Have you read Red Reapers Part Two - Greed?
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Lust
Noun
- Strong sexual desire.
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“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Flynn said, standing up and putting himself between Kyle and Jett.
Jett’s hood moved slightly as he shifted his eyes back to Flynn. “Get out of my way. I’m on the clock, we’re leaving now.”
Screw that. “There’s no way I’m going anywhere with you,” Kyle said stubbornly.
“Oh, well in that case, I’ll leave,” Jett said sarcastically, throwing his hands in the air. She saw the glimpse of a mask under his hood as he moved and her stomach tightened. He turned and stalked away, the crowd parting in front of him with nervous looks.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Quick give me your phone,” Flynn said, snatching it out of her hand.
“Hey-“ Her protest was cut off as she was suddenly jerked forward off her bar stool. Her stomach jumped into her mouth as her legs started moving on their own. She was following Jett. “Flynn, what the hell’s happening?” she said, her voice pitching with fear.
“Satan’s Will,” Flynn said, following her as he typed furiously into her phone. “Ok, I’ve added you on GrimM. Send me a message when you’re finished.” He shoved her phone back in her hand.
“Alright,” she said, putting the phone in her handbag.
Despising the feeling of her legs moving on their own, she took over and followed Jett of her own will. Flynn followed her to the door. Jett was waiting for her outside. He looked like a huge shadow in the light of the setting sun filtering through the sea above with his deep hooded jacket, baggy black pants, and knee-high boots.
As she went to open the door Flynn grabbed her hand. “Whatever you do, don’t go back to the Barracks with him when you finish your shift. I’ll come get you, you can stay with us.” He pulled her into a hug.
“Thanks Flynn,” she said, into his shoulder. A bolt surged through her as he pressed his body into hers, his vanilla and wine scent enveloping her.
He pulled back, giving her a mischievous grin. “Welcome to Hell Kyle,” he said with a wink, and disappeared into the crowd.
Smiling to herself, she left the bar. Jett set off again. She hurried to catch up, falling into step beside him. She followed him, heels clacking, along a paved path into the park. They walked in silence, crossing a bridge over a small stream and walking around the edge of a lake through blooming rose gardens. People milled around the park with picnic dinners and evening football games. Finally, they came to a huge timber and iron studded door. The area was deserted.
A shiver ran down Kyle’s spine. “We’re going to the port?” she asked, finally breaking the silence between them.
“No.”
Kyle waited, but Jett didn’t seem inclined to say any more. This was going to be a long shift. A thought crossed her alcohol-addled brain. Maybe she should have some fun with this guy. Poke the bear as it were. She’d poked many bears in her life, what could go wrong this time? She was already dead. “Yes, we are. This is the same door I came in,” she said, a mischievous grin curling her lips as his hood shifted toward her.
“It’s not.”
“Where does it go then?”
“Outside.”
“Outside as in Above?”
“Yes.”
Excitement jolted her. If she was going Above maybe she could find her sister and Piglet. “How do we get Above?”
“Tunnels.”
“How do you know where to go?”
Jett sighed, pushing back his hood. As he moved his arm, his sleeve tightened, showing off a well-muscled arm beneath. His hair was brown, a couple inches long on top, and undercut. In the shaved hair on the side of his head Kyle could see a huge scar as if his brains had been blown out. His eyes were so dark she could hardy make out his pupils, and he had a shadow of stubble along his jaw.
He had a rugged handsomeness that made her stomach pool with heat. Or was it the alcohol? Either way he was hot. What was up with this place? Did people get hot when they came to hell? Or did only hot people go to hell?
“Fuck sake Rivers,” he growled, giving her an annoyed look.
She wiggled her eyebrows at him, a mischievous grin curling her mouth. “I can do this all night, Taylor.” This was going to be more fun than she’d expected. God it was good to feel like herself again.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Get out your phone,” he growled.
She pulled her phone out of her handbag and looked at him with an innocent smile.
He sighed again. “Open it,” he said, rubbing his forehead with his thumb and forefinger.
She pressed her thumb on the screen. Three apps zoomed onto it.
“The flaming phone is the Hotline app. It’s like texting. Our jobs are sent through Hotline with coordinates. The black dot is the Hellhole app. You put in the coordinates, and it’ll give you a route through the tunnels to the Hellhole nearest the target’s location.”
The third app’s icon matched her scythe tattoo. She looked up at him, waiting for him to elaborate. “What about the third app?” she finally asked.
He leaned forward ever so slightly and peered down at her phone. He rolled his eyes. “GrimM. Social media,” he grunted.
Before she could ask any more questions, he wrenched open a smaller door built into the big doors and disappeared. She hurried after him, closing her phone as she went. She emerged into a long tunnel carved from black stone, her handbag disappearing from her hand. It was lit by red veins of lava running through the rock. It stretched as far as she could see in either direction.
“Close the door,” said the tall skeleton walking away to her right.
She pulled the door closed behind her with a click and went after him.
“Take this,” he said, handing her a long black cloak as she caught up.
“Where did you get this?” she asked, swinging the cloak around her shoulders. She shoved her phone in one of the pockets.
He responded by clicking his fingers. A cloak appeared in his hand, and he swung it over his shoulders and pulled the hood up. She pulled her hood up too. He clicked his fingers again and a scythe appeared in his hand. He silently handed it to her. It was plain with a wooden handle and a dull steel blade. He clicked again. A beautifully carved and polished scythe appeared in his hand. He started using it as a walking stick.
“Hey, why do you get a cool one? I want one like that,” she said.
“Made it.” She swore she heard him mutter “Greedy” under his breath but decided to ignore him.
“So, where are we going?”
Jett pulled his phone out of the pocket of his cloak. “Romania,” he said after a moment.
Romania?
Her phone dinged. She pulled it out. There was a new Hotline message. Opening her phone, she found it was a forwarded message from JTaylor.
Romania - Geofry Dorin
There was a set of coordinates below.
“That’s it?” she asked, looking up at Jett.
He nodded.
“That’s not much to go on.”
He ignored her.
She pocketed her phone.
“Isn’t-“ She was cut off as an electric scooter zoomed past her. Heart leaping and cloak swirling, she lurched into Jett. She was surprised to hit hard muscle rather than bony skeleton. Riding the scooter was another Grim, black cloak streaming behind them. The Grim disappeared down the tunnel.
“Who was that?” she asked, after a stunned silence.
“Tek.”
Kyle dusted off her cloak, side eyeing him. She waited for him to elaborate. “You’re really determined to say as little to me as possible, aren’t you?”
He ignored her.
“See!” she said, pointing her scythe at him.
“Careful,” he growled, ducking away from her.
“Aw com’on, I’m not that bad,” she smiled at him, before remembering she was a skeleton so he couldn’t see it.
He glanced at her from under his deep hood but said nothing. She knew he was scowling at her.
“Is the big bad Reaper too good to talk to anyone else?” she cooed. “Or am I just so stunning…” she spun in front of him, making her cloak twirl “…that you’re lost for words?”
He tried to get around her, but she started walking backwards in front of him.
“Are you trying to scare me? Trying to put me in my place? Or are you a loner who doesn’t have any friends down-“
A small noise escaped her as she walked backwards into a wall. He pounced on her with a growl, planting the hand that wasn’t holding his scythe right next to her head and leaning in. His cloak draped around her, his breath moving the loose hairs which tickled her face. Her body went taut. The smell of coffee, sandalwood, and something sweet filled her nostrils. She went molten, a surge of lust, a surge of strong sexual desire shot through her. Her breathe hitched as she stared up into the dark recess of his hood. His presence pressed against her.
“Watch-” Jett paused, his breath catching. He pulled back. “Watch your mouth, Rivers.”
“Yeah, well, you need to lighten up, Taylor,” she said breathlessly.
He looked at her for a heartbeat longer, then yanked open a small black door next to her she hadn’t noticed and marched through it. She took a deep breath and followed him into a small, dim room and closed the door. To her right crates of beer bottles were stacked up to the low ceiling. On her other side were boxes of wine balancing precariously on an overloaded table.
Jett was already crossing the room to the next door. Excitement rolled through her. She was Above, this would be her chance to see her sister and Piglet. Contemplating how she’d escape Jett and find them, she followed him into a seedy bar, dark and dingy and completely empty.
The door of the bar was hanging open, sirens screaming outside. She followed Jett across the room. An ambulance screeched past as they emerged onto the empty street. Her heart was racing. Dust floated through the air, coating her cloak. Cars had been abandoned in the street, doors left open. An orange glow past the end of the street threw thick black plumes of smoke into the air.
“What’s happened?” Kyle asked tightly.
“Earthquake,” Jett grunted, pulling out his phone. After a pause he set off down the street after the ambulance.
An earthquake? Oh God. Or Satan? She hurried after him.
As they reached the edge of the earthquake zone it was chaos. A whole city block was flattened. Jagged pieces of brick and concrete were everywhere. Steel bars twisted into the air. Sirens and screaming rent the air so loud Kyle awkwardly tried to cover her ears whilst holding her scythe. People ran down the streets toward a fire that was visible in the distance, completely ignoring Kyle and Jett as if they couldn’t see them. Smoke filled her nostrils as flames stretched up into the sky.
Jett turned away from the fire. They walked down another deserted street, destroyed buildings surrounding them. Jett stopped outside a collapsed building. He looked down at his phone, peered into the wreckage, pocketed his phone, and started making his way over the rubble into the building.
“I’m not climbing in there,” Kyle said, putting her hands on her hips.
“Yes, you are,” he said over his shoulder.
To her horror, her legs started moving on their own again. Groaning, she started climbing through the rubble. If she was going to do this, she was doing it under her own will.
Jett was making it look so much easier to navigate than she was finding it. Her cloak kept snagging on jagged edges and steel rods. She muttered a curse under her breath when she heard her cloak rip. A few metres into the building Jett stopped. As she came up next to him her hand flew to her mouth as she caught sight of a twisted and bloody corpse.
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Read Red Reaper Part Four - Envy, out 13 April.