Page 21

Neith

I guess he is a touchy-feely kind of guy, and that makes sense. Shifters tend to be, and I am not complaining in the slightest. His hugs are like magic.

When he finally puts me down, I turn to the rest of the guys with a smile. It’s nice to be greeted when I get home, it’s usually just Betty and she’s choosy with her replies. Okay, she doesn’t reply.

“Did you have a good time?” Ransom asks with a smile.

I nod, “Yeah, it was great. Well, people are dicks when it comes to reapers.”

Griff frowns, “Yeah, they can be pretty fucking prejudiced.”

“Oh, and then,” I start, getting fired up again, which makes all of their eyebrows rise, and Raiden chuckles as he leans against his bike, his arms crossed over his chest, and just watches us. “Some bitch decided she could push Raiden after speaking shit to him for ages.”

“Fuck,” Van growls, looking at Raiden, “you ran into Melody?”

“Oh, so she’s known for touching you like that?” I ask Raiden, “I should have taken her fucking hands when I had the chance.”

“Wait, what?” Doc asks, looking really confused.

“You’re okay?” Reed checks with Raiden.

Raiden nods with a smile, “Neith broke her nose, made her wail like a little bitch, it was glorious.”

“If you hadn’t carried me off, then I would have finished it,” I reply with a huff.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Doc mutters.

River is bouncing around and starts firing off questions which I’m pretty sure I only follow because I do the same thing, “You fucking legend. What was it like? Did she cry? I don’t hit women, but she was a godawful piece of fucking work. I wish I could have seen it. Do you think that they will let me have the security footage? Wait, you broke her nose?”

I grin as I answer his questions, the others looking at me expectantly and clearly wanting to know the answers too, “It was fucking awesome, but I only got to hit her once. Yes, she cried. She is fucking vile, and if I see her again, I will finish what I started. I don’t know if they will let you have the security footage, but you will have to ask them. Yes, I broke her nose.”

“I can’t believe that you followed all of that,” Ransom chuckles.

“Whoa, hold up, you broke her nose?” Griff asks, repeating River’s question.

I throw my hands up, being dramatic because that’s what I’m good at, “Yes. I did. Why is that such a big deal? I have broken plenty of noses and other bones before. One bitches nose is nothing to me.”

“It’s a big deal because reapers are particularly strong creatures and don’t break easily,” Reed says.

“In other words, you shouldn’t have been able to break her nose.” Van clarifies for me.

“Oh,” I reply, and then add, “Well, if it helps, she isn’t very strong. She isn’t really even a blip on the radar compared to Raiden’s power, or any of yours actually.”

Raiden’s eyebrows climb, “Wait, really? I know you said when we were there that she’s not as strong as me, but she’s really that weak?”

I nod and then frown, “Well, she felt weak to me. I don’t have any other reapers to compare it to, but she was also weaker than Neera.”

“Neera?” Reed asks.

“Do you mean the woman who works in the coffee shop in town?” Doc asks.

I nod, “Yeah, we’re going out for drinks soon, but Melody wasn’t as strong as Neera was.”

“I’ve met Neera, she’s strong but unless Neith is sensing something that none of us can, then she shouldn’t be stronger than Melody,” Ransom adds.

“But Neith is sensing something that the rest of us aren’t because she’s picked up that Melody isn’t actually that strong,” River points out.

I interrupt, “Guys, I could be wrong. I might just be making shit up.”

“Are you?” Reed asks bluntly.

I shake my head, “Well, no, but . . .”

Evander interrupts, “This must be a part of your supernatural side pushing its way forward. Sully said that there would be new developments now, that’s probably one of them, being able to sense how strong someone really is.”

He seems so happy that he’s right that I really hate to burst his bubble, but in this instance, I think it’s necessary.

I shake my head, “I would agree with you, but I have always been able to tell how strong someone is. It isn’t a recent development, and I suppose the only reason that I know that I’m right is because I already knew the strengths of the people that I was guessing about, so who’s to say that my knowledge wasn’t influencing my feelings?”

Raiden nods, “That’s a very good point, and I would agree, but you know how strong we are, and we have very strong enchantments on us. You know River has nine tails . . .”

I interrupt, “I can see them.”

Raiden smirks, “Fair enough. But you know when all of our magic is starting to play up, which is probably part of the sensing how strong a supe is thing. You also shouldn’t be able to feel very much at all from me, and yet you can tell that I’m stronger than Melody.”

“Huh,” I mutter. “I guess you may have a point. When you put it like that, it makes sense, I suppose.”

“I have no idea what supernatural has that gift,” Raiden frowns, “but I can see what I can find out.”

“Could you do it when we were kids?” Van asks.

I wrinkle my nose, I already know what he is going to ask me, but answer his question anyway, “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks, a hint of hurt in his voice.

“You really wanted me to be a supe and go to the academy with you. I knew that if I told you that I could tell that you were stronger than your dad and told you the difference between the others at the compound too, then it would have gotten your hopes up, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get in and that I wasn’t a supe,” I explain honestly.

“Oh,” Van replies, a deep frown on his face.

“What I don’t understand is that if she’s got such a low power signature, then how is she the tier that she is?” Raiden says, seemingly randomly.

“Cheating,” I say when no one else seems to have the answer.

“How?” Reed asks.

“How am I supposed to know?” I reply with a smirk. “It just seems like the most likely reason behind her tier, whatever that is, and her low power level.”

“It doesn’t really matter because I won’t do anything about it. That would bring me under scrutiny, and I don’t want that.” Raiden says with a shrug.

A look is shared between them all and I know that there is more to that than there seems to be.

Something more important than asking about it crosses my mind though, and I say, “Fair enough, whatever floats your boat and all that, but it might still be a good idea to look into it just enough to have some solid information. You never know when you may need the information that she has cheated her way into her position of power. Knowledge is a powerful bargaining tool and is almost more valuable than money and jewels.”

Raiden stares at me, his eyes on fire, and nods just once, almost like he doesn’t trust himself to speak. The others grin.

“I think you broke him,” River chuckles.

“You just quoted something that he is always telling us,” Doc tells me, sounding highly amused.

“Well good. Then he will realize just how important what I said is,” I reply, because I don’t really know what else I can say in response to that.

Our kiss flashes through my mind, and I smirk. I push it away before Doc picks up on my desire or River smells it. I have no idea if he is capable of that, but if his nose is as good as Raiden was saying, then he most likely can.

“Did you get a phone?” Griff asks, completely changing the subject again.

I nod and grin proudly as I fish around in my pockets and hold my phone up triumphantly. I get a bit too excited, and I end up fumbling the phone before I watch it crash to the floor, bouncing once and then landing screen down. I bend down, quickly scooping it up and cautiously turning it over. When I realize that the screen is unbroken, I smile triumphantly.

“It’s fine,” I announce, and turn to Raiden who is holding back his laughter, “that’s why I needed the extra strong case.”

“She’s as bad as River,” Griff groans.

“No one could be that bad,” Ransom disagrees and then chuckles, “that was pretty close, though.”

“What are you guys doing anyway?” I ask, changing the subject and hopefully moving us on from discussing my clumsy ways.

“Cleaning out the garages,” Evander explains.

“Which would be a first,” Raiden mutters.

I shrug, “Fair enough. I can honestly say I have never had the desire to clean out a garage before. While you guys are busy doing that, I’m going to go and find Wallace.”

Raiden stands up and unzips his jacket, holding out the cinnamon buns for me. I smile gratefully as I take them off him.

“Yeah, we should probably start clearing up anyway. We need to talk about HID and what is going on there. We also need to call Ty for an update and to see if he has any more information on the clearing,” Evander says, and then adds, “Whose Wallace?”

“The moose, remember?” Raiden asks.

Van shakes his head, “Nope, I remember the moose, but I don’t remember him being called Wallace. Why do you need to see him?”

“I need to thank him,” I reply. Turning to Raiden, I add, “I’ll come back and grab my stuff after I’m done talking to him.”

“Don’t worry about it. I will transport it all to your room,” Doc interrupts whatever Raiden is about to reply, and his magic builds for a moment before settling again.

“Thank you,” I smile, “I could get used to magic. It comes in handy for a lot of stuff.”

“You’re going to have to,” Ransom grins, “you’re stuck with us now.”

“Doesn’t sound too bad to me,” I reply. “Are you guys still going to be out here when I’m done, or should I meet you inside?”

“We will be inside. We are nearly done anyway, and we need to go over what I mentioned before,” Evander replies.

I nod and then head around to the front of the house. The whole property is surrounded on all sides by woodland, so technically, I could have called Wallace near the garages, but for some reason, I prefer to go around the front of the house and call him where I did the very first time. Probably because they all came when I called from there, and despite the fact that it worked that time, I am worried that it won’t work this time. If I end up looking like an idiot shouting off into the woods, then at least if I am around the front of the house, the guys aren’t within earshot or sight.

I would rather only embarrass myself in front of the forest creatures and not in front of the very delicious men that I live with.

I get closer to the tree line than I did the first time that I spoke to Wallace and the other spirit guides. Although they didn’t say anything that time, only Wallace did.

I feel just as ridiculous as I did the first time when I say, “Wallace, I was wondering if I could talk to you? I have no idea what I’m doing right now or how to summon you guys, and I feel a little ridiculous.”

Okay, so more words came out of my mouth than I intended to then, I meant to ask if he could come see me, I didn’t mean to add all of that extra stuff too.

Wallace steps out of the woods before I can stress about it too much. I am reasonably sure that he doesn’t live there, despite the fact that he is a moose. I’m not sure where he lives, but I assume that he only appears to me in this form since he is a spirit guide. So maybe he lives on one of the levels in the spirit realm and then just shows up here when he’s doing spirit guide shit. That’s definitely something that I need to ask Winston about, if I remember, which, let’s face it, is pretty unlikely.

“Is everything okay?” Wallace asks me.

I realize that I have sort of just been standing and staring at him while my brain goes off a tangent and I wince.

“Sorry, I got distracted by my own brain then,” I explain and then hold up the paper bag, “I got you some cinnamon buns to say thank you for helping Raiden to help me, although I still don’t know what he did.”

Wallace’s eyes fill with amusement, “That is up to him to choose to tell you or not. I appreciate the cinnamon buns, although you didn’t need to do anything to thank me.”

I smile, “I know. Winston said the same thing, but I still wanted to show you that I appreciated it. However, it has just occurred to me that I should probably get something for Winston, too. He seems like the type to get jealous.”

“He is,” Wallace replies, “but I’m sure he doesn’t mind in this instance.”

“Hmm, okay. Well, I’ll think of something.” I reply, and then ask something that I have been curious about, “Where are the other spirit guides? You all helped me to get here, I kind of thought that you would all stick around? Or is it just Winston and you? Not that I mind.”

I force myself to stop talking before I start rambling.

“They are around, and they will be there when you need them. You may not see them for a long time. Spirit guides only come to you at the right time, Winston and I seem to be more connected to you at this point in your journey.”

“That sort of answers my question but also doesn’t at the same time,” I reply, frowning slightly.

Somehow, Wallace manages to shrug his moose shoulders, and honestly, it looks so weird that I am almost disturbed by the view.

“I need to go,” Wallace says.

I nod and hold out the paper bag with the cinnamon buns again, just as I begin to wonder how he is going to carry them, he takes the bag in his mouth, does a moosey grin, and then disappears from sight in a flash of magic.

Well, I guess that’s that then. All of the questions that I wanted to ask either him or Winston come flooding back, and I silently curse that I forgot to ask them when he was here. Something tells me that if I called him back now to ask the questions, he won’t come, so I don’t bother.

The temperature is starting to drop now that it is late afternoon, even though the sun is still up and will be for another couple of hours. Pulling my jacket tighter around me, I start to turn around so I can head inside the house and warm up.

A sound from the woods stops me, I pause trying to work out what it is when I hear it again. It sounds like a cry, a human cry. Now, I’m not new, I know that certain animals can make sounds that resemble human crying, a mountain lion for example, but I don’t think we are in the right area for it to be a mountain lion or any of the other creatures that I know make those sounds.

I can’t just leave it. What if it is someone in danger? Or even one of the imps? They sound like humans, and one of them could be hurt or something. They are little shits for sending me on a task for a reason that they still haven’t shared with me, but that doesn’t mean that they deserve to die.

With that thought, my mind is made up, and I turn back to face the woods and walk forward, pushing past the underbrush and ducking under branches as I follow the sound deeper into the woods. I don’t recognize anything around me, this isn’t the way that I came when I went for a walk a few days ago, the day before yesterday? I don’t know. Time has gotten all mixed up since I have been sleeping for whole days and nights at a time. However long it has been, this isn’t the same trail that I took when I ran into the imps. In fact, this isn’t a trail at all. There is no path here.

I briefly consider calling the guys and waiting for them to catch up so that we can investigate it together, but the cries become shriller, and I decide that I don’t have enough time to waste. I pick up the pace, my feet crunching against the leaves still scattered on the floor, and I try not trip over any roots that they could be obscuring, I’ve done that too many times to count.

I’m not exactly graceful.

If I go down now, I will be absolutely no help to whatever it is that I am hearing, so I’m trying to be extra careful and hoping that my clumsy curse doesn’t take over.