Reaper Mine: A Reaper Novel (27 page)

“Bowen?”

“Ah, shit man. I’m not immortal. Kill your brother. He comes back,” Bowen whined.

“No. I need you to find someone else,” Victor snapped.

Bowen smiled. “Ah, that I can do. Who, what, where and when?”

“Atlanta, I think. She’s a demi-god. And if she sold out her sister, I’m going to rake her over the coals of Hell its self.”

“Doesn’t look like the abode of a demi-goddess,” Bowen said, from where he stood, leaning against a tree. He chewed on a toothpick his arms folded over his chest. They were both trying to blend in but it was impossible.

Victor had to agree. This wasn’t the worst part of town but he could have picked a hundred other places a demi-goddess would chose for a hiding place. “You sure this is the place?” He wasn’t sure the place was going to remain standing for long.

Drug dealers hung out on the corners. He heard police sirens blaring in the distance. The place was a beehive of activity there was no way they would be able to go unnoticed here. They had already been solicited by a prostitute in the ten minutes they had been standing there.

“Of course not. But the only way you’ll know is to go inside and find out,” Bowen said. “Garrett is round back. Shout if you need backup.”

“I’ll need a fucking tetanus shot,” Victor said heading across the street glaring at the looks he was getting by the street rabble. He didn’t want to get into it with them. He wasn’t about to back down, either. It had taken Bowen four days to get this far. He was about to start killing people if they got in his way. Tabitha and Elle had disappeared into the night and Victor was beyond pissed. He would kill for a word about where the hell that halfcocked Daughter of Eve had taken Elle. All he knew was when he got his hands around Tabitha’s neck he was going to strangle her.

He pounded his fist against the front door. It was mid-afternoon and he heard a television blaring from inside. If this was the demi-god’s idea of a safe house, she had a strange idea of safe. He thought looking at the broken down porch. When nobody answered he pounded again. Gods only knew what could be happening to Elle, and if this was a wild goose chase he was going to murder whoever was at the end of it.

“Dude, you got a problem?”

Victor turned toward a kid leaning against the fence. Pants barely on, shirt so big it could have held three of him, baseball cap turned sideways. Tattoos covering his arms and crawling up his neck.

Victor shook his head. “No.” He turned back to the door. The kid had no idea what he was messing with and Victor was a lot of things but he wasn’t about to murder a child.

“Seems to me you do,” the kid said again before Victor could knock again. “The way you pound’n the door.”

Victor turned back to the kid. “This doesn’t concern you.” The kid had moved to the end of the stairs. “I’m thinking if Hell wanted to come to the door she’d a come out by now.”

“Hell?” Victor asked. “See I don’t give a shit if Hell don’t want to see me,” Victor said adopting the silly vernacular; he was quickly losing his temper. And this kid didn’t really know what he was up against. “I’m not going away.” Victor said this loudly enough so anyone in the house could hear it. And he was rewarded when the curtains twitched.

The kid laughed, and Victor stared at him for a moment. “Wrong answer,” the kid said with a smile pulling a gun from his baggy pants.

Victor sighed as he noted several of the other kids on the street had moved into strategic positions boxing Victor and the kid in. So not just standing around, but guarding the place, interesting. Helena had them all working for her, Victor had to rethink this spot as a place to hide.

He knocked again. “Hell come out now and nobody has to get hurt,” Victor said.

The kid laughed again. “Now see that’s what I’m supposed to say.” He turned his gun sideways. “Get off the fucking porch, pretty boy.”

Victor heard Bowen snort all the way from across the street. And Victor’s patience started to unravel.

Victor crossed his arms over his chest. “And if I don’t?”

He saw it, the fear. It flickered for just a moment in the depths of the kid’s eyes. And Victor actually took pity on the kid. He had thought he was going to need to kill the kid and the other kids on the street but they were innocents.

Victor leaned over and hit the door one more time. “Helena,” he screamed. “Open the fucking door before I call a Ringer. We have a mutual interest here. And I don’t want these souls.”

The door immediately opened and he was grabbed by the shoulder, he smiled at the kid as he was yanked into the house. The door was slammed behind him. He was thrown up against it, an arm was pressed against his throat. The most intense blue eyes glared at him.

“Who are you and what do you want?” she breathed.

Victor just stood there staring at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Golden curls surrounded a rounded face with sea blue eyes. Eyes that looked ready to kill him, but still beautiful. She had perfect pink lips, and high color to her cheeks.

“Holy shit you’re gorgeous. What the hell?” Victor tried to shake his head but her arm tightened on his throat making it almost impossible to breathe.

“I asked you who the hell you were?” Her perfect eyebrows drew together in anger and Victor had a hard time thinking.

Lights were going off in his line of vision and then he let the darkness swallow him. And the next thing he knew she was screaming and slapping him.

Victor pushed her away. “Fuck.”

“Who are you?”

“Victor.” He pushed her away again and he blinked rapidly trying to right himself and a world turned upside down. He glared at the woman. But the mesmerizing beauty that had floored him moments ago was now gone. “What the hell?”

She opened her mouth, but Victor held up his hand. “Is it a curse?”

Helena laughed, but it was more of a sad sound really than anything else. “I wish,” she sighed. “I’m more beautiful than can be explained. And at first glance men would kill for me. But trust me it lessons after time.”

“Not for everyone,” Victor said more to himself if he remembered history correctly.

Helena gave him a sharp look. “No, not for everyone.” She stood. “Sorry for the choke out but it’s the fastest way to get you to think straight. If you are Victor, and you are here, then where the fuck is my sister?”

“I’m hoping you can tell me.” Helena turned back to him with fire flashing back into those beautiful blue eyes.

“Tell me you’re kidding. How in the world did you lose her?” she glowered.

“It’s a long story.” Victor picked his ass up off the floor. “And does it look like I’m kidding?”

“I gave her the spell that would call a Reaper because you guys were a last resort in keeping her safe,” she screamed making Victor wince and take a step back. Her voice had a pitch to it that made his skin crawl. “Because you were the only ones. The only ones that could keep her safe.”

“She thinks you sold her out.” Helena blanched at Victor’s words. “Trust me I wouldn’t be here if I had a choice. I can’t find her. You’re my only chance at getting her back Helena. Tell me you can help me find her.”

“I know she thinks we sold her out. We are all being watched.” Tears clouded her eyes and Victor took another step back. “But it isn’t safe here. Aldon is having this place watched. Damn Chaos and his lying thieving ways. Plus the Tribunal is up to something.”

“Wait, who the hell is Chaos?” Victor demanded.

Helena rolled her eyes. “Chaos is one of our brothers. He was taken by the Brotherhood…” she waved her hands… “Millennia…several millennia ago. He is more of a Son of Adam, an acolyte now to their ways, then a demi-god now. He is why the Brotherhood knows about Elle. He is how they track her.”

“Shit.” Victor swore then swore again. “Does Elle know this?”

Helena looked at him. “I don’t know, maybe… probable… I don’t know.” She shrugged.

“Shit.” Victor needed to find Elle. Needed to protect her, if she was on the mortal plane then Chaos could lead Aldon to her. She was in danger and he couldn’t get to her. He itched to just hold her, know she was safe. “Can you lead me to her?”

“No, I don’t have the powers the Sons of Adam have. Or even the powers Chaos has to track her down. That is why I had her call on the Reapers,” she shouted again. “Mind telling me how the hell you lost her?” Her voice had taken on the screeching tone again.

This was the last thing Victor needed. He grabbed Helena and barely stopped himself from shaking her. Instead he placed a hand over her mouth shutting her “I got it, Hell. I failed her. No need to remind me.” He said, using the nickname the hoodlums outside had used. “No need to raise your voice or go over it again. Trust me nobody understands this more than I do. But that isn’t why I am here,” he ground out between his teeth. “Now are we going to use an inside voice?”

She nodded and he released her. “What happened?”

Victor told her. “Oh my gods, she is with the Daughters of Eve? Holy shit, this is so much worse.”

Helena ran from the room and Victor had no choice but to follow her into a room where she was throwing things into a large duffel bag. “You need to take me to the last place you saw her.”

“Okay how is that going to help?” Victor asked.

“The Daughters of Eve? Are you kidding me?” Helena explained. “From the frying pan into the fire. That girl just goes from one problem to the next, it’s why she has been kept secreted away. Can’t keep her out of trouble. I mean she got herself cursed didn’t she? Now she gets herself captured by the Daughters of Eve?”

Victor ground his teeth together, “Shut up Helena.”

“What you disagree?” Helena asked. “Do you have any idea what the Daughters of Eve are going to do with her?”

Victor only glared at Helena until the woman continued, “The Daughters of Eve are going to try and recruit her, they are just as bad as the Sons of Adam.”

“What?” Victor asked. He knew he couldn’t trust Tabitha.

“The Sons of Adam, would try and impregnate her. The Daughters of Eve would try and recruit her to breed from them.” Helena said, looking at him like he had just fallen off the turnip truck.

“I don’t think so. They sent one of their warriors to kill Aldon. They don’t want him to breed with her,” Victor explained.

Helena stopped and glared at him. “Are you really that naïve? If so then you and Elle belong together” Helena spat.

Victor glared at her. “Tabitha is a lot of things Helena but she is not a recruiter for the Daughters of Eve.”

“The Tribunal, and Sons of Adam are not going to stop, until they have her, Reaper. The Daughters of Eve may think they can stave off the tide for now with their holier than though beliefs but when it comes down to brass tacks, do you think Elle will be able to say no?” Helena asked folding her arms over her chest.

Victor thought about it for a moment. Elle was one of the kindest and most gentle and caring individuals Victor knew. It was what drew him to her. Why he cared for her.

“She will be beholden to these woman for saving her life,” Helena said with one elegantly arched eyebrow.

“Shit.” Victor swore again. “Does any of this have to do with the Tribunal?” he asked.

Helena stopped and looked at him like he had sprouted a second head. “Of course it does. Everything comes back to the Tribunal and their new screwy ass dictates.”

“Do you mind explaining it to me?” Victor asked.

“Really? You want me to explain it to you now?” Helena asked.

“Yes please,” Victor asked sitting down in the only chair in the room. He felt like his head was spinning. Everything was turning to shit, and the information he was getting was turning everything upside down and sideways, Dante wasn’t going to be happy about any of it.

“Gods don’t you have any spies?” Helena swore as she stuffed clothes into her bag.

“Of course I have spies,” Victor said in his defense.

“Then your spies suck,” she said. “Because as soon as I found out what the Tribunal had cooking is when I tried to pull Elle from her little compound up north.”

“Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

“The Tribunal offered any Other who currently didn’t have a seat on the council a seat if they could prove they had a way to kill a Reaper.” She kept loading up her bag as she spoke. She looked Victor up and down like he was a piece of meat, “You and your brothers’ heads are worth quiet a pretty penny by the way.”

But Victor had jumped to his feet as she spoke. He wasn’t worried about getting killed he and his brothers could take care of themselves, in fact bring it on. They always did enjoy a good fight. But a seat on the Tribunal? “You have to be immortal to be on the Tribunal.”

“Exactly.” She was back to shouting. “And now the Sons of Adam, and Daughters of Eve have that ability with Elle.”

“Gods above and below.” This was bad, worse than anything he and Dante could have ever imagined. And with the extra protein in Elle’s blood, she was not just any demi-god anymore. She was a God in the making; she could bring down the world as they all knew it. And he had no idea where she was. Victor felt like he was going to be sick. He lowered himself back into the chair and took several deep breaths. So this was what real panic felt like. He did not like it.