Reaper Unleashed

“Then it’s done. If you want the title.”

Something indecipherable crossed Uri’s features. He dropped his chin and I sensed a wave of confusion. It hit me without my even having to try and pick up on it. He was conflicted. Lost. How had I not seen this?

I walked over to him, took his hand, and led him out of the penthouse into the corridor.

The door closed softly behind us. “You’re unhappy.”

“No.” He balked. “I’m not unhappy. I want to be here. With you. I just…I’m not sure what my purpose is any longer. Being a Grigori was my whole existence and now it isn’t.”

“Do you want to go back?”

Uri shook his head. “No. Before the divine sent me back to you, he offered me the choice to stay and reclaim my Grigori title or to find a new path. He asked me to look into my heart, and I did. I’ve been a Grigori for so long, I didn’t know anything else, but when I thought about it, really considered it, I realized I’d never felt completely comfortable in that skin either. I think I may have to try on a few hats until I find one that fits.”

I stroked his cheek. “A journey of self-discovery.”

“Yes.”

“You want to try on a beta hat?”

He wound his arm around my waist and tugged me to his chest, dropping his mouth to an inch from mine.

“I would do anything for you, Seraphina Dawn.”

Even take a bullet. Fuck. It had bounced off him. “You’re bullet proof.”

He brushed his lips against mine. “Does that turn you on?”

It kinda did, but he was deflecting. “How?”

He kissed me softly. “I don’t know.” He kissed me again.

I pulled back. “Uri…”

He sighed. “I don’t know. I think when I died and the divine brought me back he must have…upgraded me?” He shrugged a shoulder.

“Okay, but why?” I chewed on my lip.

He kissed my forehead. “It doesn’t matter right now. We have a pack to run.”

I grinned up at him. “We do, don’t we?”

“We need food,” Grayson said.

“I vote pizza.” Cora plopped into the seat opposite me.

Grayson got out his phone.

“I can get it,” Uri said. “It’ll be quicker.”

He vanished and Grayson fell onto the sofa beside me. We laced fingers both too exhausted to move.

Hunter exited the penthouse master bedroom and joined us. “He’s asleep,” he said. “Healing nicely.”

I looked up at him, noting the dark circles under his eyes. He’d been through so much the last few days. Being held captive by the ouroboros, experimented on, almost dying and then saving Eldrick’s life.

I patted the free spot beside me. “Sit with me.”

He hesitated a moment then joined me, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

I studied his profile noticing the slight bump on his nose that was practically invisible head on. His thick lashes lay against his cheek like silken moths. He was beautiful and misunderstood, and he was mine.

“Hunter?”

“Mmmm.” He opened his eyes and sat up straighter. “What do you need?”

You. The word was on my tongue, but I swallowed it. Not yet. “I need you to run the Rising Pack.”

He frowned. “You’re the alpha.”

“I know, but we’re a Tribus. What’s mine is yours, and I need you to do this. I won’t be able to be here all the time.”

“Your Dominus duties…”

“Yes. Will you? Please.”

He nodded. “Of course.”

I’d been neglecting my Dominus duties. The system in the Beyond may have changed but there was still so much reaping to be done and souls to be delivered. With Azazel and Mal out of action, it was my job to keep shit together, but the pack side of my life had taken over. For the hundredth time since they’d left, I wished Mal and Azazel were here with me. That the Underealm was safe, that Lilith would be safe, and they could come home. I missed them with an ache deep in my soul.

Azazel had promised word from Conah, so I’d hear from them soon, but their absence was still a hollow sensation in my chest.

The cuff on my wrist tingled sharply, and I winced.

“What is that?” Cora asked.

I sighed. I’d almost forgotten about it. “This is a long story.”

She gave me a spill-it look.

“You remember the whole, Cain’s bloodline must not die curse Eve put on Azazel?”

“Yeah?” Cora said.

“Well, it was all so Cain wouldn’t wake up.” I filled her in on what Eve had told me.

“Shit, it’s like a train wreck,” she said. “One carriage after another.”

“I know. I have to find him, but so far I’ve only managed to get into his head once and I wasn’t able to identify where he was.”

Uri materialized by the kitchen with several boxes of pizza. “I wasn’t sure what to get, so I bought a selection.”

Amusement curled my lips. “Is this going to be a thing now?”

“What?” he asked innocently.

“The not being able to choose, so getting everything?” I stood and wandered over to him. “The cakes and now this.”

He dropped his gaze. “I just… I realized I didn’t know what you liked.”

“You got me a chocolate donut when I was craving one, and I hadn’t even told you.” I flipped open the top box to find a double cheesy pepperoni pizza. “This is my favorite.”

He looked up at me sharply. “It was the first one I picked.”

I kissed him lightly on the mouth. “You know what I like, Uri. You know it instinctively.”

I didn’t understand how, and it didn’t matter, because I knew it to be true. Uri and I had a connection of a different kind. This. Us, here right now, with the Rising pack, back in control, and pizza—lots of fucking pizza—was just fine.

Yeah, I told myself that, but my heart didn’t believe it. My heart pined for Azazel and Mal. It pined for the Underealm. I just hoped they were okay.

Chapter Sixteen

Azazel

The library in the Keep is one of the most extensively stocked. It’s a vast space of four floors of wall to wall books, and Conah is perfectly at home here.

He’s commandeered the large desk in the center of the room, and it’s littered with scrolls and leatherbound tomes. He looks up as I enter and blinks rapidly to adjust his vision.

“You could have showered,” he says.

I grin through the blood and grime. “You said it was urgent.”

“I think I have something.”

“An aversion to sunlight?”

He snorts, unimpressed by my quip. I join him at the table and reach for the scroll he’s pinning to the wood.

“Whoa.” He bats my hand away then wipes his own on a handkerchief. “No touching the precious.”

I snort. “What am I looking at.”

He runs his fingers over the paper. “Nothing, right now. But there’s something here. I can feel it. Beneath the surface.”

“A hidden message?” Conah has a penchant for the hidden. Memories, messages, artefacts. He can find them, sense them. “You think it’s a map of the pit?”

“It’s something. It could be.” He turns it over and points to a name scrawled on the outer edge of the scroll.

“Samael?”

“I think he’ll be able to unlock it,” Conah says.

Fuck. “Samael can’t unlock his own chamber doors half the time.”

“He can when Lilith is about. She seems to anchor him, and you’re the closest thing we have to her right now.”

“You want me to speak with him?”

“I do.”

I reach for the scroll and he slaps my hand away again.

“No. Shower first, scroll later.”

“Yes, Mother.” I sneer at him in jest and then leave him to his musings.

In truth, it’s good to be back at the Keep. The world beyond is falling apart. More attacks. More death. We’re running out of demons to hold the line. Mammon’s sneak attacks are debilitating us.

Mal and Asmodeus have taken to the training grounds in efforts to bring new soldiers up to speed. Leviathan is in negotiations with neighboring lords for manpower. Saying no to my father isn’t easy. In a week we’ll have an army to be proud of, and if Mammon attacks, he’ll be met with true force.

In a week Imperium will be fortified, and we’ll be able to focus on finding Lilith. I take the stairs to my chambers two at a time, eager to get out of the grimy layers and sluice off the dust and blood from the battlefield

Lilith spares no expense when it comes to creature comforts, and my bathroom doubles as a wet room with several power jets eager to do their job. I adjust the temperature and step into the spray.

Azazel…

Fee’s presence tugs at my soul.

I miss you.

I don’t hear the words. I feel them.

I want to feel her. I close my eyes and imagine pressing my lips to hers, soft but firm. My pulse speeds up when I sense an answering pressure. Her lips are on mine. I fucking feel her. I close my eyes and slide my hands into her hair, sensing the silken strands slip through my fingers. My tongue rasps against hers and then her fingers are trailing down my chest, lingering over my abs, making them tighten in reflex and anticipation as she moves south. I gasp as her hand closes around my arousal.

Her mouth is no longer on mine, but she’s still here. I can sense her presence, and then hot wet heat slides down my shaft.

My hips jerk and I slam my palms against the tile. “Fuck!”

Her hot mouth is on me. Taking me deep over and over. I close my eyes and I see her on her knees, hands grasping my hips, head moving back and forth as she drives me insane. I’m so hard I think I might explode. Then she cups my balls and squeezes. Breath rushed from my lungs and my body is no longer my own. My hips thrust as if propelled by an insatiable force, heat spirals through me, tight, desperate and ready. I come hard. My groans are eclipsed by the shower spray, and then I feel her arms around my neck, her lips on my cheek.