Reaper

“DNA evidence has confirmed that the bodies discovered last week in Chicago are those of missing New Yorkers Jesse Murphy and Charlotte Scott. Little is known about their cause of death, but this case if believed to be tied to the mass killings by an anonymous killer known only as ‘Jack the Reaper’…”

Jesse raised an eyebrow. “Somebody’s getting fired,” he muttered, not breaking eye contact with the laptop as he took another bite of his burger.

Jesse and I sat at a table in the middle of the large warehouse room, eating whatever food had been brought back for us. There were a few sofas and mattresses and lamps scattered around the building, enough so that Jesse and I could have a place to sleep occasionally and the Reapers had a place to relax, and to plan. Since they didn’t sleep much, the layout worked for us. Jesse, Simon and I sat at the table in front of Simon’s laptop, concerned with the news. Saphira and Lina were on the couch, reading the local newspaper from this morning. Hunter was lounging on one of the other sofas, while Forrest was asleep in the corner.

Simon snorted. “Or getting paid off. Either way, it seems someone had a good reason to lie about the DNA matching, especially since the bodies that were recovered were likely unable to be identified by their face or fingerprints.” He eyed Jesse and me carefully. “You two wouldn’t happen to have any distinguishing marks, would you?”

Jesse shoveled in another bite of food. “I have a tattoo – does that count?”

Simon nodded, mentally taking note. “Okay. Good to know.”

“Wait, what? Why is that good to know?”

“In case one of us actually had to identify your body.”

Jesse nearly spit his food out onto the table. When he realized that Simon wasn’t joking, his eyes bulged, and his face went pale. Slowly, he put down what was left of his burger, a vacant expression on his face.

Saphira looked up from her newspaper, a concerned expression on her face. “This smells like Isis to me. I don’t think it was a mistake that those bodies were misidentified – I think she had them planted, and then paid off the medical team to lie to the authorities.”

Jesse frowned. “But why? Why go to all that trouble?”

We were all surprised when Hunter replied.

“Because she could kill you if she wanted to,” Hunter stated bluntly, his voice deep and gravelly, “But she chose instead to send you a warning. Perhaps because she doesn’t know where you are, but more likely because she wants Charlie alive.”

Everyone was silent then. There were a few awkward minutes that passed as Jesse went back to inhaling his food. I was silent, and still picking at my own, but I wasn’t up for offering my opinion on the subject.

The lengths Isis was going to scared me beyond anything I had encountered this far. I’d been ambushed by Reapers, I’d shot someone, I’d faced a room full of vampires – and she scared me the most. She was unknown. She had already tried kidnapping me for her purposes, but now – now I knew she was willing to take Sawyer to get to me.

At least, I had to hope that she had him there alive. Because the alternative was worse.

Jesse sighed. “So… I guess there’s no hope for going home anytime soon, eh?” His tone was humorous, but his face was sad. “I… I think I left my lights on.”

Lina gave him a sad smile. “I think that’s a little out of the question.”

Simon looked down at his hands, which were folded on the table, avoiding eye contact. “Isis knows by now that those bodies weren’t yours, I’m sure she’s the reason that the examiners lied. She knows that you have two options now: one, to stay hidden, and two, to go home and prove the hoax wrong. She knows that you want to do the latter, because you don’t want to cause grief to your families and friends who don’t know the truth.” Jesse nodded. “But if you do, she will know, because the story will be all over the news. And then she’ll know exactly where to find you. She’s betting you’ll give up.”

“She’s going to lose that bet.”

The words were out of my mouth before I even knew what was happening. Normally I had a filter for that type of thing, but something inside me made those words and got them out of my mouth before I could stop them. It was quiet, but I knew everyone had heard me. I pursed my lips and stared at my food.

The first person to react surprised me – it was Hunter.

“Oh yeah? Like you know anything about what you’re getting yourself into, missy,” he snorted sarcastically.

And from there, I’m not really sure why, but something inside of me, way down, snapped. I felt it numbly at first, and then rising like bile in my throat, it hit me. The fire, the anger flowed through my veins like something I had never experienced, filling me from my head to my toes and I knew it was going to take a hell of a lot to choke it down. So I didn’t.

I stood up suddenly, knocking my chair backward. “What the hell would you know?” I demanded, stalking over to where Hunter lay sprawled on the couch.

Everyone else in the room watched in surprise, too shocked by the outburst to do anything. Hunter blinked up at me, surprised, for a moment.

“Well?”

Hunter’s look of surprise quickly turned into a snarl as he stood up.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I immediately had flashbacks to that night – the night Hunter had attacked Sawyer in the alley. The night Hunter had tried to kill me because of what I was to Sawyer. I had tried to suppress the memory all this time – if he was here, he was here to help Sawyer, so I had to suck it up – but now it came to the surface full force. I was scared of him, it was true, but a lot of things had scared me recently.

And I was sick and tired of letting “scared” be a reason for standing down.

His voice was sharp. “I know you’re a scared little human girl who can’t keep her legs shut,” he snarled, his fists curling as he spoke. I could see his eyes beginning to flicker, that sinister red that I had seen in my nightmares.

I heard Lina pipe up. “Hunter –“

I stopped her. “Did you find this out before or after you attacked Sawyer and me?”

The room was still again. The only movement was my thundering heart and Hunter’s rapid breathing.

“Why else would he bother with you?” Hunter roared, ignoring my question completely, “Unless you were fucking his brains out?”

That stung, worse than the previous statement.

In a flash, my fist connected with his face.

Everything happened so fast that I didn’t have a chance to process it until it was over. Hunter lunged at me, and had tried to attack me, but something – or someone, to be more specific – had grabbed him the best they could and held him back. Someone grabbed me, too, and yanked me out of the way, shoving me behind them so that I had a shield. I could feel my head spinning from the sudden motion, disoriented.

I realized after a moment that Saphira had been the one to pull me out of the way, but what surprised me more was who had caught Hunter.

“That’s enough,” Forrest hissed into Hunter’s ear. I could tell that Forrest’s eyes were completely illuminated – he was dangerous, and he had obviously just woken up.

Saphira glanced back at me, presumably to make sure I was still there and alright. “While I commend you for finally sticking up for yourself,” she quipped, slightly out of breath, “I’d say next time choose your battles a little more wisely.”

In an instant, Lina had leapt up from her spot on the couch. “You attacked her? And Sawyer?” Lina was a flurry of movement, rushing over toward Hunter as menacingly as she could for her small size. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

For that, Simon grabbed her arm as she passed, successfully holding her back. Everyone was silent again, breathing hard and trying to calm their anger.

Tense didn’t even begin to describe the situation.

Jesse, as usual, was the one to break the silence. “As entertaining as this is, could we continue this conversation without committing homicide?”

Saphira gave him a look, but we all knew he was right. Slowly, everyone detangled from one another. I could feel the energy dissipating as Hunter and Lina both came down from their outbursts. I could feel the embarrassment and regret welling up inside me, sweeping away all of the anger that had been there.

Lina put a hand on my shoulder as I sat down next to her. “Don’t be embarrassed, Charlie. It’s okay.” I had forgotten that the Reapers could read my emotions because they hardly mentioned it anymore, mostly out of privacy, I think– that made everything just a little bit worse. I could feel my cheeks heating up.

Forrest was the first to speak up. He nodded to Hunter, a deep scowl on his face. “You want to tell everyone why you nearly killed Sawyer, or should I?” he seethed, clearly angered more than anyone at the whole thing.

I was a little confused – why would Forrest be so concerned? I knew Hunter was strong, but surely Forrest knew Sawyer could hold his own? He was hurt, but not beyond control. He was strong enough to stand up for himself.

Hunter bared his teeth at me, but he made no move to come any closer for fear of what Forrest might do to him. Even he knew when he wasn’t going to win a fight. “I’m sick of trying to protect some girl who Sawyer got a little carried away with. He threw away his pack for her.”

Hunter was a tough guy. He was giant and he was scarred and he was mean. But in that moment, I realized that beneath all that, he was pretty simple – he was just a little bit human. He was hurt by Sawyer, by me (even though I still had no idea what I had done), and lashing out at me was his only way of coping. I didn’t feel sorry for him, but suddenly his animosity made more sense. He was hurt that Sawyer’s loyalty had wavered, and he blamed me for it.

After all, once you stripped everything away, all Hunter had was his strength and the loyalty of his pack. And even then, I think Sawyer had more of that now than ever. It was unquestionably Sawyer’s pack, not Hunter’s, and in that moment I think everyone in the room realized it.

Otherwise, none of us would be here, agonizing over every day that passed without him.

Sawyer had “thrown away” his own pack, in Hunter’s eyes. And suddenly everyone realized just how important I must have been to him.

“Hunter.”

Everyone looked at me expectantly the moment the word left my mouth. I had a feeling I was going to regret this. He looked at me angrily.

“Hunter, I never asked for this.” He started to speak in protest, and I held up a shaky hand. “No, let me finish. Sawyer reached out to me to protect. He left me notes, made sure I was safe at home every single night. I don’t know why he kept coming back. We were…” I bit my lip. “Drawn to each other, I guess. And then he figured out that he couldn’t feed from me and then I realized that he cared about me, and…” I trailed off, seeing Hunter’s face grow more and more uncomfortable.

“Look, what I’m trying to say is, I’m not some hooker Sawyer found and decided to keep. He genuinely cares about me, I think, to the point where I start to question that whole mating thing…”

I saw Forrest react the most. His face fell, shocked, but he didn’t say anything. I could see the hurt in his eyes, the disappointment – was Forrest in love with Sawyer, too? It was one thing to deal with Saphira, but with Forrest…

Simon spoke up before I had time to complete the thought. “Charlie, Reapers mating is extremely rare,” he said gently, trying not to sound too harsh, “Statistically, the probability of you being Sawyer’s mate is extremely low.” He pursed his lips, thinking. “Although… it would certainly explain his behavior over the past few months. Sawyer has never been this emotionally invested in anything that I remember. Perhaps it’s his biology controlling it.”

Forrest rose from the couch, his fists balling at his sides. “That’s impossible! Sawyer can’t have a mate, he –“

“He does.”

The room was still again after Saphira cut Forrest off. We all looked at her, expectantly. I could feel my breath in my throat, but I couldn’t find the energy to let it out, for fear of ruining the moment. I suspected everyone else felt the same way.

“You haven’t seen the way he looks at her,” Saphira said sadly.

We were all quiet after that. I felt my cheeks grow red at the thought of everyone suddenly becoming involved in my love life, but I had a feeling they all already knew, anyway. I didn’t know if I was Sawyer’s mate, but… was it that far out of the realm of possibility?

I suddenly had a longing for his arms around me and his lips on his forehead. I craved the feeling of his heart beneath my cheek, of the sense of safety he gave me when he hugged me. I wanted to smell his smell, to hear him breathing next to me, to just be there. I missed him like he had taken a part of me with him.

And like all hell I wanted it back.

“There has to be something we can do to get him back,” I pleaded.

It was a while before anyone spoke up. But when someone did, it was Simon. “I think I might have a plan,” he muttered under his breath, looking to Lina for support. “But Sawyer would kill me for suggesting it.”

“What is it?” Jesse asked, his voice reluctant.

Simon looked me dead in the eye. “We set a trap.”