Reaper Mine: A Reaper Novel (37 page)

Victor grabbed the man and shook him. “He got away with her anyway,” he snarled. Victor threw Devon aside and stalked away, shoving his hand through his hair. Feeling like his world was spinning out of control.

“He can’t go far, he had to have taken her into the ground,” Tabitha said taking Victor by the arm.

Victor swung around to her. “What?” he snarled he would rather kill the woman then take her advice.

She stepped back fear in her eyes and rightly so. “I care about her too, Victor.”

Victor took a breath. “Tell me what you know.”

“Our ability to perform Magik is limited and he said he had just learned the spell. It would be limited. Something he wouldn’t have been able to have a great deal of power over. Therefore he was taking a great deal of chance to include Elle in the transportation spell. He didn’t go far. He is close, still in the compound.” Tabitha motioned to her sisters and they spread out. “We need to find a way into his underground stronghold.”

Christian returned with Hunter “What happened?” Christian asked looking around.

“He took her,” Victor snapped.

“Dante wants Aldon. If you take him whole or he just gets his soul, he cares not.” Christian explained.

Victor growled. “Good because Dante is going to get him in pieces.”

****

Elle thought her head was going to explode. She moaned as she rolled to her hands and knees. Dizziness assaulting her. She emptied her stomach in a trashcan, collapsing, barely holding onto consciousness. She was going to kill Aldon herself slowly. Again and again. The bastard.

“What the hell did you do to me?” she moaned trying to keep herself in the here and now.

“You will recover in a moment,” Aldon promised from somewhere close.

“Go to hell,” Elle said, between her teeth. Not believing him, as the room kept spinning slowly. She pressed her face against the cool marble floor. The room slowly stopped spinning and she was finally able to breathe without wanting to vomit.

Elle peeked her eyes open. Aldon was sitting in an overstuffed chair, several feet in front of her. A fire burned in a huge fire place behind him. The Dagger he had been holding at her throat, balanced on one knee. A gun balanced on the other.

“How are you feeling now?” He asked his voice so calm it gave her chills.

Elle pulled herself into a sitting position and pushed herself back against the wall. “Well I don’t want to throw up.” But she still wanted to kill him. “You realize you will never get away with any of this right?”

“Actually I have gotten away with it.” He said. “The strange part? I’ve been desperately trying to get you to my home? And you brought yourself to me? How wonderful is that?” he asked with a wicked grin.

Setting both the gun and Dagger down, he poured a glass of water from a pitcher. And walked over to her, offering it to her. She only glared at it, he shook his head and took a long drink of the water and then handed it back to her.

Elle took the water and drank until it was empty. “Would you like more?”

Elle shook her head. “But, if you are granting requests, I would like to be let go.”

Aldon returned to his seat. “I would like for us to be partners, Elle. I think if things had gone differently we could have had a love match.”

She felt her mouth sag open. It was probable the wrong reaction. By the look of stark pain he gave her she knew it was the wrong response and she snapped her mouth closed.

“I would think you would find comfort in the arms of someone who shares your condition.” His voice was cold and hard.

“Condition?” Elle asked. “I was cursed, I don’t have a condition Aldon. I am cursed as you are.”

“See that is the problem Elle and something I can help you with. I can help you understand it isn’t a curse. It is a blessing,” Aldon said with such feeling Elle knew he truly believed it.

“How did you get cursed?” she asked.

“It’s not a curse!” he roared. Making Elle jump, but he quickly covered by smiling and continuing. “I sought out a Druid to give me the blessing.”

“What?” Elle almost didn’t believe what she had heard so she asked again. “I’m sorry, I think I might have misunderstood you.” She had the strangest urge to get up and shake him.

“It’s a blessing Elle, after a time you will understand,” Aldon promised. “We will be the parents of a new beginning. An entire new species, which will rule the mortal plane, like the gods of old.” His eyes shown with glee and madness.

“I don’t want to be the parent of a new beginning,” she said honestly. Just the thought of what kind of offspring he wanted to create, made her shutter.

Aldon laughed, but the sound gave Elle chills. “You’re only saying so because you don’t understand what it means.”

Elle just stared at him, he was totally insane, and she knew reasoning with him was useless. She only needed to wait for Victor to get her or get her hands on the Dagger to kill him.

“I bet losing Helena and Chaos sure put a kink in your plans,” she offered.

Aldon’s head tilted in thought then he shrugged. “Ah yes, those two were bumbling idiots at best. I was going to save their deaths for you, did you enjoy seeing their downfall? How did it all play out, Elle?”

He shot out of the chair, The Dagger and the gun, skidding forgotten across the floor. Aldon boxed her in with a hand on each side of her head. “Did you kill them?”

“They’re immortal, Aldon. They can’t be killed,” Elle said. Pressing against the cold wall, she tried in vain to get as far away from him as possible.

“So what happened to them Elle? What did you do to them?” Aldon asked quietly, his body relaxed against her.

“Victor took them to the Infernos where they belong. They are suffering for their betrayal.” She thought she would feel pain for them but she didn’t. In fact she didn’t feel anything.

“Would you like them to die, Elle?” Aldon whispered into her ear, it could have been a lover’s caress. But it turned Elle’s stomach. “Because I have the ability to kill them Elle, kill them dead. And I will help you do it.”

Elle shook her head, more to get the feel of him off her than anything else. “They are being punished.” And that was enough for her.

Aldon traced a finger over her cheek and Elle slapped it away. “I will do anything for you. What do you want? Just name it and I will make it happen for you that is what lovers do.”

“All I want from you is for you to let me go.” Elle said more to herself them to him. “They are going to come for me.”

“They can try. But I buried the entrance years ago. There is no way to get in or out.” He laughed and she pushed him away.

“I will not submit.” He laughed at her words.

“I wouldn’t expect you too.” Aldon leered at her. “And I really could care less if you do.” He reached out to her and Elle slapped his hands away.

“Touch me and you will regret it.” Elle snarled.

Aldon shook his head. “It’s worthless to fight me Elle.”

Elle shook her head wildly. “No, it isn’t. I will not submit!”

Aldon slapped the floor. The sound seemed to echo through the room. “He is not coming for you!”

There was such finality to Aldon’s tone, Elle knew she was in a fight for her life, until Victor found his way to her. When he reached for her again, she glared at Aldon. “I will never submit. I would rather die than submit to you”

“So be it.” Aldon came at her with that uncanny speed. Elle rolled away, kicking out to avoid Aldon’s hands as he scrambled to grab her. He latched onto one of her legs and tried to drag her back to him. Elle kicked him in the face, causing him to howl in pain. He released her to grab his now bleeding face.

“You bitch!”

Elle scrambled to her feet and pulled out the gun Victor had given to her. She pointed it at Aldon. “Tell me how to get out of here!” She was breathing heavy and shaking. She knew she could kill him and wasn’t afraid to do it.

Aldon rolled to his back and glared at her. “I told you there is no way out.” He lay there, his nose bleeding. “And I’m too weak to use the spell again.”

“Too bad for you,” Elle said pulling the trigger, she was off just a little and the bullet entered just left of the center of his forehead. But it didn’t change the look of shock on his face.

Elle turned and ran from the room glad she had already emptied her stomach otherwise she would have thrown up again. But she wasn’t sure how much time she had. She threw open ever door she could trying to find a way out. There were bedrooms, and offices and a kitchen, a bathroom. A bedroom with clothes in the closet, and nursery with bedding, toys and a mobile over the crib. A rocking chair by the fake window.

Everything a person could need or want to live. The thought made her lightheaded. Aldon had planned on living here. There were windows with scenes painted of sunny days, making Elle scream and pound on the cement until her fists ached.

There were doors leading nowhere. It was the perfect prison, and Elle was weak with fear and terror. Tears rolled down her face as she threw open another door leading nowhere.

She pounded on the brick and screamed, “Are you freaking kidding me?” her hands were bleeding now but she didn’t care and she turned and ran to the next door. She wasn’t going to give up. She was going to go down fighting; he would have to kill her because she would not go to him without a fight.

“ELLE!”

Elle stopped dead, how long had she been searching through this underground make-believe home? She tried to slow her rapid breathing. She was totally freaked out and wasn’t sure how Aldon couldn’t hear it. Along with every other sound she was making. It thundered in her ears as she ran down yet another hallway, she skidded around a corner praying this would finally be the way out.

She slammed into a set of locked double doors. She yanked on them but they wouldn’t open, and they were the first set of locked doors she had come across. And if they were locked then she definitely wanted to get into them.

Pointing the gun at the lock she pulled the trigger.

It’s not like in the movies and she had to shoot the door several more times before she was able to get the door open. The racket made Aldon start bellowing and screaming like a mad man. Which meant, she was headed in the right direction. She heard footsteps when she finally shouldered her way through the door.

“Elle don’t…” but it was too late. Elle could feel her freedom as she pushed through the doors.

Some things you can never un-see, you think if you close your eyes fast enough you might be able to erase it from your memory. And sometimes, it’s so horrible, your brain stutters. Your eyeballs freeze and you can’t blink. No matter how bad you want to. It is in that moment your brain is holding onto the image and forever solidifying it in your memory forever. Time slows down, and everything stops, your breathing, your heart, everything. Nothing moves and therefore it is forever frozen in time. A broken moment that can never be taken away.

Elle pushed herself forward to the first basinet knowing she didn’t want to really see what was in the blood soaked thing but she couldn’t stop herself. It was empty and she thanked the gods for it, she slipped on the blood soaked floor and caught herself on another blood soaked basinet. Only too stumbled to the next basinet, and the next. Knocking them out of her way as she went, ignoring the glass jars lining the walls filled with tiny broken bodies. Her brain had already frozen the images in her brain forever.

The huge fluid containers that housed what looked like juvenile sized bodies, the two grown bodies suspended in water. Elle couldn’t stop herself from looking into them. Elle slipped again. Falling hard onto the bloody floor.

“Elle, you shouldn’t have come in here,” Aldon said from behind her. Elle looked over her shoulder. He stood just in the doorway. His eyes wild. The whites stark against the rest of his face. He looked wildly around the room.

“What have you done?” Elle croaked. She wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. This was a room of horror. The kind you only saw in scary movies, with a mad scientist. This was not something you stumbled on in an underground bunker.

“I couldn’t expect you to raise my other children,” Aldon said. His black eyes wide, as he looked around the room. “I had to get rid of them. They were unclean.”

“Oh, my god.” Elle swallowed the vomit clawing at the back of her throat. “These were your children?” she gasped.

Aldon walked in and ran a hand lovingly over one basinet. “Yes but they were mortal, they were flawed.” He turned back to Elle. “I could not afford to have flawed children. I believed them soulless.” One shoulder shrugged as if that could explain it.

Elle tried to back pedal but she slipped in the pools of blood. She looked down and looked around, it was the wrong thing to do. Because that was when she saw the pile of bodies. “Oh, my god.” She couldn’t get away fast enough, couldn’t move away from the horror of it. Elle screamed and skidded and slipped in the blood. Tiny bodies holding each other.

Aldon grabbed her and pulled her away. “I tried to tell you Elle, you didn’t want to see this. The children you bear, will not be forced to endure this fate.” Elle was shaking and she pushed at him.