Unreap My Heart (The Reaper Series) (27 page)

“You’re saying you did the honorable thing by taking her to that bitch?”

“You keep confusing witch for bitch.”

“With my sister? Same difference.”

“I wouldn’t call going to her honorable. I have a reputation to maintain.”

“What reputation?” She sneered at him. A very unladylike move for someone so powerful. “You’ve been stuck in the Nethers too long, Balthazar. Things are changing in the Underverse, and they’re going to keep changing with or without you.”

“Your expansion into the Ghoul Woods—”

“Is just me protecting my assets.”

“Bullshit.”

She whirled around in a blur of shinny fabric. “You want your five minutes with the Heavenly Host or not?”

Balthazar didn’t say another word. He followed Solara the rest of the way. She pushed open the door and gestured for him to enter. He looked into her now-golden eyes as she stared into his. He couldn’t find a chink in her armor, or even a clue to how she really felt about Arianne being in her mansion. For now maybe they were safe, but what she’d said about everything changing concerned him. Maybe things weren’t as they used to be. If he didn’t evolve and get with the program fast, he might not survive. Adapt or die.

“You have five minutes,” she said evenly.

He nodded once then entered the office. Solara shut the door behind him. Zakariel stood by the fire place, a deep frown already on his magnificent face. Balthazar had to remind himself he no longer admired the Heavenly Host. He and Zakariel stood on an even playing field now. He had nothing to be intimidated about. Then the voice of his mother reminding him to respect his elders whispered in his head. He pushed the thought away and told himself to get down to business. He had to get back to Arianne before Solara thought to do anything stupid. He wouldn’t put it past the Voyeur.

“Solara has always had a perverse fascination with the human form,” Zakariel said in greeting.

“Of course you’d say that.” Balthazar stepped closer until he reached one side of Solara’s gold leaf desk. Its carvings were just as suggestive as everything else in the mansion. His suite really was the only PG part of the place. If Solara took the time to preserve his suite, maybe she didn’t despise him as much as he initially thought. He and Arianne stood a chance of getting out of here intact.

The Heavenly Host turned away from the fireplace to face him then. “What gives you that impression?”

“You’re a Heavenly Host.” Balthazar tilted his head. “You’re snobby.”

“On the contrary.” Zakariel ran his gaze over one of the naked statues. “You should know better than most that angels have always envied humans. God may not say it, but he does favor them above all others.”

He snorted. “Free will is a bitch. They’re an experiment gone wrong. God just won’t admit it.”

“And yet you escort one of those so called failed experiments around the Underverse. Your mother, for all her faults, always believed in the good in you.”

“You still have a hard-on for her? Is that what this is, Zakariel? That ship sailed. And sadly, you weren’t on it.”

The Heavenly Host charged Balthazar and pinned him against the opposite wall, a hand around his neck. Balthazar grinned.

“Your mother may have chosen demon scum over me, but I don’t think any less of her because of it. She was beautiful and well-respected within Heaven, Haven, and the Underverse. It would do you good to show some of that respect.”

During one of her trips within the Underverse to collect an assortment of special alloys for weapons, Brianne had encountered Balthazar’s father. Some in Heaven said she’d been seduced by him. To Balthazar, that was just a PR stunt the higher ups spread to keep the reputation of Heaven clean. Anyway, Brianne had started seeing him on the sly. She told Balthazar once that she really loved his father. He believed her because his father’s betrayal drove her crazy, tainting her once pristine wings until they slowly turned black and the feathers fell away, barring her permanently from Heaven. Worse than Lucifer’s Fall, some whispered. She took out all her rage on the closest thing to his father—Balthazar.

The day she died couldn’t come fast enough for him.

Zakariel gave Balthazar’s neck one more squeeze before releasing him, letting him fall to the ground. Balthazar rearranged his coat and cleared his throat. Zakariel could have broken his neck. The bastard didn’t have the balls though.

“What do you need with the boy that you would sacrifice the tethered soul of a girl for it?” Zakariel asked after his breathing calmed. He moved back to the other side of the room.

“Leverage.” The word came out scratchy. Balthazar cleared his throat again. Zakariel damaged his vocal chords. The asshole. He’d pay the Heavenly Host back with interest later.

Zakariel stared. His silver gaze narrowed.

“I need to see the Redeemer,” Balthazar clarified.

“And what makes you think I’ll grant the audience?”

“You just bid Mike’s sword and a night with Jezebel for the boy. I figure he’s important to you.”

“Not to me,” Zakariel grumbled. He leaned both his hands on the mantel. “The Redeemer heard the unprocessed soul of a boy would be auctioned off. I was sent here to save him.”

That
Balthazar didn’t quite get. “Why would a Redeemer care about the soul of one boy?”

Zakariel barked a sad laugh. “I asked myself that over and over on the way here. But my will is to serve. I was given the task of bringing the boy back and I lost him to a half-breed like you.”

“How racist.”

The Heavenly Host whirled around again, but instead of charging he just growled. “You’re always pushing buttons. One day you’ll push the wrong one and it will kill you.”

Balthazar showed fang in an arrogant smile. “Looking forward to it.”

Deflating, Zakariel relaxed his stance. “There’s no winning with you.”

“You’re just learning that now?”

“So, the boy.”

“All you have to do is bring us to the Redeemer and he’s all yours.”

Doubt entered Zakariel’s silver eyes. He crossed his arms, his wings twitching as if he ached to take flight. “I don’t believe it’s that easy.”

“You’re questioning an easy bargain. Suspicious much? The boy for an audience with the Redeemer. That’s all.”

“It’s never that easy with you, Balthazar. I’m not that stupid.” Before Balthazar could comment, he added, “No matter what you think.”

“A selfish angel?” Balthazar rubbed his nose. “Isn’t that against your rules?”

Zakariel’s eyes widened. “Don’t turn my status against me. I may have my doubts, but that doesn’t mean I will not help.”

“Good.” Another shocker for Balthazar. “I thought I was gonna have to play dirty.”

“I would have let you, but as you might have noticed, the boy doesn’t have much time.”

The room grew very quiet. Balthazar had thought he imagined things when he got a look at Ben. He’d been too pale, even for a soul. Since he was unprocessed, and who knew how long it had been since he’d been separated from his body, it meant only one thing.

“Let me get Arianne and the boy. We’ll leave for Haven immediately.”

“You collect Arianne and I’ll collect the boy.”

“Uh, uh, uh,” Balthazar said. “The boy stays with me until we see the Redeemer.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Don’t think you’re special. I don’t trust anyone.”

Right before Balthazar turned to leave, the door to Solara’s office opened. The Voyeur poked her head in and smiled.

“Time’s up, fellas,” she said in a too cheerful tone.

Balthazar faced her. “I’m buying Arianne from you for the night.”

Solara pursed her lips and tilted her head. “Too late.”

“What?” Balthazar stood frozen.
Shit.
He felt all his blood drain from his face. “What did you do?”

The Voyeur’s smile that followed chilled Balthazar to the bone. “I thought you would think this appropriate. I sold her to that Demon King who bet against the two of you.”

Like a whip crack, Balthazar ran out of the office. He made sure to use excessive force when he shoved Solara aside. She slammed against one of the mirrors, breaking it into a thousand jagged pieces. To a lesser being, the impact would have hurt. Solara just laughed hysterically.

The sound of her laughter followed Balthazar through the ballroom and up the three flights of stairs. No matter how fast he moved, it felt like he wasn’t getting to the suite fast enough. For the first time in his miserable existence, his heart hammered in his chest until it bruised. Somewhere along the way, he’d forgotten how to breathe. His lungs burned.

At the door to the suite, he heard Arianne scream. The sound—so full of fear—rooted him on the spot for a second. A new wave of guilt slammed into him. When he remembered how to move again, he didn’t bother opening the double doors.

Chapter 30

RT

T
HE
K
NIFE
J
UMPED
out of Arianne’s hand. At least it felt that way to her. She barely managed to hold on to it when, as if by magic, it sank into the stomach of the Demon King. Arianne’s heart beat in her throat, choking the second scream she wanted to let out.

The Demon King grunted.

Arianne’s mind raced. She had a freakin’ huge naked demon over her. Didn’t he feel the knife go in?

The knife’s handle suddenly felt hot and slick. Arianne struggled to pull it out and try for another stab. She hitched up her knee in an attempt to kick the Demon King off her. He must not have really felt the knife go in because despite the bleeding all over her midsection, the creature still managed to lick her with his forked tongue from chin to temple. She whimpered, turning her head away. The move only gave the Demon King access to her ear. He hummed as if he liked the way she tasted. She shook so badly, the bed beneath her creaked. She had to do something before her situation got worse.

Taking a better grip on the knife, she willed it out of its hold on the Demon King’s belly. They were harder to kill than she initially thought. Just as she braced herself for a second stab, an explosion caused the Demon King to hiss at the entrance to the bedroom. Arianne turned her head just in time to see wood splinter everywhere into the living room.

Everything happened so fast after that.

A black blur rushed into the room and pulled the Demon King from on top of her. The air around her whooshed. She blinked and immediately recognized Balthazar. The feral look on his face scared her more than what almost happened with the Demon King.

Staring at her the whole time, Balthazar restrained the Demon King with one arm around his bleeding waist. He used his other hand to tilt his head to the side and sank his fangs into the Demon King’s neck.

The creature howled and twitched, but couldn’t do anything against Balthazar’s hold. Blood—blacker than the Demon King’s skin—oozed out of where Balthazar’s lips met jugular. Not once did Balthazar take his eyes off of Arianne, and Arianne couldn’t convince herself to look away either. She stared back, still shaking. A new kind of fear came over her as she watched Balthazar take his fill. Her grip on the knife, the only thing that seemed real, tightened.

Several panicked breaths later, the Demon King hung limp in Balthazar’s arms. Its red eyes were glazed over, unseeing. With a swift twist of his hand, Balthazar broke the creature’s neck before letting him go. He fell to the floor with a loud thump. Balthazar blinked then, breaking the spell his stare had on Arianne. She pushed away from him and the now dead Demon King until she reached the opposite side of the bed. Her teeth chattered and she kept the knife pointed at Balthazar. He spit out the blood in his mouth and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. He wobbled back as if drunk, using his other hand for support against the wall.

“Ari,” he said into the back of his other hand. A trail of blood still remained on the corner of his lips down his chin.

“Stay away from me!” Arianne said, voice shaking the whole time. The knife shook too, but she continued to hold it up, pointed toward Balthazar.

Without taking her eyes off him, she sat up then climbed out of the bed one leg at a time. Her lower half trembled as badly as her hands and voice. Unable to support her own weight, she stumbled back into the wall behind her.

She leaned hard against it, letting the wall take most of her weight.

Balthazar moved toward her in drunken steps. “Ari, you okay?”

“Shut up,” she spat. “Don’t come near me.” The last part came out as a sob. Tears welled up in her eyes then.

“Ari.” He paused, a few steps away from her.

“You sold me,” she bit out, tears spilling from her eyes. “You sold me to
that
.” She pointed her knife at the dead Demon King then back at Balthazar. “I thought you were good. That some part of you was good.”

In a blink of an eye, Balthazar stood right in front of her. Arianne yelped. He took her wrist and brought the tip of the knife to the center of his chest. With his other hand, he tilted her chin up so she could look into the white center of his black irises. His silver hair rained over his forehead, covering the crease that marred its usual smoothness.