Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (Dead Things Series Book 1) (20 page)

32

MACE

M
ace was rattled. He was an idiot. Ember glowered at him from the other side of the sofa. The others had cleared out, leaving them to stare awkwardly at each other. It gave the illusion of privacy, but he knew that in a house full of wolves nothing went unheard. He should be trying to make nice with the little reanimator, but instead he just sat carefully contemplating his dilemma.

It was his own fault. It truly never occurred to him she could be a reaper, not with her cousins both possessing powers. In hindsight, it was the exact reason it should have occurred to him. It was now obvious why she was so valuable.

Except it wasn’t.

There were other reanimators, they were rare but they existed. So why was she so valuable? If she were simply a magical collector’s item, they’d want to collect all three of them as a set or the rarest of the three. When it came to exceptional magic, there was no way to beat out the banshee. He’d never heard rumors of a banshee still in existence, much less one as young as Ember’s cousin. She was the rarity.

He had to be missing something. Reanimators’ powers were impressive but finite. They could reanimate and control corpses. The very advanced reanimators could return a soul to corporeal form but only for a short period. The longest he’d ever seen a soul cling to this side was twelve hours. Reanimators could call the soul, but they didn’t possess the ability to anchor it to a body. They didn’t possess the ability to control an immortal…and yet she had.

Ember had been controlling him almost from the moment they met. Her magic had reached for him in the cemetery, it had forced his name from his lips, forced him to halt when he’d tried to come closer. At the time, he’d blown it off but moments ago, when he’d meant to leave, her magic hadn’t allowed it. Every step he’d taken was agony as if tethered to her by a million razor sharp hooks.

He was missing something, he felt like it was there, just out of reach, waiting for him to put a name to it. In the cemetery, something had taken control of Ember’s body. Somehow, Ember had been able to channel somebody else’s magic. Whatever that something was had stupidly convinced him to tether himself to Ember to keep her out of danger.

Reanimators couldn’t channel the dead. There was no creature in the world who possessed the abilities Ember seemed to have. There was a very good reason for that. If a creature existed who could do these things they would be more powerful than any magical being in existence.

It would certainly make her a target. If word got out there was a creature with the ability to control all soulless beings there would be no place safe enough for her. Every demon, vampire, sluagh and fury would make it their mission to eradicate the threat. She would be a walking target. No, he corrected, they would be a walking target because he’d bound himself to this girl and she now pulled his strings. He was a puppet, a walking, talking extension of her will.

Just like that, the word he’d been looking for, the only creature who could possibly possess all the qualities Ember did, came rushing back to him so quickly it almost made him dizzy. He risked a glance in her direction. She sat, legs crossed, arms folded, scowl locked in place, body language screaming do not cross.

It seemed impossible to believe. There was no way for it to be true but as soon as he looked at her face, he knew it was. Nobody else could know. She couldn’t know. The last thing he needed was her realizing she had the ability to control him. He had to be extremely delicate about this.

It wasn’t until she turned to look at him he realized he’d been staring. As soon as they made eye contact, he felt her magic flare. It tugged at him, even as she tucked her hands in closer. She felt it too. She was in control again, her eyes laser focused on him. She didn’t trust him. She certainly didn’t like him. But her magic had decided he was useful.

There had to be a way to work this to his advantage. She had to think she still needed him. They all had to think she needed him. His current employer would probably give him anything in the world if he could deliver on this. Somebody like her. Power like hers. He could name his price. She was sweet and pretty but he was immortal. He couldn’t spend the next seventy years a slave.

How did somebody go about wooing a girl in this decade? More importantly how did one charm a girl into forgetting that he’d threatened to kill her? It wasn’t like he’d intended to harm her. He’d just wanted to rile her up a bit. Granted, it wasn’t the most conventional way to flirt but he wasn’t a conventional guy. He supposed that maybe he could have found a better way to introduce himself. It was too late to worry about that now.

He opened his mouth to say something but she held up her palm, “Let’s just get one thing straight. Just because my magic likes yours, don’t think the same goes for me. I may have to tolerate you but I don’t have to like you and I don’t have to interact with you.”

He fixed a lazy grin on his face, “Now, Luv, I’m not trying to start an argument here, but if I’m to help you, you may have to interact with me just a bit.”

She looked murderous.

“Is this about the killing thing?” Her mouth fell open, trying to slaughter him with a look. “So, that’s a yes. Okay, it’s about the killing thing. It’s perfectly understandable that you would be angry, even hold a grudge, but would it make you feel better if I told you that your life had never really been in danger?”

“Really? You were kidding. You threatened to kill me as, what, an icebreaker?”

He winced, “In all fairness, you were the one who asked if this was the part where I tried to kill you. I thought that maybe you wanted a bit of role-playing. You were out in the cemetery in the dead of night.”

She lunged at him and he caught her wrists easily. “Careful, Luv. Let’s try to keep your magic happy, shall we?” He entwined their fingers. Her eyes skated downward. Her whole body trembled. It may have been her magic but he hoped just a little of it was her.

“Truthfully, I just wanted to see what would happen. You can tell a lot about people by how they respond during stressful situations. You responded by making an excellent argument for my not killing you. Had it actually been a legitimate threat I probably would have let you go.”

She blinked at him as if he were a crazy person, “You’re lying.”

“I’m not. I was merely in the right place at the right time. I saw you in distress at your father’s funeral and I helped. I just happened to still be there when you came back. I thought I should introduce myself.” The lie was a gamble but he was in damage control mode.

“By threatening to kill me,” she told him, flabbergasted.

“Again, you were the one who brought up the killing. I was just trying to chat you up. It was dark, the moon was full. I saw a pretty girl and I wanted to talk to you. My magic fancied yours…I just thought I’d see what happened. Perhaps my approach was unconventional, but I assure you, it was never my intention to hurt you.”

“Do you know how my cousins found me?”

“What?” he asked, confused by the sudden change in conversation.

“Do you know how they found me?” she asked again, slower like he was stupid.

“Google?”

She scowled at him. “My name appeared on his list.”

“His list?” Ah yes, the collector, “Oh,
the
list. Really?”

Interesting. She wouldn’t have died by his hand. Was there another threat that night? Had he deterred another attacker or had she been fated to die in a natural way? Could her powers have killed her that night? She’d been pretty out of control in the cemetery. Had he prevented her death?

“Is your name still there?”

“No.”

“So that means someone or something prevented your death.”

“My cousins prevented my death.”

Mace grimaced, “Let’s hope that’s not the case.”

“What? Why would you say that?”

“Do you know what happens when a reaper keeps his charge from dying?”

She shook her head, face white.

“They upset the balance. It’s the butterfly effect. It creates a ripple in the universe and that is a capital offense in our world.”

“What happens to people who do that?”

“I don’t know, Luv. As far as I know, nobody has ever been stupid enough to try.”

“Never?”

“Not to my knowledge.” Her fingers began to work over his hands, thumbs massaging across his left palm, kneading him like a cat. She wasn’t even aware she was doing it. “One thing at a time, Ember. Let’s try to get your magic under control and then we worry about saving your cousin. It won’t matter if none of you are alive to face the consequences.”

She nodded, her hands rubbing over his skin harder. “What’s a soul eater?”

He couldn’t even begin to know how to explain that in a positive light. “We are like reapers,” he told her vaguely.

“They help people cross over to the other side?”

“Sort of, but not exactly.”

She set her jaw, eyes determined, “So what, exactly, do they do?”

“Soul eaters do exactly what it sounds like we do. We consume the souls of the living to survive.”

She looked like she was going to be sick, “You eat people?”

He couldn’t help but be a bit offended, “I’m not a cannibal, Ember. We absorb the souls into ourselves in order to live.”

“So you’re like a psychic vampire?”

He sighed, taking both her palms in his, halting her fidgeting, “I realize this sounds bad, but I promise you, the souls I consumed were all truly terrible, horrible people.”

He was sure on some level that was true. He didn’t have to look far to find people whose souls he didn’t mind robbing of their sweet hereafter. He rarely fed on humans…anymore.

She stared at him blankly, “You’re a horrible person.”

He conceded the point with a shrug, “Just think of all the time you’ll have to teach me to be a better man.”

She looked at him, warring with herself, “How are we supposed to do this?”

“We do as the she-wolf suggests and let you raise kittens in the cemetery until we are sure you won’t blow a gasket and annihilate a small country.”

“It’s vile. The dead should stay dead. This ‘power,’” she winced, “is revolting. How is this necessary? Why is it even possible?”

He sat quiet for a while. It wasn’t like he really knew why they could do what they did, he just knew that they could. He pulled his palms from hers watching their power fuse and roll between them.

“What would you give to talk to your mother one more time?” he asked.

Her gaze shot to his, startled, “What?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Anything,” she told him.

“You can do that. You are a reanimator; that means that you could give somebody the peace of bringing a loved one back for a time. To say their goodbyes. To explain they’re okay. To tell them where they hid the will.”

She rolled her eyes but nodded, “I guess that parts not a terrible thing.”

“There’s more, I’m sure but we will take it as it comes. Now, do you think your magic will behave long enough for me to go and make a phone call?”

She shrugged. He rose, truly hoping not to feel the flesh pulling from his bones. Her magic seemed to have acquiesced.

“Don’t worry, Luv, I’m not going far.” Just far enough away for the wolves not to hear his conversation. He trekked to the very edge of the property line, when he entered the tree line he felt a painful tugging. He pulled up the number he was looking for and hit send.

“Well?” was the only greeting he received.

“Hello to you, as well. Yes, I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”

“Mace,” the man growled. “I haven’t heard from you in days. I was starting to think you had abandoned your job. What’s happening?”

He sounded stressed. He should be. He didn’t seem to understand the ramifications of this girl’s existence…or, perhaps he did, “I’m curious. Did you know what she was when you sent me to spy on her? Was it your plan all along to have me gain her trust?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

Mace smirked at the phone. He knew. Of course he did, “They think she’s a reanimator.”

“Hmm,” he replied. “Yes, a reanimator. That would make sense.”

He could hear it in his tone. “Cut the crap. You do know. You know she’s not a reanimator.” There was overwhelming silence on the other end of the line. “Did you not think it would be helpful for me to have all the information?” Mace asked, “Were you afraid I’d want to keep her for myself?”

There was a long pause before the man said, “When I think information is important. I’ll give it to you. Not one minute before. You work for me. Now tell me, does she trust you?”

Mace clenched his jaw. He was used to dealing with all types in his line of work but this man was seriously trying his patience. “No, not at all, but it doesn’t matter if she trusts me. She is forced to deal with me, because, as it turns out, I’m the only one capable of filtering the thousands of years of energy pouring out of this girl.”

“What? What does that mean?”

Mace smiled. He didn’t know everything then, “I couldn’t put it together at first. Today, I watched as the girl almost took out a city block with somebody else’s words pouring out of her mouth.”