The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) (24 page)

“They leave you your phone?”

I patted my back pocket and found it empty.
“Nope.”

“Then no, it’s not okay. Sorry, but I have to
follow their rules.”

I headed upstairs and back to my room. The
walls were covered with paintings, most of them obviously amateur.
The dresser looked old and worn, and antique perfume bottles and
angelic figurines covered it from end to end. A pile of pillows
that had probably started on the bed were on the floor next to it.
Even the quilt on the bed was a busy, colorful pattern that made me
a bit dizzy.

I pulled pajamas out of my bag, put them on,
and climbed back into bed. I was so tired the darkness danced
before my eyes, but I couldn’t close them without seeing Caleb and
Reid and Houston and Landon, all the monsters of my world, three of
them dead because of me. I was no longer sure who was the biggest
monster, them or me.

At some point, I must have fallen asleep,
because I woke up to sunlight streaming in through the curtain-less
window. A warm arm was wrapped around me, pinning me against a
body. I turned my head just enough to see Tucker looking back at
me.

“I thought you might need comfort.”

“Or you like being able to cuddle with a warm
body.
Any
warm body.”

He let go of me and rolled over. “Maybe you
should go back to sleep. You woke up on the ansty side of bed.”

“I woke up with an uninvited dead guy in my
bed. A guy whose sole interest in me is to facilitate a touch
session with his boyfriend. I woke up realistic.” Maybe I was
leaning more toward angsty. My head still hurt and I missed Jed
with an ache made worse by the knowledge that he would probably
never speak to me again, but Tucker didn’t need to know any of
that.

“I’m interested in you, because I care about
the person you are. And you’re a really smart, kind,
wonderful—”

“You’re a terrible liar.” I closed my eyes
and rubbed my temples to try to ease my headache.

“I can’t watch you suffer like this.”

“Then don’t watch.” I rolled over and faced
the wall, trying not to cry.

“What is so special about this girl that
you’re willing to die for her?”

“I’m not willing to die for her. I’m just
unwilling to be the reason she dies. If I could figure out a way
for both of us to live, I’d take it.” I took a deep breath and
tried to stay calm. “She was the first real friend I’ve ever had.
She has a whole life ahead of her, a family, a career,
happiness.”

“So do you.”

“No. I don’t. Once, I thought I might, if I
could just get far away enough from all of the people who knew what
I could do and avoid the reapers, but that’s no longer a
possibility for me.”

“That doesn’t make your life worthless.”

I laughed without humor or happiness. “And
that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? The value of a life is
relative. The corporation would say mine is worth more because of
what I can do and I say it’s worth less for the same reason.”

Tucker snorted. “Get. The. Fuck. Over. It.
You can’t have the normal life you imagine would be so happy, you
find a new life and you
make
your happiness. That‘s all you
can do. People will take and they will give on their whim. You make
your own joy.” He sighed when I didn’t say anything. “You’re a good
person, Kelsey, and a lot of people love you. I love you. Don’t use
Angelica as an excuse to throw your life away. This isn’t the way
to escape from yourself.”

Tears slipped from my eyes when he told me he
loved me. He sounded sincere and hurt, and I felt sad and happy at
the same time. Now that I finally had real friends, it seemed all I
did was hurt them. I rolled back over, and faced him. He gave me a
weak smile and I noticed his own eyes were damp. I didn’t know if
ghosts could cry, but I knew I was tired of arguing with him. He
was wrong about me running from myself. I was helping Angelica. I
was tired of being afraid all the time and of losing things to the
reapers. I wasn’t giving in, I was fighting back.

“What’s the story on the homefront?” I asked,
desperate to change the subject.

“We’ve gotten some good intel, and we’ve got
a plan, and we’re going to move today. The only way we can see of
getting you out of here and keeping you out, without getting
Angelica killed, is to weaken the reapers as much as possible and
hope they move elsewhere. Jed tried to talk to Angelica, but she’s
refusing to go anywhere without Bruce and he doesn’t think there’s
any reason to leave town. Once it’s safe, you’re going to have to
cross over and fight the reapers on their own turf. We need you to
conserve your strength. Don’t share it unless you have to.”

“I’m going to take on how many reapers?”

“Not just you, you’ll have me, and about
twenty other reapers who are on our side. Thad brought a lot more
reapers onto our team. So many hate the corporations—”

“How many are we going up against?”

“We don’t have any definite numbers, but when
we do—”

“Give me ballpark.”

“Estimates range from fifty to seventy-five
reapers here currently in Briarton. But we’re going to try to take
out some key players before we get to that battle. Ultimately, we
hope to avoid it all together.”

“That would be my vote.”

“Most of these guys are followers, if you can
take out the leaders. . .”

“Rose? Houston?”

He nodded.

“Shit.”

“Pretty much.”

“Listen, watch out for Holly. Something’s off
about her. She didn’t say anything when they decided to drain
me.”

He nodded, his brow creased. “She told us
that she didn’t want them to kick her out, that she didn’t fight
them because she knew she’d lose and she wanted to make sure they
didn’t kill you. I’m watching her, though, and I’ll see if she’s
playing us.”

I nodded. My gut said she was lying, but
Tucker knew what he was doing and, if she was up to something, he’d
find out about it.

“I’m gonna get back,” he said. “Try not to
get into too much trouble while I’m gone.” He gave me one last
squeeze and faded away.

I’d found the bathroom the night before, so I
gathered up some clothes and headed for it and a much needed shower
after Tucker left. When I was done, my headache was gone and my
grumpy mood had mellowed. I followed the scent of bacon and found
myself in the kitchen.

Sadie smiled up at me from her seat at the
table. “Good morning. Help yourself to some food. I didn’t know
what you’d like, so I made a bit of everything.”

“Nice service for a prisoner.”

She frowned at me. “I was told you were here
of your own choice. I’ve got no interest in abetting a
kidnapping.”

“It’s okay. I’m here because I agreed to be
here, but I’m pretty sure I’m low on the totem pole, so I wasn’t
expecting any niceties.”

“Ha. Well I’m not on the totem pole at all
and I don’t put much stock in how a reaper rates a person. We’re
all just bodies to them.”

I heaped my plate with eggs and hash browns,
fixed myself a cup of coffee, and sat down at the table across from
her.

“What did they tell you about me?” I asked
after my first few bites.

“Not too much. You’re working for them, and
they want to make sure you’re safe. You’re not to leave the house
unless one of them is with you. Usual stuff.”

That made me pause. “You do this often?”

“Not for the reapers, but for others. I’ve
got a bit of a reputation.”

“Others?”

“You ask a lot of questions,” she said with a
smile. “Other witches, fairies, a low-level demon, lots of need for
a warded safe house and a brain to watch over them.”

Somehow I managed to keep my chin off the
table. Either she was crazy or Jed and Holly had a lot of
explaining to do. How had they not told me that fairies and demons
were real? “And how do the others feel about reapers?”

She laughed. “I haven’t taken a poll. If I
had to guess, I’d say most of them don’t know about reapers. What
you can’t see and all of that.” She watched me eat another bite of
pancake. “What do you think about the dead folks?”

“I don’t think they have the right to run
Briarton.”

“Briarton’s a nice town, but I don’t think
I’d risk my life for it.”

“And if I don’t? They get power here and in
however many other cities? How long before they take over the whole
country? No living person would be safe, and I could never trust
anyone again.”

“You think it’s better with the corporations
running things?”

“I don’t know.” The truth was I hadn’t really
thought about it. It made sense to me that the reapers would rebel
against any attempt to permanently and completely end reapings, and
the corporations seemed to have found a system that worked.

“It’s only better for the people pulling the
strings.” She took a long swallow of coffee. “My cousin had a bit
of a drinking problem. She was in college, and she’d probably have
grown out of it, but the corporation figured she was prime real
estate and sold her off to some reaper who’d paid his dues. He took
over my cousin’s body, went to work as a house burglar, and got
himself killed a year later.” She sighed. “There’s a reason the
reapers haven’t crossed over. They’re not good souls.”

“You’re working for them.”

She nodded, but didn’t meet my eyes. “Witches
have a long history of getting screwed over, burned at the stake,
and drowned. I don’t trust anyone, but I have to make a living. I’m
just trying to get by until the dust settles.”

“And you’re okay with letting the bad guys
win?”

She shook her head. “You haven’t been
listening to anything I’ve said. The bad guys always win. I’m just
trying to stay alive.”

She stood and took my plate to the sink.
“Right now, I’ve got to go to work. Rose said you’ll stay here, but
I’m locking and warding the door anyway. You walk out, it’ll hurt
like hell.”

Sadie left me alone in the house with a lot
of nervous energy and nothing to do with it. I looked around for
some sort of workout room, but came up empty. Short of running in
place, doing push-ups, and shadow-boxing, I was out of luck. Still,
by the time the sun set, I had tried all three.

The night was moonless and dark. I sat on the
couch, waiting for Sadie to get home, when someone knocked. I had
hoped I might make it through the day without a visit from Rose,
but hoping had never gotten me anything. I took a deep breath and
tried to calm my racing heart and shaking body. I could handle
this. I knew I could handle it.

I opened the door and Rose smiled at me. She
looked perfect, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, jeans
that fit her curves like they were tailored, and a cute purple,
puffy North Face jacket. She placed a hand in the air, said a few
nonsense words and stepped into the house. Three reapers, a little
girl, and two men who looked a bit older than me, followed her in.
I might have considered the men good-looking if I hadn’t been
afraid they’d be the last people I’d ever see.

“My friends here need a charge, Kelsey,
because your friends have been causing us a bit of trouble,” Rose
said. “You should tell them they’re going to get you killed if they
keep it up.”

“I’ll be sure to let them know.” I tried not
to cringe when my voice wobbled.

Rose gestured, and I focused and crossed over
without argument. The little girl reaper touched me and no loss of
consciousness saved me. I felt my energy leave in a screech of pain
and cold, before she smiled and passed me to the next reaper.

When I woke up on the hardwood floor, Rose
and the reapers were gone. I assumed they’d kept feeding after I’d
passed out, or I’d been awake the whole time and blocked the
memory. Either way, my head hurt like it’d been split open
repeatedly, and I was too weak to do more than drag myself to the
rug and curl up in a little ball. I lay there and drifted in and
out of consciousness, wishing I had the energy to get up and go
find a couple aspirin.

That’s how Sadie found me when she got home.
Without a word, she lifted, shoved, and slid me onto the couch,
covered me with a blanket, and put a pillow under my head.

“Is there anything else I can do for
you?”

“Aspirin?” I croaked. The movement and the
talking made me feel like I was gonna barf, so I just lay as still
as possible and closed my eyes.

She put her hands to either side of my head
and chanted in a language I didn’t recognize. The pain started to
recede and with it went the nausea. When my headache was just an
annoying pain in the back of my skull, she pulled her hands
away.

“Can you sit up?”

I managed to twist myself into a sitting
position, but my whole body shook when I got there.

She squeezed my arms. “I’ll get you something
to eat.” She clicked on the television to an old sitcom that made
me smile, and headed back to the kitchen.

She returned before the show was over, with a
bowl of warm vegetable soup and a thick slice of homemade bread on
a tray.

When she placed the food on my lap, I
realized I was starving. I took a big bite and immediately felt
like I was going to throw up, again.

“Eat slowly. You’re over hungry.”

She went back to the kitchen and returned
with dinner for herself. She sat next to me on the couch.

“What did they do to you?” she asked.

I took another, slower bite and let it settle
in my stomach before I answered. “They are draining me of life
energy to make themselves stronger.”

Her eyes widened in the dim light from the
T.V. and she shook her head. “Why are you letting them do it? I
assume you’re letting them, since you’re here and not locked in a
cage somewhere.”

“This isn’t a cage?” I didn’t want to answer
her question, didn’t want to hear the same lecture I’d been getting
from my friends.