His voice was mellow and rich—the total opposite of what I’d expected. On any other man it might have been sexy, but this wasn’t a man. He merely held that form.
“I can.” I kept my voice soft. I wasn’t sure whether others could see him, and I didn’t particularly want to be seen talking to thin air. Mom was a media star, and a daughter caught talking to imaginary people would certainly be great fodder for the gossip magazines. “And I know it’s not my time to die. So if you try to take me, you’ll have a goddamn fight on your hands. Sword or not.”
Something akin to surprise ran through the bright depths of his oddly colored eyes. “Reapers do not steal souls. If you can see us, you should be aware of that fact.”
“The only fact I’m aware of is the one lying in room six-eleven. Someone stole her soul. If not a reaper, then who?”
His gaze rose briefly, then met mine again. “Wait here,” he said. “Do not run, because I will find you.”
“If I’d wanted to run, I would have done so before now,” I said. “But in case you haven’t realized, it’s raining and cold, and I need to warm up.”
He obviously didn’t. I could feel the heat of him even from where I stood. It didn’t do a whole lot to warm the chill from my skin, but maybe that was due more to what I had just experienced.
“If the moisture bothered you so, you would have moved out of it before now.”
Had any other man made that statement, I might have suspected he was being sarcastic. But he said it without inflection and without the slightest hint of amusement. Did reapers even feel amusement?
I had no idea. I might have been aware of them for most of my life, and I might be related to them by virtue of my Aedh blood, but that wasn’t much help. Even Quinn—the half-Aedh vampire who’d taught me to control my Aedh gifts—hadn’t been able to tell me a whole lot about the reapers.
I glanced down the street and spotted a McDonald’s. “I’l
l be in there.”
He glanced briefly at the building then back to me, his expression giving very little away. “Good.”
And with that, he disappeared again.
I blew out a breath, then spun on my heels and splashed my way toward McDonald’s. Once inside, I found the restroom and changed my clothing, dumping my wet things into my pack then dragging on my leather jacket in an effort to warm the chill from my flesh.
Once I’d paid for my burger and Coke, I made my way to a table in the corner, as far away from everyone else as possible.
He appeared seconds later, striding through the restaurant like an animal on the prowl. No one seemed to think it odd to see a half-naked man wearing a sword, yet he was obviously visible, if the man who apologized for getting in his way was any indication.
I picked up my burger and bit into it, but barely even tasted it. My attention was on the reaper. On this man who could destroy me with a single touch of his finger.
His gaze met mine again. Those bright depths burned, and if reapers were capable of anger, then this one was pissed.
He pulled out a chair and sat down opposite me, his movements economical and fluid. The heat of him rolled across the table, and it did warm me even as the psychic part of me shivered away from the power of that fiery caress.
And yet, if he was sitting down opposite me, surely that meant he didn’t intend to take me.
Not yet, anyway.
“No reaper did that.” The words were said flatly, without inflection, and yet his anger seemed to blaze all around me. “No reaper would ever do that.”
“And yet you are capable of it.”
He studied me for a moment, then nodded, the movement short and sharp. “As are you.”
“The Aedh are not as adept at soul stealing as the reapers, and a half-Aedh even less so.”
He acknowledged this with another nod, then said, “There are many other things capable of stealing souls in this world, but I’ve never seen one go after a child so young.”
I took another bite of the burger, but the little girl’s plight had really killed my taste buds and the burger tasted like ash. I dropped it back into its wrapper, brushed the crumbs off my fingers, then picked up my Coke instead. After taking a sip, I said, “So which of these other things is responsible for her destruction?”
“That I cannot tell you.”
I raised an eyebrow—and felt somewhat surreal even as I did it. I mean, I was sitting here in the middle of McDonald’s with a reaper. The day could not get any weirder if it tried. “Cannot, or will not?”