Reapers of the Dark (Cora Roberts #4)

Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Be still my beating heart.

I snuck up on my unsuspecting prey, marveling at my silent approach. If I didn’t already have a job with a secret covert organization, this untapped skill would totally get me hired.

I avoided the creaky floorboard in the hallway. The sounds of my family in the kitchen faded out as I put one foot in front of the other. My gaze narrowed at my quarry sitting in the window, surveying the gardens bathed in the early afternoon sunshine. This had to work. I’d tried so many things already, and while my life was full of so many unsolved mysteries, this felt like one I should be able to solve.

Almost there. I pounced, emitting a screech loud enough for cartoon heads to pop. Bella twisted her head and blinked at me.

A thunder of footsteps sounded behind me as my family and friends came to witness my failure. I pointed at the White Furry Menace. “You are not a normal cat, so stop acting like one.”

She lifted her paw and started giving herself a bath.

Harry flew into the room a few seconds later, brandishing a frying pan. “I’m here, Miss Roberts, to defend your honor.” I dropped my head to my chest and sighed. Wait. That was an actual frying pan, not a ghostly one. What in the fresh hell was happening?

Sebastian arched a brow from his position on the sofa. “Do you all see the flying frying pan?” he checked.

Why was no one scared of me?

“Yes, it’s Harry’s,” Aunt Liz replied.

Sebastian nodded like it was normal, just as Harry moved the frying pan in a swooping motion, like he was trying to spank my invisible foe with a kitchen utensil.

“Would a knife not have been more prudent?” Rebecca asked.

Stop trying to help me.

Harry frowned. “Knives are very dangerous, Miss Lexington. You know how many people end up in the emergency room with accidental stabbings? I didn’t want to risk hurting myself.”

Oh, the irony of a dead vampire worrying a real knife was going to add to the real-life emergency room statistics.

I glared at Bella before spinning on my heel and marching through the gang of supernaturals to my kitchen. It seemed my cat would remain an enigma.

Rebecca, Maggie, and Aunt Liz filed in after me as I grabbed the salad items from the refrigerator. I needed something to occupy my mind while we waited for Aunt Dayna to get back. She had a contact within the sect and was trying to arrange a meeting. Apparently, turning up unannounced and uninvited to a death cult wasn’t wise.

I aggressively chopped the lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes before tossing them into a glass bowl. Could I persuade Aunt Liz to make her broccoli and cheese quiche to go with the salad? I paused, my eyes scanning the counter. What was I missing? Oh, right. Cucumber.

After dragging the wrapper off it, I ran it under the faucet and picked up the knife. My mouth opened to enquire about the quiche when powerful hands gripped my shoulders, and a deep voice shouted, “Boo!”

I squealed and spun around, brandishing the cucumber in one hand and the knife in another. The cucumber smacked Hudson’s chest and flung out of my hand onto the floor.

“What are you doing?” I growled.

He grinned. “Demonstrating how one sneaks up on a cat.”

“That menace is no cat.”

Said cat strolled around the corner, took one look at the cucumber, and exploded into the huge demon version of herself I’ve seen exactly once before. She was about the size of a lion, with silver eyes, curved ears, and wickedly sharp teeth.

“Oh my god,” I muttered. “Are you seeing this?” Given everyone was staring at the terrifying feline, I assumed they could.

“What is she?” Aunt Liz asked.

“Complicated,” I muttered, lowering myself into a crouch. Bella snarled at the cucumber. I reached out and plucked it from the floor to hand to Hudson. She plonked her ass down just as Harry floated into the room. She hissed at him, and he raised the frying pan, brandishing it over his head. Rebecca reached over and grasped the handle, just as the boundary wards sounded. Company, just what this situation needed.

“I’ll just hold on to this,” she said. Harry smiled at her and released his weapon. Another poor man who was under her spell. Dead or alive, they didn’t stand a chance.

I inched forward, and Bella’s wary gaze seemed to bore into my soul as she watched my approach. The sound of the front door opening reached us, and Bella swiveled her head at an impossible angle, letting out a low growl before racing toward the door. Hopefully, that wasn’t a random guest, because being greeted by a demon cat wasn’t in the Summer Grove ethos. We at least waited until they’d booked and paid before releasing the weird.

Dayna strode in just as Bella dived around her legs and disappeared outside. Ugh, I wanted to figure out what she was. Was that too much to ask?

Dayna blinked. “Should I leave the door open?”

“No, she’ll come back when she’s ready,” Hudson answered from behind me.

I sighed. I guess the mystery would persist a little longer.

Dayna pointed at the present my father had left, diverting my attention from furry mysteries. “Are you going to open that?”

I eyeballed the box with a frown. What did Daddy Darling gift his only daughter? He was a little late for driving lessons and my first car.

Dayna huffed. “If you don’t, I will.” My aunt wasn’t good with secrets or surprises.

“If I open it, are you going to tell me about the god of death’s sect?”

She nodded once. “Absolutely.”

I rolled my shoulders and strode to the box. It couldn’t be anything bad, right? He was an archangel. Maybe it was something cute, like a mini angel statue or a special edition bible. I grabbed the ribbon between my fingers and tugged the bow loose. It fell away, and I lifted the lid. Glitter exploded in my face and shimmered in the air, making me stumble back and cough. My father glitter bombed me? Seriously? It could be worse—oh no, wait. The sparkly substance dissipated, revealing a glass-enclosed heart.

My eyes rolled to the heavens as I breathed in, held it, and released it. That was definitely a humanoid heart, and it was still beating. Well, that was novel. You didn’t get those at Macy’s on sale.

“Snacks. I approve,” Indigo purred. Of course she did.

“What is it?” Dayna asked with a little bounce.

I grabbed the dome-shaped case and lifted it free of the box. She froze. Hudson snarled. Aunt Liz cursed. A small note was tacked on the top.

The beating heart of the hound who dared to touch my daughter. Unfortunately, he still breathes, mostly likely through a deal with Donn. But rest assured, the pain he felt was very real.

Happy belated Christmas,

Father

I blinked. My father had tried to kill Michael Glaister as a Christmas present to me. I was more freaked out about that than the heart thumping strong and steady in front of me. After carefully placing it back in the box, Rebecca peered over the edge with a look of disdain.

“It smells like death.”

“It’s a heart that no longer exists in a body. What did you expect it to smell of? Vanilla and cherries?”

“No, but it’s alive, still beating,” she said with a raised brow as I replaced the lid.

“And?”

“It should smell fresh. Yet it stinks like utter and complete death.”

“It’s a wonder we didn’t smell it before,” Hudson replied, his voice deep and growly.

I had never felt more happy that I lacked supernatural senses.

“I think the glitter bomb released it into the world,” Dayna added.

I glanced down at myself and tried dusting it off. Nope, not shifting. Wonderful. This shit stuck around for days. I’d be finding it a week from now in the weirdest of places. People who used glitter in cards were in league with the Devil. Figures his brother would see fit to shower me with it.

“The sect?” I prodded as I strode into the parlor. Dayna followed me, followed by Aunt Liz. I stumbled to a stop when Aunt Sophia appeared from downstairs. Why was my great-aunt in my office? I narrowed my gaze, and she flapped a hand at me.

“Don’t look at me like that. My scissors broke, and I needed them to finish the sweater.”

“You could have tried the kitchen.”

She rolled her eyes and sat in an armchair. “You don’t mix culinary and craft scissors. That’s unsanitary.”

“But getting them from a doctor’s office is okay?”

“Did you use them to cut someone open?”

“Well, no?—”

She snorted. “Then stop stalling and let’s hear Dayna’s news. Unless you want to explain the glitter?”

I turned my pleading gaze to Dayna. She folded her hands in her lap and glanced at Hudson, Liz, Rebecca, Sebastian, Sophia, and then me, making sure everyone was listening.

“The upshot is they will meet with you,” she said.

Well, that was easy. Something had to be, right? “Great, when?” I asked.

She grimaced. “Today.”

I beamed. “Excellent. The sooner the better.” Why was no one else excited? Nothing ever went our way, so we needed to be thrilled over the smallest of wins.

“Umm, they will meet you today at their premises.”

“It’s not unusual that people want to meet on their home turf.”

“In Ireland,” Dayna reminded me.

I rubbed my temple. How had I forgotten? Today? Ireland? Was that even possible? It was what? A nine or ten-hour flight? Plus, they were ahead of us. Meaning, even if we left right now, we wouldn’t be there until tomorrow morning. They’d set us an impossible task. Wonderful.

“How is that even possible?”

“Umm, well you have a few friends who can,” Dayna snapped her fingers, “zip-zap, you around.”

I did?

“Family, not friends,” Aunt Sophia added.

I glanced around the room. Who was holding out on me? Which family member could literally materialize from one place to another in the blink of an eye? “Who?”

Hudson growled. “No.”

Sophia smirked. “Uncle Lucie, of course.”

My head dropped back, and I groaned. No good could come of involving Lucifer with the god of death. It felt like I was waving a massive red flag in front of a bull.

“How do we get hold of him?” Rebecca asked.

I side-eyed my aunt, who was happily finishing a crocheted sweater. “I have his email,” I muttered. True—but that wasn’t how I’d contact him.

My aunt arrived before me, confirming my suspicions, directly seated at the table despite her having left after me. I wasn’t complaining—I enjoyed the trek up the hill, as it allowed me to gather my thoughts before tangling with the Devil. Despite him clearly not being the big bad, he hadn’t earned his reputation by being a sweetheart, either—even if my giggling aunt had hearts in her eyes for him.

I glanced at the sky, which was darker than normal, and my skin pebbled as the breeze touched my arms. I reached the top of the hill a moment before Dave and Aira. Harry wasn’t here yet, but his transition into this little haven could be a struggle.

“What’s with the moody ambience?” Aira asked as she folded herself into her normal chair. There wasn’t any food today, since it was an emergency meeting.

Lucifer glanced at the sky with a frown. “His presence is being felt.”

“He who?” I snapped. “There’s a lot of ‘he’ being bandied around these days. Please be more specific. And before you say ‘a god,’ again, I implore you to specify.”

Lucifer quirked a brow as Harry shimmered into existence, completing our gang. “Donn. He’s the bringer of night and hoarder of souls. He is affecting the different planes of existence by stretching his power. Gods—any of them—alter the fabric of the universe. Where they go, reality warps until it becomes the new norm. The remnants you are seeing on Earth, the fact our ghostly friend here can affect matter, shows he’s getting stronger.”

“Is this new?” Aira asked.

Lucifer shook his head. “No, I’ve felt Donn getting closer for months. Being the lord of the underworld, I am perhaps a little more sensitive to the changes this particular god brings.”

“Dayna got me a meeting with his special little sect,” I said.

Lucifer’s eyebrows rose. “You’re going to the house of Donn?”

That didn’t sound so bad. Better than a scary sect of doom and death.

Sophia nodded. “But she needs to get there today.”

Lucifer grinned. “Oh, really.”

Dave pointed at him. “That’s your super-villain smile. Put it away when you are looking at my Principal’s mate.”

“Aww, I knew you liked me,” I said with a chuckle, making Dave roll his eyes.

Lucifer kept his grin in place while Aira leaned forward. “So you are going to meet Donn? The god of death?” she checked. “And nobody is worried about this?”

“Not the god of death,” Lucifer corrected. “There are several of them. Enough for a baseball team, but not a gospel choir.”

That was a weird analogy.

“But he is the only one hanging around and causing havoc,” I answered. “And he’s made some sort of deal with my grandmother, protecting her from being killed.”

Aira nodded. “So you’re going to reason with him? A god of death?”

That was ridiculous—you couldn’t reason with gods. “No, I’m going to try to reason with his little group of worshippers.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“You don’t think it’s a trap?”

I snorted. “It’s always a trap. But we won’t get anywhere by sitting on the sidelines, hoping my grandmother comes to her senses and sends him packing.”

“Even if she did, he wouldn’t leave now. He’s too invested,” Lucifer said with a frown at the sky. “He’s here for the long haul.”

Great. Wonderful. Excellent.

“You are making grumbling noises, grandniece,” Sophia snapped. “Speak clearly or shush.”

I pressed my lips together.

“Why are you covered in glitter?” Lucifer asked.

Dave and Sophia snorted.

Aira shook her head. “It’s impolite to ask a lady about her state of dress.”

“I’m not. I’m asking her about her decoration.”

“The belated Christmas gift my father brought me last night contained a glitter bomb in addition to the still-beating heart of an enemy.”

Aira stifled a laugh, and Sophia snickered.

“I thought he looked extra proud of his gift. You’ll have to forgive him. I can’t remember the last time my brother bothered to get anyone a present.”

Lucky me, I got the special cookie.

“I’m still confused about why the meeting was called early,” Aira said.

Sophia swung her crochet hook between me and Lucifer. “She needs a ride to Ireland, pronto, along with her mate to provide protection.”

“I have air miles,” Aira said with a frown.

Oh, if only that was a solution.

I sucked in a breath because the Devil was going to make me ask. “Uncle, would you take Hudson and I via whatever wonderful magic you use to get us to Ireland quickly?”

His lips twitched, and he steepled his fingers together. “Say please.”

I gritted my teeth. “Please.”

“On one condition.”

Dave stiffened while Aira darted a nervous glance between us.

“Tell me.”

“I want to officiate your wedding.”