Read Online Reaper by Katrina Monroe - Free Book Online

isn’t happening. It can’t be happening.
It’s fucking happening.
    The shadow pulsed and morphed from black to
blood red. It devoured her from the ground up, like a shark from
beneath a still sea. In a matter of seconds, the shadow and the
woman were gone.
    Oz’s heart beat hard against his ribs. The
screaming—it wouldn’t stop.
    Then he realized it was coming from his
mouth. “The fucking fuck was that?”
    No one answered him. They couldn’t. The
business-like demeanor with which the reapers began their work had
dissolved into complete chaos. The shadows came from every dark
place hidden beneath planes and between structures. It felt like an
ambush. Some of them took shape as giant, black wolves with pointed
teeth that extended well past their jaws. Saliva flung from their
fangs as they ran. The reapers scattered, all running now.
    Paramedics sped over the tarmac, sirens
blaring. They had to know they were too late. No one could have
possibly survived a crash like that.
    The fire in the nose of the plane slowly
consumed it, the flames growing, licking the side of the terminal.
One of the pilots dragged himself from the emergency door and
crumpled to the ground.
    His Ba rolled out of his body.
    A wolf howled.
    Victoria ran toward the pilot’s Ba. The wolf
growled and pursued her. She didn’t look back. A primal cry erupted
from her chest as she tried to outrun it, but the wolf gained
ground impossibly fast.
    “Look out!” Oz cried, sprinting after
her.
    The wolf leapt, jaw open wide, and locked his
teeth around her neck. It hit the ground and tossed its head. The
snap of the reaper’s neck could be heard over the sirens.
    Oz’s breath caught in his throat.
    The wolf reared back on its hind legs. Its
mouth opened, the jaw dislocating like a python, and a fog of
putrid, black smoke stormed from its throat.
    Banking from behind a burning row of seats,
Bard dove and tackled it to the ground. The smoke dissipated, but
the wolf wasn’t shaken. It snapped at Bard’s arm, drawing a
frightening amount of blood. Bard punched the wolf in the eye and
used all of his weight to hold the wolf’s jaw shut. He wouldn’t be
able to hold it long.
    “Get him!” Bard yelled.
    Oz couldn’t focus. He didn’t think they could
actually die; that there was any real danger to the reapers. Fear
paralyzed him.
    “The pilot, Oz! Now!”
    The wolf kicked and wriggled and growled.
Bard screamed in anger and pain.
    Oz knelt over the pilot’s Ba. His body had
been scorched to a skeleton. The stench clung to his bones.
    “Please,” the Ba said.
    Oz held his hands and avoided looking into
his eyes. He blew gently into the pilot’s blackened fingertips. Two
glittering gold coins appeared, and he was gone.
    * * *
    Just as quickly as the nightmare began, an
unsteady calm took over. The reapers delivered payment to whomever
they could, but shadows had taken five in total. Arm still
bleeding, Bard lifted Victoria as if she weighed nothing and
carried her away. No one followed him. Even Oz knew better than
that. One by one, silent and exhausted, they left. Just like that,
like it hadn’t even happened.
    Cora stayed behind with Oz.
    He focused his attention on the paramedics,
futilely trying to untangle bodies from the wreckage. Limbs lay
detached from their owners, waiting to be bagged and tagged. News
vans arrived and police taped off the area. Oz never thought he’d
witness something so catastrophic. It was one of those things that
never happened until it happened to you, and it was happening to Oz
in a really big, really fucked up way.
    “Is she really dead?” Oz struggled to keep
his eyes off the pilot’s body. “I mean, no-coming-back dead?”
    “Yes,” she said.
    “Where is he taking her?”
    Cora hesitated before answering, “Somewhere
safe.”
    Safe. It was hard to imagine the meaning of
that word.
    “What were those things? The wolves?”
    “Simply put, they’re the bad guys.”
    “And not so simply?”
    Cora gently