The Reaping (The Reapers Book 1) (26 page)

“Was it Landon?” I asked, but I knew the answer before she shook her head. I hadn’t wanted to believe Reid was capable of carrying out his threats, but deep down, I’d known that he would. I’d seen it in his eyes.

Angelica pushed away from me and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “God, I don’t know why I keep doing that.”

“I’m so sorry, Angelica,” I said.

“It’s not your fault,” she said, but she didn’t meet my eyes. “It’s Reid’s fault.” She looked at me with an expression I’d seen before. “I love you, Kelsey, but I can’t do this. I thought I could, but I can’t. I don’t want to know that there are ghosts who can take over the living and make them do things. I don’t want to have to worry about when Reid or someone else is going to come for you and get me instead.”

“It’s too late for that, Angelica,” Cat said. “You know too much now.”

Jed groaned. “We aren’t the fucking mob, for Christ’s sake. If she wants out, she’s free to go.”

“Is she?” Caleb asked. “You know they won’t leave her alone.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Did you call her in?” Jed asked.

“I didn’t,” Caleb said and looked at Cat.

“Not really on the top of my list of priorities, right now,” Cat said. “They know she can see auras, but that’s all they know.”

“They’ll leave her alone as long as they believe she doesn’t know anything. We’ve got enough aura readers right now and so do you, Cat,” Jed said. “So she can go, as long as she agrees to keep her mouth shut.”

“Assuming no one was listening in.” Cat gestured to the empty air.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t care. I’m out. And you don’t have to worry about me saying anything, because I intend to do my very best to pretend that none of this ever happened,” Angelica said.

“I’ll move out tomorrow,” I said. “And so will Cat.”

“I didn’t agree to that,” Cat said.

I gave her a look, and she shut her mouth.

“Kels, you don’t have to do that,” Angelica said.

“Yes, I do.” I managed to speak without my voice cracking, hoping she would say it didn’t matter, that we could still be friends, but I knew we couldn’t. I think I had known since the moment she told me she knew about my ability to see ghosts. I swallowed hard and forced myself not to cry. I wasn’t going to make this any harder on her than it already was.

Angelica nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. She stood. “I want to be there for your 21
st
. Let me know what the plan is.”

For months, she’d been telling me that she’d plan my party, and I tried not to let her see how hurt I was that she’d changed her mind. I tried to be happy that she was still willing to attend my party. She walked out, and no one spoke for several minutes. I needed to get away from them all, get away from myself. I stood. “Caleb, can I borrow some clothes? I need to go for a run.”

“Yeah, I’ll get you something,” he said and headed back to his room.

“Caleb, get back here. We need to discuss—” Cat started.

“There’s time,” Jed said.

“And how do you know that? Do you have any idea…?” Cat clamped her mouth shut and crossed her arms over her chest. “We need to discuss our tactics now.”

“Really?” Jed stood and faced her. “Why don’t you tell me why we can’t let Kelsey have an hour to herself? What do you know?”

“She’s had the whole morning to herself.”

“Yeah, to sleep, Cat. She needs to be strong physically and mentally…”

I walked out of the apartment. I already had my running shoes on, and it wouldn’t be the first time I’d run in jeans.

I kept the pace hard and fast at first, trying to outrun my sorrow and humiliation. I had lost another friend because of my freakish abilities, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to change it. I didn’t blame Angelica. If I could cut me out of my life, I would. The thought occurred to me then that I
could
cut myself out of my life. I could just let Landon take over. He was going to do everything in his power to make me miserable, anyway. Of course, that would mean letting Landon win, and giving up my very existence, and I wasn’t ready to go that far quite yet.

My cell phone rang, and I considered ignoring it, but I slowed and stopped. There were too many people who would really worry about me if I didn’t answer. I pulled the phone out of my back pocket and answered without looking to see who was calling, “Hello?”

“Kelsey, oh my God, did you forget you’re supposed to be at work today?” It was Isabella.

“Shit, I did. I’m sorry. What time is it?”

“Noon. It’s totally dead, so don’t rush or anything. It’s just not like you to be late.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in an hour.”

I changed direction to start heading back to my apartment and saw Caleb jogging away from me. I sped up to reach him and matched my speed to his.

“Sorry,” he said. “I wanted to give you space, but with Reid still out there…”

“I get it. Thanks for looking out for me.”

He smiled at me. I slowed down as we approached my apartment, and his smile faded. “You aren’t going in there, are you?”

“I have to go to work, and I need a shower and clothes.”

He came to a dead-stop. “We can send Jed over to pick stuff up for you, and you can shower at my place. I think you should give Angelica some space for now.”

I hesitated. He was right about Angelica, but moving in with him before we’d gone out on an actual date didn’t seem like a good idea. Unfortunately, I really didn’t have any other choice. “Okay. Thanks. I’ll find my own place as soon as possible.” I started jogging again.

He jogged next to me, but he was silent for a long moment. “Do you really think you should go in to work today? We haven’t worked out a plan for Landon or Reid yet.”

“They need me at work. I have to fire Allison today, and I have to check in with Al. I’ve been out too long as it is. I don’t want to lose this job.” I hadn’t been sure when I’d accepted Al’s offer, but I found I really did like running the store. “Besides, it’s not like I can offer any great assistance with the planning, and Landon’s not going to bother me unless—” My phone rang, interrupting me. I stopped and pulled it out of my coat pocket. “I should get this, just in case…” Just in case Angelica has changed her mind, I added mentally. Caleb nodded and kept jogging to give me some space I assumed.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Kelsey Fitzhugh?” The voice sounded like it belonged to an elderly woman.

“This is she.”

“Hi, I saw your website and I was hoping you could help me talk to my husband.”

“My website?”

“Yes, you say that you can talk to those who’ve passed on, and I really need to talk to my late husband.”

I almost dropped my phone. I had a pretty good idea that Landon was behind this. “Oh no, I’m so sorry. I’m not a medium, and I certainly can’t talk to the dead. That website is a sick joke by an ex-boyfriend of mine. I’m sorry.” I was pretty proud of that bit of improvisation.

“I know you said on your site that you’re taking a very limited number of clients and that you like to keep a low profile, so I understand you trying to put me off, but I can assure you that I can pay, and I won’t be any trouble to you.”

Caleb stopped and started walking back to me. I waved to him to hurry up. “Um, that’s all part of the prank, I guess. My ex-boyfriend really didn’t have any sense of humor or, um, revenge pranks. I’m sorry. I’ll make sure the site is taken down right away.”

“Ms. Fitzhugh, I’ll pay double, no, triple whatever your going rate is…please.”

I actually considered it for half a second. I could really use the money now that I had nowhere to live.

Caleb reached over and took the phone from me. “Hello, I’m Kelsey’s father, can I help you?” he said in a deeper than usual voice. “Yes, I see. No, I can assure you that my daughter has no interaction with the spirit world. No, you have been misinformed. My daughter is only sixteen, and I will make sure the website is disabled. Thank you. Goodbye.”

“Damn it,” I said. “Landon didn’t waste any time, did he?”

Caleb shook his head as my phone rang again. He answered it with a curt, “wrong number” and turned it off. “You think Landon did this?”

I was fighting back tears. I could not handle it if everyone in Briarton started looking at me the way people back home did. “I know he did. He figured out that what I want more than anything is a normal life, and he promised me he wouldn’t let me have that.”

Caleb frowned. “Is that really what you want?”

It took me a moment to fully understand what he had said. I was so frustrated in general and bewildered specifically that he would question my desire. “Of course. Isn’t that what everyone wants?” I paused. “Have you figured out any way to prevent someone from being able to communicate—?”

“No,” he interrupted me. “Kelsey, you have an amazing gift, and you’re going to be able to help a lot of people.”

“I’ve never been able to help anyone with my gift. I’m good at my job, and I used to have friends here.”

“You haven’t been able to help people in the past, but you will be able to help them now. Just like I’m helping you.”

“Really? You’re helping me? Since I’ve met you, everything in my life has gotten worse, not better.” I regretted the words as soon as I spoke them. I knew it wasn’t his fault, but I was angry, and I wanted to blame someone I could actually yell at without worrying they would suck my soul dry. “I’m sorry.”

He started walking again and didn’t look at me. “I haven’t done a great job so far, but I’m going to help you.”

Shit, I was the worst person ever. “You have been helping. I’m just…I’m mad, and I’m miserable…and…”

“The most beautiful woman I have ever encountered,” a voice near my ear said huskily.

I jumped and spun around to come face to face with Tucker, who was laughing so hard I swear his cheeks were turning red. At least, he had the same voice and profile I’d seen out of the corner of my eye when he’d been with me on the balcony.

He calmed down and smiled at me. “Gotcha.”

I spun on my heel, trying not to think about how blue his eyes were or how his smile lit up his whole face and made me feel warmer than I was. I should have been angry and scared, but I was noticing how good-looking he was. Something was truly wrong with me.

“I know you heard me, and you probably saw me, so you might as well talk to me.”

I caught up to Caleb who looked at me, eyebrows raised. “Yeah, I know. His name is Tucker something and he is gloating about proving that I can hear him.”

“Talk to me, honey. Don’t waste your breath on the boy scout,” Tucker said next to me.

Caleb stopped, a smile tugging up the corners of his mouth. “Tucker, why are you bothering Kelsey?”

Next to me, Tucker shrugged. “I’m pretty sure she’s the one.”

“The one what?” I asked.

Caleb groaned and rolled his eyes. “Tucker, please don’t tell me you think she’s your soul mate?”

“Don’t listen to anything he says, Kelsey,” Tucker said, linking his ghostly arm through mine. I couldn’t feel his touch, but he was even better looking close-up. “He thinks my story is a joke or a line to get women into bed.”

I had to laugh at that last part. I’d never heard of ghosts having sex with each other, but I supposed it was possible. “He seems to think I don’t need to hear his story,” I told Caleb.

Caleb chuckled. “He would. A week before he died, a fortune teller told him that he would meet his soul mate when he was 160 years old. He turned 160 this year and every woman who has any ability to communicate with him has become a possibility.”

“Wow,” I said to Tucker. “What have you been doing in the meantime?”

He smiled at me. “Thanks for not asking why I’ve stuck around for 135 years based on something a psychic told me. I’ve been—”

“He’s been flirting with every living woman he meets and sleeping with every dead one,” Caleb interrupted.

“They can do that?” I asked at the same time Tucker said, “That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

When Tucker processed my question, he nodded. “If you knew the things I have learned, you might beg Landon to trade places with you.”

“Except that I wouldn’t be trading places. I’d be completely gone.”

“What are you talking about?” Caleb asked as Tucker shook his head.

“I was told that if Landon takes over my body, my soul would be destroyed and I’d cease to exist.”

Caleb joined Tucker in the head shaking. “No, you’d become a ghost. Another ghost could then destroy you in battle, but Landon can only remove your soul and take its place.”

Interesting
. Tucker must have seen the look on my face, because his smile widened. “Perhaps my reputation has proceeded me? As a ghost, you and I could have a lot of fun.”

“Tucker, as flattering as your attention isn’t, if you don’t have anything important to say to me, go away. I’m not even sure you’re on my side, here.”

“Of course I’m on your side,” he said.

“Tucker is only ever on his own side,” Caleb said, but he smiled. “But his own side usually coincides with the morally right side, even if he won’t admit it.”

“Tell Caleb I’ve been watching Landon, and he’s not working alone. Caleb would have already suspected that, but what he won’t know is that some of the biggest players from all over the country are involved,” Tucker said.

I relayed Tucker’s message to Caleb. Caleb’s eyes flashed with anger, not surprise. “It’s time for you to leave, Tucker.”

Tucker stood his ground. “He’s probably angry because he thinks this information will make you more likely to give in to Landon, but I think that it might be the incentive you need to fight. This is not a typical reaping, and there are some large wagers being placed on you losing to Landon. Unless you go out without a fight, the most powerful ghosts will be waiting for you on the other side so they can battle Len’s daughter.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“You shouldn’t,” Tucker said sadly. “Right now, you shouldn’t trust anyone, even Caleb. When the time comes, fight with everything you’ve got and make sure that you win, because if you lose, you might wish your soul had been destroyed.”

“Can’t I just cross over?”