exactly
what they are. You probably could figure it out now if you focus
when you feel a connection to someone else.” I thought about the
sense I’d had with Mariah—like I found a kindred spirit. “Once you
feel the connection and learn to figure the class, it just takes
practice.”
“ Class?” I asked, praying
he wouldn’t clam up. He grimaced at me and sighed, but kept going.
I allowed myself a silent celebration. “The Otherworld is divided
into classes. One class is demon, that’s where Sariah and I fall.
We tend to be the physically strongest, but are generally parasitic
in nature, feeding off energy.”
“ Wait, you’re a psychic
parasite? Like Sariah?” I asked, cocking my head.
“ Yes, mine is less obvious.
I can feed on any human emotion. When I’m around them, it’s really
hard to resist. It’s like putting you in a room full of chocolate
and asking you not to eat any. It’s why I have so few friends.
Humans get a creeped out feeling when I feed. I get most of my
sustenance from the girls I go out with. They, eventually, can’t
handle being around me and we break up, but it gives me plenty.
Intense emotions taste better to me, like pizza compared to mashed
turnips. And with teenage girls, everything they feel is
intense…”
I was a little repulsed by his
confession, but deliberately froze my features so it wouldn’t show.
When you think about it, eating the charred carcass of a dead
animal was pretty creepy too, but I had no problem with a nice
steak. “Can you feed off of me or Sariah?”
“ No, Otherworlders are
different. Some classes can be used in a pinch, but it’s like
eating bark or shoe leather—unpleasant and not as nourishing as
real food.”
I nodded, a little relieved to know my
brother wasn’t snacking off my turmoil. “What are the other
classes?” I asked, changing the subject before I began to feel
physically ill.
“ You got the undead,” he
said, ticking them off on his fingers. “They're humans who died and
became reanimated somehow. They generally have to drain the life
from humans to stay alive, whether it’s a vampire drinking blood or
a ghost draining a human’s life energy to stay on this
plane.”
Another finger joined the other two.
“Next you got your harbingers. Mostly that’s angels who are able to
channel the spiritual energy of the universe, which they often
refer to as ‘holy energy’ or something like that. Get any idea of
what you know about angels from television and mythology out of
your head because they're probably the most misunderstood of all
Otherworlders. They tend to insert themselves into human events to
influence the outcome and are generally forces of good. But they’re
just like you and me, a little more than human. They have no better
clue about some grand design or destiny than the rest of
us.
He added his pinky, so only his thumb
lay folded against his palm. “Then you got your fringe elements.
These Otherworlders live on the fringes of human society. Their
abilities directly affect human affairs—like banshee and cupids.
There’s the nature spirits, who can harness the energy of the earth
like you will be able to one day. You got the beasts: wendigos,
harpies, and minotaurs. They don’t usually appear human, so they
live in isolation and are getting rare, with the exception of
shifters who are fully human all but three nights a month. And then
the seventh class is the human based Otherworlders, witches mostly.
The chances of you running into another Otherworlder are pretty
high, since so many of us are blending into the human world these
days.
“ If you never take another
word of advice from me, Amelia, take this. Never trust a demon
outside this family. They're truly evil and wish for nothing more
than to cause pain and suffering. I’ve felt the blood lust myself,
and I’m only half demon. Sariah and I are the exception, not the
rule. If you ever see one, run. Promise me? ”
I promised him I would even as
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