Chapter Seven

Holy shit! He’d heard about reapers but only rumors. There wasn’t much information about them out there. When one appeared, someone was dead or dying, which was why anyone with any sense avoided them.

It had been reapers he’d sensed earlier. He hadn’t smelled them, but his hybrid senses had detected…something, so he’d followed his instincts and hidden them both in plain sight. Something no one would be expecting.

Cassie shifted nervously from one foot to the other. He didn’t scare her. Neither did a vampire of some age. But others of her kind did.

There was a lot he didn’t know. But now wasn’t the time to get into things. “Let’s go.” He held out his hand, but she gave her head a quick shake.

“You’re safer away from me.”

She was trying to protect him. If someone had hit him in the side of the head with a baseball bat he wouldn’t have been as shocked.

“I’ll keep you safe.” Screw killing her. Whatever was going on, he believed she was innocent of any wrongdoing. That was all that mattered. His skills worked both ways. He was a professional killer. He could be just as deadly as a bodyguard.

“You can’t.” Her words were blunt, her tone clipped. “Not from them. And if they know you’re with me, they’ll target you.”

“I know somewhere you can stay.” The words spilling from his lips shocked him. But it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do. He’d take her to his home. His real home.

The smile she gave him was tinged with such deep sadness it made his heart ache. “There is nowhere safe. If someone dies, they show up.” She peered at the roadhouse in the distance and shivered. “If there is an unexpected, unscheduled death, they come running.”

“That’s what the contract was all about.” Now it all made a convoluted kind of sense. He was nothing more than bait to whoever tried to hire him. And if it was one of her people, they certainly wouldn’t be worried about incurring the wrath of the Brotherhood.

“Contract?” She took a step away.

Fuck! He hadn’t meant to say that. “Someone wants you dead and is willing to pay a lot of money to make it happen. Supposed to be exclusive. Not sure how the vampire got involved, but I’ll find out.” He’d start researching as soon as they were somewhere much less exposed. “I have contacts.”

“Just who are you, Alexei?”

He dragged his fingers through his hair, enjoying the way the cold air brushed over his skin. He was aroused, not exactly something he could hide, and it probably wasn’t helping the situation.

She took a quick look at his erection and eased farther away. Yeah, definitely not helping.

“Look, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“But you’d planned to.” The grim acceptance in her voice bothered him. Her face was expressionless, but pain flickered in her eyes.

“No.” That was the honest truth. “I came here to check out the situation. I never take a job without doing my own research. I don’t hurt innocents.”

“Well, isn’t that big of you.” The sarcasm was so thick he could choke on it, but he figured it was justified. “Just what are you? Some big-time assassin?”

“Yes.”

She swallowed heavily. “You’re not kidding, are you?”

“No.” They really needed to get moving. He couldn’t stand around all night without any clothes. Someone was bound to come along and notice. Not to mention the reaper might double back for another look.

“I can’t believe this.” She spun around and began walking to town. He hurried to catch up with her. She ignored him, her focus on the road ahead.

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

“Why, you trying to find out how to kill me?”

“No. I want to know how to destroy any of the fuckers who come after you.” His vehemence stopped her dead in her tracks. He rammed into her, sending her flying forward, but rescued her before she hit the ground.

“Are you okay?” He hugged her close.

Peering up at him, she shook her head. “I don’t understand you.”

“That makes us even. I don’t understand you, either.” He brushed a lock of hair from her forehead and sighed. “But I have a deep need to protect you.”

Don’t be stupid. Don’t be stupid, he chanted over and over in his head.

But logic flew by the wayside. Nothing could stop him from what he was about to do.

He slowly lowered his head. Cassie’s eyes widened, but she stood her ground. He pressed his lips against hers while inhaling the sweet fragrance of flowers that seemed to cling to her.

She pressed her gloved hand against his face and stroked his beard. Even though a layer of leather separated her skin from his, a low growl escaped him. She drew back and licked her lips. Her sweet, full, delicious lips.

“Why am I so drawn to you?” She asked the question he’d asked himself a dozen times since he’d first laid eyes on her. “This isn’t right. I can’t pull you into my mess.”

“I’m already in it.” There was no stepping back from her, not any longer. “There are rules for hiring one of the Forgotten Brotherhood.”

She paled and dropped her hand. “You’re one of them?”

His guts clenched when he caught his first whiff of fear. “Yeah, I’m one of them.”

…

Alexei was one of the Forgotten. Even she’d heard of them. It was suddenly difficult to breathe. Her chest constricted and her heartbeat sped up.

No wonder he’d ashed Damian so easily. The power behind what he’d done, the quickness of his actions, spoke of experience. Now she understood why.

Every paranormal had heard of the mysterious and dangerous Brotherhood. Most prayed never to meet one. They were a reclusive bunch, spoken of in hushed whispers. They were the bogeyman, the paranormals that others of their kind feared. They were the ones you contacted when a nonhuman went rogue and needed to be put down.

Was that how her family saw her?

It was disheartening.

They were legendary in their ability to get the job done. Word was, once they took a contract, they were unstoppable. But you’d better be sure the job was righteous, or you’d be the one facing the assassin.

She couldn’t imagine getting up enough nerve to actually try to hire one, but someone had done it. Maybe even Death himself.

Maybe Alexei could kill her.

“Were you given anything by whoever hired you?”

“Tried to hire me,” he corrected. “I’m still in the investigative stage. And no.”

A wave of relief washed over her. It would take a very specific weapon to end her. He didn’t have it. That was good.

Her breathing leveled out and some of her anxiety receded.

Alexei was an apex predator to almost any creature. But there had to be more to him than that if he was one of the Brotherhood.

They were a law unto themselves.

“We gotta move.” He took her hand and started towing her behind him.

She tried to pull away, but he wasn’t having it. When she yanked again, he gave another growl—was it so wrong that she found that hot?—and lifted her right off her feet. He never even broke stride.

I’m being carried across the snow by a naked polar shifter.

My life is so weird.

Alexei had found her. A vampire had found her. And because of his death, the reapers had found her. Or would have if it hadn’t been for Alexei’s fast actions.

Still, whoever hired him would know she was in the area.

“You’re nothing more than a means to an end to them.” And she hated them for that. They had no right involving innocent people in their dispute. Okay, so maybe the vamp hadn’t been innocent, but whoever had put the price on her had placed the people of Nome at risk. And that was unacceptable.

“That just pisses me off.” His feet crunched against the snow. She marvelled that he didn’t seem to notice the cold at all. With her gifts locked down, she was freezing. And she was fully dressed.

“Um, what about your clothes?” It belatedly occurred to her that they were in shreds back where he’d shifted.

“I buried what was left.”

“You did?” She’d missed that when she’d been lost in thought.

He grunted again, and the lights of the town grew brighter. “Someone will see us,” she pointed out.

“Doesn’t matter.”

She rested her head against his thick shoulder, allowing the heat from his skin to radiate into hers. It was like snuggling against an electric blanket. “Can you talk in more than two-word sentences?”

“Yes.”

She waited and waited. Her lips twitched. Then she started to laugh. This entire situation was absurd.

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. He really was handsome. She touched his face, stroking her fingers over his thick facial hair. It was soft, not scratchy against her skin. His arms tightened around her, but he didn’t tell her to stop.

“Where are we going?” Time to be proactive. She’d been independent a long time. It was what had allowed her to break away from her kin and try to make her own way. “I moved around a lot until I landed here. I figured keeping myself isolated was key. Fewer deaths meant less chance of being discovered.”

Alexei kept to the shadows, moving stealthily behind a group of houses. “I can walk, you know.”

“Faster this way.” He picked up speed, becoming a blur. Then they were inside a house and he was lowering her to her feet.

“Wow.” The room spun slightly, and she blinked several times to right it. What he’d just done was similar to what she did when she was on the job. Her kind could go from one side of the world to the other in a split second. She hadn’t had any trouble with speed since her first trip. Maybe because her powers were muted it was different. Or maybe it was the man himself making her head spin.

“Why didn’t you move that fast from the beginning?” They could have been here much quicker, even if it wouldn’t have been safe to do with them being hunted.

His cheeks turned a faint shade of red. “Liked walking with you.”

It was hard to reconcile the lethal assassin who’d killed with such speed and accuracy—all without breaking a sweat—and who’d had the intelligence and quickness to hide from a reaper—no easy task—with the slightly embarrassed male who’d carried her here, all because he’d enjoyed being with her.

Alexei was a contradiction, a complex man with many layers. She’d known it, but there was even more to him than she’d imagined. What she’d witnessed only touched the tip of the iceberg.

He made his way into a bedroom and quickly dressed, pulling on jeans, boots, and a sweater. Once he was clothed, he jammed a laptop into a pack before returning to her side.

“Wait.” She stopped him before he could open the door.

“Why?”

Her physical and psychic skills might be unavailable to her, but she could still use her brain. “If I was searching for me, I’d watch and see if anyone was making a run for it. We’re lucky we weren’t spotted on the way here.” Easing back the curtain, she peered out the window into the darkness. “It’s probably a good thing you took things slow on the way here. Too much of a burst of speed might have gotten attention.”

“I don’t know anything about reapers.” He set his pack down and motioned to the sofa. His was newer than hers. Bigger too. And a pleasing shade of gray instead of the hideous pattern she’d lived with.

She was going to miss that ugly sofa. It had been hers, at least temporarily.

She slipped her bag from her shoulder and dropped it beside his before taking a seat. “We only have contact with other species at their time of death.” She gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Doesn’t make us the most popular of folks.” That was an understatement. She was usually met with fear and anger.

Alexei sat and bent one knee so it was resting on the sofa and his body was turned toward her. She fought the urge to throw herself into his arms. The only person she could depend on was herself. She had to remember that, which wasn’t easy with him sitting beside her and practically radiating concern.

“How does it work?”

“Reaping?” When he nodded, she decided to give him a condensed version. “When someone is supposed to die, one of us is sent. Our purpose is to guide the newly departed soul to where it needs to be. We never take a life. And we never interfere. Those are the two cardinal rules.”

“Never?” He seemed surprised. Most people were.

Sometimes a reaper showed up early, before a person had actually died. That usually freaked them out.

“No scythe—no cutting a person down?”

“No cutting a person down.” She didn’t mention Death’s scythe. That was probably the most lethal device in existence. It could destroy anyone or anything, even a god—small g, not the big G. The head reapers had lesser versions, but those were still deadly in their own right.

Alexei dug his computer out of his knapsack and powered it up.

“What are you doing?” she asked. Curious, she scooted closer. She was very aware of him as a man. As much as she tried to keep her mind on what was important—staying alive—she couldn’t do anything to stop the way her whole being seemed to come to attention whenever she was near him. Now that he’d defended her, it was even worse. He’d put his life on the line for her. What woman wouldn’t be enticed by that kind of strength of character?

And then there was his body. Some women might be put off by his size, but not her. It was a huge turn-on that he was big enough, brawny enough to carry her several miles through the snow in the middle of the night.

She’d been so strong for so long. It was nice to have someone to lean on, even temporarily. And she wouldn’t apologize for that. It didn’t make her weak. It made her human, which she wasn’t. Not really. She wasn’t sure what she was classified as. Paranormals didn’t consider them one of theirs. They were outsiders.

Maybe that’s why she’d been so fascinated with people, how they loved and lived. Their lifespan was so short, but they packed so much into it.

“Cassie?”

“What?” Crap, had he been talking to her? This was no time to get distracted. She had to focus her attention.

He angled the laptop so she could see the screen. “Forgotten Brotherhood? You guys have your own website?”

“We can keep track of jobs so we don’t get in one another’s way.”

“Yeah, I bet that wouldn’t be good. There was an incident, wasn’t—” She broke off and nibbled her bottom lip. There’d been an incident all right. She remembered now. Reapers had been pulled off other jobs when there’d been a mass slaying, totally unexpected. It had happened a long time ago, likely before his time.

“We used to use a mail drop in the early days. This is easier. One of us per job, if we chose to accept it.”

“Like Mission Impossible, the television show and the movies?” She’d watched a lot of television this past year and loved it. There were so many diverse shows from comedy to police dramas. Not to mention reality television, which had very little to do with reality, in her opinion, but was downright entertaining.

Alexei chuckled. She smiled and pointed. “I did it. Made you laugh.”

He shook his head but kept on grinning. “Like Mission Impossible. Once we accept a job we see it through. Which is why we investigate a target before we act.” He shifted the screen back around and typed in a message.

“What are you doing? Who are you contacting? The less people involved in this the better.”

“Don’t worry. Maccus can handle himself.”

“The Hunter?” Jeez, he did move in some dangerous company. There’d been a shakeup between Heaven and Hell not long before she’d taken off that had resulted in a lot of tension. Even Death had taken an interest. But things had settled down before they’d had to get involved.

The angels managed their own affairs, and Lucifer was in charge of his demons. But reapers had to collect any casualties. She’d never understood why they weren’t involved in the affairs of the angels, fallen or otherwise, but questions weren’t encouraged.

That had become a problem for her.

“How do you know about Maccus?” The frown on Alexei’s face would terrify children and give grown men nightmares. Why was he so upset?

“Everyone knows about him. There was an incident last summer before I left the family business.”

“So, you’ve been gone since then?”

Too warm all of a sudden, she unzipped her coat, slipped it off, and ran her hands over her jean-covered thighs. “Yeah.”

“Why?”

That was the big question, wasn’t it? How could she make him understand? “I had one job.”

“Collect souls.”

She sat back on the sofa and started to pull her feet up, realized she was still wearing her boots, and took them off. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she stared off into space as memories swamped her.

“We do more than that. We’re there when a person leaves their physical form. Everyone is frightened, at first. Or angry. We help them transition to whatever comes next.”

“How do you know?” Alexei stretched his arm along the back of the sofa so his fingers barely grazed her shoulder.

“Where to take them?”

He nodded.

“That’s predetermined. Depends on what kind of creature you are, what god or gods you worship. Death makes the final decisions in any dispute, and we carry them out.”

His hand slid up until he cupped her neck. She angled around so she was looking at him. “Doesn’t it get hard to just do as you’re told?”

“Oh yeah.” That had been part of the problem. “But there’s always a cost when you don’t follow the rules.” She shivered and pulled her legs closer to her body.

“Tell me.” His voice was soft as a whisper, as though he knew how difficult this was for her.

“A reaper once decided a person was too beautiful, too special, to die. That the world needed them.” Her eyes welled with tears, but she blinked them back. She’d never shed a tear before she’d muted a part of herself. The longer she lived among humans, the more she resembled them.

“So he refused to take a soul and the person what? Came back to life?”

“He put the spirit back into the body. Similar to what happens naturally in a near-death experience. If a person isn’t supposed to die, but something happens, they can be guided back until it is the proper time. It’s rare, and it’s always sanctioned by Death himself, in consultation with whomever it is that makes those decisions with him.”

“Don’t you know?” He seemed surprised.

“We’re worker bees. We don’t have access to that kind of information. Above our pay grade.” Some of her bitterness seeped out. “I get it. I do. Don’t reap someone who is scheduled and you can set off a whole series of catastrophic events. People die when they’re not supposed to. Others might be born way before their time. It’s a mess and it has to be cleaned up or the whole balance of history could be at stake.”

“Why did you leave?” He rested his forehead against hers, his closeness bringing her comfort. “I can’t believe you did something bad enough to justify a hit on you.”

His faith warmed her, but he was wrong. “I did something unforgiveable.”

Alexei lifted his head and simply stared. There was neither disbelief nor condemnation there. Only a quiet acceptance. Long minutes passed. There were no more questions, no pressure or demand for more information.

“I couldn’t do it anymore,” she blurted, unable to keep it pent up inside. “Not for any high-minded reason. Not because I thought someone who was supposed to die should live. I simply handed off my cases to a co-worker and disappeared before they could stop me.”

“I don’t understand. What’s so wrong about that?”

How to make him understand. “In the history of the world, I’m the only one to ever walk away. But imagine if others decided to do the same. Who would reap? Chaos would ensue. People would be lost in the in-between, maybe forever. World order would be upset.

“I may be the catalyst that ends the world as we know it.”