Grim Tidings

by Amanda M. Lee

  “I think my relationship with Aisling is between the two of us,” Griffin said. “That’s not why I’m here.”

  “What relationship?” Jerry asked, his hands on hips. “I don’t consider a one-night stand and morning-after jilting a relationship.”

  “He has a point,” Aidan said. “And I was on your side, dude.”

  “You’re a bad, bad man,” Jerry said.

  This was getting out of hand.

  “Detective Taylor, why don’t you have a seat,” Dad said.

  Griffin looked unsure.

  “Sit down, Detective Taylor.”

  Griffin looked unhappy at being talked down to, but he did as he was told, opting for one of the wingback chairs in front of my father’s desk.

  Dad turned his attention to everyone else in the room. “Boys, sit down.”

  Redmond, Cillian and Braden all shuffled to the couch I was sitting on, sandwiching me between them as they scrunched in. The message was clear: If Griffin wanted to get near me he would have to go through them.

  Aidan settled on the other couch with Jerry, but he didn’t look happy about it. I think, if I wasn’t so sore, he would have tried to settle on my lap to make the Grimlock wall complete.

  “Detective Taylor, I’m not going to lie to you,” Dad said. “I’m not thrilled with what I’ve just heard about you.”

  Griffin opened his mouth to speak but Dad silenced him with a look.

  “Raising boys isn’t easy, but it’s certainly easier than raising a girl,” Dad continued. “One minute they’re rosy-cheeked little moppets with dolls and stuffed animals and your biggest concern is that they want to curl your hair and put makeup on you.”

  “That was Aidan,” I protested.

  Dad shot me a hard glare.

  “Then, practically overnight, they turn into these giggling little phone-obsessed aliens in your house,” he said. “That’s when your worries begin. And why, you may be asking yourself? Because you know what dogs men are.”

  I couldn’t argue with that.

  “The last thing you want for your daughter is to get caught up with the kind of man who isn’t going to treat her right,” Dad went on. “At a certain point, though, you realize that no man is going to treat her right because it isn’t possible.”

  “Does anyone know where he’s going with this?” Cillian whispered.

  “I think he’s saying we’re all dogs,” Redmond said.

  “I got that,” Cillian said. “Why is he telling this to Detective Dinglefritz, though?”

  Griffin shifted his eyes in our direction. His face was unreadable.

  “I’m telling this to Detective Dinglefritz, I mean Detective Taylor, because I want him to be aware of where he stands in this family,” Dad said.

  “Last time I checked, I’m not a part of your family,” Griffin said.

  The jab hurt.

  “Just be aware that if you hurt my daughter again, this family is going to bury you,” Dad said. “And we’re reapers, so we know how to hide a body. I want to make sure that you’re clear that when I say bury, I mean in the literal sense of the word.”

  The chill in the room was unmistakable.

  “Now, with that out of the way, what is it that you wanted to talk with us about?”

  Griffin pulled his phone out of his pocket, fiddling with it for a second, and then handing it over to my father. Dad took the phone without saying a word and glanced down at the screen. His frown deepened. “What am I looking at?”

  “It’s a symbol,” Griffin said. “It was found burned into Brian Harper’s body. We’ve had people researching the symbol, but we can’t find anyone who knows what it is. I figured since you guys seem to know a little bit about things that other people don’t know exist, you might be able to tell me what it is.”

  “It looks familiar,” Dad admitted. “I’m just not sure. Cillian?”

  Cillian took the phone and looked at it, furrowing his brow. “This does look familiar.”

  Cillian handed the phone to Redmond so everyone could pass it around. When I finally saw it, I felt a stirring in my memory, even though I couldn’t quite hold on to the thread.

  “It looks like a Celtic symbol, or Greek,” Braden said.

  “I think it’s Greek,” Cillian agreed. “It’s got that little eye thing. I see that a lot in Greek mythology.”

  We’re so scholarly sometimes.

  “May I ask, how was it burned into the body?” Dad asked. “Was it a brand?”

  Griffin shook his head. “The medical examiner says that if it were a brand there would be bits of skin missing when the brand was pulled away. So, no, it’s not a brand.”

  “It looks as though this was on the victim’s shoulder,” Aidan said when he got a chance to look at the photo.

  “Right above the heart,” Griffin said.

  “Well, the question is, how did it get there?” Dad mused.

  “Well, do those wraith things burn it there with their minds?” Griffin asked, searching the room for an answer and finally landing on me. “And if these wraiths can suck the life out of people, why are they stabbing them?”

  That was a good question.

  I shrugged. “We haven’t actually had a wraith problem until the last two weeks,” I said. “They’re supposed to be rare. Maybe someone else stabbed Brian Harper and they sucked his soul after the fact.”

  “Why would they be here then?”

  “That’s what we keep asking ourselves,” Braden sighed, shifting on the couch and jarring my knee. “Sorry,” he said, rubbing my shoulder. “I keep forgetting how banged up you are.”

  Griffin frowned. “Should she be in the hospital?”

  “And how do we explain that?” Aidan asked. “Oh, yeah, two ghouls jumped her in downtown Royal Oak?”

  Griffin rubbed his jaw. “I guess you’re right. If you say she was mugged, then they would have called us and you would have had to file a false police report.”

  Aidan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s why we didn’t do it.”

  “I thought we didn’t take her to the hospital because we didn’t want Detective Dinglefritz showing up?” Jerry asked.

  “Jerry, it’s quiet time for you,” Dad admonished him.

  Griffin got up from the chair and moved toward me, ignoring the rumbling emanating from Redmond’s chest. He knelt down in front of me, searching my eyes for a second. “Do you think you should go to the hospital? I’ll take you.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “It’s just a sore knee and a torn up elbow – and my face is a little bruised.”

  “And that huge bruise on your ass,” Aidan said.

  Redmond shot Aidan an incredulous look.

  “What? I was there and she had to take her pants off so I could get a look at her knee,” Aidan protested. “It’s not as though I looked.”

  “You obviously looked,” Redmond said. “She’s your sister.”

  “Dude,” Braden muttered.

  “Hey, you weren’t there,” Aidan said. “You didn’t see her two seconds from death and you didn’t shove a knife into the chest of two soul-sucking asshats to save her. Don’t judge me.”

  “Leave him alone,” I said.

  Griffin hadn’t moved. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  If I weren’t so angry with him, his concern would have touched me. “I’m fine.”

  Griffin got back to his feet and turned. “So, what happens now?”

  “Now?” Dad looked nonplussed. “Now we have the same problem we had a week ago and no answers to solve it. The only thing we know is that Aisling and Aidan have managed to kill three of them and that, for some reason, they’re focusing on Aisling.”

  Griffin’s eyebrows shot up. “What makes you say that?”

  “Because they’ve only appeared on her jobs,” Braden said.

  “None of the rest of you have seen them?”

  “No.”

  “Well, then she can’t go out on any more jobs,” Griffin said.r />
  “Since when are you the boss of me?” I asked.

  Griffin ignored me. “I’m not joking.”

  “She’s right, you’re not in charge,” Dad said. “That being said, she’s not going out on any jobs until we know what’s going on here.”

  My mouth opened to argue but, who am I kidding, I’m too sore to care.

  “If the numbers we got from the club the other night are right, that means there are only four left,” Redmond said.

  “We don’t know that, though,” Aidan said. “We just know that at least seven of them were sighted together. We have no idea whether that means there are only seven or at least seven.”

  “They’re not the big worry either,” Cillian said. “Not that they’re not something to worry about.”

  “No,” Dad agreed. “The big worry is whoever is controlling the wraiths.”

  “And we’re still thinking it’s a witch?” I asked.

  “A witch?” Griffin’s face drained of color. “Now there are witches, too?”

  “There are lots of things out there,” Jerry said. “Just go with it.”

  “What makes you think a witch is behind this?” Griffin said, recovering slightly.

  I glanced at Cillian. “You’re on.”

  Cillian repeated the story of Genevieve Torth – not shortening it, even a little – and, when he was done, Griffin looked more confused than he had when Cillian started.

  “You all believe in this?”

  “We’re reapers,” I replied. “You’d be surprised at what we believe.”

  “And what we’ve seen,” Redmond added.

  “Oh, well good.” Griffin’s face went from disbelieving to weary as he sank back down in the wingback chair.

  “I say we have some dinner,” Dad said. “After that, we’ll form a plan.”

  Thirty-Five

  “That’s the plan?”

  Dad focused on his cherry cobbler – my least favorite dessert – and pretended he didn’t hear me. “This is really good tonight.”

  “You know I hate cherries,” I grumbled, pushing my plate to the center of the table. You would think, after two near-death experiences in a row, that I would have warranted a blueberry pie or something.

  Braden and Cillian both reached for my uneaten dessert.

  “I want it,” Cillian said, his mouth full.

  “You’ve had enough,” Braden countered. “You’ll get fat.”

  Griffin was still at the table, picking at his own dessert. I had risked a few glances at him over the meal, but never caught him looking in my direction. I’m guessing his “thinking” wasn’t going so well. Well, no matter, I never really liked him anyway.

  “I’m still not clear on the plan,” I said.

  “What part confuses you?” Dad asked.

  “The part where I go home and do nothing,” I replied.

  “You’re injured,” Redmond said.

  “That won’t last forever,” I countered.

  “It will last for the next week or so,” Aidan said. “Besides, if we keep you away from jobs, that might force the wraiths to show up when we’re covering. If everything goes as planned, we can pick them off one at a time. By the time you get back on the job, things will hopefully be more settled.”

  “And you’re big, strong men,” I muttered.

  “What?” Braden raised an eyebrow, challenging me to say more.

  “And you’re big, strong men,” I repeated. “You can handle the wraiths while I lie on the couch and watch soap operas. That’s what you have in mind, right? That’s what you’re really saying.”

  Redmond blew out a sigh. “You have got to get over this boys-against-girls thing. That’s not what this is about.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “Then why does it feel like that is exactly what this is about?”

  “Because you’re all hopped up on estrogen and … PMS,” Redmond shot back.

  “Not for two weeks,” Jerry said.

  I wanted to crawl across the table and strangle him.

  From his spot on the other side of the table, I couldn’t miss Griffin’s smirk as he silently laughed. Great.

  Cillian wrinkled his nose as he regarded Jerry. “How do you know that?”

  “I live with her,” Jerry said, nonplussed. “It’s pretty obvious when it’s going on.”

  “How?” Braden looked mildly curious – and majorly grossed out.

  “The garbage can,” Jerry said.

  “Eww,” Aidan said.

  “Can we not talk about this while I’m eating my cherry cobbler?” Cillian asked.

  “Can we not talk about this ever again?” Redmond chimed in.

  “I wish I was an only child,” I said.

  Dad rubbed his forehead wearily. “On days like today, so do I.”

  ONCE dinner was over, Griffin announced he was leaving. He leveled his gaze on me, forcing a tingle to course from my head to my toes. “Do you want to walk me out?”

  Well, that was a loaded question. I could feel every set of purple eyes in the room boring into my back, causing my neck to heat up as I considered an answer. “Um, sure.”

  “I’ll show him out,” Redmond interjected. “You need to rest.”

  “I can show him out,” I protested. “I’m not a child. It’s not like he’s going to jump me in the bushes in front of the house.”

  Dad cleared his throat but didn’t offer an argument. I met Redmond’s eyes, challenging him to offer further complaint, but he wisely stepped back.

  “Fine,” Redmond said. “If you need me … .”

  “I’ll yell,” I finished.

  I turned to Griffin, moving toward the dining room door and leading him away from the overt anger emanating from the men in my life. Once we got to the door, I opened it and let him walk out in front of me. I shut the door behind us, making sure my brothers couldn’t interrupt whatever sterling conversation Griffin and I were about to embark on.

  I expected Griffin to yell at me for spilling about our tryst, but he seemed uncertain when we were finally alone.

  “Well, what do you want to talk about?” I prodded.

  “I’m not sure,” Griffin admitted.

  I bit my lip, fighting the urge to smack him across the face and then jump his bones while he was still reeling from the blow. Seriously, what is wrong with me? I sighed. “I’m sorry I told Aidan and Jerry what happened,” I said. “I didn’t plan to; it just kind of spilled out when we were fighting last night.”

  Griffin shrugged. “It’s not like I’m ashamed.”

  His comment surprised me. “It’s not? You couldn’t get out of my place fast enough. Shame had to be involved in that decision somewhere.” Do I sound bitter? I feel bitter.

  “Not shame,” Griffin corrected. “More like guilt and worry.”

  “Guilt?”

  “I didn’t go over to your place with the intention of, well, doing that.”

  I laughed, the sound hollow in my ears. “It’s not like I think you’re some sort of sexual predator.”

  Griffin shook his head, running a hand through his hair as he tried to gain control of his emotions. “Good. I just don’t … this is all really strange to me.”

  I tried to put myself in his place. “I understand that,” I said. “I’ve turned your whole world upside down, challenged your belief system and made you rethink everything you thought you knew about the nature of life and death.”

  Griffin chuckled. “That’s a little heavy-handed, don’t you think?”

  I shrugged. “My family says I’m the dramatic one.”

  “Your whole family is dramatic,” Griffin replied. “I don’t think you’re on the top of the Grimlock list when it comes to drama.”

  I smiled ruefully. “Yeah, I guess not.”

  “Aisling, I don’t want you to think that I don’t find you attractive,” Griffin said, trying not to choke on the words. “I do. That’s why what happened the other night happened. Since the minute I saw you, I cou
ldn’t help but be drawn to you. It’s been building inside of me.”

  That was nice to hear. I think.

  “I also don’t want you to think that I can just accept this all in a matter of days and sign up for the Grimlock crazy parade,” he continued. “I need to sort this all out.”

  His words hurt, even though I don’t think that was the intent behind them. “It’s fine,” I said, trying to project an air of breeziness. “It’s not like I’m sitting in my bedroom crying about you while listening to sappy love songs.”

  Griffin inclined his head. “I would be okay with that if you were,” he said.

  “How so?”

  Griffin puffed out his chest. “If you were pining for me, I would be okay with it.”

  I shook my head, trying to hide my smile. “Typical man.”

  “I have a feeling you’re used to being around men and the strange ways they think,” Griffin said. “At least I have that going for me.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  “Still, I don’t know how this is all going to go,” Griffin said. “I just want to get through this and then we’ll see … we’ll see where things are when I can wrap my head around everything, when I’ve had a few days to breathe.”

  Something about his statement hit a nerve. “I’m not going to sit around waiting for you,” I challenged. “You’re not that good in bed, no matter what you may think.”

  Griffin’s eyes widened, surprise and hurt warring for control. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know what you meant,” I said, taking a step away from him. “You need to think. No one is stopping you. I’m not asking for anything from you. I’m a big girl. It’s not like I’m looking for wine and roses.”

  It was pride talking. I knew that. I didn’t know how else to handle the situation, though. Being close to him was doing weird things to my head – and my heart – and things were getting jumbled.

  “So, you don’t want … you just want to forget the other night happened?” Griffin looked pained.

  That was the exact opposite of what I wanted. I couldn’t tell him that without laying myself bare, though, and I couldn’t bear the thought of being vulnerable and letting him have all the power. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to say the words I knew I should.

  “I think you should take some time and think,” I said finally. “When you figure things out, when this is all over, we’ll see how we both feel.”