by Apryl Baker
“Selena…”
“Is your teacher, yes, but one thing I’ve learned about reapers is that they have an agenda. She might be teaching you, but remember to always wonder what her end game is.”
“You were the one who told me to let her help me.”
“Yes, but I never said to trust her. Mattie’s teacher was taken hostage and tortured because he helped her outside of the reaping stuff.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sometimes he’d go and search to make sure there wasn’t someone alive who could hurt her. It took time away from his reaping, and they punished him for that.”
“He’s okay now, though?”
“From what I can tell, Mattie rescued him, and he’s in hiding. The reapers want him dead.”
“That’s…”
“That’s the reapers. They don’t have emotions and feelings the way we do. Remember that.”
“I will.”
Just one more thing for me to be on guard against.
“Enough of this morose talk. Let’s eat.”
I can get on board with that.
Chapter Two
Ella
I’ll be honest. My main focus right now is Eli’s grandpa’s brownies. He makes a special batch for me since I’m diabetic and my sugar and carb intake is limited. I’m not sure what he uses outside of unsweetened cocoa. But I can eat them and my glucose reading only goes up about five points. I keep asking for the recipe, and he just winks. It reminds me of Eli, honestly. That boy loves to wink.
When we pull into the parking lot of The Coffee Shoppe, I’m slightly irritated. I wanted to go straight to his house instead of stopping for food. Especially since the place is packed with both high school and college kids. Appalachia University keeps this place hopping. Well, that and the food. The food here is seriously to die for. They have the best food in three counties. And they have a diabetic friendly menu. Huge!
“Come on, grouchy, let’s go order some food. I promised Gramps I’d bring him a burger and fries.”
“Is it healthy for him to eat so much grease at his age?”
Eli snorts. “I dare you to ask him that yourself.”
“You think I’d risk my brownies like that?”
Eli smiles. He knows my brownie addiction has grown in leaps and bounds since Grandpa McGreggor has been feeding them to me.
“Hey, guys,” the waitress greets us. “I don’t have any tables available right now.”
“That’s cool,” Eli tells her. “We just need to place an order to go, anyway.”
“Head on up to the counter, and Saidie will take your order.”
Eli thanks her and tows me over to the carryout counter. We place our order, and he leans against the wall, surveying the packed diner. Several of the guys from the football team are starting to sit down at the large table in the center of the room. We all must have gotten here just as another large group was leaving, because the bus boy is still cleaning the table off. The team doesn’t pay the guy any mind as they sit, content to laugh and joke with friends and girlfriends.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been here when this place wasn’t packed until it felt like they were bursting out the seams.” Eli rolls his head, and I hear the bones crack. Dad does the same thing when he has a lot of built-up stress.
“Was it like this when you were little, too?”
“When I was little?” He sounds confused, which makes me confused too.
“Yeah, when you were little and you came to visit your grandpa?”
His face closes off, and I want to kick myself. His family died in a horrible car crash. I probably just made him remember them when he wasn’t expecting it. That kind of pain must be horrible. I can’t even imagine how I’d feel if I lost my whole family.
“I’m sorry, Eli…I didn’t mean to bring up painful memories. I…”
He takes my hand and squeezes it. “No worries, Shortcake. It’s all good. Gramps didn’t live here when I was little. I never even set foot in this place until after the incident.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.” He’s never referred to the accident that took his family’s life as an accident, only as an incident. Maybe it’s easier for him to think of it that way. I guess it doesn’t matter if it helps him to cope.
“Hey, hey!” Jordan, Eli’s best friend, rolls up to a stop beside us, a brown-haired girl hanging off his arm. She’s cute, but she has this jittery desperation about her that I don’t like.
She bats her eyes rapidly at Eli. He doesn’t even notice.
“You got something in your eye?” I ask her, pretending to be all concerned.
“What? No.”
“Oh, the way you were blinking made me think something was wrong. I’ve only ever seen someone bat their eyes that fast if a gnat or something flew into them. I was worried.”
Her expression varies between disbelief and scorn. I don’t know if she thinks I’m serious or making a jab at her. Those are the best kinds of insults.
Eli turns away from us, but not before I see him trying to hold back his laughter.
Jordan raises an eyebrow, but I give him my sweetest smile, the one I learned from my sister. The girl he dated for about a month and then broke up with. My dad had too many rules for him, I think. Cecily was upset, but she moved on just as fast as Jordan appeared to. She started hanging out with some guy she met at the pool. Mom promised to keep it hush-hush, but with Dad in town, not sure how long that’s gonna last. He’s like a bloodhound when it comes to boys and his daughters.
She starts to say something, but Jordan gently pushes her toward the football table. “Go on and sit down. I’ll be there in a minute.”
She huffs but flounces away, her behind jiggling as she goes.
Jordan turns to me. “Really?”
“What? I was curious. She was batting her eyes at a rapid speed. That can’t be healthy.”
“She’s just flirty.”
“Uh-huh. It wasn’t you she was batting her eyes at either.”
He frowns. He knows I’m right.
“But if you want to date someone whose goal is to climb the ladder, then go right ahead.”
“She…” He breaks off.
“Here’s your order, Eli.” Saidie hands him the takeout bag, and he saves me from whatever Jordan was going to say. He knows it’ll be BS, and I hate BS. Always be honest, even with yourself. It’s the only way to be. Lies always catch up with you.
Once we’re in his Jeep and headed to his house, he laughs. “I thought she was going to murder you if she could figure out how you insulted her.”
“She irritated me. Don’t flirt with your boyfriend’s best friend. That’s plain old rude and disrespectful.”
“I thought you were mad at Jordan.”
“Why would I be mad at him?”
“He broke up with your sister.”
“So? She’s already dating someone else. Why would I hold the breakup against him when she doesn’t?”
“So, if she was mad, then you’d be mad?”
“Of course. I got her back even when she’s wrong.”
“I get that, but I’m glad you’re not mad at him. It would make the coming summer a little awkward. Jordan hangs out with me a lot.”
I shrug. “You don’t have to not hang out with your friends because of me. I’m perfectly happy sitting at home reading a book. You ghost-proofed the house, so I’m safe there.”
“Yeah, against the ghosts, but that’s not the only thing I’m worried about.”
“You don’t trust Selena.”
“No, I don’t trust that reaper as far as I can throw her.”
“Why don’t you trust reapers?”
“You remember me telling you about my other charge? The one who doesn’t need me that much anymore?”
He’d told me about her. He also admitted he loved her, but she didn’t return the feelings. It broke his heart. And I guess it also made me a little protective of him, too. I don’t want to see him ge
t hurt. I’ve never had a friend who I let get this close before, and I hope it doesn’t end up biting me in the butt.
“Yeah.”
“The reapers and the Angels decided once she’d done what she was made to do, they were going to kill her. She’s more than just a living reaper. I can’t tell you anything else, but she scared them, and they tried to kill her. I don’t trust them anymore.”
“They tried to kill her?”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that since you’re only half reaper, half human. It was everything else that worried them about her, but it opened my eyes to how they operate. Never trust them, Ella. Learn from Selena, but don’t trust that she has your best interest at heart.”
Now, that’s scary. The one person I have to rely on to teach me how to be a reaper is the one person he’s telling me I can’t trust. I’m not sure how to deal with it.
“Promise me, Ella.” His voice takes on a hard edge, and he grips the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turn white.
“I promise.”
He visibly relaxes.
At least until he turns onto the gravel driveway that leads to his house and we see the sheriff’s SUV sitting in the driveway.
“This can’t be good,” he mutters as he pulls up beside it.
“The police are never a good thing,” I agree and unbuckle my seat belt.
Whether they’re here because of Eli, his grandpa, or me, I don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out.
We get out of the Jeep and go inside, neither of us feeling good about whatever situation is waiting for us.
Chapter Three
Ella
We find them in the kitchen, both sipping on a cup of coffee. So maybe it’s nothing. Maybe the sheriff stopped by to chat with his friend.
Sheriff Ethan McReynolds is a dead ringer for Russell Crowe. I mean, seriously, take twenty years off the actor, and you have the sheriff. It’s sort of creepy, really. If I didn’t know he was a shifter, I’d swear he was a doppelganger—creatures that look exactly like someone and kills them to take over their life. I learned about them just last week when Eli went hunting. Something he made me promise not to tell anyone about. Living in a town of Supernaturals, I understand why he didn’t want them to know he was hunting.
But there are bad Supernaturals too, and they need to be dealt with. At first, I was mad that he was doing this, but his grandpa sat me down and had a talk about it. He made me understand why it was important to have hunters in the world. If we didn’t, then more and more innocent people would die. And I don’t want that either.
I love Grandpa McGreggor. He’s old, maybe in his sixties. He has this beautiful head of silver hair and a beard that’s the same color. A lot of old men have a stringy or rough textured beard, but not Grandpa. His is as silky smooth as his hair. Bright blue eyes that are as shrewd and sharp as a twenty-year-old’s are set into a face made for smiling. I think he’s where Eli gets his sense of laughter from. Both of them are always smiling.
“Here they are.” Grandpa gives me the biggest grin and points toward a container sitting on the kitchen island. “Made special just for my girl.”
Sugar-free brownies that taste like they’re made with a mound of sugar. With sprinkles.
I shake the takeout bag at him. “Here’s your heart attack waiting to happen.”
He snatches it out of my hands. “Don’t begrudge an old man his few vices.”
“We need to schedule you an appointment with the cardiologist. Do you know how clogged your arteries could be eating this crap at your age?”
Eli takes a step back, his eyes wide. He probably thought I wasn’t serious before, but I was. Sure, it might mean no more brownies, but I lived without them before, and I can again.
Gramps turns the full force of his attention on me, and I want to squirm, but I put my hands on my hips and narrow my own eyes.
Thunderclouds gather in his expression, and I wag my finger at him. “Speaking as someone who just died, I understand how precious life is. Eli’s already lost almost all of his family. He doesn’t need to lose you too. You’re all he has left, so you need to take care of yourself. And greasy burgers and fries almost every day is not the way to do that.”
“You’re right.”
We all stare at him like he’s grown doggie ears and a tail. He’s usually more stubborn than this.
“The boy’s lost enough in his life without losing me.” He glances at Eli and then back to me. “I’m glad he has you to look after him. He needs his own protector.”
“I’m right here, old man.”
He shrugs and sets the bag down on the counter. “So?”
Eli rolls his eyes and tries to take the bag, for which his hand gets smacked.
“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to have one last greasy meal, now, did I, boy?”
That makes us all laugh.
“Now that the lecture concerning my grease consumption is over, Ethan here has some questions for you two.”
“Us?” I think back through my morning, and nope, I’ve done nothing to be in trouble for.
“We had someone go missing last night.”
Dread settles in my stomach at the sheriff’s statement. My dad. He wants to know if my dad had anything to do with it.
“Who was it?” Eli pushes me toward one of the bar chairs, and I sit gratefully. My knees are a little weak.
“Elaina Montrose.”
“She’s a dragon shifter, isn’t she?”
Dragon shifter?
“Yes, that’s why whoever took her had to have some serious firepower to subdue her.” There’s no censure in Sheriff McReynolds’ voice, only resignation. He knows the soldiers under my dad’s command have started their mission here in West Virginia.
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“I know you don’t, Ella. I’m hoping you may have seen or heard something to help us, though.”
“My dad never talks about work at home. Until I woke up as a reaper, I didn’t even know he was part of anything except protecting the country from other countries like North Korea.”
“What time did he come home last night?”
“By six. Mom has dinner ready by six thirty every night, and he’s always home to eat with us.”
“Any phone calls he left the table for?”
“No, sir. He watched a movie with me and Cecily, and then I went to my room. He took no calls or answered any messages while he was with us.”
“Do you know if he went anywhere after that? Left the house for any reason?”
“I don’t think so. He was there at eleven when I went downstairs to get something to drink.”
The sheriff’s shoulders slump. “I was hoping this would be easy.”
“You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”
“We’ll do what’s necessary to get Ashlyn back. She’s a kindergarten teacher and no threat to anyone. There’s no one kinder than her in this community.”
He didn’t say he wouldn’t hurt Daddy.
My hands start to shake, and Eli takes them in both of his. “Calm down, Shortcake. He’s not going to hurt your father.”
“I can’t promise that, Eli.”
“You’re the law enforcement of the town, Ethan. You can’t go around hurting people, even those who probably deserve it. That’s illegal. His wife will bring in state police, and then what? They’ll arrest you. How do you plan on helping the people around here when that happens?”
Ethan growls, a full-on doggie growl. “This has nothing to do with the regular police.”
“But it does have everything to do with my family, who are all humans with no abilities except for me. So you better bet my mom would call the president if it meant getting justice for my father. The state police would be the least of your worries.”
“So, I’m just supposed to sit here and do nothing? Just let the people get taken and say, ‘Oh, well, sorry, nothing we can do’?”
“Of course
not, but you can’t hurt people to get the results you want either. It’s unethical.”
He opens his mouth, probably to tell me that what my dad’s doing is unethical, but he thinks better of it. I hate having to sit here and fight for him not to get hurt when, if he’s in the wrong here, he probably deserves a lot more. But he’s still my father.
“I need to go question a few more people. Thanks for your time.”
I’ve noticed everyone from West Virginia stresses their I’s into like a hard I sound that’s drawn out ever so slightly. Not like the south’s stretching of words, but sort of. It makes no sense unless you’ve heard them both.
And with the sheriff more aggravated than normal, his I’s are really stressed today.
Gramps walks him out, and Eli squeezes my hand. “He’s not going to hurt your dad.”
“He might.”
“I don’t think so. Ethan’s a very honorable man, and hurting someone like that, I’m not sure it’s in him to do. He’d never torture someone for information.”
But my dad would. He might not do it himself, but he’d allow it. It would be one thing if it was to stop millions of people from getting hurt, but they’re experimenting on Supernaturals just because they don’t understand them. And that’s wrong on the deepest level. It’s evil.
Which makes my dad evil.
And I hate that I see him like that now.
When I go home, I’m going to go knowing he took someone so his scientists can hurt them.
“It’ll be okay, Ella.”
“No, it won’t.”
He doesn’t say anything but slides the brownie container over to me.
If all else fails, drown your sorrows in fake chocolate.
“Don’t eat that yet.” Eli jumps down. “Grab it and let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“It’s a surprise.” He winks and starts heading for the front door.
“But it’s hot outside!” I whine after him.
“Sunshine is good for you!” he calls and goes out the front door.
Grumbling, I pick up the brownies and follow him back outside to his Jeep. I’m slower than he is because I have to walk with this stupid cane, but it turns out to be a good thing. The sheriff’s car is disappearing down the drive when I emerge from the house. At least I don’t have to deal with seeing him again.
