Page 17 of Leviathan's Song
“Oh, no! I’m sorry!” I snatched the gem set from my hair responsible for his troubles and quickly rifled through my purse, dropping it in a leaded pouch just to be on the safe side. “I’m so sorry. Levi didn’t tell me there were vampires here.” I felt as though I were trying to melt into the wall already pressed at my back.
“I didn’t realize you were covered in hexes,” Levi murmured, his attention returning to taking my jacket, tugging me gently away from the wall.
“I’m covered ineverything,”I babbled.
“Noted. Jordan, what are you doing eating food? Aren’t you just going to have to barf those back up later?” Levi sounded distracted as he hung my coat on a hook near the door.
Jordan frowned into his bowl and clicked the chopsticks he held in his hand. “I just really miss dumplings. Don’t ruin this for me.”
I’d already shifted my attention back to the pulsing, suffocating magic emanating from farther back in the apartment. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Levi’s cheerful expression begin to slip.
“Elara? What’s wrong?” I’d migrated back to the wall by the door and was now entirely flattened against it, my eyes probably as wide as saucers. “Jordan won’t hurt you. He’s never even bitten anyone.”
“It’s true,” Jordan muttered. “I prefer to pretend my food comes from the store just like everybody else.”
“Just think of him as the weirdo guy with the special diet and severe sun allergy who lives in my apartment.” Levi gave a sarcastic grin and did jazz hands. “He’s kind of like a strange pet cat.”
“Thanks,ass,” Jordan grumbled, rolling his eyes. I opened my mouth but, unable to produce more than a squeak, settled for shaking my head slightly and pointing toward the back of the apartment. The magic was growing by the second, rolling over me again and again. It felt like a current dragging me into the yawning mouth of a cold, dark chasm in the bottom of the ocean.
Levi’s eyebrows pulled together as he stared at me, and he glanced toward where I was pointing before I saw recognition dawn in his eyes. “Oh, hold on.” He walked to a bedroom door at the entrance of the hallway in the back and raised a fist to pound on it.
“Yo, Eeyore! Knock it off! You’re scaring the guest!” he hollered.
After a few seconds, the door opened, and I felt my face blanch. The man was tall and lanky, probably more than seven feet, with lean muscle and shaggy black hair. He had deep-set eyes, which were stark white with no pupils or irises, and strong, masculine features. His skin was alabaster, paler even than the vampire’s, and this man wasnothuman. Not even a little bit. I had no idea how he could survive outside of the Boundlands.
As I watched, shadows swirled up around his feet and began to gather around him like a cloak. The denser they got, the harder it was to focus on him. It was like my eyes tried to slide away from him, even though I could tellexactlywhere he was because I could feel his magic with my extra perception.
“Oh, dang. Grim’s got a job. No point in talking to him when he gets like this. Sorry, I’ll have to introduce you later. Come this way. I’ll show you what I’ve got.” He turned and strode down the hall like what we were seeing was the most natural thing in the world.
Grim, if that was his name, started forward, crossing the room and coming toward me. When he drew near, he raised his head and turned it to look me square in the face, the shadows of his cloak trailing out around him like spider webs into the ether.
I raised my hand and gave a halting finger wave, unsure of what to do as he grabbed the handle of the front door and left.
When I heard it click shut, I bolted, barely hearing Jordan’s “Nice to meet you” as I streaked past him after Levi. I blew right past him and rounded on him, wanting to put him between me and whatever that guy was. He caught me by the upper arms to keep from stumbling into me.
“Who was that!?” I gasped.
“Whoa, you okay? That’s Grim. Have you never met a reaper?” he asked as he steadied me.
“You have a reaper in your house?” I asked incredulously. A grim reaper? Who collected souls of the dead? Just hanging out in someone’s house?
“Well, yeah, I mean, he lives here. Pays rent and everything. You don’t need to be afraid of ol’ Eeyore. It’s not like he kills people, he just collects the ones who are already dead.” Levi chuckled and wrapped an arm around me, tugging me the rest of the way down the hallway to the last door on the end.
“So how didIget the ‘weirdo’ label?” I heard Jordan call from the kitchen.
“That’s a legitimate question,” Levi mumbled under his breath, entering what I assumed was his room.
Now that the reaper’s magic had finally faded away to nothing, I felt like I could actually think. I looked at the small room around me and found it rather spartan, but adequate. The navy bedding was rumpled, but everything was otherwise tidy and comfortable if a little bare. His guitar case was propped in the corner and a desk covered in sheet music sat to one side.
I tried to blink away my confusion. “Is his name Eeyore? Or Grim?”
Levi barked a laugh. “Neither. His name is Victor, but only his parents call him that. Everyone else calls him Grim.” He leaned against the edge of his bed. “I’ve just called him Eeyore since… well, at least middle school. It really used to get his goat.”
I felt like I’d just stepped into an alternate universe. Granted, I probably did that every day when I stepped through a Gate, but this was different. I didn’t know what to think.
Levi laughed at my expression. “Did I just rock your world?”
“Maybe?”
