Page 38 of Monsters of Midlife

“Do something,” she pummeled her fist against my chest, her eyes brimming with tears. “I don’t want to be the one to tell people they’re going to die, or their family is going to die. I didn’t even have any idea about Aurelius or his wife. Now he probably hates me and feels like I brought it on.”

“That’s not true,” I said crossly. “And if it was, if he laid one hand on your head or even looked at you the wrong way at any point, well, that would be a demigod fight for sure. I didn’t know he was in Furlan’s. He didn’t know you were a banshee and even if he had, he wouldn’t have been able to stop the fact his wife was dying. Your singing didn’t kill her. It just told him she was going to die.”

Her shoulders and her head bowed. I could see her shake as more tears welled in her eyes. Her head leaned closer to my chest, and I wanted desperately to put my arms around her to comfort her, to hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay. If I gave in, if I showed her an ounce of emotion, I was just going to make a fool of myself. She would understand I was still in love with her, I couldn’t live without her, and the minute she knew that, it would put us both in danger. She was already in danger enough. The only way to get her out of danger was convincing people she was unobtainable. That would give me the time to find who or what was coming after us and to neutralize them.

I took a step back from her and she stumbled forward a bit, but I put a hand forward to steady her, barely touching her with the tips of my fingers on her shoulder. If I touched her anymore, I’d pick her up and take her to the bedroom and have my way with her. Regardless of whether she wanted me to or not. I could feel the monster sliding over me even as I touched her.

“Ryder?” she asked, her voice trembling as she looked up toward me.

“You’re not to leave this house, not until I find and stop the creatures attacking you.” I growled as I finished speaking. Then, without another word, I turned and walked out the door before I did something I would certainly regret. I stood on the other side of the closed door listening to her sobs, wrenching at my heart.

Chapter 24

CAROLINE

He left.

He left me standing there like an idiot. I had turned to him for comfort, and he had done nothing, absolutely nothing. I don’t know why I expected anything else. And the second he walked out the door, Sophie was standing there, as if she’d been right outside the entire time just waiting for him to finish doing whatever we needed to do together, which was apparently very, very little. The look of pity on her face when she walked in the door just pissed me off and left me wanting to get out of there as fast as I could, but I knew she was under strict orders to not let me go anywhere. I needed help. I needed her on my side. I just had to figure out how I was going to do that.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, yeah I’m all right.” I wiped my eyes.

“You don’t look all right.” She went to the kitchen and brought back a damp towel.

“Well, thanks. That makes me feel special.” I grumbled taking the cloth and putting it on my face to reduce the swelling.

She gave a light chuckle. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that. I just meant you’ve been going through a lot lately and,” she nodded towards the closed door, “Ryder’s kind of an asshole.”

“Kind of?” I asked. “Last time I checked I think he was a complete asshole.”

“He’s not really good with feelings,” Sophie said.

My head whipped around at her and I stared. “Did you and him…” My voice trailed off hating the thought Ryder had been with somebody else even though we’d been apart three years. It made sense he would have seen someone else, but it would be terrible if it was Sophie, my only friend here.

“No, no never,” Sophie said with a laugh and a smile. “Damn, demigods don’t usually demean themselves with witches if you know what I mean. Although, come to think of it, they don’t usually do it with humans either.”

“I thought we had established I’m not a human,” I sighed. “I’m a banshee.”

“Well, yes, that appears to be what you are. It’s only a handful of opinions, though,” she pointed out. “You’d have to go to the temple in San Francisco to find out for sure.”

“The temple in San Francisco?” I asked.

“Temple Cyrene,” Sophie said, then she noted the look in my eye. “Don’t be getting the wrong idea. We’re not going there.”

“I didn’t say anything about going there. I’m just asking questions. You’ve got to remember I’m completely new to this world and I have no idea what’s going on.” I stopped short of blinking my eyes at her.

A look of sympathy passed over Sophie’s face. If we’d met under different circumstances, we could probably be quite good friends, but as it stood now, I wasn’t convinced she had my best interests at heart. It seemed more like she was willing to do the demigods’ bidding.

“Well, you know there’s a Demigod Corporation, right?” she asked.

I nodded. The words had been tossed around enough. “The DGC, right?”

“Demigods use the witches to create wards. We have great protection skills. It’s kind of our niche as it were, but for the witches to maintain their power, we must have temples where we focus our energies and then all the witches kind of thrive off the energy of the priestesses. It magnifies us. So, we put different temples in different areas where there are ley lines. Those temples are where we pray and raise the energy that the rest of the witches all use.”

“Are the priestesses Fae or are they witches?” I asked.

“Oh, they’re handpicked witches who are elevated to the status of priestess. You won’t find many Fae on this side of the world. All the Fae have lived over in Europe and Asia ever since the wars when the demigods took over North America and renamed it New Attica.”

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