Authors: Stephanie Rowe
Bastard.
You don’t get to hurt the people I care about.
Reina’s fingers began to tingle, and black dust began to spew from her fingertips. Hot damn! Nothing like seeing the jerk hurt her sister to provide the right motivation.
“She’s mine!” A Tarzan yell echoed across the night, and the Godfather sped past Reina, wielding a stolen camera tripod over his head. “You do not take her from me!”
Okay, the Tsar of the Next Coming might be her sister’s death wish, but he got big time points for trying to save her from big, bad Augustus. He swung the tripod at Augustus’s head, but the assassin ducked, grabbed the tripod, and then slammed it over the big G’s head.
The Orgasm King slumped to the pavement like a textbook patient in need of Viagra. Dammit! What good was he if his only skill was turning her sister on in a lethal fashion?
Natalie screamed for her fallen boy toy and ripped herself out of Augustus’s grip in a sudden surge of “female must protect her lover” strength.
“Keep running, Nat!” Reina yelled.
But her sister fell to her knees beside the tongue tango expert. “I’m here, baby, I’m here.”
Well, damn. Stopping to moon over a new flame wasn’t going to be one of the building blocks of a successful escape, now was it?
Augustus grabbed Natalie by the ear and hauled her back.
“You’re close enough, Reina,” Jarvis shouted. “For God’s sake, dust him now!”
Just do it.
Yeah, baby, she was feeling the fire right now. She could take him down from a football field away. Easy. She wiggled her fingers to unleash the powder at Augustus and his head jerked up. His eyes widened, and she realized he hadn’t noticed her until that moment. “Too late!” She unleashed the dust and it hit him square in the face.
He grabbed for his star and reared back to throw it, and then he got the biggest look of surprise on his face, tipped over, and went to sleep.
Right there.
On the street.
Sound asleep.
“Holy crap.” Trinity stumbled up beside her. “You did it.”
Reina was too shocked to do anything but stare at the snoozing bad guy. “I can’t believe it.” Yeah, Natalie was passed out beside him, due to Reina’s apparent inability to target precisely, but she was okay with that kind of spillage. If she could keep Natalie knocked out for the next week, maybe they could keep Hormone Girl alive long enough to
really
keep her alive.
“Finish it,” Jarvis ordered her. “Right now!” He had seven policemen at sword point up against her car.
“Wow. That’s really sweet.” Trinity nodded toward Jarvis. “Not many men would risk a lifetime in prison just so a girl can murder someone.”
“He is pretty sweet,” Reina admitted. Then she noticed that his sword was deep purple, like an angry sky before a deadly tornado unleashed its rage upon an unsuspecting town. That couldn’t be a good sign. “Sweet and deadly.”
“Ohh…” Trinity put her hand over her heart. “Just like Blaine. That’s such an appealing combination in a man.”
“Reina,” Jarvis warned. “Harvest him already. It’s not that easy to keep all these cops at bay without causing them permanent damage.”
“Yeah, okay. I’m on it.” Reina slipped the scythe out of her back pocket and unfolded it.
“Stop!” A cop raced toward her, his gun right at Reina’s heart. “Down with the weapon or I’ll shoot.”
Three more uniforms raced over to line up beside the first one. Feet spread, guns up, faces all too serious. Oh, come on. People never noticed when she was there to redirect a soul, but apparently wielding an ancient farm implement in an offensive manner was worth noting. Maybe it was time for a little chat with Death about giving his Guides invisibility skills
before
they actually became Reapers.
“Drop the blade,” the officer shouted again.
“I can’t do that.” A milky white film was drifting up from Augustus’s inert form. His soul was the lily white of purity? It should be black. How could he have an innocent soul? Oh, damn it, all! Like this wasn’t difficult enough for her already!
Trinity eased up beside her, hands up in an “I don’t have a weapon” stance. “You don’t have time to get arrested, sweetie. Ditch the blade, talk your way out of it, and let’s get out of here. We’ll find Augustus later.”
“Take him now,” Jarvis shouted. “You won’t get a better time. I’ll take care of the cops.”
Natalie groaned, and Trinity knelt beside her. “She’s coming out of it,” Trinity said. “And she’s muttering something about how she’s never going to be able to use her Pocket Rocket again after meeting the Big G.”
“Oh, crap.” Reina was out of time. The moment Natalie awoke, she’d be sucking face with the Sultan of Climax, and the pinnacle of all deaths would be shooting right toward them. She reared back to throw the scythe, and there was a loud crack and pain thudded into her shoulder.
She stumbled, and the scythe flew out of her suddenly numb hand. “Holy crap.” Agony, anyone? Blood oozed from her shoulder and down her arm.
“I hit her,” a police officer yelled.
She’d been shot? Seriously? Had they not heard about the immortal thing? Or the complete liberty of Death and his peeps to reap souls? Without her, souls would be causing traffic jams, stealing from dumpsters, sleeping in alleys, and doing all the other things that those poor homeless unfortunates were stuck doing.
“Reina!” Jarvis’s frantic shout echoed over the din.
The concern in his voice was so sweet and endearing. “I’m okay. Just a flesh wound.” But one that hurt like a mother! “I’m immortal, remember?” Or close enough.
“Immortals feel pain.” Jarvis slammed the flat of his blade into a cop’s head. One down. Six to go. “Hang on. Let me just clean these guys out of my way—” Another shot and then Jarvis was bleeding from his shoulder as well.
“Jarvis!”
“No problem, sweetheart, but I appreciate the concern.” The bullet popped out of his shoulder and clanked on the ground. Well, that was handy. She should really develop that skill.
“Drop the sickle so they stop shooting,” Jarvis commanded as he thwacked another cop and then whipped his sword around to block two more bullets. Then he was hit three more times, and blood was streaming from his chest. “I’ll take care of Augustus for you.”
Oh, how sweet was that? Not many men would be willing to murder for a girl. “Thanks, but it has to be me.” She focused on Augustus’s milky white soul.
“The Godfather’s up!” someone shouted.
The Man of Endless O’s was crawling relentlessly toward Natalie.
“Oh, no, no!” Trinity grabbed Natalie and dragged her toward a potted geranium on the other side of the sidewalk. Trinity’s mom had the ability to transport anyone through vegetation, and if Trinity could get them over there, her mom would be able to suck them out. But the Godfather was moving too fast. “Stay away!” Trinity yelled. “This is one girl you’re not going to get your woody into.”
Reina whirled back toward Augustus, raised the sickle, and another bullet sent agony cascading through her left leg. She yelped with pain as her leg gave out and she crashed to the ground. The sickle spun out of reach on the sidewalk. “Oh, crap.” They weren’t going to let her get to Augustus, were they?
Suddenly there was a ferocious war cry and Nigel came leaping over the heads of the press. “I’m here, babes!” His palms were smoking and he unleashed dozens of tiny blades that hit guns and cameras with unerring precision. He paused when he saw Trinity dragging Natalie across the pavement. “Is Natalie okay? I can heal her.”
“She’s fine.” Reina tried to stand up, but her legs gave out again. “I just knocked her out.”
Nigel started toward Natalie, then spun around when the cops started shooting at him. Blades flew from his fingers, intercepting every bullet before it hit him.
“About time you bastards got here,” Jarvis said. “Too busy getting your nails done?”
“Too busy trying to find Christian. Lover Boy appears to have taken off.” Blaine leapt on top of the Godfather’s limo, lifted his arms to the sky, and a wall of fire burst from his shoulders. “We need to find him after we finish here. Something’s not right with him.”
Blaine unleashed fiery lasers at the cops, their guns glowed red hot, and then all the officers were all screaming with pain and throwing their sizzling weapons down onto the pavement, including the ones who’d been using Reina for target practice.
Taking advantage of the involuntary disarmament, Reina began to drag herself toward her sickle, trying really hard not to think about all the bullets in her body. Yes, they wouldn’t kill her, but they really did hurt. But she still had time for a happy ending. Augustus’s soul was still outside his body. It wasn’t too late. If she could just get there—
“Thanks, man.” Jarvis leapt over the heads of the thronging media trying to pick the metal blades out of their microphones. He reached Reina’s side as flames exploded from the pavement and shot fifty feet into the air, isolating their small group inside a twenty-foot circle, courtesy of Blaine. The scream of reporters, the click of cameras, the shouts of the cops, all went silent. No sound except the roar of flames, the crackle of blue fire, the smell of asphalt burning. She knew Blaine and Nigel were outside the circle, dealing with the cops, but inside, it was a separate world. The flames had created a boundary of protection, so they had to deal only with Augustus and not the interference of humans.
The heat inside the barrier was intense, but not as hot as it should have been. As in, she wasn’t melting and her skin wasn’t blistering.
“Blaine’s controlling the heat.” Jarvis grabbed her sickle then scooped her up. He cradled her against his body, squeezing tightly, as if he were relieved to feel her alive. Reina took a deep breath and let herself lean against him, taking a moment to regroup as he held her.
“Blaine can’t hold the circle for long.” Jarvis carried Reina across the carpet toward Augustus. The assassin’s soul was fainter now, and she knew he was pulling it back into his body. She had seconds left to cleave it.
Jarvis set her beside Augustus and squeezed her waist for encouragement. “Do it.”
The Godfather reached Natalie. “Hey, baby, I’ve got you. Come to me, sweetheart.”
Natalie stirred, and her eyes flickered open. “You’re okay?”
“Yeah, for you.” He bent his head and kissed her, and suddenly Natalie was kissing him back so fiercely, the pavement started to melt beneath them.
“Down, boy, down!” Trinity kicked at the Godfather’s pawing hands. “For God’s sake, wait until you can get
a hotel room. Reina! Would you take out Augustus al
ready so Blaine can drop his circle? I need to get to the plant so my mom can get us out of here.”
“Yeah—” Reina felt panic start to build. Dammit. She needed to focus. Needed to clear her head—
Jarvis took Reina’s face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. “Sometimes, the purest thing you can do is murder someone,” he said. “You’re doing the right thing.”
She saw the truth in his eyes and clung to it. He believed in her and in her choices. He might be a warrior who had no problem with killing, but he was ruthlessly loyal and the protector of others, and if he thought she was doing the right thing, then she saw.
She took a deep breath and accepted his support, let it settle in her heart. “You’re right, I know you’re right.” She looked at Augustus’s soul, and in the white mist, she saw the faces of all the women in her family, all the ones she’d ever loved, who had all died. They had been innocent. Natalie was innocent. And it was time for the innocent to win.
And she knew she could do it.
She grabbed the sickle from Jarvis and swung it as hard as she could. The blade hit the base of the white smoky fountain and bounced off. “Oh, no—”
“You’re almost halfway through.” Jarvis pointed to a crack in the vanilla funnel. “Hit it right there again, and it’ll be good.”
“Okay.” She gritted her teeth, tried not to think about what she was doing, and reared back to swing. And as the blade came down, she was hit with the horrifying, delightful, magnificent, self-loathing knowledge that she was going to reap her first soul.
***
The pleasure of seeing Reina achieving her goal was somewhat diminished by the raw agony in her eyes. Jarvis wasn’t used to women who so clearly felt bad about inflicting pain, death, and hell on others. Who knew that kind of anguish in a female’s eyes was such a turn on?
He was adding it to his list of “must haves” on his online dating profile after he exploded and went to the Afterlife. Assuming they had dating there. But hell. What woman could compare with the reality of Reina? Her courage, her passion, and her love for her sister? No one. Reina was it. His only moment in the sunshine, and he was going to enjoy every damn minute in her presence.
He smiled encouragingly at her, supporting her in the endeavor of her heart. “Lovely job, sweetheart.” He grabbed the soul and held it out, like a ribbon, for Reina to cut.