I knock on his bedroom door. "Aster? It's Zero." I say loudly.
"What are you doing here?" Aster asks when he finally opens the door. His room is dark, with just a candle burning in it. He moves aside so I can walk in, walking around and lighting more candles while I close the door behind me.
"I've run into a very big problem." I say seriously.
"Okay." He turns to look at me then, concern written all over his face.
"My sister, and the girl I saved that qualified me to become a Reaper, they found me." Aster's face remains still. "They have somehow gotten involved with people they call Portal Hoppers, and they convinced them to start killing people to try and get to me. Well, it worked tonight, I reaped the soul of a girl they had just gotten done murdering."
"I see…" Aster says, scratching at his head. I can see his gears already turning at the load of information I'd just laid out for him.
"That's not all." I say. "They told me that these Portal Hoppers apparently already have a Reaper from this world captured, and they're holding him prisoner."
A dark, almost scary look passes over Aster's face, an expression settling in his demon-like eyes that I've never seen on him before.
He looked like an angry monster, to be honest.
"They've taken one of my Reapers? Who?" He steps forward, his giant figure casting a shadow over me.
"They didn't have a name." I shake my head and Aster turns to look at his bedroom door.
"Take me to these two. I need to speak with them." He says, his gaze fixed. I nod, and lead him down the hallway towards where I left them.
"Jasmine, Tabitha. Come meet someone." I say when I walk back into the room. They stand up quickly, both coming to stand in front of me.
"You are his sister?" I step back a little when Aster starts circling around Jazzy, his eyes scanning her over as he towers above her. I can tell from the expression on her face he's creeping her out, but I can tell from the look on Aster's face he's in business mode, and he doesn't care.
He grabs her face with his hand, and I watch with curiosity as he stares into her eyes. Her gaze seems to glaze over, and I tilt my head to the side as Aster stares into her eyes.
"I know who they took." He says as he continues to stare at Jazzy. "It's Henry. They've had him for almost a year now." He growls and lets go of my sister's face, who slumps against Tabitha once she's free.
"What did you just do?" I ask, watching my sister.
Aster's gaze flicks over to her for a second and he dismissively flicks his hand. "She's fine, I just pulled some memories from her soul. I'll teach you how to do it one day." I nod a little, watching as Jazzy rubs at her head a little but finally straightens out. I had no idea we could do that, to be honest. Seems there was more than just a little I didn't know about myself.
"I don't think I've met Henry." I say as I watch Aster pace back and forth. Tabitha glares at him a little as she holds onto my sister, but doesn't say anything. Even she seems a little wary of the powerful presence Aster brings, with the whole seven foot tall grim reaper thing he had going on.
"He's a quiet one, doesn't pop up much anyways. I mostly send him after old people and suicides, because he's a bit more… gentle than the rest of us." He stops in front of me then. "We need to call everyone home. We need to have a meeting." I raise my brow at his words.
York told me the last time they had all met was four hundred years ago, when a Reaper went awol and fell in love with a human. He ran off with her, and had to be tracked down and stripped of his immortality. So for Aster to be saying we all needed to meet now, meant this was serious.
"What do you need me to do?" I ask Aster.
"Take them to the spare operating room." He growls a little, gesturing towards the two girls who still stood huddled together. "We'll need them again later, but for now we need to keep them from seeing more than they already have. Our secrets are at risk." He glares at them one last time before hurrying off back towards his room, to call everyone in I guess.
I turn back to my sister and Tabitha.
"You heard the man. Let's go." I tick my head towards a hallway. They both hesitate, and I sigh. "If you don't follow me I'm just going to have to drag you there kicking and screaming. You two can't be trusted, and besides that, you're humans. You're not meant to know any of this." Jazzy is the first to step forward, and I wrap my arm around her shoulders as we walk down the hallway. I pull her close to me, because even though I'm fucking pissed at her, she's still my sister, and this might actually be the last chance i get to hold her, talk to her. I don't see Aster letting her hang around me after this.
"I'm sorry." She mutters quietly.
"I know, kid." I sigh, hugging her a little tighter as we reach the spare operating room. It had the same metal walls as the one I was worked on in had, but there's no tools or operating table set up. Just some empty rolling carts and a couple metal chairs. I gently push Jazzy in, and move aside so Tabitha can walk in too.
She glances up at me as she does, and I turn my face away, refusing to meet her gaze. Her crush on me needs to stop, now, so I'm doing everything in my power to deter her, to make her think I'm just some asshole. It was easier that way, if she resented me.
"I'll be back for you as soon as I can." I say to my sister before closing the door and locking it from the outside. I sigh a little, feeling guilty but knowing this is a part of my role as a Reaper. I had a priority above my own sister now, and it didn't matter how locking her up made me feel.
As a Reaper, you must always be impartial.