“I can do more than that… if you can wait just a little longer.”
What were a few minutes between life and death, after all?
It was everything… but for some reason, I was willing to risk it.
Chapter 2
Sephtis
I wasreluctant to leave Caiden, wary that another of my kind would find him, but there was no other way. There was nothing else I could do.
I wasn’t even sure if this was going to work… but…
I found the cupid standing over the body of a human, though I could tell by the black tips of their nails that they’d been close to turning into an Enmity. It was easy to find Wren, because the lure of death followed him wherever he went. He liked his job… perhaps a little too much. I leaned down, brushing my fingers along the skin of the man on the ground. There was still enough life in him that when I pressed my hand to the center of his chest, I sensed him there, but he was fractured. Broken. There were only pieces of him left behind. The darkness of hatred had already swallowed too much of him for even Death to make him whole. The soul hounds would come for him soon.
“Why is it always you who shows up?” Wren’s voice was casual, a little breathless from the fight he’d just been in. When I glanced up at him, he was watching me with curious eyes as I brushed my fingers along the man’s chest one more time and then stood to face him.
“This is my territory.” I answered truthfully. There were as many Reapers as there was need, but we stuck to our own areas. It kept us busy… and when our only purpose was our job, being busy was all there was.
“Right… well, if you aren’t going to clean that up…” He gestured to the body on the ground and I frowned. When I didn’t move, he twitched in irritation, the dark wings that I’d seen him with so often springing from his back like they were restless to move. “I should take care of it. At least make it look like something other than an arrow took him…”
He trailed off as I stepped between him and the body.
“I need your help.”
Wren’s purple eyes went just a little wide. The surprise on his face was there and gone in a flash before he stepped around me and took a blade from his side. I watched in silence as he covered his tracks, making it look for all the world like the dead man on the ground had been stabbed instead of shot. When he was satisfied, he rustled his wings as he stood, glancing at me through dark hair.
“What’s in it for me?”
Ah. Of course. We were friendly, but were we really friends? A cupid who couldn’t feel love and a Reaper who couldn’t feel anything at all… we were certainly a pair.
Except… I knew there were times when Wrenthoughthe could be more. There were times, for a brief moment, when cupids had the ability tofeel.
And I…
“Anything.” The word came out softly, a promise too dangerous to make, but one I was willing to keep. I brought my hand to my throat and pulled the pendant I wore from around my neck, speaking softly under my breath as I did. The metal flared bright, binding the promise I was making to the chain. “Ifyou call, I’ll come for whatever you need.” I held it between us, and he looked the necklace over in curiosity.
“What do you want?” His tone was cautious, but his fingers trailed the pendant I offered like it was too tempting to pass up. It should have been—no one curried favor with a Reaper. No one had an in with Death.
I really was risking everything, but I knew I was asking him to risk things too. I dropped my eyes to the ground, letting my dark hair trail into my face as I spoke. “I want to feel.”
There were a few seconds where I could almost swear I heard his heartbeat—where I would have heard mine if there was anything in my chest. Instead, there was the cool rush of air, and somewhere in the distance Caiden’s soul still calling me to take it, demanding someone ferry him to the afterlife.
And I…
“Sephtis… do you know what you’re asking?” Wren’s voice was wary. When I looked up and nodded at him, he bit his lower lip. But his expression was curious, and it was that curiosity—more than anything, I think—that made him take the pendant from my hand. “We have to go back to Love’s Ace.”
I nodded. “I’ll meet you there.”
He looked me over as though he almost wanted to take back the offer, but when his wings rustled again and he nodded once before taking flight, I knew temptation and curiosity were too much for him to resist. I closed my eyes and thought of the hotel that I knew housed many of the supernatural creatures in the city. When my lids fluttered open, I was standing there, just on the perimeter, hidden in the tree line and out of sight of anyone inside.
Wren’s boss found it funny to toy with the world around him.
Fate was a strange creature like that, though… always meddling where it didn’t belong.
I needed to make sure he didn’t see me here now, tempting his cupid to do something forbidden. Maybe if I offered to tell Wren who his boss really was, he’d help me without a favor.
Then again, the last thing I needed was to be on Fate’s bad side. There was already the chance he’d orchestrated what was happening now on a whim.
