heal them. News flash to me.
“Are you all right?” Dayna asked.
I stared at the empty doorway where Azazel had just stood. He hadn’t argued any further with me. Instead, he’d given me an undecipherable look and then turned on his heel and left.
Left me with no ride to the Beyond.
Left me stranded.
Point taken, big guy.
Shit, I hadn’t thought this through. Okay, pull it together. “I need you to sort my comms so I can get messages from my team. I then need you to take me to the wounded reaper.” I looked at my team. “I’m going to need one of you to be my designated ride.” The stag-horned demon was the biggest. “You can have that privilege.”
He arched a brow. “You want me to carry you?”
I stared at him levelly. “I don’t have wings or teleportation, so, yes. I’ll need you to get me in and out of the Underealm. You’ll need to come pick me up whenever I call. Can you do that?”
Sariah answered for him. “Yes, Dominus. Nox will do it.”
The stag dude nodded. “Yes, Dominus.”
“And you can quit with the Dominus shit. My name is Fee. Use it.” I flicked my wrist, and my scythe bloomed to blinding life in my hand. “Okay, how do I pick up these souls you have for me?”
Transfer of souls from reaper to scythe was pretty easy. I touched them with the blade, and it sucked out the souls they were carrying. Simple. It took less than five minutes, and then the glyphs that had glowed on their skin dulled and vanished.
“Celestial ink,” Dayna explained. “Bloody painful process.”
Her skin looked clear, but she was a reaper too. “Do you have them?”
“Yes, although being promoted to Deadside means I don’t get to use them any longer.” She handed me back my comm. “It’s all set so you can receive communication from your team now.” She pressed her lips together. “It looks like someone put a block on the messages.”
No prizes for guessing who. “When do we patrol next?”
“Tomorrow night, south side,” Sariah said.
“I’ll pick you up from the quarters,” Nox said. “It will be late afternoon, Underealm time.”
“And the injured reaper?”
“You can’t help her now,” Dayna explained. “There’s a window of time that you can heal a reaper with your scythe, half an hour after injury.”
“Shit. I’m so sorry. Please, tell her to get well soon and take as much time as she needs to heal. I’m looking forward to meeting her.”
Nox almost choked on his coffee.
“What?”
His brother, Nix, who wasn’t a twin, slapped him on the back.
“Well fought and well scarred is what we say,” Sariah explained.
“What you said intimates that she’s weak,” Dayna explained.
Sariah smiled, and the hard look in her yellow eyes ebbed a little. “But we understand what you mean. I’ll tell Freya you await her return.”
I looked to Dayna. “Is there anything else I need to know?”
She sighed. “Now that you’re asking …”
I was a reaper down for my Necro team. But there were other teams, several more that patrolled other regions and all reported to me. It was my job to pick up the souls they collected. It looked like the Dominus guys had been covering for me.
Not anymore.
As soon as I got back to quarters, I’d be having words with them. This was my job, and I intended to do it.
Except now I needed a ride to the Beyond.
Dayna caught the thread of my thoughts from my expression. “Shit, Nox won’t be able to take you to the Beyond. If he gets close to the portal, it’ll fry him.”
“It doesn’t like lesser demons,” he said bitterly.
“No, because we don’t have enough celestial blood,” Sariah added.
But I did, because of Samael. Although the guys hadn’t known what lineage I was at the start, they must have known I had enough celestial blood to get into the Beyond. Otherwise, why would the scythe choose me … shit, that’s what worthy meant to them. Celestials measured worth based on celestial bloodline. Conah had been telling the truth about it not mattering if you were of Lilith’s bloodline, though he just hadn’t clarified the rest.
“Shit.”
“Never fear, Malachi is here.” He sauntered into the room, looking pleased with himself.
Relief and anxiety tugged at my insides. I crossed my arms defensively. “Here to help or lecture me? I assume Azazel called you.”
“You assume correctly, and I’m here to be your chauffeur to the Beyond.”
I arched a brow, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
His expression sobered. “Are you sure you’re