Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) (24 page)

Dad looked an unspoken question to Mom. “Yep,
he's ours.”

Dad shook his head again, walking out of my room
and downstairs without word.

“What's the matter with Dad?”

“He's had a shock honey.”

“Yeah, the losers that wrecked our house.”

“Well I think it's a toss up between what
happened in our house and him discovering that your room looks like
it was ransacked.”

“But my room wasn't messed with.” I didn't get
it.

“I
think that may be the shock. That this is the normal state of your
room.”

Huh. Parents.

Suddenly, I heard the pulse-chime, the cops.

Show time.

I came downstairs and two new cops were in our
foyer, guns standing naked in their hands. That one thing made me
more nervous than anything could.

When Mom and I appeared, they turned, their guns
at the ready.

Dad said, “... Whoa guys, it's just the family.”

The woman cop, who was tiny, looked reluctant to
re-holster her weapon. She turned to Dad with a husky voice that
didn't match her, “Sir, we need to secure the house.”

“Of course, go ahead,” Dad replied.

She of the small build and tough attitude gave a
curt nod to her partner. Her gaze lingered on me for a second, then
they went down the hall, guns drawn.

We watched them as they reappeared around corners,
magically disappearing again, exploring every part of the house,
finally coming to stand in front of us. An awkward silence ensued.

Dad filled it, “So Ali and Caleb, this is,”
Dad nodded toward the male police officer, “Officer Ward.”

“Chuck,”
he corrected in an automatic way, winking. I gave a slight smile,
duly noted, turned to the woman, struck again by how young she
looked, “and Officer Roberta Gale.”

She didn't correct us.

Officer Gale stepped forward, toward me. I stepped
back. Dad turned a puzzled expression her way.

She
smiled, but not like she meant it
.

“What are you?” she asked.

Huh? “What do you mean?”

Then she let me have it, which wasn't anything
like it had been with Tiff. With her it was a soft breeze, a gentle
thing. This was like someone took my heart and squeezed it until it
burst through their fingers, the breath left my body, I sagged to my
knees, sucker punched.

Mom screamed, “Caleb!”

She
reached out to grab me, I held out my palm, warding her off...
damn.

With her extra creepy running through me I reached
down where that special power always lay and prayed for enough to
deal with this.

The power rose to my call, a life force welling up
inside, pouring out of my body like a vessel. I Visualized a spear
and aimed it at tough chick Gale. It left me and I let it. I’d
never used it as a weapon, but she'd hurt me and I was going to
defend myself.

She flew bodily from the floor as if shoved by an
invisible hand, landed flat against the wall. A high-pitched whistle
escaping in a rush, leaving her mouth opening and closing like a
trout out of water.

Officer
Ward's gun cleared the holster, again, pointing it at me. He said out
of the side of his mouth, eyes never leaving my face, “Bobbi,
what's this about? Tell me
right
now
,
so I don't have to hold my gun on a teenager. I hate this paranormal
crap,” he muttered.

Officer
Gale wasn't talking just then, thank you very much
.
But her eyes were on my face, her hands pressed to her chest, as if I
had shot her. We kept serious eye contact and finally she spoke.

“He's AFTD,” she gasped out.

“Didn't I say I hate that paranormal crap?”

If she was like me, why'd she do that? I used my
knees as leverage and got to my feet, Dad's hand on my elbow. My
parents were looking at Officer Gale like an alien had landed and
told us I was their new pet.

The good news was that AFTD, for me, was a
rechargeable battery, I was good as new an hour after the cemetery,
good to know.

I gave her wary eyes, so did my parents.

“Put the gun away, it was a test,” she said.

“
Great,
think you could warn me next time,” Ward said as he holstered his
weapon, giving her a nice glare with hard eyes, cop eyes
.

The tension eased down a notch.

“I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting this kind of
reaction. It was what I was trained to do when I encounter another
paranormal, an AFTD paranormal in particular.”

“What, suck the life out of me?” I asked with
a touch more sarcasm than I intended.

She lowered her eyes, staring at the ground. “I
wasn't expecting it to be quite like this.” I asked her how she'd
known.

“It's hard to explain but it's like when you
know someone is American?” I nodded, there were so many foreigners
living in the U.S. that it was getting harder, but I knew what she
meant. There was a look, an arrangement of features. I knew it when I
saw it.

“Or, it's similar to a scent in the air,” she
bowed her head for a second, “or a taste.”

“But you,” she emphasized, her eyes meeting
mine, “I haven't encountered that before.”

Dad interjected, “Isn't it standard procedure to
pair a non-paranormal with a paranormal?”

“Not yet,” Ward responded. “Soon it'll be a
mandate. It's difficult for us to protect the public, when part of
the public are paranormals. Informally, we're already pairing.”

Ward laughed and pushed away from the wall. I
didn't see what was funny.

“Let's face it, people that can set fires by
mind control alone, manipulate air, earth, water, raise the dead,”
Gale looked at me and I kept my face blank, “can, if on the wrong
side of the law, be problematic.” he shrugged.

Problematic...
ya
think
?
It was my turn to laugh. I'm sure the cops were busy with the
paranormals that were into a life-o'-crime. Did the pharmaceutical
tycoons consider that before they released the drugs that gave us the
cool skills?
No
way.

Gale regarded me with eyes that reflected nothing.
Something about her name clicked. Roberta Gale... ah-huh! She was the
chick that used her AFTD to find murder victims and help the police.

Bobbi Gale.

“Aren't you the one that did that article about
AFTD?” I asked.

She cocked her head, birdlike, an expression of
realization overcame her face. The first true emotion I'd seen so
far.

“Oh yeah, that. Well, at that time I was the
only AFTD on the force.”

“There's more?”

She nodded. “Not many, we're so rare.”

“Maybe that's natural selection,” I said, more
to myself than anyone.

Dad looked at me in surprise.

I grinned. “Sometimes I listen to you.”

He grinned back, turning to Gale. “Okay, now
that you're done with the theatrics, can we figure out what this,”
he swept his hand around, “violation means?”

Gale, by this time recovered, took out her
pulse-pad. All thoughts and notes transferred as she automatically
thought them. Those were cool, gimme, gimme, gimme. I bet most cops
had them. Except for Garcia.

She took her thumb off the pad. “Can we talk
after we get your statements?”

Mom replied for me, “No more 'testing'.”

“Yeah, I promise. I followed protocol exactly. I
apologize that it backfired.” shaking her head.

“Sure, okay.” I was acting cool but I wanted
to talk to her if she didn't pull another whammy.

Officer Ward broke in, “Okay, let's go over what
happened.”

The cops asked my parents a series of questions.
Was the house pulse-alarm activated? Had there been suspicious
activity? Were there any known enemies? Boring. Like who would
remotely care about our family?

Finally, they wrapped up the whole thing, saying
they'd make an official report. Automatic police surveillance would
be given.

“For how long?” I asked.

Gale looked up from her pulse-pad. “It'll be
random, so the perpetrators can't anticipate our moves. Typically, we
give about five days.”

“This area usually doesn't have this kind of
crime,” Ward paused, “you sure there isn't someone who has an
agenda, a motive?”

He looked at us.

It felt like it was way too much of a coincidence
for this to happen as all my voodoo death stuff was coming online. It
felt like connected trouble. If I was thinking that, my parents sure
were.

Mom and Dad shook their heads the silence swelling
like a balloon. They wouldn't have shared anyway, especially after
Garcia had said he was law bound to turn in corpse-raisers.

“Okay.” She powered down her pulse-pad.
“That'll be all for now.” Ward gave her a strange look but she
was focused on us. He obviously expected more but she had
deliberately shut the meeting down.

She turned to me. “Still up for talking?”

Cautious. “Yeah.”

“You can use the kitchen table,” Mom said.

We walked out of the foyer, through the kitchen,
making our way around the breakfast bar, sitting down on the long
bench. Gale kept walking, past me, then sat in the queen's chair. I
could hear the parents and Officer Ward speaking quietly out in the
foyer. It was weird to see her in Mom's chair.

Gale stared at me “Spill it.”

I lowered my voice, “ 'Spill' what?”

“I
know you're more than a two or three-point, AFTD. I have never felt
anyone as powerful as you.” She rubbed her arms up and down as a
person will when they're cold; but she wasn't cold. Mom always had
the heat cranked to I'm-going-to-die-in-this-oven temperature. Gale
was that creeped out.

I was having that effect on a lot of people
lately.

I shrugged. Like I'd admit anything to a cop, look
what happened with Garcia?

“I've felt plenty of AFTDs...” she waved her
hand at me, “..you're something unique.”

I
wasn't ready to answer. I decided to ask her some questions.

“How do you know when someone is paranormal?”

She sighed. “It's like I told you before, it's a
feeling, a difference. It feels like a low level, electrical buzz.”

Like sticking your finger in an pulse socket?

I'm friends with Jonesy.

“Is that what they taught you at the school? How
to identify paranormals?”

“Yes, some of it. You'll go to the same school I
did. I'm a local girl, ya know.” she grinned.

I dug local, they knew the deal, the people, all
that jazz.

“What was it like, the school?”

“It's like regular high school, but you're with
people that can do amazing things. We're the most rare, but
fire-starters are running a close second.”

“You mean like the book?”

“The what?”

“The book by Stephen King.”

“Who's he?”

“Only the greatest writer globally!”

“Well, I'm not much of a reader but the name
rings a bell. What's his story about? Pyrokenetics?”

“Yeah,
but it's more. Back then, it was just an idea, fiction. No one ever
thought it'd be this.” I gestured to include her and I as part of
the the paranormal equation.

I leaned forward, she did too. “What do they
make you do?” I asked in an almost-whisper.

“Math and English.”

Huh, that sucked.

She
saw my expression and laughed. “It's not
all
dead stuff and fun! You still have to do core.”

“You study Animation of the Dead. That's an
actual class, 'Animation of the Dead in Theory'.”

“Wait a second, who's in that class? I thought
all the corpse, I mean, Cadaver-Manipulator's were so rare...” I
let my sentence trail off.

She looked down at her hands for a second time.
“Have you heard of Jeffrey Parker?”

Had
I heard of Jeffrey Parker? Geez, duh. I nodded my head, checking the
sarcasm at the door like a coat.

“We were some of the first, he was ahead of me.
A senior when I was a freshman,” she paused, a troubled knot
between her brows, “he wasn't treated that well. You can understand
there would be some prejudice toward him.”

Yeah,
that.

“
Well,
he was the first, in the first group of AFTDs. They didn't know what
to do with us,
him
.
He was more than they were prepared for. Before him, I don't think
anyone knew cadaver-renewal was possible. It was just theory. When
Jeffrey Parker started to raise things accidentally...”

“
What...
accidentally, really?” Gee, imagine
that
.
My new mantra: control, control, control.

“Yeah, accidentally. In fact, one of the
teachers was killed in a car accident, and shuffled to his job the
next day.”

Well that would have been something.

“But how did they know it was Jeffrey? For sure,
I mean. It could have been any of you guys.”

She nodded, plausible.

“
Because
the,” she paused here, “... teacher,
dead
teacher,” she emphasized, “... shambled over to Jeff and said,
'I am here to serve you'. Not exactly what he would have done in
life. The statement was directed at Jeff, not the few other AFTDs in
class. Jeff could control him.”