and necks. And all three demons glared at me.
No point pussyfooting around. “I heard everything you just said.”
Sariah paled. One of the guys cursed softly under his breath.
“Look, Fee,“ Dayna said. “They didn’t mean any offense. They were just venting. It’s been tough out there. Reapers rely on their allocated Dominus for a host of things and … It’s nobody’s fault.”
Wait, did she think I was pissed off? “Whoa. I’m not disputing that. I get it. This is on me.”
The reapers exchanged confused glances.
“I’m new at this, and I’m learning, but I want to do this well. I want to be there for you. I want to be out on patrol with you.”
“Then maybe return our calls?” the guy with the stag horns said.
“I didn’t get any calls. Hell, I didn’t even know I was meant to be patrolling.” It sounded like I was making excuses. That wasn’t what I wanted. “That’s not your problem. I need to get my shit together, and I promise you, I will.”
They traded looks again, then the demon with the stag horns nodded. “Fine. In that case, you’ll come on patrol with us tomorrow night?”
Excitement and fear swirled in my stomach, and then assurance and power rushed through my veins. It was my Voralex and this place. It was with me, telling me I wouldn’t be alone out there.
I smiled. “I’ll be with you.”
“No, you won’t,” Azazel said from the doorway.
The demons, my reapers, looked to me for a response. I was their Dominus, not Azazel. I was their leader, at least I was supposed to be, but here he was speaking for me, and it hit me that that’s all I’d been subjected to since becoming a Dominus.
Conah, Azazel, Mal, they made my decisions for me. They spoke for me. And yeah, I was new at this, and there were inherent risks that were specific to me, but I’d allowed it to happen. I’d given up my voice because I was afraid and unsure. Because I was so out of my depth. But every new role in life came with a learning curve, and I was damned good at anything I set my mind to.
I turned to face Azazel. “I don’t need your permission to do my job.”
No one owned me. Not Conah, not Mal, and not Azazel. I was bound only by the limitations out of my control, like the fact I couldn’t get from the Underealm to the human realm. I was beholden to them because of that simple fact. But I didn’t need their permission to do my job. The scythe chose me for a reason.
I was worthy.
“You’re not ready,” Azazel said.
But I was. I was as ready as I would ever be without any actual practical experience, and he knew it. I could see it in his eyes. This wasn’t about me. It was about the minute amount of risk that presented itself every time I left for the human world. The risk that I might die in some unknown manner and activate the curse to fuck up Lilith.
But a vampire couldn’t drain me dry because Dominus blood sucked for them. It could tear open every artery and hope I bled out, but I’d fight back. A mouth could attack me, but without a Dread to finish me off, it was unlikely it would be able to maim me enough to incapacitate me before the scythe did its thing and healed me. And, yes, there was a dagger out there, but the hooded figures that had it had gone to ground. As for Lilith’s minions finding me now that I’d been stripped of the shielding Azazel had placed on me, well, they could do that anywhere, but to be honest, with all the unrest in the Underealm, Lilith had better things to do with her time and resources.
Based on those facts, I was pretty damn invincible.
“You’re not ready,” Azazel repeated, but he didn’t sound so convinced now.
Probably because I was staring at him with a blank look while I processed all the ways I was fucking ready.
I gave him a closed-lip smile. “We’ll just have to see, won’t we?”
Chapter Ten
Yay to me for standing up to Azazel. Then why was my stomach trembling with nerves? Because this was me going at it alone. Jumping into the deep end as team leader.
It would be fine. It was like any other leadership role, except I had to kill monsters and heal my team if they got hurt. Yep, my scythe could