Reapers - Master of Souls (Reapers Chronicles Book III)

30 - Requirements (2 of 3)

Oh your hands can heal, 

your hands can bruise

I don't have a choice 

but I'd still choose you

I don't love you but I always will   

30 - Requirements

Gritting my teeth, I steered back into the road.

"Can't this thing go any faster?!" Her voice raised an octave. "We have to find Vincent."

Tightening my trembling fingers on the wheel, I stepped on the gas. I had seen Vincent go over a hundred five once, but the vehicle had barely went over eighty before I instinctively eased on the pedal.

Belial took two sharp breaths before opening her mouth. When she did, it was as if her voice didn't belong to her--small, papery.

"Do you Huns know why we Haljans were thrown out of the realm of immortals--Eanna?" She cringed--as if in pain--upon uttering the last word, a wave of spasm rolling down her back.

Kyoshiro and I exchanged bewildered glances.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Pressing a hand over her chest, Belial nodding while she caught her breath. Color drained from under her dark skin. I noticed something glowing on the back of her hand: a triangle like the one she painted on mine for the soul offering. A second later and it was gone. When she saw me looking, she hid her hand under the sleeve of her robe.

"Just a little Binding is all," she answered, unable to hide the false note in her tone. "It's forbidden for us to speak the realm's name. Part of the punishment. Now, tell me what you know."

"Grigori once told me a short version of it," I answered, trying to keep my eyes on the road. "Something about a dragon or a serpent being thrown down... with his angels."

With her feral eyes distant, she nodded blankly. "That's what the books say, yes."

"He also said you were banished by Eldest because you--" I glanced at her again "--hate humans."

"When Azrael..." She released a long deep breath, taking her precious time before locking gazes with me. "...was banished to earth, a lot of us weren't happy about it. Azrael never hated humans. In fact, he was fascinated with them. Too much, if you ask me. And as you two Huns know, he became Death as a result. He and Sathariel; they were like brothers."

I think I saw a smile almost form on her lips.

"And Lucy; she idolized Azrael more than she should have." She shook her head. "Poor girl. Began seeing only the worst in humans. Was in the front lines when the Great Flood happened. The whole time we watched it all unfold from our realm, I could tell she'd been wishing the ark would just sink and take every human with it."

"Ark... as in Noah's Ark?"

"Who cares who owned the goshdarned ark?" she scoffed. "Point is, Luci became obsessed with recreating the Flood, the ultimate Purge. And this time, no survivors. She'd been very... creative."

Kyoshiro yawned, stretching his limbs as far as the cab would allow. "Creative how?"

"The Guardians," she answered grimly.

"Guardians?" Kyoshiro echoed.

"There's three of them back in Halja... I think," I told him. "One's Cerberus. A giant three-headed bird and the third one, I have yet to meet."

Belial nodded. "Elemental monsters created from human evil--you've no idea how much evil the sins can generate--with the sole purpose of annihilatin' humanity. Most folks didn't agree with her ways, but secretly they wanted her to succeed. I knew I did."

"They don't seem so bad," I pointed out. "The Guardians, I mean. Cerberus isn't a bad dog. Just misunderstood. The other two... that's another story."

"They're trainable, a'right." The corner of her lips curled, but it wasn't quite a smile. "But not the Scarlet Beast."

I think I almost swallowed my tongue. The tires screeched angrily against the concrete as I momentarily lost control.

"This one's uncontrollable, horrific," she went on. "And it just might succeed in wiping humanity off the face of the world."

"But it didn't," Kyoshiro said.

Slowly, Belial lowered her eyes onto her lap. For a while, she stared vacantly at her hands as she closed and opened them. It felt as if she had entered a forbidden room in her head and she was talking to us through the keyhole.

"Because Eldest found us out," she whispered in a conniving tone. "He punished us. Luci received the worst of it. As for the Scarlet Beast; it was supposed to be destroyed. But before we were thrown into Halja, Sathariel took it with him and imprisoned it within his own soul in the hopes that he'd someday finish what Luci started. We were so sure that someday, we'd accumulate enough evil to awaken the Scarlet Woman through Luci."

"Scarlet Woman..." Kyoshiro arched a brow. "Scarlet Beast. Seems to ring a bell."

Heavy eyes widening, Belial curled her fingers into a tight ball. "T-the Scarlet Woman is one... whose soul is supposed to contain all the evil we've accumulated, the only being who can control the Scarlet Beast--its master."

It was hard to focus on her story with the loud thumping in my chest. I realized I was clutching on the wheel too tight when I couldn't feel my fingers. Struggling to remember directions, I shook my head to fight off the mist that covered my eyes.

"But through the years, he'd gone soft." Belial's eyes fell into deep wistfulness, her voice quiet, serene. "At some point, I guess Sathariel just got tired of plotting revenge and forgot about it. He met Roselle. Had Vincent..."

"And..." I swallowed lump in my throat. "Vincent had somehow inherited the Scarlet Beast."

Belial met my gaze on the mirror. "Yes."

"Legion is made up of millions of tainted souls," I thought aloud. "That's a lot of evil."

"Exactly."

"Inside Adrianna's soul."

She nodded.

"Is it possible that she is..." My throat seemed to close, trapping the words inside.

Again, a nod.

For a minute or two, I stared hard on the darkness ahead. My mind refused to put it all together, refused to believe what Belial had just disclosed.

Vincent still wasn't Linking back. Alex, too.

Did Vincent know about all this? Was all this in the scroll Alex had us retrieve from the Archives? If so, why didn't he tell me?

Questions and more questions.

"What can we do?" Kyoshiro murmured, mostly to himself.

"B-but..." I couldn't breathe. "It's Vincent we are talking about here! He's not just going to let some woman tell him what to do!"

Belial blinked, giving me a meaningful look. She didn't need words to say what I was already thinking. I remembered how Vincent reacted whenever Adrianna was around. At first, I thought it was because of their relationship, or at least, the memories of it. But now, I would pick 'relationship' over what Belial said any day.

Cursing, I ripped the Diviner's Charm from my right ear--the one for general Link--and handed it to Belial.

"Tell the others what you just told us," I said.

Without hesitation, Belial pierced her earlobe with the earring.

Sucking in a deep breath, I pushed the clutch forward and floored the pedal. My head just about sunk into the back of my seat at the abrupt acceleration.

To be continued...