Shadow Reaper (Shadowlands Series) (18 page)

I propped myself up on my elbows. “So?”

“Well, they say the longer you’re one of Daemon’s girls, the more addicted you get. So Gina . . . she may suffer some withdrawal symptoms if she misses her session with him.”

Oh . . . shit. I can’t say I didn’t feel a little bad for her, but if it came down to a choice between some chick I’d never met and one of my closest friends, then there was no contest.

Freya was watching me carefully, and I met her gaze with a level one of my own. “I’m sorry for her, I really am, but it won’t kill her, will it? Bernadette could die if I don’t save her.”

Freya opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. I knew what she was thinking, and I knew she was unsure how to say it, so I said it for her.

“I know Bernadette could already be dead, or I could die trying to save her, or I could get there and fail, or never get there, who knows, but I have to try. I have to hope, Freya. Hope is what makes us who we are . . . human.”

Freya dropped her gaze and smiled. “I’m glad I met you, Ash. No matter what happens in the next day or so, I’m glad we met.”

“Me too.”

***

Gina was down. Freya delivered the news to me before her shift the next day. Dehydrated and weak, she’d been confined to her quarters under quarantine. Shadowlanders didn’t get sick and human weakness such as this made them uncomfortable. Plus, they were super aware of the possibility of the spread of infection. Cal was trained in both human medicine and Shadowlander apothecary.

“Remus will go mad when he finds out,” Freya said

“Where’s he gone?” I asked

Freya shrugged. “He comes and goes as he pleases. He’s a Lepre, and Lepres are loners, very paranoid, and extremely suspicious. He doesn’t give anything away, not even a thank you. I heard that he won’t accept help from anyone, for anything, because once he does, it’s like a weight on his shoulders that he won’t shift until he returns the favour.”

“Which realm is he from?”

“Enchansa. He and Cal are Avery’s men, or that’s what they say.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about all this.”

She blushed again and the word ‘pillow talk’ popped in to my head. Her and Cal?

She cleared her throat. “I have to go, but I’ll see you later . . . or not, if you manage to pull this off. Good luck!”

She left me to figure out the next stage of my plan. In my haste to get the spot as one of Daemon’s girls, I’d neglected to consider the possibility that, number one, there were several other girls here who would probably love to claim the spot and, number two, they were probably more qualified; big tits and all that. And, number three, I had another shift in the kitchens, which meant I’d be locked away with no chance of spotting Remus, the guy I needed to convince.

Fuck!

Now, the way I saw it, I had two choices: I could skulk about, hovering at the bar before my shift in the hope of catching Remus, or I could go find him and demand he put me in Gina’s spot. But why would he give me the spot over the others? Damn it! I had no leverage, nothing to offer.

Or did I?

***

Turned out I had to do some hovering after all. Apocalypse was huge, and almost every door in the place was locked. It seemed that only the doors I needed to go in ever opened. I couldn’t help but think there was magic involved.

So I hovered at the bar.

It was quiet tonight, almost dead. Freya hadn’t been joking when she’d mentioned how few customers were coming in. Were the Ambassadors gone yet? I knew Freya was at the door. Maybe I’d go chat with her to kill time. I had half an hour left before my shift started, so, yeah, I’d go chat to her. I headed for the door and had my hand on the doorknob when a weight fell on my shoulder.

I jumped, whirled, and yelped at the stony expression on Cal’s face.

“Going somewhere, little human?”

“Um, yeah, I was going to talk to Freya?” Now why did that come out as a question?

“No you’re not.”

Heat flared in my chest. “Why not?”

“Because you have orders not to leave,”

I felt my eyes get hot. “Orders? Who the fuck gives you rights to give me orders? If I want to walk out that door and leave, then I will. You can’t stop me.”

He looked off to the side for a long moment, looking for all intents and purposes like a statue dressed in whatever material his clothes were made of.

My anger died down a little, and I was hit by a wave of shame. He was only following his orders after all. If what Freya said was true, then he was an employee just like me, albeit not as reluctantly as me, and then I reminded myself I really needed to be here, at least for a little while longer, at least until I got to Daemon.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t running off. I really did just want to speak to Freya.”

He turned his head to fix his eyes on me. “You can wait at the bar until your shift.”

With one last longing look at the door, I headed back to the bar. The next fifteen minutes passed while I sulked as Henry continued to avoid me. I had no idea why he was being so weird toward me. I was just about to grab the bull by the horns and ask him when Julie appeared.

“Hey, Ash.” She leaned in and hugged me. It felt so nice. I squeezed her back.

“You on the bar today?” I asked.

“Yep. Henry is so much fun!” My lips turned down and she cocked her head. “Really? You don’t like him?”

“No, I think it’s the other way round, actually.”

“No, Henry gets on with everyone.”

“Yeah, and he was getting on great with me too until I messed up and almost let a Succubus touch me. Thank goodness Avery came along in time and stopped her.”

Julie’s expression morphed into one that said she knew something.

“What?”

“Avery saved you?”

“Well, um . . . he told her, Caroline, not to touch me and something about how he valued his staff.”

“Yep, I can see why Henry might be upset, but it’s not you, it’s Avery. You see, about six months ago, a girl called Vanessa worked here at the bar. Henry and Vanessa grew close, but there’s no fraternising between human staff. They don’t want any little humans wandering about, you see. Anyway, Vanessa was at the bar one night and came across an Incubus, that’s a male version of a Succubus.”

“So what happened?”

“The Incubus took a liking to Vanessa and Avery let him have her. Apparently he was a favoured customer. Politics, that kind of thing.”

I stared at her in shock. “What do you mean he let him have her?”

Julie sighed. “You know how Incubi feed, right?”

Sex. Oh, shit!

“But that’s . . . that’s horrible.”

Julie shrugged. “She’d enjoy it, Incubi feed off the pleasure their partners experience from sex, so yeah, he’d make sure she enjoyed it.”

“But it wouldn’t be real, it wasn’t her choice!”

“Exactly, and Henry . . . Henry took it hard, so don’t be too mad at him. To see Avery step in and save you when he threw Vanessa to the dogs, it can’t be easy.”

“Did the Incubus take her with him?”

“No. By the time he was done, there was nothing to take. Vanessa was gone.”

He must have drained her completely. My heart ached for Henry. “Do they do this often? The Shadowlanders? Do they give humans away?”

“It happens if it suits them. This place is good, better than we could ever hope for out there, but you have to remember, we’re nothing but cattle to them, pets to be used as they please.” She narrowed her eyes. “Which makes me wonder what it is they want from you?”

“I wish I knew.”

A door slammed, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Remus come barrelling in, his tiny, wrinkled face an unhealthy red, which, set off against his orange hair, was not a pleasant sight.

I was off my stool and striding toward him before I’d formulated what I was going to say. I stepped right into his path and he came to an abrupt halt and stared up at me, hands on hips.

His bushy brows rose. “What?”

I licked my lips and dove in. “I want to take Gina’s place.”

“Huh? What the heck you on about?”

I looked at him down my nose. “Gina’s place as one of Daemon’s girls.”

“Daemon’s what now?”

Was he deliberately playing dumb? I sighed. I guess I’d have to spell it out for him. “I want to take Gina’s place as one of the humans you send down to him every month for his little orgy.”

Remus snorted. “You’re either crazy or stupid or both, lass. No human in her right mind wants that gig, only the ones with more air than brain between their ears. You don’t strike me as one of those.”

I leaned in and played the card I hoped would sway him. I just hoped I’d interpreted Freya’s information correctly. “I helped you the other day.”

His eyes widened and then his jaw clenched.

“If you do this for me, then we’ll be even.”

“Fucking humans gossiping and eavesdropping! If we didn’t need you to hear, I’d have insisted they chop off your ears and cut out your tongues! Daemon likes his girls just the way they are and Gina is one of his favourites.”

It struck me then that he had no idea that Gina was out of commission. “Um, you may find that Gina isn’t feeling too well. You’re responsible for picking Daemons girls for him and you need a girl. I want you to make sure it’s me.”

He squinted up at me with his beady black eyes. “You’re a wily one, aintcha?” I was surprised to hear him chuckle. “Fine, you’re in. I’ll send someone to fetch you when it’s your turn. Gina usually goes last and lasts the longest, so if you’re taking her spot then . . .” He grinned, showcasing blunt, slightly yellowing teeth. “You sure you want this?”

And then it hit me. I was going to have to have sex with a Shadowlander! At the look of horror on my face, his grinned widened.

“I dunno what your agenda is, lass, but Daemon’s agenda is fucking, and fuck you he will. So, you go down there, expect to come back sore and used.” He waited, watching me with hooded lids.

My heart was hammering and my throat was tight. Suddenly, I wanted to back out, but then I thought of Bernie, of Clay, and my people, of all I could achieve if I just got through this one thing. It was sex, just sex, and if it could get me what I wanted . . .

“I’m sure.”

***

All this time I’d been focused on getting to Daemon with the hope of talking him into helping. No other plan, no further thoughts. I hadn’t even considered that it might get as far as actually sleeping with him.

Okay, now I was trembling.

We were in a small room, which a guy I didn’t recognise had led me to. Down, down, down in the lift we’d gone, so it felt like it was descending forever, and then into this room, no preamble. I was wearing a silk shift that ended above my knees and nothing else.

The room was ambient with low lighting and cushy seats—a waiting room.

Remus’s fingers gripped mine. “I hope she’s worth it,” he said.

“What?”

He snorted. “Humans aren’t the only ones to gossip. I know what you want from him and you won’t find it, but I know it’s something you need to do for yaself.”

I almost lost my nerve then, but I’d come this far. I had to do this. I had to know for sure.

Remus turned me to face the door to Daemon’s lair before asking the nameless guy to tie on the blindfold. It was tight but not too tight.

“Do not try and take it off,” Remus said. “He will hurt you if you do. Wouldn’t want to replace another human.”

A nudge in the small of my back, a blast of heat, and I was moving into the lair.

“Use your hands to feel your way. The corridor is narrow, but it will open up. Once it does, he’ll find you.”

Why did those words sound so ominous? Oh, yeah, because I was walking into a Shadowlander’s lair, one that no human had actually ever seen. My mind conjured up all sorts of images and, believe me, the mind can be a powerful thing. I’m pretty certain nothing I would see would rival the pictures my mind was painting.

My fingers trailed along the rock surfaces of the wall, heat blasted my face in wafts, and perspiration popped up on my brow. The stone floor was warm against the soles of my bare feet. As my heart began to thunder, I cursed myself. Why hadn’t I thought to pump Remus for information on what exactly Daemon was? I knew he was from Inferna, but that was it. In fact, I didn’t know what Avery or Jiva were either, but, I told myself, I didn’t need to know. After tonight, when I succeeded in convincing Daemon to help me, I wouldn’t need to know.

A scent hit me—sweat and sex and incense. It grew stronger and then the walls went away. My fingers caressed nothing but air, and my heart climbed up into my throat because I knew I’d arrived.

He’ll find you.

Shit!

I stood still, my knees trembling.

Get it together. You can do this, you can talk to him, plead, beg, whatever.

I felt his presence before I heard him.

Feet scraping the stone.

My feet had made no sound which led me to believe that he wanted me to hear him approach. Did he want me to be afraid? The possibility made me do the exact opposite. I stood taller.

“You don’t scare me,” I said.

The scraping stopped.

“I need to talk to you, okay? I came to talk. Nothing else.”

A low rumble filled the air and pressed against my chest. Was that a . . . a laugh?

“Seriously, I only took Gina’s spot so I could see you.”

A roar erupted around me, bouncing off the stone and battering my ear drums, filling my marrow with dread. I pressed my hands to my ears and bent double, suddenly so frightened I was sure I’d wet myself.

What the hell? What had I said to piss him off? Then I knew I’d said ‘see’ . . . I’d said I wanted to see him.

I held up my hands in surrender, standing tall again. “Sorry, bad choice of words. I meant meet you, okay? I need your help.” Damn, it would help if my voice didn’t wobble.

There was a silence so deep that for a moment, I thought I’d gone deaf until he spoke and my insides vibrated in a strange symphony.

“Come forward, human.”

I shuffled forward a step or two.

“Closer.”

Oh, Mother, that voice, penetrating my skin, vibrating under it, skimming over it. I took another two steps. I felt a prickle over my scalp as strands of my hair shifted. The heat in front of me intensified, and then I felt his breath on my shoulder and tensed as he inhaled, slow and deep and long.