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Raine nodded. “The humans attributed the atrocities to a serial killer.”
She huffed. “How convenient. Didn’t the nature of the kills raise suspicion?”
“Yes. They believed it was an invader. A warmonger looking to conquer the lands. In a way, they were right. Only the demons didn’t want their land. They only wanted death and destruction. Blood to feed their unholy hunger.”
She cleared her throat. “Demons drink blood?”
Raine nodded before glancing away. “What about you, Dannika? I have told you of my species’ origins. Tell me about you. Your life growing up.”
Dannika’s chest squeezed. She pulled away from him, but he wrapped his hand around her wrist.
“Why?” she asked.
“I have no intention of forcing your compliance. I am simply asking because I wish to get to know you.”
She shrugged. “Not much to tell.”
His eyes flickered with blue fire. “Please.”
Many humans often used that single word, yet she was sure it was new to Raine. She sat on the couch, but put some distance between them. She needed the cocoon of solitude to remind her of her life alone.
“I was an orphan.”
Raine crossed his legs and put his arm on the back of the couch. “Do you know who your parents are?”
“No. I moved around so much as a child, I can’t remember all the locations or the names of the foster families. Sometimes I was in one place for a few weeks, or a few months, but most of the time it wasn’t long enough to make friends or put down roots.”
Raine frowned. “Why did you move around so much?”
Dannika shrugged. “I don’t know. Every time I thought I was with a family who would keep me, something changed. There was never a fight or an incident that spurned the change in their demeanor, but I came to expect a call to the social worker, asking for me to be moved to another family.”
“Were they abusive?”
Dannika shook her head. “That’s the weird part. Once, I was placed in a home that would have been bad for me. The foster father came into my room and pulled back my covers. I tried to fight him, but he hit me. When I woke up, he was gone and the social worker removed me the following morning. Later, I found out he’d been murdered at a bar across town. I never learned the truth about his death.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s quite a coincidence.”
She nibbled her thumbnail. “Not really. Good or bad, no family wanted to be around me. Maybe I’m cursed. Maybe I attracted that reaper to me.”
Raine leaned over, placing his hand on her ankle. “That’s not how it works. Reapers are interested in your blood. They don’t care about your background.”
Dannika thought about the hallucinations that had plagued her life. “Do reapers taunt their victims?”
Raine nodded. “Fear laces the blood with adrenaline and gives a reaper a longer high. They often taunt their victims for weeks, sometimes months, before they kill them.”
Dannika searched his face. “What about years? I’ve always heard things from the shadows. I thought I was going insane. I was always different.”
He leaned toward her. “You heard things from the shadows? What kinds of things?”
She took a deep breath. “Talking. Laughing. Planning people’s deaths. I know it sounds insane, but I’ve always heard voices.”
Raine rubbed his chin. “You’re describing the shadow shifter world, but you shouldn’t have been able to hear us unless we are in human form.”
Her eyes snapped up. “Can a reaper appear as a human?”
“Yes, except for his eyes. Those remain red, so reapers have to wear sunglasses.”
She blinked. “The reaper at the shelter. He whispered in my ear, but I couldn’t see him. Then he was sitting at a table eating soup. Another patron accused him of stealing his Jell-O, but we didn’t believe it.”
