Chapter 21

21

With the demonwizard dead and Moloch safely locked away, I should have been relieved. I wasn’t, because do you know what that asshole Cain said?

“We should get you back to the castle just in case there’s another daemessorum close by.”

Another?

What the fuck?

I stared at him before blurting out, “You mean this isn’t over?”

“Do you really think Inferis only has the one wizard?” Cain scoffed.

“I thought they were rare.”

“They are, and so are you. Which means if word has gotten out, and I assure you it has, then I would wager everything I own that more of them will be crossing over, looking to finish what this one started.” Cain didn’t pull any punches with the truth.

My lips pursed. My mind whirred. My fists clenched. So call me naïve, I’d assumed this would be like the movies. Kill the bad guy and live happily ever after. Or at least live, in my case. It wasn’t as if I had a man interested in me. After all, here I stood, wearing only a coat, and did the two men who came to my rescue eye me with smoldering interest or drag me close for a reassuring hug? Kiss me in relief?

Nope. They chose to scare me.

“This is bullshit. I never asked to be a reaper witch.”

“Are we back to the whining?” Cain sighed.

“Fuck you,” I snapped. “I’ve been attacked, kidnapped, dragged through a sewer, stripped by a perverted fat demon, and almost sacrificed. And then you tell me it’s not over? Fuck this. It sucks! I don’t want this fucking destiny.”

“And yet by some perverse twist of fate, you were chosen,” Williams pointed out. “Now you have a choice, Sadie Butler. Will you learn to use your gifts and live? Or will you turn your back and die?”

“When you put it like that, you make it seem like I don’t have a choice.” Yes, my lower lip jutted in a sulk.

“Because you don’t have a choice,” Cain bluntly stated. “This isn’t over. Not by a long shot. So what’s it going to be?”

I stared at the sky with the full moon shining bright. Thought of what I’d lose if I agreed. I’d lose my shitty nine-to-five job. Hold on, that already happened. The shop and my boss were no more. My apartment was gone. Burned to the ground to hide the bodies and kill any lurking demons. The few people who knew me would never even notice if I disappeared. Hell, I don’t think I’d seen anyone in six months or more.

“I know you’re afraid,” Williams stated softly. “We all were in the beginning.”

I snorted. “I find that hard to believe. Pretty sure Cain was born swinging a scythe.”

The man in question twisted his lips to reply, “First time I saw a demon, I pissed myself.”

I blinked. “Fuck off, you did not.”

“Oh, I did. I was fourteen, and it emerged from a culvert close to the spot I hung out to smoke cigarettes so my mom wouldn’t catch me. It pounced on a scrounging squirrel, tore it limb from limb, and slurped its guts.” He grimaced. “It was disgusting and violent, and so when it looked right at me, stared me in the face and grinned, I pissed myself.”

“How did you escape?” I asked.

“I ran really fucking fast, and when my dad saw me, he knew.”

“Your dad was a reaper?”

He shook his head. “Nope, but he knew about the demons. I inherited the sight from him. He took me out with him that very night once I changed my pants. I almost threw up on the clean pair when he killed it. My dad didn’t know much about the demons other than they existed and it was best to get rid of them.”

“So how did you become a reaper?”

Williams replied, “We were recruited in college.”

“Both of you?” I asked, bobbing my gaze between them. At their nod, I sighed. “You got to learn about this young. I’m too old.”

“Age is a mental thing.” Cain made light of my concern.

“Yeah, well then, tell that to my body.” I huffed as I looked around the deserted park. “You really think I can learn to fight?”

“You won’t know if you don’t try,” Williams said softly.

“Guess I don’t have a choice, do I, Detective Williams? Let me guess, if I refuse, you’ll find a pretext to arrest me.”

“The name is Vance, and I was planning to ensure one of the bodies they find in the rubble of your building is yours.”

“You’re going to kill me off?” I couldn’t hide my shock.

“On paper, yes.”

“If you do that, I can never go back to my old life.”

“Your old life is already gone,” Cain flatly pointed out.

“So I’m to be a prisoner in the castle forever?”

“Or until you can defend yourself,” Vance offered.

“That’s going to put a crimp in my dating,” I grumbled.

“Don’t be so sure of that,” Cain murmured as he slid an arm around me. “Let’s finish arguing about this somewhere a little less exposed, shall we?”

To my surprise, Vance drew close, but he apologized as he also joined the hug. “We need to be in close contact for my talisman to work.”

A plausible excuse, only it didn’t explain the dual hard-ons, one against my backside, the other, my front.

Maybe this whole reaper witch thing wouldn’t be so bad.

Tell that to the voice in the void between the park and the castle that whispered, After centuries of waiting, my eternity of darkness is over.