Darkness Unbound Read Online Free PDF Page B

knew. We just needed—”
    “I know.” I squeezed her fingers, then stepped back. “I have to go.”
    “Thank your mother for me.”
    “I will.” Then I turned and escaped. The shrouded reaper was still waiting in the hall. That surprised me, but also gave me hope. Maybe the matter of the child’s passing wasn’t as settled as it seemed.
    Once free of the ward, I all but ran for the elevator, wanting, needing , to get out of this place—and away from its oppressive atmosphere—as quickly as possible.
    Once on the ground floor, I headed with speed for the front doors. Outside, it was raining again, but I didn’t give a damn. I just stood there on the top step and raised my face to the sky, letting the moisture soak my skin, washing away the scent of death and the feeling of wrongness.
    It was only when I began to shiver that I opened my eyes and looked around me.
    And saw my reaper.
    He was standing at the bottom of the steps, staring up at me. He was still half naked, the rain beading on his warm, suntanned skin and running lightly down his six-pack abs. The leather holding his sword in place seemed to emphasize the width of his shoulders, and the wet denim of his faded jeans clung to his legs, hinting at their lean strength. Stylized black tatts that resembled the left half of a wing swept around his ribs from underneath his arm, the tips brushing across the left side of his neck. He stood like a fighter—lightly, warily, as if he expected trouble at any moment.
    And if he was coming for me, he was certainly going to get it.
    I continued to stare at him, unspeaking. Unmoving. For all I knew, this sword-carrying reaper might be responsible for the atrocity that had happened upstairs. And if he could do that, then God only knows what else he might be capable of.
    “So,” he said, after what seemed like an age. “You can see me.”
    His voice was mellow and rich—the total opposite of what I’d expected. On any other man it might have been sexy, but this wasn’t a man. He merely held that form.
    “I can.” I kept my voice soft. I wasn’t sure whether others could see him, and I didn’t particularly want to be seen talking to thin air. Mom was a media star, and a daughter caught talking to imaginary people would certainly be great fodder for the gossip magazines. “And I know it’s not my time to die. So if you try to take me, you’ll have a goddamn fight on your hands. Sword or not.”
    Something akin to surprise ran through the bright depths of his oddly colored eyes. “Reapers do not steal souls. If you can see us, you should be aware of that fact.”
    “The only fact I’m aware of is the one lying in room six-eleven. Someone stole her soul. If not a reaper, then who?”
    His gaze rose briefly, then met mine again. “Wait here,” he said. “Do not run, because I will find you.”
    “If I’d wanted to run, I would have done so before now,” I said. “But in case you haven’t realized, it’s raining and cold, and I need to warm up.”
    He obviously didn’t. I could feel the heat of him even from where I stood. It didn’t do a whole lot to warm the chill from my skin, but maybe that was due more to what I had just experienced.
    “If the moisture bothered you so, you would have moved out of it before now.”
    Had any other man made that statement, I might have suspected he was being sarcastic. But he said it without inflection and without the slightest hint of amusement. Did reapers even feel amusement?
    I had no idea. I might have been aware of them for most of my life, and I might be related to them by virtue of my Aedh blood, but that wasn’t much help. Even Quinn—the half-Aedh vampire who’d taught me to control my Aedh gifts—hadn’t been able to tell me a whole lot about the reapers.
    I glanced down the street and spotted a McDonald’s. “I’ll be in there.”
    He glanced briefly at the building then back to me, his expression giving very little away. “Good.”
    And with