Unchosen (8 page)

“Is that smoke?” I asked. I ran toward the door that led to the little waiting room. From there, we could go down the hallway to my dad’s office. Then go to the reception area to nab
Ally and Nona. Worry sickened me. Were they okay?

Rath grabbed my arm and yanked me back. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to run away from fire!”

Smoke billowed from underneath the door I had just been about to touch. All the same, I wouldn’t let Rath drag me away.

“My family’s in there,” I cried. “We have to help them!”

“We have to go. Now. You can still be killed, Molly. You’re not invincible.” He grabbed me in a bear hug, and then flipped me over his shoulder, holding me tight as he headed in the opposite direction.

“No!” I screamed. “No!”

“It’s easy to forget that reapers were once human and had families, connections to those who still lived on the Earthly plane. In time, all whom reapers knew and loved pass on to the other side, and so, too, did the sorrows and joys. Reapers are compassionate by nature, but they soon forget what it means to be human.”

~
Secret History of Reapers, Author Unknown

“Zombies deserve kindness. Dead humans deserve has much respect as alive humans.”

~Citizens for Zombie Rights

Chapter
8

RATH BARRELED OUT of the building. I clung to his waist, bouncing up and down, and I couldn’t stop screaming.

             
My family was in the fire.

             
We couldn’t just leave them in the smoke and flames to die!

             
“We have to go back!” I shouted.

“You stay here.” Rath put me down and held me by the arm. “
I
will go back and check to see who’s there. I’m already dead.”

His calm tone dampened my panic. I nodded slowly. Tears dripped from my eyes as I thought about the fate of my family. What had happened? How had the Zomporium caught on fire?
Were they in there?

Rath touch the side of my face. “Stay here.
Please
. I’ll look for your family.”

“Then go already!” He turned, but I grabbed his hand and then I kissed the top of his knuckles. “Thank you.”

“I’ll do anything for you, brown eyes.” Rath disappeared instantly.

A flicker of movement at the top of the building caught my eye. Flames licked the rooftop. I was absolutely sick about our family business being destroyed. I backed up because I could feel the heat of the fire, and I knew it was beyond awful. As I dazedly watched the flames erupt from the top of the building, I frowned. I swear the fire was outlined in black. Glittery black … like reaper magic.

Impossible.

             
“Molly, girl. Whatcha you doin’ here?”

             
Demitrius’s voice startled me. I turned, and found him standing behind me. He looked just as surprised as I felt. Dem was as black as coffee grounds and still had a faint Jamaican accent. He’d been our
ka heka
since Mom left more than six years before. He had trained Ally and I to make zombies, and we considered him part of our family.

             
He held out his arms, and I collapsed into them, sobbing. Finally, I got a grip, and pulled away.

             
“Ally called me. I … what happened, Dem?” Then I realized that Dem standing outside of the Zomporium probably meant my family was out, too. Relief warred with fear. “Is everyone else safe, too?”

             
His gaze flickered from me to the fire, and then back to me again. “Everyone,” he confirmed. “’Cept your father. We can’t find ’im.”

             
“Daddy?” I turned toward the building, and gazed in horror at the carnage the fire now wrought.

             
“Last anyone saw, him was in de office.”

My father was in the building. If Rath didn’t find him, Daddy would die. I couldn’t bear the thought. Even now, a reaper could be in the office with my father, waiting for him to take his last breath so his soul could be escorted into the afterlife.

Tears poured from my eyes, then a new, more insidious thought wormed inside my brain. What if Rath was there to reap him?

The breath left me in a rush, but I couldn’t—wouldn’t—believe that of Rath. He hadn’t known there was a fire, or he wouldn’t have suggested we step right into it. I had to believe, too, that he would never reap one of my family members without telling me.

I trusted Rath. If he could save my father, he would. I believed that whole-heartedly.

The moments passed excruciatingly slow. Had it been a minute? Five minutes? I glanced at Dem, but his gaze was on the fire, no doubt noticing how odd it looked. If anyone would know necromancy at work, he would.

“Someone did this,” I said.

He nodded. “Yes, chil’. Someone did.”

I couldn’t stand to wait another second. I did the only thing I could think of to do: I walked away from Dem, closed my eyes, and prayed to Anubis.

If you’re there, Anubis, please, please, please help my dad. He doesn’t deserve to die. And you owe him BIG for taking care of me. I need you, Anubis. Hear me! Please!

My throat knotted as more tears poured from my eyes. My heart turned over in my chest. Betrayal pierced me like a knife plunged into my gut. Why had Anubis abandoned me?
Why wasn’t he listening?

“Molly!”

The urgency in Dem’s voice dried up my tears. I whirled around and watched as Rath burst through the back door, carrying my father in his arms.

“Daddy!” I ran to them, and saw that while my father had soot on his face and blackened clothes, he was breathing.

“Thank you, Rath. Thank you so much.”

“He’s alive,” he said. “But he needs help.”

“I’ll take ’im.” Dem, showing way more strength than his thin body should have, unburdened Rath of my father. “Ambulances are in the front, tendin’ to everyone sufferin’ from smoke inhalation. You go back to school. They be callin’ you soon enough. Then you come home, Molly.”

“All right, Dem.” I agreed, even though I didn’t want to go. I leaned down and kissed my father’s brow. “I love you, Daddy,” I whispered.

Dem turned and strode away.

Rath enclosed me in his ar
ms. I barely noticed the trip into the Shallows, letting Rath hold me tight while he took us back to my dorm room. Terror pulsed through me. I wanted nothing more than to return to Las Vegas and be with my family.

“Try to rest,” said Rath. He kissed me softly. “I’ll watch over your dad until you get there.”

“Thanks,” I said. My eyes felt puffy and I knew I probably resembled a raccoon. “How long do you think it’ll be before someone notifies my grandparents?”

“Soon,” he said. He grasped my chin, and I looked in his sympathetic gaze. “You’re not alone, brown eyes. I’ve got your back.”

“And I’ve got yours.” I kissed him again. “See you.”

“Stay strong.” He disappeared, and I found some comfort in the idea he would watch over my bio-dad. Fear and anger and worry crashed through me—a riot of emotions I couldn’t contain. Where the hell was Anubis?

“Anubis!” I screamed. “Anubis!”

Nothing.

Where was he? Why wasn’t he answering me? Did he just not care anymore? Was he too busy kissing Maat’s ass to make time for me? Was he teaching me some kind of sadistic lesson about relying on myself?

I didn’t know.

And right now, I didn’t care.

“Henry,” I whispered.

My ghoul arrived in a nanosecond. He took one look at my face, and then sat down with me on the bed. He held my hand, staying quiet and still, offering the calm I drank like a girl dying of thirst.

We stayed that way until a knock sounded at the door. Henry rose and allowed the visitors inside: Miss Chiles and my grandparents.

“Something bad happened,” I said.

“Yes.” Sandra marched forward, sat down beside me and squeezed my shoulders. “Your father is in the hospital. There was a fire, and he got hurt.”

I nodded and more tears slipped down my face. “Can I see him?”

“Yes, darling. Our private plane will be ready to go the moment we arrive at the airport.

“Thank you guys so much.” I heaved a breath, swallowing my grief.

Derek sat down on the other side of me. “We’re your family, Molly. We’ll help you however we can.”

“I love you,” I said. “I really do.”

“We love you, too, Molly.” Derek leaned over and kissed my brow.

“Let’s go,” said Sandra gently.

“H-Henry comes with me.”

“Of course,” said Sandra. “Henry?”

“I will take care of her, miss.” Henry scooped me into his ar
ms. Once again I found myself clinging to him, the buoy in the storm that was my life. He took me to the waiting car, and my grandfather pried me away from him.

“I’ll shall await your return, miss,” said Henry.

I wanted Henry to come to Las Vegas with me, but I understood that he thought he should stay. If I knew Henry at all, it was because he served our family—and didn’t feel part of our family. I was gonna change that.

But for now, I waved good-bye, and he shut the limo’s door.

H
OSPITALS CANNOT HIDE their purpose. They attempt to provide comfort through soft colors, nice pictures, and smiling nurses. But there is a hushed kind of awful quiet, and an unerring knowledge that the sick and the dying are housed here.

It is worse than the Shallows.

In my father’s hospital room, I listened to this terrible quiet, which was only displaced by the beeping of machines. My father lay tucked under a sheet. An IV dangled from one of his arms like a prisoner’s manacle. His eyes were closed, but I took comfort in the steady rise and fall of his chest. I gripped the edge of the bed railing and leaned down to give my father a kiss on the forehead. I whispered, “I love you, Daddy.”

I left the room, and joined my family in the hallway.
Ally and Nona gave me hugs. Then Nona patted my hand, and returned to keeping vigil over her son. She refused to leave my father’s room, so a bed was being brought in for her. The plan was for our grandparents to take us home, where we would sleep for the night, and return in the morning. I didn’t want to leave, but I didn’t want to stay, either. The hospital was a terrible reminder of life’s fragility.

Two doctors came down the hallway, their gazes serious. My grandmother pushed some money into my hand. “Why don’t you girls go to the cafeteria and get a snack?”

For the barest moment, I wanted to defy her, to say that if I was old enough to fight an ancient god, then I could damned sure hear bad news about my dad.

But the truth was that I would rather be treated like a child, like a girl who is still a girl and needs protection. Because I did. And so did my sister.

“Thanks,” I said. I took the money. “C’mon, Ally.”

Ally
looked exhausted and scared. She and Nona had come to the hospital in the ambulance with my dad, so they hadn’t changed clothes. Ally smelled like smoke, but other than that, it didn’t really appear like she’d been in a fire.

We took the elevator down to the main floor and followed the signs to the cafeteria. We both got Cokes and some M&Ms, and then we found a place to sit by a potted plant.

The cafeteria was empty except for a lone worker sweeping up trash left under tables.

Ally
ripped open her candy then stared at it as if she didn’t know what to do next. She shoved the little brown package away. “I’m not hungry.”

I didn’t really think I could eat anything, either. I left my M&Ms alone, and took a big sip of Coke. The sickly sweetness of the drink didn’t exactly settle my stomach.

“How bad was the fire?” I asked.

“The Zomporium’s gone. It burned to the ground,” said
Ally.

I felt a little catch in my throat. Maybe I didn’t love working there all the time, but it had been our family’s business. I mourned its loss.

“I watched the firefighters try save it—and no matter how much water they used, it would not go out.” She hesitated. “I think … maybe … there was magic in it. It shouldn’t be possible, right? Necromancy doesn’t cause fires.”

Dem and I had noticed the same thing, but I didn’t want to confirm my sister’s fears. Despite displaying the maturity of a 40-year-old woman most days, she was still a kid. And I still wanted to protect her.

“Were you inside?” I asked.

Ally
shook her head. She glanced up, her eyes wide behind her the lenses of her glasses. “I talked Nona into taking me home. So I could—” She paused and looked around. Then she hunkered down, and whispered,“ —stash the thing.”

“The thing?”

“What I found, Molly. It was one of Mom’s old jewelry boxes, or so I thought. The contents are weird. Some old pages from a book, this black marble cube … and there’s a letter. Anyway. I got a really bad feeling after I called you. Then I made some excuse about having to go home, and Nona took me.” Her lips trembled. “I hid the box in my room, and when we got back to the Zomporium … it was on fire.”

I took another sip of my Coke, and
Ally poked around inside the M&M bag until she found some blue ones. She had this weird thing about eating all of one color at a time. You just had to love my OCD sis.

“Daddy was manic about keeping the building to code,” said
Ally. “You know that. It couldn’t have been electrical. And Dem’s too good of a
ka heka
to cause any magical blowback.”

“What are you trying to say,
Ally?” I asked. “That someone did it on purpose?”

“Arson is a viable theory, especially when you consider some of the customers we’ve pissed off. Some vengeful idiot could’ve thrown a Molotov cocktail into the lobby.”

I imagined our biggest pain-in-the-ass customer, Mrs. Woodbine, rolling by in her Caddy to lob a firebomb at our front doors. I shook my head. “We don’t know what happened. I’m sure they’re investigating how the fire started. It doesn’t matter, anyway. Nothing will change the fact that the Zomporium is gone.”