I slung my chain out to the side. “Guess it’s restraining him.” Cocking my head to the side, I asked. “Did you bring the syringe?”
Maureen took a deep breath and morphed her sword into a chain like mine. “You two and August are gonna be the death of me.” She made us sound like a handful.
I wanted to chuckle but then something worse happened. The wave of exhaustion slid over me, blanketing my body, invading my mind. I staggered to my right.
“Um, Maureen…might need to find a bed too while you’re at it.”
Her eyes widened in horror. “Oh, no, no, no,” she shouted at me.
I slumped forward, heading face first into the dirt just as I saw Barron charging at me with murder in his eyes.
“Payne!” Maureen screamed. “Reaper down! Reaper down! And Barron’s—”
Four
Payne
"Payne!” Maureen screamed. “Reaper down! Reaper down! And Barron’s looking at him like he’s about to skewer him!”
She didn’t have to yell when I was already witnessing what she saw and in motion to get to them. “I’ll get Barron,” I told her, and she nodded as she took off running.
Barron grabbed Sebastian’s body and lifted him over his head before he could fall to the ground. “Fucking hell,” I muttered. I was dealing with a sleeping beauty and a raging loon. Really though, why did I think it was a good idea to bring these two along?
“Don’t bend him that way,” Maureen said to Barron as if he could reason in this state. He was bending Sebastian in half over his head. Before he could break his own brother’s back, I charged into him and collided with him on the ground. I heard Maureen huff, so she must have scuffled around to catch her brother. He was too big to catch, though, which explained the huge thud and the groan that came from her lips behind me.
“Are you okay?” I somehow managed to ask while Barron roared in my ear.
“I can handle myself,” she told me.
I didn’t get to respond. Barron threw me off him with that damn scary strength of his. He was strong, but his strength was amplified when his sin was working on him. He also seemed quicker. “Do you have the syringe?” she asked me.
“Like I’d leave the house without it knowing he was coming with us.” I got to my feet and shuffled around in circles as he stalked me. “The problem is getting close enough to use it on him.”
“Better hurry,” she whispered behind me. “He’s starting to lose his flesh.” I looked at his hands and saw she was right. His raging red essence swirled around his boned fingers. It was now or never. Soon he’d have neither flesh nor muscle and we’d be seriously fucked with no way to handle him.
All three Reaper brothers could turn into a skeleton like their father, the Grim Reaper, but it was worse when Barron skeletonized during a rage. He made you want to run the other way.
“Toss it to me,” Maureen said, jumping beside me. “You hold him, and I’ll use it.” I yanked it from my pocket and tossed it to her. The only way to do this was to just charge head first, and that was what I did. I dodged his arms as he moved to grab me and slung my own around his waist. He didn’t even move this time when I tried to knock him to the ground. His arms came around and started squeezing the life out of me.
“Might…want to…use it now,” I breathed out.
She came up behind him and pressed the needle into his neck, shooting the liquid into his system. Immediately, he lost his grip and stumbled back before dropping to his knees. He grabbed his forehead as his eyes returned to their normal shade of brown. He looked up at me and muttered, “Fuck,” before he face-planted into the dirt.
I grabbed the back of my head and sighed. “You Reapers are a pain in the ass.”
Maureen only smiled as we bent down and flipped him over. It was moments like this, watching these siblings deal with their curses, that made me realize not knowing what kind of demon I was wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
“Call August. I won’t be able to carry them both back.” She snorted, so I added, “He can step away from his harem for a couple hours.”Greedy bastard. I knew each of them had their own demon to deal with, but August was a downright crook. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true, he was just manipulative and knew how to get whatever he wanted. Yeah, never mind, I stood by what I first said.
“Do I detect a hint of jealousy?” she asked lifting her eyebrows.
I stood and turned toward the children. “Sleeping with one woman is a headache in itself, I don’t see why anyone would want a harem of them.”
“You know, it’s not his fault,” she whispered quickly, slightly offended.
“I know.” I turned and gave her a small smile. “Still an asshole,” I muttered, and she laughed.
“Well, I’m pretty sure you are too.” Her laugh faded as we walked toward the children. “They’re terrified.”
