Page 14 of Muted Voices (Broken Ashes #1)

River

W hen Reed and Griff get into this sort of back and forth banter, it usually ends with a fight, a slightly unfair one since Reed is so much stronger than all of us, but a fight nonetheless. We need to stop them so that they don’t destroy the house again and, more importantly, to remind them that Neith is here and a supernatural fight is not only going to fucking terrify her but could also harm her. It’s too late though, because before any of us can do that, they’re going at it, and we’re backing right up to the edges of the room so that we’re out of their range, many times one of us has ended up being pulled into one of their fights.

“Shit,” Raiden exclaims, “where’s Neith?

That’s something else that intrigues me greatly. He’s still down here, he’s not got bored and wandered off, and he fucking let her tell him off and backed down. Raiden doesn’t do that; in fact, they’re all acting differently around her, and yes, I admit, at least to myself, that I am as well.

Suddenly, what he said actually sinks in, and as I instinctively duck when something gets thrown in my direction, I ask, “What do you mean where’s Neith?”

“I’m here!” she yells, perched on the couch in the middle of the battleground, with an enormous grin on her face, ducking flying debris with an insane amount of skill as she eats popcorn.

I can’t help it; I burst out laughing at the sheer absurdity of the image.

“Where the fuck did you get popcorn?” Evander yells back to her as if that’s the important thing to be focusing on right now.

She doesn’t answer though, because her attention is once again on the brawling supes that are somehow managing to miss her.

In fact, I tilt my head to the side and ask, “Do you see that?”

Doc is the only one listening as the others try to figure out a way to stop Griff and Reed from fighting since we usually just leave them to it and make them deal with the aftermath of it themselves.

“They’re not going near her; they’re fighting around her, sure, but it’s like there is some kind of forcefield around her, and they’re almost instinctively avoiding her. The objects aren’t; she’s dodged a few now, looking highly amused while doing it, too.” Doc replies curiously.

“The question though, is she doing it, or are they somehow tuned into her because I don’t think that either of them are aware of what they’re doing.” I point out.

“I have absolutely no idea how to answer that,” Doc replies, “and although there are some anomalies when it comes to Neith, creating a force field is definitely in the realm of supernatural, and my magic didn’t detect anything, her scent isn't supernatural either so she’s just human.”

“A unique one,” I add.

“There’s absolutely no doubt about that,” he replies.

While we’ve been talking, the others seem to have come up with a plan, and it’s a simple one: they’re just going to go and get her. One of us is going to grab her and get her out of harm's way, while the others are going to act as a barrier between her and the sparring idiots. Neither of them wanted to risk getting her to come to us and ending up dead, not that I think they could convince her; she looks like she’s having far too much fun.

Of course, even though she hasn’t heard the conversation, she seems to want to throw a spanner in the works, and before we can put the plan into motion, Reed punches Griff in the face and draws a hefty amount of blood; we all hear it crunch, clearly broken and I wince.

Ouch.

Neith frowns and pops up, somehow dropping her bowl of popcorn on the couch without it spilling, and without any hesitation whatsoever, strides straight towards them both. We all tense, every single one of us getting ready to grab her and get her out of harm's way, but she just puts her hands on her hips and stares them down.

“Oi!” she exclaims.

To my utter shock, both Griff and Reed stop dead and look at her in question before horror at how close she is to them while they’re fighting dawns on them both.

“What the fuck, woman?” Griff growls, and if I hadn’t seen her go up against him a couple of days ago, I would be worried that his gruff tone is going to scare her, but she just ignores him, making me snicker.

“Neith, you shouldn’t be . . .” Reed starts his voice firm, with a slight hint of panic if I’m reading him right, which I can only assume is because he realises they could’ve hurt her.

She points at him, “I am all for letting off a bit of steam while sparring, but that was a cheap blow, and you know it.”

“What?” Reed asks incredulously while my mouth drops open; that is not what I thought she was going to say.

She ignores his question and turns back to face an amused-looking Griff, “And you, are you new? Don’t drop your guard. You’re particularly bad at doing it on your right side. Fix it, or you deserve to have your nose broken.”

“I’ve been telling him that for years,” Raiden chimes in, his dark eyes intensely watching her.

“Then he definitely should know better,” she retorts and then turns back to the couch, sits down, and picks up her popcorn again. When we all stay silent and no one moves, she adds, looking at Griff and Reed, “You may continue, although if you’d both like to do it shirtless, I wouldn’t be opposed to it.” She promptly smacks a hand over her mouth like she can’t believe that she’s just said that out loud. She then shrugs and just shoves another handful of popcorn in her mouth.

I actually can’t believe that she can still eat after the amount of takeout she just had, but she doesn’t show any signs of stopping, and in a really weird way, it's hot. It’s also incredibly attractive to me that she apparently has no filter and says what’s on her mind too. At least I won’t be the only one who embarrasses myself regularly.

Unsurprisingly, neither of them start to fight again, and instead, they just look incredibly unsure of themselves and confused, Reed especially. She’s throwing him all kinds of curveballs, and she’s not even aware that she’s doing it.

Reed frowns, his arms crossed over his chest in what I recognise as a protective gesture; he asks, “Where did you get the popcorn from?”

Neith looks momentarily disappointed before she smiles and says, “The kitchen.”

“When the hell did you go and get that?” Evander asks.

“When you were all discussing how weird it was that I kicked Reed out, you could have just asked me?”

“She has a point,” I agree, earning some exasperated looks in the process.

Neith

W hile I was getting the popcorn, which turned out to be far more needed than I thought since I then had ringside seats to Griff and Reed’s fight, I realised that actually it's not going to do any harm to tell them about the strength of my mental shield, that’s not actually entirely unheard of amongst humans, it’s rare for sure but not impossible so shouldn’t get me thrown into the looney bin like some of my other quirks might.

Evander tilts his head, “Your mental shield was never this strong before?”

I shrug, “It didn’t need to be.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asks, everyone listening intently.

I sigh, “It means that it was safe when I was with you, that I was safe, and that there was no need for me to put much thought into the mental shields.”

“Safe?” he questions again, a mixture of emotions in his voice.

I completely ignore him, and not subtly, either. I know he’ll most likely want to bring it up again at some point, but for now I’m avoiding it, and in an attempt to change the subject, I say, “Reed was looking at me with an expression that made me wonder if he could read my thoughts or at least get a read on the emotions accompanying them, so I checked my shields and realised that they were thin and allowing some things through, no doubt because of the condition I was in, all I did was re-build them.”

“That’s not all you did though,” Reed says, sounding slightly hesitant, “you kicked me out, and even before that, I was getting very little from you, which never happens.”

“He’s a strong supe, Nene, he can pick things up off of everyone, and you kicked him out with ease, and judging from the look on your face, without doing it on purpose too,” Van tells me when I just look confused.

“Oh,” I reply and then add because I think it may help, “I had a really good teacher.”

“We’ll figure it out,” River assures me with a smile. Although I’m not really bothered, I’ll just add it to the unexplainable shit about me list.

Yawning, I reply anyway, “Thank you.”

Doc claps his hands, gaining everyone’s attention, “Alright, there’s a lot to sort out and go over, but it's really late. Neith has been through one hell of an ordeal and most likely wants to have a shower and call it a night.”

“Sorry, Neith, we shouldn’t have kept you up this long. You should be resting,” Ransom says, looking worried.

“That’s okay. It’s been great to get to know you a bit, and I was fine, but I think the last few days are catching up to me now, and I desperately need to shower before I fall asleep,” I look over them all, “is it okay if I stay here? I want to help you guys figure out what the fuck the HID is up to, and it’s not exactly safe for me out there. I can’t offer you rent, but I’ll chip in with chores, and I’m a damn good kind of agent.”

By the time I finish, I’m actually starting to panic that they’re just going to kick me out. That seems wrong somehow, but I’m not going to force myself on them. If they want me to leave, I will, secure in the knowledge that they know and can do something about the corruption in the HID.

“Yes, of course, I’ll show you to your room. It’s got its own bathroom too,” Evander offers, and then adds as he gets up, “Tomorrow we will get a plan put in place and try and get some information without dropping Neith in the shit.”

“Sounds good,” Ransom agrees, all of the others nodding along.

“Here,” Doc says as I stand up from the couch, Betty in one hand. He hands me a pile of clothes, and when I just stare at him, slightly confused, he adds, “I assumed that you wouldn’t want to put your dirty clothes back on, so I summoned some for you.”

I grin and reply gratefully, “Thank you.” Tilting my head slightly, I study him closely, the voices murmur speeding up in a frenzy, “You’re really fucking strong, aren’t you?”

He tenses and doesn’t reply as I look around at all of them and add, “But you’re not the only one. I get the feeling that I’m currently surrounded by some incredibly strong supes.”

“Come on, trouble,” Evander interrupts the now slightly tense atmosphere.

“I’m coming.” I grin as I start to follow him out of the door.

“Do you want me to put your shotgun in the safe?” Reed asks before I fully make it out of the door.

Turning around, I smirk, “You mean Betty?”

Returning my smile with a small one of his own, he replies, “Yes, Betty.”

I chuckle, happy that he used her name, although I acknowledge that it's slightly ridiculous, “Thank you, but it’s okay. I like to have her close. Although I am aware that it might make you all nervous since I’m a stranger in your home and arrived under weird as fuck circumstances, I mean, I literally walked straight through your gates and up to the front door, so I’ll happily give you the bullets and you can double check that I don’t have anymore.”

“What?” Raiden asks, his eyes suddenly wide.

“I’ll give you the bullets?” I reply, aware that I’ve turned it into a question because he’s staring at me with an intensity that I don’t know how to deal with.

“You walked through the gate?” Ransom asks and then clarifies, “You just opened the locked gate and walked straight through the second set of wards? How did you even get past the first set?”

“Did I not mention that?” I ask, genuinely confused and thinking that I’d already told them. Although I do get distracted so easily, I could’ve missed it.

“No, Neith, you didn’t,” Griff replies, his eyebrow raised.

“Oh well, then you’re going to find this super weird,” I tell them, aware that it's too late to back out from telling them now, and actually, I’m starting to want some help with all this weird shit that happens to me.

“Weirder than you somehow making it through two sets of wards?” River asks.

“Oh yeah. So, I don’t actually know how I got through the first set of wards. I was walking through the woods with those animals, and then I found your gates. I approached them and was trying to figure out how the fuck I was going to get through them since I had no equipment with me to override the electrics, and there was no way that I could climb it not in the state that I was in.” I start to explain.

“Alright, so how the fuck did you get through it?” Doc asks.

“The animals nudged me and literally pushed me through the gate, and I walked straight through the closed gates.”

“Fuck.” Raiden exclaims.

“What?” I ask him since he’s gone pale, and his dark eyes are literally swirling with magic.

“The fact that you walked with the animals through a solid object means that you were almost completely in the spirit realm,” he explains, the thought seeming to stress him out.

“Are you sure?” Evander demands.

“It’s the only plausible way she could’ve gotten through both of the wards. There’s one way to find out for certain though,” Raiden replies and then turns to look at me. I watch as the easygoing jokester disappears and his walls slam into places, “I can check and see if you were for sure in the spirit realm; being there can leave a mark on you, and I’ll be able to sense it. I’ll need to hold your hands and use my magic though.”

“Okay, and why are you saying that like it’s the worst thing in the world?” I ask him because he’s almost completely shut down and turned robotic. I don’t like it.

He clears his throat and meets my eyes almost confrontationally, as if he’s daring me to react the way he expects me to at what he says next, “I’m a Reaper.”

My eyes widen, but not with fear or disgust like he thinks, “No fucking way, that is so fucking cool. I’ve never met a Reaper before. That explains your pretty eyes though. Here,” I thrust my hands in his direction, over-excited at the prospect I get to see a Reaper's magic. They’re rare and simply don’t show their magic to anyone unless the person or supe is dead.

“Shit Neith, you really are something else,” Reed mutters.

I frown and start to pull my hands back, thinking I’ve fucked up and have missed some sort of etiquette, “I’m sorry, just tell me what to do.”

“Aren’t you worried that I’m going to hurt you?” Raiden asks, all of the others staying silent, and I get the feeling it’s because this moment is important to Raiden.

Reapers have a bad reputation, mostly because historically, quite a few of them have gone bad, using the dead to do their bidding and trying to build armies, take over realms, and all of that jazz. Their powers are also unknown and extremely strong, which makes people nervous. I think it’s stupid to paint everyone with the same fucking brush, and more than that, my instincts would warn me if he meant to harm me, and he doesn’t, not even a little bit. In fact, I can tell that my next words are incredibly important to him, and I don’t think even he knows why.

I smile, “No, why would I be?”

His entire face lights up at my very honest reply, and he steps forward, pulling me into his arms for a very unexpected but not unwelcome hug.

“Thanks, Neith,” he mutters quietly in my ear before he lets me go and clears his throat again, deliberately not looking at his family surrounding us.

“Maybe explain to her what you’re going to do. It might feel weird for a human, and although I highly doubt she would, there’s a small chance she could freak out if she doesn’t know what’s going to happen.” Doc suggests changing the subject and putting us back on track.

“Good idea, I get a bit shooty when I get a nasty surprise,” I chime in.

“You know, I haven’t even known you for that long, but I’m entirely unsurprised that you get shooty,” River chuckles.

I shrug, “At least I warned you that I get shooty. You would’ve been mad if you had to find out the hard way.”

“That’s a good point,” River agrees and then adds thoughtfully, “You know, now that I think about it, I might be a bit stabby when I’m surprised.”

“You do,” Reed deadpans.

“Oh god, there’s two of them that get easily distracted and go off on tangents.” Ransom groans, although there’s an amused twinkle in his eye.