Chapter 3

“Did it go okay?” Ivy asked, a concerned expression on her pretty face. She looked like she wanted to ask more but was being tentative.

Ru nodded. “It was hard, but I’ll survive.”

“Awww,” Ivy opened her arms, and Ru stepped over and hugged her new friend. She hadn’t known Ivy very long, but of all of the Keepers she’d met, she would definitely be Ru’s candidate for most-like-an-angel, if that were an award. Since Keepers were half-angel, one might think they’d all be as good natured and kind as Ivy, but she had the other three beat, hands down. Not that Cutter, Rider, and Lyric were bad people or anything. They just definitely seemed a bit more human than Ivy.

Determined not to cry again, Ru stepped back before Ivy could cause such an emotional reaction with her empathy. “Where’re the other two?” she asked.

“Rider is working on the new bathroom upstairs, and I think Lyric is looking for information, trying to figure out where the portal might be. She might also still be trying to decipher your scars.” Ivy looked down at her apron as she spoke. Ru was impressed that, no matter how messy the dish, Ivy always managed to keep herself tidy, and everything she cooked was delicious.

It had only been a couple of weeks since Lyric had taken a picture of Ru’s scars, the ones she had been given her true name, Rune, by her mother for, but she hadn’t had any luck getting a clear translation yet. Ru knew Lyric Gabriels well enough already to understand she wouldn’t give up until she found an answer. She nodded at Ivy and managed a small smile.

“Still not sure why Rider’s putting another bathroom in a house we probably won’t be staying in long term,” Cutter commented. “But if it gives him something to do….”

“I think he’s tired of there being three girls and only two bathrooms,” Ivy chuckled, stepping back toward the kitchen. “Personally, I wouldn’t mind if he had his very own restroom.” She made a face as if to say Rider Michaels had a habit of stinking up the other bathrooms, and Ru couldn’t help but chuckle. Rider was something else, that was for sure.

“Do you need any help in the kitchen?” Ru asked, being polite. She asked almost every evening, and every time, Ivy said no, as she did again this night. At least she didn’t mind when someone else pitched in with the dishes, as Ru tried to do frequently.

Ru turned back to Cutter, who was studying her closely when her eyes first met his. He looked a little uncomfortable and ran his hand through his hair. “Well, I think I’ll head upstairs for a few minutes,” she said.

“Okay. See you in a bit.” He offered her a small smile, and Ru returned it. Cutter was a mystery not likely to be solved any time soon. As she headed up the creaking stairs, she remembered how attractive she’d found him when they’d first met. She still thought he looked like a Greek god, but things changed after he’d asked her out only to tell her this fantastical tale about how they were both half-angels and she was also part demon. That had strained their relationship, and even though she now knew everything he’d said was true, she still hadn’t quite figured out how to get over the shock of finding out about her past so abruptly.

She entered her bedroom and dropped her crossbody bag on the floor. Taking her phone out of her pocket, she checked her messages and saw that her adoptive mother had called again. She’d have to call her some other time. One thing was for certain; since she’d learned her true identity, she was no longer at Liddy Brown’s beck and call.

Ru leaned backward on the bed, resting her head on her pillow. She was glad the guys had helped her move her own furniture in earlier that week. It was better than sleeping on the sofa downstairs in the parlor, which she’d done on the last few weekends. All of her furniture had been moved to storage earlier in the week, except that old couch she’d gotten off Craigslist, which she’d been sleeping on since her bedroom furniture had made the move already. The new owners could have it once the house was sold for all she cared, but she would have to go back sometime soon to get the few odds and ends she’d left behind when she’d left that morning for the last time. Most of her essentials were in the suitcase in the back of her car, next to the box that contained three years of teaching memories.

Lying in the dark, staring at a ceiling that could use a fresh coat of paint whenever Rider got around to it, Ru couldn’t help but think about everything she’d gone through in the last few months. There was a lot to contemplate, but the one thought that bothered her the most revolved around Thanatos pretending to be Kyle. His backstory had been so convincing, and he’d somehow manipulated his appearance so that Ru wouldn’t recognize him, even though she’d seen Thanatos in her dreams—which it turns out were actually visions where he was truly there, in another realm, in spirit form. Cutter had explained how Thanatos had been able to influence her emotions, and his words made sense, but that didn’t make it any easier to get over Kyle. Though she’d only gone on a couple of dates with him, she’d been sure from the very beginning that they would have a long future together. He was everything she’d been looking for in a man—funny, intelligent, witty, good-natured, and extremely attractive, though she usually didn’t dwell on outward appearance. To find out that he wasn’t what he seemed made her angry, but it also left her feeling desolate. While Kyle might not have been real, which meant his feelings for her weren’t either, she had been envisioning a life together with him, and now he was ripped away from her, gone forever like the puff of smoke Thanatos had literally disappeared in that night in the woods a few weeks ago when she’d discovered his true identity.

Since then, all of the other Keepers had been searching those same woods for the portal opening, the one Thanatos had been leading Ru to when she’d realized who he was and what his intentions were. So far, none of them had had any luck, and while Ru had a feeling she could possibly find it, due to the fact that her father was a Reaper, the other Keepers wouldn’t let her step foot in the woods for fear Thanatos and his Reapers were lurking there somewhere. If she wanted to go, she’d have to do it in her spirit form, and that would mean mastering the skill that so far had eluded her.

Thinking about her Reaper blood made Ru uncomfortable. Cutter assured her that she was one hundred percent Keeper, but Ru wasn’t convinced. She seemed to have a bond with Thanatos even before he presented himself as Kyle, and seeing him sitting in a gorgeous garden full of flowers, crying over a failed mission, had touched her somewhere deep in her soul. Thanatos was her enemy, and she knew she was charged with sending him and his cohorts back to Hell. But in moments when she was completely honest with herself, there were other emotions tied to him as well, and Ru realized this wasn’t solely because he was linked to Kyle. He may have been disguised as someone who didn’t really exist when he’d kissed her, but there was something behind the veil, a passion that intrigued her more than she would ever be willing to admit to anyone else. Was that her Reaper blood calling out to her, attempting to reunite her with her own kind, or was it something entirely different? Ru had no way of knowing, but it was obvious she couldn’t make the same mistake her mother had. Any sort of relationship with Thanatos at all was completely out of the question, particularly since he’d used his powers to hurt her in the forest. Yet, that didn’t seem to prevent him from slipping into her thoughts whenever she let down her guard.

Thankfully, he hadn’t literally slipped into her mind since the night she’d confronted him in the woods. Every night when she went to bed, she wondered if he’d show up again in her dreams, but that had yet to happen. Most of the time, she dreamt of her mother’s beautiful face staring down at her. Ru longed to find her mom, to ask her the questions that had been burning in her soul since the day she’d realized Liddy Brown was not her mother. For as long as she could remember, Ru had thought that day would never come, that she’d never find her birth mother. Now that she’d seen her picture and realized it was a possibility, she was excited, nervous, and a bit angry, if she was honest. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be able to find Seraphina until she mastered the skills Cutter was trying to teach her, and at this rate, that would take a thousand years. Ru didn’t have that kind of time.

He had promised they could go and visit his hometown, Los Angeles, Wyoming, as soon as Ru could slip into a spirit state. Even though they’d be going in their human form, he thought it was important that she master this skill before they left. Ru was looking forward to that as well; she had learned Seraphina’s mother lived in Los Angeles, and she was anxious to meet someone who had the same blood flowing through her veins as Ru did.

Cutter had also promised to take her to visit her father, Larkin, a Reaper who was chained deep within the bowels of Hell. There would be no traveling to other realms if she couldn’t master the dream state, however, and she knew she’d have to find her mother before she could even think about seeing her father. What she might say to him, she still had no idea. All these years, she’d been wondering about her mother, but her father rarely crossed her mind. Perhaps that was because Ru had a vague memory of her mother but absolutely none of her father. Maybe it was because, deep down inside, she knew her father was a horrible person, and she just couldn’t come to terms with ever facing him. Either way, Thanatos had put the idea in her mind that Larkin was suffering terribly, and that he did not deserve that. Ru wanted to see for herself, wanted to understand who Larkin was and why he had created her in the first place. Had he loved Seraphina, or was there something more sinister at play?

It was all a tumultuous mess, and Ru knew a difficult journey lay ahead of her. After finding her mother, she’d have to concentrate on identifying the three portals to Hell that still allowed Reapers to come through once they were banished. These Reapers were killing unmarked souls, people whose names had not yet been written in the Book of the Dead. If they weren’t stopped, the fate of humankind could be in jeopardy. Cutter believed Ru was the one destined to lead the Keepers to these portals to close them once and for all. One such portal lay in the forest near Reaper’s Hollow, the one Thanatos had attempted to take Ru to, and although it seemed like it would’ve been a good idea to play along a bit longer so he’d draw her closer to the location, no one blamed Ru for running away before he could do so. If she’d gotten too close, he might’ve found a way to drag her down to the pits of Hell where Cutter would’ve never found her again. The thought of languishing in Hell while Thanatos tried to convince her to join his evil forces made Ru’s stomach tighten.

A soft rapping on the door caused her to sit up. “Yeah?” she called. It opened, and Lyric stepped in, the other female Keeper who lived in the house Ru had learned was once occupied by Keepers back during the Revolutionary War era to hunt down Reapers such as the infamous Headless Horseman—who really did have a head, though it was cloaked.

“Why are you sitting in the dark?” Lyric asked, though she didn’t flip on the switch.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Ru shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to try to collect my thoughts before dinner.”

“How’d it go today?” Lyric was tall, like Ivy and Ru, with the same platinum blonde hair, though it was currently dyed a light pink color. She rode a motorcycle and had a lot more edge to her than Ivy did, which Ru could identify with. They shared the same love of punk rock music.

“Meh,” Ru replied, not really wanting to get into it again. “I’m happy it’s over, and we can move forward now.”

Nodding, Lyric said, “Well, that’s cool because I just stumbled upon some information while I was in the other realms, and apparently Nat isn’t done with you yet. He’s going to go looking for your mom, hoping that will lure you in.”

This information made Ru sit up even straighter. “How do you know that?”

“Remember we caught Zu a few weeks ago, right before Nat tried to trick you?”

“Yeah,” Ru replied. Zu was one of Thanatos’s right-hand Reapers.

“He finally gave some information up to Gabriel.”

“You spoke with the Archangel Gabriel?” Ru still couldn’t wrap her mind around such a possibility. He was mentioned in the Bible, after all.

Shrugging, Lyric said, “I’m a direct descendant. Anyhow, we need to get on this. At least we have the information now.”

Like Cutter, whose last name was Michaels because he was a descendant of Michael, all of the Keepers were named for their lineage. Thus, Lyric’s last name was Gabriels, Ivy’s was Uriels, and Rider, who was Cutter’s cousin, shared his last name. Ru had recently found out that her parents had combined their last names so that her true name was Rune Seraphina Raphaels Ronobes, but she’d known herself as Ruin Roberts, Ru for short, her entire life, and that’s how she still identified herself. That’s also what all of her legal paperwork said, including her birth certificate, which Liddy Brown had managed to procure when she’d come to live with her family at the age of three.

“Do you think things have changed now that Thanatos’s plan to get me fell through?”

The light from the hallway cast the half-angel in a bit of an eerie light as she responded. “No, I don’t think so. This was his backup plan, and now that you’ve foiled plan A, I think he’s already moved on to this. He doesn’t seem to be in Reaper’s Hollow anymore. We had quite a few unmarked souls claimed before he pulled this Kyle business, and since then, the activity has moved on. We’ll see where he resurfaces if he and Raven and the rest of his mess of an army start racking up the numbers again, but in the meantime, we need to get you in shape so we can start searching for your mother ourselves.”

Ru nodded, mention of Kyle’s name pulling at her heartstrings. Lyric surmised that the person pretending to be Jess, Kyle’s sister, was actually Raven, a Reaper who’d been working with Thanatos for many years, and one Rider had almost captured just before the whole ruse.

“Dinner’s ready!”

Rider’s booming voice echoed down the hallway, and Ru dragged herself up off of the bed, hoping they could all have a nice meal together and not talk about any Keeper business. She needed something to take her mind off of the complex web her life had become, especially since she knew Cutter would be pushing her hard later. She had to master these skills quickly, or else she was going to be letting a lot of people down, and her mother could be in danger. The thought of losing her before they’d even met wasn’t something Ru would allow herself to entertain.