Reapers - Master of Souls (Reapers Chronicles Book III)

4 - Getting Even (2 of 2)

NP: Your Guardian Angel by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Before Hector could reach the jagged opening, the clones tackling Vincent started screaming all of a sudden. All of them backed away from him, hissing.

Their arms and faces were scalded. Some had burns so deep, I smelled amniotic barbeque and I was inside a tank.

Vincent got up, using his lance for support. His eyes gleamed, having these black slits for pupils. Half his chest was now covered with scales. The whispers became louder, disturbing like fingernails against a chalkboard.

"You've been a bad, bad boy, Hector," Vincent scoffed, blocking Hector's way. "Playing with my Aramis while Daddy's taking a nap. Oh, he's going to freak! Looks like someone's getting a timeout."

"It's too late now," Hector answered. "Once Father wakes up, we're all going to die."

"Sorry," Vincent said. "Not in my schedule."

The tip of his lance began to warp, twitching until it formed a second spike, so that it now looked like a 'U'.

For once, Alexis left the controls and gawked at Vincent. "I'd be damned."

"Gimme a break, dude," Amyr mumbled. "The boss clearly said not to summon the damned scythe. And now he just has to summon the second spine."

"What's wrong?" I sounded panicky. "He wasn't able to summon his scythe since he used up much life force when he brought me back. This is good, right? Means he's back to his full strength."

Amyr and Alex exchanged meaningful glances.

"Okay... I'll take care of the naked girls," Amyr muttered, scratching the back of his head before charging to the clones, hence predictably shirking my question.

I gave Alexis a questioning look.

After a hesitant pause, he released a resigned sigh. "It's not that he can't summon his scythe, Aramis. It's just that he won't."

The glass door of my tank finally slid open.

I staggered out, only for Alexis to catch me before I could trip on my own foot. For the first time in a long time, I wanted to sleep. Really sleep and never wake up until all this was over.

"We..."-he swallowed-"I mean, he... thinks it's cursed."

I caught my breath and managed a smirk. "Bruce-Lee-cursed? Or Aramis-Rayne-cursed?"

"Err... Dante's-Inferno-cursed, I think."

"Okay... The game, right?"

"The epic poem divine comedy, actually." He watched my reaction through his lashes. When my forehead creased, his eyes jumped from Vincent to Amyr to Hector then to the floor. "As far as I know, Vincent had only summoned it twice before. Just two times. The first time, Adrianna died. The second time, his mother did."

I nodded, lost in deep thought. Sathariel told me the same exact thing.

"Do not let Vincent become the monster he thinks he is," I repeated the Devil's words unknowingly. I tugged Alexis' arm. "So what do we do?"

He gave me a long blank look and blinked. "We try to stop it."

"How?"

"I'm not sure," he admitted, his brows knotting in his effort to think.

"Come on," I encouraged him. "There's got to be a way."

Alexis' eyes wandered the floor for a few seconds as if the answers were written there and only he could see them. "Vladimir was telling me about this, and he mentioned something about a demon armor. As long as it's not complete, we can still stop Vincent."