Lillian imagined being somewhere else but here. Not only was it cramp, dark, and suspicious, but she also had to share the narrow space with an angry Kaeron.
The moon had finally decided to make an appearance and Lillian made sure not to make eye contact with Kaeron, who was standing directly in it's light, basking in it, looking like the vengeful god that hid behind the charming smile. Whitney stood to his left...
Movement at his right caught her attention.
The moonlight partially revealed the face of what was maybe the most gorgeous woman Lillian had ever seen. Maybe even more so than Lex. She had eyes like moonstones, a slender figure that Lillian could never hope to achieve, and smooth skin that made Lillian feel rough and dirty.
She growled at the feeling.
The jealousy didn't last long, though. There was still a hum of golden energy singing in her blood. She had no room to be jealous, especially when she felt complete. She felt.... She felt like she could break out into song and dance. It was addictive. The mysterious power inside her, and the more that she used it. The more she didn't want to stop using it.
She glanced over to Lex and couldn't fight the smile that lit up her face at her flawless and undamaged body. The light had even restored Lex's sweatpants and the baggy hoodie that had been ripped up and marred with blood from the fall. Lillian's light. The most deadly secret that she held, and she had just entrusted it to Lex, but would she be able to accept the rest...
Lillian yelped as a burning heat brushed a kiss to her cheek. A stream of fire surged by her, and she dived away from the flame before the pain could consume rational thought.
"Kaeron!" Lex reprimanded.
The stream of fire cut off before she heard him scoff. "What? I was just getting rid of the problem."
Her cheek felt raw, and the smell of burning flesh made her sick to her stomach.
She had held no love for those bastards. They had hurt Lex, but to kill them all so mercilessly, so ruthlessly, so... effortlessly. They didn't even have enough time to scream before the flames had devoured them.
Another more terrifying thought penetrated her haze.
Had he seen her light show? Was that why he was being so aggressive? Was he going to do the same thing to her? Or maybe he'd just wash his hands of her for good and give her over to his boss. Maybe earn some goodwill and get the Shifter to call off the hounds. Would Lex stop him? Could she stop him?
"Kaeron. Be careful what you say right now. Lillian just saved my life." Lex warned.
Kaeron laughed. "And how exactly did she do that?"
Lex glanced over at Lillian, almost as if to ask "Yeah how did she do that..."
A screech penetrated their bubble, grabbing everybody's attention, and Lillian thanked Zedith for the interruption, that was until she realized how close that sounded. The reapers were closing in and quick.
"Let's put a pin in that." Kaeron ordered. "Lex, get those two out of here. We'll handle the Reapers." He pointed toward the woman who had been standing in the darkness unnaturally still.
"I'm not leaving you here alone to clean up my mess. We'll stay and help." Lex argued.
"No." Kaeron said sternly. "I've got a plan, but you can not be here while I put it into action. Trust me, Lex. We've got this."
Lex snorted a laugh. "You keep saying we, like... who even is this skank?"
"Watch your mouth." Kaeron warned, but Lex just tilted her head up at him in defiance.
"You left for like five minutes. How could you have already found some bimbo to hook up with?" She turned her attention onto the woman. "You. What's your name."
"Lex, I agree with your brother on this one..." Lillian tried.
"Fine. We'll leave. Just as soon as boobs over there answers my question." She cocked her head. "Unless you're a mute?"
The woman frowned but hesitated as if debating if a response was the right decision.
"I don't feel like giving my name to someone acting like a spoiled brat." The woman finally said.
Lillian froze. That voice. It was a horrifying mixture of beautifully seductive and insanely lethal. It was a voice that had been engraved in her brain.
"Who the hell do you think...
"Mala." Lillians whisper was almost inaudible, but everyone with supernatural hearing in the alley looked at her. Which was everyone. She swallowed as the horrors began rearing their ugly head for the second time that day.
"You know her?" Lex asked, looking from Lillian to the woman.
"You were there." Lillian whimpered...
Another screech had Kaeron stepping up and saying. "We will deal with your drama later. Lex, I won't say it again." He grabbed Lex by the hand and plopped something into it before she could continue to argue with him. "Take the car and go somewhere. I'll find you. Go Right Now!"
"Kaeron..." Lex spoke, but Lillian ran.
She ran toward the way the two had appeared from. He didn't have to tell her twice. She sprinted past the woman who had treated her as if she were nothing, less than nothing, head down, and eyes closed.
She couldn't breathe, and her thoughts were jumbled. He had done it again. He had shown her again that not trusting him had been the right decision. He was probably in on it, and she'd bet anything that they had had a big laugh at her expense over the whole thing.
She fought the tears as she ran, locking this feeling into her spirit. Kaeron may not be her enemy, but he definitely was not an ally, and she would never forget it.
******
That went about as well as expected... kind of. The girl that she had helped torture information out of running away. Was no surprise. She had told that barbarian Neighla not to use her name before they had begun interrogating her, but had the dumb girl listened. Of course not.
However, Kaerons sister reacting like that just from meeting her was not how she had wanted that to go down. It was obvious that neither girl had known who she was at the beginning, and she had hoped to make a good impression on his sister before she found out who Mala truly was. She knew it was trivial, and Kaeron would mostlikely not even care, but there was some part of her that had hoped that she and his sister could be friends, as naive as that was, but the girl had been instantly hostile toward her, and it had caused her to forget herself, and now his sister wouldn't even acknowledge her as she ran into the darkness, after the girl, followed by the other one.
The alley went quiet for a moment before she looked at Kaeron, noting his every movement. "What now?" She asked carefully.
He didn't look at her as she picked up on footsteps heading toward them from the direction he was glaring.
From the stories she had been told, she knew that Kaeron was lethal as all hell, and she had witnessed just how lethal when he had slaughtered her guards in seconds back at Vesna's, but was he really powerful enough to take on multiple Reapers with only her for back up?
"Now, I introduce you to an old acquaintance and hope that he at least gives us a chance to speak before he kills us."
Figures began entering the alley, and Mala tensed, her instincts grabbing for a pistol that wasn't there.
"It must be my lucky day." An ancient, shriveled, hateful voice spoke with what seemed like some kind of twisted satisfaction. The voice was neither male nor female, and Mala had to remind herself to breathe as it continued speaking. "It's not everyday, you chase a mino and instead catch a whale."
Mala stiffened, but Kaeron just shrugged, as if completely unaffected by this walking personification of death.
"As fun as it would be to see how a Reaper dies. I've got an ass thicker than a bitch to get back to snacking on so let's make this quick."
"Kaeron!" She blushed.
"Take us to Lich." He demanded, ignoring her outrage.
All embarrassment vanished at the mention of the ruler of Final City, and king of all Reapers on Solaris. Infamous for his cruelty, it was his rise to power over Final City that had turned it into the hellscape that it was today. What was Kaeron thinking?
The Reaper made some kind of noise that sounded like somebody choking on their own spit, and Mala shivered. So creepy.
"Do you really believe that you can make a bargain for your lives, Shifter?"
Kaeron just stared the Reaper down, as if it weren't the most terrifying fucking thing on all of Solaris and Mala had to call her therapist because for some reason that turned her on. She shifted her thighs as a warmth spread down between her legs. She was so screwed. Even when her life was on the line, he was still somehow able to make her so wet that she might actually drown.
Kaeron broke his staring contest with the Reaper and looked at her, an eyebrow raised. Dragon Shifters were infamous for their noses, so it was no surprise he'd be able to scent her state of arousal.
She licked her lips and glanced downward toward his perfectly sculpted ass, letting her eyes do the talking for her, and he stiffened.
"Fine, Shifter." The Reaper finally said, but Kaeron didn't take his eyes off of hers. "Only because seeing the fear in your aura the moment that my master gives me the ok to devour you gives me more enjoyment than hunting down some little girls."
Kaeron smiled before finally looking away, and Mala almost whimpered at the loss of his gaze on her, confirming her worst fears.
The Reaper snarled at the others and then looked back at Kaeron. "Keep up. We won't slow down just because your girlfriend isn't up for the trek."
Kaeron growled but said nothing as the Reaper turned his back to them and headed for the front of his group of monstrosities.
Kaeron looked back at her, now sporting a playful smile. "So dirty minded."
She pursed her lips together, slow and seductive like, and purred. "You haven't seen anything yet."
******
Everything was up to him. He had a half thought out plan, a plan that he wasn't even sure that he could pull off, but had to convince himself that he could so that he could convince somebody so famously compassionless that their known as, Lich, The Fucking, Heartless, that he could pull it off. In order to spare not only his life, but Mala's, Lex's, that girls, and the woman from Bonnie's journal.
Kaeron had to breathe, and it wasn't from the high speeds that he and Mala were sprinting at to keep up with the Reapers. The two of them kept their distance, staying about a cars length behind the Reapers, their obsessive howling, keeping the streets blissfully empty. Kaeron had heard from some Hells Mob members who had been stationed in Final City before that when the Reapers weren't patrolling. Bad shit happened.
Mortal sacrifices, gang rapes, and even immortal slave auctions.
But he needed to focus on the problem at hand. The Reapers may not be the brightest creatins on Solaris, but they weren't dumb either. They'd easily be able to spot any fear or doubt within his words. Add on the fact that Lich was an unstable psychopath who once forced a mother to beat her oldest son to death to save her baby girl, only to kill the baby girl as punishment for the mother killing the son, and it left Kaeron almost no room for error. A single mistake and it could get rough real fucking quick, so he couldn't doubt himself, this would work, and they were getting out of here alive.
He would not fail.
He glanced at Mala. He would have to sell it. There was no other choice.
They slowed to a stop at a gas station, and the Reaper ordered for the two of them to wait here, as he and the rest of the Reapers entered.
Mala strutted toward him, hips swishing, eyes jumping around to every detail committing no doubt each inch of the surrounding area to memory, while Kaeron had to force himself to stay focused on the upcoming task, and not the way her ass looked in that dress.
"Where are they taking us?" She asked, casually wrapping her arms under his his and locking them around his back. He looked down at her, and he almost jumped at the heat he felt when their eyes met. He could hear her heartbeat, and the way her breathing changed the minute she touched him, and those stormy depths of hers were as frustratingly impossible to read as always, driving him insane and for some sick reason he liked the feeling.
"The Iron Maiden." He said, amazed by how he was still capable of speech at all.
"The iron maiden?" She repeated, shifting her body, and he growled when her nipples rubbed against his abs.
She looked up innocently at him, and he could have sworn that she was trying not to smile. What a tease.
"Let's go shifter!" The Reaper ordered, and now Kaerons growl was for an entirely different reason.
"Hey. Keep focusing on me." Mala ordered softly, but there was steel in her words. He obeyed, studying her face as if they weren't about to enter their possible graves, and as if someone as pathetic as a Reaper didn't just order him around.
"Ignore him, and just think about this." She lifted up on her toes, inching closer. He couldn't help himself and moved in closer as well until the two of them were only a breath away from each other's lips. She kissed him slow and controlled but full of hunger, and said, lips pressed up against his own. "I'm ready for you, and I know you can smell just how ready, so imagine how much fun we're going to have as soon as we're finished with this."
"How cute. If I could vomit, It would be all over you two right now, but if you're done. Hurry up. I don't have all night. You know. Auras to eat. Girls to hunt."
Kaeron stiffened but didn't stop looking at Mala.
"It'll be fine." She promised in a whisper.
He was going to turn this walking pile of bones into a bucket of ashes for threatening his sister. Spots of red blurred his vision, and he had to fight the roaring silence that threatened to consume him...
Kaeron growled and glared at Mala. She had fucking bit him.
"It's going to be ok." She repeated, glaring back at him.
"I'm going to get you back for that." He warned.
"Is that a promise." She smiled impishly, finally letting go of him. He had to stop himself from grabbing her and pulling her back in, refusing to let her go this time.
She took hold of his significantly larger hand, and he reluctantly allowed her to guide him toward the opening of the gas station.
A bright light blinded him, forcing him to blink rapidly as they crossed over. When his eyes adjusted, he had to blink again as he studied their new surroundings. They were definitely not in a gas station, and in all honesty, he wasn't even sure if the pocket world they were now in counted as being on Solaris or not.
"What the..." Mala's head leaned back as she looked up... and up... and up.
"This is The Iron Maiden. Lich's own pocket world, where he hides in the strangest castle design that I have ever seen..." Kaeron sighed.
"A ginormous, iron maiden?" Mala said clearly in awe.
He remembered his first time visiting this castle as a kid. Draefin had been invited and took him along. He had reacted the exact same way then.
"Follow me, and try not to fall off." The Reaper said marching past them.
"Fall off?" Mala repeated tensing.
"The inside of the maiden has skinny but long spikes that are used as walkways to connect the rooms of the castle. Falling from the higher levels would injure even me. Not to mention that we may be here as friendly's, but it doesn't mean that there are any friends among us. Isn't that right, Reaper."
The Reaper made some sick noise in his throat, but Kaeron could hear the smile in its words as it spoke.
"Just follow me."
Kaeron had to stay on his toes. The Reapers could easily swoop in and devour their aura's before either one of them could do anything to stop the creatures.
Mala breathed in, but it was the only sign that she was disturbed by the thought.
He brought a hand to her cheek and softly turned her to face him.
"Let's finish this." He said gently.
She stared at him, into him, through him, and then smiled. "Let's finish this."
She took his hand and didn't let go as they sprinted after the Reaper and into "The Iron Maiden."