“Him.” I shove Tom toward the unimpressed-looking paramedic and step out of the front door before turning back. “Finn, get out here and tell me what the fuck you did to her!”
The other paramedic, a young woman with dark hair in a ponytail, watches me curiously. Finn follows me out. “Keep your voice down; the police will be here soon.”
Immediately, I’m in his face. He backs against the wall as I shove him. My head and chest hurt, and the idea of never seeing Rose again terrifies me. Finally, I meet someone like me, who I can safely touch and be around and she’s gone. This isn’t just because I might have to wait another twenty years, but because she’s Rose. The girl I’m terrified of hurting, so half the time I don’t know whether to touch her; instead, I keep holding her at arm’s length, in case she steals my heart and soul the way she’s stolen every other part of me.
“I’m not talking to you until you get out of my face,” says Finn. He’s fighting the edge to his voice. Panic? Fear?
I hold my hands up and step back. “Fine.”
“The nurse...the man in the garden. He was a Dark and he was trying to get Rose to create a Between.”
“So you killed her?”
“I haven’t killed her!”
“Is she in the Void?” Pain twists in my stomach.
“I said I don’t know! I had to stop her. With Rose’s type of energy, that Between would be powerful.”
I rub my head. “Why?”
“She has my energy, Alek.”
His words are a punch in the guts. “She has your energy? I know you fucked up, but I thought you just resurrected her or whatever you want to call it.”
“By giving her Reaper energy, how else?”
“I don’t get what you’re saying.”
He shakes his head. “Alek, you were brought back by demons so you have some of their energy; she has mine.”
“I don’t have demon energy, they just…” Shit. I am so fucking clueless.
Finn says quietly, “…resurrected you. With demon energy that you now contain.”
“No! That was to bring me back! Now my energy is what I get from humans! I’m not a demon!”
Finn shakes his head. “They have done wrong by you, not explaining everything.”
“Don’t talk to me in that voice; don’t pity me!” I spit.
Rose. The girl who’s the same as I am. But now Finn’s saying she’s not like me at all.
“Why did you save Rose and then do this to her?”
“Alek, I’m not talking to you about my history. And I want to know what’s happened to her as much as you do.”
I wipe a palm down my face and take a few deep breaths. “Finn. Where do you think she is?”
“I don’t know,” he repeats.
“Where do people go when you normally do that?”
“I don’t even know what I did! I just held her for a few moments so she couldn’t help the Dark.” Finn straightens. “Where’d he go?”
“I don’t fucking know! Only you, Rose, and the dead guy were outside. Everyone else was in the house – I thought that was weird.” I stiffen. “Do you think he did something to make them stay away?”
“Crap. Dead guy. We have to leave, Alek.”
“We?” I look at him incredulously, but now the one thing that links me and Finn needs us to communicate. He’s the only way I can find out what happened to Rose, and until he tells me, I’m not letting him out of my sight.
***
People stayed away from me at the party, and I know why. My energy is low. I needed my shift at the bar tonight, but my fear about what could happen to Rose meant I cancelled to come here with her. My fears were justified. Now I’m left with no Rose and a growing hunger, plus a Reaper who looks as shocked and pissed off as I am.
I don’t fully understand what the deal is with these Reapers. Have I spent years lying to myself? Did I know the demon lived inside but was in denial? Whatever, as far as I’m concerned, Reapers are all as bad as each other. They take the people you love. Whether Finn is killing people, or Dark are, or both, I don’t care. In fact, I really don’t give a fuck, or I didn’t until Rose got dragged into it. Staying at Tom’s is not a bright idea for Finn and me. Someone died. They didn’t need to call the paramedics to tell us that, and I’m not getting dragged in as a witness.
My head hurts with the depleting energy and with attempting to control what I know is coming. What would a Reaper do if I started ‘accidentally’ killing humans around him?
“I need to feed,” I mutter to him as we walk away from the party.
“I know. We’ll find a pub.”
“Awesome. Beer and human energy, my favourite combination.” Finn pulls a sour face at me and I mutter ‘fuck you’ under my breath.
The lounge area of the large pub is packed with students and there’re no vacant tables. This is good. I can soak up what I need, maybe accidentally bump a few people at the bar. By the time Finn hands me a pint, the hunger fades and the constriction around my chest lessens, until I think about Rose again and the painful band around my insides tightens.