The Reaping (The Reapers Book 1) (25 page)

“No,” he said quickly. Then he thought for a moment. “I don’t think so. We can ask Angelica when we see her.” Caleb was already standing and on his way back to the coffee pot. There was a quick knock at the door and the sound of a key turning in a lock.

“That’s Jed. I asked him to come here to back me up.”

“Oh,” I said as I tried to fold the blanket that had been covering me and finger comb my hair at the same time.

Jed walked in, dropped a large duffel bag on the floor, and closed the door behind him with a loud, “Hiya, Sugar. I’m home.”

“Hey, Jed,” Caleb called from the kitchen. “You remember Kelsey.”

Jed noticed me for the first time, and his smile widened. “Of course, I remember Kelsey. And not just because she’s the reason I’m back.” Jed dropped his broad body down next to me. “How are you, Kelsey? What are you, an insanely early riser, or did you sleep over?”

He asked the question in a joking tone, and I answered him the same way, hoping he wouldn’t notice my red cheeks. “Caleb won’t admit it, but I think he’s afraid of ghosts. He didn’t want to be alone last night.”

Jed’s smile faded and he studied me for a long moment before turning his attention to Caleb who had just walked in with two steaming mugs of coffee. “Cat was here with you, too, wasn’t she?”

“Um, no,” I said, feeling like a kid who’s been caught sneaking out. Caleb put a mug on the table in front of me.

“Little brother,” Jed stood and headed toward the bedroom. “We need to talk. In private.”

“Jed, I really don’t—” Caleb said, but Jed grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back to the bedroom. “I’m sorry.” Caleb said to me with a grimace, before he disappeared behind the door.

I sipped my coffee and hoped the guys weren’t discussing me. The voices from the bedroom grew louder and, when I began to be able to make out words like “what the hell were you thinking?” and “none of your business,” I moved out to the balcony. Not that I wasn’t curious, but I didn’t want to overhear anything bad about myself, or misinterpret something I heard as being something bad about me.

There were a couple of weather-beaten Adirondack chairs on the deck and I sat down in the one farthest from the sliding glass door that led back into the apartment. In my peripheral vision, I saw a ghost sit down next to me. He was only behind the first curtain, and I still couldn’t see beyond the second. I stared straight out at the view of the mountains and he laughed.

“I know you can see me, Kelsey. I am not so young or so stupid as your friend, Landon.”

I didn’t move.

“Your friend Doug sent me. I am sure that you can both see and hear me, and I would very much like to speak to you.”

He might know who Doug was, but that didn’t prove he knew what I could do, and I saw no reason to give him that information. I kept my eyes on the mountains and sipped my coffee. He could give me Doug’s message without me looking at him.

The ghost sighed. “It seems silly for me to talk to you while you pretend not to listen, but I don’t seem to have any choice. I am Tucker Greyson and my body has been dead for a hundred and thirty five years. I was twenty-five when I died and my ghost bears my appearance at that age, not that you are going to look at me, anyway. Doug is worried about you, but he doesn’t have the strength or the right connections to be able to help you. He thinks I can.”

I took another sip of my coffee, leaned back in my chair, and closed my eyes. It was cold out there and I considered going back inside, but I wanted to hear what Tucker Greyson had to say.

“I try not to get involved in reapings. I was once a very powerful figure among the guardians, but in the past quarter century, I have become disillusioned. They claim to be improving society, by reaping the lives and bodies of people who are only wasting what they have, but I have seen too many people better themselves and their situations without the help of the guardians to believe they are in the right. Even so, I have minded my own business, and I haven’t interfered with their reapings. I am making an exception for you, because your friend, Doug, believes you’re worth it.”

I was having a hard time buying that this guy was the Good Samaritan he claimed to be. It just didn’t make sense that he would take a risk like this on Doug’s behalf.

“I’m not claiming to be a saint,” he said as though he heard my thoughts. “I like you, Kelsey. You’re beautiful and smart and, according to Doug, you have overcome hardship in your life and continue to trust and love people. Your love of life is indomitable and the guardians have no basis to justify reaping you. All of that is enough for me to want to help you. Selfishly, though, I just want the opportunity to be closer to you and to know you.”

He waited a long moment, probably hoping that I would turn my attention to him and speak, but I remained still.

“I‘ll do what I can to help you, but I have to act carefully. Landon has attracted a great deal more attention than I think is warranted by this reaping, and some of the guardians involved are stronger than I am. I am not powerful enough to openly fight all of the guardians working with Landon, but I can and will help you in other ways. What I need you to do is to rest. Get as much sleep as you can and—” He stopped abruptly, and I was sure that I felt him brush the hair back from my temple. “I must go, but I won’t be far.” And he was gone.

I was so cold, I couldn’t feel my nose or my toes, but the sun had come out and was beginning to warm my face, and I felt so sleepy. Logically, my mind should have been racing with the new information from Tucker, wondering what Jed and Caleb had been discussing, or contemplating what Landon had in mind for me next, but I couldn’t focus on any one thought for more than a few seconds. I fell asleep wondering what Tucker looked like.

When I woke up, I was still on the deck, but I was under a down comforter. My back and neck were stiff from sleeping in the Adirondack chair, but I felt more rested than I had in a week. I stretched and straightened up and saw Caleb sitting next to me in the other chair, a steaming cup of coffee on the armrest.

“Hey.” I smiled at him so hard I felt silly, but I was happy to see him. For a moment, I forgot all of my problems and basked in the happiness that washed over me just because he was sitting next to me and smiling at me as goofily as I was at him.

In an instant, fear began to seep in and corrupt my happiness. I realized for the first time how much I liked him, and that was almost as scary as Landon’s threats and Reid’s violent anger. Caleb could hurt me just as badly as they could without a single bad motive.

He must have seen something in my face, because his smile faded a bit. “I thought about moving you inside, but you looked so peaceful, and I knew how badly you needed sleep.”

“Thanks for the blanket.”

“Yeah.”

I gave him a count of sixty to step up and explain what Jed had been so upset about, but, when he said nothing, I spoke up, “So, Jed figured out that you and I…”

He jumped in. “Yeah. I should’ve seen that coming. He can read auras, and he could tell almost immediately. He could also tell—”

The sliding door slid open and Cat stuck her head out. “She’s up. We can see you two through the glass, you know.”

“Yeah. Can you just give me five minutes, Cat?” Caleb said, sounding exhausted and angry.

“You’ve had all night with her. What can you possibly—”

“Go, Cat,” he said with an edge in his voice that made me wince and sent Cat back inside, slamming the door behind her.

Caleb sighed. “I’ve handled all of this really, really badly, Kelsey, and I’m sorry.”

“I think she deserved it.”

“What? Oh, Cat. Yes, she does. But I was talking about us. The truth is that I don’t date, and I haven’t dated in a really long time. With the work I do, dating isn’t easy, and I…I just haven’t met anyone I’ve liked enough to make it worth the effort. Then I met you, and I just wanted to be around you…”

“Which was convenient since it was your job.” I knew I sounded like a whiny brat, but I couldn’t help it. I needed to know that he wasn’t just handing me a line.

He laughed. “Yeah, it was, and it wasn’t. There are rules, and dating a new recruit, especially one who is being targeted by reapers, is at the top of the list of don’ts, as Jed reminded me this morning. Reapers target you on every conceivable level, but they hit hardest on an emotional one by trying to make you believe your body and your life would be better managed by one of them. Somehow, I made you feel like shit at a time when I should be supporting you. At least, Jed saw from your aura that you felt bad, and he and I assumed that was because of me.”

I considered lying to him; I mean, I had more than enough reasons to have a bummed out aura, but this morning Caleb was definitely bumming me out more than anything else. Plus, he had saved my life. I figured he deserved a little honesty from me. “Growing up, my mother told everyone she could about my ability to see and talk to the dead. As you can imagine, that didn’t make me particularly popular among my classmates.”

“Really? They didn’t think it was cool?”

“Um, people either decided that I was a fake and a liar, or they believed me and decided that there was something sinful or weird about my ability. These feelings spread and the kids at school pretty much universally ostracized me as a freak. When a boy did like me or wanted to fill the freak notch in his proverbial belt, it was always with the understanding that we would keep our relationship secret from everyone else.”

“So when I told you I didn’t want anyone to find out that we were…” He groaned. “Shit. I haven’t even taken you out on an actual date yet. I must seem like the biggest asshole to you.”

“No. I get that my issues with you come from my past and not from anything you’ve done. I don’t think that you are even a little bit of an asshole, but I don’t really understand why we need to keep it such a secret that we like each other.”

He smiled when I said that. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who was worried.

“Probably because I haven’t been completely honest with you. Of course, I don’t want Cat to know because she will do her best to poison you against me.”

“She would do that, anyway.”

He smiled at me, and his cheeks reddened a bit. “Yeah, you’re right. The truth is that I’m not only worried about getting in trouble for breaking the rules. Varius is extremely family-oriented. My parents met while they were working there, and Jed works there with us. The leadership at Varius encourages dating and marriage between employees, and someone with your skill level will be very, um, popular. If my parents or anyone at Varius finds out that we are anything more than colleagues, they will consider every aspect of our relationship their business. And there will be an uncomfortable amount of pressure from my parents for us to be serious.”

“Oh.” That was not at all what I had expected. “Exactly what sort of pressure are we talking about? Loud opinions about when we should get married pressure, or locking us in a room together until we agree to wed pressure.”

Caleb laughed. “More like the first.”

Maybe it was the sleep I’d gotten or maybe I was accepting that I might not have much time left with my body and I wanted to make the most of it, but I was thinking more clearly than I had in days, and I knew exactly what I wanted. “I can handle that kind of pressure, I think. If you’re interested in dating me, then I’d like for it to be in the open. I’m getting kind of tired of secrets, and I’ve got so many now I’m having trouble keeping them all straight. If that’s okay with you. I mean if you don’t want to or if—”

“Kelsey.” Caleb leaned over the two armrests separating us and gave me a kiss that shut me up so well I was speechless even after he moved away.

The sliding door banged open and Cat stormed onto the balcony. “This is low, even for you, Caleb. I’m pretty sure it’s against the rules to literally seduce a recruit to your team.”

Caleb took my hand, which rested on the armrest of my chair, and interlaced his fingers with mine. “Kelsey and I are dating, and that has nothing to do with recruiting her. She’s free to choose whichever company she wants to work for.”

Cat snorted and threw her hands up. “Right. Well, you can bet I’m going to go straight to my boss with this, Caleb, and then I’m going to your parents.”

Caleb’s hand tensed in mine. “Cat, I know you don’t like me very much.”

She snorted again.

“But if you feel that you are in my debt in even the smallest way, please just give us a few days to enjoy each other before the others get involved.”

Cat glared at him, but her expression softened when she looked at me. “I’ll do it because I owe you, Caleb, but that’s it. After this, we’re even.”

“Agreed,” he said.

She looked away. “We should get inside. We’ve already wasted too much time, and Angelica is starting to freak.”

“Angelica? What happened?” I stood and gathered the comforter in my arms.

“Reid broke into your place last night.” Cat was already pushing the sliding door open and walking back inside.

“Is she okay?” I tried to hurry after her, tripped on the comforter, and almost went headfirst over the railing.

Caleb grabbed my arm and steadied me. “Other than being shaken up and scared, she’s fine.” He gently steered me inside.

Cat smirked at me and Jed stared at the floor, but all I saw was Angelica. She sat on the couch next to Jed, and she looked pale and drawn. Her hair was down, brushed but unwashed, and she hadn’t bothered to put on make-up. She was wearing old jeans and a ragged sweatshirt, which I knew were her “comfort” clothes. The clothes she cuddled up in when she was tired or sick or hung-over and intended to spend the day at home. When she saw me, she burst into tears, and I dropped the comforter and hurried to sit next to her and wrap her in a hug.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

She nodded against my shoulder.

“What happened?” I looked at Cat, not expecting Angelica to tell me.

Cat shrugged. “Reid broke into the apartment. He thought Angelica was you, and he tried to cut her, but she screamed and kicked him in the balls. I went in when I heard her scream, and he ran away like the little coward he is.”