16. Chace
“Oh shit.” The words were barely a whisper as they slipped from my mouth.
The exchange with Raven had left me struck dumb, unmoving on the ground where she had abandoned me. She and her flock of black birds.
With my heart hammering, I stared into the empty space that she had dominated moments ago before being tugged away at the urging of others.
Under orders from the Crown, personnel from the palace had come and swept her away…from me. At least they hadn’t tried to take me into custody. Even if they had threatened me with bodily harm, they had eventually left without incident.
But…shit.
What just happened?
I’d jumped into what I thought would be a fight to help Raven against the Killian. A fight over what, I hadn’t a clue. Given her state, possibly nothing. But as soon as my feet had hit the ground, the Killian had vanished. Leaving me and Raven to…
I pressed two fingers to my bruised lips. The skin beneath my leathers still buzzed in all the places where her body had pressed to mine. And the churning…the yearning…
I shifted my hip, adjusting slightly. My pants had become far too tight. Tighter than the night on the rooftop when I’d sucked the splinter from her finger. Tighter than the time…
I inhaled and let out a breath, once, twice, attempting to steady my heart, my thoughts, my all-too-stiff and heated lower half.
Reaping hell.
I dragged my fingers through my hair, clenched and pulled.
Had her actions been her own? Or had she been pushed by what was riding her? Because, gods, if it were the latter, that would make my responding behavior wrong and unacceptable. I’d felt, smelled, seen the infection dwelling inside of her, and its presence made no sense. Not unless…
The scuff of a shoe dragging across the stone road sounded somewhere over my shoulder.
“Suspected you’d show up sooner or later.”
I jerked at the voice, and in a blink, leaped to my feet. Turning in a slow circle, I surveyed every aspect of the circular space, seeking the source—my previous kidnapper and torturer.
The circular junction was spacious. Spacious enough to accommodate a fight between Raven and the Killian, and then Raven and me. The continuous surrounding wall had five archways, evenly spaced. Each passageway led down a different path through the citadel.
I found what I was looking for in the shadows to my right. A blurred purple and green haze covered the prick, and something else with which I was unfamiliar, as seen through my newly recovered extra sight.
“The Killian was an unexpected surprise,” he continued. “Too bad he left before I could get my hands on him. But you… You were today’s goal. The reason I stayed close to the female when she moved beyond the palace gates.”
He was using Raven to get to me?
I shifted to face him. “I remember you. From before.”
A light sparked in the pain-giver’s eyes, and I knew, without a trace of doubt, that my enemy understood I spoke of a time long ago. A time when I was another being without a trace of reaper blood.
I squared my shoulders. “I don’t think you understand what it is you are dealing with.”
The scumbag took a step forward. “Oh, dare I say, you underestimate me. I know exactly what you are, soul hunter. What you are is what makes you so very interesting to me.”
Because of what I was, the jerk had taken blood and skin and so much more from me. Too much more. But now…now the title soul hunter rattled through my brain, knocking old, forgotten memories free. Soul hunter, one of four, goddess created.
I had siblings…somewhere. Their images wavered at the edges of my memory. I’d been with them here, in the citadel. On that higher rooftop with a clear view of the castle. The rooftop I’d climbed my way to before I had…whatever that was that had taken place between me and Raven.
“My siblings…” I was yet undecided on the choice of words I wanted to vocalize.
“They’re around,” he blurted.
Around? That response was thoroughly unsatisfying.
“And where would around be?”
What were my siblings’ names? I envisioned two brothers and a sister. All comparable in complexion, pale skin and hair, created without a color palette, and now completely dissimilar to me―a reborn creature of slumber and death.
“You know.” My adversary paused and shook a finger, as if the action would help rattle his thoughts free. “I’m less interested in talking about them and far more curious to peruse the topic of the one who just left.”
A growl rumbled in my chest. I wasn’t even sure where it had come from and why it existed. “I’m not done talking about my siblings.”
“But I am,” the snake retorted. “They are old news to me. As boring as a play I’ve seen performed a hundred times or more. Predictable and no longer fulfilling.”
I narrowed my glare. Had my siblings been tortured into the beyond? Taken to the point of death, as had been done to me when I’d been traded to the Badden heir and found myself in need of a new husk in order to survive?
Too many years had passed since I’d last traveled the streets of this damned citadel, since I’d last seen the other three. Countless things could have happened during that time.
My heart racing, my mind crowded with contemplations and worries.
The prick wagged his index finger. “But that female… Now there’s something interesting.”
My mind snapped clear. If that filth even tried…
I dropped into an attack stance, preparing.
He tilted his head and raised a brow. “She’s not like you.
And yet, she too is a curious creature worthy of further examination.
Wouldn’t you agree?” He smirked, and my thoughts turned to incensed static.
“Of course, your examination just now appeared to be of a different nature. Purely carnal, but an examination nonetheless.”
A snarl ripped free from my throat.
And…my head immediately jerked back. Where had that come from?
The scumbag laughed. “Thank you for your magnificent confirmation regarding her worth. I shall enjoy discovering what makes her tick…eventually.”
I lurched.
At my left, a heavy bang rang out, cutting my forward dash short. A fortified gate blocking the avenue passage on my immediate left had closed.
Clunk.
And locked.
A second bang. The next avenue over was now blocked. Gate shut, locks engaged.
I swept a scrutinizing gaze around the circle, taking in every window and gateway. I was being boxed in. Trapped within the circle. Two of the five exits were now sealed. Three more opportunities remained. One of which, the prick stood center stage.
Another boom. Another avenue blocked.
The evil male folded his fingers, waving me forward. I would enjoy tearing the bastard to pieces, but what was unfolding around me… It was a trap. Had to be.
Before I could follow my craving for revenge, I sprinted toward the yet-to-be-closed-off avenue on the right of the one occupied by the bastard. I would put a hurting on that jackass, just not today.
The mammoth gate began to swing shut. I shifted and slid through the narrowing opening before the barrier could lock into place. Free from the circle, I didn’t pause, lest I seal my fate. Find myself caught.
I ran to the shrinking sound of my adversary’s frustrated hollers. And in my race for preservation, I found that I succeeded in what I had previously tried and failed. I scaled buildings with ease. Leaped between them all the way back to the alley behind Aoes and Earl’s accommodating pub.
Thank Thanatos, the death god himself, that Raven was safe within the palace walls.
Because if that sick bastard got his hands on her, touched her, took her, locked her up in a prison cell, I would be forced to shred through every last monster roaming within the citadel walls, not only to find her, but to exact revenge on her behalf.
My legs ached from the continued pacing, my fingers from the nonstop clenching.
I needed to calm my senses so that I could think straight. Properly plan.
As Chace Badden, I’d been sent to the Citadel of Veritas on a reaping task of monumental proportion. A task that was most definitely in need of addressing. Solving and collecting.
But as the creature I was before I merged with the adolescent Chace, I had been sent…no, drawn…to the citadel for a different purpose. One no less important. One I had yet to fully recall, but I remembered others had been involved. My team, my siblings.
Gazing out over the edge of the pub’s rooftop, I took in the ever-growing activity in the streets below. When my reaping team had first arrived, conditions had been relatively quiet, citizens rather frightened and standoffish. I hadn’t blamed them, given the state of things.
Yet the longer the reaping team had remained in residence, the more life seemed to blossom. More people roamed the streets, interacting and, well, being social.
Had the mere stay of strangers in the otherwise stagnant citadel been the catalyst for change? Or were all the changes a direct result of Raven’s unexplained healing of the afflicted?
Yes, the wicked bastard had been correct. She was interesting and curious and worthy of further exploration, but not in the way that sadist would propose. Never in that way.
She’s clearly special, and I’ll go down fighting before I see her harmed.
I pressed my eyes closed and heaved a breath. Why was I thinking about Raven in such a manner? She was just a coreaper. A Gunn.
A lie I’d been telling myself since we first met.
And now…
Gods, she tasted blissful.
The feel of her skin, the flavor of her lips, her breast in my hand.
My heart hiccupped.
Palming her breast, accidentally, wasn’t something I would regret anytime soon.
Unless she wants you to.
Reaping head. Pull it together.
I clenched my hands in the hair at the back of my skull and squeezed my arms against my temples. When had this bullshit thought process of mine begun? When she’d kissed me, or earlier?
My chest rose and fell with uneven breaths.
Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I knew exactly when my confused and complicated thoughts regarding Raven had begun. Too long ago.