When The Grave Calls (The Veil Diaries #9) - B.L. Brunnemer Page 0,4

wasn’t going anywhere alone. Fuck, I had work today. What the hell was I going to do?

Hades’ tall, lithe frame came into the foyer, his blue eyes landing on me. He quickened his pace to kneel beside me. “What’s wrong?”

“Ordin is missing.” I looked up at him. I’d never been so happy to see him in my life.

His eyes met mine. “He’s not missing. He’s dead.”

My breath left my lungs as everything grew sharper. The light coming through the sheer white curtain. The chill of the floor under my palms. The pounding of my heartbeat. “What?”

“The police just haven’t found his body yet.”

Relief swamped me so quickly that I was almost dizzy from it. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths as nausea rolled through me.

“He deserved it, Stellina.”

Deserved it? I got to my feet and stepped away from him. “Who are you to play judge, jury, and executioner?”

He straightened to his full height. “Your familiar. And when it comes to your safety, there is no other way.”

I shook my head and stepped back from him again. “No, you’re not. You’re officially not.”

“He was sick. It was only a matter of time before he came after you again or killed someone else.” Hades’ eyes ran over me then back to my face. “You’re upset.”

“You think?” I snapped. “You don’t kill the sick, you treat them.”

“I don’t understand,” Hades said as his brow drew down. “You hated him.”

“That doesn’t mean he should have died,” I countered.

“He was dangerous.”

I ran my fingers through my tangle of curls, pulling sightly as I tried to see things from his point of view. “I know.”

“Some people do not belong in this world,” he countered in a hard voice. “And I don’t just answer to you.”

“Who else do you answer to?” I asked, weariness dripping from my words.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he seemed to weigh some unknown choice in his head. “Your Reaper.”

I didn’t know what I was expecting as a reply, but my Reaper was definitely not it. “You know my Reaper?”

He nodded.

“Then get their ass over here, I have a few questions of my own I’d like answered,” I bit out between my teeth.

With a raise of his eyebrow, he shook his head ruefully. “I can’t do that.”

I shook my head. “Of course not. You just kill people.”

Hades reeled back as if I had hit him.

Guilt ate at my gut. I shouldn’t have said that. He didn’t deserve that. But I didn’t have it in me to apologize. Not when he had seen … My stomach knotted even more. He had violated my privacy, he had lied to me for a year, he was never my dog.

His shoulders were rigid as he clenched his fists. “I’m sorry you don’t approve, but it's my job to protect you.”

I scoffed as I jabbed the code into the panel. “That shouldn’t mean killing people.”

“Sometimes it does.”

I shook my head and headed for the door.

“He was going to come after you again,” he called after me.

I opened the door then shot over my shoulder. “I guess we’ll never know if that is true or not.” I slammed the door behind me and headed to my Blazer, already tired of today.

Tara

I was sitting in Jessica’s living room working on a design sketch when I finally had to ask. “So, which one of the guys is Lexie dating?”

Jessica and Lucy lifted their heads from their own books and turned to me.

“I think she’s dating my brother,” Jess said, closing the book while using her finger as a bookmark.

Lucy shook her head. “It’s Miles.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why do you think that?”

Lucy shrugged. “The fact I was staying with Miles seemed to bring up some problems between them.”

That did make sense, but … “I think it’s Zeke. He’s so protective of her.”

“What about the twins?” Lucy countered. “They have no problem touching her.”

“Yeah, but they’ve always been that way,” Jess said. “Ever since we were kids.”

Lucy tucked a stray hair behind her ear in a sweet way. “Are there any rumors at your school?”

Jess sighed. “A ton. Everything from people claiming she’s dating each of them to her dating all of them.”

“Well, that’s just ridiculous,” I muttered as I went back to my sketch. There was no way she was dating all of them. Though … I ran over some of the scenes I’d seen over the last few weeks. Walking into the living room to find Lexie pulling away from one of the twins. I just thought