Declan A grim reaper knows when people are ready to cross over to the next life. That makes it hard to get close to anyone. My brothers are monsters too, so their lives are long, and their deaths far enough away that they don’t invade my senses. Every other human is not as much of a mystery. I touch them and I know when they will draw their last breath. Until Anabelle. From the first touch, I feel need and desire. Not a hint of death in her future. It’s not possible, and yet… Anabelle I’ve never met anyone as sad or as caring as the man who came to comfort my grandfather at the end. There had been other hospice workers, but none like Declan. He spent hours with me and Poppy, then he was gone. Unable to shake him from my mind, I search him out at a strange mansion in the woods. I can’t decide if he’s a monster or a man, but I’m drawn in like a moth to a candle and can’t fly away. Havendoor, New York is a small out-of-the-way town. Surrounded by forest, it’s the perfect place to build a mansion and raise six spirited monsters to be extraordinary beasts. Even though I was born different, generally I believe in law and order. However, by human rules, I shouldn’t have searched for them. I damn sure shouldn’t have taken them. Don’t be too quick to judge me. If you had seen how eager those state institutions and foster homes were to be rid of those little boys, you’d have done the same thing. Monsters, they called them, but they were the monsters. I gave children who were born special a family and an education. I made them a home in Scrim Hall. That was twenty-five years ago. Maybe I kept them too safe, too separate. It’s time I flew the nest so they can do the same. You should know there are vampires, reapers, demons, and people who shift from humans to wolves, phoenixes, and dragons. They’re not like other men, because they are only partially human. You can call them monsters, but they are my children, and they are ready for the world to meet the brothers of Scrim Hall. ~ Wentworth Pettigrew