Mamoru focused his eyes on the mated mark that he had given Usagi. He had always thought jealousy to be a petty and weak emotion previously in his life. Now he realized that was an easy stance to take when he hadn't been in love. He ran the tips of his fingers over the mark and forced himself to think about how many times she vowed she belonged to him alone. It helped to begin to quell the roiling emotions in him, but it didn't wholly snuff them out.
He watched as she turned her face up to his, looking into his eyes. "I did date him. There is only one Grim Reaper in the world, and it was flattering that he was interested in me."
"How do you even meet a man like that?" Mina asked, impressed by Usagi's appeal.
"Well, that's kinda an odd story. I met him at an elementary school."
Ami brought her hand to her mouth in shock, "did a kid die?! How sad."
Usagi shook her head. "No, no child died." She rubbed her eyes and said, "he was in his human form, picking up his godchild from second grade. I was there tracking a werewolf that had wandered onto school property. It turned out he was tracking the same child that the Grim Reaper was there to get…."
Nephrite jokingly raised his hand and asked, "wait, the grim reaper has a godchild?"
Mamoru had wrapped his arms tightly around Usagi. She loved being enveloped in his embrace. She said, "he ushers the dead into the afterlife. His compassion is strong, though, and there was this human child whose parents were slaughtered before her eyes. She had been hidden by them at the time. When death itself said it was gruesome, I have to believe it was horrific. He took the parents into the next realm and then came back to help protect the girl. He worked to find her a good home, and he checked on her throughout her lifetime. When she grew up and had a child of her own, he went to visit. When he did he vowed to watch after her child as he had watched over her. Three months later, her husband died suddenly from a freak accident. He then began helping out more and more. It was endearing to see him so devoted to the child."
Rei stepped in and asked, "was he in love with the girl he saved?"
"It would be creepy to ask out Usagi then," Mina pointed out.
Usagi said, "he loved her like a father loves their child. She is the only woman I believe he ever really loved, though. The love of a parent can be very strong, though."
"And the werewolf?" Zoisite asked.
"Dead. I killed him when I realized he was hunting down the child of a rival werewolf pack. The Werewolf genes were so minuscule in her that she wouldn't have ever shown evidence of her ancestry. He didn't care, though, and he wanted her dead. The grim reaper appreciated my help and asked me out."
"What does one even call him?" Mina asked.
"In America in the 1860s, he went by Graham."
Hatori suppressed a smirk. He could tell just by looking at Mamoru that the normally calm and collected man was struggling with this conversation. "So, it's a catch-22 We might be able to get help from him, butthen Mamoru would have to meet your ex."
Mamoru tucked his chin in a reflexive defensive posture, and said, "I can handle it."
"Suuure you can," Mina teased.
It was actually Kunzite who contradicted her this time. "He has his pack and his mated love. He'll be fine. It's 'Graham' that will be at a disadvantage."
Zoisite, wanting to know the logistics of everything, said, "and how would we get him here? It's not like one of us is dying."
"Rei," Usagi answered easily. "A witch with even a fraction of her power could call him."
"Then I would be happy to help," Rei responded.
Jadeite watched an odd expression flicker over Rei's face briefly. There was some male pride in him when he felt he could instantly interrupt her feelings. Not that it would be that much of a stretch to figure out that it was just one more new overwhelming thing for her.
He knew that when Usagi so casually talked about Rei doing things like that it phased her. And that fact made him truly appreciate Usagi. Rei was so used to being the 'freak' or the ignored daughter. Only her grandfather had made her feel like she had any value before. And now, Usagi spoke of her like she was this amazing witch, and he loved that.
And then Usagi said something that made him incapable of being quiet. She said, "why don't you go ahead and do it now? You have enough power to easily do it without any aid."
"That's my witch!" Jadeite bragged. "It doesn't even surprise me that you can summon the Grim Reaper."
Everyone watched in rapt attention as Usagi explained to Rei what she had to do. Rei reached out with her mind and she was disappointed to feel very little draw on her energy. She was about to say it didn't work when, to her shock, the Grim Reaper was standing in front of her.
Nephrite commented, "well that either worked, or she accidentally summoned a male model."
The Grim Reaper looked nothing like they expected. The only thing that didn't surprise them was that he was dressed all in black. He wore black slacks and a short-sleeved tight Henley that showed off his body.
"Fuck me," Mina muttered, and Kunzite shot her a frustrated look. He knew she found the man attractive.
He looked like he benched over two hundred pounds, easily. His muscled arms bulged, and even through his shirt, they could tell he had amazing pecs and six-pack abs.
It wasn't until the girls got their initial reactions under control that they noticed how handsome he was. Long black wavy hair framed his chiseled face, but it was his eyes that stood out. His irises were mat black.
Jadeite grumbled, "well this sucks that she can summon this guy to her so easily."
Rei was standing opposite of Usagi and since she was the one to have summoned him, his back was still to Usagi. It was obvious to everyone that he hadn't seen her yet.
"You call?" He asked, with a distinctively Norse accent.
"I had Rei help me, Graham."
He whipped around, and his eyes went right to Usagi. "You know I will help you with anything you need." He then tentatively reached out to her and said cockily, "it's been so long. Did you miss me?"
Mamoru rolled his eyes and in the process he noticed Graham's inner forearm, he couldn't stop the hybrid inside of him. He growled long and low, and his fangs descended.
"Well, that's not possible," Graham said, interrupting anything Mamoeu was about to say. He was looking at Mamoru in astonishment.
"Why do you have her name tattooed on your forearm?!" Mamoru's face was now fully transformed. His eyes were pitch black and the red veins showed around his eyes.
"How the hell are you possible?" Graham asked, again instead.
"You. Talk. First!" Mamoru demanded, now standing in front of Usagi. "Why do you have her name on your damn arm?!" He was beyond caring that he sounded jealous. He was, after all.
"I knew her before you even existed. It's not like she could ever be owned by anyone!"
"She's my Mate."
"Not possible."
"She is!" At that, Mamoru moved and pulled at the neck of Usagi's shirt, showing her mated mark. "I bit her and left my mark on her. She's mine!"
Luna chuckled over the two men posturing and clashing over Usagi. Mamoru was fighting a battle he had already won – she wondered why he bothered. Luna then asked, "isn't a tattoo the kiss of death for a relationship? I thought everyone knew that." She then laughed.
Graham frowned. "I was the first to… I got her name tattooed on my arm in 1864, and then she… Left me. I was more than a little angry at the time so I had a witch cast a curse. Since then getting a name tattooed would result in destroying the relationship."
"Hold the frick up! Getting your significant other's name tattooed on you is the kiss of death for a relationship because Usagi left you?" Rei laughed. "That's hilarious!"
Graham glared at Rei. "And how do you figure that?! Do you know how special she is?"
"Yup!" Rei answered back quickly. "But I don't have any empathy for you. She's like my sister, and I'm impressed with how much appeal she has."
He glared at her and said, "just because you're a powerful witch doesn't mean I won't come after you!"
Most everyone in the room was left blinking in surprise over how fast Graham ended up with his face and chest pressed against the floor-to-ceiling window, his arms were wrenched behind his back too. Usagi was fully vamped out, pinning him there and snarling at him. "Threaten her again, and I will make you suffer. I can't fucking kill you, but that, in the end, would be the fun of it all. No matter how much death would be a release from the pain, you, of all beings, wouldn't get that mercy!"
"Usagi," he said, brokenly. "Why?"
"She's one of mine, why would you expect any less? You know me enough to know I can be kind and sweet, but I've never tame."
"Is that why you left?"
She rolled his eyes and released him. "I have always known you can change forms. You just believed I was fool enough not to figure that out. You had an odd way of showing your 'love' to me back then. I knew about Charlotte."
His eyes grew huge, and he looked stricken. "She didn't matter to me. What made you think she meant anything more to me than a way to get my dick wet."
Usagi raised one eyebrow at him. "You've always been such a dog. She might have just been a fun time to you, but that isn't something I would ever accept." Mamoru started laughing, his jealousy fleeing him instantly.
Graham said condescendingly, "I thought you were open-minded enough to understand a man's needs."
"Spoken like a weak man controlled by his cock. Your selfish focus on your sexual desires at the exclusion of everyone else's feelings disgusted me. You're only here now because I think you can help us solve the mystery of how two people died. I do have something for you in exchange –the name of a high-end call girl. I know your type. You'll greatly approve of her."
"Awesome!"
"That was easy," Nephrite commented.
Graham shrugged, "she isn't wrong. I like sex a lot, and it's obvious that I shouldn't waste time trying to get any from her," he said, pointing at Usagi.
He then turned to Mamoru, "now, how the hell are you even possible?!"
"Help him, and we'll tell you." Usagi knew that Graham loved a good mystery. After being around so long, it was incredibly rare when anything shocked him.
He pursed his lips, "give me that call girls number too, and we have a deal."
He was a sexual opportunist, and Usagi knew that well. She wasn't at all surprised by his attitude. He was always one to lust after blonds with blue eyes, and she knew that was what really interested him at first. Then he found out that he had heard of her before, and that added to her mystique. His tattooing of her name on his arm was really just a desperate attempt to add her to his list of sexual conquests. She wasn't ever fooled by his honeyed words or his charm. She dated him shortly just to be able to say she dated death. Still, she had zero desire to let him have her body.
Usagi went to the end table and pulled out a small pad of paper. She wrote down the names of Mamoru's parents and around the time when they died. She then ripped the page from the notepad and handed it to him. "Impress me. We want to know what really happened to his parents. They died when he was six, and the coroner's report is utter garbage."
He made an exaggerated bow and said, "I will have to page through my memories."
"I know. I expected it to take some time."
"Ciao." He then disappeared.
"Page through his memories?" Zoisite asked.
"He's seen the death of every person that has ever lived. Early in the history of the world, he almost went insane. He had too much information crowding his brain. He located a powerful witch, and she cast a spell that converted his memories of the dead into the written word, removing them all from his brain. It's why he's so fascinated with the living, it's the only memories he has easy access to in his head."
Shingo raised his eyebrows. "I thought that was a myth."
"Because you heard the memories get ripped from his brain?" Usagi asked, smiling.
"Yeah, who would choose to have that done to them every time?! Unless you're saying that's not true," Shingo added.
"Nope, it's true," Usagi said. "The real lesson there is not to take the virginity of the daughter of the very powerful and very spiteful witch you're asking for help. She was pissed, and she got her revenge."
Ami shook her head, "I would have never guessed the Grim Reaper is a sex addict."
Makoto whispered, "my life is so weird." Many in the room agreed with her.