Reaper's Dark Kiss (8 page)

He hated the fear in her voice. He should have found a way to bring her to Montana. “Haven’t seen anything worth writing on my tombstone about.”

Sky had found that hilariously funny the first time Julian had let the Shadow World version of the nothing-to-write-home-about slip. Tonight, it spooked her. “You shouldn’t talk about dying like that,” she snapped.

“What’s wrong?” Julian asked quietly. “Talk to me.”

All her misery came out in three words. “I found something.”

Protect her
, his beast snarled.

“Where did you find it?” Julian was being as indirect as he could. He had to Sky to keep talking.

“Outside,” she said.

Had she been at the park? He couldn’t ask without it sounding like an accusation. Julian gave her a few seconds to add more before he asked, “Outside your building?”

“Sorry.” She hesitated. “I shouldn’t have called you. I’m fine.”

The last two words came out in a shaky whisper, and Julian’s beast ripped at him—
defend her
. “Where are you?” Julian asked in as even a voice as he could manage.

“My apartment.”

“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in”—Julian glanced at Harli, who held up two fingers—“a couple of hours.”

“This is stupid.” Julian could almost see Sky running her fingers through her unruly hair. “You don’t have to do that. They were just plastic. I’m okay.”

“What was plastic?” Julian asked.

“One CJ in my life is enough,” Sky said. “I told you. I’m fine. You don’t have to drop everything and come look after me.”

“Don’t go
any
where, Sky.” Julian made himself sound calm for her. “Please. Just wait for me.”

“It’s storming,” Sky said with a sigh.

If the rain kept her in, a storm was good. “Keep your door locked, okay?”

No answer.

“Sky?”

“What?” She sounded startled, as if she’d forgotten Julian was on the phone.

“Is your door locked?”

Her answer made his heart beat twice in three seconds. “I think the man from the park was here, Julian.”

“Two hours,” he said. “Go in your bedroom.” There were no windows in there. “Lock the door. Stay inside. Promise me.”

“I’ll wait for you,” she said.

Julian ended the call and said to Marek, “I want sentinels outside her building. I don’t care if she’s my mate or not. I want them there now.”

The small part of Julian that could still see reason knew what he was asking went against Shadow World law. A mortal couldn’t be taken into protection without their knowledge and consent.

“On your word, brother,” Marek said.

Meaning that Julian had until sunrise to end the danger or get Sky’s consent for protection. “Given,” Julian said.

Marek gave a bare nod to Harli. “Do as my brother asks. Tell the Watchman of the Guard you speak with my authority.”

Before Harli could put his phone to his ear, Julian stopped him. “After you do that, call and get the jet ready. You’re driving me to the airport. We’re leaving in ten minutes.” His phone pressed to his ear, Harli walked so fast, he faded even to Julian’s eyes.

“You’ve made no preparations to take SkyLynne into our world,” Marek said, his voice carefully neutral. “How long do you think it will be before an investigative reporter finds out what you are?”

Julian let his body relax into a fighting stance. “How is that your business?”

Marek stepped away, keeping his moves slow, trying to damp Julian’s warrior instinct. “Admittedly, it isn’t,” he said. “But I can delay the contract only a short while longer, brother. With the contract in negotiation, I cannot allow you to claim SkyLynne as your mate. But at least consider a bonding. That will give me leverage.”

“The council doesn’t hand down decisions at Mid-Year,” Julian said. “And you called for a scroll vote. She’s safe from Vandar for now.”

“Kraeyl has demanded an audience before me and the council,” Marek said. “He will argue for extenuating circumstances.”

“Like what?” Julian’s hands fell to his knives, felt the cool comfort of steel beneath his fingers. “Vandar needs red gold so he can stop draining?”

“There is no proof Vandar is the drainer,” Marek said quietly.

“At night, there’s no proof of sunrise, but I don’t see you taking long walks before dawn.”

“As you well know, brother, Kraeyl could argue the sun from the skies at midday. He will find a way to prevail in moving the contract through the council.”

“She’s mortal,” Julian said, venting the frustration he always kept hidden from Sky. “I can’t just tell her, ‘Hey, Sky, I’m a Shade, and you’re my Forever Mate. Let’s go bond and make babies.’”

“There are ways to lure her, brother, and lure her you must.”

“I won’t dishonor the one I’ve chosen for my mate by tricking her into being with me.” Julian’s voice was nearly a snarl.

“There is no dishonor in bringing the female who will bear your offspring to safety at your side,” Marek said. He avoided Julian’s eyes, presenting no threat to his beast. “The haeze clings to you, brother. All your instincts scream to protect her.” He paused. “Even as I speak, your beast claws at you to attack me, does it not?”

“Was it like this for you?” Julian asked.

Marek took a towel from the stack Harli had abandoned and wiped Julian’s face. “Yes,” he said. “She was mine. Not to be spoken of. After I told her of what I am, my beast was relentless. The only way to protect her was to mark her, make her mine.” He retreated, giving Julian the space his haeze demanded. “Much the same way your beast will drive at you when SkyLynne finds out.”

Marek’s long-ago chosen mate had refused to join the Shadow World. Honor demanded that he obey her wish. Time had swept the mortal into oblivion, but Marek had never forgotten her.

“I can’t fight it,” Julian said. “She’s all I think about, even when I’m not thinking about her.”

“And that is as it should be. She will soon be yours.” Marek slid his hands behind his back, clasped them together. Whatever came next, it would be the Lord of the Creed speaking. “Hear me well, brother. End this playacting. Give SkyLynne knowledge of the Shadow World. Offer her a bonding. Or I will be forced to sign the contract and let Vandar have her.”

Before Julian could answer, his phone jittered in his hand. It was a text from Harli. He was outside in the car, waiting.

“I’m a reaper, Sky,” Julian said, going for the door. “Let’s fuck and bond, or you’ll end up blood slave to a vampire.” He cleaned his face one last time and threw down the stained towel. “I’ll let you know how that goes.”

* * * *

The Jeep soared, then crashed to the road as Harli raced to the airport. Sandy ground ran out to skeletal trees, black against the night sky on either side of the road. The bleak landscape whipped by at better than fifty miles an hour.

Julian didn’t know how long they’d been driving when Harli asked, “You okay?”

“Where’s Sky?” Julian asked.

Harli glanced at a dashboard GPS display. He pressed a button on the dash, and the display shifted to a map of Manhattan with a glowing red dot in the upper left-hand corner. “In her apartment,” Harli said, “unless she didn’t take her phone.”

“She wouldn’t do that,” Julian said.

It was nearly Mid-Year for Shades, the traditional time when commoners brought petitions to the king. The shafts and caverns under certain ghost towns across Montana, all of them Shadow World property, were filling up with civilians, the ordinary people of the Creed.

Julian had been forced to come back and coordinate security, make sure mortals didn’t see things they shouldn’t. He’d called Sky once a day and never asked her the kinds of questions that might make her feel he was checking up on her. Julian had tried to let that be enough. But not knowing where she was, especially after sundown, made Julian’s bonding instinct itch deep in his brain. He couldn’t fight it any more than a mortal could fight a fever.

Julian didn’t know that Harli, who would have done anything for him, had noticed. About three days after he’d been home, Harli came to him with a square that looked like a phone. It had a map on the screen. The moving blue dot, Harli said, was Sky. As long as she had her phone with her, Julian would know where she was. A gadget just like it was hooked up to the Jeep’s GPS system.

If Marek knew Julian was tracking a mortal like this, he would be facing exile, probably to the Gobi Desert.

Rattling around in the Jeep, Julian nearly dropped his ringing phone when he pulled it from his pocket. As soon as he saw
Private Number
on the screen, he knew who it had to be. “Hello, Christian,” he said.

“You have a hell of an unlisted number.”

Sky’s brother either had an instinct for when his sister was in danger, or he had near-perfect bad timing. Focusing on keeping his voice calm, Julian said, “Didn’t think it would be a problem. I hear you’re good at finding things.”

“I told Sky I wouldn’t check up on you,” Christian said. Julian could feel the roiling anger under his even tone. “And I don’t break my word to my little sister. You understand?”

The engine whined as Harli raced around a curve. “This call never happened.”

Christian shot his first question at Julian like a barbed arrow. “Why don’t you have a last name?”

Because he was an immortal with no credit cards, no driver’s license, and no one in his life who questioned it. Until now. “It’s a long story, Christian.”

“Tell me the short version.”

I’m fallen. I’m undead, Julian thought. I’m a reaper. To Christian he said, “I’m a soldier. Just like you are.”

“You’re not like any soldier I fucking know,” Christian said. Anger made his words come out in staccato bursts, like gunfire. “You don’t fucking exist. You were never fucking born. What the fuck do you want with my little sister?”

Christian talked like a warrior. Julian smiled at that and gave him the honor of addressing him like one. “I’m in love with Sky. If I ever do anything to hurt her, I expect you to come after me and rip my insides out.”

“I wouldn’t ever stop looking,” Christian said, “and when I found you, I’d make sure the last thing you knew was how loud you can scream.”

Christian was honorable, Julian saw, a good brother to Sky, not the overprotector she’d made him out to be. “Wouldn’t want it any other way,” Julian said.

“I have to get off the phone,” Christian said, sounding a little less like he’d kill Julian on sight. “But I’m not done with you. When I get back, you and me talk face-to-face. It’s up to you to find a way to keep Sky out of it.”

The connection went dead.

By Shadow World law, Christian would be Julian’s brother soon. The Jeep took a brutal leap, then crashed to the road, swinging right. Julian’s head bounced off the roof. “We don’t have time to heal broken bones,” he said to Harli. “Drive like you can see where you’re going.”

Undisturbed by the hard edge in Julian’s voice, Harli said, “Sorry,” and for a few seconds, slowed down to less than lethal.

Chapter Twelve

The flight took roughly forever. As soon as they landed, Julian flew, under his own power, from the airport to Sky’s place.

From their posts, hidden from mortal eyes, the sentinels standing guard silently signaled Julian.
No trouble
, their steady gazes told him. He dismissed them, then took the steps two at a time. Inside, he took the fire stairs up to the fourth floor.

He knocked.

Waited.

Nothing.

He was ready to break down the door when it swung open and Sky flung herself into his arms. She buried her face against his chest. Julian felt how badly she’d wanted him here and damned himself for leaving her.

“I can’t believe it,” she whispered. “What are you doing?”

Claiming what’s mine.

Putting his arms around her, he said, “This isn’t the place for the thirty-nine pizzas?”

Sky laughed, but she smelled of fear. “How did you get here so fast?”

“On a jet,” Julian said, moving past Sky. She was going to be his. No point in any more lies.

The small apartment was just the way he remembered it. The tiny living room was crowded with a desk the size of a luxury coffin. Overstuffed chairs with dimpled cushions worn to threads leaned against the walls. The heels of his boots thudded against the blond hardwood floor.

“A jet?” she said. “I didn’t know freelance bodyguard work paid that good.”

“It belongs to my family.” Hands hovering near his knives, Julian scanned the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom. “What did you find that scared you?”

She reached into a drawer of her desk and tossed Julian something. “Someone knocked on my door. When I opened it, those…
things
…were there. ”

Turning them over in his hand, Julian smelled no poison on the white plastic fangs. They were the kind mortals wore on All Hallow’s Eve. They had the scent of the Shadow World, a mix of stone and ancient blood. A Shade leaving fangs for a female was like an infatuated mortal leaving roses. After all the time they’d spent together, Julian knew his scent was all over Sky. It would be stupid for anyone to leave these for her. Going near a female with a reaper’s scent was the same as calling down a death sentence.

Pocketing the fangs, he backed away from Sky and leaned against the door. He could tell from the way she was avoiding his gaze that she was hiding something. The last thing he wanted to do was crowd her.

“There’s something I didn’t tell you,” Sky said in a better-get-this-over-with voice.

Julian, a reaper who’d waited hours for the right second to kill, said nothing.

“There was a man following me a while back.” Sky sat on her desk and concentrated on picking at a gash in the edge. “And one night I ran into him,” she went on, her words gushing out, stumbling over each other. “I mean, I saw him. I got spooked tonight when I found those at my door because…” She swallowed. “I think he’s a vampire.”

For long seconds, Julian focused on nothing but Sky’s scent. He breathed her into him, tried to sense a lie, but there was only fear. She believed what she was saying. “What makes you think that?”

Sky cast him an uncertain glance. “He’s got fangs.” He saw a shiver run through her. “Real ones. And I don’t think—” She shook her head, as if she were shaking off a bad dream. “No. That’s impossible.”