That leaves one other person responsible. I don’t voice that I think it was Lizzie; I don’t think I need to.
“I’m going to talk to Tom,” I say. “I called him and I’m meeting him before work.”
“Why?”
“Because he might help me make sense of all this.”
“Seriously, Rose?”
“Seriously, Alek.”
Alek sits forward and grabs his jacket from the sofa. “Fine. I want to meet this freak.”
“Alek…”
“I’ll be nice, I promise.” He stands, shrugging on his jacket.
I very much doubt he will be.
***
We wait for Tom on the same bench I met Finn, outside the hospital, around the time my world started to shift into ten shades of crazy. Alek leans against a nearby tree, legs stretched out and hands buried in his jacket pocket. He’s returned to his normal Alek persona, which upsets me after what we did last night. In my past life, I only had sex in a mutual, loving relationship; definitely not with someone I barely knew and doubted if I liked much. Although sex with Alek is unlike anything I’ve experienced before, our relationship is a million miles away from my past ones. His behaviour now hurts.
When Tom arrives, he’s not eating which surprises me. He has his coat wrapped around him, and his face falls when he sees Alek.
“Who’s this?” asks Tom.
“Alek.”
Tom’s mouth drops open and Alek laughs, pointing at Tom. “This guy is the one you think can help us?”
“He’s told me a few things I think we need to consider.”
“Oh, really?” asks Alek “Like what?”
Tom sits next to me on the bench, not meeting Alek’s eyes. “The people killing at the hospital. Things. I think they’re suspicious of me, too; I’m scared. I thought they were resurrecting ghosts, but it’s more than that. And they know I’m aware.” He lowers his voice conspiratorially. “These guys are evil!”
I blink at him. “Killing people how?”
“They go into the wards where people are dying and they take them. I’ve been speaking to my friends around the country. They’re getting everywhere, as if they’re grouping and planning something.”
“Do you know anything about the Reapers? They could be doing that,” asks Alek.
“Reapers, Rose mentioned them; we’ve been looking into them to see what information is out there. We haven’t discovered much about them so far and can’t figure out the link to psy-vamps.” He whips his phone from his pocket and types madly onto the screen.
“The whats?”
“Psy-vamps...energy vampires. That’s what you are.”
Whoa. Okay. I have a species.
“Reapers kill people, and there’s at least one Reaper in the hospital,” Alek says. I knew as soon as they spoke, Alek would open up.
Tom’s eyes widen. “Who?”
I shade my eyes with my hand and look at Tom. “The Reaper is here to kill me.”
“Why you?”
“Because I shouldn’t be here, but that’s a different issue. I’m still not entirely clear what you say is going on?”
Tom pulls out his notepad again, and I groan. “I think they might be paving the way for something big, whoever is doing this,” he whispers. “Demon big. It’s not only demons and psy-vamps out in the world; the supernatural are everywhere. All it takes is someone to come in with enough power to unite them and then…Who knows? They might enslave humans and take over the world!”
I almost laugh at his dramatics. “Someone’s watched too many movies,” I mutter and look to Alek. “We should speak to Finn,” I say.
“No!” says Alek.
“Finn? Is he the Reaper? Can he help us?”
“I said no!” Alek’s raised voice catches the eye of a passer-by and he shifts his gaze to his shoes. “I’m not having anything to do with him, didn’t you listen? He’s here to kill Rose.”
“He said he wasn’t,” I protest.
“And you believe him?”
Tom flicks his gaze between the two of us with open-mouthed fascination. “Wow...”
“What?” asks Alek sharply.
“It’s, like, all real!”
I blink at him. “I thought you dedicated your life to paranormal investigations? You mean you didn’t think any of it was real?”
“Yeah, I did... just, seeing you guys. Huh.”
Alek’s face darkens and he stiffens. “Rose. This is a waste of time; he can’t help us.”
“What should we do?” asks Tom eagerly.
“We? You don’t do anything; you can’t be involved. Come on, Rose.” Alek reaches out and takes my hand, an odd gesture which would be friendly hand-holding to normal couples. To us, he’s trying to take over. I snatch my hand away.
“Tom has contacts all over the country, Alek. He could help us!”
“All over the world,” puts in Tom, proudly. “I could help look into this. We’re already investigating and this is helpful.”
Alek sighs at me as if I’m a petulant child. “Nobody else can get involved.”
“Why?”