Page 72 of Sinister Hearts
“Say the word.” Creed’s Reaper suddenly appeared in the midst of his shadows, his split pierced tongue seething in vengeance.
My brother is back.We roared in morbid laughs even Hades could hear. Ryker’s shadows then appeared, and we three gathered around, chanting an ancient Nordic prayer to our god, Odin. It was always celebratory before a hunt. Cleansing the earth of evil.
We gathered around the Reaper’s round table, where Creed laid out a large blue map of the building’s foundation— the building Ryker has had under surveillance. Ryker pointed to an underground layout of a large hidden room. “This is where they’re taking the hybrids. So far, there are two other women, all half spell binder and half something else.”
My skin crawled with sickness, thinking of these poor women who have been here for gods only knew how long. Ryker set his laptop screens up to play the video. All three of us watched in utter silence and horror.
“Leave the bloodthirsty monster there for all I care. They’re filth with no souls to reap!” Creed spat in the back, full of thick hatred.
“Excuse me, you ass-wipe! Penny is my cousin!” Rocky snapped, making herself visible from the dark corner. I forgot she was even here.
“My gods, you both act like siblings. Be quiet, so I can think!” I was already annoyed with both of their presences at the same time in this room.
“I mean, she is hot, we can make an exception. I can make her my little vampy sex slave,” Creed replied, looking smug.
Before Rocky could respond with something hasty, Ryker reached across the table to Creed’s throat and snarled at him, his skeletal Reaper showing its face.
“Wow, look who has a thing for the blood-sucker!” Creed roared with grim laughter, his Reaper appearing, ready to brawl.
“Enough!” I pounded at the round table. My Grim stood taller in stature before them and started growing monstrous.
Creed and Ryker returned to their human forms in submissive response.
“Time and place!” I shouted at them like petulant children.
Day of the full moon-
I was awoken by the ruckus Ryker and Creed were causing. I walked in with a blanket wrapped around me and sat close to the wooden fireplace to feel its warmth. I needed any kind of warmth right now. I was missing my ma’s hugs so badly. You’d think I’d be astonished by watching these Reapers transition back to their human forms, but I fear I can no longer be surprised. The world that I once thought I knew had changedin a blink of an eye. The only thing that could astonish me at this point is a good soul, and a good heart. Now that is a rare find. Ryker and Creed were brushing themselves off as they fixed their bunched-up wrinkled shirts.
“Of course Penelope is half duskwalker.” Creed rolled his eyes dramatically.
“Not just any duskwalker, a spell binding vampire. Her father is Armand Nightbloom. Royalty in their realm; powerful and wealthy in any realm,” Ryker added as he put his boots on the table and popped a cherry into his mouth.
All this realm talk was making me dizzy, and I knew that eventually I’d need to ask more questions to understand. But right now my main concern was helping these women and my cousin. They were all being gathered like livestock for a sacrificial claim for wealth and power. All at the cost of my kind.
“What exactly does that mean?” I asked, already ready to go back to bed and pretend this isn’t my life.
“It means Miss. Penny is a vampire princess who is going to have a very pissed off vampire daddy, if he finds out his little princess has been taken.” Before continuing, Ryker scratched the top of his long, dark locks. “You don’t want to piss off the blood realm. Just saying.”
Creed and all the guys glanced at each other in silence.
I despised that they all knew something I didn’t. “Why do you all look like that? What? Just fucking tell me!” I called out in exasperation.
Creed laughed in the background. “Oh this is rich, my brothers,” he said, while he cleaned his gold pistol, appearing to be entertained.
“Duskwalkers and Reapers have the oldest rivalry, going back to the beginning of the realms,” Jax responded to me carefully.
“What, why?” I asked in pure confusion.
“Their souls can’t be reaped. There’s no soul to take, meaning they can be hurt, but they can’t be killed by us Reapers. And duskwalkers can not drink from, nor kill Reapers, since we are Death in life form. That caused an egotistical division among the two realms, which are ruled very differently than this world. There is a treaty our ancestors signed centuries ago, for peace among the species’ and the realms. Our species were at war for hundreds of years. Making sure we didn’t cross bloodlines was one of the agreements.” Jax took another swig from his gauntlet. I could see the discomfort in his seething shadows.
“What is the other agreement?” I asked while looking at Jax, fearful of the answer. The guys were suspiciously quiet.
“There is a border neither of us cross to hunt.” His words made me fall silent.
“Guess where your Little Miss Vampy Princess is, littlebruja?” Creed taunted me, making me more agitated by the minute.
“The duskwalker territory,” I whispered the gut-wrenching truth, a lump forming in the back of my throat. “You can’t be fucking serious. You’re going to leave her there over a fucking invisible line so she can suffer? They could be torturing her and gods knows what else!” I looked over to any of them for sympathy.
