by J. L. Weil
The cat was out of the bag.
There was a new Raven in town.
I hoped they didn’t except me to give a speech, because I didn’t think I could form a coherent thought after everything that had happened. And by the looks on their faces, they needed more than a hot minute to catch up. Heck, I was going to need at least a year to process. Maybe a decade.
I assumed most of them had put two and two together after seeing an act that could have only been performed by a banshee—specifically the White Raven.
Zander crouched beside me. His dark hair was combed back. “You okay?”
I met his questioning glare. “Yeah. Can you get us out of here?” I was beginning to feel the aftereffects, and I wanted nothing more in the world than to go home. Or faint.
“I was planning on it. That was quite a show you put on.”
My hand lifted to the side of my head as I tried to make the world stop spinning. “Ugh. How bad did I screw things up?”
A sympathetic grin teased his lips. “Don’t worry about that now.”
Parker sat up, his eyes examining me in a way that made me fidgety. “Pipes, w-what’s wrong with you?”
Zane and Zander both went still beside me.
The gears in my head wound. Parker dying had changed everything. And in that split second, I realized I could no longer hide what I was. This was the moment I’d dreaded since Parker stepped off the boat. My greatest fear was he would no longer look at me as his best friend. “If you value your life, Parker, you’ll keep your questions until we’re alone.”
His eyes were big, but understanding dawned as he noticed all the attention we had on us. With a slight tip of his head, Zane and I helped Parker to his feet. There was an enlightenment inside me as we walked through the crowd, a pulsating that gathered in my veins, growing with each heartbeat.
I couldn’t explain it, but as I passed each person, I got a sense of who they were, and it went beyond what type of reaper they were. Another puzzle for another day.
Although I knew he wasn’t thrilled, Zane climbed into the back seat with Parker, who looked like he needed a year’s worth of sleep. Zander held out his hand. “Keys please.”
Normally, I was pretty stingy about letting other people drive my Jeep, but I didn’t even argue, dropping the keys into his palm. I slumped into the passenger seat. As soon as I let my muscles relax, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The exhaustion was overwhelming, draining me of energy. I was barely keeping my eyes open, and the gentle hum of the engine was soothing, a mundane sound, but I needed something ordinary to ground me.
“Do you know what you’ve done?” Zander whispered, breaking the comfortable silence.
I dropped my head on the back of my seat. “Which disaster are we talking about?”
His dark eyes tapered. “How many others are there?”
“This is Piper,” Zane mumbled from the back. “The possibilities are endless.”
I scowled, closing my eyes and running my fingers through the tangle of knots in my hair. “So I’ve made a few mistakes. The world hasn’t ended…yet.”
“When word gets out you killed Azrael’s daughter, it will only add fuel to the rebellion,” Zander said.
I winced. “She had a few screws loose. What was I supposed to do? Let her chop me up into little bits and rob me of my soul?”
“No,” he said. “But there will be retaliation.”
“Can’t wait,” I muttered, cocooning my arms around myself.
“Where the hell was your detail?” Zander growled.
“Where were you?” Zane shot back.
My temples throbbed. The questions and bickering were turning my headache into a serious migraine. I was slightly concerned for my safety. Zander was more focused on arguing with Zane than keeping the Jeep between the lines. Or maybe I was seeing double.
“How could you let her do this?” Zander spat out.
I choked on a laugh of outrage. Let me? When were they going to understand I didn’t answer to them? Funny thing, they answered to me.
Zane almost flew into the front seat. “She didn’t have a choice, Zander. Her life was in jeopardy,” he rumbled, defending me.
“So many things could have gone wrong. Actually, I don’t know if it could’ve been worse.”
Duh. It could always be worse. I could think of two things off the top of my head. Zane and I could have publically merged our souls. And Parker could have died.
Zane glared. “It can when I come up there and kick your ass.”
“Mature,” Zander replied.
“Stop!” I yelled, throwing my hands in the air. “Can someone wave the white flag, at least for tonight? Placing blame and hashing it out isn’t going to change the outcome. What’s done is done. We all knew I couldn’t hide forever. Already others are suspicious, I guess now they’ll know there’s a new White Raven.”
Zander’s hands rotated the steering wheel. “I hope you’re ready for this.”
“Me too.” I looked over my shoulder at Parker to make sure he was still breathing. I felt like a new mom on her first night home with her infant.
“He’ll have questions, Piper. How do you know he can be trusted? That he will keep your secret?” Zander asked.
“I’ve known Parker almost my whole life. He’d never betray me or intentionally cause me harm.” He loved me. Well, he had. I sounded far more confident than I was feeling. “If anyone can believe in the paranormal, it’s Parker.” He spent more time living in the world of comics and manga. Reapers really weren’t that far of a stretch from guys who wore tights and capes or gunslinger girls with awesome hair.
“I hope you’re right.”
I bit my lip. “Do you really think your father ordered Parker’s death?” I couldn’t fathom why he would do such a thing.
Zander kept his eyes on the road, but I saw his jaw pop. “I promised I’d be straight with you. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Why?” Maybe Roarke wasn’t the man I thought him to be. I mean sure he was Death, but what would be gained by Parker’s death?
Zander had a theory. “To push you into being a banshee and accept your responsibilities. By threatening someone you care deeply for, it would force you to awaken what is lying inside. The abilities you subconsciously suppress because you’re not ready to handle it.”
“He would do that?”
“I think we can agree that people will do about anything when their backs are pushed against the wall.”
Well, crap on a cracker. It didn’t change the fact that I was salty as heck. Staring out the window, I thought about the constant different directions my life took. From day to day, I never knew what awaited me, what trauma, what challenge, or what frightening surprise.
I could cheat death, bring a soul back from the brink of death. Kind of epic. But I couldn’t take two minutes to bask in the ambience of being awesome, because I was sure, shit would hit the fan tomorrow.
***
I lifted the blue plaid blanket, tucking it up to Parker’s chin. The color in his face was slowly returning to normal, but his body still had to be in shock. “You need rest,” I told him. If he was awake, he had time to think, and it had been a long night. I wanted to crash for at least twelve hours, but from the look in his eyes, I wasn’t going to escape so easily.
He put a hand over mine. “Don’t leave. Not yet. I need to know what happened. What’s going on with you? You haven’t been yourself since you got here.”
My heart went down south. I’d hoped for some time to collect myself, to figure out what I was going to say, but he was right, I wasn’t the same.
He watched me struggle to figure out what to tell him. “Someone tried to kill me tonight, and I think I have a right to know what’s going on. Tell me, Pipes.”
He did deserve the truth. And Estelle hadn’t tried to kill him…she had killed him. I took a deep breath. “Okay.” It was a good thing we were by ourselves. Zane and Zander would have had
a conniption. I sat on the side of the bed.
Intrigue gleamed in his face. “Does this have anything to do with Rose or your mom?” he asked, sitting up higher in the bed.
I nodded. “Yeah, it does.”
His brows drew together. “I saw her…I think.”
“Who? Rose or my mom?”
“Rose,” he said after a moment of struggling to recall.
“What do you remember?” I asked, afraid of his response.
“I-I…I’m not sure. It seemed like a movie. I was there, in the film, and then suddenly I was spectating, seeing everything from above. That girl had a knife. She attacked us. Oh God, I think she stabbed me. D-did I die?”
I shook my head. “You’re not dead, Parks.”
He wasn’t convinced as he rubbed the center of his chest. “After she stabbed me, I felt such coldness. My veins filled with ice. Then I was floating and there was a woman. She was iridescent, not quite a tangible force. Does that make any sense?”
I nodded, twiddling my fingers together. “More than you know.”
“I’m not sure, but it was as if her soul wasn’t tethered to Earth. She held my hand, telling me it was going to be okay, that you were going to save me. She was an angel, ghost, apparition, definitely something unnatural.”
“Rose,” I whispered.
“I remember when you went through a phase where you thought you saw ghosts.” He released a breathy chuckle. “It wasn’t a phase, was it?”
I fiddled with the chain around my neck. “Not exactly, but I didn’t know that. Not until recently.”
He inhaled and exhaled slowly, taking it all in. “This is really freaky, Pipes. I watched you from outside my body.”
I swallowed, already knowing what he’d seen. Too much.
“You touched me.” His eyes met mine. “You were glowing, swathed in a white light. What is going on? Even now, when I look at you, there’s something different about you. Tell me I got a concussion or something stupid.”
“If I told you it wasn’t real, would you believe me?”
He stared at my face, a heavy pause in the air. “No,” he stated.
My heart turned over. “I didn’t think so.”
“I don’t understand. Why would anyone want to hurt your mom or Rose. Hurt me? There’s a connection, isn’t there?”
Parker was too smart for his own good. “This is going to sound crazy, but I swear I’m not making this up.”
“I trust you. I know you would never lie to me.” Blood rushed to his face. “But you’re starting to freak me out.”
“You get stabbed in the heart and now you’re suddenly freaking out? I think at this point, I’d be passed the freaked out stage and into completely ballistic.”
“Oh, I’m getting there. But I’m trying to play it cool, keep it together. You seem nervous.” His fingers interlocked with mine. “You know you can tell me anything. Nothing you can say will change how I feel about you.”
I was counting on that. “You say that now…”
Under his weary gaze, he studied my face. “What has you so afraid that you feel as if you can’t talk to me? I know you.”
My eyes lowered. “You shouldn’t have come here, Parker. It’s not safe.”
“I think we’ve established that. I’m sorry, but I’m not abandoning you.” His fingers tightened on mine.
Pulling my legs up, I tucked them against my chest. “I’m different. I think you see that.”
The silence seemed to stretch for an eternity before he spoke. “What are you?”
This would be one of the most difficult challenges I’d ever faced. I assumed it would be a weight off my shoulders, not sandpaper scratching my throat. Each time I opened my mouth, nothing came out. The sense of vulnerability I was feeling left me unsure. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Since when have you ever been at a loss for words?”
I took a shaky breath. “I’m a reaper,” I blurted.
Chapter 18
There. I’d said it.
Parker stared at me hard. “A scythe wielding, black cloak wearing reaper?”
I did a mental eye roll. “I know it sounds crazy. Half the time I can’t believe it myself.”
“You don’t look like a reaper,” he said, pointing out the obvious.
“A banshee more specifically. And what am I supposed to look like?” I challenged.
“I don’t know. Gray-green skin, wild eyes, and electric hair, you know, as if you stuck your finger in a power outlet.”
I pressed my lips together. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you know fantasy rarely looks like real life.”
“Are you sure I didn’t hit my head?” He rubbed at the back of his hair, looking for a bump. “If you’re screwing with me, I’ll never forgive you.”
It would have been easier if he had been knocked out or had a concussion. He might not remember anything then. “I told you that you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Who said I didn’t believe you? I know what I saw. And I’ll agree it’s far out there. I mean, we’ve seen some pretty messed up shit in the city, but nothing like this. You’re my best friend. I’ve known you my whole life. How did I not know what you were?”
“That is a question I’ve asked myself a gazillion times,” I said. “How did I not know? Why didn’t my mom tell me?”
“Your mom?” he echoed.
I nodded. “She knew, Parks. She knew the whole time and never once told me. It’s one of the reasons we never saw Rose.”
He had the same initial reaction I’d had. “Why would she keep something like this from you?”
I gave a one-shoulder nonchalant shrug, pretending it didn’t bother me, when we both knew it did. “I guess to protect me.”
“It would make sense. She loved you.” He squeezed my hand and then released it.
“I know, but it doesn’t erase the pain of being lied to your whole life.”
The expression on his face softened. “No, I imagine it wouldn’t, especially for someone like you.”
“What the heck does that mean?” I countered.
“You feel everything deeper. Love. Hurt. Betrayal.”
My lips pursed. “I never really thought about it.”
“I know you don’t like to talk about her, but what happened to your mom, it was because of who she was a”—he swallowed—“reaper?”
I blinked. “Sounds weird, doesn’t it? I can barely wrap my head around it. At times, I think I’m living in an Alfred Hitchcock film.”
And so it began. Parker started bombarding me with as many questions as he could, asking about all aspects of reaper life. He wanted to know what it was like, how I felt, what I could do…
There was curiosity and enthusiasm in everything he asked. Biting my lip, I could see the interest growing as I answered his questions. And it made me nervous. I didn’t want Parker any deeper into this world than he already was. The knowledge of what I was, what I could do, put him at risk.
He sat up straight, rattling off question after question. “When did you find out? How did you find out? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Hold up. Take it slow, okay? You’ve had a hellva night. Let’s not overdo it. I almost lost you.” A tear dropped down my cheek.
“Don’t cry,” he whispered. Guys and tears. They made them all uncomfortable as hell.
I tipped my chin, retracting the well of emotions. “I’m okay.” I waited until he was reclining on a mountain of stark white pillows, before I answered his questions. “I only found out what I was a few weeks after I arrived. Zane told me. And, I didn’t tell you because I was afraid you would look at me differently. I didn’t want to lose you.” My voice trailed off. I’d come so close to losing another person I loved. Was this my destiny? To love and lose it all?
“You can’t scare me off that easily. Even if you have horrible taste in guys and scream like a banshee.”
I cracked a smile. If he could joke about it, I knew things were going to be ok
ay between us…except for the kissing part. We’d deal with that another day, when he was stronger and wasn’t recuperating from coming back from the dead. “Don’t ever die on me again.”
He grinned, but it faded too quickly. “You mentioned Zane told you?”
I nodded. “Yeah, he’s sort of a reaper—a death reaper. His father is the grim reaper.”
“That explains a lot,” he mumbled.
I lightly pushed on his shoulder. “Believe it or not, he isn’t all bad.”
Parker made a noise of disbelief. “That might be a topic we can agree to disagree on. What’s the deal with the two of you? And don’t tell me you’re just friends. I can accept that you might be a reaper, but no way can I accept that you don’t have feelings for him.”
“It’s complicated.”
“I gathered that. You’re really engaged?”
I nodded, glancing down at my hands. “Like I told you earlier, to his brother, Zander. Rose arranged it before I got here. It’s supposed to solidify my place by marrying the firstborn son of Death. Things aren’t precisely all moonlight and roses between the sectors.”
“But…” Parker prodded, knowing me well.
I reached around my neck and pulled at the dainty silver chain. “I don’t love him. I always thought I would marry someone I was deeply in love with. It might sound extremely girly, but I want to spend my life with someone who gives me more than lukewarm feelings.”
“And you love Zane,” he said, filling in the blanks.
“Love is a strong word. I’m figuring it out. Some days he makes me want to string him up by his balls.”
Parker chuckled. “I’d pay to see that.”
“But, we have this connection I can’t deny.” My intention wasn’t to hurt Parker, yet no matter how I delivered the news, it was going to be a spear to his heart. I knew how he felt about me, but lying to him would only prolong the inevitable.
His long lashes swept down over his hazel eyes, and when they met mine, my heart turned end over end. I hated that I made him hurt. I only ever wanted to protect those I cared about. “Do I even want to know what kind of connection you’re talking about?”
“Probably not,” I replied. “But you asked for details.”