The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) (20 page)

I nodded and opened my mouth to ask a
question, but stopped myself.

“Ten,” Rooster said, his mouth lifting into a
smile.

“What?”

“That’s how many brothers and sisters of ours
are working for Len. It’s a real family affair and there’s no need
to be shy, every one of us was freaked out when we found out about
Len’s multiple offspring.”

“Appalled would be a better word,” Isobel
said, looking at her nails.

A brunette woman with an aquiline nose, and a
deep tan stepped forward and offered me her hand. “Since no one
else is going to do it, I’ll introduce myself. I’m Lucy Arnold. I’m
the team medic and an empath.”

“And a darn good fighter,” Thad said, beaming
at the obviously older woman. She snorted and punched him in the
shoulder.

“Thad’s just trying to butter me up so I’ll
sew his stitches nice and tiny when he needs them. He’s worried
about his pretty face.”

“Aww, sweetie, you’ve never called me pretty
before.”

Lucy rolled her eyes and Holly cleared her
throat. “There are two more members of the team. They’re
reapers—”

“LCs,” Thad said. “They prefer to be called
LCs for life challenged.”

“Whatever,” Holly said. “They’re already
canvassing the town and we’ll meet them later.”

I couldn’t stop looking at Thad. He wasn’t as
good-looking as Caleb or Jed, but I liked him better for being a
bit more rugged and for having the sort of laid-back demeanor and
swagger that made me pretty sure he wouldn’t mind me enjoying the
view. He noticed my attention and grinned. The smile lit up his
whole face, revealing a crooked tooth in a mouth of otherwise
white, straight teeth. It was like he was a magnet and I was drawn
to him.

Jed cleared his throat and offered Thad his
hand. “I’m Jed,” he said. He shook hands with the whole team. “I
work for Varius. I appreciate you all coming to help clean out the
town.”

“What can you tell us about the situation
here?” Thad asked. “Len just said, ‘get your asses to Briarton and
help Kelsey.’”

“I’m here,” Tucker said, wisping out of my
room. “I can tell you the latest. As I tried to tell Kelsey, Caleb
had drinks with Rose, whose family owns the half the town, and the
chief of police last night. And today he bought a condo in the next
building over.”

Thad repeated Tucker’s words for those in the
group who couldn’t hear or see him.

Jed whistled. “What’s that cost? Half a
million?”

“At least,” Tucker said. “Any idea where he
came up with that kind of money?”

Jed shook his head after I repeated the
question. “Not honestly, I’d guess.”

“Can we really believe the reapers are
willing to foot the bill for his digs? What can he possibly offer
them?” Thad asked.

“Me,” I said, in a voice just above a
whisper.

All eyes turned to me. I could feel Jed’s
eyes burning into the side of my face, but I ignored him.

“I thought of that, but I’m sure they don’t
need Caleb to help them get to you,” Tucker said.

“They need him to convince me to work with
them,” I said. If Caleb wanted me on his team, it stood to reason
that the reapers wanted the same.

Thad shrugged. “It makes sense. Still, it’s a
lot of dough to spend just for you, Kelsey. They’ve got old,
powerful reapers who are strong enough to take out any threat. I’m
not sure I see why you in particular would benefit them.”

“I don’t either,” I said.

“We’ll have to keep working on that question,
then. What else do you have for me,” Thad asked.

I took a shower while Jed and Tucker filled
Thad and his crew in on what we knew. When I got out, Jed was
sitting on my bed waiting for me. I sat down next to him, my wet
hair cold against my back through my t-shirt.

“Are you ready for this? Once we start this
fight there won’t be any turning back.”

I shivered. “I’m as ready as I can be.” I
tried to sound confident but I couldn’t help the tremble in my
voice.

“I know,” he said, looking at his hands.
“I’ve been fighting my whole life and I’m not sure I’m ready. I’ve
never said this out loud, but I hate my job. I see the faces of the
people I’ve killed in my nightmares.”

“You help people.”

“I kill people, Kelsey. At the end of the
day, no matter what I call it or how I justify it, I’m still
killing people.” He sighed and rubbed his temples. “But that’s not
what I came in here to say. I wanted to thank you for giving me a
taste of what a normal life with roommates, and arguments about
music and food, is like. I need you to know you’re more than a
corporate asset to me.”

“Jed, I—” I wasn’t sure what I was going to
say, maybe that I was sorry we’d spent so much time fighting, but
he saved me from having to say anything.

“Yeah, it’s true you need more training, but
the real reason I don’t want you to fight the reapers is because I
don’t want my life for you. I don’t want you to have nightmares
about a job you hate. I want you to have the life you want, the
life I can never have, with the little house and the picket fence
and 2.5 kids.”

“Whoa, no one said anything about kids.” I
tried to lighten the mood, but he didn’t smile.

“But if you’re sure you want to fight, I’ll
support you. I’ll stop trying to get in your way. As long as you
understand that you can’t go back, and you can’t walk away from
this life. Fighting and killing will change you. It will break
something in you that can’t ever be fixed. You will have to kill
people, you will have to end their earthly lives and their soul’s
existence, if you choose to fight.”

I felt slightly sick to my stomach. I wanted
to fight the reapers, and I wanted to help but I hadn’t truly
accepted what that would mean. It terrified me that I might not
just die in this fight, I might lose my sense of self. I might
become someone I hated. “I can’t walk away.” And that was all I
could say, because it was the only truth I could be sure of. No
matter how scared I was, walking away and letting the reapers take
over was out of the question.

The look in his dark eyes was so sad my heart
ached for him. “I understand. I’ll do everything I can to help
you.” He stood and headed for the door.

“I hope someday you can have it,” I said to
his back. “The little house and the picket fence and the kids, I
hope you get it someday.”

“That life’s not meant for me.” He opened the
door and left, closing it behind him. I forced myself to stand and
get dressed, swallowing back my tears. I had to focus on the fight
in Briarton and helping the people I cared about. I couldn’t do
anything about the future.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked as I flopped
down onto the floor in the living room next to Isobel. Thad and
Lucy were playing Grand Theft Auto. Holly and Jed were in the
kitchen, the two LCs were still out, and Rooster and Isobel were
playing a card game.

Lucy muted the video game.

“You’ll keep doing everything as you have
been,” Lucy said. “Go to work, spend time with Caleb, and your
friends. We don’t want the reapers or Caleb figuring out anything’s
going on,” she said. “Our only chance is to catch them off guard,
and that’s only going to work if they believe you trust Caleb and
are going to play nice.”

“You want me to go back to work?” I asked. “I
thought it was too dangerous.”

“Jed said you’d suggested you might be up for
some on the job training. I thought it might be a good idea.”

“What?”

“That’s not exactly what I said.” Jed walked
in and sat down on the couch next to Lucy. “I mentioned it as an
example of your willingness to fight. I never said it was a good
idea.”

“I am willing, and I’m serious about the
training. Fighting Jed in the garage is never going to get me as
ready to fight reapers as actually fighting them.”

“Tough woman,” Thad said, beaming at me. Once
again, I found my eyes following his every movement, lingering over
the shape of his jaw and the color of his eyes, but I still noticed
Lucy shaking her head beside him.

“Caleb’s supposed to be picking me up for
lunch in half an hour,” I said, “so it would probably be a good
idea for you all to camp out in Holly’s room or the garage while
he’s here.”

“We’ll go downstairs for a training session,”
Thad said, to a chorus of groans from everyone except Rooster, who
bounced a bit in his spot like a puppy with more energy than he
knew what to do with.

“Did Jed fill you in on this curse of
Angelica’s?” I asked.

“Yep, and we need you to stay out of that.
We’re gonna want the witches on our side right now,” Thad said.

Yeah, right
. “Tucker said you had a
witch in your crew,” I said. “Could I talk to her, just to see if
she knows anything about the curse.”

“It’s not our business.”

“Angelica’s my best friend. I agree it can
probably wait until after we kick the reapers out of town, but I
want to make sure she’s going to be okay until then.”

Thad looked like he might be willing to back
down, but Lucy spoke before he could. “You called us, Kelsey. Your
job is to fight the reapers now. That’s what you wanted, isn’t
it?”

I nodded. I looked at Jed and he shook his
head very slightly.

“So, we’re all agreed that the curse isn’t a
priority. We’ll take care of the reapers first and then you’ll have
all the time in the world to work on removing the curse,” Thad
said, already starting for the garage.

I felt anger warming my gut and twisting my
vision. Who were these people to walk in here and tell me what to
do? “I can’t just let this go. And you may have resources that
could help me. I’m just asking for a little help.”

The doorbell rang. Caleb was twenty minutes
early. Without a sound, everyone except Jed filed downstairs to the
training room. They were quick, but Caleb still rang the doorbell
two more times before I grabbed my coat and walked out to meet
him.

He smiled and stood straight when he saw me.
I took in the bright, blue sky and the warm sun that sparkled on
the snow below us, and I smiled as though I was glad to see him and
not just happy to be outside.

“You’re early.” I tried not to let my
annoyance show.

“I couldn’t wait another moment to see
you.”

He reached for me, like he wanted to take my
hand, but stopped himself before he did. I followed him down the
stairs to the parking lot. Tucker popped up next to us, and I felt
a bit better. I waited for Caleb, who could sense the presence of
ghosts, to notice Tucker, but he said nothing. Instead of leading
me toward town, Caleb walked us farther into the complex. With a
sinking feeling I realized where we were going.

“I’d prefer a public restaurant,” I said.

“That didn’t go so well last time.” He lifted
his bandaged hand into my line of sight. “You can invite your
ghostly bodyguard along, if it makes you feel better. My friends
tell me Tucker is spending a lot of time with you.”

“Shit,” Tucker said. “I didn’t think anyone
had noticed me around the condo.”

I rolled my eyes at Tucker. Hopefully, Len’s
LCs would be less obvious. “He’s here,” I said. I wanted Caleb to
know there were eyes on us, but I doubted he would care. He didn’t
know Tucker could have Len’s team at his throat in less than two
minutes. It almost made up for all of the times my father had let
me down.

Caleb’s step falter just a bit, but he
smiled. “Hello, Tucker.”

“Boo!” Tucker shouted, right next to Caleb’s
ear. Caleb didn’t flinch.

Apparently, Caleb’s ghostly radar wasn’t as
perceptive as I thought.

“It’s a beautiful day,” I said, wishing I
were heading up to the mountain to ski instead of to lunch with a
psychopath.

“Not as beautiful as you,” he said.

I covered my snort of laughter with a cough.
He led me into a condo that was newer and larger than the one I’d
just left. He took my coat and I followed him to the kitchen, where
he had a bottle of wine, two wineglasses, deli sandwiches, and
potato salad. The condo was clean and neat, with only the most
basic furniture. There were no pictures on the walls and no clutter
lying around. There wasn’t even a TV. I wondered what he did with
his free time.

Caleb gave me a sad smile. “The condo is
warded. I’m sorry Tucker won’t be able to join us, but he can wait
outside.” Tucker didn’t follow us in, even though he could have,
because Caleb would be able to sense him if he entered.

I sat down at the table where Caleb gestured
and noticed the wine again. “Could I just have a glass of water?” I
asked.

“I thought you enjoyed the occasional drink.”
He sat down across from me and didn’t meet my eyes.

“I did, until I found out about reapers who
take over the bodies of drunk people.”

“You’re safe here. My home is warded.”

I bit back what I wanted to say.
“Surprisingly, I do feel safe here. With you. But, I want to make
sure you have my full attention, without any interference and my
tolerance for alcohol isn’t what it used to be.”

He smiled, but he didn’t get up and get me
water. He filled my glass with wine.

“Indulge me.”

His insistence seemed strange and I wondered,
briefly, if he was trying to get me drunk. I shrugged and took a
drink, planning not to drink too much. The wine hit me shockingly
hard. My empty stomach and the infrequency with which I drank,
stoked the alcohol to a warm fire in my belly. I took a big bite of
the deli sandwich, some sort of grilled veggie concoction, to try
to soak it up. I was quite content to eat in peace, but Caleb
didn’t bite into his. He just watched me.

“No need to rush.” He smiled, but there was
an undertone of command in his voice. His bandaged hand was in his
lap and I noticed the only silverware on the table were spoons.