Chapter 23: Chapter 23
Ru recognized her location immediately. She was standing in the same garden where she’d met Thanatos not too long ago, a hundred years ago. This time, the bench where he’d sat crying, mourning the loss of a family killed by a woman his Reapers had attempted to claim the day before she stole a car and drove the wrong way down the freeway, losing her own life in the process. Thanatos’s tears had overwhelmed and confused her. Cutter insisted he was a monster, but at the time, he’d seemed anything but.
The petals cascaded from the trees as she walked along, making her way with bare feet down a row of flowered trees which rained an endless volume of red, pink, and white flowers down upon her. She glanced down to see she was wearing a long, flowing black dress and wondered who, exactly, was picking her wardrobe for these forays.
It didn’t take her long to find him. He was a beacon, after all, much like the portal openings. Still, she approached with apprehension, not just because the last time they’d met he’d been attempting to kidnap her and spirit her away to Hell, but because she remembered what Cutter had mentioned about him stealing her thoughts. How ironic was it that she was meeting him in another realm shortly after that conversation? Perhaps it was only an irony in an Alanis Morissette interpretation of the word, but she was cautious nonetheless.
He had his back to her, leaning on a brick wall that came almost to his strong shoulders. Even from here, with this view, she remembered what it had been like to find herself in his embrace, even if she’d thought he was Kyle at the time. The memories were raw, and she wished she had walked in the other direction or even found a way to wake herself up.
“Hello, Rune,” he said without turning his head. His voice resounded through her ears like the familiar reverberation of a melody she’d known her entire life. “How have you been?”
“What do you want, Thanatos?” she asked, stopping well back of his location and placing her hands on her hips. “Surely, you know better than to try to take me against my will again.”
He snickered, and she watched as his head tipped to the side with the expulsion. He still didn’t turn to look at her, which she was thankful for. Less reminders of Kyle were for the better. “Of course not,” he replied. “Though, I have to admit, our last meeting was more than a little shocking.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle; since when were demons sarcastic? “What is it then?”
Slowly, he turned his head to look at her, his green eyes catching the fading light of a thousand stars that lit the sky above them as if he had purposely hung each one in a precise location just for her amusement. Ru swallowed hard. Even though Thanatos did not look exactly like Kyle, as he had manipulated his appearance so that she wouldn’t recognize him in the real world, staring into those eyes brought her back to the moments she’d spent with the man she’d been falling in love with.
He noticed, of course, and a small grin pulled at the corner of his perfectly formed lips. “I needed to see you,” he said, calmly, quietly. “I wanted to know that you’re okay, that they haven’t found a way to… manipulate you into something you aren’t. Yet.”
Ru raised an eyebrow. She remembered his earlier warnings, that the Keepers wanted her for purposes that were not at all apparent to her, that just because they wore white that didn’t make them the good guys. She’d gotten over any doubts she’d had, for the most part, as she’d gotten to know Cutter and the others, but she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that she was concerned about the fact the Keepers had taken her father to Hell over her conception. “As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.” She folded her arms beneath her chest and watched as his eyes dropped to study her cleavage for a moment before returning to her eyes, no look of remorse apparent in his eyes. “What do you really want?”
His well-chiseled shoulders heaved up and down. “I want you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. The fact that you’re currently under the illusion that Cutter and his demon-killers are what’s best for you doesn’t change the fact that I long to be with you, Rune.” He licked his bottom lip, and Ru was transported back to the times when he’d passionately kissed her. She remembered the feel of his arms around her, his mouth pressed to hers. It took her a moment to realize not only was she staring, but she was chewing her own bottom lip enough to cause pain. She stopped. “I know you feel it, too.” He took a step toward her, his hands now innocently at his sides.
Ru instinctively took a step backward. “You are not Kyle.” It was a thought she’d been processing night and day since their battle in the woods. Not only was Thanatos not the man she’d thought she was falling in love with, that man didn’t even exist, an idea that was both difficult to process and soul crushing.
“That’s not true. You know it’s not. And that’s why you’re still here. You know, Rune, deep down inside, that I am Kyle—that Kyle is me. You remember what it was like when we were together, don’t you Ru? We can have that—all of that—again.” He took another step toward her.
This time, it was harder to retreat. Ru looked into his green eyes and remembered how she’d felt the first time Kyle had held her hand. She’d been so dumbfounded, so lost in him, she’d had no idea what had happened during an entire movie. When he’d first kissed her, she’d felt as if she’d grown wings and floated away.
The thought of wings brought her back to reality. Wings. Her scars. The message. He was just trying to get to her mother. “I’m sorry, Thanatos. But we both know you and I can never be together. You’re a Reaper, and I’m a Keeper.”
“And you know that’s simply not true, Rune.” He began to walk toward her now, his dark hair picking up the breeze and blowing up around his crown in a wave of raven black. Ru stood her ground as he closed the distance, stopping nearly at the tips of her toes. “You are only a Keeper now because that’s the side you’ve chosen. Come with me. I’ll make you see. You know, deep down in your heart, what we are doing is right.”
It was impossible for her to hold his gaze this close; it was too intense. She looked away. His words were similar to ones he’d spoken before, ones that haunted her dreams. What if he was right and the Reapers really did only claim souls that would cost the lives of innocent people, like had happened with the car wreck? If the Keepers hadn’t interfered, that family, including two young boys, would still be alive.
Ru looked up again and caught his eyes. She didn’t want to look away this time, nor did she want to back up, though the urge to do either, to do both, was almost more than she could handle. Still, she remembered the rush of power she’d felt when she’d used her Light to knock him up into the air and across the ravine. She could do it again if she needed to. “I’m sorry, Thanatos, but your words, your trickery, have no power over me. I’m a Keeper. I’m going to find my mother, and when we figure out the clues and locate her, we’ll use her knowledge to find the portals—and close them. For good.”
He held her gaze for a long moment, his expression inquisitive. “You will, will you?” he finally asked, a callous smile creeping across his face. “Good luck with that, Rune. I think we both know that your mother doesn’t have that information. If she did, the Keepers would’ve never let her get away. This is all a worthless wild goose chase. The only reason they’re even pretending to want her is because they know it’s enough to get you on their side.”
A snicker escaped Ru’s lips. “Why in the world would they want me? I’m only a clue to her location.”
“Is that what you think?” He actually took a step back, his head tipping to the side. “As I’ve said before, Rune, you’re much more powerful than you know. They want to harness that power. You won’t get any clues to the location of the portals from your mother, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of destroying every single one of us who dare stick our heads through.”
Only a moment of consideration of his statements weighed on her mind before she dismissed them. If he had any idea how unbelievably poor she was at her job, he wouldn’t try making such complimentary statements. She wasn’t delusional enough to think that she was any good at being a Keeper or that she ever would be. “Save your breath. I stink.”
His grin morphed into an outright smile. “Is that what they’re telling you?”
“No, it’s what I know,” she replied. Then, as he leaned forward, she added, “That doesn’t mean I couldn’t blast you cleanly over that brick wall and into another dimension if I wanted to.”
Thanatos chuckled, a sound that reverberated around her, dancing off of the trees and filling the night sky with a ghostly merriment that made her think of spirits sneaking through the veil on Halloween night. “I know you could,” he admitted. “That’s why I’m not trying to force you into anything, Rune. I know your power, even if they don’t. Even if they don’t. Rune, please, think about what you’re doing. You will lead them to your mother, and you know as well as I do what they will do to her once she’s in their possession. It won’t end well.”