Free Unreap My Heart (The Reaper Series) by Kate Evangelista

lake, and charming dock melted like paint thinner had been splashed on a newly painted canvas. The colors bled into one another, threatening to take Arianne with the melting mess. She gave the skeleton one strong push. When it landed on its backside, Arianne bolted. But before she could get far, the same bony hand closed around her ankle, sending her face-planting onto sand that wasn’t sand anymore. The white powder of the hill she fell into returned, choking her once again. The hand around her ankle yanked her back. She kicked and connected with something hard.
    A grunt followed by a grumbled f-bomb resulted. Arianne stopped struggling when she recognized the voice. She rolled onto her back and came face to face with a red in the face Balthazar. He had a black bandana over his nose and mouth like a bandit from a typical cowboys and Indians movie. She would have laughed at how ridiculous he looked if the clouds of powder swirling around them didn’t threaten to get into her lungs.
    “Kick me again and I will cut off your leg,” he threatened, his voice muffled by the bandana.
    Arianne grinned. She couldn’t help it. “You look stupid wearing that.”
    He reached down and pulled her to her feet. Then he did something she didn’t expect. He dusted off her clothes. Shocked, she stood still. With every swipe of Balthazar’s hand over her clothing the fine granules fell away and settled on the ground that reflected the sky. It didn’t cling like she expected it to.
    “You’re such an idiot,” Balthazar grumbled. “If you’d stopped when I told you to you wouldn’t have fallen into the hill.”
    “If you hadn’t scared me then I wouldn’t have backed away.”
    “If you just listened to me then you’d know that I don’t take residual energy from humans.”
    That stopped the next argument she prepared to toss his way. He looked into her eyes the way the fake-Niko did, and she dropped her gaze.
    “What happened?” she asked, her voice still not quite working right from inhaling all that powder.
    He finished dusting her off and stepped back. His gaze roamed her body, and for a second, Arianne squirmed. In the back of her mind she knew he was just checking her for any trace of powder left, but it still weirded her out having those black eyes with white centers staring at her. It was unnerving. Freaky, almost. Yet haunting.
    When he completed his inspection, he handed her a wineskin.
    “Drink.”
    One word, a command.
    “I thought I didn’t need food?”
    He frowned. “Just take a damn sip, Arianne, before I make you.”
    She brought the skin to her lips and took a sip. A cold, sweet liquid splashed into her mouth. She wanted to drink more, but Balthazar snatched the skin away.
    “I didn’t say chug the whole thing down,” he scolded.
    She swiped her arm across her lips and swallowed the last of the liquid in her mouth. “What’s in that thing?”
    “Angel’s blood.”
    Her eyes bulged. “Excuse me?”
    His lips twitched, as if he held back a laugh. “Angel’s blood is the best cure for inhaling Angel’s tears. You learned the hard way that Angel’s tears are highly hallucinogenic.”
    Arianne still couldn’t believe she’d just swallowed the blood of a being which, until now, she’d thought only existed in stories. She would have gagged if the sweetness had let her. She hated to admit it, but if Angel’s blood tasted like that, she’d drink it down like iced tea.
    “What were you hallucinating about anyway?” Balthazar’s question pulled her away from thoughts of making a grab for the wineskin.
    “You won’t understand,” she said.
    “I’m pretty sure you tried to kiss me.”

Chapter 9
    BTW
    B ALTHAZAR W OULD H AVE L AUGHED if her reaction didn’t insult him so much. Her face paled and her body shook like a leaf in the wind. A part of him wanted to admit that he’d been messing with her. That the entire time she’d been hallucinating, she’d thrashed a bit at the most, lost in the