Reaper Unhinged

Tonight, we needed to find Hunter.

Grayson shook himself and jerked his nose up into the air. I did the same, searching for Hunter’s scent and listening for his howl.

All was silent, and his absence was a gaping wound.

We need to go to his spot, Grayson said.

I nodded and then set off. The route was engraved into my soul, and I took the trail quickly, weaving through trees and leaping over logs, paws crunching on bracken. The moist earth and the woodland creatures that lived here wouldn’t be a distraction to me tonight.

The clearing came into view up ahead, and my heart leaped with hope, expecting to see Hunter sitting on his rock looking out at the lake, his dark coat kissed by silver rays, but the rock was empty.

Grayson prowled forward, sniffing the earth until he was at the base of Hunter’s rock, and then he stopped and stared.

Fee, look.

I joined him and studied the markings clawed into the stone. A symbol, a circle scratched into the surface by desperate claws.

It looks like a snake, Grayson said.

A snake eating its own tail.

I know this symbol, Grayson said. I’ve seen it.

I turned to him to ask where he’d seen it, but a wind howled in my ears, and then a strange voice filled my head.

“Now, do it. Do it now.”

Grayson and the Vista faded away, and darkness flooded my mind.

One more step. Just one more.

My feet shuffled forward. Feet, not paws. Wait, what was happening?

“NO!” the disembodied man screamed.

The darkness rushed away, and then I was looking out at the city laid out before me, bathed in early dawn light. I was high up. High up on…On the fucking roof.

Oh, shit.

I looked down to see one foot half off the ledge of the roof and the other firmly planted on it.

Panic flooded me in a rush of heat just as arms wrapped around my torso and pulled me back to safety.

“I’ve got you,” Uri said. “I’ve got you.”

I panted against him as the enormity of what had just happened cut through my body’s instinctual panic. I’d heard a voice in my fucking head, and it had… It had wanted me to jump.

“Fee!” Grayson came barreling across the roof toward me, stark naked and glorious.

Fabric kissed my skin as Uri tugged his T-shirt down over my head to cover my nakedness.

“She was on the ledge,” Uri said to Grayson.

My mate’s jaw ticked as he scooped me up into his arms and cradled me to his chest. “Thank you,” he said to Uri.

I curled into him, mind reeling. What the fuck was happening to me?

“What the fuck is happening to her?” Cora demanded. “This is bullshit. It has to be magical. Those hooded bastards have done something. They couldn’t kill her the regular way, so they’ve put some kind of mojo on her.”

It made sense. They wanted me dead for some reason, and what better way to do it than to control me in my sleep. “But how? When?”

We were clustered around the kitchen island, our go-to place when shit went down. Dean had joined us a moment or so ago, alerted by his alpha’s agitation. He poured more coffee into willing mugs, his face grim.

“When did it start?” he asked me.

“Last night….” But had it? “I sleepwalked last night, but I’ve felt off for a few days. There’s this scratching at the back of my mind. These thoughts…I think there’s been something off for a while.”

Dean looked at Cora as if trying to catch her eye, but she studiously avoided his gaze. I noted her shirt for the first time. A man’s shirt, too large for her. More Dean’s size, and I wagered if I sniffed her, she’d smell like my beta. Something had happened between them. I could feel it.

I caught her eye and arched a knowing brow, and she shook her head as if to say, not now. But anything was better than dwelling on the fact that I’d tried to kill myself. Again.

“I didn’t sense you get up,” Grayson said, looking into his mug. “If Uriel hadn’t found you…” He took a deep breath and fixed his husky eyes on Uri. “Until we fix this, I’d like you to watch over Fee while she sleeps. Will you do it?”

Uriel inclined his head. “Of course.”

Grayson looked relieved.

“It has to be the hooded figures,” Cora said again. “I need to speak to Elijah. He must have dug something up by now, and if not, then I’m going to give him a nudge.” She tapped a message into her phone and hit send. “The missing humans will have to wait.”

“Actually,” Grayson said. “I think I may have something on that.”

She looked surprised. “You do?”

“Fee and I went into our Vista to look for Hunter, and he left us a clue—a symbol etched into a rock.” He grabbed a napkin and a pen off the counter and drew the symbol of a snake eating its own tail. “I’ve seen it before on a flyer for blood donations.”

“I saw those flyers,” Cora said. “But how does that connect to the missing humans?”

“Hunter was helping some teens. The teens were seen taking one of the flyers, and then they left with Hunter, and now they’re all missing.”

“You think the people who put these flyers out are taking people?” Dean asked.

“It’s a possibility,” Grayson said.

“You’re right,” Cora said. “There is no address, just a phone number. What if the location they have to go to changes each time?” Her eyes widened as the idea took hold. “It would explain the many alarms the Magiguard have had tripped. The humans get told to go to a different location, and then they’re taken for some nefarious reason.”

“Hunter isn’t human,” Dean said.

“Maybe Hunter was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Grayson said.

“We need to find one of those flyers,” Cora said.

“I’ll get on it,” Grayson said. “You speak to this Elijah guy.”

Bobby padded into the room, rubbing sleep from his eyes, and I had to resist the urge to ruffle his hair.

He grabbed a mug and poured coffee into it before taking the seat beside Grayson. It was amazing how relaxed he was with his alpha now.

His gaze fell on the napkin, and his brows flicked up. “Why are you drawing the ouroboros symbol?”

According to Bobby, the ouroboros symbol was related to a host of meanings related to life, death, rebirth, and an eternal cycle of renewal but most notably with alchemy.

“Isn’t that chemistry?” Dean asked.

Bobby’s eyes lit up. “It can be, but it can also be spiritual. It’s about change and transmutation, which can relate to matter or the spirit.”

“Or it could simply be an organization doing experiments on innocents,” Uriel said. “There have been many over the course of this world’s history.”

“Then we need to stop them,” Grayson said.

Cora’s phone buzzed, and she glanced at the screen. “You deal with that. I need to jump. Just got a beep from Elijah, he wants to meet.”

Grayson scraped back his chair. “Bobby, Dean, you’re with me.”

I was just about to ask where the hell I fit into their plan when my phone beeped with a message from Eldrick inviting me to lunch.

I held up my phone. “Eldrick asked me to meet up.”

“Good,” Grayson said. “While you’re there, you can get an update on the safe location Eldrick promised to find for the vamps in our garage.” Grayson pressed his lips together. “They can’t stay here for much longer. It isn’t safe for them. They may have been altered by Bliss, but they’re still vamps, and vamps and Loup don’t mix. We’re programmed to hunt them, and the pack is getting antsy with them here.”

It was unfair to ask the pack to stifle their instincts for an extended period. “I get it. I’ll find out what’s happening.”

“Uri, will you go with her,” Grayson asked him, and then to me, “If these hooded figures are acting up again, I’d feel better if you weren’t traveling alone.”

Uri nodded. “Of course.” His amber eyes settled on me with warmth.

I had a voice in my head urging me to jump off ledges, and Hunter had probably been kidnapped by alchemists. Mal, Az, and Keon were probably headed into the pit to find Lilith, and here I was with butterflies in my stomach from the warm way Uri looked at me.

I needed to get a grip. Fast.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Cora

The diner Elijah gave me the address to is a three-story affair with dim lighting more common to a fancy restaurant. It’s pretty empty after the breakfast rush, just a few patrons sipping beverages. I can feel I’ve jumped several miles, maybe more. Having the address of the place is all I needed to get here. I have no idea how my power works. How this magic inside me seems to have a GPS all of its own, but it sure comes in handy.

I nod in greeting to a couple of waitstaff, and a woman heads over with a smile. “Hi, table for one?”

“I’m meeting someone, actually. Not sure if he’s already here.”

“Oh, you’re Mr. Blackwood’s guest.”

Looks like Elijah is known in these parts. “Yeah. He’s here?”

“Follow me.” She leads me up a flight of steps, carpeted, which is kinda weird for a diner, I mean, what about spills? Maybe these waitstaff don’t spill? Whatever.

The second floor is more intimate with booths and tinted windows. Honestly, I’m beginning to think I’ve walked into some kind of mafia scene when I spot Elijah sitting, back to the wall, sipping from a teacup. His turquoise eyes zero in on me, and his lips curve in a small smile.

I’ve forgotten how handsome he is, the silver-haired fox. I steel myself against it and approach with a small smile of my own.

“Hey.” I take a seat. “I’ll have a hot chocolate, please.”

The woman looks to Elijah. “Anything else for you, Mr. Blackwood?”