Reaper's Word

Chapter 26: What He Really Is

Over the next two days Clair moved around the house unimpeded. She noted that there wasn't really anyone left just her. She was worried about the full moon. She didn't know if her deal with Isaiah counted during that time and she wasn't going to go and seek him out.

Hell fucking no. She was avoiding him like the plague. If he even remotely came toward her part of the house she ran for it hiding in the vents. She wasn't letting him near her until she had to. Even then she didn't want to.

Those that kept Isaiah here had yet to bring him a new supply of humans since waking from the winter slumber. She wasn't sure how well he was doing or if he needed. She felt the house and there was no presence she could find but him and the hell hounds. Since yesterday it seemed to be just her really.

Isaiah and the hell hounds were nowhere to be found today, but she knew that it was full moon. She'd been watching and the moon would be up shortly after sundown. She was in the piano room playing a song on the grand piano when she felt the trickle down her spine. She hadn't felt Isaiah or the hounds approach, but this was a different sensation. One she knew well now.

Clair got up and looked out a window. Two white vans showed and they were pulling people out of it. She wondered where they managed to get such large crowds, but these ones were a little different. Most were bound and tied. Sure didn't look like they came willingly.

She stayed where she was. She was just going to wait until they left to see what this group had been told. To see where they were from. Her growing hate for the group that had brought her here rivaled her desire to run from Isaiah. Clair saw them finishing up and started to move to the front of the house.

___Leonardo and Michael___

"Do you feel any left alive?" Michael looked at his father Leonardo Grietio. He shook his head.

"It is silent, he and the others are to weak at the moment to come and greet us."

"Excellent. Unload these things and let us be on our way." Leonardo was finding it harder to get people, but easier at the same time. He could always buy them. Always offer a poor soul on the street that no one would miss the chance for shelter and food, with a day's work. Then lock them up until he needed to feed the beast that gave him and his family immortality.

This group was one such group. He'd kept most of them in cells deep below his family home, they were well fed and cared for. Just kept to bring here. Leonardo liked his immortality. He liked the power and riches he had, that his family had.

So he would take others to sacrifice to Isaiah so he could continue to live, him and his family. So long as none of them crossed him. He was however keeping an eye on his one son, something was up with him. The family should know that if they tried to do something. Tried to usurp him or change the hand of power concerning Isaiah, he'd send them to die.

They had been very lucky the day that they'd caught Isaiah and locked him in here. Incredibly lucky. He'd killed his daughter for immortality and then climbed out of the cave trapping him. Him leaving these wretches was nothing to him.

"You've checked them all, thoroughly, and the women." He asked every time. They could not risk one that was like Athena getting in. Yes it was incredibly rare, and they had come across a couple but either left them alone or killed them if they knew to much. No woman that could replace Athena was getting in this house or they were all fucked.

"Have I made a mistake yet?" Michael snapped. Michael checked everyone for psychic talent. It really didn't matter about the men. It was the women, and a lot had a touch of talent. That didn't count, they had to be a fully developed psychic. As far as they were aware it was just not possible to hide it. Michael could always sense it.

"Don't grow complacent. You could overlook one that hides it well." Michael gave a sneer and pulled a woman from the back of the van lifting her and taking her into the house. She was looking around scared.

"Everyone gives a signature. I haven't missed anyone." It was his talent to sense if they were talented. He might not know with what, but he could feel the strength. His sister had shined like a beacon. So he knew what he was looking for.

Leonardo looked up at the house, his family's old house long ago. It looked bigger now. Like it had grown over the years. Which it had, it was no longer his house. It was Isaiah's and would do for him what it would never do for another living soul.

They would have to go in soon and get blood from Isaiah to reinstate the ritual. To make sure the binding didn't grow weak on them. He didn't think it ever would, but he was going to be positive. Never take anything for granted. There was a reaper of souls in that house. No one wanted him to get out. The world had no idea what he trapped here.

They unloaded the humans. Most if not all would be dead by dawn and they would have to bring another group that much sooner. Michael would come and check in a few days to see how many were left. They traveled far and wide to gather groups. It was too dangerous to get them from the same place too often, or the same method. This house was a three hour drive around the mountains to find, not easy. It was also encased in magic to hide it.

Leonardo sighed, he was content to do this however. If he could kill his own daughter he sure as hell could toss people that he didn't even know into a house to die. Athena, he'd loved his daughter. He'd just loved what he could get from her lover more.

Athena had taken Isaiah to her bed more times than Leonardo could count. The little whore enjoying her reaper lover. She'd even gotten herself pregnant by him. Not an easy thing to do as there were very

specific needs for that to happen. However he'd found her notes, saw what she was doing. That she had taken a different route to immortality. She was trying to get his favor, his blood by a child. She was trying to willingly get the gift from Isaiah. Leonardo decided to take it by force.

He'd found out about Isaiah and the plan had been set in motion. Isaiah promised to come back for her the following night after she'd told him of her condition, and so he had. Leonardo had killed Athena to seal him in the house and his life to feed their immortality.

Easy enough with his spawn growing in her. He'd dragged her to the caves, and the natural magic there to kill her and the unborn child to trap him. He'd say it worked like a charm but there had been a bit of a blood bath with the ones who were still in the house. Oh well it wasn't him. He’d been using others to extend his life already. So all it took was a few modifications.

Leonardo was sure that Isaiah was a reaper. A bringer and bearer of death. It wasn't just what he did to humans, or how he enjoyed killing. Reapers were always bound by their word once given. However they were masters of manipulation as well. The world nowadays had no real knowledge of them and what knowledge there was was mostly verbal. In this house there was information. Athena's journal was still in the library. Didn't matter Leonardo knew what to do. He’d searched for anything else, but couldn’t find it. Fine by him, no information meant less to come from the outside.

It was extremely dark and powerful magic to pull a reaper from the other side and make them human. To his knowledge only one other reaper had ever existed and it was dead now, or rather sent back to the other side. It had failed in its promise. He wasn't sure if that truly killed them or sent them back to the nether.

"Let's move out, it's getting close to dark!" Leonardo called out and the others moved quickly from the house. They all got in the vans and drove off quickly. If they were lucky they wouldn't have to visit for another two months, but doubted it. It was a full moon and half were bound, unable to run.

__Clair__

Clair came to the room where they always dropped others off and found twenty one bound and struggling strangers. They never skimped on the numbers that was for sure. She helped free them and then those that were freed helped the others as well.

"Where are we?" One asked.

"Is this another prison? I've been stuck in that damn cell of theirs for months." There was talking going on and one moved toward the door. Clair was sure that they had a system set up to keep people. Whether this family was the one directly watching them or not.

"Don't do that!" Clair called as one tried to go out the door and was thrown back. They had all signed the contract. The room grew silent and everyone looked around, a few others tried the door with the same effect. Clair rolled her eyes.

"Listen to me!" Clair snapped and most turned to look at her. "Your best chance to live is to run and hide, and hide well. There are things in this house that will tear you apart the moment they find you when the moon is full. They have left you trapped in this house to be used by monsters.”

"Bullshit!" Someone said.

"I'm serious, I've been here for a while now. I'm lucky to be alive. Listen to me, just give me a couple minutes and then you can do as you wish." she explained as best she could about Isaiah and the hell hounds. Only a few seemed to believe her, the rest shook their heads.

"You're cracked lady. This is just a human trafficking ring. Are they going to hunt us down? Creatures aren't real, human monsters are." Both were true.

"Remember that when they are tearing you apart. My advice, stay alone it's easier to hide." With that she turned and left the room. She needed to find a place to hide as well. Well she knew where she was going. The others now moved around the house. She still wasn’t sure why Isaiah or the hounds still hadn’t shown. It worried her, how close was the moon?

Clair went down the hall and took a turn to the left, heading toward the larger chute she knew was in the wall. She glanced at the window, the sun had sunk below the mountains to the west and it was growing dark fast. She'd stayed out too long, though she was sure that the moon wouldn't be up for a bit. She'd watched its crescent shape come over the mountain peaks for a week to learn when it would rise.

She turned to go into the room with the chute and the door slammed in her face. She jumped and looked around, no one was there. However she heard doors starting to slam all over the place and people calling out in alarm or pounding on the closed doors.

Clair took hold of the handle in front of her and pushed with her mind. She was rewarded with a sharp jab to the middle of her chest by an invisible hand. She stumbled back. The house went silent the moment that a loud blood curdling screech filled it.

Her face paled, she could remember the sound of that thing from the last moon. She wouldn't ever forget it not until the day she died. Then three low howls echoed behind it and Clair ran to the window. No the moon wasn't up yet, she couldn't see it.

"What the hell was that?" Someone said running down a hall near her and appearing around the corner. It was a man with light brown hair. He was pulling a woman along with him. She looked a whole lot like Clair. So much so that Clair had to do a double take as they ran at her. The two seemed to have recognized her from earlier.

"Hey you, what was that?" The man asked.

"It's him." She said. "Like I told you they are nothing but killing machines during the moon." Clair said, turning and running down the hall to try and find a hiding place. Or a vent she could get into.

"But the moon isn't out." The woman said as they followed her.

"I know, I don't understand. I've been watching it rise over..." She slowed slightly and felt like an idiot. "It's when it comes over the horizon not the mountains."

All around the house the doors did the opposite now. Flinging open and this time they would not be closed. Clair turned around she was going back to the room she knew was a vent that would fit her. The couple following her.

"What are you doing?" Clair asked.

"Following you, you lived here for a while. Clearly you know something to stay alive." Clair didn't want to share her hiding spot, not at all. However she couldn't very well just leave them here to die. It would be heartless of her and she wouldn't be heartless like Isaiah was.

"Okay, follow me I'll try to get you somewhere he won't look. I don't think that they go into the secret passages. Though I wouldn't put it past them to rip into the walls." She went into one room and then into the wall. The couple followed her and they went down a ways before going up.

"Wait, I hear something." The woman said. Whose name was Leanne her husband Carlos was behind her as they leaned against the walls.

"Shh." Clair said and all three of them put their ears to the wall. The sound of nails clicking on the hardwood floor told them that something was on the other side. Clair turned her head and looked at them, she mouthed, ‘Don't move.’ They gave silent nods and several tense minutes passed until the sound moved off.

She took them to a small room that was only accessible through the ceiling of one bedroom. She told them to stay there. It was a better hiding place than most and as Clair stepped down from the dresser she crumpled to the floor as the high pitched whistle sounded.

"What is that!" Carlos shouted to her, moving to come down. Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

"No don't!" Clair warned. "Just ignore it, don't listen to it. No matter what it makes you feel." He gave a nod but seemed to desire to come down. Clair left the room.

Her hands over her ears and tears streaming from her eyes. It wasn't all out loud. It was also in your head. It scared her to think what Isaiah would be capable of if he wasn't trapped here.

It stopped abruptly and then she heard them. The screams, they started and one of the women that must have been in the room was shrill and loud. Her scream was cut short. Clair ran down the hall toward the grate she knew she could use.

The screams sounded much closer down here, but her own ears where still ringing. It was hard to really tell where they were coming from. As always her luck seemed to crumble if she didn't leave when she was supposed to. The door to her right exploded open out into the hall. Just as she was going to pass it.

She put her arms up unable to really stop and hit the door. Five people with blood splattered on them piled out of it. Clair rolled to get up and covered her head as one man was driven to the floor right next to her. Zeta on him.

Clair heard the crunch of bone and felt something wet hit her arms and some of her face. She got up while Zeta was occupied with the now nearly dead man. She focused her gaze on her target, even as bile rose in her throat.

She'd never actually watched all of it as they killed a person. Just the start, just hearing the screams. As much as she wished she hadn't, Clair had got a good glimpse of torn flesh. Blood poured from the ragged wound on his shoulder and neck.

Three people came from around a corner, blocking her escape route. She slid to a stop near them and saw why. The blackish blue creature that would be Isaiah stood in the hall moving toward them. Its eyes didn't really seem to be there, just black glassy looking pits.

"Holy fuck!" One guy shouted. He turned to run down the hall to where Clair wanted to go. The moment he ran, so did Isaiah. It was more like a blur of movement really and the talons on his hands sliced into and down the man's back and he dropped to the floor. Isaiah reached down and picked him up by the neck.

The woman standing near Clair and another man started to scream as the thin line that had been Isaiah's mouth opened. Needle sharp teeth showed. His black eyes looked at them as he bit into the crook of the man's neck.

Her scream had unfrozen Clair and the man. There wasn't time to feel shock or revulsion or fear. Just time for adrenaline and running. Coming at them down the hall was Alpha and Clair ducked as Alpha launched himself at her and the man.

The man followed her example and was only clipped by Alpha's large body, sending him into the wall. The woman wasn't so lucky. She was hit full force by Alpha. Beta darted past the two of them and took hold of the woman as well.

Clair wasn't going to watch the gruesome tug of war between them. The woman's screams were bad enough as it was. She and the man were up again running. They reached the end of the hall. The choice was left or right. They didn't get to make the choice. Something fast moved around them and cut them off.

Isaiah stood in front of them. The massive wings touching the ceiling and floor in here as he pulled them very close to his body. The two of them didn't move. Clair was just slightly ahead of the man, but closer to the room on their right.

"I'm really sorry about this, I hope you understand." The man said and shoved Clair hard. She stumbled forward a hand going to the floor to stop from falling as he slipped into the room and slammed the door. Clearly, it was working again.

She felt a tight grip on the back of her neck, as her head was still bent down. Her head was snapped back harshly. One of the talons nearly sliced the flesh of her neck. He dropped her like he'd been burned. A lip curling and a deep unearthly sound coming from him.

The creature's gaze moved from her as if she was no longer there. He stepped toward the door. Clair scooted away. She thanked her lucky stars that she had been promised immunity from him. Apparently it worked in this form as well.

She ducked as the door was torn from the hinges and slammed into the wall above her head. It just missed her as it fell. Two huge chunks were missing from the face of the door where Isaiah had torn into it.

The man that had shoved Clair was sent into the hall a moment later. Hitting where the door had fallen onto and into Clair. He moved to stand and run, not sparing Clair a glance. Isaiah was far too fast and as Clair was getting up he caught the man.

Clair had to get around him to get away from this. She hugged the wall scooting around them not watching. Whatever Isaiah had done in the next second sent blood flying. It hit Clair across the face and chest. That was all it took for her to turn and was sick all over the ground. Next thing she knew she was running down the hall and closing herself in a bathroom.

She didn't know how long she stood there, but she scrubbed her face raw listening to the destruction of the house. The piercing whistle as Isaiah and the hounds looked for more victims. Clair was shaking and by morning she managed to get into a vent and to her hiding place.

She stayed there till the end. She didn't know how much blood stained her hands or clothes. Just that it wasn't on her face. It was in her hair but again she just didn't want it on her face. She shook as she lay there and night fell again. The sounds of the house being torn apart came to her. However there were no screams this time. Not until what she thought might be the last night did it sound like someone had been caught again.