Fate of the Reaper: Soul Taker Series, #3

PROLOGUE

ALLATOU - ESTIMATED AGE 14

W hat’s wrong now? My brother Ari is brooding in a corner again and I don’t know how I can help him. I can feel his pain but it doesn’t make any sense to me. What does he have to be upset about?

Alli, I’m just not like you, okay? He’s sitting on a boulder out in the field, his back to me, staring at the dark bleakness of the skies in our home realm. It pulls at my heartstrings.

What do you mean? You’re my brother. Of course, you're like me. We were born from the same womb. Maybe someone upset him. My mind is already going through the different ways of peeling skin and pulling finger bones apart from tendons when my brother’s voice brings me back from the jubilant feeling that’s starting to take over me.

Alli. I don’t know how to get over this. Father’s always out and Mother is busy with the baby and our other siblings. Don’t you ever feel like you wish you knew what to expect?

I guess, I never thought that far. I kind of just help around when I can. Some of the demons, like Samnva, let me watch her as she creates her torture contraptions, while some get mad if I linger too long. Maybe you need to find someone you can hang out with, to take your mind off whatever is bothering you. It does hurt to know that I have to stand by helplessly, watching my brother like this. I don’t know what to do because I don’t understand the feelings he’s going through despite feeling an echo of his emotions within me.

Where in the hellfires is that boy? Ari! Ari scrunches his face and frowns as he dusts his hands off his pants before turning around to answer Father’s call.

I watch as he walks away from me with his head hung down, hands in his pockets, dark hair hanging in his eyes. I don’t know how to help my brother. I try to be positive around him, to see if I can influence his moods but I’m not sure if it’s working. He never used to be this bad, but since we’ve become older, his mind seems to dwell more and more in a place I don’t understand.

What is there to be so gloomy about?

Walking towards the same direction, I find my thoughts scattering all over the place. The sounds of screams become louder and louder, making my heart pump harder and harder with excitement. I wonder what Father wants with Ari this time? I bet they’re out reaping. Father never lets me do anything fun. Anytime I bring it up, Father starts roaring ‘blasted females’ and seeks out Mother. He never explains anything.

Don’t look like that, Alli. They’ll be back soon. My mother is holding my newest baby brother as some of my other siblings run by chasing Araaz whose maniacal laughter can be heard echoing the nearby halls.

Sorry. Do you know if Father is taking Ari reaping?

The baby starts to cry and I watch as my mother starts rocking him back and forth. Time moves strangely here. I’m not sure how old I am but Mother tells me I’m fourteen. How she keeps track of the years, I have no clue. She used to go to the human realm every now and again, but it seems lately she hasn’t been. I wonder why.

Yes, your father is trying his best to bond with Ari the best way he knows how. You know how he can be. He’s not the...best with words and expressions, but he does try.

How come he never takes me?

Mother sighs as she walks the now sleepy baby to a crib made of random leg bones from demons that sit to the side of their bed. Amoora is already hovering nearby, waiting to help with rocking duties judging by the way her tail is wrapped around one of the bone rails.

Once the baby is settled, Mother puts her arms around my shoulder and walks me out of her bedchambers. You know how paranoid your father can get about the ‘females’ he cares for. Let’s not push him just yet. It took him long enough to wrap around the fact that you guys came out as a pair.

I’ve heard this story before. A laugh escapes me before my mother can even let out her usual exasperated sigh when she thinks about the memory.

Alli, the best thing to do for now is to keep yourself busy here while your brother is gone. I have to make sure your other brothers and sisters aren’t torturing the sprites outside.

Okay. With a side hug, Mother goes down another hallway yelling at one of my siblings to stop pulling someone’s tail as I continue straight down the current hallway.

My feet always lead me down this direction, no matter how much I try to stay away. Father has - more than a few times - expressed his desire to kill this lesser demon and it only makes me more curious. A feminine scream echoes sharply right before I can peek around the entrance of this particular chamber.

It’s his back I see first. He’s hunched over with one of the souls he’s torturing, so I can’t see what he’s doing with his hands. But what I can see, is his back tensing as the gold patterns from his neck down start to subtly glow - right before he rips the soul’s head off and tosses it against the right chamber wall with a wet thud.

My eyes dart towards its direction, watching as crimson streaks slowly slide down and leave a trail with every subsequent roll. The head stops when it almost reaches the halfway point back to Asmore. The eyes are soulless and empty as they stare into mine from where I’m still hiding. Letting out a soft sigh, I continue to watch him work, to watch the contrast between his ashen-colored skin and the drying blood staining it move as he pulls limbs apart and fists the gaping holes he creates.

It’s macabre and it’s beautiful.

The crimson color becomes more and more intense in my eyes the longer I stare, and I swear, I feel a tingling between my legs. It’s always like this now, especially around him. The new sounds of moans and screams break my reverie as Asmore continues his torture on the next soul who’s been copulating with the soul beneath him. When I turn my attention towards him, Asmore removes his fists from the man’s behind, his claws drenched in fresh blood as droplets splatter onto the floor. The tang of copper reaches my nose and I find myself walking towards the smell, inhaling deeply as it lures me. I’m getting lost in a haze of something I don’t seem to understand quite yet.

It’s the golden glow near my face that breaks the haze, and his dark eyes flickering with something that catches my attention. My heart skips a beat as I take a sharp inhale from being caught in the act. Asmore is extremely tall, his gangly body towering over me, the heat of the room mingling with a new type of heat and tension that’s starting to fill the space between us.

When he leans his tall figure down towards my height, my heart feels like it’s about to beat out of my chest. Is this excitement? Anticipation or fear that is coursing through my veins?

His face is something I can’t even describe, but it’s become a face I yearn to see every day - or at least every time I’m near his chambers. The days blend here, but in a moment like this, time is the last thing on my mind. My eyes widen when I see his nostrils flaring.

To what do I owe the pleasure? My goodness, his voice. It makes me tremble in all the best of ways.

I’m caught in his stare. Unsure of what to say. I’ve never found myself this close before. The moans coming from behind him only make the patterns on his back glow even brighter. Or is it me? My heart beats out of rhythm at the thought of Asmore thinking of me the way I do him. But it’s foolish of me. Why would someone like him even care when he tortures a multitude of females every waking hour?

I-I didn’t mean to interrupt you. As much as I want to stare to my heart’s content, he makes me nervous and I cast my eyes to the side trying to cool down the flush that’s crept over me.

Don’t ever be sorry to be near me. He takes a step towards me and despite my desire to touch him, I find myself taking a small step back all while continuing to avert my gaze.

I’ve never felt like this about anyone before. It’s scary, a little overwhelming but exciting all at once. There’s an urge deep inside of me that wants the smell of copper to intensify, that wants to watch as it blooms on his skin - to know it’s my hands that are doing it to him. The phantom sensation is already crawling on my palms, my nails needing to puncture something to soothe the ache.

My mind is lost in a sea of images - dead bodies, blood, guts, skin being peeled off slowly to preserve the integrity - when something touches my face. Asmore’s hands are almost room temperature, the blood having cooled on his palms as he lifts my face towards his. My breathing stops when he leans towards me with such intensity in his eyes. Is he going to kiss me? How much of my waking hours have I imagined this moment? But instead of my lips, Asmore’s tongue laps up the red stain on my cheek his hands have left behind. The tingle between my legs makes me feel weak and I think I’m about to fall forward. My dark fingers are digging into his shoulders trying to hold me up - when did they end up there? The metallic scent on his skin makes my mouth water, my own lips parting the closer I get when my brother’s voice booms into the cavern, startling us both.

Alli! What are you doing here?

W-wha-? Trying to straighten myself up as much as I can, I stare at the ground as I turn. I can’t believe he almost caught us.

My brother’s dark aura comes with him as he grabs me firmly by the shoulders and pulls me behind him, breaking my daze, almost throwing me to the ground.

Ari! Can he be any more embarrassing?

Stay away from him, Alli. You know who this is?! My brother’s snarling face in front of mine makes my own temper rise. I shove him from behind since he turns without waiting for my reply.

I know exactly who this is.

Turning back around sharply, my brother’s voice becomes deeper and more chilling. Then you know exactly why Father has forbidden you time and time again from coming closer to this vile thing.

Father and Ari are delusional. There’s nothing vile about Asmore at all. In fact, the more they push me away from him, the more my heart craves his looks, his attention...and now his touch. A shiver runs down my spine at the memory of him licking my cheek. My brother’s noise of disgust brings me back into the present.

Stay away from my sister, demon. With that, Ari grabs my hand and marches me out of the chambers, but not before I turn around to find Asmore still standing in the same position giving me a devilish grin that makes my stomach flip.

We’re already down another hallway when he takes a sharp turn towards a different direction. Ari! Slow down, would you?! Why do you have to be such a jerk?

Ari stops abruptly, making me run into his back and almost toppling over backward if it wasn’t for his arms holding me. I’m protecting my beloved sister, Alli. What would you have me do? You know he’s the demon of promiscuity and lust. You’re too young to understand what the repercussions of that could mean.

Oh, and you - my twin brother of the same age - does? What makes you think you know more than I do? Just because Father chooses you to go out reaping leaving me beh-

Ari growls loudly in my face, stopping my thoughts mid-sentence. His eyes start to flame with the intensity of his emotions - a new occurrence we’ve both come to discover just a while back.

Stop. Right there. Do you even understand what I have to go through to watch Father’s disappointment in me time and time again? To know that no matter how hard I try, I just can’t win? Do you know how hard it is to hear it in his voice, The way he addresses me, to see it in his eyes every time he calls me out there? I wish he would just leave a dead demon be because I will never amount to what he expects of me.

I can feel his heart breaking through the crack in his voice. Our emotions have always been in tune with one another - a twin connection my mother always said, something common among humans.

I’m too empathetic to my brother to not want a physical connection at this moment and so I walk towards him, despite his ferocious expression of anguish, and wrap my arms around him. Ari’s body tension dispels, hunching over, he buries his face into the crook of my neck since he’s already started to outgrow me in height.

I’m sorry, Alli. It’s just…

It’s okay, Ari. You don’t have to say anymore.

You’re the other half of me, Alli. I wish you could see.

I see more than you think. But do you see me?