11. Rowan
Author’s Note:
Sorry it took me so long to upload this.
The ferryman formerly known as Charon was having a wee bit of an identity crisis, and we needed a night of drinks and dancing to chill out.
Also, I just want to say that sometimes people find out that their boyfriend is really a big fiery dog and they actually don’t freak out, so it’s a perfectly acceptable reaction to NOT have a panic attack or freak out and run away when learning supernatural beings exist. Just saying.
ROWAN
Of all the times for Riley to show up. I swear she made my life difficult on purpose. I got out of the car, despite Milo trying to grab my arm. “Stay here,” I told him.
So, of course, he got out right after me.
Riley hissed when she saw us, and I could only roll my eyes, adding, “Seriously, Ri?”
She hissed again, flexing the talons of one claw against the pavement. Well, that would leave a mark.
Milo sidled up next to me, but he didn’t look frightened for his life. Nope, he looked curious and interested. Because the man had zero self-preservation skills.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked, starting to get really annoyed.
Like Riley could sense that she’d reached the end of my patience, she folded her wings in, folded her arms, and glared at me. “You didn’t answer my phone calls, asshole.”
“Well, I was a little busy. Which I’m sure you knew,” I growled.
“Some stranger answered my call. You could have been kidnapped,” she grumbled.
“That was days ago. If you were really worried about kidnapping, you would have shown up sooner. Plus, I’m sure you know I talked to Troy.”
She humphed at me, starting to tap one talon on the ground. She knew I fucking hated when she did that.
“And now you scared Milo,” I said, gesturing to Milo. Only he didn’t cooperate and look scared. Nope, he looked interested. And… “For fuck’s sake, Milo, are you eating an apple?” Where the fuck did he get all these damn apples?
Riley and I both watched as he took a bite starting at the bottom. He continued to eat his way up through the apple, eventually getting to the seeds, which he ate.
“Well,” she finally said, “that’s freaky. Chaos demon?”
“Nope,” I answered, glad to know something she didn’t. I swear Riley was really a spy. She always said she wasn’t, but isn’t that what a spy would say?
Milo, who had finished eating his apple and tossed the stem into the woods, turned to me. “Am I hallucinating?”
Ahh, finally, some self-preservation. He thought he was crazy. Not that I blamed him—seeing a harpy when you didn’t know supernatural beings existed was kind of a shock. There was no way to explain them away.
“My sister is a harpy.”
Milo smacked my arm and glared at me. “Rowan! She’s family! You cannot call her names like that!”
Riley gave a throaty laugh at that. “Yeah, Rowan.”
I just rolled my eyes. “No, I mean, she’s an actual harpy. A half woman-half bird vengeful seeker of justice. You know, like from mythology.”
“Ohhhh,” Milo drawled out. He looked her up and down, and she bristled a bit. “Do your nails match your top? That’s a great color on you.”
She unfolded her arms and looked at her fingers, smiling. “Yeah. I was thinking of painting my talons, too, but maybe that’s overkill.” She tapped her claws on the ground again, drawing our attention to them.
Milo just looked contemplative. “Nah. I think it would look good. Would you do the same color, or would you go with something different?”
“Well, black would be pretty bad-ass,” she admitted.
For fuck’s sake. Was I in some kind of alternate dimension? “Are you seriously talking about nail polish colors right now?”
Milo and Riley both glared at me, and I almost took a step back. Instead I just put my hands up placatingly. “It’s fine. Continue your chat. I’ll just go see about the huge fucking dent in the car because you had to be a drama queen.”
I turned around to walk to the front of the car, and Milo said quietly to Riley, “That was a great entrance. Very dramatic. Ten out of ten on the scary meter.”
“Really?” she asked. “You didn’t seem very worried. No screaming or anything. I thought I was losing my touch.”
“That’s just because I had my strawberry milkshake with me, and I knew he’d protect me.”
Riley started to chuckle when Milo called me his strawberry milkshake, but I turned around and glared at her, so she cleared her throat instead. Then she flew over to the front of the car, lifted the hood, and used her hands to push the dent out.
“Oh, wow, thanks!” Milo said, like she hadn’t caused the damn dent in the first place.
“Show off,” I muttered.
She just smiled at me, showing her sharp, pointy little teeth. Milo came over to stand next to me, and I put my arm around him. Riley cocked her head, but I shot her a death glare. She better not upset Milo.
“So, why aren't you answering my messages or calls, asshole?” she asked me.
“I was helping Milo. I do have a life, you know,” I answered. “And before that I was dealing with the cult.”
Milo turned and looked at me. “Ha! I knew you set the cabin on fire! Did you kill the fuckers first? Please tell me you didn’t let them go.”
Riley chuckled. “Oh, he’s vengeful. I like that.”
I ignored her. “I took care of the very bad people, but I let innocent bystanders go,” I told Milo.
He looked skeptical, but he’d just have to take my word for it.
“Now we’re going to deal with a dog fighting ring,” Milo told Riley.
Shit, shit, shit. Not his fault; I hadn’t warned him to give her no information.
“Oh, that sounds like fun. Maybe I’ll tag along.”
“Great!” Milo said, and then he climbed into the driver’s seat of the car like nothing odd had happened at all.
“Give me a minute, you fucking pain in the ass,” I told Riley, then I walked around to the passenger seat and got in.
“So…” I started, unsure where to go from there.
Milo looked at me. “Are you a harpy?”
“No! Only the women in the family are harpies.”
“You know, so typical,” Milo stated. I looked at him curiously. “To have supernatural creatures follow gender expectations. It’s just really disappointing. Like, why can’t guys be harpies? What if I want to be a harpy? Am I not allowed because I’m male?”
I… I had no idea what to say. This was not the conversation I thought I’d be having. “Uhhh…”
“And the fact that harpies are real, and they’re obviously powerful, and I’m assuming your sister isn’t evil or anything, and look how they’ve been villainized in mythology. It’s just another example of how our patriarchal society is unfair.”
“Well…” I cleared my throat, trying to think. “I can’t help what society did to the image of a harpy, but most harpies are female. I believe there are male harpies as well, though, but that doesn’t run in my family line, so…”
“Oh, so I could be a harpy?” he asked.
“Well, no, because you weren’t born as one.”
Milo looked vaguely disappointed, and I saw Riley, now in her human form, standing behind the car. She wasn’t known for being patient.
“Listen, are you okay? Like, really okay?” I asked Milo, reaching out and grabbing onto his hand.
“Boo, I just found out there are supernatural creatures out there. I’m as okay as I can be. I’m not running away screaming or anything, so I think I get points for that,” he answered.
“Major points.” Then I leaned in to kiss him.
Which is, of course, when Riley opened the back door and slid into the car. I turned around and growled at her, and Milo turned around and looked shocked.
“Oh. You look…” he trailed off, obviously unsure how to finish that sentence.
“Like a normal human. Yup. We have to blend in somehow, sweetie.” Then she grabbed her seatbelt and put it on.
I was still deciding whether I was going to maim her over using a term of endearment on my Milo, but I figured that would upset him. He was putting his seat belt on, so I did the same. I guess we were gonna have help with our next project, whether we wanted it or not.
The warehouse where the dog fighting event was supposedly being held was a big gray monstrosity amongst a sea of other warehouse buildings. We drove around to scope things out, and there were two cars parked behind the building, so someone was there.
“They’re rotten,” I commented. Two souls inside, and both were definitely hellbound.
“Of course they are. They’re setting up an illegal dogfight. Only rotten, scummy people do that to animals,” Milo commented.
“If we wait until the dogfight takes place, I bet there will be a lot more prey,” Riley said.
Milo turned around to look at her. “You don’t, like, eat them, do you?”
Oh boy. I was ready for Riley to flip her shit on Milo, but apparently she’d decided to like him, because she just answered, “No, sweetie. I’m sure shitty humans would taste like shit, so what’s the point?”
Milo nodded as if that made perfect sense, turned back around, and looked at me. “Do we wait until tonight then?”
“The problem with that is that I’m sure there will be a lot of humans who aren’t rotten. Just because they come to a dog fight doesn’t mean they’re irredeemable. For all we know, we could have undercover feds or something in there, too,” I stated.
Riley scoffed. “Always looking at the worst-case scenario. Listen, we come back tonight, we scare the shit out of the humans, we kill who needs to be killed, and we rescue a bunch of dogs. Simple.”
Somehow, I didn’t think it was going to be quite that easy, but Milo was nodding his head along with Riley, and I figured I was outvoted on this one.
I sighed and looked at the time. “We’ve got a couple of hours to kill, then.”
“Food,” Riley suggested.
“Oh! I have some homemade cookies if you’re hungry!” Milo said, turning around to grab a backpack from the back seat.
Shit, shit, shit. If she tried Milo’s cooking, there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t seriously injure him. I turned around and raised my eyebrows, trying to make a disgusted face while simultaneously shaking my head very slightly so Milo didn’t notice.
“Why does your face look like that?” Riley asked.
“Fuck you,” I answered, then I turned around, because at this point she deserved some of Milo’s cooking.
“You want some, boo?” Milo asked, holding the baggy with a few cookies in it.
They looked delicious, but I knew better by now. “No thanks! They’re all for Riley!”
Milo handed the bag back to her, and I turned around and watched as she took her first bite. She closed her eyes as she chewed, and I waited for sounds of outrage. I was also prepared to defend Milo from her wrath if necessary.
But, to my disbelief, she moaned. “Oh. My. God. These are delicious!”
I turned and looked at Milo, my mouth half open in shock. He was looking at Riley, though. “Yeah, Ethel made them, and she’s a great cook.”
“You didn’t bake them?” I asked. Fuck. I’d had Ethel’s cookies, and they were fucking amazing.
“Nah, but Ethel gave me the recipe, so I can make some for you, boo.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. “Ah, no thanks. I mean, that’s okay. We have a lot to do and no time for baking. Anyway, we have to get going. Sitting out here is probably suspicious. I saw a diner a few miles back. We can grab food there.”
Riley must have caught on, because she had a wicked look on her face that meant trouble. She took another bite of cookie, then mumbled, “Mmmm, so good. Too bad Rowan said they were all for me. I’m sure we can find time for you to bake for him, though.”
I gave her a nasty look, then turned around as Milo started the car.
Fucking sisters. Such a pain in the ass.