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My chest heaves as I pant for air, desperate for his lips to be against mine—desperate for more souls. “Is that a bad thing?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “I’ve never met one before.”
“Oh.” I trace my fingers up and down the nape of his neck. “Well, maybe it’s a good thing.”
He arches a brow in doubt. “That you’re spoiled?”
I nod. “It means I’m taken care of, which means I’m strong, right? Which will only help me when I have to fight off the creatures that exit the portal. So, that means you should only spoil me more, right?” I push gently on the back of his neck, urging him to come closer.
“Your logic is ridiculous and makes absolutely no sense.” He sighs. “But, I’ll continue feeding you. After we’re done, though, and you have a clear head, we’re going to sit down and talk before we finish training for the day.”
I nod, barely hearing him, then guide his lips to mine. I let out a hungry moan mixed with a content sigh when he doesn’t pull away. Our tongues entwine as he kisses me deeply—feeds me what I crave the most. Halfway through the feeding, my legs snake around his waist again. He groans, grinding against me. Then the slow kisses quickly turn reckless, his hands traveling up and down my body as he rocks against me again. I want more—need more. But deep down, way, way in the back of my mind, a voice screams that what I’m doing is wrong. That kissing the grim reaper is wrong. That I’m wrong. An abomination. That I don’t deserve souls. The voice continues to grow louder the longer we continue, until finally I break the connection between our lips, my head pulsating with pain.
Gasping for air, my overly fed body sags against the wall. Cameron holds onto me, refusing to let me lower my feet to the floor.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, watching me intently.
“What do you mean?” I ask, my voice sounding far away.
“I mean, why did you stop the feeding session?”
“Did I?” I sigh, my body swaying as souls swim around inside my chest.
God, how can something so bad feel this good…
“Remi, don’t play dumb with me. I know something’s wrong because there’s no way you’d ever stop a feeding session.” He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear, his lips quirking. “You’re too greedy.”
Don’t tell him, the voice whispers. If you do, you’ll end up staying locked up here forever
I don’t know who the voice belongs to, but his words could possibly be true. While I’ve been at the facility for over three weeks now, I hardly know anything about this place. I’ve met Leader a total of four times and he spoke more to Cameron than to me. And the entire time I’ve been here, I’ve either been locked up in the training room or what I now call my bedroom.
“I’m just full,” I lie again, untangling my legs from his waist.
I move to step around him, but his hands find my waist and he holds me in place, trapping my body between him and the wall. The contact of his body, while cold, somehow sends a strange warmth glistening over my skin.
“You’re the worst liar I’ve ever met, which is going to make for a terrible reaper,” he breathes hotly against my ear. “So, if you’re going to lie, you better start doing a better job.”
“Is that our training lesson for the day?” My tone is surprisingly steady. “Or is this just another one of your reaper advice sessions that will lead to you trying to talk me out of this whole superhero business?”
“I never tried to talk you out of it. I just merely pointed out that there’s other alternatives.”
“Like being your reaper queen?”
“You say that like it’s the worst thing in the world.”
“Anything that requires having to live in the underworld for all of time and eternity is awful,” I tell him. “Besides, I highly doubt you’d enjoy me being your queen. You’ve barely been able to stand being around me for the last few weeks.”
“You may drive me crazy, but that doesn’t mean I’ve completely loathed the last few weeks. In fact, there’s been quite a few unexpected perks to this job.” He nudges my knees apart and grinds his hips against mine.
My eyes involuntarily roll into the back of my head and a groan escapes my lips. “What’re you doing to me?”
“What you want me to do.” His teeth graze my neck.
Another embarrassing groan leaves my lips. “I do—”
Someone clears their throat, cutting off either my protest or agreement—I’m really not sure what I was going to say.
Cameron and I break apart and turn to face Leader, who’s standing in the doorway of the training room, eyeballing us with curiosity mixed with a bit of worry.
From what I can tell, Leader is human, but he has an interesting look to him with white hair highlighted with a streak of blue. He also has strange markings on the backs of his hands that Cameron told me weren’t tattoos, but never explained further. And normally, Leader is dressed very professionally, but today he’s wearing a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up, cargo pants, along with combat boots. From his casual clothes, I immediately sense something is up.
Apparently, so does Cameron, because he says, “Why do you look like you’re about to go zombie hunting?”
“Wait? There’s zombies?” I ask worriedly. When Cameron shoots me a seriously look, I realize how stupid I am for being afraid of the undead. “Sorry. It just surprised me.”
“Why?” Cameron asks, stuffing his hands into the back pockets of his black jeans. “You’ve already been told that there’s a maddening in the building, along with another maddening that has jinn bloodlines. So, why do zombies existing shock you?”
I shrug. “I was just as surprised when you told me about the maddening.”
Truthfully, I’d never even heard the term maddening until Cameron explain they’re creatures that can drive someone to insanity simply with a touch. And while I felt a drop of fear, I was—still am—curious to see what one looks like.
“Is there one here?” I ask curiously, my gaze wandering toward the door where Leader stands. “A zombie, I mean.”
Leader glances between Cameron and I with the smallest ounce of concern in his expression.
That’s strange. Why would he be concerned?
Because he wants you all for himself. An image of bright red eyes flickers through my mind. Trust me.
I tense. Where have I seen those red eyes before?
My thoughts drift back to when the person—or thing—came to collect the curse from me. I barely remember anything about that night, other than throwing up at a party then being in tremendous pain. Then I woke up here in the facility with Leader telling me he saved me from death, that I was now a Reaper, and that Cameron was going to train me to become a superhero. I also learned that my parents were the reason why I was cursed. I’ve begged them to give more details about why my parents would curse me, but Leader told me I’d only learn the truth when he knows I can handle it, which apparently, he doesn’t think I’m capable of right now. He might be onto something, too, since every time I think of my parents cursing me, I want to break through the wall, track them down, and steal their souls. Which is exactly what I’ll do to the person—or thing—that collected my curse that day and brought me so much pain.
One day, I’ll get my revenge.
“Even if there was a zombie here, I wouldn’t let you see it,” Cameron says, tugging me out of my dark, revengeful thoughts. “Zombie bites are contagious.”
“Since when do you get to tell me what to do?” I quip, raising my brows.
He gives me a look that makes my hunger rumble to life. Then he inches toward me, lowering his voice. “Since the day I created you.” He moves my hair away from my shoulder, dips his head, and drags his teeth along my earlobe. “Whether you like it or not, princess, I own you.”
“You do not.” But my fluttering eyelashes and shuddering body suggest otherwise.
Cameron pulls away, grinning, and I open my mouth to say some not-so-nice words. But Le
ader interrupts the moment.
“Remi, I think it’s time for you to get some real world training.” He crosses the room toward us, taking cautious steps. “Without Cameron present.” Cameron’s lips part, and I’m assuming he’s about to protest, but Leader talks over him. “I need to see how she does without you around. Because, when it all comes down to it, you won’t be with her for the battle.”
“She’s not ready,” Cameron grits out, his hands balled into fists. “She can barely get through a training session without needing to be fed.”
“I think that’s because you’re feeding her too easily.” Leader gives Cameron a pressing look. “In fact, I think both of you could use a break from the feeding sessions.”
Cameron stares Leader down, his eyes blackening. “I’m not sure what you’re implying, but I think I should remind you who you’re speaking to and what I’m capable of.”
“I’m completely aware of what the Grim Reaper is capable of,” Leader says calmly, taking another step toward us. “And I’m not trying to insult you. I’m just trying to explain that in order for Remi to become a superhero, she needs to learn not to be so dependent on you.”
“Fine, if that’s what you want then that’s what you’ll get,” Cameron growls out. Then poof, he disappears in a cloud of hazy smoke.
“Where’d he go?” I ask, attempting not to panic. But Cameron has been with me since day one. Not to mention he’s my food source! What happens if I get hungry while Leader and I are out? I swallow hard, knowing exactly what will happen.
“Probably to the Underworld,” Leader explains, daring another step toward me. “Don’t worry, after he gets over his tantrum, he’ll come back.”
I stare at the place where Cameron stood moments ago, my chest aching with a strange emptiness. “How can you be so sure he will?”
