Reap & Reveal (The Reaper Series Book 3) Read Free

happened from that point onward.
    Nate shuddered. The thought of being buried alive until he did finally deplete was horrifying. He didn’t know how long the actual depletion might take. Hours? Days? Years? Perhaps they could remain dormant indefinitely. He had enough problems to worry about without borrowing trouble. Besides, he wasn’t a reaper. Not really, anyway.
    His thoughts turned to Maeve. Kylen had survived a century of possession. He knew Maeve was still alive because Bo continued to pick up her trail every time they went back to Meridian. More than that, though, he could feel her. They were bound to each other in an inexplicable metaphysical way. Ever since she’d saved his life by sharing her energy with him, he could sense her, like a bright light in the back of his mind.
    Since that night at St. Mary’s Hospital, he’d felt more alive than ever and, like an addict, he craved another hit of her reaper mojo. He doubted she would have given it to him even if she could. Deacon had later explained that she had feared her energy would kill Nate instead of healing him. The strangest thing about it was that she had not shared it willingly—it had leaped into Nate like lightning to a metal pole…
    Nate had lived.
    And now? He’d give anything to be able to return the favor.
    His connection with Maeve wasn’t the only thing that had resulted from that night. Since then, Nate’s eyes had been opened to all things reaper. He could see human auras now, though thankfully not his own…at least, not unless he was extremely agitated. Another by-product was that he could see the true forms of the supernatural creatures that walked the planet hidden from mankind. It was enlightening to say the least.
    The reapers searched for and were drawn to humans with white auras. White was the aura of death. The other colors held clues to a person’s emotions, thoughts and personality, and were helpful in dealing with them, but white was the color that mattered most to a reaper. A white aura meant that a soul would need reaping soon.
    And now Nate could see auras and so much more.
    He dropped his toothbrush into a cup on the thin ledge of the bathroom sink, then walked to the end of his trailer and crawled into bed. The original white window blinds had been covered by blackout shades all around the trailer. Even now, in the full daylight, his Airstream trailer was cavelike, save for the thin sliver of light from the bathroom skylight. He wished he’d shut the door before lying down. Instead, he pulled a pillow over his face to block it out and let his body sink into the downy mattress, another upgrade he’d splurged on with his new reaper income. Even though he wasn’t a reaper, the powers that be in Purgatory compensated him the same as they did the others at Deacon’s insistence.
    Welcoming the silence and the darkness, he struggled to turn off his worries and the niggling sensation he should— could —be doing more to find Maeve. Discovering where she had been wasn’t getting the job done. What he needed to know was where she was going to be next. He fell asleep pondering that impossible task.
    Maeve was awake. And alone. At least briefly. The smooth concrete floor was hard beneath her stretched-out body and he could barely make out the concrete walls and ceiling of what he recognized as a cemetery crypt. All of this he saw in her mind, not from her eyes. Her body was asleep, but her mind churned on.
    Maeve replayed the night’s events in her consciousness, horrified by what she’d been forced to do. Nate watched remotely, as silent and helpless as Maeve had been while the events unfolded.
    Camael had used Maeve to kill two humans on their way from the cemetery to the bar. He’d snapped their necks and left them dead in the street—a distraction to attract the attention of the human officers of the law who were becoming an increasing nuisance.
    He felt her further abhorrence as she realized what Camael intended to do