Chapter Three

Delivering a soul was the easiest part of the job. It was a simple delivery, and a process Sasha could do with her eyes closed. Unfortunately, she was still worked up from her little encounter with that damn Hellhound—that damn fine Hellhound, if she were being honest with herself. With his shaved head and rippling muscles covered with tattoos, he was practically edible. Not that she’d noticed.

The soul delivery process definitely wasn’t going to be as easygoing as usual today. And of course, there was a line.

It seemed the Pit was receiving a large influx of bad eggs tonight. Sasha tapped her toes, studied her blunt nails, looked around impatiently. All she wanted to do was get home, take a nice relaxing bath, and maybe read a book. She also had her nightly workout routine to do, but relaxing before that was important. The sooner she got out of here, the sooner she could be soaking in hot water and forgetting about Razor—er, everyday stresses.

Finally, she was able to hand off the soul she’d collected so it could finish its journey. Once they gave the soul over to the Receiver, Reapers washed their hands of the soul, and their job was done. So Sasha transported her ass out of the limbo-esque plane where souls were dropped off.

Stepping into her apartment at last, Sasha breathed a sigh of relief. Looking around the place, no one would have guessed that she could have actually afforded a mansion. Her apartment was in the midst of the slums. Each Sector had its bad areas, but the blocks that made up what everyone knew as “the slums” were the absolute worst-not just in Sector Three, but in the entirety of Shadow Realm.

Sasha had been living there ever since moving to Shadow Realm, and she’d stayed for specific reasons. She blended in here because she’d made it her job to do so. There was plentiful information here that she couldn’t gather anywhere else, or that no one from out of the area would ever be able to get. She had friends and allies here. Sasha was a powerful Reaper living simply and in a dirty corner so she could be overlooked.

And kick ass while no one saw her.

Her apartment was a mess, though that wasn’t so much on purpose as it was she simply saw no reason to go nuts cleaning the place. It was never a home in the true sense of the word. She worked, and then she came here to sleep on a bed. Rinse and repeat. Speaking of relaxing, Sasha smiled as she walked into her bathroom, leaning down to turn on the hot water in the tub.

“Do you have a moment to talk business?”

Sasha whirled around at the voice laced with amusement, her automatic reflex to attack the intruder fading away quickly. Only Reapers could travel so quickly and appear undetected in her private space, and only one Reaper specifically would be so entertained and at ease to do so.

Leaning easily against the sink in a white V-neck shirt and jeans, Xavier smiled at her. His dusky brown skin peeked out of his shirt, and the tight-fitting clothes hinted at the sleek muscles underneath.

His dark, shoulder length hair was disheveled in a way that suggested a lot of running through it with his fingers, and his smoky gray eyes were sharp. Seeing the leader of the Reapers in her apartment was enough of a shock to straighten her spine.

“Is everything okay?” she asked. Xavier hardly left Ra’k, the realm where only Reapers could go and where he ran everything. The only explanation she could come up with was the damn world exploding.

Xavier laughed warmly. It was specifically when he laughed that he looked completely androgynous. Sasha hadn’t been sure of his gender or even which pronouns to call him until she’d finally asked him centuries ago. He was too damn beautiful to be legal.

“Yes and no. There’s no oncoming apocalypse or anything to get worked up about. There is, however, a situation.” Now Xavier’s expression turned more serious. “I have a case for you to work on.”

“Sure, anything,” she replied easily.

“I’m setting up a few teams to research this in different directions, because it’s going to be a very delicate situation. Souls are disappearing off my radar.”

Sasha’s eyes widened. Xavier didn’t lose track of souls. Period. She already had a bad feeling about this. “How many?”

“Five souls in the past two days.” He paused and met her eyes. “A hundred souls in the past month.”

“What the fuck?” Sasha paled so much she could probably pass for a white girl. One soul disappearing was an anomaly. Five souls was a head scratcher. A hundred souls? Something stank. Bad.

Xavier shook his head. “I’m not mentioning the total number of souls to anyone else. You can keep that information to yourself. But I needed you to understand just how big this problem is.”

Sasha stared at him. As she processed that, a niggling feeling in her stomach made her pause. “You know…we’ve been finding a lot of strange dead bodies. They look like they’re melted, but it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. Have you heard of this?”

He frowned deeply, visibly troubled by the information. “No. But I’ll look into it.”

She shook her head. They didn’t know who was doing this, how, or why. Fan-freaking-tastic. “How the hell are we going to stop this? Do we even know what kind of creature is capable of screwing with the soul system like that?”

“We don’t.” He sighed. “But that’s your job. You and your partner will—”

“Whoa, hold up. Partner? I don’t play well with others. You know that.”

“You and your partner,” Xavier said in a slightly louder tone, continuing as if she hadn’t interrupted him, “will work together and do your thing in the slums to see if you can hear any rumblings. Archer spotted a creature ripping out throats the other night and has a lead you can ask him about. Personally, I think you and your partner are going to be able to come up with information no one else will be able to have access to. You need to work with him in order for us to fix this mess.”

“Him?” Sasha closed her eyes, praying this partner of hers was, by some miracle, one of the other Reapers. She loved her fellow Reapers like a family. Locke was like her sweet younger brother, and Archer like her wild older brother. No matter how bad things got, they all looked out for each other.

Looking up, she saw Xavier watching her as if she were a dog about to bite him. It was a pretty funny sight to see.

Until he spoke again.

“You’ll be partnering up with Razor.”

Sasha didn’t consciously remember picking up the towel from her counter. Nor did she remember throwing it at Xavier’s head. Even as she was questioning her choice of weapon, she heard his laughter. He’d disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the bathroom.

“I’m glad you find this so funny, you asshole.” So what if he was technically her boss? She’d called him worse things over less.

Xavier was full on grinning now. On top of that, he wagged his finger like she was some schoolgirl he was scolding. “It’s the only thing that makes sense, Sasha. Archer is out of the question since he’s pissed off too many people to be useful in covert operations.” Sasha snorted. That much was true. Xavier continued, “Locke might work, but he doesn’t have the rapport you’ve already established on the streets. I’m cutting down your Calls to only when Archer and Locke can’t take them. And for the love of all things, please play nice. You and Razor are the only ones who can work in certain areas and not raise suspicion. He has access almost everywhere, and you have access to the places no one else knows about, including him. Do not argue with me. It is done.”

“But—”

“No buts. Sasha…” Xavier’s smile faded, and he was once again the serious leader of her kind. Because of how close she and Xavier were—she saw him as her only father figure—she often forgot how much responsibility lay on his shoulders, and how much he was in charge of. “Please. This is important.” Fury flashed in his eyes, but not at her. “Whoever is behind those missing souls needs to be found. Quickly, and before word gets out. Before it gets worse. I need to know who thinks they can get away with this. They won’t think so highly of themselves when I’m done with them.”

She sighed and let her head drop. The tension in her shoulders tightened as she imagined the horrors of that many missing souls. Seeing Xavier not only concerned, but actually angry, told her without a doubt how serious this was. Nothing got him angry. “Yes, Xavier. Of course.” She bit her tongue to keep from commenting, again, how much she’d hate working with him. The one person in all of creation who managed to piss her off with a word and, only very recently, turn her on with a look.

Xavier nodded once. “Get some rest. You’ll need it.”

With that, Xavier disappeared, leaving Sasha and her frustration alone.

She needed to hit something. Hard.

Well, seeing Razor again might have a purpose after all.