Reaper Mine: A Reaper Novel (29 page)

“This doesn’t change anything,” Tabitha said pushing herself away from the conference table. “Aldon is going to continue to try and take you. He is the current threat.”

Elle shrugged, she didn’t know what she was going to worry about right then. “Okay.”

Doc gave her a huge and a smile. “I thought you should know everything.” And patted her on the arm before gathering the files she had spread out over the large table.

Elle felt compelled to thank the woman. “Thank you, Doc.”

Doc smiled. “You are very welcome. When this is all done I hope to have the chance to work with you some more. There are many illnesses you will be helpful in curing, Elle.”

Elle wondered if that were really true or if she would be the catalyst to something more horrible. After all, isn’t that why the Tribunal wanted her?

****

Elle traced patterns in the dirt, her body completely tense, her head resting on her knee. She was still trying to absorb everything Doc had told her that morning. Elle wondered if the Druid had known what she was creating so long ago if she would have cursed Elle in the first place. Would the years of pain, out weight the ultimate gift/punishment on the current society?

Ultimately the dark druid, who had cursed Elle, had done so because she had been in pain. Someone who she had loved had been killed by Elle that horrible day. Either way Elle would have been cursed. And who would have thought Elle would have survived this long anyway? Regardless of her curse, something bigger and stronger should have come along by now and taken her out. It was a miracle she was still here. Helena told her so whenever she was with her.

Elle felt a stab of pain. Her life was so messed up, cursed and kept getting worse.

“What are you doing?” Tabitha asked, coming to sit down next to her

Elle looked down at what she had drawn, it was the Reaper Call. All she needed to do was add her blood, or wine, or water. Would he come? Her heart twisted at the thought.

Elle looked at the twisted etchings in the dirt and turned away. “Nothing.”

“We’re almost ready,” Tabitha said, as she sat down next to her. She motioned to the women still training. Elle sat in the shade of a tree next to the training yard, where Tabitha was training with fifteen of her best warriors. They were training for when the call came that Aldon’s death sentence was back on.

“You keep drawing that, what is it?” Tabitha asked pointing to the drawings in the dirt.

Elle shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

“If it was nothing then you wouldn’t keep drawing it,” Tabitha said shoving her with her shoulder.

“It’s the emergency number Helena gave me,” Elle told her.

Tabitha gave her a strange look. “What does that mean?”

Elle shrugged again. “It’s a spell. To call the Reapers. But it back fired, I didn’t know by using it I would bind my soul to Victor’s. Helena didn’t explain that part to me.”

Tabitha burst out laughing. “Your soul doesn’t belong to that bastard,” she finally said.

Elle shook her head. “Oh it does. I used the Blood Call and now my soul is his.”

Tabitha rolled her eyes. “You really need to get out more. Do you think if your soul belonged to him, I would have been able to take you from him? He would be able to find you anywhere you went if your soul belonged to him.”

Elle felt like someone had kicked her in the stomach. “What?”

“Show me the spell again,” Tabitha demanded.

And Elle drew out the Blood Call again in the dirt. Making sure to include all the pieces.

Tabitha nodded. “Yes. I see it now. Victor would have had to add his blood to it, to make it complete. Did he?” She asked.

Elle thought back to the night and realized, she didn’t know. She had woken up later. She didn't know if he had added his blood to the stone or not.

“Look Elle, I can tell you right now, if he owned your soul he would be able to find you anywhere on any plane of existence if he wanted. You wouldn’t be able to hide from him.” Her words cut her like a knife. Victor didn’t own her soul, and she wasn’t sure if he even cared for her anymore. And that thought hurt so much she could barely breathe, she loved him. And she didn’t know what to do now. “And if he does own your soul he doesn’t give a shit.”

She could have cold cocked her with less affect. And Tabitha knew it the moment the words came out. “Shit Elle, I’m sorry that came out wrong.” Tabitha said.

“It’s not like you gave him a chance.” Elle made the excuse.

Tabitha shook her head. “Well it’s neither here nor there. Aldon is the problem not the Reaper. Have you thought some more about what you are going to do when this is all over?” Tabitha asked, brushing dirt from the long tunic she wore. And changing the subject.

Elle sighed and looked up through the tree at the light sifting through the branches. “Do you mean will I become a breeder for the Daughters of Eve?”

Tabitha blanched. “Gods no! Why would you even think that?”

“I overheard some woman talking about it,” Elle admitted. Not many of the Daughters talked to Elle. In fact, most of the woman avoided her like she was the plague. Being an outsider and all, they didn’t trust her. She understood that. The warriors only spoke to her when they had to train with her. Doc loved to talk to her, because of what she possible could bring to the world of medicine. Otherwise, the other woman just pretended like she wasn’t there. Diana, the leader, spoke to her once in a while. Although, Elle had to admit, only when Elle cornered her. The conversation she had overheard was in the mess hall, between several of the other ‘breeders’. The thought had made Elle’s stomach turn. “I was wondering if that is what is being expected of me.”

Tabitha shook her head. “Of course not. We are trying to stop that from happening. We left the guilds, we left all that behind us. We don’t want immortality, Elle.”

Elle wasn’t sure if she believed her, and she felt another heavy weight descend on her. She turned to look at Tabitha. “All Others want immortality; even mortals want to find a way to live forever to leave their mark. Why wouldn’t the Daughters of Eve be looking for the same thing?”

Tabitha gave her a smile that radiated from deep inside her. It was a genuine smile and it took Elle by surprise. Tabitha never smiled and to do so with such radiance, was both surprising and beautiful. “I am a Daughter of Eve” she said with such calm it was contagious and wrapped around Elle making the heavy feeling wash away. This was something Tabitha felt from deep within her soul. “From the very beginning we have made our mark. Mankind suckles at our breast, look at the world, Elle. We are everywhere. That is our mark, our legacy. I don’t need immortality, I am already immortal. If I die tomorrow? I will have done what I was meant to do I will go to the bosom of mother and be still.”

“We.” She paused and looked around at her sister’s still training in the field nearby. “We pass our customs on from generation to generation. Knowing we can leave this earth anytime. That is how we stave off mortality. I shall pass my knowledge on, what was passed to me, and what I have learned in this life to others. My missions in this life, my fate with you, I will pass this on and in doing so I will immortalize the Daughters of Eve.”

“And what about the Brothers?” Elle asked.

Tabitha shook her head. “They strayed, as men often do. They view power and strength as something to possess.” She shrugged. “They must grasp it and hold it tightly.” She made a fist. “It kills it, if held to tightly. Like anything else living, once you hold it too tightly, grasping it to you never to let it go, to grow and live. It dies. That is what some of the Sons of Adam have become. Not all, some hold to the old ways as the majority of the Daughters have,” she sighed. “But most have turned and believe a seat on the Tribunal will give them the power they so desperately desire. Give them the immortality they think they rightly deserve.”

“So that is what they ultimately want? A seat on the Tribunal?” Elle asked.

Tabitha nodded. “Yes and it is being dangled in front of them like a shiny lure they cannot resist. But the price is too high.”

She was almost afraid to ask. “What is the price?”

A commotion and alarm caused Tabitha to jump to her feet. She grabbed Elle and pulled her to her feet as well. “Go back to your quarters and lock the door.”

“Why?” Elle yelled over the sound of the alarms blaring.

“Because we are being invaded.” Tabitha shouted over the alarms before she started running, dragging Elle by the hand. Emotions Elle wasn’t prepared for bombarded her. Fear and rage made her stumble as she threw up more walls. Tabitha stopped. “Elle what’s wrong?”

Elle shook her hands. “I’m fine! Go! Go!”” she stumbled along.

She was half way to her room, when she felt it. The calm, the lack of emotion settle around her like a blanket around her soul. Elle stopped dead in her tracks. She hesitated for just a moment as the familiar sensations wrapped around her.

“Victor.” The name whispered from her lips. Elle tried to remind herself he didn’t love her like she loved him. He had lied to her, about her soul. And if he had lied to her about that what else could he have lied to her about? But in the end her heart won out and she turned and ran toward the feeling letting it encompass her, gods she had missed him so much. All her walls fell, all her worries collapsed. She didn’t notice the men and women fighting. Or the fact it was Trackers and Reapers, or that they stopped and followed her. Or that they called to her, she was totally focused on getting to Victor.

When she got to the clearing where Victor was, Tabitha had him on his knees his blond head forward and a sword and his throat. Elle let out a scream as she threw her body into the fight.

Victor looked up just in time to catch Elle as she threw herself at him. But it was also the same time the crazy bitch Tabitha was trying to bash his damn fool head in. Luckily Tabitha didn’t want to hurt Elle and she changed the direction of her swing, and he grunted as he swerved out of the way of the butt of her sword trying to put a dent in his skull at the same time as he cushioned the impact of Elle plowing into him.

Elle knocked the air out of him. Stunned, he lay in the dirt for several seconds, incapable of stopping her from crawling away.

“Have you lost your mind Tabitha? You could have killed him!” Elle bellowed at the bitch who had definitely tried to put him to sleep for a while. Making Victor smile. It wouldn’t have killed him, but it definitely would have fucking hurt.

“He’s immortal!” Tabitha bellowed back.

“I don’t give a damn. What where you trying to do? Bash his brains in?” Elle stomped her foot sending dirt over Victor and making him cough

Tabitha moved with lightning speed. A speed Victor, who was still recovering, couldn’t match. She was standing over him when she kicked him in the stomach and he curled in on himself cursing her. “Why are you here? How are you here?” She kicked him again. “Call off the Neanderthal’s you brought with you, NOW!” she bellowed over him. Victor flipped her off. It was all he was capable of, as she continued to attack him.

“Stop kicking him,” Elle said putting herself between him and Tabitha. “Oh my gods! Get up and defend yourself,” Elle said, pleading with Victor.

Victor blinked through his pain. “I’m trying,” he said through his teeth. He was bleeding from a cut on his neck. And he was pretty sure he had a concussion, from being cold-cocked by the bitch as he had come to call Tabitha. She had already slammed the butt of the sword into his skull once. He had broken ribs, an arrow wound to the left shoulder getting into the place. And a plethora of other wounds, plus the wounds to his back were still healing. Elle had slammed into him so hard he wasn’t breathing right.

Yeah, he was a mess and Tabitha looked like she wanted to put a bullet in him. Or that sword in him, or try and cut his head off. Then he looked up into Elle’s golden brown eyes and his wounds were forgotten. Damn he was glad to see her.

He rolled to his feet and grabbed her pulling her into his arms. “Don’t ever, do you hear me, ever run from me again,” he whisper-growled into her ear.

She tried to pull away from him but he wouldn’t let her go. “I wasn’t the one who left, remember?” She said in her defense but he wasn’t going to argue with her about it.

“I’ve got her,” he said quietly knowing his brothers would hear him and stop their fighting and come to him from wherever they were. “And I didn’t want to leave, dammit.” He muttered.

“We see that,” Garrett said coming to stand next to Victor. Soon the clearing held several Reapers, and Trackers, Celeste, and Marcus.

“Helena?” Elle tried to pull out of Victor’s arms but he wouldn’t release her. He wasn’t sure he was ever going to let her go again.

“Just give me another minute. I missed you,” he whispered. He couldn’t bring himself to release her just yet and held her close breathing in her scent. Elle melted into him at his words she had missed him too. And she had to admit the feeling of being in his arms felt right. But part of her still hurt, if maybe just a little.

“You left me,” she said again quietly so only he could hear. But he grunted. And Elle closed her eyes and burrowed into his chest.

“We’ll discuss it later, right now I just need to feel you close to me.” Victor said squeezing her.