Reaper Mine: A Reaper Novel (2 page)

Felix shook his head. “The Fae will not stand and fight against you and the Reapers, this action will undoubtedly cause a ripple effect hurting the natural order. Something the Fae cannot abide by.” He turned and shimmered away.

Castor laughed. “The Fae have no heart for war. We are better off without them. Get me a messenger; I want the notifications to go out today. Anyone known to work with the Reapers is subject to questioning. All Others are to be cataloged, and their loyalty to the Tribunal noted. If they don’t stand with us…” he paused for effect and Asplin felt a rush to her head and she finally let a smile spread across her face. “Then we don’t need them.”

****

Dante watched his old friend study the statues in his stone garden. “It has been years, my friend. To what do I owe this unexpected visit?”

Felix turned to Dante. “When are you going to release these souls Dante?”

Dante looked at the Fae, Felix indicated. It was a pair of lovers whom had mistakenly crossed Dante and in doing so had forfeited their lives as well as their souls.

Dante shrugged. “Their souls belong to me, Felix. How many times are we going to have this conversation?”

“The Fae are leaving the mortal plane, we can no longer live under the current set of rules the Tribunal have set forth for their followers. We chose to move into the Ether. I ask for my brethren.” There was more to the situation, and Dante would have the full story. Before he made any decision.

“Why the sudden turn from the Tribunal? You have maintained your seat for several thousand years.” Dante maintained. “What conspiracy or war are they weaving themselves into now?”

Felix shook his head and turned sad eyes on Dante, “Weaved to tightly. We chose to remove ourselves all together other than chose sides in an unwinnable war.”

“Tell me what is going on,” Dante said holding his hands behind his back.

“The Tribunal is starting a war with you and your sons. And the Fae will not choose sides you know we are ever the diplomats.” Felix said honestly.

Dante threw his head back and laughed. “This is a war the Tribunal cannot hope to win.”

“Yes well they believe differently. Otherwise they wouldn’t wage such a war would they?” Felix explained.

“And you came to warn me?” Dante asked, amused Felix would do something so sentimental, typically the Fae didn’t bother.

Felix shook his head. “No, Dante doing so would be choosing sides. And as I mentioned the Fae do not choose sides.” But the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “I came to plead for the souls of my brethren.” His eyes turned to the two lovers again.

Dante walked to the statues. “Who are they, to mean so much to you?”

Felix looked upon the two. “She is my brother’s daughter. He believes her to be dead,” he said honestly. “Lost two hundred years ago. When I came and saw her here I could not admit to him she was being punished by you. But to bring her home when we leave the mortal plane would comfort him greatly.”

Dante looked at them with interest; Felix had never said anything about them being related before. He had asked for their release but never showed any real interest.

“What else is the Tribunal up to?” Dante asked not looking from the lovers.

“They are demanding all Others register. They want to know where allegiances lay. They are scrambling,” Felix admitted. “They are flexing their muscles and being led by a force which doesn’t even sit on the Tribunal,” he said with disgust.

“Tell me who it is,” Dante demanded.

Felix shook his head. “I’m not sure. Even my spies could not discern who is pulling the strings the web is so tightly wound. But I tell you this my friend. The minute I tug on the right string it is severed, and not in a small way. All links to the string are severed.” Dante was shocked to see his friend shiver.

“So you have chosen to leave?” Dante asked.

“We cannot win an all-out war against the Reapers regardless of what the Tribunal thinks,” Felix admitted. “They may have an inflated sense of who and what they are but this is a not a fight the Tribunal can win. The Fae do not go into a fight when they are sure to lose. It is fool hearty, and the Tribunal is doing it because they cannot see beyond whoever is holding their strings.”

Dante had to hand it to the Fae, at least they weren’t going to lose the unnecessary lives on a war they couldn’t win.

“I hope you don’t think the Fae weak,” Felix said looking at Dante seriously.

Dante held his tongue for a long moment. “I believe you and your brethren stronger for understanding your strengths and weaknesses. The Tribunal is starting unnecessary fights and wars just to flex their muscle. Unnecessary lives will be lost.”

Felix nodded. “What are you going to do?”

“I should storm the Tribunal and take them all out, prove to them I am not just an Other, or an Immortal. A God in my own right. I am descended from more than mere Gods!” Dante thundered letting his anger display briefly. Felix stumbled back a step before Dante pulled his power back. Dante breathed deeply for several moments letting his anger flow from him before he spoke again. “But they have a hand they have not shown yet, and I will wait to see who is behind this, they have been headed toward a reckoning for some time.”

Felix nodded again. “I agree, something is waiting in the wings. They have bred darkness in many different forms. It is time that darkness be exterminated.”

Dante agreed, and he could do nothing about it if he went in and exterminated the Tribunal like his temper demanded. He would need to let the pieces fall as they may. He wasn’t, however, willing to lose anymore sons. He was still working on rebuilding the losses he had sustained from Calliope. However, that wasn’t something he felt compelled to share with Felix.

Dante extended a hand to Felix “I will miss you my friend.” Felix took Dante’s hand.

Dante turned back to the lovers and touched the statue. “Have your niece and her lover their debt has been paid. Take them back to the Ether with you.”

Felix bowed to Dante as the stone started to dissolve. “The mortal plane will be a lesser place without the Fae.” Dante stepped back and turned to walk away not bothering to turn back.

The mortal plane was quickly becoming a very unsafe place. Dante wondered if the Tribunal truly understood what they were doing declaring war on him and the Reapers. If they wanted a war, they would have one. They weren’t picking a fight with just a mere god. Something they had obviously forgotten. Excitement flowed through his veins, something he hadn’t felt in years. He didn’t walk away from an outright challenge, or a fight.

He stormed into his fortress and bellowed for an Abda, the skeletal servant came running. “Bring me my sons, along with Celeste and Marcus.”

They had plans and decisions to make. It wasn’t going to be easy, but Dante would be twice damned if he would allow anything to happen to those he cared for.

****

Ring Ring Ring

Elle rolled over and looked at the clock on her bedside table. Two a.m. “Are you freaking kidding me?” But her phone didn’t stop ringing. Picking it up she glared at the caller I.D.

Helena. This wasn’t a good sign. Her sister never called unless something was truly wrong. “What’s wrong?”

“Olympus.” No ‘hello’, no ‘hey, sis, how you doing’. Yeah, this was bad.

Elle sat up straight in her bed a nervous laugh burst from her lips. “You’re kidding right?” After Gods knew how long her sister was using the safe word? What in the name of all that is holy was going on?

“Get your shit together and get moving,” Helena spat.

“Yeah, not until you tell me what the hell is going on.” Elle shook her head trying to wake herself up.

“The Tribunal has lost its god damn mind. That is what is happening. Do you have your bag packed?”

Elle climbed from her bed grumbling under her breath about being pulled from her warm bed, something Helena didn’t seem to appreciate. “Are you kidding me right now?” Helena shouted. “I used the safe word, for the first time in…” she seemed to have lost her ability to speak for a moment. But Elle knew it wouldn’t last long. “Forever!” she shrieked. “And you’re upset about being woken up? Don’t forget you are the weak link in the chain little sister.”

Elle felt tears flood up the back of her throat, choking her. She swallowed past them. An apology on the tip of her tongue. It would just piss Helena off though, so she swallowed it. “Where are we meeting?”

“The Atlanta safe house,” Helena barked. “You have seventy-two hours.”

Elle quickly calculated it out in her head, realizing they must have decided on the Atlanta house because it was closest to her. Another concession just for her.

“You’ll make it?” Helena asked.

“Yes,” Elle agreed. Even if she had to drive without stopping for the next two days.

“The Tribunal is sending some type of creatures after the higher orders,” Helena explained. Her voice only slightly softer.

“What does that even mean?” Elle asked not really liking the sound of this conversation. She cradled the phone on her shoulder and threw open her closet and pulled at the duffel bag she kept packed just in case something like this happened.

“Just try to stay off the main roads; you have a safe path mapped out? Holy ground mapped out right?” Gods on a spit. Elle climbed into her closet letting the familiar clothes fold around her she let her head fall against the back of the small space. What was happening? This was like some movie, not her life. Not her safe little life. Where she hid out in her little mountain home. Safe from the world, and all the evils that could find her.

“Yes, Helena,” she answered trying to sound confident. When in fact she was so terrified she thought she might actually throw up.

“Bet you wish you’d remained with the family,” Helena said, her sarcasm not lost on Elle. Helena’s sarcastic little barb didn’t require an answer, besides, no matter how much Elle wished she had remained with her brothers and sisters at the moment, she would never give up the freedom she now had.

“I’ll see you in a couple of days,” Elle answered instead.

“Seventy-two hours, Elle,” Helena reminded her.

“I know, Helena.”

“Elle.”

Elle stopped, hoping her sister would offer some shred of hope, or grain of inspiration, she really should have known better.

“You have the emergency number right?”

Dread pulled in the pit of Elle’s stomach making her want to throw up. “Yes,” she croaked.

“If you have to use it, do it. Do you understand me?”

“Yes.” Elle’s voice cracked, she didn’t wait to see what else Helena had to say on the issue and clicked the end button. She was ready to go in fifteen minutes; the water and power to her small cabin were turned off, the propane tank valve turned off. She closed her front door and jogged to her old truck tossing her duffel bag into the bed..

Helena wouldn’t have been impressed; she would have wanted Elle on the road immediately. Elle pushed those thoughts out of her head and started the truck. Thinking like this wouldn’t do anything but pull her mood down. She wasn’t sure how much time she would have to spend with her siblings and spending time with them always depressed her. She popped in a Katy Perry CD and turned up the volume and started to sing along.

After an hour and a half she was half way down her mountain and still deep in the woods. She was singing at the top of her lungs when the lights appeared in her rear view mirror.

Elle checked the clock and her GPS; she was basically in the middle of nowhere. She sighed, and glared as the lights gained on her. “Well shit, that’s a bad sign”

Elle stumbled and fell to the dirt, stones digging into her knees and the palms of her hands. Crying out in fear she pushed herself to her feet and stumbled forward. She made the mistake of looking behind her. A shadow moved between the trees stalking forward barely discernable in the inky darkness of the night. It was playing with her, fear enveloped her making her stomach turn and bile rose to choke her.

When Elle finally saw the glow, of hallowed ground she had been looking for, tears she hadn’t realized she had been holding back burst from her eyes. Elle pushed herself harder. “Almost there.” She told herself.

Unearthly screams howled behind her making her stagger in fear. Elle lost her footing.

“No, no, no,” she cried as her arms wind-milled around her. She fell hard on her left arm as she went down, the pain zinging up her arm.

It caught up to her as she tried to regain her footing. She screamed with pain as it sunk its claws into her ankle, it took everything she had to not give into the excoriating pain and let the thing just have her. Clambering in the dirt, her adrenaline kicking into overdrive, her free leg kicked out and connected with bone. Rolling onto her stomach she clawed at the ground dragging herself forward through the dilapidated arched gates.

The peace of hallowed ground hummed along her skin. The monster behind her screamed as his claws ripped through the sock and shoe of her left foot.

Elle screamed again and kicked with everything she had left, finally jerking free. She pulled herself the rest of the way into the cemetery. The beast rose and the dark smoke he had used as camouflage rolled off of him like water.