The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) (16 page)

I asked Holly to tell Jed what Tucker said,
in case he didn’t believe it coming from me. Jed sighed and his
shoulders dropped in defeat. “Damn it, Tucker, you were supposed to
be on my side.” He shook his head. “Fine, you can go, but if
there’s any sign of trouble, anything at all, you get the hell out
of there and call me while you’re running.”

“I will,” I said, wishing I felt happier that
Jed was letting me go. I felt no joy in winning that battle.

He nodded without looking at me. “Good, now
go take a nap while I talk strategy with Holly and Tucker.”

I stood and headed for my room before he
changed his mind. As I closed the door behind me, I heard Holly
say, “Who are you and what have you done with the Jed I know?”

“Stop worrying about me and focus on keeping
Kelsey alive,” Jed said.

I snuggled up under my comforter to sleep,
but I couldn’t convince my eyes to stay closed. Thoughts of the
curse and the wild eyes of the ghost haunting Bruce, kept me
tossing and turning in a futile effort to find the position that
would help me drift off. I didn’t know the whole story, but I knew
enough. From what the dead girl had said, she was going to do
something to come between Bruce and Angelica herself, rather than
wait for the curse to take effect. I needed to find some way to
protect Angelica from the reaper and the curse.

What Angelica really needed was either a
full-time bodyguard or a trip far away from Bruce until I got rid
of his scary reaper. Tucker might be able to watch out for her, but
his primary concern was the war. I needed to get out of the condo,
so I could protect her. Jed was going to hate that idea. The look
on his face when we’d talked about me sneaking out flashed in my
memory and my gut twisted. I’d never get anywhere if he didn’t
trust me. I had to make things right. I spent fifteen more minutes
trying to fall asleep, but when I heard the sound of Jed’s video
game, I pulled myself back out of bed.

I went out to the living room, and curled up
on the couch next to him. He was playing some violent game I hadn’t
seen before and his avatar was kicking the crap out of people. He
hadn’t showered since his last workout, and he smelled masculine
and musky.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Thanks for backing me
up.”

“You should be sleeping,” he said without
taking his eyes off the game.

“I can’t sleep. I need you to trust me, and I
want us to be friends again.”

He paused his game and looked at me. “We
aren’t friends, Kelsey. It’s my job to protect you, so I guess
we’re colleagues of a sort, but that’s as far as it goes. You lied
to me, and you snuck out on my watch.”

His words hurt more than I wanted to admit,
so I pushed aside my emotions and met his gaze with the best blank
look I could manage. “I don’t want to fight with you, but I can’t
sit around and do nothing. Angelica needs my help.”

He rolled his eyes. “Once Len’s team gets
here, you aren’t going to have time to do much of anything. You
should be sleeping or training, and that’s all you
should
be
doing. I might suggest you get your shit together mentally, but I
doubt you will.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged and turned his game back on. “It
means you’ve had a lot of bad happen in your life the past month
and you’re not dealing with it.”

“I’m dealing with it. I’m going out to dinner
with Caleb, and I’m helping Angelica.” What was with everyone’s
concern for me and my avoidance issues, lately?

“I’m talking about you taking some time alone
to grieve for Cat, and accepting how your life has changed.”

“Who are you the Dalai Lama? How do you know
I haven’t already meditated on it and accepted it?”

“You’ve had three weeks with Cat, and you
still haven’t chosen a corporation to work for.”

“From what I’ve learned about the
corporations, I don’t want to work for either one.”

“Right, you want your old life back, which
everyone except you can see is never going to happen.”

“You don’t know it won’t happen. You’re
telekinetic not psychic.” I mean, yeah, it probably wasn’t going to
happen, but he was annoying me and I was in no mood to admit
defeat.

“You’re going out with Caleb tonight and you
haven’t come to terms yet with the way he betrayed you. You aren’t
going to get much from him if you’re angry.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

He got quiet, and I almost got up and left. I
wanted to leave, but I also wanted to prove to him he was wrong
about me. Obviously, I was aware he might be a tiny bit right.
Tucker had noticed the same things. I was just afraid if I stopped
and really thought about my life, and who I was, and who I was
going to have to be, I would break and never be able to put myself
back together again.

“Tucker’s worried about you, Kelsey, and so
am I.

I just stared at him for a long moment. “You
two have been talking about me behind my back?”

“It’s not like that. We’ve both been trained
to read people. It’s the best way to tell, in the field, if
someone’s been borrowed or reaped. It’s necessary to be aware of
how stable your partner is when you might have to depend on them to
have your back. So we’ve noticed that you’re struggling and we’ve
been trying to figure out how to help you.”

I just stared at him for a moment and tried
to decide how I felt about what he was telling me. My anger about
him and Tucker discussing my mental health, and my own fear that my
issues could hurt either one of them made me react in a less than
ideal way. “So what? You two geniuses have decided, in your
infinite wisdom, that I’m on the verge of a mental breakdown?” When
he didn’t immediately deny that, I barreled on. “Oh, my god, you
think I’m crazy, don’t you? That’s why you won’t let me leave the
condo. You think I’ve lost my mind.”

He just threw back his head and laughed like
me and my crumbling mind were funny, while I resisted the urge to
punch him in the nose. He eventually came up for air and froze when
he saw the look on my face. “Oh, god, Kelsey, I’m sorry. Tucker and
I don’t think you’re crazy. We think you’re having a normal
reaction to everything that’s happened. If you were crazy we
wouldn’t… We just think you need some time and space, and someone
to talk to, so that you can accept everything that’s happened and
move on. We’ve been trying to figure out how to give that to
you.”

Everything he said was perfectly rational,
but I was still angry at the way he’d laughed at me. Avoiding
admitting I had a problem was just an added bonus. “I’m glad my
problems have been so amusing to you, but I don’t need anyone’s
help. I’m fine and I’ll cry at great length about the tragedies in
my life, or whatever it is I’m supposed to do, after we’ve gotten
the reapers out of Briarton.”

“I just want you to know that you can talk to
me if you think it will help. There’s nothing you could say that
would make me judge you or think less of you.”

“I don’t need your help.” I stood. “And I
don’t care what you think of me, okay. Just don’t talk about me
behind my back, and stop trying to psychoanalyze me or whatever it
is you’re doing. If I need to talk to someone, I’ll talk to one of
my friends.” Not that I really had any of those now he’d made it
clear he wasn’t one, but he didn’t need to know that.

He looked up at me, and I thought I saw pain
in his eyes. I felt a perverse thrill of pleasure that maybe I’d
hurt him the way he’d hurt me. “Kelsey—”

“Tucker around? I should go train with
him.”

“He’s in the kitchen, but Kelsey…”

I ignored Jed and went to the kitchen. I
stopped when I only saw Holly at the table with a bottle of scotch
and a shot glass in front of her. A reaper Holly floated over the
corporeal Holly. “You okay? What’s going on?” I asked.

Live Holly laughed. “I’m in Holly. I wanted
to have a drink so she let me in.” Her eyes glazed over for a
minute and Tucker floated out, and reaper Holly floated back
in.

A gasp escaped me before I could help it. “Is
that safe?”

Holly snorted. “Not in the least. I like to
get away from myself every once in a while. It helps me to
appreciate how wonderful life is. Plus, I trust Tucker.”

“And I am always incredibly grateful to
Holly,” he said with a fond smile.

I really didn’t want to know any more. “Would
you be willing to work on my training until we have to go?” I
asked.

He nodded and followed me down to the
training room.

The garage was chilly, and smelled like the
metal of weights and blood. It was a comforting smell. Our training
room had somehow become a place I could go to escape from myself,
and whatever or whoever was bothering me.

I sat down on a bench. “Before we start, do
you know how I might go about trying to convince a ghost who’s 200
years old, and likely insane, to drop a curse?”

His eyes widened. “You’ve spoken to her?
You’re sure she’s the one who initiated the curse?” When I nodded,
he shook his head. “It’s not really my area of expertise. That
chick’s got a lot of anger, and she’s been holding on to it for a
long time. You’d have to be able to offer her something she wants
more than the curse.”

“Great.”

He studied me for a moment, his eyes
narrowed. “Why don’t you ask Jed about this? He’s handled more
reaper negotiations than I have.”

“What would he know? He’s just a stupid
telekinetic.”

He laughed. “He’s really gotten under your
skin.”

“What? No. He’s thoroughly annoying is all
and has no interest in helping me talk to a reaper. That would
require me leaving the condo.”

“Uh-huh. I’ve got a friend who’s very
persuasive with the ladies and owes me a favor. I’ll ask him to
talk to her.”

“That would be awesome.”

“Great. Can we start training now?”

I nodded.

“As I’ve said before fighting a reaper on my
plane isn’t much different than fighting a living person on yours.
Because you’ll be connected to your living body, you’ll be as
powerful as all but the oldest and strongest reapers. Assuming
you’re healthy, mentally and physically,” he said. He gave me a
long, lingering up and down look. I don’t know why he bothered,
when I knew he wasn’t remotely interested in me. I guess old habits
die hard. Or, he enjoyed getting a rise out of me.

“I repeat this every time we train because
it’s important and because I hope it will encourage you to deal
with your crap.”

I groaned. “Don’t you start, too.”

He gave me a look, eyebrows raised, but I
just stared back at him, my expression carefully blank. I’d like to
think I looked scary and thug-like, but I’m pretty sure I just
looked silly and vague. He shook his head. “Fine, let’s get
started.”

Tucker and I trained until the doorbell rang.
I’d nailed the trance, and I’d crossed over repeatedly, but my
superpowers weren’t up to their usual level and Tucker had easily
beaten me when we sparred in the spirit realm. Tucker said I was
weak because I wasn’t emotionally healthy, but I tuned him out and
kept training.

I plodded up the stairs, my resolve to
manipulate Caleb dissolving into lethargy. After my lackluster
performance with Tucker and another lecture, I really just wanted
to be alone.

Caleb smiled at me, when I walked into the
living room. “Do you want me to give you a few minutes to get
ready?” He asked.

“Nope, I’m good,” I said. I grabbed my coat,
hat, and gloves, stepped into my boots and walked out of the condo
without looking at Jed or Holly. I didn’t want to see the worry and
disapproval on their faces.

“I thought we’d walk to the restaurant,” he
said. “If a place downtown sounds good to you.”

“Sure.” The air was crisp and cold, not cold
enough to be painful on my bare face, but cold enough to wake me up
and make me long to go for a run or a ski. Snow was still heavy on
the ground, but the sidewalk was clear, as was the night sky.

Caleb tried to take my hand and my enjoyment
of the moment faded. I shook him off and chose my words carefully.
“I believe you really want me to care for you again. If you wanted
to force me in any way, you could have, but you aren’t that kind of
person.” That last bit was a lie, but Jed had said Caleb wanted to
see himself as a moral person. “I haven’t quite gotten over the
fact that you lied to me last fall, and I’m not ready to just pick
up where we left off. Please don’t touch me before I’m ready.”

He moved a step away from me. “I’m sorry.
It’s just really hard to be around you without touching you. I’ve
missed you.”

“What have you been doing all this time?
What’s kept you away?” I wanted to change the subject.

“It wasn’t time for us to be together, yet. I
wanted to come to you sooner, but needed to be sure I could offer
you everything you deserve. Now, there’s nothing to come between us
and no reason we can’t be together… when you’re ready.”

“And if I’m never ready?” It was a risk, I
guess, to question him, but I needed to know.

He stepped in front of me forcing me to stop
and look at him. He smiled. “You’re the most beautiful, smartest,
funniest woman I have ever met. If it takes a lifetime, I’m willing
to wait for you to be ready. You are my soul mate.”

The sincerity in his eyes and his words made
me shiver, and I fought the urge to run away from him. The
desperation on his face made it clear to me that he wasn’t just a
little crazy, he was fundamentally broken. I couldn’t help feeling
a tinge of sympathy mixing with my fear of him. Sympathy was a
dangerous emotion, one that might make me hesitate when I most
needed to act. I tried to smother it by reminding myself how easily
he could kill me, convince himself it was the right thing to do,
and go to sleep with a smile on his face. “How can you be so sure
I’m the one?”