Reaper
Table of Contents
Epilogue
Reaper
A Note on Language
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
About Laura Greenwood
Reaper
Laura Greenwood
Contents
Reaper
A Note on Language
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
About Laura Greenwood
Reaper
© 2017 Laura Greenwood
All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission of the published, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address; lauragreenwood@authorlauragreenwood.co.uk.
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Reaper is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Note on Language
Please note that the author of this book is from the UK, and as such, spellings and some turns of phrase will appear in British English.
Blurb
Anima is a reaper with no tattoos, and no ability to reap souls.
For reasons unknown to her, a demon queen has set her sights on her capture.
If Anima wants to have any chance of escaping Chesca and her minions, she needs to accept the help of the one person she really doesn't want to.
Anima's feelings towards Thantos might be more complicated than even she realises. And Than is certainly not as indifferent to her as she believes.
One
Fuck. Not again.
I looked down at the dying human in front of me, not quite knowing what to do. I was supposed to be making the old woman’s passing easier, especially as she’d suffered through the agony of chemotherapy in the past few months. But, as per usual, my reaping abilities were letting me down.
“Need a hand Nim?” an amused male voice came from behind me. I gritted my teeth. I really didn’t want to deal with Thanatos right now.
“Don’t call me Nim,” I ground out.
“Sorry Anima.” He drew my name out in a way that made it clear he wasn’t sorry in the slightest. Doing my best to ignore him, I tried to focus my reaping powers on the woman again. And failed. Again.
“Eurgh,” I let out an annoyed grunt.
“Let me,” Than said. He pushed past me and rolled up his sleeves, revealing twin sets of swirling tattoos on his forearms. I watched in awe as the tattoos moved, glowing a soft blue in the dimly lit hospital room. This was how reaping was supposed to work. And this is where my problem lay. For some reason, I’d been born without any tattoos. Growing up, my parents hadn’t had an explanation for it. No one had. It was just something that I had to live with.
If I could even be called alive. We’re that weird in between; not alive or dead. We can interact with the world around us, mostly to take souls like Than was doing now, but we couldn’t be seen by humans. Or paranormals for that matter. In fact, the only beings we could interact with were the Angels and Demons; and neither of them liked us. Being a Reaper was tough. Being a tattoo-less Reaper was worse.
“All done. You really should stop trying,” Than said, turning back to me.
“If I stop trying, then how will I learn?” I snapped.
“Can you learn?” He raised an eyebrow and it was all I could do not to punch him in the face. Not ladylike behaviour I’m sure, but Than had been mocking me since we were kids. I’m not even sure what he has against me, but somehow, he always seems to be around in my worst moments.
“Where did you send her?” I asked, ignoring his question. If I was honest with myself, which I hated being sometimes, I wasn’t always sure I could learn. I didn’t understand Reaper magic, but I suspected that without the tattoos I was always going to struggle with performing it. Than just shrugged.
“Wherever it was she was meant to go.” I scowled at him. He knew that I couldn’t sense where souls went, how could I when I couldn’t even reap them from the body?
“Not helpful,” I muttered. A look of concentration fluttered across his face.
“She went to Heaven,” he said softly. “Happy now?”
“Yes,” I answered, keeping my voice just as soft. It wasn’t like Than to do something for me, and I didn’t want to ruin the moment.
“Good. Catch you later, Nim,” he said before strolling away down the corridor and towards the exit of the hospital. That man is infuriating. Yet I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him as he sauntered away.
I glance back at the now dead woman in the hospital bed next to me. It was probably best if I left too.
Two
I flopped down onto my brand-new leather sofa. Well, the brand-new leather sofa. Technically it wasn’t mine. Nothing in the house was. Just one of the many disadvantages of not being able to interact with most of the world’s inhabitants. And I refused to live with the other Reapers. All they did was look down at me because of my skin.
I tugged the long-sleeved jumper so it covered my wrists. I didn’t want any reminders of yet another failed reaping. I’d managed it once. I was about twelve and they were teaching us. But the ability soon trailed away when everyone realised my tattoos weren’t developing. As far as I could tell, and based on the various proddings I’d received, they were supposed to appear with each of the first hundred reapings. After that, they just did the weird moving thing like Than’s did. Sometimes I caught myself thinking about whether they hurt when they move, but I didn’t like to dwell on that. It’s just another reminder that I wasn’t a proper Reaper.
Maybe Mum had an affair with a Demon or something; I wouldn’t put it past her. She wasn’t exactly the most stable of people while I was growing up. Weirdly, me leaving home was what caused her to finally grow up and become the mother I always needed. Typical, right?
“Is this seriously where you live?” a lilting voice asked from by the door. I cracked open my eyes to see my only friend leaning against the doorframe. Her long blonde hair and heart shaped face gave her an air of innocence that she definitely didn’t possess. Most Demons didn’t.
“How’d you find me?” I asked with a
sigh. I purposefully never told Lindsey where I lived. I didn’t tell anyone. But a Demon definitely wasn’t the kind of person I wanted knowing. I trusted her for the most part, she was my friend after all, but there was a reason that Demons had the reputation they did; and Lindsey had likely done some bad things.
“Please, as if you’re hard to find.” She waved her hand dismissively and sank down into the armchair opposite. It matched the sofa perfectly, both in style and its newness. A small giggle escaped as I thought about the poor unsuspecting humans who wouldn’t realise a Demon and a Reaper had already broken in their furniture. The bed too, come to think of it. I’d been here a while, and I hadn’t been alone every night. Yes, I broke the rule about letting a Demon know where I lived. But he owed me a favour, so I used it to keep my secret. Quid pro quo and all that.
“What are you doing here Linds?”
“Coming to find you.” She scrunched up her eyes in a look that clearly said, ‘obviously Anima’, but I ignored it. I knew her well enough to know I could. “Chesca’s after you,” she said after a moment of silence. I congratulated myself on waiting her out.
“Again?” I tried for a bored tone but Lindsey clearly didn’t buy it. Neither did I, really. Chesca was bad news. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to get on the Demon’s bad side, but it wasn’t somewhere anyone wanted to be. Especially since she was pretty high up the hierarchy, certainly higher up than she should be if she was focusing her attention on an insignificant Reaper like me.
“She’s promising a place by her side for eternity to the Demon that brings you to her alive.”
“Great,” I muttered. “Least they want me alive.”
“That’s not a good thing, Nim.” Lindsey actually looked worried. Which was concerning, even I had to admit.
“Not wanting a go at me yourself?” I bit out, trying not to sound bitter and failing. That was the problem with being friends with a Demon, sometimes there was no way of telling when they were about to turn on you.
“I’d never align myself with Chesca.” Her lip curled up as she said the other Demon’s name. I wondered what that’s all about. It wasn’t like Lindsey to let on what she was thinking about people. Unless Elijah counted. She really seemed to hate the angel. I’d only met him once, and he seemed pretty pleasant from what I could tell. But Angels and Demons, and all that stereotypical nonsense. And it was nonsense. Really, they had no say over what souls went where. A person went where they were meant to be. Up, if they’d done good things, down, if they’d done bad. It really was that simple. IIt surprised me too when I first learned that.
“Yeah, yeah, she’s one of the Queens of the Damned and all that. She really can’t be too bad or she’d have me by now.”
“Why aren’t you more worried about this?” Lindsey demanded in a tone that only made me wonder how she’d refrained from banging her fist on the table beside her. Her normally brown eyes flared with actual fire, and if I didn’t know her, I was sure I’d have been scared.
“Because what’s the point in being worried?” I replied as calmly as possible. “It doesn’t change the fact I have a Demon queen after me, does it? So, my choices are panic, or stay calm and work it the fuck out. I’m choosing that option.”
“Oh.” She looked lost for words and I was kind of pleased with myself. It wasn’t often that I truly got to put someone in their place.
“Yes, oh.” I held her gaze, and eventually her eyes returned to normal.
“Have you at least got someone who can watch your back for a bit?” she asked. An image of Than, all hard muscles rippling with the dark tattoos, flashed through my mind, but I pushed it away. He didn’t deserve any more of my thought time than he already got. No way at all. Eventually, I shook my head. “I suggest you change that Nim. They will come for you, and I can’t be around when they do.”
“I know you can’t,” I admitted. She was probably risking a lot just by being here today. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Please do. I’d hate to find out what Chesca wants you for.” She disappeared into a puff of smoke, as was customary for a Demon. They got so many cooler powers that Reapers did.
Lindsey’s parting words resonated around my head. I couldn’t say I was in a hurry to find out myself either.
Three
Fucking Demons. They just couldn’t leave me alone, could they? For the third time in as many days, I was being chased. Which wasn’t the end of the world really, I could run pretty fast. But it wasn’t exactly helpful in getting them off my tail. Figurative tail anyway, they were the ones with the real tails. I guess I could turn around and fight them, but that just seemed like effort, and I didn’t think I was that good at it.
Glancing behind me as I ran, I took in the two Demons following me. Their forms flickered between humanoid and dark brown oozy blobs. Personally, I didn’t understand why they bothered having two forms. It was only us Reapers and the Angels that could see them anyway, and we knew what they really looked like. Even if they hadn’t been losing control of their forms like these two were, if I concentrated hard enough then I’d be able to see what they were. It was one of the few powers that I actually had, and even then power was probably too strong a word for it. It’s just something that we can do automatically, I guess like some kind of evolution. Not that I’m entirely sure we do evolve. Reapers have been about since the very beginning as far as I’m aware. I’m never really sure what to think when the Reaper leaders started preaching. I don’t think all of it can be true, otherwise there’s far too much superiority going on.
I stumbled slightly, cursing myself for my clumsiness. The Demons behind see it as an advantage, and reached out towards me. A sharp claw wrapped around my leg and I bit back a scream. There’s not much that screaming could actually do for me. I didn’t think there was anyone else around to hear me anyway. And they’d probably enjoy it. Demons were twisted creatures. The ones sent by Chesca even more so. Least they were going to take me alive. Well, if they didn’t get carried away. Judging from their inability to hold their humanoid form, I’d say these were pretty low-down Demons, which meant they weren’t likely to be able to contain themselves once they started on the violence.
I kicked my foot out, catching one of the Demons in the face. Taking advantage of their shock, I sprung to my feet and relaxed into a pose that was easy to fight in, suddenly glad that I’d creeped in on all of those self-defence classes that humans seemed to have every other day. Between that, and the twin knives that were currently strapped in my boots, I knew that realistically, and even if I doubted it on occasion, I had the upper hand. Didn’t make me any more eager to engage them though.
The Demon whose face I’d kicked lurched forward, and in a fluid moment, I swung my leg around and kicked him again. I say him, I’m guessing it’s a him, but there’s really no way of telling. Not with this level of Demon anyway. A second Demon took the opportunity to come towards me, probably thinking that I was an easy target while my attention was on his friend. Proving him wrong, I swung around and punched. Maybe not technically a martial art move, but I couldn’t care less; if it worked, then I was going to do it. With both Demons occupied with nursing themselves, I grabbed my knives, their long glittering blades looking deadly in the dim light.
The Demons came towards me again, this time in unison; though I don’t think it was intentional. They didn’t seem like the types to be able to co-ordinate well. I slashed at the one to the left, turning myself in a graceful circle to slash at the other one too. I might be naturally clumsy, but the moment that I started to fight, I gained an inbuilt grace that must come from somewhere. It was a pity I couldn’t access the skill at any other time.
One of the Demons attempted to trip me, but I tucked myself into a ball and rolled, springing back to my feet behind them. Thankfully, it seemed to take them a bit longer to respond, and work out where I was. Demons really could be stupid sometimes. Beyond the stupid that was thinking Chesca would honour her deal. While I didn’t know th
e Demon Queen personally, she was probably like all the rest. Deals meant nothing to them unless they swore with a blood oath. Or owed you a favour. That normally got them behaving; they hated owing anyone anything.
I needed to end this. If I didn’t then I’d end up worn out and no good to anyone. All I needed to do was somehow stab the Demons through the heart. You know, Demon killing one-o-one and all that. While humans were wrong about pretty much everything that lived among them, their myths were pretty much spot on when it came to Demons. Most were evil, though there were some good ones like Lindsey, and they were pretty much impossible to kill unless they were stabbed through the heart. Or stabbed anywhere with an archangel sword. But those were like the archangels themselves; hidden away and no one ever saw them. Lindsey said even Elijah has never seen one, and he’s a flipping Angel. Those two really did have a weird relationship.
Focus. I needed to focus. The Demon on the left lunged towards me and I turned all of my attention to him, hoping that I could move quick enough to be able to avoid the other one in the process. With one strong thrust forward, I stuck my dagger into the gooey flesh. Ick. It really was disgusting, like sticking my hand into mud after it had rained for six days.
The Demon started to melt. Well melt wasn’t the technical term, but it sure looked like melting. The mud like goo slid off it, and down to the pavement, before kind of disappearing. It was weird. Couldn’t say I’d ever seen a Demon die before.