Reaper

When I had woken up this morning, I had felt like nothing else had ever made me feel.

I could still feel the stiffness in my legs and abdomen as I sat in the dining hall with all of the others in the compound – and by that I mean all of the others. Noah had gathered everyone up for a meeting that he’d told Sawyer about sometime last night. Sometime after everything that happened, that is.

I wondered idly if people could tell I’d slept with Sawyer last night.

By the way I was walking and the goofy grin Sawyer and I shared with each other in spite of ourselves, I guessed that, unfortunately, they probably could, but there were more important issues at hand.

Still, the event was still fresh in my mind, and I felt warm with contentment as the memories of last night flashed back to me in pieces.

“We have a lot to discuss,” Noah said sternly, facing the crowd at the front of the dining hall.

It was definitely a jarring change of pace, to say the least. Twelve hours ago I was in heaven with Sawyer, and now… in a military hell.

I glanced sideways at Sawyer as Noah talked. His jaw was clenched in a way that I knew meant he was irritated. It occurred to me that even though I’m sure he was happy last night, that happiness was shattered by Noah’s visit while I had been asleep. I’m not sure exactly what was bothering him – it wasn’t really like him to just offer up that information – but I knew what the likely sources of it were. I think it had something to do with the fact that Sawyer wasn’t sure exactly how to proceed with the information. Had he still been a Reaper, he would have managed to escape the compound – probably with me reluctantly in tow – and had gone to seek out the others to form a plan. But he had neither the strength nor the ability to do that now, so that wasn’t a possibility for him.

I also think it bothered him that he wasn’t in control in the compound. He had spent so long being the leader or second-in-command to his pack for a large chunk of his life, it was hard to give up power once you had it. Sawyer had said little about missing the pack, but I could tell that he did. He could call the shots, do as he pleased, and not have to suffer in silence as he watched others plan out his fate for him.

From his perspective, I could see how being here would be hard for him.

I wordlessly lifted my hand and placed it over his, where it was curled in a tight fist on his thigh. He looked at me, confused, for a moment, before understanding what I meant to do, and gently taking his hand into my own. I stroked the back of his hand with my thumb as I brought my attention back to Noah.

Noah, Mason, and my parents had all gathered at the front of the dining hall to speak. My parents were, officially, in charge around here, as I’d learned in the short time we’d been here, but they were gone pretty often, attending to official matters with the government in D.C. Noah, when he was around, was the military commander of the organization, and Mason was basically the boss of everything else. It was no surprise, then, that Noah was the one lecturing us all on the danger of the situation at hand.

“Essentially, this isn’t a two-sided fight,” he said, gesturing to a messily-drawn diagram on the white board behind him. “It’s actually much more complicated than that.’

“The first assumption we can’t afford to make is that Isis, the commander of the Alpha Reapers, is dead.” He clenched his jaw fiercely then, and I realized how similar he looked to Sawyer in that moment. “We went into that mission with the intent on eliminating her as a target, but… unfortunately, our mission was altered during execution. I admit I had other priorities.” I glanced briefly at me, and suddenly I felt my heart clench. They’d botched a whole mission because they’d found me? “While it was assumed that Isis was taken out, the reality is that no body was recovered to identify as hers, so we have to assume for the time being that she is alive.’

“The second assumption is that any of the warring groups are going to be friendly with us. We are looking at two rival factions of Reapers, one coven of vampires, and a pack of werewolves, all of whom have a reason to fight against us.”

One of the younger guys in the compound raised his hand uneasily. He looked like he was about sixteen, but I hoped he was older. I didn’t know his name, but I’d seen him around a few times since I’d been there. “Why do they all want to fight against us? Surely some of them would be willing to fight with us – we can help them.”

Noah’s jaw tensed again, and he looked at me, as if asking permission to tell them about my situation. I felt uneasy – I didn’t want them all to hate me for putting them in this situation – but I knew, deep down, that if there was another way to explain the situation, then Noah would do that. But, seeing as how he was asking all of these people to fight for their lives with him, he at least owed them an explanation as to why. And, frankly, as much as it bothered me, I began to realize that I was the reason.

Hesitantly, I stood up, letting Sawyer’s hand slip away from mine. My body protested a little, a dull ache flaring up from my abdomen. I could tell Sawyer was glaring at me as I did so – probably because he knew what I was about to do – but I steeled myself from acknowledging him. Noah, too, eyed me skeptically, but I held up a hand to stop him from protesting. No, this was something I had to take responsibility for, I think, and it was better if they all heard it from me.

I nervously turned the face the crowd.

I took in as many of their faces as I could. They were mostly young men and women, all around my age and into their 30s, with tired shoulders but determined eyes. The man who had asked the question was sitting toward the back. He had short hair and brown eyes, and he looked so much like Forrest that I had to blink a few times to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. Sawyer looked irritated, but stayed silent. Mason and Noah also looked nervous – afraid I was going to screw up, probably – but I could see the respect in their eyes as I stood in front of them.

I took a deep breath. “Hi.”

Everyone stared at me in the awkward pause as I tried to gather my thoughts. Well, crap, I thought, clasping my hands together in front of me, I could talk a Reaper down from murder, but I can’t talk to a room full of humans. Good one, Charlie.

“As I’m sure you guys know, I’m Charlotte Scott – I’m the girl that disappeared a few months ago. I’m also, coincidentally, Noah and Mason’s sister.” Okay, so far, so good. “And I’m the reason that these groups are at war.”

The cafeteria erupted in noise after that. It wasn’t the din of protest, thankfully, but the sheer volume of voices that spoke up after this was enough to make me flinch back, pulling my shoulders up to my ears in a vain attempt to shrink back up into myself. I wasn’t sure exactly what was being said, but I could tell it wasn’t all savory.

Noah quickly stepped in, shouting and gesturing for everyone to quiet down. They did, eventually – most of them sulking quietly, their faith in me tarnished.

It could only get better from here, I guess.

Shaken, I tried to find my voice, but found it hard to sound confident. “Isis, the leader of the Alpha Reapers, is interested in what she thinks my DNA is capable of achieving. Apparently it’s similar to – what is it called? – CS-22. Even if she’s not the leader at the moment, her ideas aren’t likely to be dismissed in a change of command.”

I looked to Sawyer for some support. He slowly nodded, his face stone.

“The vampires aren’t likely to cooperate with me because… well, I had promised to help them. At one point. I was forced to go back on this promise. Because of that, the vampires have little faith in my word – they won’t fight on my side, no matter how much they hate the werewolves.”

I took another breath. The people in the crowd were becoming increasingly angry. Suddenly I could see why. I had caused so much trouble all over the place. I could feel myself start to shake as I scanned the angry crowd, suddenly feeling the full force of their judgment.

And, what’s worse, I finally understood that I deserved it.

“What about the werewolves?” the same man said, his eyebrows furrowed in anger.

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, actually. They had never occurred to me as allies. Maybe –

Sawyer stood up then, surprising us all with the ferocity of his stare. I watched him regain his composure, taking a deep, steadying breath before he responded. “In an attempt to flee from an attack by the werewolves, Charlotte accidentally killed a young wolf in her own defense. We did not know this then, but that wolf had been the son of the werewolf’s alpha male, making him the equivalent of a… well, a prince,” he said uncomfortably, trying his hardest not to make eye contact with me.

The force of his statement hit me like a blow to the chest. I had been able to forget about that by my ability to keep the wolf anonymous. If I thought about him being a person with a family, a life I had ended, the thought that I’d ended that was almost too much for me to handle. But – he was a prince. I’d killed a werewolf prince, and I hadn’t thought about it more than twice since it happened. I really was a monster.

I staggered backward, away from Sawyer, as though his words had physically hurt me, even though they hadn’t. I’m sure I looked like a deer in the headlights. I could feel the blood drain from my face and my hands begin to shake.

“I- I didn’t…” I honestly didn’t know what I was trying to say, but it came out as a strangled whisper.

A girl, about my age, stood up. Her hair was mousy brown and pulled back into a ponytail, but she looked strong and intense as she stared me down. “And what about those Omega Reapers you’ve gotten to know so well? Where are they to protect their friend?”

The crowd began to get a little more anxious now, and I could hear a number of hushed murmurs as the girl sat back down, her eyes suspicious. People were turning to their neighbor and talking – about me. About what I was responsible for.

Sawyer, noticing my inability to speak and have the answer they wanted, cleared his throat. “For one thing, Omega Reapers are much more pack-oriented than Alphas,” he said seriously, his fist clenching tightly as he tried to contain himself. “Alphas are scattered, but they have a strict overall hierarchy that they respect. Isis was their queen – to everyone. Omegas don’t behave like that. They follow their pack leader’s command. So, unless you want to track down every single Omega pack and convince them to fight a war they’ve no part of, they can’t be trusted.”

He paused, his face suddenly ashen. “And, for another, I’m not so sure my own pack would be willing to fight with someone who caused me harm,” he said quietly, his face suddenly alarmed. “Charlotte, I didn’t –“

I put up a shaky hand to stop him. The rest of the room had already erupted in discussion again – there was nothing he could do to prevent it.

I didn’t blame them, to be honest. With everything laid out like that, it was pretty clear that the common denominator in all of this was… well, me. Something that was caused by me or just the fact that I existed, it didn’t matter. Noah had been right when he had talked to Sawyer last night. It was all because of me.

Humanity might have to go to war with Reapers, Vampires, and Werewolves. Because of me.

Sawyer quickly threw an arm around me and pulled me into his chest, as if he was going to shelter me. I let out a choked sob as I grabbed onto his shirt, grabbing at fistfuls of cotton to keep myself on my feet. I wanted to disappear.

“Hey,” Mason called. “Hey!” That was a shout, one that began to lessen the shouts of the crowd. “It isn’t Charlie’s fault!”

The noises started to die down, skeptical but willing to hear what Mason had to say. I peeked at him from Sawyer’s embrace. He was standing in front of Noah now, every muscle in his body tensed taught underneath his clothes. He was really, really angry.

He breathed out, loudly, though his nose. “Now, either I could explain it to you, or I’ll let her parents do the honors.” He turned his head sharply to the side, where I belatedly realized they had been sitting. I should have known that they would be there, I guess, given what had happened last night, but I’d blocked them out completely. I was too preoccupied with Sawyer, and then Noah, in that order. “After all, they’re the ones responsible for Charlie’s unique DNA signature. Isn’t that right, pops?”

I saw the look on my parents faces then. I could feel a well of anger rise up in my throat, still angry at them, but they looked as though they had seen a ghost. I didn’t forgive them for what they had done to me as a child – abandoned me and forced me away from their livelihood – but I also knew that it was hardly their fault that a child inherited certain traits. It was their fault I was immune to Reapers just as much as it was their fault that my hair was red. Right?

When they didn’t respond, Mason continued, his voice growing with malice and volume. “Oh, no? Fine, I’ll fill you all in.”

Noah gave me a sideways glance, his eyes wide with surprise. Apparently this was all news to him, too.

“See, what my parents did to Charlie was something most people don’t think of ever doing. They experimented on her.”

There was a muffled gasp from the crowd. I sucked in my breath sharply, grasping onto Sawyer for dear life. I felt his arms tighten their grip around me.

“You see, we all use CS-22 on a regular basis now,” Mason continued, his eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. “But that wasn’t so twenty years ago. No, when the SDS was founded, we had little in the way of protection, save for an experimental chemical that my father, Dr. Scott over there, had synthesized. It wasn’t legal for them to test it on people. So they took the easy way out – they injected it into themselves. As most of you know, when a pregnant woman injects something into her body that shouldn’t be there, it most certainly ends up with negative consequences, doesn’t it?”

At this point I couldn’t feel anything. I could hear what Mason was saying, but they weren’t registering. The weight of them hadn’t sunk in. I hesitantly pushed my way out of Sawyer’s grasp, my eyes locked firmly on my oldest brother as my mind tried to process his words.

Mason was staring down the crowd daring them to protest. When they didn’t, he went on, fueled by his momentum. “Charlie’s blood developed the way it did because of the mistakes of her parents. It is not her fault. I’ve been studying it ever since she got here, and I only recently was able to put the pieces together.” He glanced back at where I was rooted to my spot, a look of apology on his face. “There’s no way you could have known…”

I think it was his face that really brought the realization on me full force. It felt like a blow to chest. I suddenly felt my chest constricting, and it was so hard to breathe. I clutched my chest loosely, eyes wide. I had thought my parents were bad, sure, but I never thought they’d be capable of something like this. How could I trust these people?

But… It’s not my fault.

My mother stood up then. The temporary peace I’d had in my head was shattered as she bit her lip, trying to look contrite. “Charlotte, sweetheart – I – we – I didn’t know I was pregnant when–“

I didn’t want to hear this. It was early in the morning, my body was sore, and I was already emotionally spent from the last twenty-four hours. I had learned so much that had been secret and hidden from me. I wasn’t about to listen to some bullshit excuse from these people from twenty-three years ago.

Sawyer seemed to sense this, and he pulled me tight to his chest. In one fluid motion, he pulled me into himself and began to push his way through the crowd, away from my own personal hell.