“Brother,” Azi nods at Seth, and I see him return the greeting. Men.
Evie raises her eyebrows and stands up, wiping her hands of the bacon and leaving the packet next to Mossy. “I’m surprised to see you are still alive. Many want you dead.”
“Didn’t just as many want you dead once?” I ask, tilting my head to the side. “Everyone has heard the stories.”
“Well, I’m good at killing those who come after my family, just like your boss did. Now where the fuck can we find him?” she asks, turning swiftly from nice to the badass queen everyone talks about.
Damn, she is life goals.
“His name is Dagthoch, and he is the last of his kind, a soul stealer,” I tell her and Azi and, well, Seth. “I cannot hurt him on my own—I am blood bound—but I know where he lives. I can kill all of his henchmen and guards, paving the way for you. I can hurt Dagthoch but not strike a death blow.”
“The demon is mine to kill,” Seth breathes out in fury. “He will not survive this day.”
“The problem is, I’ve seen him burnt, stabbed, cut and everything in between, but he recovers. Unless you two know a way to kill him, I’m thinking his head needs to be removed and thrown in the ocean,” I say. “Also Dagthoch’s three henchmen are higher demons called Vozzorths.”
“I’ve heard of those.” Evie grimaces. “They are made of pure rot, and they can be killed by ripping their hearts out.”
“Yes, and they are twice the size of a normal human, which means taking them out will be a task,” I add.
“We will team up, you and I.” Evie points between me and her. “Seth and Azi should head for Dagthoch, and we will catch up.”
Girl team for the win. Azi looks to me before asking Evie, “Do you trust this reaper?”
“Seth does, and I trust him,” Evie replies. “Plus, I see myself in her. I doubt Daesyn would double-cross me.”
“I want to kill my boss and get the hell off Earth. That is my plan,” I tell them both.
Seth nods and places his hand on my lower back. “We should leave. Where is it we need to go?”
“We can walk from here,” I tell them just as Mossy wakes up. He sits up and shakes his head, glancing around and focusing on Evie for a second.
“You smell like bacon,” he says, pointing out the obvious.
“You get used to it,” Azi replies, almost a joke from the scary ass overlord demon. Mossy jumps off the sofa and lands on my shoulder as I walk out of my apartment and down the street, knowing they will follow.
“Never had you down to settle,” Evie quietly whispers behind me to Seth no doubt.
He doesn’t reply for a few minutes as we head down the empty street and into an alleyway that has a portal at the end. “Before Syn, I would have said the same thing. Then she was there.”
“And the rest is history,” Azi quietly agrees, his words almost hard to hear over the noise of the portal. “How does your demon fare with a relationship?”
I miss Seth’s reply as I place Mossy in my bag and step through the portal, coming out into a changing room inside a shop in London. I unlock the changing room door and walk out, catching the attention of all the women in here, more so when Seth, Azi and Evie come out next. Everyone watches us with more than a little interest, some of them bringing out their phones to record us.
“We are attracting a little too much attention,” I say quietly, stepping through a crowd.
“Don’t worry, I will smooth it over with the prime minister,” Azi coolly replies, like hanging with the prime minister is a normal thing to do. Evie rolls her eyes with a smirk on her face when I glance her way. Heading down to the bridge, I walk to the edge when we get to the middle and then climb over the safety bars.
“What the hell are you doing?” Seth demands, climbing up after me. Evie and Azi start to look at me like they are just realising I might be insane. Seth catches my arm as I pick one of my daggers out, and meets my gaze. “Talk to me.”
“Do you trust me?” I ask him.
He searches my eyes. “Yes. With my life, Syn.”
Slowly he lets my arm go, and I smile, picking out the dagger and gripping it tightly in my hand. I edge towards the tip of the bridge panelling and look down at the Thames River below me, the fast currents and deadly water clear. Thank god I’m not scared of heights. “They best not have moved this place. Hang on, Mossy.”
I jump, moving myself around in the air and calling shadows to surround me as I fall through the air, straight towards the water. The whistling air blocks out any noise, even when I think I hear Seth shout, and I reach my dagger forward, wrapping shadow magic around it. I slam into the water hard, my body sinking deep within the dark depths as I close my eyes on instinct. My dagger tip crashes into the magical shield, cutting it like candy, and I’m sucked into the portal, falling through air once again and this time crashing into rocky sand. I cough, rearranging my bag and rolling onto my back as I see Seth diving into the water above the magical bubble, his hands burning red with power as he hits the shield. He breaks a big enough hole for him to fall through, and seconds later, he slams into the sand next to me.
“You’re completely and utterly insane,” Seth breathlessly tells me. “But, fuck, do I love it.”
I turn to him, my eyes wide. “What did you just say?”
A foot crunches into the rocky sand by my head, followed by the awful smell of rot. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the orphan reaper back home after all this time…”
Chapter 11
Turning my gaze up, I meet my old boss’s henchman’s stare as he stands over me, towering so high I can just about see his ugly face. I jump to my feet, swinging my dagger out as I take in the man who is made of pure rot from head to toe. He is over nine feet, with long sharp yellow fingernails and yellow spikes of hair. Every inch of him is literal crap mixed with more crap until it made a man’s shape. Add on some creepy white eyes and a line for a mouth, you have yourself a pretty stinky demon.
Seth more casually climbs to his feet, and out of the corner of my eye, I watch as he pulls off his wet suit blazer and drops it in the sand. Slowly, he rolls up his damp sleeves, and I admire the sexiness of it all, including the way his wet clothes cling to his body and every muscle there. My fingers itch to run my hands over every inch of him.
If there wasn’t this bad smell around us...
“Are you back to say how sorry you are that you failed?” he asks, cracking his fingers. “Boss is angry at you. It’s why he sent us all to attack the city and kill those women.”
What women?
“Didn’t see you taking the job for Dagthoch,” I counter, refusing to call him boss anymore. I’ve escaped this place now. I can ask Evie about the women later, because I’ve missed some part of this story. “Or any job other than stinking up his house.”
He grunts and pulls out an axe from his back—literally rips the weapon out of his skin—and clenches it in his thick hand. “Boss wants you dead.”
“So do a lot of people.” I slip my hand over the clip on my whip and let it fall to the ground, the handle tightly held in my palm. “But tough shit, I’m not going anywhere.”