The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) (18 page)

“Fine, but you let me know if you start to
feel worse,” he said. “To answer your question, reapers can use
bodies they’ve borrowed or reaped to talk to the living, and offer
them something they want or make a deal in return for service or
assistance. There have been several unskilled people who have left
the employment of Varius under less than happy circumstances over
the years and would be vulnerable to such an offer.”

“Harvest One, too,” Holly said. “Lot of anger
there.”

“Like Caleb?” I asked.

I prepared for anger or hurt from Jed, but he
just nodded. “Yeah, like Caleb.”

“Why? He wouldn’t talk about Varius or his
childhood.”

“I don’t really see what Caleb’s childhood
has to do with any of this,” Holly said. Her cheeks were still red
from our run and the fight, and I saw the beginnings of a bruise
around her right eye. “He’s pissed at Varius, obviously, or he
wouldn’t have sided with the reapers. What we need to know is how
to fight them.”

“I want to know more about him,” I said,
trying not to let my frustration show. I’d gone on that nightmare
date and I should get to be curious about the dude without needing
to justify myself. “What does he want? Revenge?”

“We can’t know what—” Holly said.

Jed put up a hand. “It’s okay. Kelsey’s going
to have to know the good and the worst about the corporations. She
should know Caleb’s story. She might even be right, it might help
us in some way we hadn’t considered.” He looked skeptical and Holly
snorted, but I didn’t care.

“I’ve got time,” I said.

“Whatever.” Holly huffed. “I’m going to get
us some ice.”

“As you know, Caleb and I share a dad.
Caleb’s an unskilled worker in the corporation and, as such, he’s
considered inferior to the skilled set,” Jed said.

“To some people,” Holly said, walking back in
with two bags of frozen veggies. She handed one to me and sat back
down in her seat with the other.

Jed rolled his eyes. “To almost everyone.
It’s not pretty, but for most people who work at the corporations,
whose entire families work at the corporations, the job is their
life. A person’s level of ability, or lack of it, dictates their
rank and place in the corporation, and in corporate society. My mom
was almost fired for getting pregnant and having me.”

“Your mom is skilled?” I asked, wondering how
I’d never asked before.

“She can see, but not hear, ghosts. She’s
also vice president of Varius. Her skill set isn’t the strongest,
but she’s got superior administrative skills and a top-notch
education.”

“So supernatural skills aren’t everything,” I
said.

“As long as you have skills that are judged
to be acceptable, you can move to whatever job in the company you
are best suited to,” he said.

“But you turned out to be highly
skilled.”

“My Dad’s obviously a carrier of some sort,
but my mom was supposed to be mated to someone who had a skill
level equal to her own.”

“So what’s their theory on how you ended up
über-skilled?” I asked.

“They consider me a fluke.”

“And that’s why your mating plan doesn’t
work,” Holly said. “Your scientists are unwilling to admit they
might be wrong.”

“But they aren’t wrong,” he said. “I’ve seen
it time and time again. With the mating program, you get a kid who
has a skill level equal to, or slightly less, than their parents’
skill level, but people feel that’s safer than the risk of mating
with a person of no skill. No one wants to roll the dice and end up
with an unskilled kid.”

“So who’s Caleb’s mom?” I asked. I wasn’t a
geneticist, and I’d never been interested in science. Plus, the
whole mating system at Varius sounded totally creepy, but Caleb had
talked about his ancestors like they might be the key to
understanding why he thought he had a right to Briarton.

“After Mom and Dad split up, Dad left the
company. I was only a year old at the time, but people have told me
he was devastated by the break-up, and by not getting to see me as
much as he’d like.”

“He was upset about not getting to see you
enough, so he left?” I asked. It was a completely inconsiderate
question and I wished I could take it back, but Jed didn’t seem to
care.

“I don’t know, maybe he just wanted to put
the whole thing behind him. Six years later, I come home from
school and there’s Caleb, four-years-old, in my living room. My dad
had married an unskilled woman and they’d had Caleb, but Dad dumped
him at the headquarters when he discovered Caleb had a skill. My
mom took him in. I don’t know if he remembers anything of Dad, but
I know for sure he was always acutely aware that he’d been
abandoned by both of his parents.”

“Maybe your dad thought he was doing what was
best for Caleb.”

He smiled. “That’s what my mom says, but
Caleb never bought it. In his view, Dad recognized how low-power
his skill was and knew how bad it would be for him at Varius.”

“Was it really so bad?” I asked.

“My sister was unskilled,” Holly said,
quietly. “She left the corporation five years ago, and committed
suicide last year.”

“I didn’t know,” Jed said. “I’m sorry.”

She waved a hand. “It’s done now. I don’t
like to talk about it.”

“Even when people try to be nice to the less-
or un-skilled, there’s a sort of divide that can’t be crossed,” Jed
said. “And most people don’t try to be nice. They just don’t bother
with the less-skilled at all. Caleb felt like he didn’t belong
anywhere. He was too skilled for his dad, and not skilled enough
for anyone at Varius.”

“Wow, that is a tough childhood,” I said.

“Yeah. My mom and I tried. We both actually
loved him, but I don’t think he ever believed it, not entirely. Not
if he could stab us in the back like this.”

“But he’s protecting you and he said he’d
look out for your mom.”

“He can’t protect anyone, not really, and he
knows it. He just doesn’t care.”

“He’s not exactly playing with a full deck.
He might really believe he’s keeping you safe.” I paused and rubbed
my eyes, I could feel a headache starting in my right temple. “Or
whatever he’s expecting to gain from this is worth more to
him.”

He clenched and unclenched his fists. “I
don’t see what he hopes to gain from it, except revenge.”

“He keeps talking about owning this town, but
how can he if a reaper runs it? No matter how the plan changes, he
must still have the same goal he had when he kidnapped me–to prove
he can do something useful, that he can make a huge
difference.”

“Or, he’s decided not to care what anyone
else thinks and just wants to rack up as much power as he can,”
Holly said.

“And you, Kelsey. We know he wants you,” Jed
said.

“I’m pretty sure he’s more interested in what
I can do for him, than who I am. I have power and he wants power.
Plus, maybe he wants to prove to himself he acted morally when he
kidnapped me or just prove he can win me over.”

“Or punish me,” Jed said. “He knows how angry
I am that he kidnapped you, and he knows I’m here now to protect
you from him.”

“Why would he do that,” Holly asked. “You’ve
been nothing but loyal to him.”

“I’m beginning to wonder if he ever liked me
at all. I’ve always had everything he wanted.” He didn’t look at
either of us when he spoke.

“He always says nice things to me about you,”
I said.

Jed acted like he hadn’t heard me, just
stared at nothing.

“He said something about his ancestors. That
this town is his by inheritance, or something,” I said. “Would you
be willing to give me his parents’ names and help me do some
research to see if there’s a connection between them and
Briarton?”

“Sure,” he said. “I wasn’t planning on going
anywhere anyway, and I know a little about genealogy. It’s been
useful in the past in dealing with reapers.

Jed looked at databases with me until Holly
headed back to her room.

“We’re not getting anywhere with this,” I
said, stifling a yawn. I stretched and my sore neck, and back, and
shoulders protested sharply enough that I winced. “Could I use this
stuff to research Bruce’s family and try to find out… god, I’m so
tired, I can’t even remember what I wanted to find out.”

He nodded, but his gaze was distant. I stared
at him, studying the lines of his face, and I suddenly wanted to
touch him. To run my finger along his jaw. To lean in and press my
lips to his warm skin. To ease his worry and make him smile. The
urge was so strong I found myself reaching for him. “The men in the
alley, they said Harvest One is up to something and they wanted
in,” I said to stop myself from touching him.

He didn’t look surprised. “Harvest One’s been
known to play the angles, but I doubt those guys knew anything
real. Are you worried about Holly?”

“Aren’t you?”

He nodded. “I’ve known her a long time, and
she’s been troubled all the time I’ve known her. She’s not someone
to blindly trust, but I don’t think she’s here under false
pretenses.”

“Okay, but say Harvest One was up to
something shady, what might that be?”

He tapped his fingers on his knee and leaned
back. “They’d go where the money is, so I doubt they’d be working
with Caleb. The safest bet would be backing Rose. It’s possible
they’d support Rose, and send Holly here to keep an eye on us and
keep us from interfering with their plans.”

“What could they get from the reapers running
the town? How is there money there?”

“It could be nothing more than that they
don’t want to be shut out. If they help Rose now, she’d be more
likely to let them run their con game in town in the future. Or
they may have an entirely new plan for making money, like helping
the reapers to cover up their reapings and getting paid to do
it.”

I nodded, wishing he hadn’t been able to come
up with an answer quite so easily. “So trust no one is still the
game plan.”

“Kelsey.” He didn’t say any more until I
looked at him. “I think it’s time for you to go.”

I stretched and yawned. “Yeah, it’s late and
I’m exhausted.”

“Not to bed. Away from here. For good.”

His words dissolved my exhaustion and pricked
me with inexplicable pain. Why was he always trying to get rid of
me? “To Varius? We’ve talked about that-“

“No. To somewhere Varius and Harvest One
can’t find you. I’ve got a place no one knows about, and you can
have it. I’ll get you a new identity and a new life. You can be
free from all of this. You can be safe.”

I just stared at him for several long
moments. “Why would you… won’t Varius… your mom be pissed?”

“I don’t care. You almost died tonight, and
I’m tired of seeing good people get hurt. I know you want to be
free, and I can help you.”

I didn’t understand. “You said you wanted to
fight and free Briarton.”

“I don’t need you here for that. I never
intended to let you fight. I’ll fight them for you, and make sure
the town and Angelica are safe.” He looked at me, the pleading in
his eyes almost desperate. “Now, with the chaos here and at Varius,
you can run and no one will come looking for you for a very long
time.”

He was offering me a dream… my dream. All I
had to do was reach out and take it. “I can’t leave… the town…
Angelica.”

“I’ll take care of it, I promise. I’ll find a
way and it’ll be easier if I’m not worrying about you. You almost
died tonight and I… . I can’t let that happen again.”

Freedom. He was offering me freedom.
Happiness threatened to overwhelm me. My heart beat faster than
seemed healthy. Tears welled in my eyes and spilled over my cheeks.
He reached out and wiped a tear away with his thumb, looking at me
with a tenderness and a warmth that made me lean into his hand and
let him cup my cheek. For a moment, I forgot what he’d promised me
and reveled in the warmth of his touch and the electricity that
sparked between us. He leaned forward, and I let my eyes begin to
drift shut, expecting to be kissed. Outside, someone screamed, and
he dropped his hand and moved away from me, like he’d been stung.
The screams continued, but they were happy, drunken shouts. Someone
enjoying the night and ruining our moment. Ruining, I realized, my
dream for the future.

The screams burst my moment of joy like a
balloon popped by a pin. How could I love anyone? How could I have
a family when my being with them could be the reason they were
killed or reaped? I couldn’t risk endangering anyone. I couldn’t
risk caring about anyone. Not now, maybe not ever.

That truth made me realize that the quiet,
bucolic life he was offering me no longer appealed to me. I
couldn’t sit quietly while reapers were tearing up the world. I’d
changed, and my dream had changed without me noticing. Happiness
and peace were for someone else, someone I wished to be, but
understood I never could be. Maybe someday, if I destroyed every
dangerous reaper, somehow lost my abilities, and got amnesia, I
could be free. I could never love anyone feel safe as long as I
knew the danger that lurked. As long as I knew I was one of that
danger’s strongest enemies. Tears threatened again, but I swallowed
them back down.

“No, Jed, I won’t go. Thank you. I understand
the risk you’re taking making this offer and it means more to me
than I can ever say, but I can’t accept it. This is my fight now
and the truth is…” I swallowed hard. “I’m pretty sure I’ve already
been twisted beyond recognition. Maybe peace and love and laundry
aren’t meant for me anymore.”

He nodded. “I thought you might say that, but
I don’t believe… wait, laundry? What’s that got to do with
anything?”

I smiled and swallowed my laugh. I was sure
it would sound maniacal. “It was the most normal thing I could
think of and it seems so idyllic, just folding laundry and watching
it dry on the clothesline.”