Alaric considered Rowen for a long moment. “A reaper it is, given that she chooses to be so.”
A little irritated they both kept talking about me like I wasn’t there, I said, “Well, since the whole ‘being hunted down and killed’ thing sounds like a drag, and I’ve been up close and personal with disease, I think I will skip both.”
Rowen, his eyes still locked on Alaric’s said, “I will see her settled into my group.”
“That sounds agreeable.” Though Alaric sounded pleasant enough, I wasn’t so sure he found any of this agreeable. He turned a little, fixing his gaze on me. “There will be much to learn and unlearn, Josephine. The mortal world is rife with misinformation. Rowen will be your guide and will teach you what you need to know as well as oversee the studies you will need to apply yourself to.”
Bristling a little over the fact he seemed to need to say it to me more than my sister, I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms. “Whatever you say, Master Jedi. And my name is Jo.”
“Master what?” Alaric frowned in confusion while Victoria nearly choked.
“A reference to the mortal world, Alaric. A compliment I believe,” Rowen answered. From the smile he was obviously trying to suppress, he had picked up on the sarcastic backhanded nature of the compliment. Rowen and I would get along just fine.
Aaminah stood, her white cloak cascading around her. “Victoria, if you will come with me, please. I will find a guardian guide, and then you can get settled in where you can dress more appropriately since you had the misfortune of being woken to all of this.”
My façade slipped as we both looked at each other with a little panic. We were going to be separated?
Rowen seemed to pick up on our sudden fear. “Not to worry. Victoria is merely going to the Guardian section of the city, while you will be going to the Reaper section. You are free to visit each other at any time.”
Chewing her lower lip, Victoria stood and followed Aaminah, casting one last look at me over her shoulder before disappearing out the door.
“Are you ready?” Rowen asked me.
“Guess so.” I stood, feeling rumpled in my slept-in sweats and t-shirt, not to mention my lack of shoes. At least I had socks on. Poor Victoria was barefoot. “Lead the way.”
Rowen did just that, weaving through the still crowded room to the elevators. Once inside one of the cars, he told it a number and it began to move. I guess no buttons were needed for elevators on this side, made more apparent by the total lack of them.
“You are taking this remarkably well,” Rowen said. “Better than your sister.”
I shrugged and said nonchalantly, “I deal with weird better than she does.”
He didn’t press any further and I didn’t volunteer that I was a freaked out mess on the inside.
The elevator opened to reveal a long carpeted hall lined with multi-colored doors on either side. A window filled the wall at the end. There didn’t seem to be any kind of pattern to the color of the doors.
Rowen saw me looking at them and said, “Everyone turns their door whatever color they wish.”
The plush, dark gray carpet continued underfoot as we walked mid-way down the hall to a purple door, on which Rowen knocked.
It opened to reveal the face of the red-haired girl I’d seen in the hospital. She smiled warmly and stepped back to let us in. I glanced around. A living room to one side of the door, a small alcove with a counter on the other, and a short hall with two doors led off from the wall across from where I stood. A small apartment then.
Rowen pulled my attention from my surroundings by saying, “This is Bethany. She will be your roommate and will also assist in teaching you about your new home.” He turned to Bethany. “This is Jo; make sure you show her around once she’s ready.”
Bethany seemed to be struggling to contain her excitement. “Don’t worry, I will show her everything. It’s great to finally have a roommate! And one so unusual at that.”
Great, a bubbly person. I sighed a little and smiled back as Rowen excused himself. At least he’d introduced me as Jo.
Bethany reached out and took my hand, which surprised me because no one ever reached out to me. “Come on; let me show you your room.”
I followed her to the space designated as mine. It wasn’t huge, but not small, either. A bed that looked like it would be called a queen in the mortal world stood on one side. The small walk-in closet with black cloaks already hanging in it was nice.
Bethany lifted a cloak from the bar and held it out. “These have to be worn any time you are out of the apartment. These,” she traced the designs of the barely visible pattern in the black, “let everyone know your status as a reaper, whether or not you still need a guide, and whose group you are in.”
I nodded, my attention drawn to the huge duffle bag that rested on the floor, unzipped so I could see it was stuffed with clothes and things from my old room. “How did that get here?”
“It was delivered shortly after you crossed the veil with Rowen. I guess somebody thought you might like some of your things from the mortal realm.”
I stared at her. “But I’ve barely been here an hour. How was there time to pack it and get it here?”
“It doesn’t take long to grab a few things and step through the veil.” She pointed to the other door on that wall. “You have your own bathroom in there. We may be immortal, but we still have to shower and perform other bodily functions.”
I let her drag me back to the living area. She pointed to the other door off the hall as we passed it. “My room, obviously.” Then she led me over to the counter that rested in the alcove opposite the living area. “This is a food station. I think you call it a kitchen in your part of the mortal world.”
I raised an eyebrow. “No, that would be a counter in the mortal world. Kitchens have sinks, dishes, cabinets, and appliances in them.”
Bethany frowned. “Kitchens are where you get food right?”
“Kitchens are, yes. This is just a counter; it’s lacking everything necessary to make food.”
“Oh!” Bethany said with a laugh. “Okay, I get the confusion. You just need to tell it what you want, it will appear after a minute.”
I gave her a look full of the skepticism I felt. “What is this, Star Trek?”
“No.” She smiled wide at the reference. “But it’s a good comparison. We have to take in energy, and you will get vials of replenisher when you get ready to start reaping. What you will get from here is basically the stuff in the vials, but not as amped up. Although it actually tastes like food, which is nice since what’s in the vials is nasty.”
“So I just tell it what I want? Anything?” I felt like Alice in Wonderland. This hadn’t been in any of Mom’s stories.
Bethany nodded. “Yep.”
She seemed anxious for me to try so, feeling stupid, I said, “Cheeseburger, fries, and iced tea.”
Somewhere in the middle of a blink, a plate and glass appeared. A cheeseburger, no condiments or lettuce or anything, and a pile of fries rested on the plate. I picked up the glass of tea, taking an experimental drink. It was good. Not as good as home, but good enough. I peered into the glass. “It tastes and feels like tea.”
“Yeah, it’s meant to mimic food in the mortal world. If you want other things on your cheeseburger next time, you will have to be specific.” Bethany grabbed my plate and walked to the living room. With its two cushy sofas and coffee table, it could have been a living room anywhere. She set the plate on the table before dropping onto one of the sofas, tucking her feet up. “It’s been upgraded over the centuries to match the evolution of food in the mortal world, or so I’ve been told.”
“How does it work?” I asked as I sat on the other sofa and pulled the plate closer.
Bethany shrugged. “The same way the elevators work or stepping through the veil works, or any of the other stuff we do. A kind of magic. Since the people who settled Midtween originally lived in the mortal world, that’s the kind of food
that became standard here. Everyone here has grown up on mortal world type food.”
I took a bite of the cheeseburger. Like the tea, it was good. Lacking something from the cheeseburgers I’d always eaten, but not bad. “I’m guessing you don’t have a lot of immortal farm animals around to butcher.”
“No,” she said, laughing.
I examined the food. “It’s good. Not as good as home, but not bad either.”
“Don’t worry; you will get to go othersiding once you’ve had some training.”
“Othersiding?” I mumbled around my mouthful of food.
“When all of us under Rowen go to the mortal side for a night of fun and food. Lots of food. I’ve seen nearly every movie that’s come out over there.” Her face became animated when she talked about it, her hands emphasizing her words. “Just remember, until you’re twenty-one, Rowen is your guide. You can’t go othersiding without him.”
I nodded, not sure when I would get the chance for that anyway. After I finished the food and drink, I placed the dishes on the counter as Bethany directed. Then, mainly due to her pushing, I changed out of my sweats and into my regular clothes. I pulled a cloak on and settled it around me, pushing the hood back to let my long, straight, black hair hang free.
Once Bethany declared me presentable she tugged me toward the door to the hall, determined to show me around. I had to admit, she was starting to grow on me. Always an outcast, I secretly craved the connection of friendships. Bethany seemed more than happy to be a friend. It was so weird to go from having people practically treat me as invisible to having an instant friend. I wasn’t going to complain though.
***
“There will be many hands against her, for almost as many reasons as there are hands.” ~Caius
Chapter 5
The elevator took us to the ground floor and opened to a short hall ending in a glass entrance. Only one door led off from one side of the hall and I glimpsed an office through the open door.
Bethany noticed me glancing in as we walked past. “Rowen’s office. That’s where you will go at the beginning of shift tomorrow.”
“Will I start reaping, or whatever you call it, then?” The idea made me nervous.
“Oh, no. Probably not for a few months. You have too much to learn first,” Bethany said as she pushed open the glass door and we stepped outside.
I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t this. Except for the notable lack of roads, it looked like a regular city with tall buildings rising up everywhere. Quite a few black-cloaked people moved along on the wide paths that wound through everything. There wasn’t a car in sight. Not even a carriage or anything. Occasionally a white cloak flashed among the darker ones. “No cars?”
“Nope, not on this side.” Bethany waved absently at the array of buildings. “These are mainly apartments for all of the reapers.”
She pointed to more rising in the distance. “That’s the Guardian section over there. And that building,” she indicated the one across from us, “is the Reaper Offices. It’s where you came in earlier.”
Okay, now I was confused. “How did I come in over there, get in an elevator and end up in a different building?”
“Same way a counter made food for you.” Bethany flashed me a smile. “Come on, I’ll show you the riverfront.”
Several cats of different patterns and colors occupied the areas between buildings. Some lay contentedly sunbathing on the soft grass. Others prowled around, going where ever it is cats go. “No immortal farm animals, but you have cats here?”
Bethany snorted. “No. The cats are from the mortal world. They come and go as they please. Some come here looking absolutely awful. After they get healthy here, they decide to stay. But most travel between worlds. Cats and ravens are pretty much the only beings that can cross any of the veils, at any point, at any time. They don’t even need a portal.”
I followed her down a wide, sandy path that wound through the buildings and ended near a dark, wide river. The whole bank on this side was taken up with what looked like shops. Bethany smiled, holding out her hands toward the riverfront.
“Here you will find places to gather and eat. Same food as we can find in our apartments, but with room to get together and hang out. Some of them are specialty places, meaning you can only order things like fancy coffee from the counters in there. Also, there are shops where you can request clothing. Pretty much anything you might need can be found here. When you’re ready to otherside, we’ll get you a wallet.”
She made it sound like having a wallet was the coolest thing ever. “Yes, because everyone dreams of getting a wallet someday.”
“Not a normal, mortal world wallet,” she laughed, easily brushing off my sarcasm. “The kind you get here will provide you with whatever you need in the mortal world. A card for swiping at restaurants, whatever ID you need for whatever nation you’re in, that kind of thing.”
“Wow.” That was pretty amazing. “I don’t think I can go to other nations though. I only know English and a little bit of Spanish.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. It’s part of being a reaper. You will speak whatever language you are most comfortable with. The people you meet while othersiding or reaping will hear whatever language they are most comfortable with. And when they speak, you will hear English. There are far too many languages in the mortal world to keep up with them plus all of the different dialects of the same language and associated slang.”
Freaky. I guess I didn’t have to worry about language barriers. “If you can buy things in the mortal world, why not bring food, clothing, or whatever else from there?”
“We do sometimes. Except for food.” She started walking toward the shops. “Food won’t come through the doorways, which kind of sucks, but such is life.”
I glanced across the river where more tall buildings clustered. “What’s over there?”
Bethany followed my gaze and frowned. “That’s the third section of Midtween. There’s a bridge off that way.” She motioned toward a bunch of thick trees and brush quite a ways upstream where a bend in the river concealed whatever bridge she was talking about. “I don’t think anyone ever uses it.”
“Why not?” My curiosity piqued, I leaned over the rail that kept people from falling into the water at the river’s edge and tried to see around the bend. It was no use.
“That’s the demonborn side of the river over there. They don’t come to this side and we certainly don’t go over there.”
“Demonborn?” That’s what Rowen called the monsters at my house. “Wait, aren’t those the ones that like to drink the blood of reapers?” I suppressed a shiver at how close Victoria and I had come to dying.
“And guardians.” Bethany glowered across the river.
“What exactly are they?” How creepy was it going to be living right across the river from whatever it was that wanted to kill me and those like me?
Bethany tugged on my arm and led me down the extra wide path along the river’s edge. “Angels aren’t supposed to cross the veil at all. Demons are able to one night every hundred years and are free to lay with mortals. Some even capture and take humans back into the Hells with them.” Her face twisted in distaste. “The demonborn are the results of those unions. Half-mortal human, half-demon. They can cross the veil anytime they want, just like we can. It’s why we don’t go othersiding without a guide, someone older and more experienced. Demonborn feed off humans, both by drinking their blood as well as consuming their souls.”
“And us, they hunt us,” I said and shuddered at the thought. Guess that’s where the mortal world got the idea of vampires.
“Pretty much. It doesn’t happen often, but it isn’t rare, either. Doesn’t help that they tend to breed so fast.”
“Breed fast? You make them sound like rabbits or something.”
“Demons and their hybrid offspring have shorter pregnancies than those who only have trace amounts. They pop them out faster and are more fertile than t
he rest of us.” She snorted in disgust. “Angels have shorter pregnancies as well, but they don’t get pregnant as easy and never with mortals anymore. Well, usually.” She glanced at me.
Ignoring the reference to my father, I asked, “Why do they go to the trouble to hunt us? Wouldn’t it be easier to go after mortals?”
“They get high off the trace elements of angel in reaper blood. And, due to the elements of angel in the souls of reapers, they get a ton of energy from it.”
“What do you mean they get a ton of energy off it?” The thought of souls being taken for energy made my skin crawl, but this was my world now, I needed to know.
“Immortal souls offer a lot more energy than mortal souls. Only the souls of pure angels are safe from demonborn.” Bethany stopped and considered me for a moment. “Most likely your soul is safe as well. With fifty-percent angel running through you, taking your soul would likely kill any demonborn stupid enough to do it. Your blood though, talk about an extra high. I imagine there are more than a few over there drooling all over themselves at the thought of you and your sister, especially the younger ones.”
“Sounds like fun.” I glanced once more at the other side of the river. “Stay away from demonborn, got it. How will I know them from other people?”
“It’s hard to miss a demonborn. Both men and women are exceptionally attractive, with bodies that are as close to perfect as one can get. The eyes are another giveaway; they are never a natural color. And then, there is their smell, though by the time you are close enough to pick up on that it’s too late.”
“Their smell?” I snorted. “What, they don’t have soap over there?”
“Not a bad smell. It’s incredibly good. It pulls in humans like moths to a flame. Doesn’t have that effect on us.” She chuckled darkly. “Don’t get me wrong, it smells just as good to us, but the angel in reaper blood lets reapers see through it.”
Unveiled (Raven Daughter Book 1) Page 4
