The Reaping (The Reapers Book 1) (12 page)

Holy Spider was a light, honey lager from a local brewery called Arachnophobia.

I shifted on my feet. “One or two won’t hurt, right? I can get back on track tomorrow.”

“Sure,” Angelica said. “Besides, I promised I’d make your birthday special. You don’t need to put yourself through this.”

“I’m doing it,” I said as I walked back to the kitchen, grabbed a beer and popped the top. “Can I get anything for anyone else?”

“No, thanks,” the two women called in unison.

I headed back and plopped down on the couch next to Angelica. She gave me a quick one-armed hug and pressed play.

Forty-five minutes later, the movie was over, I was on my third beer, and the three of us were sitting on the floor playing gin.

“I could really go for some of your blueberry pancakes right now, Kelsey,” Angelica said as she eyed her cards and considered her move.

I popped up, feeling ready for anything and in the mood to cook. “Sure, I’ll make them right now.”

“No, no, sit back down, I was just making a comment. You don’t have to make them. You must be exhausted.”

“Nope,” I said and headed for the kitchen. “I’m in the mood to make pancakes for my very best friend and my new roommate.” The truth was that I was tired and it scared me. I didn’t want to go to sleep and see Landon again. Sitting still playing cards had made me sleepy, and getting up and moving around to cook was just what I needed to stay awake.

“Thanks for hanging out with me,” Cat said behind me. “I’m going to bed, though. I’m exhausted and I have to go job hunting tomorrow.”

I almost gasped aloud, but I somehow managed to smile at Cat as she passed me. “Good night. Let me know if you need anything.”

Cat nodded as she headed back toward her room. “Thank you. Good night.”

“Job hunting?” I mouthed to Angelica as she entered the kitchen.

Angelica just shrugged. “Is there anything at the bookstore?”

I was relieved to be able to say no. My bad feeling about Cat just kept getting worse, and I didn’t want her involved in my life any more than she already was. “I thought she had a job,” I whispered.

“She got fired,” Angelica said in a low voice.

I felt like pulling my hair out and stomping my feet. I wanted to say,
are you fucking kidding me?
Who gets fired from a fast food restaurant? Instead, I did my best to look sympathetic. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. She was really upset about it, and I didn’t want to push her. She’ll find something and, if she doesn’t, we can afford to cover her for a couple of months. We’ve managed fine so far.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. One evening of drinking with Cat and Angelica was ready to let her live here for free. I turned away from Angelica before she could see the look of annoyance on my face. There was no way I was going to let Cat live here for free without a fight, but we didn’t need to have that fight yet.

“How was your day, today?” I asked in a normal voice as I started pulling a bowl and ingredients from the cupboards. I made pancakes so often that I didn’t need a recipe.

“I spent most of it at the gym. I’ve got to get in shape for this season if I’m ever going to make ski patrol.”

“God, I hate the gym. I don’t know how you can spend so much time there.”

“I’m not like you, Kels. I get bored running outside all the time, and I need some variety. How was everything at the shop?”

“It was good, actually. Jed was waiting in the office when I got there, and it really helped. Thank you for your part in that.”

“I hardly did anything. It was all his idea. He’s a real sweetheart.”

“Yeah, he and Caleb have been really great with this whole Reid thing. They still think Reid is an ex-boyfriend, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to give them any other idea. Jed is leaving town, so you don’t need to worry about him, but please don’t tell Caleb.”

“Okay, but I think he’d understand if you told him the truth.”

I beat the ingredients together a little harder than necessary at that suggestion. I was surprised that she didn’t ask why Jed was leaving or where he was going. I guess she hadn’t spent any real time with him. “No, Angelica. I’m amazed that
you’ve
been so understanding.” I dropped batter onto the hot pan and turned to face her as it cooked. “No one has ever reacted as well as you did.”

“It’s a little scary, but also kind of cool. You’re so brave to talk to them and just keep living your life. Maybe the other people you’ve encountered have just been too close-minded. Caleb doesn’t seem like that.”

I nodded. “No, but I don’t want to take any chances. I kind of like having friends.”

“You talk like it’s new to you.”

“It
is
new to me. The only friends I’ve ever had were chased away by my mother telling them that I was a) crazy, which she did until I was five, or b) supernaturally gifted, which she did starting when I was about seven.”

“I would think you’d be the most popular girl in school.”

“You’d think so,” I said. “But that’s not how it worked out. It’s not like I could do anything really cool like move things with my mind.”

“That sucks. I had no idea. You come across as so happy and outgoing.” She paused as I flipped the pancake. “To tell the truth, your mother was a little over the top about the whole thing when she told me. She said that you were always surrounded by ghosts and that if it looked like you were talking to yourself, I should know that you were talking to a ghost and keep my distance.”

I felt a bit sick. “God, even though she doesn’t believe I’m crazy anymore, she still manages to make me
sound
crazy.”

Angelica grimaced and nodded. “Yeah, kind of. Can I ask you what it’s like to talk to ghosts?”

“Sure,” I said, as I flipped a pancake onto a plate and poured more batter onto the pan. “It’s not much different than talking to you, except the ghost doesn’t actually have the least interest in me as a person. They only care about what I can do for them.”

“Do you help them?”

“No. They usually want ridiculous things that they have no right to meddle with, anyway.”

“I heard that.” I jumped as a new voice entered our conversation. I looked into the living room to see Doug seated in the blue armchair. I quickly turned my attention back to Angelica. She might say it was cool that I saw ghosts, but I didn’t want to test that by telling her there was one in the room at that moment.

“Take, for example, this ghost I met on my flight East. He wanted me to prevent his widow from remarrying. Basically, he wanted me to interfere with what was perfectly healthy for her, moving on with her life after his death.”

“The guy is a douche,” Doug muttered.

“The thing is that the ghosts I meet haven’t been magically enlightened by dying. If they haven’t moved on to wherever they go next, it’s because they are clinging to life in whatever way they can come up with. They often convince themselves that there is something important for them to do, when all they are really doing is avoiding moving on.”

“I’m starting to get offended,” Doug said.

“That sounds really annoying.”

“It is,” I said as I flipped another pancake out of the pan. I thought about Alice and my moment of understanding with Doug. “Sometimes, though, I make a connection with someone and it makes up for some of the annoyance.” I smiled at Doug, and he beamed back at me.

I set the syrup and pancakes on the table while Angelica grabbed silverware and plates. She looked at me as we sat down. “Isn’t there ever anyone with a worthwhile plea for help?”

I shrugged as I cut my pancakes with my fork. “I don’t know. I don’t usually let it get that far. Really, until very recently, I didn’t have the ability to do what anyone asked me. What’s a sixteen-year-old kid gonna do about a message to some ghost’s loved one on the other side of the country?”

“Wow, it must be really hard to have to deny ghosts their last wishes. How often do you see them?”

“It depends on where I go. On an airplane, I’ll see five to fifteen; at the mall, I might see fifty. For some reason, they love any place that sells coffee. Coffee houses are lousy with ghosts. When I do see a ghost, they don’t automatically know I can see them, so most of them just keep on going by. Astute ghosts usually figure it out, but luckily, there aren’t too many of them.” I smiled at Doug again, and he took a quick bow. “Most of them are so caught up in their own pain or worries they don’t notice what’s going on around them.”

“I guess that’s why you like it here. Less people equals less ghosts.”

“For the most part, yes. You’d be surprised where I find them, though.”

She yawned. “That is a story I’d definitely like to hear, but I’m exhausted and I’ve got to get to bed.” She ate her last bite of food and took her plate to the sink. “Thanks for the pancakes.”

She started to head back to her room. “Are you staying up?”

“I’m just going to clean up the kitchen.” And then figure out something else to do to put off sleep.

She stepped back into the kitchen. “Oh god, Kels, I forgot. Your dreams. You have to sleep.”

“I know, just not yet.”

“Well, when you’re ready, you’re welcome to sleep in my bed. That way, you can wake me up if anything freaky happens.”

“Great. Thanks, Angelica.” The last time Landon visited me in a dream, Angelica had been in bed with me and it hadn’t made any difference. It might make me feel better not to sleep alone, though.

I headed over to the couch, placed my cell phone next to me, in case I needed to pretend I wasn’t talking to myself in here, and smiled at Doug. “So, what’s up?”

“You sure there’s no one else you need to talk to, nothing else you need to cook, before you speak to me?”

That annoyed me.
He
was the one who had shown up unannounced in the middle of
my
night. I stood to head back to my room. “Actually, I just remembered that I need to file and paint my nails.”

He sighed. “Wait. I’m sorry, okay? This being dead and having to wait around for you to find alone time to talk to me is frustrating.”

I nodded in acceptance of his apology and sat back down. “So, what’s up?”

“I heard you might be in some trouble, and I wondered if I could help.”

“You talked to Alice?”

“More like she talked to me. She’s one pushy brat.”

“What is she, like, eight? I think you could take her.”

“In your world, she looks like an eight-year-old, but she’s more like ninety-eight and no weakling in mine.”

“Did she also tell you that you could be in a lot of trouble with these guardians if you interfere?”

Doug snorted. “Nope. She was shoving me into the line of fire, apparently. I don’t mind, though. It’s not like I’ve got anywhere to be.”

“I appreciate your offer, Doug, but I don’t know what they’re actually capable of doing to you.”

“The more important question is, what can I do to help?”

“If Alice didn’t tell you that, I certainly won’t be able to tell you. I’d never even heard of these guardians before last week.”

He nodded. “How about I nose around on my side and see what I can find out?”

“That would be incredibly awesome. Just be careful, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Doug leaned back and started to fade a bit.

“So, how’s the family?” I asked, desperate not to be alone.

Doug talked about his wife and daughter until I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, I was on the top of a mountain dressed in a bikini. I was seated in a snowdrift, snow whipping around my face, and my teeth were chattering so hard I thought they might break into a million tiny pieces. Landon stood next to me, dressed in a plaid flannel shirt over a T-shirt, and jeans with the knees ripped out.

“Thought you might like it here, Ice Princess,” he drawled as he sat down next to me.

“Hey, Landon. You ever consider taking some time off from the nineties and joining the rest of us in the 21
st
century?” I stuttered out around the chattering of my teeth.

He scowled. “If you were smart, you’d show me a little respect. I have it in my power to destroy you.”

I forced myself to swallow the bile that had risen in my throat and smile at him. “According to you, you’ve decided to destroy me no matter what I say or do.”

He grinned. “Oh, that’s right. Then I guess I ought to be thanking you for making this so much easier for me. I was beginning to feel a teeny tiny bit bad for you.”

“It’d be easier to talk if we went somewhere a bit warmer.”

“That’s kind of the point, Kelsey. I’m sick to shit of hearing your whining, so I picked somewhere you’d be forced to do most of the listening.”

I shrugged and gestured for him to have the floor.

“All right. This is the way it’s going to be. Every single fucking time you close your eyes, I’m going to be there. If you aren’t begging me to take over your tight-ass body by the end of the week, then I start fucking with your friends. My man Reid has been warned away from you, but not from Angelica or any of the other chicks at the bookstore.”

“Even so,” I chattered. “He’d still be in trouble…”

“As time goes by, I’m caring less and less about Reid being in trouble. Besides, it would just take one time of him beating the shit out of Angelica before I’m betting you’d cave and give me what I want.”

“Leave her out—” I was getting colder, and it was proving harder to talk. Not to mention I was pretty sure my ass was developing a bad case of frostbite. I tried to stand, but Landon pushed me back down.

“Understand this, Kelsey. I want to be alive again, and I will get there no matter what it takes or who gets hurt along the way. I don’t have a lot of patience, and I’m sick to death of being over here watching other people living the life I should be living.”

“Constantly stoned?” I think I raised my eyebrows, but I could no longer feel my face.

“Fuck you, Kelsey.”

“Don’t know what Bruce ever saw in you.”

Landon stopped then, the rage in his eyes dying down just a bit. “What the fuck do you know about Bruce?”

“He and me. Dinner tonight. To tell me you good guy.” I was finding short sentences and small words easier to get out.