The financial district was also known as the home of the vampires. That eerie-looking mansion with the soaring turrets and dark crimson painted door at the end of Cierco Avenue was the home of Chief Lord Hikeen Montoy. Steele had had his first glimpse of that wicked undead creature when he’d visited Theo at the Towers and Shola was taken. That had been the moment Theo decided Shola was his mate. When Theo had walked away from everything he’d built here on the Human Realm to save the woman who’d instigated the fight between the Drakon and the vampires.
With a shake of his head Steele tried to release those thoughts as they were futile. Theo was mated—and in the human world, married—to Shola, regardless of how Steele felt about that union or the one-sided process so many Drakon believed in. And none of that had anything to do with where he was now.
He was being followed.
That wasn’t new. It was the Reaper’s job to follow the Dream Reaper, just as it was the Dream Reaper’s job to lead the Reaper to the next soul on its collection list. Steele never saw names on that list, only snapshots of the death, and with that snapshot he could seek the soul through dreams. That’s how he’d found Ravyn.
But tonight, he was taking the Reaper someplace else, a place he knew Ravyn wouldn’t be.
Twilight was just around the next corner and he moved faster, letting his senses guide him, more so than his mind. He could see golden eyes of vampires peeking from inside dark windows on the buildings he passed, staring at him from inside cars parked on the street and down the alleys, but he barely gave them his attention. If they knew he was here in this dream, they knew why, and were undoubtedly holding their frigid breath in the hope that they weren’t the next name on the list.
Steele turned quickly down the alley behind Twilight, his nostrils flaring as the scent he’d been in search of was found. This fool was as vile in dreams as he’d been that night over a week ago when Steele stopped him from attacking Ravyn. Tonight, he was in the alley with another woman. From the sounds they were making, Steele guessed this woman was much more agreeable than Ravyn had been, a thought that only made his stomach turn because the guy was a foul creep and Steele pitied any woman who dealt with him.
As Steele came closer to the Dumpster the two were making out behind, he spoke slowly, but loudly. “Let her go!”
The woman, who’d been on her knees with her face buried in his groin, tried to pull back, but he kept his grip on the back of her head. Steele knew that wasn’t so he could continue to feel the pleasure of her mouth on his dick, but to provide himself a partial shield. Again, this guy was an ass.
“I said, let her go.”
“Get your own!” the guy yelled.
Steele sighed and moved in closer, grabbing the woman out of the way just before the whooshing sound of the Reaper’s blade echoed through the air.
Seconds later Steele sat straight up in his bed at the hotel, a sharp slice of cold spreading through his body. The Reaper had claimed the soul Steele led him to.
Steele’s heart raced as his eyes searched the dark room, for what, he wasn’t sure. When it was apparent that he was alone and no longer in the dream, he dropped back down onto the pillows, using an arm to cover his eyes.
He hoped it had worked. Prayed it was so.
Never before had he attempted to swap one soul with another, but he’d thought it was worth a try. While that guy wasn’t powerful, he had demonic blood running through his veins, probably from a distant relative, but still it was there. Steele hadn’t picked up on that the night he’d used dream dust on the guy—if he had, Steele would’ve killed him then. Because killing demonics to keep humans safe was the Drakons’ job. They didn’t, however, just go around killing humans, even vile disgusting ones. By chance, he’d seen the guy on the street when he’d been looking for Ravyn last week, and then he’d picked up the scent and started to plan.
Now, he would wait to see if the plan to give the Reaper this soul instead of Ravyn’s would work.
The first thing Steele thought at six o’clock the next evening was that he’d been to this house before.
His call to Senator Daron Robles’s office this morning had led to a tag team of other calls, with the final one coming at four this afternoon, setting the meeting time for six. That had given him the entire day to sit in his hotel room reading more about the dagger’s curse and thinking about Ravyn. His dick was still hard, reminding him that all of those thoughts about her hadn’t been about her dying on some roof.
Dragging a hand down his face to smooth his lightly trimmed goatee, he raised an arm and pressed the doorbell to the brick house in Sodesto. In moments, a tall thin woman wearing a kelly-green dress opened the door and offered him a smile. Her golden hair fell in heavy waves down to her shoulders, makeup was carefully applied to an averagely pretty face and diamond earrings sparkled at her ears.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Eze. Senator Robles is waiting for you in the den. Let me take you to him.”
Steele nodded, figuring she’d said all that needed
