Chapter Nineteen
Neith
Old habits die hard, and I think it is going to take me a while before I stop worrying about how much things cost and if I have enough money to cover it.
“I’m done,” I announce.
Raiden’s eyebrows rise, “Really? That was really quick. Are you sure that you have everything that you need?”
I nod, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that I do. I have enough to keep me going for a few days and probably longer since I got a bit carried away. It’s been a long time since I could buy myself new clothes.”
“You deserve to go a little crazy,” Raiden adds. “We could go to a different store. Just to have a look around and see if there is anything there that you would like?”
“I’m really done. I need coffee and food. I will go crazy when I shop online, that’s where I really shine,” I chuckle, steering the cart toward the checkout.
When we get to the till, and it's time to hand my card over, I can’t help but feel like my card is going to bounce. It’s happened to me before, and it’s fucking embarrassing, I hate it. Of course, it doesn’t do that, and I let out a sigh of relief when everything goes through like it should.
Raiden grabs the bags before I can protest, and then immediately takes my hand in his again, making me smile. I like this, I have never really been a hand holding kind of person, but I could get used to this, it’s nice.
“We need to get you a phone,” Raiden says as we walk out of the store and glances down at me, “Griff has messaged me four times already, reminding me that I need to make sure that you get one.”
I smile, “He does realize that a phone would have been completely useless in the other realm, right?”
Raiden smirks, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he gets that. He just wants to make sure that you can get hold of us easily if you need to and get hold of anyone else you want to as well, like Sully.”
“Yeah, that would be nice.” I reply, thinking of a few people that will need to have my new number. “Lead the way and point me in the right direction when we get to the store too. I have had the same phone for years, and that was a second hand one, so I have no idea what I’m looking for now.”
“I can help with that. It’s probably best if we just get you the same model as ours. Are you okay with that?”
I nod, “Yep. I need a case though, I drop my phone a lot.”
I don’t tell him that I happen to throw my phone in my sleep sometimes as well. I need the sturdiest case that I get.
When we get to the shop, the sales guy goes into a full sales pitch and starts throwing all of this information at me in such quick succession that my brain immediately goes, ‘yeah we’re not interested’ and turns itself off. I have no idea what he is saying. Fortunately for me, Raiden is still paying attention, and asking the right questions, and I’m soon walking out with my brand new phone, all set up and in the strongest case that they have.
I squeeze Raiden’s hand, and he looks down at me curiously.
“Thank you for taking over. He threw so much information at me that, if I’m being really honest with myself, I’m just not interested in it, and my brain switched off,” I explain.
“That’s okay. River does exactly the same thing, except he just walks off mid-conversation, and we end up having to apologize for him,” Raiden explains.
I burst out laughing as I picture River doing it, “Oh my god, that’s fucking brilliant, maybe I should just start doing that. It would certainly save the awkwardness that always ensues after I have tuned out of a conversation and then don’t know how to answer whatever question they have asked.”
Raiden shrugs, “It works for River.”
He has almost completely relaxed now and is back to being how he was at home, he seems to be easily ignoring the people staring around us. Which makes it even more noticeable when he suddenly stiffens, that emotionless mask slamming back down over his features.
“What’s wrong?” I ask immediately.
He gestures to a dark-haired woman, powerful but not nearly as powerful as he is, or any of the guys, actually. She has a superior look on her face as she grins maliciously at Raiden, and I instantly don’t like the bitch.
“Someone from my past, my childhood. Where I come from, the weak are perceived as less, well we are perceived as worthless and treated as such. She is someone who took great pleasure in that, the males I could make back off simply because I was always a better fighter than they were. She knew I wouldn’t hit her, though, no matter what she did to me.”
“Cunt,” I hiss, and a surprised chuckle breaks free of his mask. Before he comments, I add, “You’re stronger than she is, though, a lot fucking stronger.”
He glances sharply at me, “You can tell that?” I nod, and he shakes his head, the cunt is nearly at us, “It’s safer for them to think that I am weaker.”
I nod, but don’t reply since she is now in hearing distance. Message received and understood, don’t let on to the woman that he is stronger than he seems.
“Okay,” I reply simply.
His voice lowers, “Let me handle this, she’s difficult. She is also a higher rank than I am, so I have to show her a certain level of respect.”
I nod again. I’m going to stay out of this interaction and let him handle it since that’s what he wants me to do. I don’t like the sound of him having no choice but to show her respect, but I don’t know enough about reaper culture, so I’m just going to do as he asked and keep my mouth shut.
Hopefully, I mean, my mouth doesn’t always follow my good intentions.
“We could just walk away?”
“Too late,” he mutters under his breath.
“Aw, it looks the weak little bitch boy has a girlfriend,” she sneers at me, “and a human one at that. I guess that makes sense.”
My eyebrows rise, and I bite my tongue really fucking hard. She is coming in hot, that’s for damn sure.
“Melody,” Raiden replies, his voice completely devoid of any sort of emotion.
“Bitch boy, how is it being at the bottom of the food chain? Ignored and cast aside by your own family,” she starts. Raiden ignores her, his face blank. His lack of interaction doesn’t seem to bother her as she just carries on. “I bet you didn’t even know that your sister had a baby, did you?”
I glance up at his face just in time to see the hurt flash through his eyes before he buries it again.
“No, I didn’t,” Raiden replies when it becomes clear that she wants an answer. She grins victoriously, but Raiden adds before she can say anything else, “If you’ll excuse us, we need to get going.”
We start to move past her, but she steps in our path again, her attention on me, “I should warn you, he’s weak. Not much power at all, it’s a wonder that he managed to get a job for SID. You would be better off with someone else.”
I really have to bite my tongue and have to remind myself that Raiden wanted to handle it. Thankfully, before my brain decides to tell her exactly what I think of her, she obviously decides that I’m not worth her time and turns her attention back to Raiden. He stares over the top of her head.
As she lays into him, I get angrier and angrier by the second. Who the fuck does she think she is, speaking to Raiden like that just because he’s supposedly weaker than she is?
She’s a fucking bully.
“Fucking pathetic excuse for reaper, your family were right to cast you out,” she says.
I am barely holding onto my anger, and then she pushes him.
My fist is flying before I have even consciously thought about doing it. Her nose crunches under my fist, and blood splatters my knuckles as she screams like a banshee, her hands going to clutch her very broken nose. The fact that she doesn’t immediately try to fight me says a lot about how strong, or rather weak, she really is.
“You crazy fucking bitch!” she yells, and my smile widens and my fist clenches.
“I would be careful what you say about Raiden. He may have to give you some respect because of your power level, but I don’t, and I’ll enjoy beating that smug smile off your face. Touch him again and find out just how much damage a human can cause,” my smile widens so that it’s less of a pleasant look and definitely too wide to be anything other than threatening.
I take a step toward her again, but I find myself suddenly airborne and thrown over Raiden’s shoulder. He salutes the still bawling bitch and then turns around, strolling in the direction of the exit. I prop myself up so that I can see the positively dark glare that she is giving us, and then smile, finger waving at her before I flip her off instead, and her glare gets darker.
I don’t bother fighting Raiden to put me down, one because I don’t want to hurt him, and two because I’m pretty sure if he did put me down, I would finish what I started. I’m still pissed at the way she treated him.
We are nearly to where we put the bikes, at least I think we are, when Raiden finally speaks.
“Do you want me to put you down?” he asks.
I shake my head, “Nah, I’m good. I’m enjoying the view.”
His ass looks fucking awesome from this angle.
He chuckles, “Me too.”
Well, okay then.
After a moment, I say, “I’m sorry. I know you wanted me to stay out of it.”
I feel him shrug underneath me, which is a weird feeling, “Don’t be, that was fucking awesome!”
“Oh, thank fuck, I thought you might be mad,” I pause and then add with fire in my tone, “I meant it, if she touches you again, I’ll take her fucking hands.”
Raiden stills and shifts me. All thoughts flee my brain entirely as he lets me slowly slide down his body, feeling all the hard ridges that his clothes are hiding. His eyes catch mine as soon as I’m upright. The fire in them doing things to my body that I wasn’t even aware a single look could do to a body.
My feet touch the floor, but I don’t move back, I don’t want to, and he makes no move to let go of me. My eyes are still connected to his, and I see indecision flash through them as he lifts his hand to my cheek and gently rubs his thumb along my cheekbone. He leans down, bringing his lips close to mine. I close the distance; I have never been good at being patient.
He groans quietly as our lips touch, and he pulls me in closer. The world disappears. All that exists is him and me, and it’s a feeling that I have never experienced before but one that completely consumes me. I feel his magic start to grow before he clamps down it and reigns it back. I get why, we are in public, and he’s supposed to not be as strong as he is. Also, I am pretty much human, and who the fuck knows if I can handle all the magic that will get thrown at me if Raiden lets it free.
I get all of that, still, I wish that he would let loose some of that control. The longer we kiss the more sure I am that he is stronger than I thought he was. The piece of his magic that I somehow have surges forward, and I swear I can see it glow briefly as an image of some sort of string or something flashes through my mind. It only lasts for a brief moment before I get consumed by Raiden’s kiss and all thoughts flee my mind.
Raiden’s tongue licks the seam of my lips, and I open for him, our tongues moving together passionately. Eventually, the kiss slows, and he pulls back, looking down at me with surprise.
Yeah, I didn’t expect that to happen either.
Whoops?
Actually, no, I’m not going to say whoops because that implies that I think that it was a mistake, and while it could potentially cause an issue if I viewed it as more than a simple kiss, I don’t regret it. He’s a damn good kisser.
“I guess that means I didn’t disturb you talking about cutting her hands off then?” I ask because I don’t know how to react to this situation.
He chuckles and shakes his head, “No, it was hot.”
Stepping back, I chuckle, “It’s really good that you think that because violence is sort of my go-to.”
He grins, but his face quickly becomes serious again, “Really, Neith, thank you for standing up for me like that. Her words don’t hurt me, not anymore. Although I will admit learning that Morgan had her baby stings a bit, we were close until she mated, and it wasn’t just my parents telling her that I was too weak. It was her husband, too.”
“Dicks, the lot of them,” I growl, “not your sister.”
He shrugs as we walk the last few feet to the bikes, and he starts to put the stuff from my bags into the saddlebags on his bike and then mutters something that I can’t hear, and a big backpack appears that he can fit the rest of it in. I stare in awed wonder at him, since it hadn’t even occurred to me how we were going to get the stuff home, so it takes me a moment to remember what we were talking about when he continues the conversation.
“My parents, yes, I won’t get into it but their treatment of me was unnecessary to say the least. My sister's husband though, he wasn’t cruel, it’s just how it is done with reapers. I wasn’t strong enough for the family name so it was stripped from me, and Mor should technically have stopped talking to me, but she has never done what she was told.”
I frown, “But you aren’t as weak as they think, are you?”
He glances around and shakes his head, “No, but that’s a story for another time.”
His tone leaves no room for arguments, and it’s clear that is all he is willing to say on the matter.
“Okay,” I reply as I grab my helmet and swing my leg over my bike. “Can we still go into town, or do you want to head straight back?”
He once again looks surprised, as I change the subject without pushing him for more information, but replies with a smile, “We can head into town, grab a coffee and walk around for a bit.”
I grin, and put my helmet on, waiting for him to do the same and then follow him out of the lot.
I want to learn more about reapers and the way that they work. Unfortunately, I know that I won’t be able to find any of the information that I want in books because reapers are an incredibly secretive species. It’s understandable after the way that they have been treated.
This town is pretty small and cute, so we are only back on the bikes for a few minutes before we’re parking up again, right outside of the coffee shop. Inhaling deeply as soon as I take my helmet off, the strong smell of coffee and sweet-smelling pastries immediately hits my nose, and my stomach growls loudly.
Raiden chuckles, “Come on, let’s get something to stop your stomach shouting at us.”
“That’s probably a smart idea. It’s only going to get louder,” I agree. “Oh, I need to get a cinnamon bun for Wallace.”
He frowns as he opens the door to the coffee shop, gestures for me to go in first, and asks, as he follows me inside, “The moose?”
I nod, “Yeah, I asked Winston how to thank him, and he said that Wallace liked cinnamon buns.”
“Huh, you know, I don’t think I ever would have guessed that,” Raiden replies.
He is looking slightly uneasy again, since everyone is looking at us, but nowhere near as uneasy as he looked when we arrived at the mall. I nudge him with my shoulder and smile up at him.
“So, what do you want? My treat,” I ask, then add because I can see that he’s going to, “don’t even try to argue with me.”
“I would never,” he replies seriously as his lips twitch, fighting back a smile. “I’ll have a caramel latte, please, the big one, and a blueberry muffin.”
I nod and turn to the woman behind the counter, I like her immediately simply because she is smiling at both of us and not judging Raiden. She’s a supe. I can feel it, and judging by her pointed ears which are just visible through the curly waves of her bubblegum pink and soft green hair, I think she is a fae. That’s a pretty broad classification; there are high fae, pixies, trolls, sprites, and so many more that all technically fall under that category.
“Hey, I’m Neera. What can I get you?” she asks with a big smile.
I quickly reel off both of our orders, and make sure that I get two cinnamon buns for Wallace, he’s a big moose and I figure one isn’t really going to do much. She nods, getting on with the orders quickly. She’s bubbly, and friendly but I sense more behind her smile and that immediately intrigues me.
“So, you’re new in town,” she starts, as she gets the things that we have asked for. When I look at her in surprise, she laughs, the sound like tinkling bells as she adds, “It’s a really small town, Raiden I recognize, as well as all of his friends, but you’re new.”
I smile, “Yeah, it was kind of an accident, really.”
Understanding flashes across her expression, “Same.”