The Rift (17 page)

“He’s clearly with her,” I hissed. “And he
seems happy.”

Henry didn’t have an answer for that, but he
didn’t look any less disappointed. He walked over to my dresser and
started pulling clothes out and dumping them on the floor.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“I’m throwing out all of your old clothes, so
you don’t decide it’s better to continue hiding in them.”

“I’m gonna need them when we go back to
Varius.” Henry ignored me, bundled them all up in his arms and
carried them out of my room.

“I’ll burn them if I have to,” he said.

I sighed and collapsed on the bed. Why was he
mad at me? I couldn’t control who Jed liked.

I rolled over onto my back and felt paper
crinkle under me. I sat up and saw a manila file folder with a note
taped to the front. The note just indicated that the file was
Houston’s. I recognized Jed’s handwriting, but he hadn’t signed it
or given any indication that he’d put it there.

The file was much thinner than I’d expected.
The earliest date they had information on Houston was 1900 and even
that was sparse until about 1970, when the file thickened
considerably. In 1900, he had taken the body of an oil baron in
Texas and had lived quite well for a few years, until the
60-year-old body collapsed and he had to move on. In 1915, he took
the body of a wealthy, society man in New York City, but apparently
that was too high-profile. The man he’d reaped had been quite
social, and Houston had no desire to go out and hob nob every day.
People questioned the change in him, and he was shot and killed two
years later by thieves. Whoever had created the file believed the
thieves may have actually been possessed by reapers, since they had
no memory of the robbery or killing and had no previous record. No
one knew why the reapers would have wanted to kill Houston, but at
least one person suspected it might have been a hit by Harvest One,
who either believed he was drawing too much attention to himself or
felt he hadn’t fulfilled his contract to them before taking the
body.

It was twenty more years before he reaped
again, and in those twenty years, he worked for Varius. He put in
his time and was a model employee and in 1935, he was allowed to
reap a 20-year-old drug addict. Houston reaped him, got clean and
found a good job. In 1942, Houston’s body was 26 and he was
drafted. He did well in training and made officer, but he was
killed in battle that same year.

He went back to work for Varius, though his
employment record wasn’t as exemplary as the first time. He logged
a complaint stating that the length of time he’d had in his last
body wasn’t commensurate with the years he’d put in working for
Varius. Even so, he worked for them another twenty years and was
given permission to reap the body of a known sexual predator in
1962. The perversity of that man left when his soul left his body,
but Houston had a hard road to maintain any kind of decent life.
The man had been released from jail only a year before Houston
reaped him. Somehow, Houston managed to make people forget the
crimes the man had committed and opened his own construction
business. He did well and, in 1968, was married to a woman who was
stunningly beautiful. They had one child together and appeared to
be happy.

In 1970, he was sued by one of the people the
man had raped before Houston took over his body. There was no
indication why the civil suit occurred so long after the incident,
but the courts agreed to hear it. The woman claimed the incident
occurred after the man had been released from jail, but before
Houston took over his body. Houston won the case, with good lawyers
and a lack of conclusive evidence on the part of the woman, but the
case reminded people of the predator he had been. His wife left him
and took their child, and his business was soon bankrupted. Houston
moved several states away and set up a new business that did fairly
well, but he never had the success he’d had before.

He lived in that body for five more years,
before his house was broken into and he was tortured and killed.
Varius had no evidence to explain who targeted him or why, but
Houston said in his report that he was killed by the brothers of
the woman who’d accused him of rape. He went on to state, in the
same report, that Varius’s method of assigning reapers to bodies
was unjust. He’d put in forty years of work for Varius and he’d
been assigned two bodies that had required a great deal of what he
called renovation to even come close to a decent life. In the
second case, the decent life was impossible to maintain. He offered
ideas for how the situation could be remedied, from choosing people
who were decent but weren’t making anything of themselves to
breeding bodies at Varius.

I couldn’t help but empathize with Houston,
as crazy as his suggestions might be. I didn’t believe it was ever
okay for a reaper to reap a living person, but I could understand
Houston’s desire to live again and he’d played by the rules, only
to be dealt bad hands. Houston didn’t return to Varius, but agreed
to remain in the spirit world as a reaper and, as far as anyone
could tell, he had. There’d been complaints against him from other
reapers to Varius. Apparently, he was forceful and aggressive with
those he didn’t like, but Varius didn’t take it on themselves to
police reapers in the spirit world. The complaints against him made
up most of the file, the majority from a reaper named, Reginald
Victor. I flipped through them, but they seemed petty, and I was
too tired to read them all. At the very end of the file was a
written note from Jed,
Kelsey, this is what I was able to get
from Houston’s official file, but I’m sure there’s more. My mother
likes to keep the most important bits of information to herself and
mark it classified. When we get back to Varius, I’ll try to access
it
. I put the file away and dropped down to the floor to do
crunches and push-ups while I considered what I’d just learned.

I woke up to the sound of someone screaming
and Henry’s calm, gentle voice. My throat ached and my face felt
wet. I sat up and realized I was the one screaming. “I’m
sorry.”

He wrapped his big warm arms around me and
hugged me hard. “I know.”

The sound of the door closing made me spin
around to see who was there, but there was no one. “Who?” I asked,
hating that there had been an audience for my nightmare. Hating
that I’d woken anyone else up.

“It doesn’t matter. We’re all your friends
here.”

How long they would be my friends was the
question. If I could get away from me I would.

My stomach rumbled as I walked into the
kitchen the next morning. I’d had another session with Doctor
Veronica where I had to recount all my recent traumas, but it
hadn’t been as difficult. I hadn’t cried. I felt lighter, rather
than heavier, for a change. I was wearing blue skinny jeans and a
light, striped sweater that hugged my curves, and I was feeling
pretty good about myself.

Jed was at the table in the kitchen eating a
bowl of cereal, which was unlike him. He usually fixed a
full-course breakfast. He barely glanced up when I walked in. “You
look exhausted.”

“Thanks, that was exactly the look I was
going for,” I said. I walked to the pantry to find some cereal,
when a body pressed against me.

“I think you look hot,” Thad said, giving me
a quick squeeze.

“Uh-huh. How was your date last night?” I
leaned back into him, for just a moment before grabbing a packet of
instant oatmeal and taking it to the microwave.

“She is also hot and very, very bad,” Thad
said. I looked back at him over my shoulder, but his expression was
serious. “A little too bad, if you know what I mean.”

“Nope. Why don’t you explain?” I ignored Jed
who was watching our exchange with obvious confusion. I couldn’t
blame him since he’d seen us kissing not too long ago, but I wasn’t
in the mood to help him out. He could ask if he really wanted to
know.

“S & M, Kelsey, like serious whips and
chains.”

“Not your thing?” I tried not to laugh out
loud.

He shrugged. “I’ll try anything once, but no,
definitely not my thing.”

I didn’t hold back my laughter then.

“Shut up,” he said, biting back a grin. “Or
I’ll give you details.”

“God, please, no. I’ll stop laughing, I
swear.” I took a deep breath and pursed my lips to keep from
smiling. I’d laugh about it with Henry later. “I’ve already got an
image of you in black leather that I’ll never be able to erase from
my mind.”

“If you wish to erase it, you’re imagining it
wrong.” He punched my shoulder.

I took my oatmeal and sat down at the table
across from Jed.

“Next time you plan to be out all night,” Jed
said to Thad. “Let me know. I didn’t even know you weren’t here,
and if there’d been any trouble…”

“Yes, Dad,” Thad said in a tone I thought
more sarcastic than necessary.

Jed pushed his chair back and stood. He
stepped over to Thad. “You got a problem with me?”

Thad smiled his most winning smile. “Relax,
man, I’m just joking around. I had a rough night.”

Jed shook his head and left.

“What’s your problem?” I whispered.

He sat down in Jed’s seat and grimaced. “My
nipples are sore, okay. I’m in a foul mood.”

I raised my eyebrows, but he put all of his
attention into his cereal. I shrugged and kept eating. Today was
not my day to figure out the men in that house.

I finished my oatmeal and went to find
Angelica. She was on the front porch, Jeremiah already rocking
beside her. Wraith was sitting on the steps, his knee bouncing like
he was antsy or nervous. He turned and smiled, then froze and
looked me over from my toes, back up to my face.

“You look…Do you have any idea how beautiful
you are?”

His words made me tingle to my fingertips,
even if he was a crazy reaper. “What’s the plan for today?” I
asked.

“Those two want to hang out here, but I
thought you might be interested in something more active,” he said
the last word with a suggestive lilt in his voice.

“What did you have in mind?”

“Have you ever had a powerful animal between
your legs?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. If he was
seriously coming on to me, it was the worst proposition I’d ever
received. And I’d received some pretty bad ones.

“Come on, Kelsey,” Thad said, stepping
outside. “We’re going horseback riding.”

I laughed again and followed the two of them
down the stairs to Wraith’s SUV. “Hold up, I wanna go, too!” Tessa
popped outside and hopped down the steps behind us. “I’ve heard
stories about Wraith’s horses – the only ones who aren’t afraid of
wolves – I have to see this.”

“It isn’t a spectator sport,” Wraith said,
unfazed by the addition to our party.

“I’ll ride,” Tessa said. “But if one of those
horses throws me, I’ll take it out on your hide, Wraith.”

Wraith grinned like he’d enjoy that
punishment, and I wondered if there was any man who could resist
Tessa’s charms. The stern frown on Thad’s face reassured me that
he, at least, could withstand them.

I got into the passenger seat, and Thad and
Tessa got in the back. Thad was glaring out the window, but Tessa
looked wide awake and excited. I had the sudden urge to leap from
the car and go back to bed. I was way too tired for that crowd.
Wraith reached over and squeezed my shoulder, before starting the
car. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You’re going to love this.”

“Who said I was worried?” I asked, as he
backed the car down the driveway.

“You’ve got that little crinkle between your
eyebrows you always get when you’re worried. But I promise, you’re
going to have fun.”

Thad made a gagging sound in the back seat,
but I had to admit that it was nice to have a good-looking,
straight guy notice me so thoroughly, even if he was old enough to
be my great-grandfather’s great grandfather.

The stables were surrounded by lush green
fields and a stunning view of the mountains. Wraith parked next to
a dirt riding ring and hopped out. He waited until I stood next to
him, then he took my hand and led me to the stables. Tessa and Thad
followed, and we found three horses, already saddled and waiting
for us. They were tied to a rail, close enough to a water trough to
be able to drink, but none of them were drinking. They studied us
with serious, intent gazes. I’d never ridden a horse, or even been
around horses before, and I found their sheer size more than a
little intimidating.

“Give me just a few moments,” Wraith said.
“I’ll saddle a horse for Tessa.” He disappeared into the barn
without a look back at us.

A burly man, with light hair that fell to his
shoulders, walked over from a smaller outbuilding next to the
stables and smiled at us. It wasn’t a friendly smile. His body was
tight with huge, sculpted muscles and his face was almost handsome,
except for the unfriendly expression. “Wraith, has some very fine
company today, I see,” he said. He stepped close to me, his body a
breath away from pressing against mine. “I always like it when he
brings ladies around, because he’s so good about sharing.”

Thad stepped between us, knocking the
lecherous werewolf out of the way. He stepped back, hands in the
air. “Hey, I didn’t know she belonged to you.” He took a step
toward Tessa and his nostrils expanded. He growled low in his
throat, and his whole demeanor changed. “Who the hell are you?” He
squinted at her and took a step back. “You’re that she-wolf from
out west who caused us all that trouble two years ago. What the
fuck are you doing here?”

Tessa stepped up to him, her nose just inches
from his. “I’m here on a friendly visit, Patsy, but that can change
in a heartbeat if you don’t back down.”