Page 58 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

I nod, “Yep. I need a case though, I drop my phone a lot.”

I don’t tell him that I happen to throw my phone in my sleep sometimes as well. I need the sturdiest case that I get.

When we get to the shop, the sales guy goes into a full sales pitch and starts throwing all of this information at me in such quick succession that my brain immediately goes, ‘yeah we’re not interested’ and turns itself off. I have no idea what he is saying. Fortunately for me, Raiden is still paying attention, andasking the right questions, and I’m soon walking out with my brand new phone, all set up and in the strongest case that they have.

I squeeze Raiden’s hand, and he looks down at me curiously.

“Thank you for taking over. He threw so much information at me that, if I’m being really honest with myself, I’m just not interested in it, and my brain switched off,” I explain.

“That’s okay. River does exactly the same thing, except he just walks off mid-conversation, and we end up having to apologize for him,” Raiden explains.

I burst out laughing as I picture River doing it, “Oh my god, that’s fucking brilliant, maybe I should just start doing that. It would certainly save the awkwardness that always ensues after I have tuned out of a conversation and then don’t know how to answer whatever question they have asked.”

Raiden shrugs, “It works for River.”

He has almost completely relaxed now and is back to being how he was at home, he seems to be easily ignoring the people staring around us. Which makes it even more noticeable when he suddenly stiffens, that emotionless mask slamming back down over his features.

“What’s wrong?” I ask immediately.

He gestures to a dark-haired woman, powerful but not nearly as powerful as he is, or any of the guys, actually. She has a superior look on her face as she grins maliciously at Raiden, and I instantly don’t like the bitch.

“Someone from my past, my childhood. Where I come from, the weak are perceived as less, well we are perceived as worthless and treated as such. She is someone who took great pleasure in that, the males I could make back off simply because I was always a better fighter than they were. She knew I wouldn’t hit her, though, no matter what she did to me.”

“Cunt,” I hiss, and a surprised chuckle breaks free of his mask. Before he comments, I add, “You’re stronger than she is, though, a lot fucking stronger.”

He glances sharply at me, “You can tell that?” I nod, and he shakes his head, the cunt is nearly at us, “It’s safer for them to think that I am weaker.”

I nod, but don’t reply since she is now in hearing distance. Message received and understood, don’t let on to the woman that he is stronger than he seems.

“Okay,” I reply simply.

His voice lowers, “Let me handle this, she’s difficult. She is also a higher rank than I am, so I have to show her a certain level of respect.”

I nod again. I’m going to stay out of this interaction and let him handle it since that’s what he wants me to do. I don’t like the sound of him having no choice but to show her respect, but I don’t know enough about reaper culture, so I’m just going to do as he asked and keep my mouth shut.

Hopefully, I mean, my mouth doesn’t always follow my good intentions.

“We could just walk away?”

“Too late,” he mutters under his breath.

“Aw, it looks the weak little bitch boy has a girlfriend,” she sneers at me, “and a human one at that. I guess that makes sense.”

My eyebrows rise, and I bite my tongue really fucking hard. She is coming in hot, that’s for damn sure.

“Melody,” Raiden replies, his voice completely devoid of any sort of emotion.

“Bitch boy, how is it being at the bottom of the food chain? Ignored and cast aside by your own family,” she starts. Raiden ignores her, his face blank. His lack of interaction doesn’t seemto bother her as she just carries on. “I bet you didn’t even know that your sister had a baby, did you?”

I glance up at his face just in time to see the hurt flash through his eyes before he buries it again.

“No, I didn’t,” Raiden replies when it becomes clear that she wants an answer. She grins victoriously, but Raiden adds before she can say anything else, “If you’ll excuse us, we need to get going.”

We start to move past her, but she steps in our path again, her attention on me, “I should warn you, he’s weak. Not much power at all, it’s a wonder that he managed to get a job for SID. You would be better off with someone else.”

I really have to bite my tongue and have to remind myself that Raiden wanted to handle it. Thankfully, before my brain decides to tell her exactly what I think of her, she obviously decides that I’m not worth her time and turns her attention back to Raiden. He stares over the top of her head.

As she lays into him, I get angrier and angrier by the second. Who the fuck does she think she is, speaking to Raiden like that just because he’s supposedly weaker than she is?

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