Unreap My Heart (The Reaper Series) (12 page)

Chapter 12

SITD

N
EW
I
NFORMATION
S
WIRLED
around in Arianne’s head. She had to leave Balthazar alone—much to his relief, she could tell—just so she could sort through it all. She let him lead while she followed contently, watching the ground the whole time.

She had no idea what Granmare Baba had done to her back at the hut. The procedure involved drinking a couple more nasty potions—one smelling of armpits and the other tasting suspiciously like blood. Lots of chanting followed then just before the explosion, Granmare Baba touched her neck. Arianne lifted her hand to the tattoo. It still felt hot to the touch. She’d screamed when Granmare Baba branded her, but the explosion drowned out the sound.

The witch had connected her to Balthazar in a weird way. She could feel some of his thoughts. She wasn’t sure how to describe it properly. She couldn’t read his thoughts—nothing cool like that. And something told her she wouldn’t want to know what really went on inside his coconut. Probably a lot of weird stuff a girl her age shouldn’t know. More like she “felt” the moods connected to the thoughts, which gave her an idea of what he was thinking in connection to what they were doing. Like right now, Balthazar was zeroed in on something. Arianne assumed it had to do with where they were going. So, since he had reverted to his ignore-Arianne state, she focused on the information Granmare Baba “uploaded” into her brain.

If she imagined the universe like a coin, the human world would be heads to the Underverse’s tails. The humans walked upright while the creatures in the Underverse walked upside down. That explained why the Underverse didn’t have a sun. The sun belonged to the human world. The light in the Underverse came from a place called the Nethers. Arianne didn’t know much about that place, maybe because it wasn’t involved in their journey. She suspected Granmare Baba only gave her information connected to finding the Redeemer, who—she now knew—was a being created from the purest of souls. At any given time, there could only be one Redeemer in Haven—a place not quite Heaven. Beings called Heavenly Hosts stayed there when they needed to enter the human world, like the Crossroads for the Reapers.

Arianne felt badass knowing all these things. She didn’t have to ask so many questions anymore. Only one other thing didn’t make sense to her. Granmare Baba—while Arianne deliriously craved Angel’s tears (an experience she’d never go through again if she could help it)—called Balthazar an Enforcer. Whatever that meant. Every time she groped for the information something blocked her, like with password protected files. Granmare Baba teased her with the information, but she had to unlock it herself like a character in a role playing game. Before she could level up, she needed to complete a few tasks first. Well, show her what to do and she’d get it done. Arianne didn’t slack off. If she could accomplish something in a day, she’d have it done by lunch.

When she looked up, the scenery had changed again like when she and Balthazar moved from the Barren Lands—a stretch of nothing between the Crossroads and everything else in the Underverse—into the Sorrow Flats. She understood why now. Nothing stayed put in the Underverse. It didn’t have a single location for a place. Things constantly shifted. If you didn’t know what you were looking for you’d definitely get lost. And getting lost? Not good. She hated to admit it, but Balthazar was right. From what she knew, the Underverse made a Venus flytrap look tame.

“I’m always right,” Balthazar said from over his shoulder.

“You can feel my thoughts, too,” she said back matter-of-factly. Having Balthazar feel her too? Not as freaky as she thought. So long as he couldn’t read the rest of her thoughts, she had no problems with him feeling what she was currently thinking.

Since it seemed he’d finished ignoring her, Arianne moved to a topic that had been bothering her after they left Granmare Baba’s hut.

“What did she mean by forgetting about Niko?”

“I think she’s right. You only know a part of who Nikolas is.”

Arianne thought about it a second. How much could she really know about a single person? Reapers grew old and died then were reborn so they mingled with the next generation without causing suspicion. Niko had lived many lives before he met her. Whoever he was in his previous lives had nothing to do with the guy she loved now. No warning—from a witch or Balthazar—could change that.

“Just so we’re clear, I’m not actually your slave.”

Balthazar kept on walking. “Wasn’t thinking of you that way. But I could easily change that if you piss me off.”

“I can’t promise that since you’re so charming half the time.”

He meowed. “Kitty has claws.”

“And I have a knife with your name on it.”

“Don’t remind me.”

The flats had turned into a mountain road. They trudged up the path for a while, the incline growing slightly steeper with every new turn. No plants or flowers. Just rocks and a whole lot of brown.

“We’re making camp for the night.”

Arianne considered Balthazar’s words for a second. Convenient how he picked up on what she wanted to ask before she asked it, saving a lot of time and aggravation on her part.
Thank you, Granmare Baba.

Balthazar snorted. “Don’t let her catch you thanking her or she’ll stew you for dinner. She’s not big on gratitude, just payment. What did you see when you met her?”

“A hunched old woman with a lot of wrinkles and a big mole at the tip of her nose,” Arianne said absentmindedly. She kept to the far side of the mountain road. They’d climbed high up already. One slip and she was a pancake.

“Typical human imagination.” Balthazar’s shoulders shook like he was suppressing a laugh. “I tell you witch and you go for the cliché image.”

“Well, if you’re so smart, what does she look like to you?”

“To me…” He became super silent.

“To you she’s the slutty witch at Halloween, isn’t she?”

Balthazar dropped the f-bomb. “This connection is getting on my last nerve.”

“And here I was thinking it was pretty convenient. You answered most of my questions without me having to ask them.” Arianne smiled. “I kinda dig it now.”

“Keep your unicorn thoughts away from me.”

Arianne looked up to see goose bumps at the back of Balthazar’s neck. She unnerved him. She kinda dug that too.

“What’s an Enforcer?” She threw it out there.

Balthazar turned around so fast, she almost tripped backward. He had her pinned against the mountainside a blink later. She gasped. Having his snarly face up close and personal shocked and awed her. Balthazar had one of those faces that looked better up close. Arianne had never had a vampire fetish, but that little hint of fang set off tiny tremors just below her navel. She focused on breathing instead of where the rest of her thoughts wanted to go.

“What do you know?” Balthazar said through his teeth. His breath tickled her cheeks, sending a cold shiver down her back. A low growl had begun in Balthazar’s chest, vibrating into Arianne.

“Nothing.”

He tightened his grip on her arms until she winced. “Liar.”

“Feel my thoughts, Balthazar. I’m not lying.”

He stared into her eyes, the white at the center unsettling her. When he spoke again, he sounded a tad calmer, but his grip didn’t loosen. She felt herself bruising by the second. She may not have a body right now, but no one told her she’d still feel the damage.

“How do you know I’m the Enforcer?”

Arianne caught his use of “the,” meaning he was the only one or the top dog if there were more like him. She had a sinking feeling the former was more true than the latter. She thought back to her delirium at the hut.

“I heard Granmare Baba call you that.”

Balthazar let her go so quick, she had to grab on to the mountainside to keep her balance. He’d lifted her a couple inches off the ground when he held her, so when she dropped, she almost crumpled. Thank God for dodge ball giving her good reflexes.

“It’s nothing,” Balthazar grumbled. It sounded more like rocks rubbing against each other than actual words.

“She didn’t give me the information, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Arianne righted herself. “Although she did give me something.” When Balthazar eyed her like a hunk of beef he couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into, she quickly added, “She protected the info. I can’t get to it. And I don’t know how, to answer your next question.” She grinned when his eyebrows shot up. “See? Told you it’s convenient.”

For the millionth time that day, Balthazar sighed. This time he coupled it with running his fingers through his silver streaked hair. All the black he wore really made the strands stand out. The fingerless gloves weren’t working for her, though.

“Live with it,” he said in response to her thought.

“If you haven’t heard, the eighties died a long time ago,” she snarked back.

Balthazar pointed at his glove-covered palm. “This isn’t a fashion statement, little girl.”

“Tell me about it.” She rolled her eyes. “Where are you taking me this time?”

“We’ll make camp at the top of this mountain. We’ll be safe there for the night.”

Balthazar led the way again, but this time Arianne positioned herself by his side. He put her close to the mountainside and himself near the outer edge of the mountain’s road. She got an inkling he protected her even now. Determining whether it was conscious on his part or not was beyond the scope of the connection she shared with him. She couldn’t tell unless he actually thought about it.

“I don’t want to walk into the Ghoul Woods at night,” he continued.

Arianne swallowed when the information about the Ghoul Woods filled her head. “Are you sure it’s the only way?”

“I just enjoy putting my life in more danger than it is now.”

“Really?”

“Of course not.” He huffed. “It’s the shortest way to the Voyeur.”

“Don’t be mean. I wasn’t gonna ask about it.”

Weird trees filled the Ghoul Woods. Usually trees resembled umbrellas, which was why forests were called canopies. The Ghoul Woods’ canopy looked like bowls with braided stems for trunks. They didn’t provide the kind of shade normal trees did because of their bowl shape. The sap in the trees was the freakiest part. Cut the trunk and it looked like the tree was bleeding. Arianne shivered, rubbing away her own set of goose bumps.

The trees alone wouldn’t make the Ghoul Woods so bad. They had to be careful of what lived in the woods.

Balthazar spat out more than the f-bomb this time.

Arianne agreed with him. Carelessness in the Ghoul Woods equaled royally screwed. She for one didn’t want to be roasted on a spit and made the main course. But, then again, it was nothing new in the Underverse. If something didn’t want to eat her, it wanted to kill her. Insert the incident with Angel’s tears here. She hated that it used the likeness of Niko to try to do the killing. Had she said yes to staying with him, Balthazar wouldn’t have been able to do anything to get her out of the hallucination.

At the top of the mountain a stand of pines swung in an imaginary wind. Arianne stopped and stared. She had a feeling she’d be doing a lot of stopping and staring during this trip. Like the Sorrow Flats, the Dancing Pines were something to look at.

“They can’t kill me, can they?” she asked Balthazar, who stopped at her side, looking up at the pines like she did. According to what she felt of his thoughts, he didn’t look at them because he admired them. He was making sure nothing stayed with them up there.

“Just don’t piss them off and you should be fine,” he finally said.

Arianne followed him into the outcropping until they reached a cleared-out center. Balthazar quickly fashioned a makeshift shelter for them out of fallen branches. Then he dug out a fire pit and surrounded it with rocks. He dumped the rest of the branches into the pit and took out a Zippo. He flicked the lighter open, and the branches in the pit burst into flames.

“Cool trick,” Arianne said. “You’re such a Boy Scout.”

His brow furrowed. “Don’t mock me. Remember our bargain? I have to use all the resources available to me to help you. That includes making sure you’re comfortable. You don’t look like the roughing it type to me.”

“I’ve been camping before.”

“And how’d that work out for you?”

“I didn’t know it was poison ivy, okay!”

Balthazar threw back his head and laughed. Arianne crossed her arms and stewed. She’d gone to the bathroom and accidentally sat on poison ivy. Ben had laughed at her the whole time too. If it hadn’t been so embarrassing, she’d be laughing too. Then the thought of Ben hit her fully. She rubbed her chest, and Balthazar sobered.

“Don’t you dare cry on me,” he warned in response to what he felt from her.

Arianne looked away. “I’m not.” She swiped at the tears and reminded herself she’d mourn after they found the Redeemer. When her eyes were finally dry, she returned her gaze to Balthazar. “What now?”

“Gather as much wood as you can, but don’t leave the protection of the pines.”

“Why do I get a feeling you’re going somewhere.”