Page 56 of Sinister Hearts
“Nothing unusual for a Reaper. A lot of reaping, a lot of dark things I don’t wish to relive. Things I’d like to leave in Norway. I was a boy when I settled there, and I left something else.” Jax became silent, and I could see the dread spreading across his face.
“Hey,” I said, bringing our hands to my chest. “If you’re not ready to talk about it, I understand.” I touched his beard gently.
“I stayed longer because the pain that I felt never left. It just buried itself in me, taking up roots into depths no one’s ever reached,” he murmured. I listened quietly as my heart sank at his confessions. “Coming back home without you and my mother was too much to bear. I felt like I had nothing worth coming back to. You haunted me, little witch, alive in every crevice of my soul, hexing my doomed heart. You own me, my essence, my being. Not even Odin could take me from you. I am yours. If I ever met my demise, it would be because you could not love me. Loving you was the only thing that kept me going.”
I lifted my head to his, as his words wrapped me in an undying love I could no longer deny.
“Stupid cowboy,” I said, straddling his legs. I bent down to claim his deathly lips, biting his bottom one. “You are mine and I am yours, Reaper,” I teased. His woodsy scent was my home, I breathed him in and kissed his lips.
“The souls we reap… They’re some of the darkest and the most dangerous beings, and we are the Reapers who come to collect. Do you understand?” Jax exclaimed, making his stance clear.
“You thought I wouldn’t accept this?” I asked, baffled.
“I didn’t know what to think. You and I are two completely different people from five years ago. You left, and I was a boy, you, just a girl.”
I sat in silence, deep in my thoughts, listening to him bare his soul to me, as if he knew what I was thinking at that very moment.
Jax grabbed my face, “You have my word, that no harm will come to you or Birdie. I love Birdie, just as much as I love you. You two are my family now. The thought of losing you a second time, I don’t know if I could do it again. Not this time, I can’t,” Jax professed, bringing his forehead to mine.
“Shhh.” I silenced him with my finger to his mouth. “Jax, I’ve loved you since we were kids. You think telling me you sacrifice yourself for innocents would make me walk away from you? I understand more than you know. You are a Reaper. I understand it’s something I have to accept. Just like you wanted all of me, I want all of you. All of this.” I exclaimed, reassuring him that I was no longer afraid of the unknown. I was ready to dive deep into these dark, murky waters. As long as we had each other to stay afloat in this chaos, that’s all that mattered.
“My bloodline has been following a group of cultists that have been around for hundreds of years, making them our nemeses. They have killed many innocent women. The problem with these leeches is that they praise a god of sacrifice, for power and wealth.” Jax’s eyes were full of hatred. “In this world, wealth unfortunately pays for protection against their vile sins.”
My eyes widened with tears at the thought of Jax putting his life on the line for innocent people.
“Who are they?” I asked, getting up to refill my coffee in the kitchen.
“The Petrov’s. They are close in connection with the Adrik family. They are very dangerous and powerful. They’ve protected each other’s families for hundreds of years. Both followers of sacrificial binding, one of the darkest crafts there is to practice and follow,” Jax replied from the room while getting dressed.
My glass shattered all over the floor as I stood in shock at the blow of his words. The air around me was stuck in my throat, constricting my airway. My soul felt like it had left my very body.
Jax ran to me in a panic. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned.
I stood there in the middle of the kitchen, shaking, the tears staining my face.
“Baby, what is it?” Jax grabbed me carefully out of the glass maze on the floor.
“I know them,” I whispered, horrified.
“What the fuck do you mean you know them?” Jax asked, staring at me intensely.
I shook as I tried to find solid ground. Jax sat me back down as I struggled to find balance.
“Birdie’s father, his family… They are like family to him. They do business together. Oh my gods,” I pleaded, as everything started piecing together like a Rubik’s cube. The black suit and tie parties, the lavish lifestyle, the vacations, the money—bloodmoney. It was all so clear now. I felt sick to my stomach, the bile wanting to rise with every realization. This whole time, it was right under my nose. While I sat in those mansions and drove those foreign cars. The instant disgust I felt with not only myself, but the betrayal of reality that I felt, was making a mockery of me.
“You’re telling me your ex-husband has a hand in this cult? What did you say his last name was again?” he asked.
“Petrov,” I replied, numb in my tears. This whole time while I was surviving Vadon, others were as well. I was so caught up in the lifestyle and battling the abuse, I couldn’t see what was right before my eyes. All the late nights, the sketchy phone calls, the long business travels. The Petrov’s owned several cash businesses; laundry mats, car washes. They did plenty of business with the Adrik family.
“Your ex-husband is a Petrov?” Jax began laughing cynically. “This is too damn fucking good. I knew the motherfucker smelled like a cultist bitch from a mile away. They all have the same fucking black tie suits, with their smug faces.” He rolled his fingers through his coarse beard.
I was still shaking and crying in the corner, shocked. Yet somehow all this made sense, like a linked chain. It was all connected, including me.
“Faye, don’t even go there. No! This is not your fault, you didn’t know. Don’t you dare take on the sins of this motherfucker,” Jax said, grabbing me and holding me tight to his chest, while I crumbled in shame for being so incredibly naive, privileged, and stupid.
The disgust was too much. I needed to go to Birdie now. I knew she was safe and sound with Ma but something in my gut taunted me. I just knew something wasn’t right about any of this. Vadon had gone eerily quiet since Thanksgiving, and I knew him better than that. He was an angry, bitter soul who was cookingsomething up. A man like Vadon didn’t do well with a bruised ego. He held a grudge like you wouldn’t believe.
“We’ve been looking into the Petrov’s for years. The Adrik’s are the top dogs. The Petrov’s are their bitches, doing whatever it is they ask of them, to help cover their tracks and clean their dirty money.” All of it was making more and more sense. “In return, they get wealthy from their services and their sacrificial lambs. All for their wicked god whom they bend their weak knees for,” he said with disgust.
