Shadow Reaper (Shadowlands Series) (33 page)

“It’s still there, the need but . . . I can control it again. What did you do?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t do anything.”

His gaze travelled south, and I realised I was completely naked. I sat up quickly and patted the ground around me, looking for my suit. I found it and quickly pulled it on and crossed my arms over my chest.

“So, you’re okay now?” Damn this was awkward. I’d been lying naked under the guy a moment ago, urging him to fuck me.

Daemon blinked slowly and his eyes dimmed, returning to their usual unfocused state. “It’s ebbing,” he said. He clenched his teeth as the change came over him. I turned away to give him some privacy. When I looked back, he’d pulled his trousers back on. Thank the Mother.

No wonder the girls were so eager to go to him. If it didn’t involve dying, I’d probably be up for a round myself. But there were more important issues at hand, like the question of what now? If the noble council had counted on Daemon killing me, then something had thrown a spanner in the works.

I didn’t get a chance to discuss it with Daemon before the door to the cell was pulled open and a familiar figure strode in.

Bastion.

Daemon moved toward him, but Bastion held up both hands in a gesture of surrender.

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

“
You
can’t hurt me,” Daemon said. “But I could hurt you.” He took another threatening step toward the noble councilman.

Bastion inclined his head. “I’m quite sure you could, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice. You see, I’ve come to help you escape.”Why?” Daemons asked.

I stepped between the two males. “Hey! Hang on a sec, let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Daemon shot me a confused look.

“I mean, let’s hear him out. Escape sounds good.”

“It’s a trick,” Daemon said.

Bastion fixed his dark eyes on me. “No. This was the trick. This was a test, and you both passed, but you have to leave. Now. Before anyone finds out.”

“What the hell are you on about?”

Bastion sighed. “The council likes to keep its cards close to its chest, but your talk of Shades had them rattled. The execution method was tailored to test your ability. If, as you said, your efforts in the mines were thwarted by Shades somehow merging with Shadows, then your ability was not at fault. By putting you in a cell with the abomination, the council was testing your ability yet again.”

“My ability to what? Not be fucked to death?”

Bastion smiled. “No, your ability to feed the abomination’s dark hunger with the darkness inside you.”

I could feel Daemon’s regard like twin spots of heat on the side of my face. “I don’t have any darkness inside me.

“We all have darkness within us, Ashling. It varies from creature to creature. You, my dear, have a hunger for it.”

The Shadow eating. He was referring to my ability.

He glanced down at my hands. “Don’t believe me? See for yourself.”

I raised my hands and my mouth went dry.

The ink on my right hand was gone.

“I don’t understand.”

Daemon approached me and held out his hand. I placed mine in it and he ran his thumb over the smooth, unmarred skin of my palm. He dropped my hand and turned to Bastion.

“Why are you helping us?”

Bastion’s lips curved in a conniving smile. “The council is split on how to proceed, should you pass this test. Some believe that you are a threat and should be eliminated, others feel you should be imprisoned here indefinitely to be used at our leisure. They feel that, given time, you’ll adapt and agree to be an Infernan weapon. They mean to break you.”

“Which camp do you fall into?”

“The one that wishes to see how things pan out if left to develop naturally. I asked myself, why her? Why a human?” He shrugged. “I don’t think I’ll find the answer by stifling your personal growth so . . . you leave now and, in return for my help, you owe me a favour.”

“What do you want?”

“Nothing yet, but when I do, I’ll find you, and I
will
collect.”

There wasn’t really a choice. “Fine, you got yourself a deal, but I need you to do one thing for me.”

Bastion quirked a brow.

“Tell Bernie that having a cock doesn’t mean he has to be one.” I knew it was a childish dig but I was too angry to care.

“Council noble Bernie was simply following protocol.”

“Yeah? Well, if he loves protocol so much he’d stab a friend in the back, then he can go suck it. Tell him that I wish I’d never come looking for him, tell him—”

“Why don’t you tell me yourself?” Bernie slipped into the room.

I rushed him with my fists and managed to land a square crack on his masculine jaw.

Bernie stumbled back and rubbed his jaw. “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, but I did what I had to do. These are my people now; their welfare is my responsibility. Bastion convinced me that you should be allowed to go free, but don’t come back, not until you’re invited.”

“Wow! Nice nonapology, Bernie. Fuck you too.”

Something dark slithered behind his eyes. “No thanks, I don’t do sloppy seconds.” His gaze slid to Daemon.

Did he think we’d fucked? Was that why he was being such a tosser?

“You’re the one who agreed to put me in here with him. You knew what would happen.” I allowed my lips to curl slowly into a smug smile. “And what do you know, it was just what I needed.” I wasn’t about to tell him I hadn’t gone all the way. It was none of his bloody business.

His lips tightened and he backed away. “I’ll keep the others distracted for as long as I can.” He left.

Bastion cleared his throat. “I’ll take you as far as the entrance to the sewer line. The pipe will take you outside the city into the slums; from there, you’re on your own. Don’t get caught.” He looked me up and down. “That suit is ruined. You’ll have to stay out of sight. You have an hour and a half until dawn. If you’re caught in Inferna when the sun comes up . . . Well, burned flesh isn’t the most pleasant of aromas.”

Great. “Let’s do this.”

Sewage stinks, like really reeks. I’d taken the sewage pipes back home many times, but nothing had been pumped through them for so long that they were simply dried up, dead places. This waste disposal system was most certainly in use. We made the journey as quickly as we could and emerged in the slums from a hole in the ground covered with a heavy metal disc.

Daemon studied the sky. “The sun will be coming up sooner than I expected.”

Fuck this place and its stupid time jumps. I ran after him as he strode through the marketplace, which was already waking up: Hellions setting up stalls and eyeing us curiously.

“I thought we needed to stay out of sight.”

“There’s no time for that. We have less than fifteen minutes to get you off Infernan land, and we’re a half-hour trek from the Shadowlands.”

Shit. “So what do we do?”

“Stop talking and start running.”

I broke into a run to match his jog. I knew he could leave me in the dust if he wanted to. I also knew that I was probably going to fry because there was no way I was making a half-hour journey in fifteen minutes. I was fast but not that fast. And then, just like the final poop dollop on a metaphorical shit storm, we heard the familiar screech of Sentinels.

“They’ve found us!” Daemon swooped me off my feet and swung me into his arms and then we were running. I say
we
, but I mean
he
, of course. I clung on for dear life, my brow breaking into a sweat.

I felt my skin start to burn. The sun was coming up.

The Sentinels were gaining on us, losing altitude, getting lower and lower. Their long shadows provided a moment of bliss until I realised it meant that they were almost on top of us.

We were screwed, so screwed.

And then Daemon began to lose momentum. I studied his profile, the determined tilt to his chin, the high flat cheek bones. Why wasn’t he dumping me and making a run for it?

Another screech hit us, but this was different. It wasn’t coming from behind us, it was coming from in front of us. I looked up. It was the youngling I’d freed, headed right for us. She was magnificent, but no match for the Sentinels.

“Daemon, she’s going to get herself killed.”

Daemon faltered for just a moment before picking up speed again. “It is her debt to pay.”

Debt? What the hell was he on about?

The youngling flew over us, and I heard the angry cries of the Sentinels. Over Daemon’s shoulder, I watched as the youngling dove to evade the larger dragons’ claws, taunting them with her existence. They turned on her in attack, giving us the time we needed to cross into the Shadowlands.

Daemon didn’t set me on my feet straight away, he continued to run as he let out a shrill whistle that almost burst my eardrums.

“What the hell was that?”

“A summons.” He slowed his pace and came to a halt before setting me on my feet. “The sentinels could still follow us. It depends on what their orders are. We need to get as far away as possible, as quickly as we can.”

The sun had come up in Inferna. I could see it glowing red and orange from the Shadowlands. I could feel its heat, but it wasn’t unbearable.

Daemon let out that shrill whistle again, and this time, I heard a response. The purr of an engine, a big engine.

I raised a hand to shield my eyes and looked into the distance. A dust cloud was headed toward us, no, not a dust cloud . . . Calypso.

I turned to Daemon. “How?”

I’m sure I saw the stoic bastard’s lips twitch.

Our return to Apocalypse had been kind of an anti-climax. Avery grilled me on every aspect of our journey. His eyes were calculating when I described our little jaunt into the Infernan mines and he was quick to re-iterate our bargain.

“You found your friend, and she is safe and whole. Now it’s time to make good on your part of the deal,” he’d said.

And that’s when I’d played my back up card. “I want the food from Jiva’s museum.”

Yeah, the look on his face was priceless, but thank goodness Jiva had capitulated. . Yep, renegotiation. Jiva had agreed to allow me to take food from his little museum and there was plenty, enough to last at least a year, and past that . . . well, I’d cross that bridge when we came to it.A week had passed since my return and I’d taken a few shifts at the bar to pass the time while Jiva gathered the food from his museum. I hadn’t seen Daemon since we got back. I don’t know why that surprised me. Did I really think that just because we’d taken a road trip together, made out, and narrowly escaped death, we’d be best buddies? Yeah, maybe just a smidgen.

Anyway, he was gone, back to his little lair, back to being Daemon, I guess. Did it bother me? It did. And the fact that it bothered me bothered me more. Yeah, lots of bothering going on.

The big picture was more important, though: I’d failed at using my ability. I’d failed at getting my people food. But I’m not one to be easily beaten, and my renegotiation gave us some hope. The way I saw it, I still had the leverage my Shadow eating ability brought, not to mention the fact that I was somehow able to feed the hunger inside Daemon. I glanced at my left hand, the one still covered in ink. I still had that and the one on my right shoulder. Would Daemon call for me when the moon was full, or would he revert to using his girls? I had to say the thought of being that close to him again sent a little thrill through me.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Henry said.

I looked up from my bar cleaning and gave him my cheekiest grin. “It’s gonna take more than a penny to access the filth swimming around up here, I’m telling you, pure x-rated stuff.”

“Ooo, now I have to know.” Henry sidled up.

I laughed. “You wish. Anyway, I’m done here. I have a date with a food wagon.”

Cal emerged from the door behind the bar. He fixed his eyes on me. “You don’t need to come, I give you my word the delivery will be made.”

“I trust you. I just . . . I thought I could see my brother, that’s all, and someone needs to explain to them what’s been going on.”

He nodded curtly. “Well, we should be off.”

“At least we don’t have to worry about Shadows.” I waggled my eyebrows.

***

This time, the journey through the Shadowlands was a strange one, filled with a nervous anxiety of a different kind. I won’t lie, I was running scenarios through my head. How shocked and emotional Clay would be to see me. How amazed Blake would be that I actually managed to pull this off. I’d tell them about the treaty, of course. They had a right to know, and we’d figure out why we’d been lied to all this time. The people would be so grateful for the food, for the truth, and I’d be a hero. Yeah, I was anxious, but it was an anxiousness born of excitement.

I sat at the front of the food wagon with Cal. It was pulled by huge animals that looked like mules on steroids. I didn’t bother to ask why we weren’t taking any backup. With Cal’s stony strength to fend off any physical attack and me to fend off the Shadows, we were pretty much sorted. Behind us were four huge carts laden with food and supplies, covered in tarp.

We travelled in silence for a while, through the darkness lit only by thin fingers of moonlight. It was eerie, and I kept waiting for a Shadow to jump out at me, but nothing happened. I realised that this was the perfect chance to get to know one of the other key players at Apocalypse. Since I was going to be staying there for the foreseeable future, and would be working alongside Cal, it seemed like a good idea to get to know him. Besides, I had this idea of somehow convincing Clay to come with me, although deep down I knew he’d never leave Shelter. He saw it as his responsibility to keep the place ticking.

“So, Cal? How long have you worked at Apocalypse?”

“A long time.”

“Okay, and how well do you know Jiva, Avery, and Daemon?”

“As well as one can know family.”

Okay, now what? I was trying to bond here. How the hell had Freya managed to penetrate that stone exterior?

“What do you do in your spare time? Any hobbies?”

He didn’t reply right away, and I turned to look at him. Even in the gloom he looked decidedly shifty.