Page 4 of Reaper
Reaper.
I looked into Saint’s eyes, something I try to avoid doing because they really are the windows to the soul, and my soul is not something most people can handle looking at for very long.I channeled a little bit of magic into my orbs and let them glow with a purple fire flickering just behind my pupils.“Back the fuck up, Saint,” I whispered.“Or everyone in here is going to see their Alpha turn into my beta in a hot second.”
I didn’t try for a growl, just kept my voice very low and steady.“You know who I really am, who I am when I’m not having fun drinking and chasing skirts.You got to see a little bit of what I can do when those Hell’s Angels rolled up on us in Richmond that night, and you saw a little bit more when that trio of wolves came into your clubhouse looking to step to the Alpha.But you’ve never seen all my tricks, or even a quarter of my power, and I’ve had ten years to get better and stronger.”
“And I’ve had ten years to become a better shot,” came a female voice from behind me, followed by the sound of a cocking pistol.
Okay.I guess it was gonna be the hard way.I drew in more energy, siphoning magical energy from everything around me to augment what I kept stored.I wrapped my entire body in a hazy shield of purple energy, then spun around, bringing my left hand up to snatch the barrel of a Colt 1911 out of the hands of a very startled young woman with long auburn hair and a smattering of freckles that I knew full well traveled down far past the neck of her Harley-Davidson t-shirt.I put my right hand in the center of Cindy’s chest and gave her a gentle push, which of course sent her flying back a good ten feet because of the magic coursing through my muscles.
I turned back to Saint, dropping to one knee as I did.His massive fist swished through the air over my head, and I stood up, landing a magically enhanced uppercut on the point of his jaw.His eyes crossed and he staggered back a couple steps, but he didn’t go down.He always was a strong mother.He shook his head to clear the stars from his vision and grabbed the baseball bat with both hands, ready to take my head off with one swing.I wasn’t having it.
I called power and shaped it into a purple sphere, then flung it right into the center of his chest with a shouted “Forzare!”The ball of kinetic energy caught him square, flinging him back to crash into, then backward over, the bar, taking out the bottom shelf of liquor.I felt a little bad about that.Kicking Saint’s ass was one thing, but there was really no need to destroy perfectly good booze.
“You wanna cut this shit out now, Saint?”I called.“Or am I going to have to break a sweat?”
“I think I’ll break your spine instead,” said a massive Black man with a shaved head and a goatee.I mean, really?Where did this guy get his fashion advice,Luke Cage?All he was missing was the tinfoil tiara.He was close to seven feet tall and four hundred pounds if he was an ounce, and as I watched, his skin thickened, he grew even taller, and a pair of ivory tusks sprouted from his jaw.
Great, I thought,a fucking were-elephant.And me without my silver anything.This was probably gonna sting.He took one step forward and lashed out with an enormous fist, easily the size of my head.My only saving grace was that he was too big to be fast, so it was more like fighting Andre the Giant post-Princess Bridethan back when he was doing cartwheels all over Europe.I ducked and slammed a fist into his left kneecap, sending it sideways and putting the big shifter through two tables on his way to the ground.
Another, much smaller, man leapt at me, wrapping long skinny arms around my face and neck while screeching like some kind of deranged monkey.He bit my ear, and I reached up over my left shoulder, grabbed a ponytail, and flipped him across the room.“That’s not the kind of howler you’re supposed be, Monkey-boy.”A pale white arm came up from the collapsed chair he landed under, middle finger extended.
I turned back to the bar where Saint had regained his feet and found myself staring down the barrels of a very large shotgun.“You know that won’t get through my wards, right?”I asked, the smirk still on my face.
“I know this is a mix of cold iron and blessed salt, so I’m willing to give it a shot,” Saint replied.“Are you?”
I wasn’t.I didn’t think cold iron or salt could screw with my shields on their own, but together they might be disruptive enough to put me down.Besides, I really wasn’t there to fight.And I certainly wasn’t there to slaughter a group of relatively harmless biker lycanthropes.I raised both my hands and said, “You win.You beat the Reaper.Now can we talk, or do you want to see if I’m really immortal?”
A wave of whispers and muttering rippled through the bar like a fart in an elevator.“Reaper?”“That’sthe Reaper?”“I thought he’d be bigger.”That kind of stuff.I’m used to it, mostly.
Saint put the shotgun down and grabbed an unbroken bottle of Wild Turkey, then stepped out from behind the bar and stalked past me to a door marked “OFFICE—FUCK OFF.”He turned back when he noticed I wasn’t following.“You comin’?”
I followed.After I grabbed a pair of glasses.I don’t really get sick, but I really prefer to drink like a civilized Reaper when I can.
4
So what the fuck do you want, Harker?And why did you have to wreck half my bar?”Saint asked, leaning back in his desk chair and putting his motorcycle boots up on a scarred corner.
“For the record, I only started wrecking shit when you got all up in my face.And most of that was when your pet elephant fell down and went boom.When the fuck did you add a were-elephantto your pack?Isn’t that a little far afield for wolves?”
“We don’t discriminate,” Saint said, taking a long pull off the bottle and passing it to me.“Jermone came to us about five years ago after he got trafficked here for his ivory.Some asshole realized that his tusks grew back every time he shifted, so he wrapped the big guy in silver and forced the change on him over and over again.Poor bastard was down to a hundred-thirty pounds when we got him out.”
I poured myself a healthy slug of Kentucky’s only notable export and passed the bottle back across the desk.“You could have called for help, you know.I was in town.”
“Didn’t need your help,” Saint replied.“And sure as fuck didn’t need the drama that seems to pop up every time you’re around.”
He had me there.I’m kind of a shit magnet, even when I’m not trying to stir any up.I guess it’s my winning personality.Or maybe my complete lack of impulse control.Or the zero fucks I have to give about how people perceive me.“Fair enough,” I said.“Any of your people go missing last night?”I asked, ready to quit dancing around and get to the real reason I was there.
“It ain’t a fucking dorm, Harker.I don’t know where all my folks are every minute of every day.But nobody’s missing that I expected to be here, if that answers your question.”
“It kinda does, but let’s get more specific.Is this guy one of your wolves?”I held up my phone, marveling that once again it had survived a Quincy Harker fistfight.The new cases Homeland had built for me and Bubba were worth however many thousands of dollars they cost the taxpayers.
Saint sucked in a breath and his eyes widened at the photo of the most recent victim.“Willy.He’s not pack, but I know the kid.What happened to him?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” I said.“I figure the best way to find out what happened to him is to find out who he was first.So who was he?”
“He’s a stupid kid from somewhere in flyover country.Nebraska, maybe.Went on some church trip to build houses for poor people in Canada or some shit, got himself bitten, and when he turned fuzzy a few weeks later, he ran away from home and landed here.”
“He went through his first shift alone?Did he kill anybody?”Weres could eventually control themselves when in their animal form and, except for the three nights of the full moon, were in control of their changes.Theyhadto shift for the full moon, no matter what, but the rest of the time they had a handle on it.Unless they got badly injured or really pissed off.
