A Shadow in the Reaping by Brynne Weaver

Chapter 26

Ashen stalks down the hall. The hellfire comes alive across his blade, black smoke billowing behind him to flow across the floor. The hyena next to the cauldrons looks up and lowers its head and shoulders. It braces for a fight. It yips and cackles. Another dissolves from the shadows. I can hear more in the depths of the room, their attention drawn to us.

A third hyena surges from the dark recesses behind the pillars and lunges for Ashen, but his sword is already carving an arc through the air. It sweeps from down low and cuts the darkness. I hear the sound of rippling flame.

A yowl echoes up the columns as Ashen hits the shoulder of the creature. The jaws snap toward him. He ducks. The animal spins in fury but Ashen is already swinging. His sword lodges into its side.

The beast falls from Ashen's blade. Its jaws smack shut as its face hits the stone. It lies unmoving, and I can smell the thick blood that glistens on the floor.

Ashen is already making his way further into the room to attack the next beast. There's grace in the way his back and shoulders carry power through every swing of his sword. He's calculating. He's formidable. He's really fucking hot.

He's also having all the fun.

I unsheathe the kaiken from my thigh and kick off my shoes. The stone is cool and slick beneath my soles. I take a deep breath as I lean against the column and look up. All praise to M.I.A. for the hype tune tracking through my mind. Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well.

This is gonna be great.

I smile and then turn into the shadow and run in the darkness between the pillars.

I hear the first hyena galloping for me from the left, from Ashen's direction. Just as I start to think he'll get to it before me, the creature leaps into my path and I drop to the floor, sliding on my hip beneath its jaws. I come to a stop below its heart. I thrust my kaiken into its chest. The animal stutters to the side and I roll away as it falls.

I'm up and running before I hear it hit the floor. The first one I saw by the cauldrons is skulking toward the open corridor where I can hear Ashen's blade tearing through muscle and bone. By the time it realizes I'm coming, I'm already in the air. I bring the katana down against its neck with a hiss. Thick, putrid blood sprays across my face.

As the hyena and I fall together with a thud of fur and bones across the stone, I look toward the corridor of the hall and see Ashen's blade slicing light into shadow. The fire illuminates his face, his dark hair falling across his brow. The flame in his eyes glows bright with deadly focus. A hyena runs toward him and he readies his sword.

Before it can meet Ashen's blade, it meets mine as I burst from the darkness. I catch it in the throat with my katana and spill its blood across the floor.

"That was mine," Ashen says as I stop next to him. I look up and smile at the devious grin that alights within his skin.

I turn away and run to the shadows of the other side of the room as Ashen strides onward to meet the next beast. I kill one more before the odds turn against me.

As I'm running for the darkness between two pillars, a force knocks me from the side, hurtling me into the center of the room. My blades fall from my hands when my ribs hit the stone. The air leaves my lungs in a whoosh and I can't suck it back in. I roll onto my back and I hear Ashen calling my name.

A black form hovers over me. I smell the musky scent of fur that's been dampened by fog. Two bright eyes bore into mine as a paw lays weight against my shoulder. A long snout sniffs my hair.

Urtur.

The jackal looks up at Ashen in the distance of the room before his attention is caught by movement to the right of us.

Good thing I didn't shower, I guess.

Urtur bounds away and jumps onto a hyena stalking toward us from the darkness. The hyena is bulky but... disintegrating. Urtur tears at the creature's ruined flesh as the two tumble into the shadows.

I heave myself onto my stomach and reclaim my katana from the floor.

"All right, vampire?" Ashen calls from the other end of the room. I can hear the worry in his voice, even though he tries to hide it. I look up to see him standing with both hands clasped around the handle of his sword, the tip of the blade pointed toward the floor. The flame brightens in the darkness, illuminating the tattoos that flow up his arms and beneath the sleeves that are rolled to his elbows.

I slide my hand forward and give him a thumbs up. This is so fucking embarrassing, I think as I finally gain control of my lungs. I have a feeling he's going to be bringing this up one day.

I push myself to my feet and smooth out my dress with my free hand before grabbing my dagger from the floor and diving back into the ebb and flow of the battle. I join Urtur to kill the creature he fights in the shadows and then we part ways, meeting our own enemies in the dark. I hear the fire of Ashen's blade at the end of the room near the cauldrons. I smell ink and smoke, and I know he's okay.

I really should have brought my GoPro, because I totally parkour myself up some pillars to jump on the back of a hyena and drive my sword between its vertebrae in a kickass move that Ashen won't believe. As I stand on the back of my latest kill, I start to wonder how many more there could be.

Fuck this shit, I think, sheathing my katana. Time to go.

I turn to the back of the room and run to the pillar where we dropped our bags. I barely slow down as I scoop the straps into my arms. I take off down the center of the room. Ashen is at the other end, near the cauldrons, his back turned to me as he swings his sword against another beast. I'm too afraid to yell, so I do the next best thing.

I throw my dagger.

The kaiken lodges into the skull of the hyena and Ashen turns toward me. The realization takes no more time than meeting my eyes.

Ashen pulls my dagger free and turns to light the embers that will take us home. He sets one foot into the cauldron as I run toward him. For the first time in three hundred years, maybe all my life, I embrace the caress of a flame. I grab Ashen's outstretched hand and we turn with my momentum, just like a dance. The fire surges around us. The pressure swells in my head and I close my eyes.

The curtain of the blaze falls around us. We stumble out of the cauldron and off the dais, looking behind us as though a creature might still be in pursuit. But the only sound that meets us in the Living Realm is our breath and our raging hearts.

We meet each other's eyes and Ashen drops his sword. He grasps my face and kisses me as though the world is about to fall. His touch burns as hot and bright as a last chance. It's as desperate as a final breath.

When he draws back he looks into my eyes, his chest rising and falling with the effort of recovering from the fight. "Let's not do that again," Ashen says, glancing toward the cauldron.

"Why not? I thought it was fun."

Ashen narrows his eyes at me and wipes some gore off my face with a warm palm. "I still do not agree with your assessment of fun."

"You're a Reaper, you're not supposed to know about things like fun." I fold my arms across his back and press my face to his chest. It's sweaty and hot and I smile as I imagine my body must seem like a giant cool pack straight out of the fridge. "So what were they doing there? You said they weren't meant to be there," I ask as I let Ashen go and he retrieves his sword from the floor, the blade stained with black blood that reeks of decay.

"They're not. They typically roam near House Mushussu. They have a particular fondness for vampire souls and House Mushussu is where many congregate," he says, glancing at me before he turns away toward one of the brick pillars at the edge of the room.

"By fondness, do you mean as a delicacy? I didn't get major cuddle vibes from any of them."

"Definitely eating and not... cuddling," Ashen says, the thread of distaste weaving through his voice.

I feel a smile spreading across my lips. "When was the last time you said the word cuddling?"

Ashen stops and points his gaze to the ceiling, scrolling through memories new and old. "Never. It's a terrible word."

My smile grows ferociously bright. "But we cuddled last night."

"That was NOT cuddling," Ashen says as he shoots a sharp look over his shoulder then bends to pick up a heavy cast iron lid that's lying in the dust near a pillar.

"There was some cuddling."

"No. I have not, nor shall I ever, cuddle."

I crack open my journal.

Note to self: demon hates the word cuddle. Must use more frequently.

"Well, I've just made you say it three times in the span of thirty seconds, so I think you're lying. I think you love cuddling and you say it all the time when I'm not around," I tease as I watch him ascend the steps of the dais, holding the iron circle like a shield. He rolls his eyes and gives me a fierce glare with a lick of flame in his pupils, which only makes my smile brighten with delight. I watch as he settles the lid over the wide mouth of the cauldron, snuffing out the last of its flame. "What are you up to, scary demon?" I ask.

"Making sure no one follows us from the Shadow Realm," he replies as he takes slow, heavy steps down from the dais, his eyes fixed to mine.

My gaze darts between Ashen and the cauldron. I raise a brow in a skeptical question. "That's... that's all it takes? You just... put a lid on it?"

"Yes. Pretty much."

"That's just so... lame."

Ashen stops in front of me, his eyes still fused to mine. "A little," he says, taking one of the bags from my shoulders. I feel like I have to peel my gaze from his just to look away. But I do. We turn and start toward the hallway that leads to the stairs. "Regardless, I don't want whoever let those creatures into House Urbigu to follow us through the corridor."

"Any ideas who that could be? I don't think it would be Ember, she needs me to execute her plan. What about Cole?"

"I doubt it. As insufferable as he is, he is too straightforward for that kind of duplicity," Ashen says as we start up the stairs. I glance up and his eyes flow across my skin before settling on mine once more. A muscle ticks in his jaw. "There are a hundred different options, Lu. It could have been someone looking for revenge on me. It could be someone looking to have some fun at your expense. It could be someone that knows of Ember's plan and wants to remove her most valuable player from the board. It could be someone who knows more about you than you expect."

We walk in silence through the dimly lit house. It's still dark outside, and I can almost feel the weight of the fog on my skin. My thoughts seem lost in a mist as thick as the one that shelters this house. I tumble these ideas over in my mind about who could have let those creatures in and why. How much did others really know about me? How hidden had I really been all this time? Maybe not as much as I'd thought all along. Or maybe now that I'm breaking into the light, it's casting my shadows into visible shapes across the floor.

We arrive at the corridor where our rooms are, and before any awkward questions can surface, I take Ashen's hand and pull him into my room. It's just the same as the last time we were here, with the floral bedding and the orchids on the sill. But it feels like that was years ago. A different Lu. I realize for the first time that a lifetime can be measured in millennia, or it can be counted in the weight of a few days. Even mere moments can cause a tectonic shift, propelling you from who you were to who you are now. Tearing you down. Building you up into something new.

I set my bag and my sword down close to the window and look at the orchids, taking the white star of a wind orchid between my fingers to run my thumb across its silken petals. I smile as I think of the Reaper placing them here. An executioner tending to blooms, caring for rare flowers.

"All right, vampire?" he asks, and I look over my shoulder to see him watching me from the center of the room.

I let go of the flower and turn, nodding with a worried half-smile.

"Still concerned about what happened this evening?" he says, taking a step toward me, and then another. I feel scorched by the fire in his eyes, and this time I know I can't strip my gaze away. I only nod, watching as Ashen draws near enough to touch.

He takes another step closer. His pupils brighten with flame. His hand slides into my hair, the other across my hip, pulling me closer. I trace my fingertips along the tense muscles of Ashen's arms and close my eyes for a heavy beat of my heart. Desire unfurls like a serpent beneath my bones, licking its hot tongue along the walls of my chest. But there's something else too, something bright and burning in my heart. A little spark, a little whisper. A hunger for something more than sex or blood. Something I might want only from Ashen, but something too dangerous for a bright soul to entertain with a Reaper bound to the Shadow Realm.

Ashen presses a fiery hot kiss to my neck where the blood surges to meet his lips. The urge in my heart only grows stronger, whispers louder, but I keep it locked away. Ashen must feel the turbulence in my blood with this feral instinct flooding my veins. He traces his fingers down my pulse and pulls away to look in my eyes. "Whoever it is, whatever their motivation, they will have to come through me. And I will not let anyone get close to you, Lu. I will not let anyone harm you. I promise you."

I shake my head. "You can't make promises like that," I whisper. "No vows spoken by an immortal can be kept forever, you must know that by now. Promises are for mortals. They are meant to die with the bearer."

Ashen sweeps his hand in a slow path down my neck. His fingertips trace the ridge of my collarbone. They follow the gold chain, the links warm against my cool skin. His open hand presses to my heart that drums its tortured song to him. His eyes never leave mine as they brighten in the dark.

"Not this time, vampire," Ashen says. "This promise is just like you. There is no measure of time, no realm that can stop it. It is elemental."

Ashen's kiss and his touch follow every word into the last threads of the night. But I know the truth. That the only immortal promises in life and death must be paid in blood.