The Revolt (The Reapers: Book Two) (31 page)

I thought about it for a moment, trying to
make sense of an idea that had been forming for a couple of days.
It was a good distraction from terror at the moment, so I tried it
out on Thad. “If they take over Briarton, they’re going to have an
endless supply of living bodies that most people won’t notice a
change in – tourists, and new residents, right? So, they’d want to
let every reaper on their team have a body, don’t you think? If
they’re all in unskilled living bodies, won’t they need people like
me to communicate with those still in the spirit realm?”

He said nothing for several moments. “There
will still be a hierarchy. They’ll force some people to remain as
reapers and earn their right to a body—”

“If they do that, they’ll be the same as the
corporations.”

He shook his head. There were dark circles
under his eyes and his hair looked like it had been caught in a
mini tornado. “The corporations allowed maybe five reapers a year
to carve out the rightful soul of a person and roost in a living
body. From what I’ve heard, they screwed over a lot of reapers.
They’d tell one reaper he’d miscalculated and still owed them two
years, when he’d actually completed his service, or they’d move
someone to the front of the line for nothing but politics. The
reapers couldn’t do anything about it without a full-on rebellion
and, until now, they’ve never had the numbers or the interest in
fighting together.”

“Is that fact or Len’s propaganda?” I learned
a long time ago not to judge anyone on the basis of rumors, mostly
based on my own experiences. In my case the rumors were true, but
that didn’t make my premise any less valid.

“I honestly don’t know.” He laughed. “I’m… I
was happy on Len’s team, and the stories I heard from him, other
corporation ex-employees, and reapers, were just further validation
that I’d made the right choice. Propaganda’s only bad when it keeps
you somewhere you don’t want to or shouldn’t be.”

“Or if it makes you dislike someone you might
otherwise like,” I said.

He looked at me, his face crinkled in
confusion, which cleared slowly. He returned to his airport
terminal scan. “Oh, my dislike for Jed has nothing to do with
Varius. I don’t like him, because he made you cry, and because I
don’t think he’s the right guy for you.”

I was preparing to defend Jed, when our
flight was called. Our plane wasn’t full, so all the passengers
were asked to board at the same time and my arguments got a bit
lost in the shuffle for seats. We didn’t have any luggage, other
than Thad’s carry-on duffel, so we made it to the front of the
line, and in our seats while the other passengers were filing on
and stowing bags in overhead compartments.

I checked the plane for reapers, but didn’t
see any. They’d board with the passengers if they were going to
board at all. I was just thinking we might get lucky and have a
plane full of living people when I saw a reaper who looked to be
about eight board with an elderly woman.

“Reaper.”

Thad nodded. “I got her. There’s another
one.”

I looked up to see a tall, lithe woman with
brilliant red hair board and drift right back to us. She sat in the
seat across the aisle. “I’m here to make sure you leave,” she
said.

There was no point in pretending we couldn’t
see her, she knew very well we could.

“Does that mean you’ll only stay until the
plane takes off,” I asked.

“That is correct. Caleb will be sorry to see
you go, but the rest of us are quite pleased with this development.
We weighed the costs, and we don’t believe sending out another team
to bring you back or kill you is worth the extra energy you provide
or the pleasure we gained from torturing you.” She smiled, showing
her teeth, and I instinctively scooted closer to Thad. He put a
hand on my arm and squeezed. “You leaving the state is the best end
to this dilemma. Would you like me to send Caleb a message? No?”
she said, without giving me time to respond. “I will tell him
you’re in love with…” She looked at Thad expectantly.

“Thad,” he said.

I raised my eyebrows at him, but he just
shrugged and smiled.

“Very well. I’ll tell him you’re in love with
Thad, and you were just toying with him to get information.”

There didn’t seem to be any need to say more
after that, so I returned my attention to the front of the plane in
time to see the little girl reaper staring at me. I met her gaze
without thinking and, when she smiled, I reflexively smiled back. I
must have been severely overtired to make such a mistake. She
didn’t seem too eager to get any closer to red-headed reaper across
the aisle, though, so I hoped she’d stay where she was.

As soon as the plane began to rise into the
air, which seemed like an eternity after we’d boarded, our reaper
escort vanished.

I turned to Thad, my earlier annoyance with
him having had time to rekindle. “Not that I care what you think,
but how do you know who the right guy for me is? You don’t even
know me.”

He grinned like he thought my anger was cute
and that just made me madder. “I know you were willing to die to
save your friend, Angelica—”

“I wasn’t willing to die.”

“Who, by the way didn’t even have the good
sense to leave town. You really know how to pick ‘em.”

“She’s just—”

“And you’re willing risk your life again to
protect some little town that doesn’t really matter to anyone in
either of the corporations. I’m not sure if that’s because you’re
smarter than they are and see that any territory the reapers claim
is a threat, or because you love your friend so much you’re still
trying to protect her and the place she chooses to live.”

“I… a bit of both, I guess.”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, either way
it’s admirable. You’re tough. You fight for the people you care
about, even when those people are acting like idiots, which makes
you loyal. You’re someone I’d like to have my back in a fight,
someone I’d like to get to know better.”

“I… um, okay.” I could argue with him, point
out my numerous flaws and all the ways I’d hurt Angelica before I’d
tried to help her, but why mar his wonderful opinion of me? “So
what’s the problem with Jed? He’s a good guy. Look at the way he
stuck by Caleb, even when Caleb was screwing up and getting him
into trouble.”

“I don’t know about that. But I do know he’s
loyal to Varius first and foremost. He’d stab any one of us in the
back for the good of the corporation and the supposed good of all
mankind or some such shit.”

I might have been angry if I thought Thad
actually knew anything real about Jed. “You just gave me a list of
all the things you know about me, which I accept as valid judgment
of my character. What you said about Jed has nothing to do with
him. It sounds like an assumption based on what you know about
other corporate employees.”

“Maybe.” He sighed. “Look, you seem to like
the guy and I don’t want to darken your rosy glasses, but when you
decide where to work it’ll affect more than just your relationship
with him—”

“I should be concerned with the good of all
mankind?”

He smiled. “Or some such shit. Varius doesn’t
want us to fight for Briarton. When you were at Sadie’s, Jed tried
to convince us to get you out and leave Briarton to Varius. When
and if Varius ever gets around to doing anything about it.”

“He was worried about me.”

“Yeah, but he’s not here now, is he?”

That struck a bit too close to home. “He was
injured.”

“He sprained his wrist and got a bump on the
head. He went back to Varius because they called him back.”

“You don’t know that,” I said. Hurt
overwhelmed anger and I felt tears well up. He was wrong. I had to
believe he was wrong.

Thad must have seen something in my face,
because his expression softened. “I know he likes you, Kelsey. That
much is clear. I just…I think you should be prepared for Varius to
turn us down when we ask for back-up and for Jed to go along with
them.”

“I know.” I did know, but I hoped we were
both wrong. “But we have to try.”

“Excuse me,” a small voice said. I’d seen the
reaper, the little girl from earlier, walk up and look at us, and
I’d planned to ignore her.

Thad turned to the little girl and smiled at
her as though she were a real, living girl. “What’s up,
sweetheart?” He asked, without bothering to reach for a cell phone.
A young couple seated across the aisle looked his way, but most
people were watching the movie or ensconsed in a book or
conversation.

“Can you tell my grandma I’m sorry? I didn’t
mean to spill paint on the floor. I’ve been trying to tell her, but
she won’t even look at me.”

“That’s because she can’t see you,” he said,
his voice calm and low. “You died, and it’s time for you to move
on.”

The little girl’s eyes widened, and I
congratulated myself on my good sense to never get involved in
reapers’ problems. There was just no good way to tell someone
they’d died.

“That’s why she won’t talk to me,” the little
girl said. “I thought she was mad at me.”

“No, she’s not mad at you. The paint you
spilled doesn’t matter to her. She loves you.”

“I need to stay with her,” the little girl
said. She started drifting back toward her grandmother.

“You can’t be with her.”

The little girl stopped and looked at
him.

“She can’t see or hear you, but there’s a
place where people can see and hear you. A wonderful place, full of
love and happiness, and you can go there to wait for her. She’ll
join you, eventually.”

“I don’t want to leave her.”

He nodded. “Okay. Stay with her for a bit
longer. When you feel the pull, you should follow it. Existing in a
world where no one can see or hear you is no kind of life.”

The little girl drifted back to her
grandmother with a small smile.

“Wow,” I said. “How did you do that?”

He shrugged. “I treated her the way I’d want
to be treated if I was dead and didn’t know it. I didn’t ignore
her.”

“I’ve tried to help. It’s never worked for
me. All any of them really want is to be alive again, and I can’t
help them with that.”

“When was the last time you tried?”

I cast back in my memory. “I think I was
eight. It was the summer I lost my best friend, because my mother
kept gossiping about her amazing daughter who could see the dead. I
tried to help a teenager, but I couldn’t—”

“That was a long time ago. Maybe you should
try again.”

He was starting to get on my nerves. “I’m not
some reaper whose problems you can fix with your soothing voice.
You don’t really know anything about me or my life.”

He leaned away from me as though I might bite
or hit him. He raised his hands. “Sorry, I was just trying to help.
It’s what I do. It’s like a sickness.”

“I don’t need help.”

“Clearly.”

I ignored the sarcasm in his tone. “What
about you? Why the great love affair with reapers?”

He snorted. “I guess I’ve just had good
experiences. I was ten the first time I saw one, and I thought it
was a-fucking-mazing. I told everyone, but no one believed me.”

“Lucky you.”

“I guess. My gift became my secret and it
made me feel like a superhero, you know. Then Len came along and
asked me to be part of his team, and I got to be a superhero for
real.”

I studied him and tried to figure him out.
“You never have a moment when you don’t love this stuff? It’s all
hearts and rainbows all the time?”

“I hate killing people, but.… Yeah, I love
helping people, and I love how every day is just plain exciting and
I can ride the adrenaline high. I love feeling like I can make a
real difference. I, um, I didn’t have the best childhood, but now I
can choose my life. I couldn’t be happier with the choice I’ve
made.”

“I don’t feel like I have any choices.” I
tried to keep the whine out of my voice. “I want to go to college,
or…” I was pretty sure, if I kept on, I’d start crying. My nerves
were raw and I still ached for the life I could have had, might
still have, if the reapers would end this war and go back to the
status quo.

“What would you study?” he asked, not looking
at all disgusted with me.

I couldn’t admit that I had no idea what I
wanted to study. I wanted to go to college because that’s what
normal people did. I had this fantasy of ivy-lined brick walls,
wise professors, and smart friends, and that’s as far as I got.
Even before the reapers started the war, I hadn’t been making any
real steps toward getting to college. “I’m really tired. I think I
should try to get some sleep.”

He shrugged. “Sure, I just asked because I’m
taking college courses online. You could do the same thing.”

Hmmm, all the learning with none of the
actual college experience. Great. “What are you studying?”

“Physics. I’m trying to figure out a way to
make reapers visible to untalented people. Maybe even a way to
allow us to physically interact with them. That sort of thing. I’m
also studying folklore and mythology to try to understand how other
cultures and peoples interacted with the dead.”

Wow, he wasn’t kidding when he said he loved
this stuff. “I never would have pegged you for a nerd.”

His grin widened. “Shut up and go to
sleep.”

So I did.

We landed in DC at two-o-clock in the
afternoon and went straight to the car rental. I’d rented a car
there on my last flight into DC, when I’d been on my way to visit
Momma. Jed and I had joked about hating babies. It seemed like a
lifetime ago, instead of five weeks.

I remembered the Jed I’d met and had a hard
time matching him up to the Jed I knew. Then he’d seemed like a
happy-go-lucky, free-spirited guy who put more thought into how
he’d get to the next great concert than he put into a job. I
wondered if that was a side of him I just hadn’t gotten to see
lately or if it had been an act. I wondered how much of the Jed I
knew was real.