Starfire (Grim Gate 2)

No, I mentally tell them. He’s mine. It’s time for you to go. I turn, looking at them, and in an instant, they slink back into the shadows, disappearing from sight.

“Get inside.” Ethan’s grip on my write tightens and he pulls me in, locking the door behind him. Tossing the rifle on the bed, he rounds on me. “What the fuck was that?”

“I-I don’t know,” I admit. “They’re not going to hurt us, though. I do know that.”

“How, Anora? How do you know that?” His eyes are wide and his brows are pushed together. “They bowed down to you, didn’t they?”

“I-I think so. That one up front. He…he, um, showed me a recent killing. I think he wanted to know if he made me happy.”

“What?” Ethan’s lips part as he stares at me.

“They put an image in my mind. I saw a car crash and then a few reapers waiting to take the aura of a dying victim. It was almost the same as when I, um, get a spirit vision.” I turn my head, trying to feel for them. The reapers are gone. “And there was this light.”

“Light?”

“Around you and Hunter. I think it was your aura. They could see it, so I could see it. It was beautiful, and when you touched me, it exploded into the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. There were so many colors. Like a sunset over the ocean, a perfect green pasture filled with wildflowers, and the midnight sky and the stars, all combined into a swirling mist of colors.”

Ethan doesn’t move as he stares at me.

“And when the reapers saw it, they got like really…hungry I guess you could call it,” I finish. “But I told them to go away.”

“And then they did.” He stares at me again, unspeaking. “Why would they listen to you?”

“Hell if I know,” I say, hating the way Ethan is staring at me right now. I didn’t do anything wrong…did I? Ethan grabs his rifle and goes down the stairs, going right into the library. He set the rifle on the coffee table and gets the demon dictionary from a shelf. I hadn’t looked in there for anything about reapers. I didn’t think I needed to since we already knew how to kill them.

Needing to buy myself time, I go into the kitchen and grab a can of sparkling water from the fridge. I crack it open and pour it into a wine glass.

“Did the reaper drink your blood?” Ethan asks.

“Eww, no,” I say right away, but then remember that night. “Wait. Define drink.”

Ethan looks at me. “Did your blood get into the reaper’s mouth?”

“Yeah. It licked me.”

“And did you get reaper blood in your mouth?”

“Ummm, maybe? I mean, it sprayed all over me.”

“Damn it, Anora!” Ethan slams the book on the counter. “And you’re just now telling me this?”

Obviously that means something to him. “I killed it. I thought everything was over.”

“Well, it’s not.” Ethan angrily flips through the book, going back to the page he was just on. I want to tell him to slow down and be careful to not rip the pages, but I keep my mouth shut.

“Why are you mad at me?” I ask, unable to help myself.

“I’m mad, but not at you.”

“Funny way of showing it.” I look at my empty glass, ready to fill it back up with wine, though I had more than enough before I went to sleep.

He straightens up, turning the book around so I can see the words written on the page. “I think the reaper you killed must have really been the alpha, like you said. You drank his blood and he drank yours. I think you accidentally performed the ritual to become the next alpha.”

I gape at him. “But I’m not a reaper.”

“You said you could see their thoughts.” Ethan pinches the bridge of his nose. “You’re a medium. They prey on those on the verge of death. It’s a fine line and I think you both walk it.”

“But I didn’t do a blood ritual.”

“That’s what the book says.” He looks at me sympathetically. “You didn’t mean to, but you exchanged blood.”

“Okay.” I’m so fucking close to totally coming undone. “What do I do now?”

“I don’t know,” Ethan tells me. “Do you still sense any reapers?”

“Not at the moment.”

He looks out the window, as if he could see anything beyond the darkness. “I guess we can go back to bed, then.”

“Are you going to be able to sleep?”

“No,” he says bluntly. “And I know you won’t either.” He flashes a cheeky grin. “Wanna have sex until we’re tired?”

“I’m not quite in the mood at the moment, but if you want to try and get me in the mood, I won’t object.” I raise my shoulders in a shrug. “That little bit of light they gave me really woke me up.”