Page 51 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

He is dressed in dark jeans and a black, tight-fitting t-shirt that leaves just enough to my very vivid imagination, dark brown boots, and has thrown a plaid and a leather jacket similar to mine over the top.

He looks hot, but then again, I pretty much always think that he looks hot.

“Everything okay?” he asks me as I come to stand next to him.

I nod, “Yeah, Winston was in my room.”

“Oh?” Raiden questions with his eyebrow raised, “Did he have anything interesting to say or was he only checking in.”

“Well, he had no idea that the imp had transported me to a different realm, which I thought was interesting. He showed up to make sure that I was okay after my freak out about the Choosing, but he couldn’t really tell me about it, like if it was going to happen or anything,” I explain.

Raiden frowns slightly, “Oh that’s a shame, I thought that we might be able to find out where you were.”

I smile, “He knew where I was from the description of the backward knee creature thing.” I say the name really slowly, so I don’t end up messing it up, “He said that it was a place called Luesidious.”

I chose not to tell Raiden that he also said that I shouldn’t have been able to breathe there. I’m sure that he will figure it out at some point, but I would really like to lessen my weird, just a little bit. With that in mind, I keep my mouth shut.

Raiden’s eyebrows draw together, “I have never heard of it. But it gives us something to look into, and maybe we can figure out why the imp sent you there now that we know where it was that he sent you.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. He wouldn’t tell me shit, although I will ask again if I see him again,” I say, a bite in my tone. I am still pissed that he sent me to another realm, even more so now that I know that realm could have killed me just by breathing the air if I wasn’t super weird—no wonder the little shit looked as shocked as he did.

“You can try, but imps are notoriously elusive, which is why it's so strange that he spoke to you in the first place,” Raiden replies.

I wave my hand over myself as I say, “Er, have you met me? Strange is pretty much all I am.”

His eyes follow my hand movement and heat, when they reach my eyes again, he clears his throat and shakes his head, his eyes still alight with stars, “You are so much more than that.”

He doesn’t give me a chance to reply, which is a damn good job because I am pretty sure that all that would come out of my mouth right now is absolute nonsense, and I would most likely end up embarrassing myself.

“Sorry what?” I ask because apparently, I was focusing too hard on not talking nonsense that I completely missed the fact that he is asking me a question and is now staring at me expectantly.

Chapter Seventeen

Neith

He smirks and holds up a set of keys, “I said, are you ready to go? We can talk more when we are in town, but I want to get going in case one of the guys finishes their report. I want you to myself for a bit.”

I try not to show how much his words have affected me, they shouldn’t, but he has said two really sweet things in the space of five minutes, and I’m not used to being on the end of sweet things, so it’s sort of throwing me through a fucking loop.

I chuckle, “Yeah I’m ready to go.” As I follow him out of the front door I add with mock shock, “Hold up, you mean we’re actually going to drive somewhere?”

He chuckles as he leads me around the side of the house that I haven’t seen yet, and I see a truly huge garage, I mean it’s fucking ginormous. I guess it makes sense, there are a lot of them living here, and I know just from how much I have on my card that they have more than enough money to buy a lot of nicecars if that’s their thing, and if you have nice cars then you need somewhere secure to keep them, hence the giant garage.

My eyes widen slightly as I realize that I can buy myself a fucking car. I don’t know much about cars, but I sure as hell appreciate them. Like many people, I have a few that I would love to own. That is something that I really need to think about before I purchase. Raiden then says probably the only words that could stop me from thinking about cars at that moment in time.

“How do you feel about motorbikes?” Raiden looks slightly apprehensive as he leads the way into the third garage along.

I stare at the beautiful bikes in front of me, “Wow, some of these are really fucking rare. Before you ask, I love bikes. There is something freeing about being on a bike; it feels like fucking flying. There is nothing quite like it, as far as I am concerned. I know enough about them to recognize that some of these are really fucking rare, but that’s about it. I don’t really know much about them mechanically,” I pause, my eyes still running over the bikes, as I correct my previous statement, “Actually, I guess that’s not strictly true. I know enough that I could fix a simple issue. Enough to keep the bike going.” I finally pull my eyes away from the bikes to look at a smiling Raiden, “I’m sorry you asked me a question?”

He chuckles again, “Don’t worry, I think you answered it perfectly.” He gets a contemplative look on his face as he asks, “I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this question from the way that you have been speaking about bikes, but do you ride?”

I grin, “Yes, I ride.”

I’m fucking good too, I think it’s because I have no real fear of dying, so I take risks that I probably shouldn’t. My lack of fear of dying doesn’t come from the fact that when I should die, I go to the Darkness Friend. As bad as it sounds for a long time, it just hasn’t mattered to me either way, living or dying. I shouldclarify I don’t have a death wish, but I have always been very comfortable with death. For years, I have been aware that I could die at any second, and that could really be it for me.

My life has not been safe or even remotely close to it for a long time, so my options were: I lived in fear, and I let that fear control my actions and my life no matter how long or short it may be, or I embraced it. I chose to embrace it; I acknowledge that I could die at any moment and not come back. It has allowed me not to live my very dangerous life in fear. It has also allowed me to have a certain level of confidence in certain situations and a distinct lack of fear.

I watch as Raiden walks across the garage and types a code into a lock box secured to the wall, he picks out another set of keys, shuts the box, and then turns back around with a smile on his face.

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