Page 2 of When Death Called Life Home (When Deities Awaken #1)

Chapter 2

Only Reapers Hear You Scream

ASCIAN

T he thick stench of blood rose from every single inch of the field before him. The scythe within his grasp was just as lucky, as were his clothes. Bodies littered the soil of Elysia, each step carefully placed to avoid sinking into a sliced chest. Ascian had dealt most of the damage with Maelo, and a few other Reapers dealt with the rest.

There were no escapees, no survivors. Years passed with the fight between the Reapers and the Vitarce claiming too many lives to count, rivalling that of the wars battled on Earth. He doubted any wars ended with zero casualties. At least the Reapers knew to embrace Death. Unlike the Vitarce who fought him off with Life, as if their souls would never be reborn.

Abominations, all of them, to think they could live forever. Even more so, to believe they could return a human's dead soul to their body and allow them to live on without consequences. No one could live forever. Not alive . This, Death, and the screams that sung to Ascian of each life lived as he cut their soul free, was the reason humans appreciated each new day they woke. If Vitarce sent that soul back after the human died, they were still dead inside.

Ascian spun his scythe as he crossed the field, drawing in a steadying breath. With each step a new flower sprouted from the soaked soil. Few Reapers learnt the ancient practice, wielding their energy to return the soul’s husk into the flora to feed all Life forms. Maelo, his second in command, learnt from the moment she could walk. Their parents taught them, sung to them from the first day of their lives until they, too, passed away.

The fight with the Vitarce resulted in few Reapers living to see old age, considering their ‘old age,’ as well as the Vitarce, started around their thousandth year. Some lived double that, not that he’d witnessed it happen in his lifetime.

“Ascian, this one has some interesting information,” Maelo hummed. The tip of one of her curved blades slid down the side of her own face. She smirked down at a red-haired beauty, the young woman staring at them all with wide, shocked eyes. A gaze Ascian only ever saw on someone first experiencing the wonders — and horrors — of Elysia. He paused his cleanse of the field and turned towards them.

“Well,” he purred as he grew closer. “Perhaps she can be spared if it’s valuable enough.”

“Spared?” The woman asked.

Maelo tilted her head, her tongue dragging slowly across her top lip. “Can I keep her if she’s spared?”

Of course his sister would want to keep the redhead as her little pet. Though, Ascian could have sworn Maelo already had two half-blood Nymphs to play with and care for. He turned his attention to her, lifting a brow as he asked, “What happened to your current pets?”

“Nothing.” She frowned. “Are you insinuating I can only keep two at a time?”

Ascian pushed her out from in front of the woman, grabbing the redhead’s chin within his fingers. “I’m saying, are you sure you’re able to handle more than two?”

His lips curved into a viciously cheeky smirk as Maelo’s mouth dropped open with objections ready to spill out. He turned his attention away from her, though, and pulled the redhead closer. Maelo’s mouth shut quickly. She spun her blades while irritation flowed from her and wrapped around Ascian like a python.

“What’s your name, little flame?” His thumb brushed across her chin, visibly soothing away some of her anxiety.

“Emilia,” she whispered, her voice trembling. With a name like that, Ascian was certain Emilia was human. Regal, but bland. Nothing about it spoke of Elysian ancestry.

“And how, exactly, did you end up here?” Ascian asked, letting his hand fall when she turned her head to take in exactly where ‘here’ was. No recognition filled her sea green gaze, and Ascian knew before she even spoke that he’d be sparing her life.

“I…I don’t know. One moment I was going after a friend through the gardens, and the next, water splashed against my leg and,” she paused, looking back to Ascian. “I must have fallen into a hole.”

Emilia’s gaze travelled over his body. Ascian only ever experienced two ways someone looked at him, the first: almost always with terror. The black hooded cloak he wore, loose fitted pants that tapered at his calves and disappeared beneath heavy, black boots; and then there was his scythe. Souls blackened by their exposure to oxygen swirled around the long handle and his hand, like shadows.

They lingered sometimes, hoping he might take pity and send them back to their body, but he never did. So, the souls would depart from him, let themselves be carried into the energy of Elysia and help power everything until a new body was born on Earth that called to them.

The second way one often looked at Ascian, was with a lust-filled gaze. Emilia did neither.

“Does this look like a garden to you?” Ascian asked.

Emilia didn’t look away from him as she shook her head in answer. He crouched down, resting his forearms on his thighs. Never breaking their connected gaze, Ascian reached down and lifted one of her hands from its place splayed against the ground up to directly in front of her face. No skin colour could be seen beneath the blood that coated it.

A whine left Emilia’s throat, resistance building against Ascian’s hold until she yanked her wrist free and tried wiping the blood off on her dress frantically. His lips curled as he watched her a moment longer then stood and faced Maelo. “ Someone has opened a portal to Earth.”

Maelo’s grip tightened around her weapons, gaze flickering from Emilia to Ascian. A spark lit within her dark irises that mirrored the grin lifting her mouth. “Want me to go find whoever did it?”

Ascian shook his head, glancing towards the other reapers around them. Maelo would be more likely to go rogue should he send her, even if he sent another, too. She listened to him while in his presence, but alone the woman considered herself just as high ranked as him.

“No.” Before she could protest, he added, “You’ll be settling this one in with your other pets. She can’t return to Earth now that she’s seen all of this. They’ll put her in one of their insane asylums if she even mentions Elysia.”

Delight swept across Maelo’s features, all objections towards missing out on the hunt disappearing instantly at the human addition to her pet collection. Not only the first human, Ascian realised, but the first woman, too.

His sister slid her blades into their sheaths and helped Emilia to her feet. Emilia still tried to wipe her hands clean, which was proving unsuccessful for the most part, with the blood drying quicker than she could get rid of it. Ascian turned away from the two, he had another situation to focus on.

Hills lined one side of the field he stood in, rising into enormous mountains. Mountains where the Vitarce used to reside and slumber, before Reapers established themselves within the forest. Nobody could remember how Reapers came into existence, only that the deities disappeared and one of them appeared, with more following shortly after.

Thousands of years had passed since the first reaper arrived in Elysia, and since then rules were put in place for them and Vitarce to abide by to keep the peace and allow them to live together in harmony. Of course, they couldn’t hold onto that peace and harmony forever.

“You two,” Ascian gestured towards an older reaper, Osiris, and a deep brunette haired reaper, Kaida. “Meet with the Elders and make sure they haven’t received a request to open the portals.”

“You’re sending me on a messenger quest?” Osiris asked in disbelief. Ascian’s gaze met his and narrowed. To look at the man, anyone would believe he’d experienced years of fighting. He’d lost the majority of his sight in his right eye, the pupil and iris clouded with white. A deep scar split his eyebrow in two and travelled halfway down his cheek, disappearing beneath a thick, dark beard.

“I’m sending you to cover our asses,” Ascian growled lowly.

Osiris folded his arms across his chest. His biceps flexed, the rune tattoos that covered them shifting over the skin and muscle. It did nothing to intimidate Ascian, though he knew that was exactly what Osiris wanted. “To cover your ass, Ascian.”

“Keep arguing and the only ass you’ll need to cover is your own when I beat it bloody.” Ascian spoke the threat with a boredom he knew would piss Osiris off that little bit more, but he only got a clenched jaw in response.

Osiris turned and climbed onto the back of his grizzly bear guardian. Kaida followed his actions, curling her fist around a bunch of the long scruff on her maned wolf’s neck and swinging herself onto its back. They headed towards the mountains where the Elder’s remained in their marbled cliff dwelling.

Ascian looked to the souls that still swirled around his scythe. He tilted his head to study them before he lifted and slammed the bottom of the weapon into the ground. The impact rattled the souls, sending them scattering into the atmosphere, and creating a surge in the power. The sky darkened for a moment and everything around him appeared to speed up. Everything but the Reapers themselves.

Red and black eyes moved into his line of vision, a pale hand reaching for his face. Ascian stepped away as the darkness faded and the black of Verena’s eyes returned to white. “We have work to do, Verena.”

“You said that last night, too, but somehow I don’t think it means the same thing.” Verena turned her hand palm up, requesting the man’s scythe. Ascian’s grip tightened around it but he needed both his hands free for his next task, and running with the weapon would be the last thing Verena would want to do. She’d lose her head for it. He laid the staff against her hand, staring at it a moment longer before he drew in a long breath and turned to the field covered in soul husks, bodies, and blood.

Many Vitarce lost their lives just hours earlier, for trying to send human souls back, and failing to fight off Ascian and his reapers. Some of the Reapers lost their lives, too, but Reapers greet Death with open arms, friends unable to touch until their last breath is drawn. Even then, they only had split seconds to say hello before the atmosphere called to their soul. A bittersweet friendship, strong despite the forever distance between them.

Ascian stepped back onto the field, hands out and palms down. He closed his eyes and let the energy guide him. Black tendrils fell like ribbons on a breeze from his fingertips, laying in strips over each body he passed and wrapping tightly around them. They cut into the dirt beneath each one and tightened more and more until the ground swallowed them. Until each ribbon absorbed the blood, and flowers of the same deep red lined with white along the edge of each petal, bloomed in their wake.

Humans called them Dianthus, but in Elysia they were known as Amorsa. A flower only select few learnt how to produce from the deceased. Not everyone who tried succeeded. Those that mastered the skill were highly valued and often given authority positions over others due to it.

Ascian walked until he felt his feet sink below flowing liquid. His eyes opened, revealing the wide stream on the other side of the field, and looking back, no one would be able to tell the wide space had once been a massacre. Amorsa covered every inch of the ground, save for the path that Ascian had walked. He did one final sweep over the space before returning to Verena and taking his scythe back, relieving the tension in his muscles.

“Go and query the Nymphs and see if you can find out anything about who opened the portal,” Ascian commanded.

“And you?” Verena asked, rolling her eyes when his jaw clenched. “In case we need to find you.”

Ascian strapped his scythe to his back. “Going hunting. That’s all you need to know.”