Page 22 of Powerless
"No one is normal, bro. I don't care what anyone says. Hey, tell me something," I turned to him. "How do you decide on a favorite?"
"You mean of women who've serviced me?"
"Yeah. You like blondes, brunettes? Thick and curvy or slim and petite? Maybe we can just find you more of whatever you like."
His gaze lifted across the dining hall, settling on the only woman in the room. Mariposa had her back to us, long brown hair cascading over her shoulders as she sat with Reaper at the breakfast bar.
"My favorites are the ones who are good at pretending they're not afraid of me," Shadow answered softly.
Nine
MARIPOSA
No matter how much he tried to brush it off, I couldn't stop asking Reaper questions about what he called hisbondwith Hades.
The nurse in me wanted to examine it like an ailment. Or I guess it was more like an ability. Maybe even a super-power.
"Can you describe the bond with Hades?" I asked as we walked through the outpost after breakfast. "Have you felt it with any other animal?"
"Never." He lit a slim black cigarette and turned his head so the smoke wouldn't blow my way. "I've always been shitty with animals. I accidentally killed Noelle's pet fish when we were kids."
"Wow. She must have hated you." An unexpected pang hit me in the chest. I missed my friend, Reaper's sister, back at Sheol. I wasn't about to make friends with the kitchen girls and I felt a twinge of loneliness without another woman to talk to. If nothing else, she might be able to decipher her brother's behavior for me. I still felt so clueless about MC life and what roles women played.
"Oh yeah. She gave me a black eye and didn't talk to me for a week," he chuckled. "But Hades was different the moment I found him. Even before I found him, I had this...feeling. It sounds girly as shit, but I don't know how else to describe it."
"What kind of feeling?"
He gave me a sideways glance. "You're really not gonna let this go, are you?"
"I'm still astonished you haven't tried to pick this apart to understand it. I don't know how you just accept it as it is."
"Because it's always feltright," he answered after exhaling smoke. "Something nagged at me for a whole fucking day to check this pile of rubble. And when I did, and I found this tiny puppy who fit in the palm of my hand, I justknewI found what I'd been looking for."
He looked ahead to where Hades, now fully grown, trotted a few paces in front of us. He occasionally sniffed the ground, pissed on a bush, and looked back at us as if to make sure we were still following.
"I felt like I wasmeantto find Hades," Reaper continued softly. "Like we were always supposed to be together. I was meant to raise him and he was meant to look after me." He tossed his cigarette butt and added in an even softer voice, "And those closest to me."
"And you've done that for each other," I observed. "Since day one."
"If I had ignored that feeling back then," Reaper shook his head. "He wouldn't have lived. I'm sure of it. I saved his life and he's saved mine countless times in return. And it's only been a year."
"You two are closer than most humans are to each other. You're almost like brothers."
"Yeah." My pulse hammered as Reaper's hand bumped into mine and he grabbed it, lacing his fingers with mine. "I haven't really talked about this with anyone but Gunner, whose experience with Horus is similar but different. And Jandro and Noelle, who know everything about me. Most of the club thinks I'm just an expert dog trainer or some shit."
"See?" I dared to give his fingers a playful squeeze. "You do know this is unusual, otherwise you'd have no qualms talking about your...gift."
"Ain't 'cause of that, sugar," he chuckled. "I just know what it sounds like—feminine mumbo jumbo. Being sensitive to energies and shit. They wouldn't understand."
"I don't understand," I admitted, watching Hades stiffen and growl at a lizard. "But I'm trying to."
"I knew you would," he murmured.
"What made you pick the name Hades?" The dog in question grew bored with the lizard and moved on to sniffing in a lazy zig-zag. "Were you interested in Greek mythology?"
"I didn't pick it," Reaper said. "That was his name."
"Oh, you mean he had a collar on when you found him?"
