Reaper (Dark in You 8)

As her anchor, he wasn’t down with her dealing with anything alone. But he didn’t want to push her to talk. Not now. She’d had one fuck of a night, and it was important that she get her rest so she could heal. Tomorrow, he’d do his best to make her talk. He didn’t want her bottling things up.

“Did you call your mother or Joe about what happened?” he asked.

She double-blinked, snapping out of her daze. “Uh, no, they’re at a party. I don’t see the sense in spoiling it for them.” She sighed. “They’re gonna be pissed. And they’re gonna expect you to magically have all the answers and ensure my safety.”

He’d expect nothing less. “I will get answers, and I will keep you safe. You can count on me to do that.”

“I know.”

His heart squeezed. She might not be in any rush to claim him, but she did have faith in him; did seem to feel safe with him. That meant a lot, and it went a long way to soothing his demon’s frustration. “I have a question for you. You seem very close to Joe, but neither you nor your mother took his surname. Why? Is it out of affection for your biological father?”

“No. Winslow is actually my mom’s family name, it was never his. My father—who is convinced his calling is to be a rock star but can’t sing for shit—left when I was a baby. He came back occasionally when I was little, saying he wanted to see me, but he was only really looking to borrow money from my mom. He was a total bum.”

“You don’t sound pissed about it.” In fact, there was a note of amusement in her voice when she spoke of the male.

“He’s not a bad guy. He was never mean to me or anything. He just wasn’t a dad. He was too unreliable and self-centered to prioritize anyone else over himself.”

“Did he at least visit you on special occasions?”

“Well he’d bring me birthday presents, but never on my actual birthday. And he only ever did it to make it look like he was there to see me when, really, he wanted to borrow cash from my mom again or needed a couch to sleep on for a few nights. He stopped coming back after she met Joe. And we would have taken Joe’s surname if Celeste hadn’t put up a stink. She did the same when he invited me to call him ‘Dad.’”

Petty bitch. “So you don’t.”

“No. But Joe is my dad. I don’t need to be biologically related to him for that to be true. Sharing DNA with someone doesn’t make them your family.”

“Agreed.”

“On the subject of parents, you’ve never mentioned your own. We don’t have to talk about them if it’s a painful topic,” she hurried to add.

His first instinct was to take the out she’d given him. When it came to his origins and childhood, there was much he didn’t know. Much he didn’t remember. And the memories he did have of that time, well, not many were fun to revisit. It was reflexive of him to balk at admitting to all that, but Larkin’s assertion that he needed to be open with Piper slithered through his mind.

With a silent curse, he reluctantly confessed, “My mother, Blanche, died giving birth to me. As for my father, I don’t know his identity. I’m not sure if I ever once met him as a child. It’s possible he either had no clue I existed or simply didn’t wish to be part of my life, because he didn’t take me in after she died.” Levi gave an indifferent shrug, having long ago ceased resenting it. “There really isn’t much else I can tell you about them. My earliest memories are of the home for demonic orphans where I grew up.”

“I don’t need to ask if the home was a good place. Your flat tone says it all.”

“Growing up there was no easy ride, but it could have been worse. The staff were overly strict—often to the point of being abusive. We didn’t know until a couple of years ago, but some children were also sexually assaulted there. Compared to them, I didn’t have it so hard.”

“That doesn’t detract from what you yourself went through.”

Again, he shrugged. “One good thing came out of my time there. It’s where I met Knox and the sentinels.”

“Why didn’t your lair keep you after your mom died?”

“From what I uncovered, she was a stray demon. She and her sister, Moira, left their lair together. I never did find out why, or even which lair they came from. Moira took me in after Blanche died. I don’t remember her either. She allegedly wasn’t very happy to have a toddler in her care, but at least she didn’t give me away. After she was later murdered, I officially became an orphan.”