Chapter 69 Jax
We walked into the abandoned building, silent as night, ready to feast. Our shadows were famished, and the scent of tainted souls filled all my senses.
Our Reapers screeched with the thrill of the hunt, the dark night fueling my insides.
Our long black cloaks camouflaged into our shadows.
Creed and Ryker whipped out their Odin-blessed pistols as the search for prey began.
“I’m headed for high ground, for cover.” Creed’s tactical training was now activated.
Something tugged at my murky gut. Doing my best to continue the hunt, I commanded, “I go left, you right. We will cover more ground that way.” My brothers took their positions.
“Pull on the bond if you need me, brothers,” Creed said, making his location known to us.
“Let’s do this,” Ryker said, locked into his position.
A security guard soon made his presence known in the hallway. “Who’s there?” the man called out, casting his flashlight upon the darkness. I could taste the fear from his pores. It was like a reward. The best part is, humans couldn’t see in the dark, but Grims could.
“Deeeeaaaaaathhhhh!” my Reaper screeched, transcending into my shadows, right behind him, taking him by complete surprise.
“Stare into Death’s eyes.” My skull’s dark, hollow eyes siphoned his doomed soul.
My shadows then slithered upon his rigid body.
I watched the pathetic life leave his eyes and then his body.
His body shriveled and turned to ashy bones, like a moth’s molt.
A sudden gun shot rang from Ryker’s direction. I saw him dodge the bullet tactfully, his Reaper starved with hunger. He transformed into his form before the other security guard came and swiftly broke his arm. The bone stuck out from his flesh, jagged and bloody, as the man began screaming out.
“Your soul is miiiinnneeee!” Ryker’s Reaper tongue licked the wound in a hungered fever.
“Don’t play with your food, brethren,” I mocked.
Ryker siphoned the man’s soul as it meshed into his, leaving him wanting more. Our Reapers bellowed at the thrill, our shadows lingering from their form like black smoke flames.
Bang! The shot rang right by my ear. I turned back to see a man, another useless security guard, laying lifeless. Creed waved at me from a hidden top deck.
“Good shot.” I sent my compliments down to the Grim Bond.
“Got you. Two o’clock.” Creed pulled the trigger, taking another shot, missing the human racing toward me.
The “human” turned into a skinwalker, a gods damn mimic right before my deathly hollow eyes.
The skinwalker knocked me down and we wrestled on the cement floor.
I fucking hated skinwalkers! Damn roaches!
Ryker and Creed took their own shots at their nemeses. We all battled into the night, ferocious and with no mercy.
The skinwalker was tall, slimy, and full of sluggish skin.
Its arms and legs were unnaturally long.
My razor sharp Reaper teeth gnawed their way into its torn limb as it began crying out in an agonizing pain.
It’s vile blood tainted my long Reaper tongue.
I pinned the skinwalker to the ground, making sure to make a clean cut off its head.
Reapers couldn’t doom something already purely wicked from birth.
In order to kill these beasts, their heads had to be cleaned right off their shoulders, leaving them brainless and mindless.
The skinwalker snapped and snarled at my face.
I bashed my skull into his head and it flew back, disoriented from the blow.
Creed then made a clean shot right through its right leg.
It fell right onto its wounded leg. The creature visibly shifted into a naked woman.
The woman crouched, shaking in uncontrollable pain, holding herself.
Her curly hair covered her face. What the fuck.
All three of us circled the wounded woman, weeping, wounded, and out of fight.
“I’m so sorry, Creed,” the woman muttered. Creed came out from the shadows, striding closer.
“Avi?!” Creed moved the brunette’s hair from her face.
We were all too stunned to speak, standing back in crippling shock.
Creed bent down and picked Avi’s body up as his Reaper screeched in agony.
A wail I haven’t heard from my brother since our mother succumbed to her illness.
“No!” Creed wailed. “Why? Why!” Creed cradled her naked, bloody, and wounded body.
“I didn’t mean to kill her. I was just supposed to trick Birdie into coming with me. They said they wouldn’t hurt her, they promised. I’m so sorry.” Avi spit up thick, black blood, her breath becoming more hollow.
“How could you, Avi? How could you do this to my family?” Creed’s Reaper grieved, knowing what must be done.
“I never chose this. I never wanted this,” she strained in pain. “I had to. I just wanted to be set free.” Her tears flowed like a river from her eyes. “I did love you. I still do.” Avi brought her bloody fingers to Creed’s skeletal face.
“You know nothing of love, demon! You have betrayed me and hurt the people I love.” Creed choked the last life Avi had in her, covering her mouth so her screams were muffled. Her eyeballs bulged out of her head. He was lost in his pain and betrayal.
“Brother, don’t let this burden be yours to carry,” My Grim bond spoke to his, knowing words were not enough. I needed my brother to hear me clear, my heart breaking at the sight before me.
“No, let me do this, for she has forsaken me. Tricked me!” His Reaper teeth flared as he ripped her jugular out, his split Reaper tongue feasting on his pain.
He was mourning. Her head soon became detached from her body.
“DAMN YOU!” Creed sobbed over her beheaded body, her blood spurting from her torn blood vessels.
Ryker stood before Creed, placing his hand upon his shoulder. “This is not your fault, brother.”
Creed just held onto Avi’s lifeless body as he wept. “How? How did this get past our senses.”
“A glamour spell." Rocky walked in with a very weak looking Penelope.
Ryker ran to Penny with no hesitation to help hold her up. “Don’t touch me, Reaper!” Penny shooed him away like a peasant.
“Chill, vamp princess. I was just trying to be a gentleman.” Ryker put his hands up to show her he meant no harm.
“A Reaper, a gentleman? Yeah right,” Penny snickered at him.
“Well, I can definitely sense the familiarity,” Ryker blew Penny off, looking over at Rocky. “Glad to be of service.”
“Prima, as much as I’d love to help you all the way to the horse’s saddle, the tech cowboy here will have to help. I have to go back for Faye. I can’t leave her there alone.”
Penny nodded in agreement. “Go get our girl.”
“What do you mean alone?” I confronted Rocky, irate.
“She deserved her vengeance, Jax, and it’s not up to you to take that from her!” Rocky shoved her black acrylic nail into my chest. Gods, she’s so lucky she is the love of my life’s cousin sometimes.
My heart dropped in my very gut. “You have no idea what you’ve done.” I took off in a sprint towards Faye’s scent.
“You won’t be able to stop her, Reaper. I bound the door, meaning you, nor any other creature or human can get in until her deed is done.” Raquel’s evil laughter echoed, the sound bouncing into my ear drums. The drum at battle with my racing heart.
Her plan dawned on me like an atomic bomb. Faye was going to take her initiation, utilizing the blood for her sacrifice, tainting her very soul. Fear crippled me as my shadows moved as fast as they could, trailing her scent in the vacant industrial building.