The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) (25 page)

She stared me down, already knowing me well
enough, somehow, to recognize my avoidance of the question. That
and I’d already told her I was there of my own free will.

“They’re going to kill a friend of mine, if I
don’t do what they ask.”

She nodded, as though that answer explained
everything. I was grateful not to be lectured again about my life
being more important than Angelica’s life. “I asked around today
about that curse you mentioned,” she said, once she’d eaten about
half of her soup. “I was told to stay out of it and not to mention
it again.”

“Is that unusual?”

She shrugged. “The witches here are loners.
We don’t work together often, but curses are just business, and we
usually talk about business pretty openly. But this, the others…you
have to understand, I’ve only lived in this town for five years,
and the other witches have been here for a generation at least. I
inherited this house from my grandmother and they trusted her, but
they don’t trust me, yet.” She tapped her chin, her gaze going
distant. “I thought they did, but this proves they don’t. There’s
something dangerous about this curse, something wrong.”

“Would you be willing to guess what that
is?”

“There’s no room for guessing in magic. But
someone did suggest this curse is tied in with the reaper cause in
some way.”

“Rose, Bruce’s sister, has been reaped and
she’s an important player in the reaper takeover.”

“That could be all it is.” She hesitated and
looked at the floor.

“Could the reapers stand to gain anything
from the curse?”

She shrugged. “Maybe they just want to have
another hold on reaper Rose and the family, or… Look, you didn’t
hear this from me and if you tell anyone you did I know ways to
make you wish you were dead.”

“I won’t tell anyone anything.”

“When a curse is removed, power is released.
If you do it right, and if the curse has been around long enough,
you can create a sort of power well on the land where the curse has
dwelt. It’s just the sort of life energy and magic the reapers use
to survive and fight. If this power well was created it could fuel
the reapers for decades, even centuries, if they use it
sparingly.”

“Shit,” I said.

“I’ve never seen it happen, but I’ve heard
enough stories to believe it’s possible.”

“So I have to find out who’s funding the
curse and get them to end it, without creating a power well for the
reapers.”

“There might be a way to do such a thing, but
I don’t know enough about it to tell you how. The person in control
of the curse will also control who can and can’t take power from
the well, so if you get him or her on your side…”

“So I just have to figure out who that is,
woo them to my side, and convince a crazy ghost to move on and
leave Bruce alone, while I’m a keg of life energy for a group of
evil reapers.”

“I don’t believe in evil.”

I glared at her.

“But otherwise I find your analysis
accurate.”

A rough hand on my shoulder woke me from a
deep sleep. I sat up with my fists up, ready to fight.

“Whoa, Kelsey, it’s me. Don’t punch me,” Jed
hissed.

I pushed him away and pulled the covers up to
my chin. “I’m not going anywhere unless Angelica is going with
us.”

“Remember when I said when we’d get you out
of here?” he said, looking completely unsurprised. “It’s time to
go.” He walked over to my closet and flicked on a flashlight. He
found my bag and my shoes, and, after finding nothing else in the
closet, he walked over to my dresser and started tossing clothes in
the bag. I considered screaming, but I really didn’t want to see
how Sadie handled intruders. Jed could take my clothes, but he
wasn’t getting me out of that room.

He zipped up the bag, walked over and bent
down close to my face. “Okay, let’s rock and roll,” he
whispered.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said.

He grinned. “That’s what I was hoping you’d
say.” He grabbed me around the waist and hoisted me up over his
shoulder.

“Hey, put me down.”

He said nothing and, when I started yelling
for Sadie, he just laughed.

We were halfway down the hall when Sadie
popped up at the top of the stairs, her hands out in front of her.
“Stop and put her down,” she said calmly.

“Hey, Sadie,” Jed said, a smile in his voice.
“It’s time for Kelsey to leave.”

“Kelsey?” Sadie asked, her voice less
certain.

“I don’t want to leave. Don’t hurt him, but
don’t let him take me.”

“She’d rather stay here and let the reapers
kill her, but I’m going to take her somewhere she’ll be safe.”

“Is he a friend of yours, Kelsey?” Sadie
asked.

“Yes, but I don’t want—”

“I’m sorry, Kelsey, but I don’t like what
they’re doing to you. I don’t want to have to clean up your dead
body. Do you need me to lower the wards?” She asked Jed.

“Sadie, no—” I said.

“Thank you, but there’s no need. I have a
friend with me who’s already removed the wards for you,” Jed
said.

“Son of a bitch. How?” Sadie asked.

I could feel Jed shrug under my belly and I
wanted to kick them for being so damn civil to one another, but I
couldn’t get out of Jed’s grip. “I don’t understand the witchy
stuff, but my friend said she’d make it obvious the wards were
tampered with, so no one would think you just let Kelsey go. You
should probably call in her kidnapping.”

He started walking again and I figured Sadie
had stepped aside. The blood was rushing to my head and I was
starting to feel dizzy. “Wait, Sadie, please.”

“You should probably punch me or
something.”

“I’m not going to punch you. Tell them I had
a gun or that we got out before you woke up.”

He started down the stairs and I found myself
eye-to-eye with Sadie. “Please, if you let him take me they’ll kill
Angelica.”

“I don’t know her, but I like you, Kelsey,
and I’m not going to stand by and watch you die when there’s a way
out.”

I glared at her all the way down the stairs,
but she just stood there and smiled.

“Call it in, Sadie,” I yelled back at her.
“It’s not worth the risk.”

She nodded, but she didn’t move.

Jed carried me outside and tossed me into the
back of a minivan. Rooster and Thad pushed and pulled me until I
was seated between Thad and Tucker. I plopped down just as the van
started moving.

“Angelica?” I asked.

“She still won’t leave,” Thad said. “She says
Bruce will take care of her, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t
understand the threat.”

“You can’t do this,” I said. “I want to stay
and you can’t force me to leave.”

Thad stared out the window. “We’re not going
to leave you there.”

“It’s my life and my choice.”

Rooster groaned from the seat in front of us.
“Look, I get that you’re my sister and everything, but you’re
acting like an idiot. It’s done and we aren’t taking you back
there, so stop whining about it.”

That shut me up for a minute, while I looked
around the van to see who had partaken in the kidnapping. “What’s
Holly doing her?” I whispered to Tucker.

He shook his head. “She’s clean, Kelsey. I
couldn’t find anything on her.”

I wasn’t convinced, but I couldn’t exactly
argue the point with him while Holly was driving us all down the
road at a frightening speed. “Where’s Jed? Lucy?”

“Jed’s on his way to the airport,” Holly
said, turning to face me from the seat in front of me. “He came
with us in a separate car and he’s going to follow us until we’re
out of town. He wants to get back to Varius to help them clean up
their mess, now that the fight’s over here.”

“Did they find the mole at Varius?”

“Don’t know,” Holly said. “Not our
problem.”

“And Lucy?”

The van was silent for several beats of my
heart. Then Thad turned to me and said in a low voice, “She was
killed, Kelsey. We lost one of our LC’s, too, Evelyn.”

“Dead and…” I hardly knew what to say. Lucy
had seemed like a nice person, but I hadn’t known her well enough
to feel truly sad. “And Lucy’s soul?”

“We’re not sure. She could have gotten away,”
Thad said, but he didn’t meet my eyes.

“Kelsey,” Tucker said in such a low voice I
almost didn’t hear. I turned to look at him and he placed a hand
over one of mine. “They killed Len, too. He was set up and ambushed
by a group of living people working with the reapers.”

My heart sunk and tears sprang to my eyes.
Daddy
, a small voice in my head shrieked, but I managed to
keep the word to myself. “Is he… did they…?”

“We’ve heard that his spirit escaped, but we
don’t have any proof. We haven’t sent anyone out to look for him.
He wouldn’t want us to stop fighting.”

“Enough talk,” Holly said. “We’ve got a
tail.”

“Two of them,” Isobel said, from the driver’s
seat. She picked up speed and the van shook a bit with the faster
pace. It wasn’t designed for high speed chases.

“How’d they get to us so fast?” I asked.

“They must have had someone watching the
house. Must have been a reaper or we wouldn’t have made it even
this far,” Holly said.

A black pathfinder sped by and pulled to a
stop in front of us, swinging out to block the road. Isobel slammed
on the brakes and started to back up, but a car was behind us.

“It’s show time, folks. You all know the
plan,” Holly said. She opened her door, flooding the interior with
light, and Rooster opened the back van door. I stayed in my seat,
heart racing, adrenaline pumping.

“Will you fight with me?” Tucker asked.
“We’re going to need to take out any reapers they brought along and
who cross over to attack us after Thad’s team kills them.”

I swallowed hard and nodded. I really didn’t
want to destroy anyone’s soul, but I didn’t think I was going to
have a choice.

“Take no prisoners,” Thad said to me in a low
voice. “We gave them and their helpers fair warning.”

I fought the urge to argue their right to
live. I swallowed hard and steeled myself. I had made the choice to
fight fully aware that, if I fought, I would have to destroy souls.
If I didn’t fight, they’d take me back to Sadie’s and drain me
until I was dead. If I didn’t fight, they’d take Briarton apart
soul by soul.

“I’ll be there with you,” Tucker said, like
he knew what I was thinking. “If you weaken them, I’ll take them
out.”

“No,” I said. “I’m not going to pretend I’m
not responsible for their destruction by passing them on to
you.”

Tucker nodded and placed his hand over
mine.

Thad squeezed my wrist. “I’m staying right
here to make sure they don’t attack your body while you’re on the
other side.”

“Don’t you need to fight?”

“It’s not worth risking you.”

I just stared at him for a long moment. I’d
known Jed was overprotective on behalf of Varius, but I’d expected
different treatment from my father’s people. “Get out there and
fight. If someone tries for the van, you can warn me.”

“Kelsey, I—”

“Go. You need to fight with your team. If
anything happens to me, tell Len it was my choice.”

Thad nodded and left the van. I heard the
locks click shortly after he stepped out. Holly glared at him, but
he said something and she nodded.

The pathfinder released four people into the
night and they were joined by another two from the car in the back.
I tried not to look too long at their faces. I didn’t want to think
about who they were or what life I’d be ripping them from.

I ignored the conversation going on outside
the car and tried to calm myself enough to cross over. It only took
me two breaths before my spirit left my body and I looked down on
myself. I moved out of the car and walked over to one of the two
reapers who’d come to the fight. There was a chaos of fists and
feet on the snow next to us, but I didn’t hear gunshots. Kind of
hard to make it look like a car accident if the deceased had bullet
holes in them.

The reaper I faced didn’t look much older
than me and she seemed just as nervous.

“I’ve heard what you can do, but I didn’t
believe it,” she said, taking a step back. “They say you’re more
powerful than Houston.”

That surprised me enough to make me pause,
and she was on me with a punch to the gut that knocked me on my
ass. Even in ghost form it really hurt. I hate fighting. I saw
Tucker out of the corner of my eye and it looked like he received
more punches than he delivered.

I grabbed my opponent’s ankle when she tried
to kick me in the side, pulled her down and rolled onto her,
straddling her and pinning her arms to her sides with my legs. I
placed one hand over her mouth and nose, and pulled her energy into
myself. Her eyes grew wide and she bucked under me, but I kept
pulling. I didn’t want to destroy her soul, and I wondered if I
could leave her enough to survive but not to come after us.

A yell from the living world distracted me,
and she took the opportunity to jab me in the throat and buck me
off. She sat on my chest and put her hand on my face, trying to
pull my energy from me. I used the contact of our two energies to
pull against her life force. It was a tug of war that I quickly
won. She pulled her hand away like she’d been burned.

“What the hell?” she asked, looking at her
hand. I guess the reapers didn’t teach their warriors much about
the flow of energy or how to manipulate it. They probably hadn’t
had time to train everyone.

I flipped her over again and pressed one hand
to her face and the other to her chest. I tried to leave her just
enough energy to survive, but when I pulled away she looked up at
me with terror in her eyes. “Please,” she said. “If you leave me
like this, they’ll kill me anyway, but they’ll have some fun with
me first.” I had no idea what she meant by fun, but I could
understand why she wouldn’t want to be weak around the reapers she
worked with. I absorbed her essence in an alarmingly short space of
time, and I felt the terror of her last moments as her energy
became a part of me. I might have thrown up, if I wasn’t suddenly
punched in the face.