Page 13 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

I smile gratefully, but that is about as far as my thoughts get because my focus is on the food. Standing up from the couch, I settle on the floor, open up the pizza and add all the sides that I want, which is of course all of them, to the now flattened lid.

“That’s brilliant,” River exclaims, sitting next to me and doing exactly the same.

He moves with such fluid grace, crossing his legs with an ease that such a giant man shouldn’t have. It fascinates me but not enough to take my attention off the food for very long. The guys clearly learned from last time because a second one appears as soon as I finish my first pizza, and I smile gratefully up at Griff.

I didn’t wake up with an IV line in me, and I was very definitely fading, yet all I currently feel is hungry, really fucking hungry but only that. I glance around the room at the guys, they must have done something because I nearly slipped into the Darkness again, I was sure of that. It has also only been a couple of days since I died the last time, although it feels like a lot longer, and now that I am really thinking about it, I don’t think I have ever died in such quick succession before. Maybe that’s why I ran out of steam so quickly and could feel the Darkness tugging on me again.

So what happened while I was out for the count, and how did they manage to do something that stopped the Darkness from taking me? I instinctively know that even though I died a few days before and not straight before my second death, it still wasn’t great that I died with very little time between deaths, and I was in a really bad way.

I take a breath and focus inward, trying to see if I can somehow feel what happened, tilting my head slightly as I find a familiar magic, definitely not mine, I don’t have magic, or maybe I do? I am still not ready to confront that either way.

The magic is comforting to me and fills me with warmth. My gaze lands on Raiden, who is distracted by his food. It’s him, it’s his magic, and I know that without a shadow of a doubt. I frown as something niggles at my mind, something that Wallace said about Raiden; at least, I think that is what I am trying to remember, but as soon as I believe that I have grasped hold of the memory, it slips from my grasp again. No matter how hardI try, the memory just slips further and further away. I’m clearly not supposed to remember it, so I let it go.

It makes sense in a way that he was the one to help me since I was dead and he is a reaper, although I will admit that at first, I thought that it was Doc who had helped me, since he is the doctor in this group.

I am extremely curious about what he did, but I know that if I bring that conversation up now, then they are going to think that it is go time on the conversations that I know that they want to talk about, and I need more pizza before that happens.

They are being very patient, I know that they have questions, and I kind of love that they are letting me eat before they ask me anything. Of course, that might be because Evander has told them stories from our childhood about what happens if I don’t get food or get interrupted before the hanger has been satisfied. Whatever the reason, I am grateful.

They last until I am halfway through my second pizza before they start the conversation.

“Okay, I can’t keep it in any longer,” River suddenly exclaims from beside me, and I glance up at him. “You died.”

“I did,” I reply, because there really is no point in trying to say otherwise, I had a knife sticking out of my chest. It pierced my heart, no one could survive that.

“But you are alive,” Griff adds, as a statement and not a question.

“Yes, I am.”

“Neith,” Evander says, pulling my gaze over to where he is studying me closely, “did you die before you came here?”

I sigh and put down my slice of pizza, “Yes.”

There is a rumble of growls that echo through the room and send a thrill through me. I'm not even sure who is growling, I just know that it’s more than one of them and I strangely like it.

“I think you had better start from the beginning, Love,” Doc says, his eyes filled with anger already.

I’m not focused on that at all though, he called me love. I know it doesn’t mean anything, but it still makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and since the following conversation isn’t going to be warm and fuzzy at all, I’m going to enjoy this moment for a short while longer.

“Neith?” River asks curiously.

I hold up my hand, “Give me a second.”

“What is she doing?” Ransom asks.

I watch Evander shrug and then smirk, “If it’s the same thing she used to do when she was a kid, then she’s committing something to memory.”

I melt, “Aw, you remembered.”

“Of course I did,” Van replies with a slight frown like he is confused about why he wouldn’t have remembered something like that about me.

It may not mean a lot to him and may seem like a small thing to remember, but to me it's huge, and it means something.

“Neith, you were going to explain how you died?” Reed’s voice rumbles through the room, his patients clearly running thin.

“Okay, so you know how I said that HID tried to kill me and bopped me on the head and then abandoned me, blah blah blah,” I start to explain, my hand waving dismissively in the air.

The guys just stare at me incredulously before Raiden nods and answers, “Yeah.”

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