Unreap My Heart (The Reaper Series) (29 page)

“How does that answer my question about the Demon King?” She lowered her voice when they passed a lesser demon at the second floor.

“The sooner we leave the better our chances of making it out of here alive. Solara won’t check on the guests until after the party.” Balthazar made a sharp left when they reached the ground floor. They skirted the ballroom to get to the holding area at the back. “Nobody will know about the Demon King until morning. So, if I were you, more hurrying and less talking.”

“Well, gee, there’s the Balthazar I know and love.”

The word “love” made Balthazar sick to his stomach. Hearing it come out of her lips made the experience even worse. They had to finish this mission soon so he could once and for all rid himself of this strange affliction of wanting to kiss the girl running by his side. Emphasis on the word
girl
.

At the end of a long hallway that ran parallel to the ballroom, another set of red curtains hung from the ceiling down to the floor. Balthazar pulled the tacky fabric aside and let Arianne through.

Behind the curtains, a makeshift area housed the auction items. Arianne squeaked when she spotted the centaur. From the way she shielded her eyes, he could hazard a guess as to why. Centaurs weren’t called studs in the Underverse for nothing. From the tag on its cage, a Fairy Queen had won him for the night.

Balthazar looked away from the centaur in time to see Arianne running for the boy’s cage. He grimaced. The boy looked unwell—definitely worse than he’d been at the auction. They had very little time left.

Running out of time seemed like the recurring theme in this journey of theirs. Couldn’t things just slow down? Give him a second to think and to piece things together?

Arianne was speaking frantically with her friend when Balthazar noticed the fraying on her thread. The phrase “hanging on by a thread” came to mind. The damage looked so much worse. Anything could detach Arianne from her body. Dammit. He had to keep an extra eye on her.

“I don’t know what happened,” the boy said, bringing Balthazar back to the conversation. “After I agreed to take your place, I disappeared into this dark place. I stayed there for a long time, but I never got hungry or had to use the bathroom.”

Arianne held the boy’s hands through the bars. A low rumble started in Balthazar’s chest. He forced himself to stay calm by focusing on Arianne’s voice.

“When you’re a soul you don’t need food anymore, much less go to the bathroom.”

Tears were clear in her voice even if none were in her eyes. She was attempting to keep it together for her friend. Balthazar breathed a silent thanks for that, because he couldn’t take another bout of the waterworks.

“I hate to interrupt this little reunion you’re having here,” Balthazar said, “but we have to go. We have an angel to catch.” He touched the lock on the cage and it snapped in two.

Arianne pulled the door open and yanked Ben into a fierce hug.

“What part of ‘we have to go’ don’t you understand?” Balthazar scowled. His hands tingled to yank them apart.

“We’ll talk some more later,” Arianne said to Ben. She let him go, but she kept hold of his hand. Balthazar grunted.

“What’s going on here?” one of the lesser demons sent to guard the items asked, accusation on its face.

Balthazar appeared beside it in a flash and snapped its neck. He didn’t have time to explain why they had to make a hasty exit. It would only rouse Solara’s suspicions.

“Run for the back door,” he said to Arianne. She nodded and towed Ben out of the room. Balthazar turned to follow when a voice he’d hoped he didn’t have to hear for the rest of the night called his name. He whipped around to face the Voyeur.

“Solara!” He plastered a smile on his face. “What are you doing here?”

She eyed him. “Your blood’s up next and I thought to fetch it myself.”

“Why would you do that when you have lesser demons to do that for you?” Balthazar put a hand behind his back and summoned the vial of his blood to him. It floated to his hand, and he closed his fingers around it.

“Do you really have to kill my lesser demons?” Her glaze flicked to the dead demon at their feet.

“I thought I’d have a snack.” Before she could speak her displeasure at the killing, Balthazar dangled the vial in her face. “Here you go. You don’t want to keep the crowd waiting.” He grabbed her hand and placed the vial in it, closing her manicured fingers around the glass container. Then he turned her around and practically shoved her out of the room.

“I think you’re trying to get rid of me,” she said over her shoulder.

“Not exactly.” Lying came easily for Balthazar. He thanked his centuries of practice. “I just hate for the masses to wait long for my blood, that’s all.”

“Well, when you’re done, we need to talk about you pushing me into that mirror.”

“I’ll pay for it,” he gritted out. In his head he cursed her to the Nethers multiple times and in several colorful languages.

“You better.”

With one last push, he nudged the Voyeur through the curtains before she could ask him about Arianne and the Demon King. The crowd cheered at her appearance. Probably she’d told them about the vial of his blood before she came in to get it. Balthazar didn’t wait to see what his blood fetched—no matter how much he wanted to. He turned on his heel and followed after Arianne.

Chapter 32

OT

F
ROM
T
HE
A
UCTION
S
TORAGE
R
OOM
, Arianne beelined it to the back door of the mansion that led to the veranda and ultimately the porn garden. She prepared herself for the mental image of those explicit bushes and Kama Sutra fountain. No amount of therapy would ever erase the images of this place from her brain. She’d be scarred for life. She silently cursed Balthazar for ever bringing her here.

Okay, not really his fault.

They
had
to come to the mansion to meet the Voyeur, but he could have at least warned her about it first. Arianne rolled her eyes and immediately regretted it. Of course the ceiling looked even worse than the marble. If the roof of the Sistine Chapel had an X-rated version, you’d find it in the Voyeur’s mansion.

“Did you see that centaur?” Ben’s voice pulled her attention away from the ceiling.

She squeezed his clammy hand. “Don’t even go there.”

“The equipment on that guy—”

“Ben!” She rolled her eyes again despite the ceiling. She had to because she really missed her best friend. It was either roll her eyes or start crying. She’d maxed out her cry card for the duration of this trip.

He laughed. God, she’d missed the sound of that laugh more than the sound of his voice. Actually—she corrected herself—both ran neck and neck for the number one spot. Having Ben back, even if in the back of her mind she was fully aware it could never be a permanent thing, still warmed her heart. When he’d sacrificed himself, it had happened so quickly that she didn’t have time to say her goodbyes. Maybe this time…she stopped herself.

For now, they had to get out of the mansion. No more detours.

She glanced down at the ring as she moved toward the glass double doors. Its pulse was much weaker now. A pulse for every five seconds instead of the one second pulse from before. Death got worse and worse by the hour now, and Arianne had no idea how long she and Balthazar had been gone. It seemed like two days, but it could be more than that since time wasn’t as linear in the Underverse as it was in the human world.

Arianne pushed away the pang of homesickness that blossomed in her chest. She wanted to click her ruby slippers three times and wish herself home. And not just any home. She wanted to be back to a time when Ben was alive and Carrie wasn’t sick. Good times. But wishes like that weren’t really possible. The sooner she accepted that fact, the faster she could accept that Ben and Carrie weren’t in her life anymore after this mission.

She sniffed.

“Getting a cold?”

She smiled over her shoulder at Ben. Despite his sickly gray coloring, unlike any soul she’d seen before, he managed a warm smile. The kind of smile she’d been used to. Maybe she still had some credits left on her cry card after all. She faced forward again and wiped them away.

“I just missed you, you dork,” she said.

“Missed you too, Ari,” he said back.

Heart lighter, Arianne pushed open one of the glass doors and walked out into the veranda. Crystal tiki torches lit the garden, casting the porno bushes in a weird light. Almost romanticizing them. Ick!

What now?

“Wait, isn’t there supposed to be an Oni guarding this door?” Arianne looked around for said ogre.

“Oni, as in Japanese ogre?” Ben asked. He stood beside her now, but he didn’t let go of her hand. Arianne took comfort in that.

“I took care of it.”

Arianne jumped when Zakariel landed in front of her and Ben. She all-out stared at his uber white wings—she’d never seen anything prettier.

“You’re an angel.” Ben took the words right out of her mouth. Because of Granmare Baba’s magic info, she knew what Zakariel was, but having Ben say it aloud made Zakariel sound more real.

Zakariel nodded once. “Heavenly Host.”

“What’s the difference?”

“They’re higher in rank. Their wings are much whiter than those of regular angels.” Arianne finally found her voice. She concentrated on Zakariel’s face. Zakariel had long hair, and she suspected his blond to be the natural kind based on the smattering of hair on his bare chest. Add to that the broad shoulders and the ab-tastic situation he had going on and he was ready for a cover shoot.

“And how do you know that?” Ben looked from Zakariel to her.

She tapped her temple. “Let’s just say a witch gave me an info boost.”

His brow wrinkled, but he shrugged. Arianne’s heart flipped. She’d missed that shrug too. It always meant Ben trusted her enough not to question how she knew things. He’d done the same thing the first time she’d told him about seeing dead people. Ben was awesomely accepting that way, and she loved him for it.

“It’s good to meet you, Benjamin,” Zakariel said, forcing Arianne and Ben to return their attention to him.

“How’d you know my name?”

The Heavenly Host gave him a small smile, his silver eyes flashing. “I’m here to retrieve you.”

“The Redeemer sent you,” Arianne said.

He nodded once. “I came to save you, and would have if it weren’t for Balthazar.”

Arianne heard the bitterness in his voice. She smiled a secret smile for Balthazar. She’d be annoyed too if someone took away what she was sent to save. But because of what Balthazar did, they had a chance to see the Redeemer. It all made sense now. Arianne shivered. The last thing she needed was rehash the Demon King episode.

“Cold?” Balthazar asked when he finally joined them.

“Just remembering something,” she answered back, giving him a quick glance.

“You took care of the Oni,” Balthazar said to Zakariel.

The Heavenly Host tilted his head in a slight nod.

Arianne guessed that was as close to a “thank you” Balthazar would ever give and the little nod was Zakariel’s way of acknowledging it. She huffed.

Zakariel broke the second of silence by saying, “My retinue has already flown back to Haven. We can all fly there together. I can take the boy and you can take the girl.”

Arianne’s eyes bugged out when she looked up at Balthazar who frowned like he tasted something nasty.

“You can fly?”

He aimed a poisonous glare at Zakariel, not meeting her gaze and totally blowing off her question. “Let me stop you there. The boy’s not going anywhere with you.”

“You need to stop this utter mistrust you have for everything, Balthazar. I, of all people, will not renege on our bargain. You will get to see the Redeemer. That is my vow.”

Balthazar snorted his signature snort. “Excuse me for being me. We’ll meet you at Haven’s gates.” He gestured at him in a shooing motion. “Go fly away and make your preparations. I want this meeting with the Redeemer to be a quick one.”

Zakariel’s thick blond brows came together. “Enough of your stubbornness, Balthazar. You know flying will save time.”

“We are
not
flying there,” Balthazar said through his teeth, flashing fang.

The memory of running her tongue over that fang chose that moment to make an inappropriate appearance. Arianne dropped her gaze and willed herself not to blush. When she felt Balthazar tense beside her she could have died of embarrassment then and there. He’d felt her thoughts. Fan-freakin’-tastic.

In a calmer voice, Balthazar said, “We’ll use Charlie.”

Zakariel sucked in a breath. “You’re going through the Strait of Gwen?”

“Got a problem with that?”

“No.” Zakariel cleared his throat. “I just thought that with two souls in tow, you wouldn’t risk using the strait.”