Page 29 of Death is My Ride or Die

“Where’s Leo?” I demanded.

“Driving your little girlfriend home.” It was Blade, the Sin of Wrath, who delivered the snide remark. Lucifer had told Leo to drive Faith without informing me. He’d undermined my power again, and the message was clear:Your people are mine to command, and so are you.

I reined in my anger and composed myself. “We will continue without him.”

Striding forward, I prowled down the path the reapers had created. My arms stretched out as I moved, my power lapping out like wisps of dark smoke toward their chests. The pendants they wore around their necks glowed as the mortal essences stored inside absorbed into me.

When I reached the end of the aisle, the euphoria of feeding heightened my senses, and desire flooded my body with a rousing warmth that made me shiver with pleasure. Wildly erotic thoughts suddenly surfaced, involving Faith wearing a sexy angel costume and straddling my lap.

I slammed the fantasy to the grave and whirled around with a growl. Sure enough, the other reapers were feeling this too as they all shifted anxiously on their feet.

“Romeo,”I snarled.

Romeo, the Deadly Sin of Lust, grinned from ear to ear. “Apologies, my lord. Seems I overshared.” He sliced his tattooed hands through the air, the dark-pink swirls of his power retreating into the gem around his neck.

I shrugged back my shoulders to resetonce again. “It will come as no surprise to you that my strength has declined after tonight’s events,” I said, slipping back into my authoritarian role. “I commend you all on your efforts to gather these souls for me. You are all loyal soldiers indeed. Now, someone brave tell me how behind we are on the dead.”

“We are currently fifty-four thousand, six hundred souls behind, my lord. According to the new Souls app, at least,” Wolf, the Sin of Avarice, replied and held up his phone. “But Glenn noted there was a glitch in the system.”

“I bet he did,” I grated.

Speaking of those who’d betrayed me. I had a plan for Glenn’s guillotine-style execution, but it would have to wait. I had more pressing matters to tend to.

“Our numbers should be the least of your concerns,” Blade drawled, his Irish accent thick and his irises glowing a furious red. “Your scythe is gone. What’s the plan to retrieve it?”

My own wrath fed off his like a leech, and I could feel the balance of our shared anger shifting more onto me. Damn it, the effects of my curse were already intensifying.

“The scythe will be recovered soon,” I said, circling around the reapers as I spoke. “Ahrimad has relocated into one of the Otherworlds. He’s in a weaker form, but we anticipate he’s building an army.”

“With your father?” asked Wolf.

“Yes,” I replied tightly. “It appears Malphas is allied with Ahrimad.”

“Will you send Lucifer’s soldiers after them?” This time it was Gunner, the Sin of Gluttony, who chimed in.

I clasped my hands behind my back. “I will not be sending our own aimlessly into the Otherworlds. We will wait, keep collecting, and fully prepare ourselves for battle. Ahrimad will ultimately return to the mortal realm, and when he does, we will be ready.”

“Since when do we take the bitch way out of things?” Blade lashed out. “I’m sure as hell not waiting around while your general father trains an undefeatable army for Ahrimad.”

I shut my eyes, desperately trying to keep it together.

But Blade was relentless.

“The longer he doesn’t have his scythe, the longer we all suffer,” Blade reminded the group. “Weallshould have a say in what happens next.” He turned to me. “You working alone got us into this mess in the first place. You let your guard down while trying to screw that little mortal slu—”

His statement never got to its end.

Shadow expelled from my body, firing into his mouth and choking him to his knees with rasping gasps. Prowling forward, I slammed my foot into his torso, shattering his sternum with a sickening crack. He collapsed to the floor and cried out in agony.

“I will remind you all that I am your superior, yourmaster.” My voice thundered through the cavernous space, and I cut my seething gaze to each reaper. “I will not be disrespected. When I give you an order, you do it. The end. If anyone else has a problem with that, speak the fuck up now.”

The reapers all bowed their heads, lowering their gazes. As Lucifer’s second-in-command, it was my duty to maintain order and obedience in all subordinates. Especially the Seven, as their success at collecting was imperative to balancing my curse. The reapers were driven by their own individual impulses in connection to my Seven Deadly Sins curse, and failure to control them affected their duty.

Blade was slow to rise to his feet, clutching his chest. His ruby-red eyes were still ignited with power. He lunged to fight me when Denim, the Sin of Pride, simply placed a massive hand on the Irishman’s shoulder and kept him back with a firm shove. Towering over the other reapers, Denim was built like a bulldozer. His deep ebony skin was tattooed with markings similar to mine, just like the rest of the reapers. His stoic gray eyes had an orange glint around the pupil.

“It’s the curse, my lord,” Denim said in an appeasing manner. “We’re all starting to feel it. Some worse than others.”

Behind him, Blade licked his curled lips. He slowly sheathed his knife and bowed his head in obedience.

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