. The Reaper’s eyes jerked over to him and Jeremiah flinched, rightly so. At least he still had the sense in him to be afraid, regardless of what the God urged him to do.
“Not his?” the Reaper growled. “Then why, Ancient Lord, have you called my name? A Reaper does not appreciate its time being used frivolously.”
“There’s another demon,” Jeremiah said. “His name is Leon. He’s guarding someone, a mortal woman. I need him removed from her side. I need him broken.”
The Reaper rumbled again — whether it was chuckling or merely breathing, I couldn’t be sure. “Break him? And why would I not kill him, Ancient Lord? A Reaper arrives to take a life. I will not be denied that.”
Jeremiah smiled, the expression twitching on his face. “Of course not. You may have the demon at your feet, as an offering. Once the other one has been broken, I’ll take him for myself. But you can have this one when the job is done.”
Great. I was a fucking bargaining chip between a Reaper and God — when it came to “places I wanted to be,” this landed solidly last.
At least Juniper was gone. She’d run when the Reaper arrived, and it was my one sense of relief in this mess. Guns and knives wouldn’t bring a Reaper down. She wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Once the Reaper killed me, the bond between Juniper and I would be broken. Her soul would be free again. Maybe she’d find another being to take her to Hell; I hoped she did. A woman like her was too much for this world, too much for one mere mortal life. She needed more. She needed her freedom beyond this Earth.
Fuck, that hurt more than I’d thought it would: the melancholy, the…the loss. I wasn’t afraid of dying — I hated leaving Juniper behind. I hated knowing that Leon would either die fighting this Reaper, or be broken and forced back under the Hadleigh’s control. I hated that I’d failed to protect either of the beings I cared for most.
Juniper would survive; my little wolf would find a way. That was my only comfort.
“We Reapers are not servants to be given tasks,” the Reaper growled. “But out of respect for an Ancient One, I will oblige your request. The demon, Leon, will be broken, and I will return for this one.” It leaned down, its silver eyes gazing into mine. “You say you will not submit to death, demon. But your body is poisoned. What a shame you will not be able to fight me, but you will be an easy meal.”
A cold wind swirled around me, dissipating the lingering smoke and the Reaper with it. The night was eerily silent: no crickets chirped, not even the wind moved. Jeremiah walked back up beside me, casually picking at his teeth. “Too bad about your little bitch running away.” He looked down at me with a cruel smile. “Did you think she’d save you? Running is what she’s always done best. She’ll run, and run…” His eyes hardened. “But you’ll never escape a God.”
He began to walk away. I was so goddamn weak I could barely lift my head to see him go. I couldn’t run. I could only lie there and wait for my death to return.
“Personally,” Jeremiah said, as he kept walking, “I hope she comes back. I hope she tries to fight the Reaper for you. I’d stay to watch the slaughter but…I have a sacrifice to attend to.” He turned, looking back at me. His eyes were fogged, and when he spoke, his voice wasn’t his at all.
“When I return, demon, I will be free. And it will be a very different world. It will be a world where no matter where she runs, Juniper Kynes will never escape me again.”
