I was exhausted still, and I didn’t think it was going away. I still didn’t know what happened after I passed out either. “Where’s Grim?”
“He left with Mom earlier,” she replied.
I didn’t press her for anything else because although she was a Reaper like the rest of us; we wanted to keep her innocent, less corrupted than the rest of us. So, we often kept her in the dark about most things. The kidnapping that happened a decade ago still haunted us all. We thought we lost her. Only for us to show up where she was being held captive to see her on her kneessurrounded by dead demon bodies. Death couldn’t take her from us, but enemies with enough power could hold any one of us captive if taken off guard.
“I’ll go look for him,” I told her, stepping away from the counter. “See ya, Kitty. Try not to drink all the milk.”
“No promises.”
???
I wasn’t happy when I finally tracked everyone down and found out everything they knew about the cave incident. We weren’t dealing with normal imp behavior. We were dealing with someone with an agenda, and in the Underworld, that could beanyone.Depending on who it was could mean all sorts of different things.
Like Reaper work wasn’t enough work as it was.
And like a sloth didn’t sleep.
Speaking of which, I needed a recharge. The demon in the city stole what I had gotten from Isabella so I didn’t even get to appreciate it, and because of that, I had passed out on the job.
I wondered what my friend was doing? Two days asleep in the Underworld wasn’t any time at all in the human one. I thought of her name and an image of where she was floated in my head.
I smiled and faded into the passenger seat of the car she was driving. She jerked the steering wheel and my head smacked into the window. Her eyes widened in fear, but I didn’t flinch. In seconds, her gaze morphed into an icy cold glare—something I’d grown accustomed to. She had to decide which was more important—focusing on the road or me. Isabella righted the car on the road.
“My little energizer,” I practically hummed. “I’ve come for a friendly tap.”
She jerked the wheel again, this time on purpose as she pulled onto the shoulder. “Get off!” she shouted.
“That’s no way to treat a friend,” I told her smoothly. Or at least I thought so. Wait a moment, “Off?” I asked her, lifting my eyebrow in question.
She looked murderous. “Get out, I mean.”
“I thought you were trying to change the direction of our friendship.” I never was one to hold back. I tended to say whatever I wanted, all the time. Much to the displeasure of my siblings.
She was looking at me once again like I was crazy. “There’s no relationship, period,” she hissed. “What is it with you? You just left me a couple of hours ago. Why are you doing this?” She looked genuinely confused and upset, and I hated that I made her uncomfortable.
But not enough to go away.
Besides, I wasn’t a bad person. She wasn’t even giving me a chance. I glanced around the car and noticed the suitcase and the bag of clothes before going back to watching her. She seemed to be in a hurry earlier too—two days for me. What was she running from?
“Are you in some sort of danger, Izzie?” I was sincerely worried about her.
She tossed her head back and laughed-huffed at me. “Stop calling me Izzie like we’re friends.”
“We will be once you see I’m not a danger to you,” I said easily. A picture of her hanging from the rearview mirror caught my eye. Grabbing it, I inspected the easy-going smile she had on her face. She was a doll regardless of what expression she gave me. Eyes so dark I couldn’t make out her pupils, slightly slanted in a way that reminded me of a feline. She was so tiny and her hairso dark. But her smile in the picture… “That’s a good picture.” I’d for sure get her to smile at me like that, as soon as she accepted this friendship.
She smacked the picture from my hand, and for a small second our skin touched. My eyes widened, and I smiled at the brief contact, giving me that same energy I wanted again. “Focus.” Her small eyes were even smaller when pinched in frustration. “What do you want from me?”
“Let’s be friends.” She still looked annoyed and suspicious as I spoke. “Your touch gives me crazy energy…?” I offered, but when she looked down and bit her lip, I began to think that maybe I wasn’t the only one affected by our bodies encountering each other. “Do you feel it too?”
“What are you?” Her eyes skimmed over me.
“Uh…”
“Uh? Don’t wanna tell me?” Hell’s bells, she got riled up and offended over every word that came out of my mouth.
“I just don’t know how to answer you. My parents are both entities, so I guess that makes me one too?” We never really put a name to us, we just were. The moment I said the word entity her eyes glazed over with fear. Even I was taken by surprise with the obvious horror in her expression. “Hey. Are you all right?”
She blinked several times. “Who are they?”
