Reaper's Dark Kiss (10 page)

“You’re Dominion revenants,” Julian said. “If you’re armed in Creed territory, you’re breaking the law. I don’t see any weapons. Just walk away.”

Revenants? Sky thought. Wasn’t that the walking dead?

“Lord Vandar tells us you won’t kill in front of your female,” the redhead said, circling toward Julian.

Sky saw Julian stiffen. She took a giant step back and held herself still, hardly daring to breathe. The stench of death was near. No. Not Julian. Not him too. She wanted to scream at him to stop. But if she cried out, she could be the reason he died.

“I’m a reaper,” Julian said. “You attack me, I can’t let you live. You’re not younglings. You know the law.
Walk away
.”

The redhead launched himself at Julian, who exploded into action. He brought up his left hand, which suddenly had a matching knife and sliced across the man’s throat. The red-haired fighter fell back, hands at his neck, useless against the spurting vein.

The remaining man was in a fighting stance, knives in both hands. Julian spun right. His duster flared out, a black curtain. His knife came up and slashed a cruel arc across the man’s throat faster than the white-haired fighter could raise his knives to defend himself. A fountain of blood gushed out as Julian finished his spin and came to a stop.

On the night beat, Sky had seen the horrible aftermath of beatings, shootings, even gang wars. But those things paled beside Julian. He fought with the muscled power and grace of a predator who’d brought down his prey a thousand times. His speed, his sheer brutality, was terrifying.

Wind whipped through the alley, tearing Julian’s duster out behind him. His hair blew back from his face, giving him a feral look that made Sky tremble. Was this the man she’d gone underground with, where no one would have heard her scream?

Vandar was gone. At Julian’s feet, the men were groaning, both clutching their throats. Sky didn’t understand how they could still be alive. A deep cut to the throat like that should have left them dead.

Julian looked at the men at his feet, then at Sky. “Turn around,” he said.

Sky understood. The men weren’t dead. Not yet. “You’ll be arrested,” she whispered. She couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“I’m a reaper, Sky. I don’t want you watching when I carry out their sentence. Do what I asked you.”

On the ground, both men writhed, groaning, as if they knew how close they were to death. Slowly, as if caught in a nightmare, Sky turned around.

She covered her ears, but she still heard Julian’s knife strike home. Once. Twice. Then the alley was silent except for a sizzling sound, followed by the sickening smell of meat burning. When she could bring herself to look, the alley was empty. Listening, she heard only trash scuttling along the street.

“Nothing to see over there,” Julian said from just over her left shoulder.

How did he get behind Sky? She rounded on him, suddenly furious. Beating at Julian’s chest with both fists, she shouted, “You could have died! What’s wrong with you?”

Julian caught her wrists gently. “It takes a lot to kill me, Sky.”

Trembling with anger and fear, Sky screamed at him, “You don’t know
anything
about death! You don’t know what it’s like to be the one left behind.”

Pulling her into his arms, Julian held her. He ran his fingers through her hair until her breathing slowed from harsh pants to near normal. “Listen to me, okay, Sky? Just listen.”

She nodded against him, not trusting any words that might come out of her mouth.

“I promise not to let death take me like your parents got taken.”

Why did she want to believe him? Was it because he didn’t cast a shadow in moonlight? “How can you say that?”

“Because I’m not what you think I am.”

“Then you better start answering questions,” Sky said, pushing away from him, wiping at tears that hadn’t fallen. “And you better start from why you said you’re a reaper and work your way up to why you don’t make a shadow in moonlight.”

Julian cast a troubled look at the night. “Not here,” he said. “We have to get inside.”

Sky glanced up. Lightning forked between buildings. Distant thunder rolled. “Why? Wait. Don’t tell me. You melt in the rain after you kill men and dissolve them with acid.”

“No. More. Lies.” Julian said it as if each word were a promise he’d never break.

Without warning, his arms were around Sky again, surrounding her in a warm scent that made her think of untamed forests in moonlight. She was in the arms of a man who’d just killed without breaking a sweat. A man who’d never so much as raised his voice to her. A man whose body felt hard and strong against her. She tilted her head up for a kiss before she could think to stop herself. Julian’s hungry lips met hers. Their kiss was sweet and soft.

“We have to go,” he said, brushing his full mouth over Sky’s lips. “I don’t melt in rain, but I catch fire in sunlight.”

Chapter Fourteen

“My apartment’s behind us,” Sky said. “Where are we going?”

“Too much light there,” Julian said, feeling Sky’s hand shake in his. “We’re going to a hotel.”

She didn’t say anything else for nearly two blocks. He gave her time, walking as fast as he dared, hurrying against the coming light. He had to pass through Dominion territory to get where he was going. He didn’t think Vandar would be stupid enough to send more warriors after him, but he kept his free hand near his knives.

He thought back to what Vandar had said. If the council was holding an emergency session at Mid-Year, that meant Kraeyl had forced them into it. Julian knew too little about the law to know if a scroll vote could be called off. Even if Vandar were telling the truth about the contract being decided, every advisor on the council knew he was the drainer. Julian told himself they wouldn’t give the territory—and Sky—to a suspected criminal. But the council had a long memory. The Dominion War hung over every decision they made like a prophecy of doom.

“What’s a reaper?” Sky asked, her voice sounding faraway.

Julian had known this would come, but he’d wanted to do it differently, not with Sky half-scared out of her mind. He was sorry for it, but some parts of the truth would have to wait. The night was running out.

“In your world, you’d call me an executioner,” he said.

“My world?” Sky took a few quick breaths. “I’m trying really hard, Julian. But I just watched you fight two men who could be prizewinners on a reality show called
World’s Toughest and Meanest
. You killed them, and I think you burned the bodies somehow. You didn’t even breathe hard. So tell me what the hell you mean by ‘my world.’”

“I’m a Shade,” he said. “I didn’t burn their bodies. I put my silver blade through their left eyes and let out their essence. They overheated and evaporated.”

As if this were too much to take in all at once, Sky said, “You’re a what?”

Julian stopped walking. He pressed Sky’s unresisting hand to his chest and said, “I’m not alive. Not the way you understand it. Neither were they.” He let go and looked past her, expecting Sky’s hand to fall away.

“Who were the men you killed?” she asked, not moving.

“Not men. Vampires.”

“What do reapers do?”

“Shades are more powerful than mortals, but we’re defenseless in sunlight. Most of our laws center around not exposing the Shadow World to mortals.”

“Shadow World?” Sky laughed, but it was a brittle sound of fear. “Laws? Like what? No drunken brawling in churches after dawn?”

For the first time, Julian couldn’t read her scent. It was as if she’d gone to a secret place inside herself. “Something like that,” he told her.

“So you track down people—Shades? Vampires?”

“You can call us people,” Julian said, keeping his voice neutral, calm. “We’re men and women.” He gave a little shrug he hoped made him look harmless after what Sky had just witnessed. “Just don’t like sunbathing too much.”

“You track down
people
,” Sky went on, her voice tight with concentration, “who break your laws, and then you put a silver knife through their left eye?”

“We call it reaping. A lot of Shades live quietly. They’re civilians. Reapers do what we do to keep them safe.”

“Like my brother,” Sky said in a monotone.

Julian could read her scent now, bland and flat. Shock. He checked the horizon. Time was short. He tried to think of a way to draw Sky back to him. “Your brother and I are warriors, Sky.” He took her hand again. She was still trembling. “No one makes us fight. We do it to keep our people safe from the bad things.”

She leaned her forehead on Julian’s chest and whispered, “How long have you been outrunning death?”

“Centuries.” Julian slid his arms around her. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.” He should have at least told her part of it.

Sky moved her hand up Julian’s chest to his neck and gently pressed his cheek, turning his face toward her. Her touch was cool, unsteady. “Why didn’t you?”

She was still in the place where Julian couldn’t reach her, or she wouldn’t have asked something so obvious. “What could I have said that wouldn’t terrify you?” Julian was talking more to himself than Sky. “I couldn’t stand thinking I’d never see you again.”

“So you lied to me?”

He hated Sky calling him a liar.
Hated
it. Certain he was speaking the last words he’d ever say to her, Julian said, “I drink blood to survive. My heartbeat’s so slow, it would show flatline on your machines. For me, going out in sunlight is like you bathing in gasoline, then stepping inside a blast furnace. I—” How did he explain the haeze, the unrelenting urge to make Sky his?

“You what?” Sky said, her face unreadable.

Not knowing what would come out of his mouth, Julian said, “I’d never hurt you. If it meant I could stop you walking away, I’d walk into the dawn every morning for a hundred lifetimes.”

Sky shook her head as if Julian were unbelievably stupid. Then her scent suddenly filled him—roses just before dawn, fresh and pure. She was back from the far place. “I guess men are the same in any species.” Hands on her hips, she tilted her head back to meet his gaze. “Let me get this right. I work the worst beats in the city. I interview gang leaders who think prison is a paid vacation. And you thought I’d stop taking your calls because you’re a vampire assassin who goes after bad guys?”

“Shadow World reaper,” Julian said, “and yeah, I did.” What he’d told Sky so far was the same as pretending the tip of a murderously huge iceberg was a melting ice chip. But for now, it had to be enough.

Sky rested her fingers lightly on Julian’s shoulders and kissed his rough cheek. “I’ll keep you, even if maybe you’re not as smart as you look.”

Her soft lips against his skin roused Julian’s beast. The demanding urge for hard, rutting sex that would end in Sky crying out his name as he poured into her was nearly irresistible. He saw himself taking Sky, his hands in her silken hair, cradling her head as he stroked into her, filling her again and again.

“We have to go,” was all he could bring himself to say.

“I know.” Sky swallowed. “And I’ll go with you, Julian, because no one ever made me feel the way you do.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “But I have to see them.”

After Sky said “I’ll go with you”—something Julian had dreamed of hearing her say—he lost track of her words. The Shadow World’s most dangerous hunter was creeping closer. To mortal senses, the night was still holding, but Julian could feel the coming sun. He realized there’d been too much silence and dropped his gaze from the horizon to focus on Sky. “What did you say? You have to see what?”

Her gaze on the ground somewhere between Julian’s feet, Sky said, “Your fangs.”

Sky couldn’t know what she was asking. After the fight, Julian’s beast was on the prowl, just under his skin. It had settled low between his legs, making him ache for Sky’s body under his. He could barely think past the purely animal desire to take her, possess her. He needed Sky in a way he’d never needed anything, not even blood. To bare his fangs with his beast stalking so near was dangerous. “This isn’t a good time.” He trailed a finger down Sky’s neck to the hollow of her throat. “Unless you like being naked in public.”

He’d thought that would make Sky forget about seeing his fangs for a while. He should have known better. She looked up at him. Her eyes had the playful gleam that had drawn Julian to her, the sharp glitter that said she knew she was on the edge and she wanted more. “Thought men like you were all action.” She sighed. “Guess I was wrong.”

Julian couldn’t let Sky get away with taunting him like that. “Lean your head back and to the side.”

“If you bite me”—Sky poked a finger at his chest—“and I end up allergic to sunlight, I’ll kick your ass.”

“All one hundred ten pounds of you?” Julian got closer. The top of her head barely came up to his chin. “That could take you a few hundred years.” He bared his fangs and bent to Sky’s neck. “I'll make the wait worth your time.”

The scent of her blood, just a few thin layers of skin away, made Julian’s fangs grow even longer. He ran the sharp points along Sky’s neck, careful not to puncture her smooth flesh. A low moan came from her. She slid her arms around Julian and stretched her neck back, offering the bare flesh of her throat.

Julian’s cock, already swollen and pulsing with a life of its own, twitched. The driving impulse to tear off Sky’s clothes, to take her in one deep thrust as he plunged his fangs into the pulsing vein of her throat, ripped through him. Before his beast could take over, he raised his head, his fangs still out, and said, “Seen enough?”

Sky touched where Julian’s fangs had scraped over her neck. “No.” She closed the distance between them until their bodies touched in a seamless press that was maddening for him. She rubbed herself against him, and Julian stifled a moan. “I want you to show me everything about you,” Sky whispered. Caught up in the haeze, she pressed a heated kiss to his lips.

The small surrender was enough to sate his beast for now. Julian broke their kiss, wrapped himself around Sky, and thrilled to the feel of her slender arms sealing them together.

“Don’t let go,” she whispered.