The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) (10 page)

“Is she tall and thin, with messy, curly hair
and green eyes?” I asked, thinking of the ghost I’d seen when I’d
had dinner with Bruce.

Tucker nodded. “You’ve seen her? Why didn’t
you tell me?”

“I just caught a glimpse of her the last time
I saw Bruce. I didn’t realize she was attached to him,” I said into
Tucker’s back.

“Who is she?” Jed asked.

Tucker threw his hands up. “She’s a very good
reason for us to leave Bruce and Angelica the hell alone and focus
on what really matters. Angelica was right, Bruce’s sister, Rose,
was reaped. Rose’s ghost is in town.”

“Why? Why would anyone want to reap her?” I
asked.

Jed leaned toward me, elbows on his knees.
“Bruce’s family owns the resort and more than fifty percent of the
businesses in town. Add that to what Angelica said about Reaper
Rose going into politics and you have your answer, power and
money.”

“But why go after Rose?” I asked. “Bruce told
me she’s schizophrenic and any reaper who took her body would
suffer from the same disease, right?”

Tucker nodded. “Rose’s ghost is happily free
of symptoms, so the disease is in the body not the spirit. But as
long as Reaper Rose takes her meds, she should be fine.”

“Kelsey’s right, though,” Jed said. “Bruce
would have been the easier target.”

“Maybe. But Rose was just sitting there in a
hospital surrounded by nurses who could be borrowed and made to
dose Rose up enough to make her the easier target.”

“That would make her an easier target for a
borrowing,” Jed said. I hadn’t heard the term borrowing for a
temporary possession before, but I liked it. “But for a reaping,
some real time would have to be put in to wear her down and
attenuate her soul’s connection to her body.”

“There’s talk,” Tucker said, his voice low.
“Some say only half of Bruce’s problems are the curse and the other
half is reapers trying to reap him. They say he can’t be
reaped.”

Jed leaned back and whistled. “This trip is
just chock full of surprises. I’ve never heard of a human who can’t
be reaped. Or an animal for that matter.”

I shuddered at the idea of a reaper taking an
animal. I couldn’t imagine life as a dog or a ground hog.

“That’s because we don’t talk about it,”
Tucker said. “If you’re smart, you won’t either. It’s only rumor,
anyway.”

“So the curse is probably just reapers going
after the family, and Reaper Rose is their tool to fight the
war?”

Tucker nodded. “That’s what I’ve been trying
to tell you. Forget the curse. We need to focus on the war.”

Jed threw his hands up. “Well, if you’d just
started with that.”

“But Reaper Rose isn’t interested in messing
up Angelica’s life and the curse might be,” I said. “That old ghost
you saw might not be another reaper trying to reap Bruce. She might
have something to do with the curse.”

Tucker groaned and dropped his head into his
free hand.

“If the reapers gain traction, Kelsey,
everyone’s life will be screwed up. The priority now is the war.
Reaper Rose is the biggest threat to Bruce and to this town.The
curse, if there even is a curse, can wait,” Jed said.

I didn’t agree, but arguing with them would
only waste time and they didn’t have any of the answers I needed at
the moment. I wanted to help Angelica, and I didn’t see how it
would hurt to get information about the curse as long as it didn’t
prevent me from fighting the war.

“Okay, so what do we do next?” I asked. I was
ready to do something, anything.

“I’ll call headquarters.” Jed stood and
headed back to his room.

“I meant what do
I
do?” I asked
Tucker.

Not needing to be seen by Jed, Tucker climbed
off my lap and returned to his ghostly form. He sat down on the
couch next to me, and put a hand on my thigh. I felt a bit groggy,
like he’d sapped some of my energy with his trick. “You could do
some research into the resources of this town and who owns what. We
need to know how much power and money the reapers stand to gain if
they take Briarton.”

“Haven’t they already taken Briarton? If
they’ve got Rose, they’ve got the town, right?”

Tucker sighed. “Possibly. That’s why we need
to know exactly how much of the town Bruce’s family owns. Reaper
Rose isn’t mayor yet and there are still plenty of people, dead and
alive, who don’t want the reapers to run Briarton. It’s not time to
throw in the towel, yet.”

I sat alone on the couch staring at my
reflection in the glass doors, the night dark behind them. I turned
on the computer and fired up the internet to research Bruce’s
family.

Jed returned about twenty minutes later, and
crashed down on the couch. “I called in a report, but it’s not like
there’s a whole lot they can do. They’re still trying to figure out
who’s picking off corporate employees and, probably, leaking
information back to the reapers.”

“Have they lost anyone else?” I asked,
closing the internet. I’d been reading a history of the town on
Wikipedia, but I wasn’t learning anything I didn’t already
know.

“Five more. They aren’t sending anyone out to
fight the reapers until they find the mole. They’ve got the place
on lockdown and are scanning everyone for possession.”

“They can do that?”

He looked at me and smiled, his eyes lighting
up. “They’ve got really cool toys at headquarters.”

I let that sink in for a moment. “I don’t
understand why they wouldn’t send out people to fight anyway. What
are they afraid will happen?”

“They’re just trying to keep everyone safe,
but a lot of people are angry. They want to be out fighting and,
personally, I think they should be allowed to go. Nobody’s ever
truly safe from a reaping, especially in the field and if people
want to fight…” he sighed and leaned back, hands behind his head.
“I’m not the one in charge, though, and all I can do is give my
opinion, which doesn’t do any good.”

“You said you’re the most powerful
supernatural there, why wouldn’t they listen?”

“Because the boss is my mother, and she still
thinks of me as a kid.” He sighed.

“So you basically have no autonomy and get
told what to do all the time. I can’t imagine what that might be
like.”

“No, you can’t,” he said, with an exaggerated
frown and a reproving look.

I stifled the urge to laugh and tried to
remind myself how annoying he was and how angry I was at him for
keeping me locked up here. Those thoughts led me back to Angelica.
“Do you think she’s okay?”

He just stared at me for a moment, a confused
wrinkle between his brows while he caught up with my train of
thought. “I think she’s fine, but you should probably give her some
space. She was pretty upset when she left.”

I sat back with a thump. I knew he was right,
but I hated thinking of Angelica upset because of me.

“It’s better if she hates you than if she
starts acting all weird around Rose,” he said.

“Easy for you to say.”

“Because I’m used to being hated?” he asked,
shaking his head slowly.

“Obviously.” I couldn’t help a smile. “And
because she isn’t your best friend.”

He rubbed his chin. “It’s not easy to have
friends outside the corporation, especially not when you’re as
powerful as we are.”

“Wow, you really know how to cheer a girl up.
I’m shocked you’re still single.”

He nodded. “Me, too, Kelsey, me, too. Wanna
watch something? There’s pay-per-view and I’ve got a few movies on
disc.”

“Actually, a video game where I get to kill
zombies sounds like a better distraction.”

He nodded and fired up the xbox.

We played video games for four hours
straight, and I laughed so hard my sides and cheeks hurt.

“You’re actually pretty good,” he said when
we finally turned off the TV.

I stretched and yawned. When I opened my
eyes, I caught his gaze on my breasts. He moved his attention back
up quickly and I pretended I hadn’t noticed, but I smiled on the
inside. It was nice to be appreciated. “Years of no social life,” I
said, stifling another yawn. “What’s your excuse?”

“I grew up in a corporation.” He shook his
head at my expression of disbelief. “Seriously, my bed was in a
cubicle and my playroom was the boardroom. Video games were my only
escape.”

“Oh, poor baby.” I was curious what his
childhood was really like, but it had been nice to pretend to be
normal and have fun for an evening. I didn’t want to ruin it by
talking about our difficult childhoods.

“Yeah. Lucky for me, chicks dig a dude who
can take out zombies on a television screen.”

I nodded. “So I’ve heard. It’s certainly the
first thing I ask any hot guy I meet. Having the high score in Halo
is super sexy, too.”

He laughed. “Yeah, you and I are obviously
amazing catches.”

“Obviously,” I said, putting my nose in the
air and sniffing. “And on that note, I’m going to bed.”

As soon as I closed the door behind me,
Tucker popped out of my bathroom and slumped onto my bed,
effectively ruining my plan to sneak out and check on Angelica. He
was wearing dark jeans and a plain white t-shirt, and still he
managed to look better dressed than me on a good day.

“I am so bored,” he said. “There’s nothing
happening out there, so I came back here, but I didn’t want to
interrupt you two in case. . .” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “You
know.”

“What?” I asked.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Sex. God, am
I the only one who thinks about it?”

“Ewwww.” I pretended to gag myself. I sat
down on my bed and entwined my fingers with his.

“Come on, he’s a good-looking guy and he’s
probably going to be running Varius someday, what’s not to
like?”

“Romance isn’t really on my agenda right now,
Tuck.”

“Romance should always be on the agenda,” he
said, but his heart wasn’t in the words. He didn’t make any sort of
suggestive leer. He didn’t even look at me.

“What’s up? Everything okay?”

“Um, it can wait. You were on your way to
bed?”

I yanked him back, but came away with a
handful of nothing. He was already halfway to the door. “No way,
you haven’t been hanging out in my bathroom to use the facilities.
What’s going on?”

He faced me, his expression that of someone
about to undergo something torture, or extensive dental work. “I
want a favor.”

“Okay.” I figured I owed him at least one
favor, no questions asked, but I was still a little nervous.

He sat down on the bed and started fiddling
with the bedspread, like he could actually touch it. “You know how
Caleb told you about the gypsy’s prediction?”

“How could I forget? The gypsy said you were
supposed to meet the love of your life when you were 160 years old,
right?”

“Not exactly. It was 150 years old and I’ve
already met him. I met him ten years ago. He’s like you, he can see
and talk to me, but he can’t touch me. I was hoping you might help
me with that.”

“Oh,” I said, as I processed what he’d told
me. And then, “Oh,” again. Tucker had given me more than a few
hints that I might be the love of his life and, though I really
didn’t have any interest in dating a guy old enough to be my
great-great-great- etc. grandfather, I was a bit hurt to learn all
of his flirting had been fake. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted to. I really did. But if anyone
ever wanted to hurt me, he’d be the best way to do it and I…”

“You don’t trust me.”

“No, I do. I mean I don’t really trust
anyone, and not talking about him has become a hard habit to break.
I can’t risk losing him.”

I couldn’t blame him for that. “So, if I’m
not
the one
why have you been helping me?”

He huffed. “Just because I’m not
in
love with you doesn’t mean I don’t love you.”

“Maybe, but that’s not why you helped me at
first, and don’t give me that crap about doing it for Doug.”

He ran his fingers over the bedspread and
sighed, before he looked up and met my eyes. “I suspected the war
was coming. I’d heard… things. The time for being neutral is long
past and I’ve chosen my side. It’s with you, with the living.”

“To protect him.”

“Yes, of course, and everything that is
precious about life. No matter who you are or how bad you screw it
up, your life should be yours to live. The dead shouldn’t ever have
the right to take someone else’s life.”

“Not even to be with him?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Not even to be with
him.”

I was a sucker for a good romance, but I’d
been knocked down a lot in the past few weeks and suspicion snuck
into the silent space between us. “How much of our friendship was
just because you suspected I might be able to make you
tangible?”

Tucker will always appear to me as a 25
year-old, gorgeous man, but after I spoke, his face changed
slightly. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the difference
was, but his century and a half of years suddenly showed on his
face. “I’ve always hoped I might find someone who’d be able to make
me tangible again. I’d heard talk over the years, and, yeah, when I
saw what you could do, I figured you might be able to help me. I’m
not even going to say I was your friend before I knew you could
cross over, because I knew you were Len’s daughter and if anyone
could do it, you could.” He sighed. “I came to you for my own
reasons, but we wouldn’t have the connection we do and I couldn’t
be here now if I didn’t care about you for the person you are.
You’re brave and incredibly loyal and you care about people, living
and dead, even when you pretend you don’t.”

I couldn’t speak for a few moments. I hadn’t
been fishing for a compliment. I hadn’t been expecting one,
especially not from Tucker and, because I respected and liked him,
his words meant more to me than anything he could have ever given
me. I realized then that I hadn’t felt good about the person I was
for a very long time. He made me feel a little bit better.