The Raven Series 2 (17 page)

“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 okay 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.”

He wrinkled his nose. “I did, didn’t I?”

Sitting down alongside him, I stretched out my legs. “Our souls align. We can synchronize them.”

“What does that mean?”

“Uh, it’s still to be determined. We can merge our souls, which allows us to do all kinds of insane things.”

“Don’t stop now.”

“Well, we can share power, communicate without talking, and who knows what else.”

He adjusted his glasses. “This connection goes deeper though. Your emotions are tangled with his.”

“It’s messy for sure,” I mumbled, my eyes glancing at the clock. I might be a night owl, but Parker certainly wasn’t. “It’s late. I should let you get some sleep.” I moved to stand up, but he laid his fingers over mine, stopping my movements.

“Wait. Don’t leave just yet.”

There was something in his voice that gave me pause, and I think I understood. He didn’t want to be alone. I couldn’t blame him. The idea of going back to my own empty room was unappealing. Death had a way of making you want to appreciate life. “Scoot over,” I said, peeling back a corner of the blankets.

He moved to his left, and I climbed into the bed next to him. I rested my head on the pillow, turning on my side so we were face-to-face. “How did you save me?” he asked.

I rested my head on my hands. “In all seriousness, I’m not sure. I have these abilities I don’t quite know how to control. And if it wasn’t for Rose, I wouldn’t have been able to save you.”

“Looks like I owe Rose a thank-you. Any chance you can arrange that?” He lifted a goofy brow.

I let out a dry laugh.

“I was totally kidding,” he assured, staring at the ceiling.

“The less you know the better, especially for your safety. It’s dangerous.”

He shook his head. “Oh, no you don’t. You can’t tell me something like that and leave me hanging. It’s pretty clear that danger is imminent.”

I shifted my head on the pillow, finding a comfortable spot. “Exactly. That’s my point. Danger lurks at every corner.”

“For who. You? Me?”

“All of the above. There are malevolent spirits whose souls stay here on Earth for a number of reasons, but mainly because they have unfinished business with someone from when they were alive. The longer they remain here, the greater their destruction. You being in Raven Hallow puts you at risk.”

His shoulders relaxed. “You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’m not afraid of ghosts.”

“You should be,” I huffed. “Things are unsettled between the different sectors. There is strife among us, and with the kind of skills reapers possess, things can escalate. It’s why I’m still here and engaged. By joining my bloodline with Zander’s, it offers me protection and a commitment to what I am.”

“Will you show me how it works?” he asked.

“I’m still learning.”

“You seemed to be doing just fine. You did save my soul.”

True, I had. What was the point of having powers if I couldn’t have a little fun. “I’m sure I’ve broken about a thousand rules tonight. What’s one more?” I closed my eyes and inhaled. In my mind, I pictured the light inside me, flowing from my fingers to my toes until it vibrated and hummed. It was Parker’s gasp that had my eyes fluttering open.

The white light picked up blond highlights in his sandy hair. “Holy. Shit. At least you never need a nightlight.”

I laughed, rotating my hand in the air. It shone in the darkened room. Not everything about being a reaper was as gloom and doom as I’d thought.

***

I arrived early for my training the following morning, leaving a sleeping Parker safely inside Raven Manor. Zane was engaged with another reaper, Dean. At least that was what I thought his name was. A quick glimpse of his wrist revealed Dean was a Crow.

I’d come to be leery of anyone who wasn’t a Crow. As I stepped down off the stairs into the training area, I expected the stares, the questions, and the intrigue on everyone’s faces. It still made me uncomfortable, enough that I thought about walking right back up the stairs and out the door.

And then Zane caught my eye, daring me to walk out. He was goading me. If I turned and ran with my tail tucked between my legs, he would come after me. That would embarrass me more, so I raised my chin.

Seeing Zane and feeling his darkness swell into the air made me want to tap into my power and exploit it. It seemed the more I used it, the stronger the pull was. I remembered the dizzying rush of bliss. Zane only intensified the feeling.

Turning away before I did something foolish, I spotted Aspyn sitting with a group of girls, and since it looked like Zane was going to be tied up awhile longer, I headed in their direction. Normally, I’d steered clear of clicks. Giggle fests and hair braiding parties weren’t my thing, but I got the impression reaper girls were quite different than high school girls. So I hoped.

“Well, look who the cat dragged in,” Aspyn said, grinning. Her long hair was tied high on the crown of her head, emphasizing her cheekbones. “That was quite the spectacle last night. I’m glad to see you’re not hiding out at the manor.”

I wrinkled my nose, slightly terrified of being bombarded with questions. “Not my style.”

“Girls, this is Piper, the new White Raven.” With a smile that said she was up to no good, she eyed me. “Piper, this is Kourtney, Calista, and Taby—the bitches.”

I smiled.

“You’re so lucky to have Zane as your mentor,” the little pixie said. Calista, I think. I had a hard time seeing her as a reaper. She didn’t look like she could hurt a fly.

It was a relief that the first question out of the gate was about Zane and not about how Rose had died. “He’s definitely intense. And surprisingly, when he’s not being an asshat, he’s a pretty good teacher.”

The table erupted in giggles. “Zane is one of the toughest—”

“Roughest,” Aspyn added.

“Baddest,” Taby chimed in.

“Hottest.” Kourtney’s lips curled.

Calista’s hands wrapped around a Gatorade bottle. “Swoon-inducing—”

Good God.
“I got it. Every female on the island has a hard-on for Zane.” And that earned me another round of giggles.

“Except you,” Aspyn provoked.

What game was she playing at? She knew I had a thing for Zane, but that was all she knew. “I’m impervious to jagoffs.”

Aspyn twitched her little nose. “What a sasshole you’ve become.”

“Trust me, this is nothing new,” I mumbled.

“You’re so much cooler than I’d thought you’d be,” Kourtney said.

“Thanks, I think.”

Aspyn’s red lips twitched. “Don’t look now, but a six foot two hunk of yumminess is coming this way.” Of course everyone at the table went on high alert. I swear there was a uniform sigh from the table as all eyes glanced behind me.

“Are you done slacking off?” His voice was dark and husky.

I put my hands on the table and slowly turned around. Zane loomed over me, wearing jogging pants and a sweaty T-shirt plastered to his chest. His expression was an impatient one, but by God, his sweat smelled like it should be bottled and sold as cologne. It was doing ridiculous things to my brain. “What did you say?” I asked, shaking the haze of hormones from my head.