Authors: Jayde Scott
Outside, the crow cawed, warning me. When the pain hit again, I clenched my teeth, ready to wait it out. But this time it didn't stop. For a long time, all I could feel were coldness and a horrible agony that wouldn't ebb.
After Cass disappeared I spent hours looking around Rio. For some inexplicable reason, my abilities wouldn't pick up Sofia's trail, even though I couldn't think of anything else. Ever since catching a glimpse of her at the airport, her face kept popping up in my mind, making focusing on anything else impossible. I attributed it to the immense pressure on me. Not only would I lose my rank and would never be able to return to my Origin. If I failed, I had no idea what Lucifer would do to me, and I certainly had no intention to find out.
The hospital was a large building with paint peeling from the yellow walls. There were a total of five stories with the emergency department situated on the ground floor. As I walked in, I knew exactly where I'd find Cass.
"
Olá
.
Posso
ajudá
- lo?" the receptionist, a dark-haired woman in her late thirties, asked with a smile.
Even though I understood her Portuguese perfectly well, I shook my head and muttered in a fake French accent, "
Não
falo
português
." I shot her an apologetic smile and walked past, knowing all too well she wouldn't follow me and make a fuss. It would be too much of a hassle arguing with a huge guy like me. In a few long strides, I reached the double doors leading to the emergency department and walked into what I assumed to be the busiest area of the building.
Drama and suffering was palpable in the air. Doctors and nurses in blood stained uniforms hurried up and down the narrow corridor, paying me no attention. I strolled down the hall, hoping to blend in so I wouldn't need to use my shape shifting abilities. A young nurse shot me an interested look, but she didn't stop me as I walked past.
I followed Cass's trail—a thin thread of black fog that characterized all reapers—to one of the ER rooms where two patients lay on their hospital beds, hooked up to various whirring machines that wouldn't keep them alive for much longer. I knew where to find Cass because a reaper like her would always hover around a person that was more dead than alive.
She stood near one of the beds, back pressed against the white wall, her still emerald green eyes shining unnaturally as they soaked up the pain wafting from the dying mortals. In this stadium, Cass’s body had left the physical realm and relocated into one of the Otherworld dimensions where no mortal eyes could see her. But some could feel her presence.
"Cass?" I touched her shoulder. She barely raised her gaze from one of the two humans. For a moment, I saw her shoulders slump in defeat, her expression haunted by grief and sadness, and then her ecstasy returned. Soaking up the pain of others relieved her own, only to come back full force within a few hours, turning her more and more into this thing that couldn't stay away from death.
I shuddered. Having known Cass for a long time, I knew she never wanted any of this. I felt pity for her.
"Cass, I know you can hear me." I shook her arm lightly. Her skin, black as coal, felt colder than before and her green gaze darkened. In this in-between state of the physical and spiritual realm, where her body morphed into a reaper, her skin couldn't keep warm. She raised her chin a notch, black eyes glinting unnaturally. Her lips peeled back, revealing a string of white teeth. I didn't know whether she was laughing or in pain, but it sure
creeped
me out.
The left patient on the bed stirred in his sleep, drawing his breath several times before his heart stopped beating, and the little ECG machine next to him started beeping. Cass sucked in her breath, relishing the moment when the man's life force waned. She inched closer and pushed her hands inside his ribcage. Only then did I notice the razor sharp claws she had been hiding behind her back that now tore through the man's astral body as he rose to hover over his body.
"Time to go." Cass's voice was surprisingly calm and composed. With a snap of her fingers she ripped the silver thread that held the man's astral body attached to his physical carcass. And then she disappeared with him, leaving me behind to look at the whirring machines and the deceased who had just passed away in his sleep. I sighed and walked out of the building, then sat down on a nearby bench as I prepared for the half hour wait. Cass would be back soon with a refreshed mind that would be free of the usual pain for a few hours. I grabbed a newspaper and let my mind switch off for a while, but my thoughts kept circling back to the girl with the dyed jet-black hair. For some reason, I couldn't forget the way she had looked at me, curious yet cool and composed. She was mortal, I wasn't, so getting up close and personal with her wasn't an option. And yet I wanted her.
***
Half an hour later, Cass appeared behind me, her cheeks a glowing pink, eyes shining emerald green with renewed vigor and life force. I folded the newspaper and tossed it aside as I made room for her to sit down next to me, but she just shook her head, preferring to stand.
"How is he?" I asked, meaning her mate, Dallas.
"Still dead." She shrugged as though it didn't matter. It was her way to deal with her emotions. I nodded sympathetically as she asked, "Did you find Sofia's trail yet?"
I shook my head. "Nope, but I found something else." She sat down, her flowing dress grazing my arm as she leaned in, interested. "One of your vampire friends is around. I caught his scent."
"Who?"
"The car racer."
"Kieran?" she asked, raising her brows. I nodded. "What's he doing here?" From her expression and her sharp tone, I could tell she wasn't happy.
"No idea." I lowered my voice. "Maybe he's trying to help."
"Or mess things up. They wanted to come." She peered to the car park on the other side of the road, and I knew instantly any chance of doing this my way was slowly dissipating into thin air.
"Who?" I asked even though I could smell them now. Dallas's sister, Amber, and her vampire boyfriend, Aidan, stood waiting somewhere in the distance, out of view.
"You're good but you should've smelled them much earlier. What's wrong with you? Do you have a blocked nose?"
I had been wondering about the same thing, minus the blocked nose. As an immortal, I didn't experience the usual health problems. Ignoring her question, I got up and waved, knowing the vampires were watching me. "A big family reunion then," I muttered under my breath.
"Trust me, I'm about as excited as you are, but Amber wouldn't let me leave without her. And where Amber is, Aidan will follow," Cass whispered. "This family reunion blows."
"Let's face the dragon then." I grabbed Cass's arm and pulled her after me.
They were waiting in the shadows even though their skin wouldn't burn from the sun. Aidan was a foot taller than Amber, but I noticed her first. She had only recently been turned into a vampire, but her skin already showed that unnatural paleness.
Even though Aidan was a foot taller than her, I noticed Amber first. I could see the glint in her eyes from a few feet. She had only recently been turned into a vampire, but her skin already showed an unnatural paleness, which she tried to cover with a black long sleeved top and jeans that only made her skin look paler, white as snow. Aidan didn't fare any better, and his unnaturally blue eyes didn't help his cause.
"You're blending right in, dude." I held out my hand, grinning. Aidan reached out but Amber grabbed it first, her hazel gaze meeting mine. She squeezed tight.
"
Thrain
, right?"
I nodded. "We met before when you were the damsel in distress. Seems like things have changed."
A smile lit up her face. "You could say that. I went from alive to dead to alive again."
I smirked. "You have a broad definition of alive then."
"We should get going," Aidan said, grabbing her elbow as though to protect her. The chick certainly didn't need protection, but she kept silent. "Meet us at the hotel?" Without waiting for my answer, they dissipated into thin air.
"Still the same control freak, I see," I muttered to Cass as we neared our car, hating the fact that, between portals, we had to travel like mortals in the physical realm while the vampires got to teleport to places without being stuck in traffic. I didn't like that they had this advantage over the inhabitants of Hell. Cass had a phone that could open a portal anywhere, but with all the potential witnesses around us it was safer to just drive.
"He'll get the job done," Cass said.
I peered at the tight lines around her mouth, wondering what she was hiding. "What job? I thought it was mine."
She nodded as she opened the car door and slumped down into the passenger seat. "It is. But you're a tracker and he's the bounty hunter."
"What do you need a bounty hunter for?"
"You said Kieran's around." She turned to face me as I started the engine, letting the car idle on the spot. "Kieran's a bounty hunter too. Aidan doesn't know his brother's here, which means he's looking for something." I raised my brows, still not getting where this was heading. Cass groaned and pointed at my forehead. "
Yo
, could you turn that thing up there on? Kieran was the one who turned Amber and the Lore court knows it, meaning until now he's been hiding. Why would he leave his hiding place, unless he made a deal with someone?"
I nodded, even though I still had no idea what she was talking about. "What's he doing here from all the places in the world?"
"Right. Okay, let's go." She slumped into her seat. I didn't move.
"You knew Kieran was here." She didn't answer, which I took as a confirmation. Dammit, something was wrong with me, or why would she pick up a vampire's scent long before me? "Just say it."
She shook her head. "Wouldn't be good for your ego, mate."
I set my jaw. "When?"
"At the airport. That's why I went to pick up Amber and Aidan. If Kieran's looking for something, we need to find it first. And who's better at picking clues than a bounty hunter?"
"I'm a tracker."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know that. But right now you can't even find Sofia. With me incapacitated because of this horrible curse and your blocked nose—" she waved her hand in my face "—let's just say, we might not be able to find Sofia, get her to do the job and keep an eye on Kieran if we stumble upon him. Besides, they're brothers, so the chance they'll screw each other over is very unlikely."
And then I understood what she was saying. In the paranormal world, everyone was your enemy. What were the odds of someone employing Kieran to be in the same place at the same time as us? Whoever employed Kieran could only have harm in mind, and the moron probably didn't even know it.
"Have you told Aidan?"
"And miss all the drama?" She snorted. "Are you kidding me?" I could smell the excitement wafting from her, passing on to me. Grinning, I dodged the oncoming traffic as I changed lanes. My foot hit the accelerator hard. Time to let the chaos demon in me out and get this job done.
For a long time all I could hear was yelling in a language I didn't understand. The words sounded accusatory and angry, but I wasn't sure whether they were aimed at me, or someone else. The entity was gone, but I felt cold, colder than I had ever been in my entire life, the freezing sensation competing with the pain in my chest. But that wasn't what worried me in my dream-like state. That scary darkness from my dreams was all around me, enveloping me and keeping me hostage in my own body and mind. No matter how hard I tried to push and pry my eyes open, I couldn't move. Slowly, I started to panic, wondering whether I'd ever wake up and be my old self again.
I felt trapped, I felt bodiless. I felt panic rising inside me whether I'd ever wake up. I thought of my family, of what would happen to them if they heard I was gone. Gone, how final those words sounded. As if I was dead already. Was I dead?
I didn't know how long I lingered in that empty yet painful state, drifting in and out of consciousness. When my eyes finally fluttered open, I realized I was in my hotel room, propped up on a pillow in the middle of my bed. The clock on my nightstand showed it was already after 10 p.m. Gael sat beside me. When I stirred, he smiled and grabbed my hand. Something flickered in his eyes. It was the same dark shadow I had seen before, like a black flame lapping at dried wood, only this time my mind was fully operational and I knew I wasn't imagining things. I pulled back from him, but only a little.
"Hey, it's me," Gael said. "You were out of it for a while."
I swallowed and moistened my dry lips. "What happened?" My voice came low and hoarse, as though I hadn't spoken in days.
He held a glass of water to my lips and I took greedy gulps. The cool liquid soothed the scratchy sensation at the back of my throat. "You passed out from the heat."
I shook my head. "Something else must've happened. I remember the fortune teller starting her chatter, and then there was blackness." I shivered as I let my memories invade my mind. That was one scary place I never wanted to visit again.