Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (Dead Things Series Book 1) (7 page)

11

EMBER

A
rather disheveled looking pale boy fell through the doorway as if gravity itself worked against him. Rhys righted the boy with one hand, shaking his head in resignation, as if this was something that happened all the time. The boy glared at the doorframe as if it was the culprit. He then righted the navy blue beanie cap perched on his longish shaggy brown hair and pushed up his black framed glasses with one finger.

His eyes widened as he took in the scene before him. Kai gave a half-hearted wave from his position beneath Isa. The new kid gave a confused one fingered salute back, moving to the side of the room where he would be out of the line of fire.

Behind him, another boy followed. He walked with every bit of grace and confidence that the first one lacked. He had the build of an athlete and biceps the size of her head. His hair was close cropped and his complexion was a warm butterscotch like some of the creole kids she grew up with in the French Quarter. He had the palest blue eyes Ember had ever seen. He wore a pair of baggie jeans and a sleeveless grey hoodie. He sort of hovered at the edge of the room, hands buried deep in his pockets like he was cold.

She was no expert on the supernatural but from what she could tell, the wolves’ eyes all seemed to glow slightly. Which meant the paler boy was not a wolf. His eyes were amber behind those square frames, beautiful but human.

“Where are the others?” Isa asked, tone sharp.

“Harpy,” Donovan said as if it explained everything.

Clearly it did because Isa huffed an aggravated sigh.

Hoodie wolf’s gaze fell on her and a huge smile split his face. “Is this her?”

He rushed forward. She shrank back, bracing for an attack. She braced for attack. Instead, he leaned forward, nose pressing against the space where shoulder meets neck, inhaling deeply. Her skin crawled, muscles tense. His hands braced on either side of her head boxing her in as he took his time, snuffling at her like an overeager puppy. People really needed to stop sniffing her.

“What
is
she?” he asked wondrously, to nobody in particular.

Her head was pounding. Was he kidding? What was
she
? What the hell were they? What was she doing here? She was not a pet. She shoved hard, only briefly admiring the wall of his chest muscles as she pushed him. He didn’t even budge though he did grunt a bit.

“Uh, dude,” the pale boy said, “I know we’ve never really lived in the outside world, but humans out there don’t like being sniffed. They think it’s weird.”

The guy in front of her laughed with a shrug like that was the weirdest thing he’d ever heard but backed off. She glared at him. “Yeah, that’s right. We don’t.” She pulled her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around herself wiping her sweaty forehead on her sweater sleeve. “Here’s a short list of what else we don’t like. Being kidnapped. Being driven over state lines. Being the only human in a room full of supernatural freaks. Being stared at by said supernatural freaks like they are contemplating whether she’s their next snack or a nifty science project.”

Silence filled the room as her last sentence died off, growing awkwardly until Hoodie McSnifferwolf turned to Isa earnestly and said, “I like her, Isa. I like her so much. Please tell me we can keep her. This place is so boring and she’s-” he sighed, “awesome.”

He suddenly seemed to remember his manners. He thrust out his hand, “I’m Donovan.”

She stared at him blankly, brain fighting to keep up with his odd behavior. She took his hand before dropping it, his skin too hot on her already overheated skin. “You’re hot,” she gasped.

He winked at her, “Thanks, you too.”

“That’s not wh-” she started.

“Ignore him,” Black Glasses said. “He has no manners at all.” He walked forward, awkwardly sticking his hand out for her to shake. He flinched when she took his hand, “I’m Quinn, and given the way everybody in this room is reacting to you right now, I’m about ninety eight percent positive I’m the only human in this room.”

There was a shuffling outside the room and two more people hurried through the door, Tristin trudging along behind them resentfully. “Did we miss it?” a male voice asked, sounding more curious then disappointed.

Ember gaped, more stunningly good looking people. A tiny girl with long platinum hair and huge pixie like eyes stood just inside the doorway and leaned herself against Rhys, her back to his chest. They were a striking couple, like the kind you’d see on a romance novel cover. He wrapped an arm around the girl’s waist and used his other thumb to wipe at a weird green substance on her cheek.

“Harpy?” he asked.

“Harpy,” she confirmed in a soft bell like voice.

The guy who arrived with her cousin and the pixie didn’t venture far from the door either. He stood, arms crossed, leaning against the wall, taking in the scene. He was tall and lean, hair the color of wheat. A rather impressive tattoo snaked up his right arm and disappeared under the sleeve of his t-shirt.

“Oh, come on,” Ember moaned, clutching her temples. “Do all wolves look like they escaped from a movie? Are you like supernatural models?”

Quinn snickered, crossing his arms over his chest, mimicking the older male. He moved to lean against the wall as well, flailing as he realized he’d miscalculated the distance.

She didn’t think this was funny at all. Did being supernatural make you supernaturally hot? Were they just genetically gifted? Was it years of breeding out flaws? Would she somehow get hotter now that they thought she was something not quite human?

Maybe she could finally get rid of her freckles or that weird birthmark on the back of her neck or the slight gap in her front teeth. That would be awesome. There had to be some perks to being kidnapped by werewolves and, well, whatever her cousins were.

Isa finally left her perch on top of Kai, kneeing him in the diaphragm as she did, most likely on purpose, judging by the small smile playing at her lips. She walked over to the older guy with the spiky blonde hair and planted a hard kiss on his lips, “Hey, babe.”

He smiled, wrapping his arms tightly around her. He buried his face in her neck growling softly. Ember knew she was staring but she couldn’t look away. The man rubbed his cheek against Isa’s and made a strange sort of snuffling sound. Ember risked a glance at the others. Nobody seemed to think this was strange at all. Kai dusted wood and shards of glass off his butt and cracked his neck. Ember tried to school her features into a look that didn’t scream ‘what the hell’ but knew she was failing miserably. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Will somebody please, please tell me what is going on?”

Isa untangled herself from her boyfriend, dragging him to the sofa across from the chair Ember occupied. She shoved him down roughly and sort of draped herself across his lap. He just smiled dopily at her like she was his entire reason for existing.

Jeez, these people didn’t care at all about personal space. Isa looked at Kai and Tristin each in turn. “Gather round, children,” she commanded the room, her voice daring somebody to argue. “It seems its story time. And, since Kai decided he can make decisions without his pack, he gets to be the one to fill us all in.” To his credit, Kai at least had the decency to blush.

Tristin stayed against the wall, near Quinn. Donovan sat in the chair that was the mate to the one Ember was sitting in. The girl peeled herself away from Rhys and settled herself on the floor in front of Donovan. The boy began to run his hands along her back and shoulders, not even looking as he did so.

Kai sat on the couch next to Isa like he wanted to be close to her but wasn’t sure if he was still in trouble. From the corner of her eye, Ember watched the larger wolf, Rhys, watching Kai, his look giving away nothing of his motives. She wondered what the story was between those two.

Kai looked at his sister, clearly hoping for help. She smirked viciously, “Go ahead, brother, seems the floor is yours.”

12

EMBER

“I
hope you weren’t planning on starting without me.” A voice asked from the doorway.

A man of about fifty sauntered into the room, casual in khaki’s and a button down shirt. He had familiar eyes and hair greying at the temples, a big fake smile on his lips. He looked like he should be selling life insurance.

Ember didn’t know if he was friend or foe as his arrival sparked several different reactions. Isa looked relieved; Quinn’s mouth turned down at the corners. Tristin shuffled closer to Rhys, who tucked her into his side, bored expression never changing.

Kai looked like he might vomit.

“Of course not, Allister.” Isa smiled, “You are just in time. We were going to introduce ourselves to our new friend here and then Kai was going to tell us exactly how screwed we are.”

“Excellent,” the older man said, smiling benevolently at her, earning another glare from Quinn.

Kai took a deep breath and blew it out slowly before nodding, “Uh. Right, introductions.” He mumbled to himself, “So, um, this is Isa-Isa McGowan, she is the alpha werewolf of the Belladonna pack,” his voice shook, “this is her mate, Wren,” He gestured to the man beneath her. “Um, their like werewolf married, kind of.”

Isa slapped Kai’s arm, then stroked a hand through his hair. He leaned into the touch, “That’s Rhys,” he said, gesturing half-heartedly toward the broody wolf in the corner, “he’s Isa’s douchebag brother, he says he’s in charge of keeping everybody safe but mostly he just scowls and mopes and rolls his eyes.”

Everybody chuckled at Kai’s assessment except Rhys, who growled low at Kai. The alpha raised a brow at her brother and the sound died, with another eye roll. Ember wondered if it was possible to sprain an eye muscle.

“You’ve met Donovan, he’s an omega.” Kai said as if Ember knew what that meant. Donovan nodded towards her. Kai pointed to the blonde girl with the wide hazel eyes. “That’s Neoma. She’s an elemental; she came with Wren.”

Ember tried to keep up, she really did, but this was a lot of information for her foggy brain to digest. She’d seen enough movies to get the werewolf part. The last introduction stymied her, “Elemental?”

“She’s fay,” Kai said.

Ember smiled weakly, at least she’d been right about that. “I thought you looked like a pixie.”

Neoma’s face fell and Quinn laughed, “Oh, no. Faeries and pixies are not the same thing. Pixie’s are nasty, violent little things…like Tinkerbelle with fangs.” He crooked his fingers like snake teeth for emphasis. “Neoma is a faery, an elemental from the Ohrenthral Court.”

“Oh, sorry,” Ember looked to Quinn, “What about you?”

It was Rhys who spoke up, “Oh, the human? Near as I can tell, his job is to eat all of our food and distract him,” he gestured to Kai, “from providing any useful contribution.”

“So you’re really just human?” Ember blurted.

Everybody gaped at Ember, looking appalled. Her face flushed. She wasn’t sure what she’d done. The older guy at the door, Allister, sneered at Quinn. He seemed like kind of a douche. Quinn glowered back. Tristin glared at Ember, gravitating towards Quinn like a magnet. The room seemed to be turning hostile.

She tried to correct herself, wiping her brow. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. It just seems like there’s not a lot of humans around here.”

Quinn shrugged, staring down Allister as he said, “The town has been cloaked from the humans for their own protection. We get too many supernatural creatures roaming through town. There are many humans here but they are all born to magical families. Mine are witches. Talbot witches, actually. Now, that doesn’t mean anything to you, but we’re kind of a big deal in the supernatural world.” She wasn’t sure if he was joking. His face would suggest no.

“So supernatural people are cool with humans?” That sounded promising. If she was a human. Of course, she was human. God, she hoped she was human. Didn’t she? She didn’t know anymore.

“Most supernatural families don’t care what their children are as long as their healthy. But some, say, from prestigious bloodlines like mine; tend to look down on humans.”

Ember nodded but Quinn didn’t notice. It seemed he wasn’t talking to her anyway, still staring down Allister.

“Quinn contributes plenty around here, human or not,” Isa stated, eyes on her brother, tone denoting it as the end of the matter. Rhys was too busy glaring at Kai to notice. As far as Ember could tell, Rhys’ full time job was watching Kai.

“So, yeah, that’s everybody.” Kai finished lamely.

Allister cleared his throat and Kai looked embarrassed, “Oh, yeah and this is Allister Talbot. He’s the head of the witches’ council and Quinn’s dad.”

“Oh,” Ember said. Well, that explained the hostility. She smiled sadly at Quinn. She could relate. She could write a book on daddy issues.

Isa spoke up, watching the older man, “Allister, this is the girl Kai saved. November Lonergan.”

13

KAI

K
ai almost laughed at the look on Allister’s face. Almost. The older man stumbled forward, stopping just in front of his cousin.

“I-” Allister started, moving towards her and stopping short, “How is this even possible? I mean, we all thought you were dead.”

“Nope, alive and well.” She said, head lulling a bit on her shoulders. “Well, alive, anyway. Sort of.”

Allister studied her, “You do look just like them. Nobody could miss Seraphina or Samara when they were in the room. That hair,” He reached out a hand but caught himself. “Are you alright, my dear? You look unwell.”

Unwell was generous, Kai thought. Her fair skin was chalky. She was sweating again, like in the car, pupils so dilated you could no longer see the iris. The girl was definitely sick. Had she been bitten?

“I just feel shaky,” she promised. “It’s been a long night.”

“Yes, it has,” Isa said. “So why don’t we let Kai tell us what happened?”

Kai couldn’t help it; he slid towards Isa before speaking. He needed to know she wasn’t still mad. “I was in class this morning when I got a name for collection,” he shoved up his sleeve, tapping the blank space where Ember’s name had been just hours before. Ember leaned forward, brow wrinkled in concentration. At first glance, his tattoo was a swirl of black ink starting just above his elbow and winding around his bicep. If you looked closer, though, the image consisted of names, all crammed together to create a pattern.

“Hello?” Ember raised her hand as if she was in kindergarten, “Newbie, remember? What does that mean?”

“So, I’m a reaper, a collector to be exact. I cross people over.” He felt his face flaming with embarrassment, though he didn’t know why. He thought about his next words, “When its somebodies time to go, I collect their souls so that they can move on to the otherworld. The names appear on my wrist, kind of like a tattoo. Once they’ve been collected and passed through the veil, the name moves to its place in the design.” He gestured towards the swirl of names.

“That is so cool,” she said, eyes glassy but tone awed.

“This morning, it was Ember’s name. Her real name.”

“Where did you find her?” Allister said, like she wasn’t sitting right there.

“New Orleans,” Tristin said.

“This whole time?” Allister asked her.

She nodded, frowning.

“And your father, he’s…” he trailed off.

“Dead, since last week,” Ember mumbled.

He felt the mood of the room change. The wolves shifted, moving closer to each other and his cousin. They found comfort through contact.

“We’re very sorry for your loss, Ember. That’s terrible.” Isa said, giving her a sad smile.

His cousin nodded, shifting uncomfortably.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to backtrack a bit.” Wren told him, “You were in the middle of class and found a dead girl’s name on your arm and you didn’t question it. You didn’t think to call us?”

Kai’s mouth tightened, “Of course I questioned it. She was dead. I knew it couldn’t be possible,” he told the room, “but her name was there.”

He looked at Ember, wincing at the words, explaining further. “As far as this town knew, you died twelve years ago with our moms and the others.”

She seemed to take the information in stride. Maybe she was in shock. “I didn’t even know you existed so I guess that makes us even.” She said.

He plunged on, “I was going to say something to Rhys,” Kai said, hoping his already erratic heartbeat would mask the lie “but then, Tristin screamed.”

All eyes swung to his sister whose eyes dropped at the weight of everybody’s stares. She slid herself to the floor, drawing her knees to her chest.

“Is that true, Tristin?” Allister asked. “Did you scream?”

She froze, looking to her brother for help.

“She did.” Rhys supplied, “I was there. She scared the crap out of our sixth period math class.”

Isa looked like she wanted to skin Rhys, “If you were there, why am I only just hearing about this now?”

Rhys’ nostrils flared. “I was going to tell you but then I was sent a text four pages long about the supplies for the twin’s birthday party this weekend. I figured they would tell you at work.”

“Wait,” Ember interrupted. “Your birthday is this weekend?”

“No, our birthday is today, like yours.” Kai told her, glancing at the time on his phone. “Well, technically yesterday now.”

“We share the same birthday? How old are you?”

“Seventeen, like you.”

“Our moms had us on the same day?” Ember shook her head. “That’s really weird, right? Like, even in this world that’s gotta be weird.”

“We’ll get to that in a minute.” Isa told her, “Tristin, you screamed…for Ember?”

“How should I know what I screamed for?” she grumbled, posture defensive, “It’s not like I know what I’m doing or have any control over it.”

“Well, now. That is interesting,” Allister said, looking at Tristin with a smile that made Kai’s stomach feel squishy.

“The screaming is important because…why?” Ember prompted.

“Because Tristin is a reaper as well,” Allister supplied, gaze still on Tristin. The added attention had Quinn sliding down the wall to put an arm around her.

“You are a soul collector thingy like Kai?”

“Technically he’s what they call a psychopomp. A type of reaper. There are different types of reapers.” Quinn explained.

“Oh, so what type are you?” Ember asked.

“Banshee,” Tristin mumbled.

“Banshee,” Ember repeated, “Really? I thought banshees were old women who would wash the clothing of the soldiers destined to die in battle.”

Tristin narrowed her eyes at Ember, “You seem to know a lot about the supernatural for a girl raised with humans.”

“My father was a professor of Celtic mythology and occult studies. I grew up in New Orleans. I know more than you think.” Ember said, “Though, up until ten hours ago, my knowledge was entirely anecdotal.”

Isa gave her an assessing look before saying to Kai, “Continue.”

Kai looked like he was struggling to decide how to proceed, “I figured if Tristin screamed it had to be something, right? Tristin hasn’t screamed since…well, in a really long time.”

He cleared his throat. “Banshee’s are rare,” Kai supplied to Ember.

“How rare?” Ember asked, looking to Tristin.

“Like as far as we know, I’m the only one still in existence.” Tristin’s jaw tightened in a grim line, eyes fixed on the floor. Quinn squeezed her tighter. She half-heartedly tried to shake it off but he held on until she deflated against him.

“That just makes you more special.” Quinn told her. Tristin hmph’d but said nothing.

“My son is correct. You are unique. That makes you special. You screaming is a good thing. It means you didn’t lose your powers, they were just dormant.”

“You thought you lost your powers?” Ember asked.

Tristin shrugged but said nothing.

Ember looked puzzled, “But even if you are the only one, somebody must have information on your powers. On what you are. There has to be records, books, databases.”

Kai watched as Allister puffed out his chest, “Of course there are records and she can petition the council to give her access to information concerning banshees when she is eighteen.”

Ember’s forehead furrowed, blinking like she was trying to clear her vision. “I don’t get it. Why does she have to be eighteen? Can’t you just go to your local library and google information on banshees?”

Allister’s eyes narrowed, “I’m sure this all seems very confusing to you but you have to understand, Ember, information about our kind is highly sensitive and dangerous in the wrong hands. As such, the Grove has restricted access to any information concerning our kind until adulthood.”

Quinn snorted, “Adulthood? You mean if you are an adult witch. Even then, it’s not likely to get you anywhere. Requesting information from the Grove is like asking the government about Area 51. You’ll get back a bunch of papers covered in black sharpie. Everything’s classified.”

Kai felt for his friend. It physically hurt Quinn not to have access to the thousands of years of knowledge hidden in the Grove library.

“Okay, I understand it’s dangerous, but how do you ban books. I mean, they’re books. Don’t people have a right to that information?”

There was no hiding Quinn’s bitterness, “You would think that, this being America and all, but no, not in our world. If you aren’t a witch, you are a second class citizen. Only the witches can be trusted.”

“But that’s crazy? How can that be possible?” Ember asked.

She was right. It was crazy. It hadn’t always been like this. There was a time when information was free. Back when his mother and aunt ran the council. Back before whatever happened to cause the council to close ranks and shut out all supernatural creatures but the witches.

Allister shifted uncomfortably. “It’s a long story, Ember, and it is getting late. The Grove keeps the information well-hidden for the protection of all,” Allister said, as if he rehearsed that line in front of his mirror at night. “Can we please focus on what brought you to us?”

“Weird,” was her only response.

Kai cleared his throat, startling the room back to attention, “So, anyway, after Tristin screamed I showed her Ember’s name. We both decided we should go to New Orleans and see for ourselves. We had to know if it was really her.”

“Isa,” Allister said, “It seems you are not keeping a close enough eye on your pack. Should I be concerned? The consequences of this little excursion could have been catastrophic. They still might be.”

Isa flinched like he’d slapped her before she steeled her spine, looking at Kai then Tristin. “He’s right. You should have come to me first. You know we can’t travel through another alpha’s territory without permission. You could have caused a ton of trouble for the pack.” Isa scolded. She addressed the others, “Nobody is to travel outside of this town without my express permission. I thought that was clear but I was clearly mistaken.”

Kai wouldn’t make eye contact with the alpha. “I never had to clear a collection with you before. And besides, like I said, we didn’t really know if it was real.”

Rhys shook his head, “That just makes it worse. You don’t think it’s weird that your dead cousins’ name pops up for a collection in another state? You didn’t stop to think it might be a trap? When have you ever had to travel this far for a collection? Nothing about this made sense and your first instinct was, ‘screw it, let’s just see what happens?’ That’s not how the pack works.”

Kai set his jaw, “Well, as you like to tell me all the time, we’re not really pack, are we?”

“Enough,” Wren barked from beneath the alpha. “No more distractions. Just finish telling us what happened. This is giving me a headache.”

“When we got there, she had attracted the attention of some kind of grim.”

Eyebrows shot up all around the room. “What kind?” Neoma asked crawling closer to Kai, like a child excited the teacher was finally getting to the good part of the storybook.

“Not sure, vampire, maybe an incubus, random demon of unknown origin?” Tristin supplied, “Whatever he was, he was certainly interested in her and it looked like the feeling was mutual.”

This time Ember looked embarrassed, ducking her head, “Grim?”

“It’s just our code word for anything supernaturally bad. We made it up, it’s not in the official handbook,” Kai explained.

“There’s a handbook?” Ember asked.

Kai smiled, “I was kidding.”

“Oh,” Ember said, disappointed.

Isa jerked forward and Wren hissed in discomfort. “Let’s get back to the grim. Was he looking for her? Or did he just happen upon her?” When Wren adjusted the girl, she patted his face, “Sorry, babe.”

“I don’t know,” Kai told her, shrugging helplessly.

Isa’s eyes shot to Ember, “Have you ever seen this creature before?”

Ember shook her head, goose bumps erupting over her skin. “I don’t feel s’good.” She told them, words sloppy like her tongue refused to cooperate with her brain. She tugged at the collar of her sweater.

Kai looked to Isa not sure what was happening or what they should do about it. Ember was drenched in sweat, a near impossibility in a house that kept its air conditioning set to seventy degrees to offset the constantly elevated body temperatures of four werewolves.

Donovan moved closer to his cousin, putting a hand on her forehead. She didn’t try to move away, in fact, she swayed closer. “Isa, she’s burning up.”

“It’s so hot in here,” Ember mumbled, yanking off her sweater, leaving a wet black tank top that emphasized her corpse like pallor, “S’anybody else hot?”

“Ember?” Isa pushed Donovan out of the way, clasping Ember’s face in her hands. “Ember? What’s happening here? Are you okay? Did that thing do something to you? Did it bite you or scratch you? Ember, honey, stay with me. This is important.”

Ember blinked unfocused eyes at his alpha, looking at her like she’d never seen her before. Suddenly, she bolted forward, catching Isa by surprise enough to cause her to stumble back. Ember lurched to her feet, head swiveling in every direction.