The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) (9 page)

He was at the stove, stirring a pot of red
sauce when I hobbled in, feeling the effects of the past two days
of fighting. “I’m making spaghetti if you want some.”

“Um, yeah, but I’m vegetarian, so if…”

He nodded. “No meat. I remember. It’s just
sauce and noodles.”

I filled two glasses with water and put them
on the table along with forks and plates. I figured there was
nothing I could to do to help with cooking, so I sat at the table
and watched him work, trying to keep my stomach from grumbling too
loudly.

We ate in silence. I was stuffing my mouth so
quickly I didn’t have a chance to speak. He ate more like a
civilized person, but he didn’t throw me any disapproving
looks.

When I was done, I leaned back in my chair
and patted my stomach. “So, what’s for dessert?”

A lazy, wicked smile spread slowly on his
face. “Well, I made dinner, so –”

A knock at the condo door stopped him. He
froze and stood so fast his knees hit the tabletop and water
sloshed out of my glass. “Kelsey, please go back to your room until
I find out who’s here.”

“What? I…”But he was already at the door. I
started to follow him, but he glared at me until I stomped off to
my room like a child. I closed the door and sat on my bed.

I heard the front door open, and then I heard
Angelica’s voice, “Hey, is Kelsey here?”

I started toward the door and found my way
blocked by Tucker. “Angelica’s at the door,” I said, figuring that
would be enough to get him to move.

“I know.”

I started to edge around him, but he blocked
me.

“I don’t want to walk through you, but I will
if you don’t move.” I feel it’s rude to walk through anyone, even
if they don’t know I can see them.

“Hi Tucker, how are you? Thanks for helping
me out and running all these errands for me,” he said in a high
falsetto.

“I appreciate it, and I want to hear all
about it, but—”

“You’re going to hear about it right now.”
The anger in his words made me look at his face. I didn’t like what
I saw.

“Tucker, I’m sorry. I really do appreciate
everything—”

“Turn around, go back into your room, and
hear me out. You can talk to her when I’m done.”

I sighed and considered defying him, but it
wasn’t worth it. I owed it to him to hear him out. I started back
into the room when I heard a sob from Angelica, followed by a
“Please.”

I pushed through Tucker, ignoring the tingles
and chills, and headed into the living room. I could hear Tucker
cussing behind me, but I didn’t look back.

“Jed, let her in,” I said.

He looked at me, but he didn’t move from the
doorway. “It isn’t safe for her to be here.”

“Please, this isn’t about the curse,”
Angelica said, between hiccupping sobs.

Jed backed away, hands in the air. “I’m
staying in the room.”

Angelica’s face was red and splotchy, and she
looked like she was about to fall over on her feet. I glared at Jed
for making her stand in the doorway, but he ignored me and plopped
down in a chair, arms crossed over his chest.

I led Angelica to the couch and sat down next
to her. Tucker sat on the other side of me. He was already
chattering away.

“There’s nothing you can do for her,
Kelsey.”

My glare at Tucker was a bit more effective
than the one I’d thrown Jed. Tucker shut up, but he frowned and
tapped his foot.

“What happened?” I asked.

“It’s Bruce’s sister, Rose, she’s been what
do you call it? Some ghost has taken her over, just like Landon was
trying to do to you.”

Jed sat up in his chair, but he didn’t speak.
I glanced at Tucker and he twirled a finger near his temple in the
universal sign for crazy.

“Why do you think that?”

“I just know, Kelsey. You have to trust me on
this. Bruce says she’s completely changed. He’s thrilled because he
thinks she’s better, but something’s wrong. I can feel it.”

I was beginning to agree with Tucker’s
assessment of the situation. Angelica could see auras, but she
couldn’t see ghosts or ghostly imprints, the residue left on an
aura when a person was taken temporarily.

“What makes you think she’s not better?” I
asked. Jed was still sitting up in his seat, leaning toward
her.

“I met her before and she was just the
sweetest girl. She’s the one who told me about the curse. Then last
week she checked herself out of the hospital and moved in with her
grandmother, and she’s completely different. She laughed at me when
I asked about the curse and told me she just made it up to scare
me. She’s cold, Kelsey, and she’s rude to me when no one else is
around.”

“What’s she doing? Does she have a job?” Jed
asked.

She sniffed and faced him. “She wants to be
involved with the ski resort and she’s talking about getting into
politics, maybe running for mayor. I don’t know how…”

Jed leaned back in his chair and nodded.
“Doesn’t sound like she’s been reaped to me. Typically, reapers who
choose a rich person want an easy life. She’s interested in
working, so I’d say she’s really recovered.”

“But she’s… she’s horrible.”

My attention was still on Jed, because I felt
like I’d missed something. He grinned at Angelica and ignored my
stare.

“Unfortunately, we can’t pick our in-laws.
You just have to make the best of it,” he said.

Angelica looked like she was going to burst
into tears or start hitting someone. I decided to play along with
Jed, because I was almost certain he was lying to her. From what
he’d told me earlier, the reapers would absolutely be interested in
politics. I guessed he was trying to protect Angelica, and that
suited my interests just fine. “Jed would know,” I said.

She looked at me like she didn’t know who I
was. “Rose was lying. I’m sure of it. Please, Kelsey, will you just
try to find her spirit? If she’s out there…”

“You have no idea what you’re asking her to
do,” Jed said. His voice was calm, but his teeth and his fists were
clenched. “Even if Rose was reaped, and I’m sure she wasn’t, her
spirit has already passed on.”

Angelica’s eyes darted from Jed to me and she
looked scared and completely out of her depth. “But if Kelsey could
look or just ask around, I don’t know how you do it—”

“I don’t do it.” I sounded overly harsh and
loud, but I needed her to understand and let it go. Seeing Angelica
so lost brought out my protective instinct and if hurting her was
the only way to keep her safe, I would. “I don’t find ghosts. I
don’t believe Rose was reaped and I think the best thing for you to
do is to try to get along with her. Don’t mention any of your
suspicions to her.”

Her eyes welled up and I almost hated her. I
hated that she was delicate enough to be hurt by my words, and I
hated that I was the one hurting her.

“Tell her to talk to the living grandmother
about the curse,” Tucker said. “You can’t help her.”

I looked at Tucker and widened my eyes in a
question. I wasn’t sure she should be talking to anyone about the
curse if Rose had really been reaped.

“Better she talk to the living grandmother
than accuse Rose of being possessed by a reaper,” Tucker said,
frowning and looking about as miserable as I felt.

“From the little I’ve been able to find out,”
I said to Angelica. “Bruce’s living grandmother is the one to talk
to about the curse. If anyone can help you she can.”

Tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks. I
had never known her to be this emotional, and it bothered me. If
she cried so easily around us, what would she do around Rose or
Bruce’s grandmother. What would she say?

“I’m sorry,” I said. “If there was anything I
could do…”

“No.” She stood slowly, like her joints
ached. “No, there’s nothing you can do. Thanks for letting me
in.”

I watched her walk out the door and almost
went after her, but there was nothing I could do for her until I
got more information. I wasn’t going to get that as long as she was
there.

As soon as the door shut, Jed jumped up and
locked it. He headed back toward the kitchen without looking at me,
which was fine. I wanted to start with Tucker anyway.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked him.

“Nothing that concerns you. I’ll do what I
can to help Angelica. You don’t need to be involved.”

I swallowed my smart-ass retort. “Fine. If
that’s the case, you can tell me what’s going on. I’m not going to
just let this go.”

“Fine,” he said with a snort. “I’ll tell you
what I know, but not until Jed is here. I want him to hear it,
too.”

I didn’t like that plan. Jed was sure to be
even more adamantly against me getting involved in Angelica’s
issues than Tucker was. Unfortunately, I fully expected Tucker to
keep his mouth shut and avoid me if I didn’t involve Jed. “Hey,
Jed, when you’re done hiding in the kitchen, Tucker and I want to
talk to you.”

“I’m not hiding. I’m washing dishes.”

Shit, I should be doing that. I headed back
to the kitchen, and shoved Jed away from the sink. He’d spent the
afternoon beating on me, and I didn’t figure a shove would hurt his
feelings. He threw his hands in the air and stepped aside.

There weren’t any dishes to wash. Jed had
already cleaned the pots, so I just had to rinse our plates and put
them in the dishwasher. Jed was sitting on the couch staring at the
view through the sliding glass door when I walked into the living
room. I sat down on the couch next to him. Tucker stood by the
doors looking out at the same scene as Jed. The sun was starting to
set and the sky was a brilliant cheery pink. The darkening day cast
shadows that softened the mountains and made them look pearly grey.
It was a view one could easily get lost in, and I wished I
could.

“So what do you and Tucker want to talk to me
about?” Jed asked. He was sitting with his legs sprawled and one
arm over the back of the couch, but his voice was tense and
clipped.

Tucker didn’t move. “This is your show, Tuck,
wanna start talking?” I said.

He still didn’t move. “Don’t ever call me
Tuck. I hate it.”

I waited a full minute. “Okay, I promise
never to call you Tuck again. Would you please talk to us,
Tucker
?”

He turned, drifted over to the armchair and
sat down. As far as I could tell, ghosts didn’t need to sit, but
everyone I’d ever met had continued to sit and stand just like the
living. “I couldn’t get much more information about the curse. Like
I told you, the living grandmother is the one to talk to because
she belongs to the line of the family that was cursed 200 years
ago. Like Ghoul said, it’s a witch curse and it’s out of our
jurisdiction.”

“What does that even mean? Out of our
jurisdiction?” I asked. The information wasn’t new, but I hoped to
learn more about our relationship to witches from Tucker.

He shook his head and shifted his eyes to
Jed. I relayed what he’d said.

“That’s not possible,” Jed said. “A curse
only lasts as long as the lifetime of the witch.”

“Not really the point,” Tucker said.

“What if the witch is a reaper? Could she
maintain the curse in that form?” I asked.

“The point is it’s none of our business,”
Tucker said.

“No, witches can’t become reapers or ghosts,”
Jed said. “After death, they’re just gone.”

“Do they live longer than normal people?” I
asked.

Jed shook his head. “No one really knows.
They don’t share their secrets with anyone outside their
circle.”

Tucker sat down on my lap. In a moment, I
felt his tangible weight pressing against me. Jed almost tipped
over backward in his chair, but he quickly righted himself and
stared at Tucker.

Tucker whooped. “I knew it was possible. No
one believed me, but I knew with the right person and the right
connection…” With his free hand, he patted his body, to prove to
himself it was real.

I wriggled underneath him, trying to fill my
lungs, and finally gasped out, “Can’t breathe.”

“I don’t honestly see that breathing was
doing you any good,” Tucker said. But he sat up a tiny bit more, so
that he was still touching me, but not resting all of his weight on
me.

“That’s not possible,” Jed said, his eyes
wide.

Tucker shrugged. “Some would say life after
death isn’t possible, but here I am. Now, I can tell you to shut
the hell up and quit worrying about
how
a witch has been
maintaining a curse that is none of our damn business. You wanted
Kelsey to stay out of it, and I’m giving you a great reason she
should, so use it.”

Jed tapped his hand on the back of the sofa
and rubbed his chin. “This doesn’t sound like a witch’s curse to
me. I think something else might be going on and, until we know
exactly what it is, I think Tucker’s right, Kelsey, and you should
stay out of it. If you want to do some research from the condo,
fine, but nothing more. I don’t want you to have any contact with
Angelica or Rose.”

I glared at Jed, but I’m pretty sure he
couldn’t see my face, since it was behind Tucker’s neck.

Tucker tensed and pressed a bit harder
against me. “I’ve heard things about the witches in the town and
they’re powerful. This is out of Kelsey’s league, hell it’s out of
my league. I say no research, nothing. We all stay the hell away
from this. You and I both know that the more Kelsey learns the less
likely she is to keep her nose out of it.”

Jed clenched his hands into tight fists, but
he sounded calm when he spoke. “I’m not sure it doesn’t have
something to do with the war. From what Angelica said, Rose has
been reaped, or at least borrowed. Maybe it’s not a coincidence
that the family seems to be cursed. Maybe they’ve been plagued by
reapers for a couple of generations. It can’t hurt—.”

“Oh, but it can,” Tucker said. “You see,
Angelica and Bruce have a guest they don’t know about. A very
powerful, very old reaper who told me in no uncertain terms that
Bruce belonged to her. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but
I think we should stay out of it.”