Reapers of the Dark (Cora Roberts #4)

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

We walk in shadows with secrets and lies.

I waved farewell to my pink T-shirt wearing paternal family and slammed the door closed before leaning my back against it. A sigh left my lips as I geared myself up for the next few hours. Lucifer was walking away like he didn’t have a clandestine meeting to attend with me. This deception hurt my heart. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand it, I did, but keeping secrets from mates was like breaking the unspoken eleventh commandment.

“I have some admin to sort before bed,” I told Hudson as he started up the stairs. He froze and turned around to face me.

“I’ll keep you company.”

No, that wouldn’t work. I didn’t want to have to alter his memories when he saw me disappear into nothing. The first two times were hard enough.

My lips twitched. “You’ll have even less time to win your bet.”

His brow furrowed. Take the bait, Principal, you want me naked more than you want to watch me open mail and organize my diary. “Fine. One hour, Cora, then I’m coming to get you, and I don’t care who sees you naked.”

“Are we getting a show?” Rebecca asked as she moved the dishes from the dining table to the kitchen.

“Again?” Sebastian muttered as he made a show of checking outside. “It’s not even a full moon. Can you two not control and confine yourselves to the bedroom?”

I refused to be embarrassed. “If you take midnight strolls on a full moon, I can’t be held responsible for what you witness.”

“Just wait for the summer solstice,” Aunt Liz said with a glance at Dave. A ritual I have never partaken in, and I had no idea my straight-laced aunt danced under the spirits.

“Is there ever a time you witches aren’t getting naked?” Dave asked.

“In all fairness, until Hudson, I wondered if Cora was a virgin,” Rebecca supplied.

Hudson smirked. “Glad I rectified that belief.”

“Everyone is getting some but me,” Rebecca whined, her lips curling down into a pout worthy of a two-year-old.

“I hear Ezra is in town,” I shot back. It was rare I had anything to needle her with. So forgive me for taking advantage of the fact the enigmatic shifter had gotten under her skin. “You could always give him a booty call.”

“I don’t make repeat calls,” she answered. Except she had. Once. For him. I kept hoping our developing love lives would rub off on her and alter her long-held belief that she wasn’t capable of a relationship. Rebecca was a free spirit, easy to fall for, impossible to hold on to. She broke more hearts in a month than I have in a lifetime. But Ezra… he’d blasted into her life, and for the first time, she was left reeling when he walked out the door—not the other way around. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that my longest resident was not up to her usual tricks. In fact, I’m not sure she’d had any encounters in weeks. I hadn’t had to threaten anyone with my shotgun in quite a while. That was like one of the hundred signals the world was ending—or a glaring sign Rebecca Lexington had met her match. I made a mental note to ask Hudson about Ezra once I had him to myself.

“One hour, Cora, then your twenty-four hours will start wherever you are.”

“Twenty-four hours for what?” Aunt Liz asked.

Rebecca chuckled as she floated down the hallway, but not before reminding us she lived in the room below ours. “Oh, The Principal managed to maneuver Cora into agreeing to be naked for twenty-four hours.”

I massaged my temple. “Supernaturals with advanced hearing need to find themselves a hobby that isn’t eavesdropping on my love life,” I grumbled as I trotted down the steps and locked myself in my office. It wouldn’t keep a prehistoric tiger out, but it would slow him down. It was a mostly redundant point. He would never know I was even gone, but just on the off chance something went wrong, I felt locking the door was a prudent thing to do.

The Serpents of the Dawn had formed many many moons ago. At the head was a representative from each of the factions, but rarely one of the leaders. For example, Hudson would never hold a seat, nor Leon, or my grandmother—thankfully. We were the unofficial guardians of their power. We’d all seen the results of it going to someone’s head, like in my grandmother’s case, and we were put in place as a sort of checks and balances system. That didn’t mean we simply sat around chatting once a week. We had thousands of covert operatives scattered around the world who could operate unseen in the shadows as they gathered information and fed it up the line. They were our serpents, and we were the dawn. Our mission was to make sure the world stayed in the light, that life was preserved and protected, and that the proverbial Doomsday Clock never struck midnight.

Lucifer was the exception to the leader’s rule, although it was more of a loophole. He was the king of Hell, but not of the angels. It seemed when they’d tried putting a demon in a position of power, it had gone badly.

They had recruited Harry a few weeks before me, when it became clear the ghost community could have some role to play in preventing an all out war.

And I was here to represent the unique position my DNA afforded me. I had a foot in humanity, the elementals, the angels, and now the shifters with being mated to Hudson. They brought me on after some debate and created a seat for a woman who had no agenda of her own other than peace. Given my power was now on Eloise’s radar, it was also prudent to keep me close. She would come for me, sooner rather than later, so into the fold I’d come. The only difference for me was that I didn’t have an army of serpents delivering me information. I was spying on my lover, my father, and my grandmother, making me the biggest serpent in the room.

With a heavy sigh, I raised my arms and uttered the newly laid spell, which would create a space within a fold in time. In it, the Serpents of the Dawn could gather discreetly without being overheard, and when I stepped back out, no time would have passed—as if I were never gone. It did, however, have a time limit of about an hour before a rippled effect would become pronounced enough to alert those who could sense such things, like my father. The last thing we needed was him sneaking through the back door and finding us convening without him. The bible taught us that an angry Abaddon spelled flames and death. I’d already had my fair share of his wrath; someone else could foot the bill for his temper tantrums in the future.

The air before me tore like a page and I stepped through into a fabricated world conjured into existence by Lucifer. It was an unexpectedly beautiful creation coming from one who resided in Hell. A hill rose before me, the long grass shimmering in the setting sun. As I stalked up it, I marveled at the ancient cherry blossom tree perched at the top. Its pastel pink blossoms floated on a warm breeze, their softness caressing my skin. As I crested the hill, a round table with six chairs came into view.

A smile spread across my face as my great Aunt Sophia waved her crochet hook at me, a nearly completed long cream scarf dangling from her lap. “Cora, my beautiful niece, you are positively glowing. Has that shifter mate of yours been treating you well?”

Dave appeared from the opposite side of the hill with a glower marring his features. “Could we please refrain from discussing Cora’s sex life? I’ve heard enough.”

Lucifer shimmered into existence directly in his chair. He was the only one of us who got to make that kind of dramatic entrance. The rest of us had to climb the hill. I glanced at Aunt Sophia. Actually, I never saw my aunt make the trek as she always beat us all here. Did that mean she got special access?

I narrowed my gaze at my uncle and aunt. I hadn’t managed to figure out their dynamic, but if her random blushing was anything to go by, they had history.

Dave slid into his chair just as Aira stalked up the hill, giving us the vampire representation in this little group. Sebastian’s mother was the opposite of his father. She was gentle, bright, and caring, and until recently, I had no idea she could command a room better than her asshole husband. Being queen of the American Vampires suited her, and if I’d cared to look more than skin deep, perhaps I would have noticed the way she conducted herself didn’t mesh with the meek, obedient woman she portrayed. It took nerves of steel to handle Leon. He was just the louder and brash of the pairing.

Sheathed in a navy cocktail dress, one might assume she was ready for a big night. But she was one of those women I envied; the type who appeared perfectly dressed, with flawless makeup and immaculate hair, no matter the time of day. I was no slob, but I favored jeans and T-shirts on my down days. Makeup was a luxury I rarely had time for, and my hair was, well… I patted my crown. Yup, still a mess. I give up.

Lucifer’s lips twitched as he waved his hand, dragging in our sixth and final member to this little slice of paradise—Harry, my ghostly sidekick. Only my father and I could see him, not that he ever spoke to him. Snooty angels. Here though, through whatever magic Lucifer performed, everyone could, which was honestly a relief. There was a lot of pressure being the only person who could communicate with someone.

Harry settled himself into his chair. He was getting better at hovering over furniture, as if he were corporeal.

“How did the meeting go?” Aira asked, as Lucifer waved a carafe of red wine into existence. It poured itself into our goblets as if served by invisible hands. Show off.

“A lot of words were said that accomplished nothing,” Lucifer answered.

Sophia rolled her eyes as her crochet hook flicked through the air. “You aren’t exactly the measuring stick we need. Unless it’s on a biblical level, you don’t see anything as noteworthy.”

Lucifer smirked. “The consequence of being alive for eons is you learn not to sweat the small stuff, or you’ll go insane.”

Huh, life affirmations from the Devil.

“Abaddon confessed his boss is taking an interest in Cora and her existence, but isn’t mounting a search and destroy mission,” Dave said as he took a sip of the wine.

“Boss?” Aira asked with a frown. Sophia snickered, and Aira’s eyes widened when she realized who he meant. Having a higher power around, one that transcended all of us, was something we shouldn’t ignore. He was, after all, omnipresent.

Aunt Sophia’s scarf was looking more and more appealing by the second. Maybe we should have a thoughtful gift ready, just in case.

“Is it a good or bad thing he has eyes on Cora?” Dave asked.

Lucifer titled his hand back and forth. Oh wonderful. The devil was hedging his bets. “It’s worth noting our actions may be more closely monitored due to our proximity to Cora.” He turned toward me. “I wasn’t kidding, Cora. I’m going to visit your grandmother, and it won’t be through a summoning. I’m going to scare the living shit out of her.”

Sophia shook her head. “My sister is too stubborn for the Devil to scare to death. You might house the worst of the worst down there, but she will be your ugliest acquisition once she finally kicks the bucket.”

“Has anyone tried murdering the bitch?” Dave drawled. “And who do I need to summon to get a little food around here? I’m starving after the inedible hors d’oeuvres you served, Cora.”

Yes, the six-foot-plus burly shifter looked positively emaciated.

Lucifer snorted, and an array of food appeared on the table. Dave hummed as he surveyed the offerings, his nostrils flaring. “Is that venison stew?”

“It is,” Lucifer answered as Dave ladled some into a bowl. “And to answer your question about Eloise, no, not exactly.”

“What does that mean?” I wondered. I had spent many a night plotting my revenge against my grandmother, but given the absence of my parents in my childhood, she was more of a mother figure, sadly. There was a lot of research about why patricide was very difficult, even in cases of extreme abuse. It was like our biology was written to ensure that doesn’t happen.

“She’s not altogether human,” Lucifer said very carefully.

“Not exactly a revelation, uncle,” I responded as I grabbed a triple stacked chicken club sandwich, deciding that I too needed to eat something other than cookies. Apparently, while yummy, one could not exist on them alone. “Her elemental status has never been in question.”

“No, but she’s not just an elemental either.”

Everyone froze. My mouth was poised to take the first bite, and my stomach grumbled in warning should I make the wrong decision.

“Since when?” my aunt asked, breaking the shocked spell. I bit into my food and groaned. My God, the devil could make a mean club sandwich.

“I’m not sure,” Lucifer answered.

“Do you know what she is?” Aira asked. Good question. Glad she asked so I can keep eating.

Lucifer’s jaw clenched. Nope, he did not know, and it pissed him off. “All I can tell you is this: if you strip away her elemental power, all that should be left is a defenseless human, and that’s not the case. Without that power, she should be easy to kill.”

“So you tried?” Dave checked.

Yes, uncle, when did you go rogue and try to murder the woman we have to have meetings about every few days?

“No, I sent someone months ago, before all this recent concerning behavior, to make sure if we needed to dispatch her, we could. But while they could rip away her born power, it revealed something more toxic and unnatural underneath.”

Concerning behavior? Eloise Roberts had been this way as long as I could remember. Just because she’d gotten more ballsy and open with it didn’t mean it was a recent development. Damn, were those smokey bacon bits on the top layer? This and cookies. Surely that was a good diet?

“Unfortunately, before I could investigate further, she leveled up.”

“Leveled up?” Harry asked with a frown. Not a computer games guy. Figures.

“Yes, she got stronger. Whatever she’s doing, it’s becoming more difficult to figure out a way to take her out.”

“Should have done it while you had the chance,” I muttered.

Aunt Sophia smacked the back of my head. “Manners. Don’t eat with your mouth full. I know we didn’t raise you like that.”

I swallowed the last bite with a grin and washed it down with a mouthful of wine. “So the new mission is to figure out how she’s getting stronger and what the source of that power is?” I ask.

“I can check with the spirit realm,” Harry says. “I have contacts.”

Wait, we have serpents in the spirit realm? Very cool.

“I have already done an audit of my demons. It’s not coming from the underworld,” Lucifer said.

“I’ll put out feelers in my community, but unless she’s blood bonded, I can’t see how,” Aira added.

Lucifer already confirmed it wasn’t elemental power, making me feel useless. It wasn’t like my father’s angel buddies invited me around for tea and cake.

Aunt Sophia looked in the wool bag at her feet and grasped a pair of scissors before snipping the wool and finishing the scarf. She handed it to me with a pat on my shoulder. “You’re going to need the gift you were thinking about. I’ll bring the matching onesies if you send me His size.”

No fucking way.