Black liquid sprayed, and a horrific aroma hit me, and then wispy silver shit was rising into the air. My paralysis broke. I turned and ran but didn’t make it far before tripping over the box of stuff I’d spilled and hitting the ground with an oomph.
“It’s all right,” the smooth chocolate voice said from behind me.
I took a deep breath and pulled myself to my feet.
The golden-haired guy approached, his hands up in a placating gesture. “You’re safe now. We won’t hurt you.”
The moon came back out, and the shadows dropped away from his face. My breath stalled in my chest, and heat rushed to my face because wow, what a face. Eyes so blue they looked like gems against his creamy skin, lips just short of being pillowy enough to be feminine, and a hint of blush across his high cheekbones that spoke of exertion. His lips curled at the corners slightly. He was amused. I was amusing to him.
Shit, could he tell I’d peed myself a little?
“Conah, just get on with it,” Peiter said.
“Are you hurt?” Conah asked me, his voice soft.
I stared at the blond Adonis, wanting to speak, but finding that my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth, I settled for shaking my head.
He gently took my wrists and studied my bloody palms. “You’re lucky this is all the damage it did,” he said.
The heat from his fingers seeped into my chilly skin and up my arms.
“Conah?” Peiter urged.
Conah let go of my hands and smiled. Oh, fuck, take me now. “Look. It’s probably best you don’t go around telling people about this.”
“The monster?” Thank God, my voice was back. “Yeah, I doubt anyone would believe me. Hell. I don’t believe me.”
His smile dropped, and his expression sobered. “Yes, true. But aside from that, we don’t want to incite panic. These creatures thrive off fear and panic.”
I stared warily at him. “The mouths … the monsters. Monsters that eat people.” Fuck, I was still wrapping my head around it.
“Conah, let me,” Peiter said. He grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face him. Shit, he was tall. Rugged. Kinda scary. “You didn’t see anything.” His voice was a pleasant reverberation in my mind. “No monster. No reapers. You tripped and dropped your things. You’ll pick them up and then go home where it’s safe.”
What? What did he mean?
But he was backing away, and then they were both launching themselves into the air. One with wings, the other with the force of a leap, and in a matter of a second, they were gone, and so was the mutilated body of the dead man.
I stared at the spot the monster had been. It was gone too, as if it had never existed, except it had. It had been there, and the reapers had killed it so hard there was nothing left.
I’d seen two reapers.
I’d seen a monster.
It didn’t matter what the Peiter dude said. At least my pulse was back to normal. Hell, if not for my skinned palms, I’d be inclined to think I imagined it all. My trembling bladder said differently, though.
I picked up my box and quickly gathered my stuff. I needed to get home and change out of my pee pants.
Chapter Four
My house was a tiny, three-story, five-bedroom affair with a twenty-foot garden I rarely used. The residents in this part of town were older, one-foot-in-the-grave kind of people. It hadn’t always been this way, but over the last decade, the younger people had moved out, and the older ones had moved in. Aunt Lara used to joke they were moving closer to Soul Savers so they could get into the queue quicker once they died.
But it wasn’t just old people that died.
Life didn’t work that way.
I climbed the steps to the porch, blinking against the outdoor lights, and let myself into the cozy, warm foyer. Thank goodness for timed heating. Shoes and coat off, I ran up the stairs to change.
My bedroom was the attic room, fully decorated and adapted for my use with an ensuite bathroom and plenty of space for my many books. Shelves dotting the walls were piled with fantasy and romance novels, but my all-time favorite books held the prized position on the bookcase opposite my bed. Mysteries and thrillers were my go-to preference. I loved the whole investigation process, the clues, and the lead-up to the big reveal. I’d grown up on Nancy Drew and Poirot and then devoured anything that felt similar. Video games were piled on the floor by my desk. Now, for these, I preferred role-playing games. Monsters and warriors and magic. I’d shelled out a bucketload on the best gaming console and even fitted surround sound so Cora and I could have some hardcore gaming sessions on the weekends. Right now, we were exploring Chaos Dimensions, a game of portals and realities.
Monsters.
Fuck.
I’d seen a fucking monster today.
I’d almost died.
I exhaled heavily, allowing that knowledge to wash over me, allowing my brain to wrap itself around what had happened tonight. A monster had wanted to eat me, but I’d been saved by reapers. Real live reapers. Cora was going to flip out when I told her. Although she wouldn’t be home for a few more hours, so no home-cooked meal for me. My bedside clock showed it to be almost four-thirty in the morning. But this was supper time by my standards. A large majority of people in Necro worked the nightshift, and the city accommodated the nocturnal. Cora and I were used to sleeping during the day and being up with the moon. We’d adapted to the shift patterns Soul Savers demanded.
Ten minutes later, slippers and PJs on, I grabbed the cordless phone and padded into the lounge. The lights were off, but a steady amber glow emanated from Cyril’s enclosure, which took up the whole of the back wall. My albino ball python lifted his head, watching me as I approached.
“Pastry House, how can I help?” a bored male voice said down the phone.
“Hey, Teddy. I need food.”
“Ah, the lovely Fee. The usual?”
“Yes, please, sexy.”
He chuckled. “Hardly. But thanks. It’ll be with you in thirty.”
“You’re the best.”
“And don’t you forget it.”
I ended the call, dreaming of the flaky, buttery pastries that would be delivered shortly. Teddy was the best damn baker in Necro, and at almost five in the morning, it meant the pastries would be fresh out of the oven. Yummy.
I dropped onto the sofa by the enclosure. “How you doing, big guy?”
Cyril brought his head closer to the glass, tongue flicking out to taste the air.
“I hope your day was better than mine.”
He seemed to study me with his beady eyes, as if to say not much to get up to in a glass box with air holes.
“You want to know or not?”
His head lifted a little more.
“Okay, well …” I filled Cyril in on the events of the day. “So, you see, Cora is now me, and I’m … well, I’ll be hanging out here a lot more over the next two weeks.”
He’d kept his head up the whole time I’d been speaking, his eyes on me, listening. Okay, so that was ridiculous. He was a snake. He didn’t understand what I was saying, but ever since Aunt Lara had bought him for me four years ago, I’d felt a connection to the creature. Be it his stillness, his calm aura, or the way he would take the time to stalk his dead prey before devouring it. He was a fully-grown male ball python, around four feet in length and perfectly chill. I loved him.