The Death-Scentsor, Rebirth of the Soul Tracker

I am a Death-Scentsor, born with a supernatural sense of smell.

If someone finds me within seven days of a passing, I can track the scent of their soul. I can guide them back to their body and strike a bargain with the Reaper to bring them back to life.

In my past life, the real estate mogul Lucian Reed knelt before me with ten million dollars, begging for my help.

I only agreed because I thought he was a devoted son.

I never expected that he was a pathetic mama's boy, or that his mother was a manipulative monster.

After I used my gift to bring his mother back, she twisted the truth. Lucian believed her lies instead of his own eyes.

He buried my entire family alive in our ancestral plot.

I screamed in agony as the dirt covered them.

He just laughed at me.

"If my mother hadn't told me the truth, I almost would have been fooled by your parlor tricks," he sneered.

"You drugged her to make her look dead just so you could scam my family out of millions."

"Since you love talking to the dead so much, why don't you go have a chat with your ancestors?"

Using my gift took a massive toll on my body, and I could only do it once a year.

When Lucian saw that I couldn't perform another miracle immediately, he became even more convinced it was all a scam.

They wrapped my body in thick fabric, soaked me in gasoline, and buried me halfway in the ground. They turned me into a human candle and lit me right in front of the graves.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Lucian first came to my door.

I turned around and dialed the number of his greatest rival, Gideon Sterling.

"I am the Death-Scentsor you've been looking for."

Lucian Reed stood at my front door with a group of bodyguards in black suits.

His expression was dark, filled with naked hatred and contempt.

"Hand over the antidote," he said, getting straight to the point.

His voice was icy and filled with an arrogance that brooked no argument.

Hearing those words, my heart sank.

He had been reborn too.

And by the look of it, he still blindly believed his mother's lies. He truly was a hopeless mama's boy.

In my last life, I had been kind enough to save his mother's life.

In return, she stabbed me in the back, claiming I had drugged her into a fake death to steal their money.

I still didn't understand why she did it.

And I understood even less why Lucian would believe such a ridiculous story.

I looked at him coldly. "I don't have an antidote."

"Lucian, your mother is dead. That is a fact."

Lucian looked at me as if I had told a hilarious joke. He stepped closer, the mockery in his eyes almost overflowing.

"Wynter Vance, do you really think you can keep lying to me?"

"I fell for your bullshit once and let you play me for a fool."

"I've seen enough of women like you who will do anything for money."

"I'm giving you one last chance. Hand over the antidote."

"Don't make me get violent."

I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms.

"Lucian, you can have a medical examiner check the cause of death. Can't you tell the difference between a living person and a corpse?"

"I'm warning you. If your mother's soul isn't laid to rest within seven days, she will become a lingering shadow."

"The negative energy will drain your life, bring you endless disasters, and destroy your entire family."

Lucian's face darkened. He gave a sharp nod to his men.

"What a foul mouth. How dare you curse me and my mother!"

"Teach her a lesson."

A bodyguard stepped forward and crudely grabbed my jaw.

Another one held a pair of heavy pliers and shoved them into my mouth without hesitation.

Ignoring my frantic struggles, he ripped a tooth straight from my gums, tearing through flesh and bone.

The white-hot pain made the world go black for a moment.

I spat out a mouthful of blood and stared at Lucian, speaking one syllable at a time.

"I was actually planning to give you a way out."

"But after this, your life and death have nothing to do with me."

Lucian was completely enraged. He grabbed me by the throat.

"A piece of trash like you thinks she can threaten me?"

"I'm telling you, I won't be fooled again."

"My luck is as solid as iron. But you? If you say one more word, you won't live to see the sunrise."

I pried his hand off and said coldly, "I don't waste my breath on dead men walking."

In my last life, I saved his mother and absorbed the bad luck meant for him.

Now, I wanted to see how he would survive this deadly cycle without me.

The thought of the miserable end waiting for him gave me a spark of vengeful joy.

Seeing the cold smile on my face, Lucian's anger burned hotter. He shoved me to the ground.

"Drag her parents out here!" he barked at his men.

I felt a wave of terror. I tried to crawl up to stop them, but a bodyguard kicked me aside.

My body slammed against the wall, and I curled up in pain.

They dragged my parents out of the house like cattle and tied them up with thick hemp ropes.

The horrific memories of my past life flashed vividly in my mind.

"Lucian! What are you doing?!" I screamed, my eyes turning red.

He looked down at me with a cruel, mocking grin.

"Since you want to be stubborn, I'll show you what happens to people who refuse my kindness."

"I want to see if you can keep that mouth shut when your parents are being buried alive."

"Don't worry. I won't let them die quickly. I want you to enjoy the show."

I rushed forward like a madwoman.

A bodyguard expressionlessly kicked me in the chest again.

I collapsed on the ground, gasping for air, forced to watch the horror unfold.

My parents were terrified and confused. They had no idea what was happening.

My eyes burned with tears as I begged Lucian to let them go.

Lucian just sneered and tilted his head toward his thugs.

"Break their legs. I don't want them running away."

Two guards stepped up. Their baseball bats swung down on my parents' legs without mercy.

The sound of bones snapping, followed by my parents' agonizing screams, felt like knives piercing my heart.

The blood in my veins turned to ice.

The neighbors who had gathered to watch were pale with fear. They backed away, too terrified to look.

This man was a literal demon.

I glared at Lucian through bloodshot eyes.

"Lucian! Stop it!"

"I'll do anything you want, just let my parents go!"

Lucian stopped the assault. He walked over and used the tip of his shoe to tilt my chin up. He smiled like a devil.

"Give me the antidote."

I shook with rage. "Why won't you believe me? Your mother is dead!"

"If you let my parents go, I can help her. I can bring her back toD"

Before I could finish, he kicked me away. I hit the wall and coughed up blood.

"I don't like liars," he said with pure disgust.

"I won't fall for the same trick twice."

I knelt on the ground, sobbing, banging my head against the dirt in front of him.

"Please, Lucian. Just believe me this once. Everything I said is true!"

My father heard this from a distance. Despite the pain, he gritted his teeth and roared.

"Wynter! Stand up!"

"A daughter of the Vance family does not kneel to scum like him!"

My mother cried out as well.

"He's right! Someone like him isn't worth saving!"

Lucian's face went completely black.

"Still acting tough while you're at death's door?"

"Fine. Let's see how tough your bones really are."

"Take them to the back of the hill and bury them alive!"

"Isn't Wynter a Death-Scentsor? Can't she bargain with the Reaper? I want to see her do it with my own eyes!"

I completely panicked.

"Lucian! You can't do this!"

"I can only do the ritual once a year! This is the last chance!"

"Lucian! No!"

I banged my head against the ground until my forehead bled.

I just wanted him to spare my parents.

Seeing me so broken and pathetic only made Lucian feel more powerful.

He grabbed my hair and forced me to look up.

He smiled as he made me watch his men drag my parents into a deep pit on the hillside.

Then, they began to shovel dirt over them, layer by layer.

The cold earth covered their feet, then their shins, then their knees.

When the dirt reached their chests, their breathing became shallow and labored.

The light in their eyes began to fade, replaced by a hollow, dead silence.

I let out a desperate, guttural scream.

"Dad! Mom!"

The guards finally let go of me.

I crawled to Lucian's feet like a lunatic, frantically pulling a small wooden box from my clothes.

It was my scent-box. I didn't care about the cost anymore; I had to save them.

But in the next second, Lucian stepped on the back of my hand and snatched the box away.

"Still trying to play your games?"

I lunged for it. "Give it back!"

He shoved me aside and pulled out a bundle of incense sticks, waving them mockingly.

Something I said must have pushed him over the edge.

He pulled a lighter from his pocket. With a flick, he lit the entire bundle of incense.

"Stop wasting my time. You're just trying to stall, aren't you?"

"I'm not giving you another second."

He walked toward me with the burning incense, a twisted smile on his face.

I backed away in terror. "No, no... what are you doing? Stop!"

The incense produced a thick, choking smoke.

I tried to hide, but he grabbed my hair and pinned me to the ground.

He took the red-hot, burning tips of the incense and shoved them deep into my nostrils.

After the explosion of agony and the smell of charred flesh, I couldn't smell anything at all.

My heart felt like it stopped beating along with my sense of smell.

I collapsed, my mind a complete blank.

I stared blankly at the two fresh mounds of earth that now covered my parents.

I let out a soul-shredding wail. The grief was so heavy that I coughed up a huge spray of blood.

Lucian looked at the blood and let out a short laugh.

"Keep acting. You even have blood packs ready? You're a dedicated scammer, I'll give you that."

Just then, the screech of tires echoed through the air.

Several black SUVs swerved to a halt in front of us.

The doors flew open, and a dozen men in black tactical gear rushed out.

Gideon Sterling was at the front.

Lucian frowned. "Sterling? What the hell are you doing here?"

Gideon's gaze swept over my bloody face and landed on the two new graves.

A flash of intense pain and fury crossed his eyes.

He hurried over, took off his suit jacket, and wrapped it around my shoulders. His voice vibrated with suppressed rage.

"I'm late."

He had driven from the city to this remote village as fast as humanly possible.

I didn't blame him.

I just kept staring at those two mounds of dirt.

I grabbed Gideon's arm, my voice sounding like gravel.

"My nose... he destroyed it."

Gideon's look toward Lucian became incredibly sharp, as if he were looking at a corpse.

In my last life, I only found out after I died that Gideon Sterling, the Reeds' rival, had been searching for me.

Just a few days ago, his only daughter had died in a tragic fall from a building.

Today was the seventh day. It was the last chance for his daughter to return to the world of the living.

That was why I contacted Gideon immediately after being reborn.

But I was still one step too late.

And it was all because of Lucian.

Gideon radiated pure killing intent. I had to pull him back.

"I have another way, but... the price is high."

"Are you willing?"

Gideon looked at me and nodded solemnly.

"If it brings my daughter back, I'll pay any price!"

Lucian watched this and mocked him like he was an idiot.

"Gideon, have you lost your mind?"

"You're actually listening to this con artist."

"If she were real, she would have saved her own parents by now."

Gideon didn't waver. He remained respectful, waiting for my word.

I was satisfied.

I am a Death-Scentsor.

I was born with a nose that could bridge the gap between life and death.

In the past, I used my sense of smell to inhale the soul and then breathe it back into the body.

Now that my nose was ruined, I couldn't use that method anymore.

But there was one final resort.

I could allow the spirit to possess my own body and then force the transfer.

I looked at Lucian. "You don't believe me, right?"

"Then let's make a bet."

Lucian's face was twisted with hatred for my mysterious act.

I spoke without emotion. "I will bring Gideon's daughter back. And you? In three days, you will be kneeling at my feet, begging for your life."

Lucian laughed as if it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard.

"Fine. I'll give you three days to play pretend."

"But in three days, if you're still lying, you can go join your dead parents in the ground."

I smiled.

"We'll see who's kneeling then."

The Reed Group and the Sterling Group were bitter enemies in this city.

With Gideon protecting me, Lucian could only watch as I got into the car.

Gideon promised his people would take care of my parents' situation.

He would also have men guarding the village.

I nodded tiredly. "Thank you."

Gideon looked humbled. "You are saving my daughter. I am the one who should be thanking you."

Two days later.

I accompanied Gideon and his newly resurrected daughter, Gianna, to a high-end charity gala.

Lucian was there too.

When he saw Gianna, his face went as white as a sheet.

"Gianna?! That's impossible!"

"She fell from a skyscraper! She's dead!"

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