“The house was empty,” Atlas told him.
“They were gone?”
“Left in a hurry too. I spent the next two weeks looking for them. I walked around my town a hundred times or more. No flickers. Nothing.”
“That surprises me. If they killed your family and didn’t get you—”
Atlas shrugged. “I can’t explain it. Maybe it was because they didn’t get me? After I was sure they were gone, I went back to work. Tried to move on.”
“Something else happened?”
“The flickers came back. This time they were different. The men were different. The first…shifters had been brothers. In the house were women and children. The new shifters gave me a very bad feeling. More than once I caught them following me. Watching me.”
“Stalking you?” Bel asked.
“Yeah.” Atlas had felt stalked at least.
“That’s why you left?”
“I didn’t want to die.” That was the brutal truth. “The farther I moved from my town, the more flickers I had. I tried to watch as discreetly as I could. To figure out weaknesses.”
“That is quite the task to take on,” Bel said.
“I could never figure out how to take them out by myself,” Atlas admitted. “I moved every few months to keep them from coming after me.”
“Until you followed me to hell,” Bel supplied.
“Pretty much.”
“I’m so sorry for everything you went through,” Bel said.
“Do…do you hate me now?” He had to ask. If Bel sent him away, Atlas couldn’t blame him. Atlas knew that seeking his revenge made him a bad person. Maybe he belonged in hell more than anyone else. Even the demons.
“No! Of course not!” Bel hugged him hard.
“I would have killed those shifters,” Atlas confessed. “If they had been in that house, I was going to kill them.”
“As revenge,” Bel said.
“Yes. Shifters like Gage. And that family you told me about. The pack that everyone talks about.”
“Because of what happened to you and your family. I’m so sorry. I can help you look into it though,” Bel said.
“You…” Was Atlas hearing this right. “You would help me?”
“No paranormal, including shifters, should ever attack and kill. Especially innocent humans,” Bel said. “There are people who will investigate this. Teams that protect humans.”
Atlas couldn’t help the way his body just sort of collapsed into itself. He didn’t have to do this alone. And maybe, just maybe, those who killed his family would face justice. It wasn’t the revenge that Atlas had thought he needed. It was better. Atlas had tried to be brave. He hadn’t attacked any shifter that had been alone. Atlas hadn’t kept the promise to his grandma to avenge her. He just didn’t have it inside him.
“We’re about to have company,” Bel told him.
He wanted to move but Bel kept him close. The arm tightening around him was a comfort.
“It’s Lucifer. He just wants to check on you.”
Atlas nodded.
Lucifer materialized behind the couch. “Thank you for letting me visit.”
