A rock formation caught my eye. I stopped. Something about it nagged at the back of my mind. I didn’t think, I started through the trees and toward it.
“Ally?” A stick snapped behind me.
“I have a feeling…” I walked through the grass and out onto dirt. The rock formation created an overhang around ten feet up. Further back underneath there was something… but it was too dark to see.
“What is that?” Asher stepped next to me.
“Let’s find out.” I headed inside and pulled out my phone. Asher wasn’t too far behind.
The light from my phone danced over a large dome topped metal tank, rusted where the paint had chipped, it sat in an old metal tub. Weird. From the bottom of the tank, a rubber tube ran to a connector on the table that emptied into a glass tube to a large round glass flask with a Bunsen burner underneath. From there, whatever it was filtered through several loops of copper coil to empty into a smaller round flask that was connected by another tube to another large beaker. It looked like something out of chemistry class. Everything had a dull blue crystalized gunk crusted on the inside.
“Is this a still?” I looked at it carefully again.
Asher turned on the flash light on his phone and looked at the set up. “Maybe?”
“So, someone was making moonshine?” That didn’t seem right. “You could buy moonshine in a store now.”
“It’s safer too.” Asher bent down and looked under the tank. “You won’t go blind from the stuff in the store.”
“This part looks like a distillation set up.” I pointed at the last half of whatever it was.
“Yeah, but what’s this half?” Asher straightened and tapped the top of the tank. “There’s a hose heading out of the overhang.”
“A hose?” I started taking pictures for Miles. “What’s it attached to?”
Asher moved around the back of the tank. “The top of the tank.”
I finished taking pictures. “Well, let’s see where the hose goes.”
Asher started following the line. We walked out from under the overhang and through the grass. The old gray hose snaked out into the woods. It wasn’t far until we found the end.
A cold chill ran down my spine. “Holy…”
Drawn on a large flat boulder in faded and chipped paint was a giant triangle. Writing that I couldn’t understand was along the outside of each side. Inside the triangle was a large circle. Around the outside of that circle, in worn and peeling paint, were three other words. In the center of that circle were dead, dry, narrow, golden brown stringy looking things.
“I think we just found something.” I pulled out my phone and began to take pictures of the giant triangle.
“The paint is old and peeling.” Asher pointed along the lines. “It hasn’t been redone recently.”
“So, whoever was doing whatever this is, stopped.” I shook my head. What the hell was this? And what did the hose have to do with anything?
“What the hell is in the middle?” Asher stepped over the line, almost giving me a heart attack.
“Fuck, Asher!” I couldn’t keep the panic from my voice.
He turned to look down at me. “What?”
“You know energy manipulation is real! And you just stepped over the fucking line of something without knowing what the hell it was!” I grabbed him by the shirt and jerked him away from the triangle. “You can’t fucking do that!”
“Ally-”
“Don’t fucking Ally me! You could have fucking been killed! Possessed! Something even worse!” Fear tore through me, making me shake.
His hands covered mine. “I didn’t even think about it.”
“You better start fucking think about it!” I shoved him. “This isn’t a fucking game! Magic can fucking kill you!”
He grabbed me by the wrists and pulled me closer. “I’m sorry.”
I tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let me. “Sorry isn’t going to help if you die!” My voice echoed off the rock.
His eyes grew softer. His hands moved to hold my face and pressed his forehead against mine. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
My eyes burned as my hands went to his forearms. “What is going on with you?”
“I don’t know.” He kissed my hair and pulled me against him.
His arms wrapped around me as I fisted his shirt and buried my face in his chest.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” He took several deep breaths. “Miles thinks it’s something physical.”
When I was calmer, I pulled away, wiped my face and glared up at him. “I’m still so pissed.”
He swallowed hard. “I know.”
“Why did you announce it to the others?” My voice cracked. “Would you have wanted someone to do that to you?”
“No. It was fucked up.” Asher swallowed hard. “I was jealous and furious it wasn’t me. I shouldn’t have even opened my mouth.”
I shook my head. “You know I love him too. Just as much as I love you.”
He nodded but kept his gaze on our hands. “Why not me?”
I was going to have to explain. Normally, I shouldn’t fucking have to… But there was nothing normal about any of this. “Did you hear what I told Miles?”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I heard you ask him to-”
“Did you hear anything else?”
Frowning down at me, he shook his head.
“Ordin touched me, Asher.” My voice was matter of fact but inside, I didn’t want to talk about this. “That’s what Zeke knew that no one else did.”
Asher’s eyes grew oddly lighter as his gaze met mine. “He touched you?”
I swallowed hard and kept talking. “Yeah. He groped me in a couple of fucked up places.” I swallowed hard and dropped my hands. “Yesterday… I wanted to move on. I wanted to stop feeling… him. His touch.”
Asher rubbed the back of his neck as he turned away. “But you chose Miles.”
“I love him just as much as I love you.” How many times did I have to keep saying it?
“I know you do-”
“I don’t think you do.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You keep saying you do but… You know how you feel about me?”
His nodded.
“Imagine that you feel that way for four other women too. Four other, amazing, wonderful women that you just fit with.” What was it going to take for him to get it? “That you feel like you’re being torn apart by different parts of you. And there’s nothing you can do except wait for it all to fall apart.”
Swallowing hard, he held my gaze. “Okay, I get it.” He shook his head. “I just can’t listen to it.”
“And you don’t have to,” I promised. I shouldn’t have made out with Miles with Asher nearby, I needed to start thinking about these things. “I should have thought about it. But at the time, I didn’t. I’m sorry.”
Asher took several deep breaths. “We should probably get back to the others.”
I nodded. “And try to figure out what the hell that is.”
Chapter 13
Asher
We pulled into the lot and found another car. Who the hell was here? My mind somewhere else, we got out of the truck.
As we got closer to camp, laughing echoed back to us. It sounded like the guys were talking. A new scent was in the air that made me take notice. It was weird… I knew it but I couldn’t place it. Like a tune stuck in your head that won’t go away until you figure out the lyrics.
We walked into the camp to find the guys sitting around the fire with a tall blonde woman with red streaked hair sitting at the picnic table facing them. Beside her was a rather large and tall Scotsman.
“Astrid, Ranulf, when did you guys get here?” Ally asked as she walked around the fire ring.
Astrid smiled and got to her feet. “About an hour ago.” She pulled Ally into a hug. “How are you doing?”
Ally pulled back. “Could be doing better. You know, not raising dead bears.”
“A
ye, I can see how that would kill your good mood.” Ranulf didn’t bother to get up.
“Well, help is here.” Astrid sat back down. “We’re your back up.”
“What?” That couldn’t be right. “You’re a werewolf and you’re a gargoyle… how are you guys going to help? No offense.”
Ranulf smirked. “Well, it’s more that we brought you back up.” Ranulf tilted his chin toward the trees.
Looking almost solid enough to touch, Louis was standing just outside of the trees. His black hair was cut close to his head, white silver at the temples. A strong jaw and the same sharp clear eyes.
The last time we had seen him… he had died in front of us.
Ally smiled. I stepped up beside her and put my hand on her lower back. Her watery eyes met mine. She was remembering the same thing. The guys waved Louis over.
“We told you to come hang out,” Ethan called.
“I needed to find a space.” Louis met Ally’s gaze. “We have some work to do.”
Astrid’s eyes narrowed as her gaze ran over me.
“We’ll be in town for the night.” Ranulf got to his feet as he watched Ethan. “We’ll be back tomorrow to check in and see how you’re doing.”
“We have a climb tomorrow, so you might want to wait until the afternoon.” Zeke leaned forward in his chair.
“For once we get to sleep in.” Ranulf smiled as he took Astrid’s arm.
A small frown appeared on Astrid’s face before they left camp. What was that about? Ally headed toward Louis. We couldn’t help but watch them disappear into the trees.
Miles turned back to me once they were out of sight. “How’d it go?”
“We found something.” I sat down in my camp chair. “We took pics, but Ally has them.”
“That’s not what I’m asking about.” Miles’ voice grew icy.
I figured. “We talked.”
“Are you going to still be an asshole?” Isaac turned to me. “I’d just like to know now.”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know myself anymore.” I met Miles’ gaze. “I’m sorry, Miles. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t really know what was going on in my head.”
Miles watched me for several seconds. “You’re struggling, I understand that. But you cannot use Lexie against us like that.”
I nodded. He was right. But there was more… “Guys, I think we should have tonight’s family meeting now, without Ally.”
Miles grew still. “Why’s that?”
“It needs to be about her.” What she had said was going around in my head. And if I didn’t really understand then the others probably didn’t either.
“Fine.” Zeke leaned back in his chair.
“What do you want to talk about?” Miles pushed up his glasses.
“She’s not going to choose.” From what she told me, she really couldn’t.
“Yeah, she told us that.” Isaac shrugged. “But I’m sure after she calms down, she will.”
That’s what I was afraid of. “No, she won’t. She can’t.”
Zeke eyed me. “What are you talking about?”
“Guys…” I explained it the way she explained it to me. It was the only way I could think of to make them understand. When I finished, Isaac’s face was paler.
“So, she really can’t pick?” Ethan asked, his face carefully blank.
I shook my head. “No. She can’t.”
“Well, what does that mean?” Isaac turned to Miles. “Do we have to choose for her?”
Zeke sent Isaac a furious look. “Do you really think she’ll go along with us deciding who she fucking dates?”
Isaac cringed. “Oh, yeah. She’d kill all of us. Forget I even thought that.”
“Smart move,” Ethan muttered.
“Our options are that none of us date her.” Miles looked at each of us. “Or we all date her at once.”
“Red’s never going to go for that.” Isaac scratched his arm. “We’re all screwed.”
Tension filled the silence.
“I think we need Lexie for the rest of this conversation.” Miles leaned forward in his chair. “Asher, I understand why you wanted to talk to us without her. Several of us didn’t quite understand that she really felt that she couldn’t choose.”
“No one’s going to go along with this.” My heart sank. It was over.
Miles shared a look with Ethan.
Ethan turned to us. “I would.”
Everyone eyed Ethan.
“You would agree for all of us to date her?” I couldn’t believe it. Was he serious?
“I told Lexie to pick Isaac instead of me.” Ethan met everyone’s gaze. “The only way I’ll get to be with her is if we all agree.”
“How do you feel about her?” Miles’ question had everyone glaring at him.
“I haven’t told her but…” Ethan licked his lips. “I love her.”
It was like a kick to the gut. Something inside me didn’t like it. I closed my eyes and took slow deep breaths. When I was able, I opened my eyes to find the others watching me closely. “I’m okay.”
Miles looked at each of us. “I’m going to assume that everyone here feels the same way.”
Silence was his only answer.
Miles nodded as if he expected it. “Then we each need to start figuring out if we can do this.”
“Share her, you mean?” Zeke growled.
Miles shook his head. “Each of us would have our own relationship with her. And we’d have to work together and be understanding of everyone else’s relationships.” He looked at each of us again. “And if not, we need to come to grips with the fact that we all have to let her go.”
Lexie
Still stunned, Hades and I followed Louis into the woods. The birds chirped, the breeze danced through the trees. I didn’t ask questions, I couldn’t even think of something to say. What was I going to say? Sorry you died for helping me? We walked for a while before I couldn’t take it anymore.
“How’s the family?” It popped out before I realized it. Damn it, Lexie…
“As good as can be expected.” He stopped and turned to me in a small grove. “Uma has taken time off from her art gallery to spend more time with the kids right now.”
“How’s Juan?” Juan was Louis’ necromancer son.
“He’s being a teenager.” He smiled a small smile. “I’ve been mostly talking to him at night before he goes to sleep.”
“That’s good at least.” I didn’t know what else to say.
His brown eyes met mine. “You raised a bear.”
I nodded as I tried not to fidget. “I was asleep and woke up to the yelling.”
His eyes ran over me. “Any outside influences? Stress? Drugs? Alcohol?”
“I was drunk.” Hades moved over to a patch of grass in the sun and stretched out.
Louis’ chest rose as he took a deep breath. Which seemed strange since he didn’t have to breathe. Was it a habit? “No more drinking until you have your control down, alright?”
I nodded. I had already been planning on it.
He sighed. “I knew you’d be strong but I didn’t think you’d be this strong so fast.”
That didn’t sound good… “And no control.”
He nodded. “That’s what you’re going to learn now. At least the basics.” He gestured for me to sit down.
I sat on a flat rock and waited.
“Necromancy isn’t about collecting energy and using it. That’s being a witch or warlock. The energy we use is ours. We’re the battery.”
A horrible thought occurred to me. “What happens if you drain the battery?”
His eyes met mine. “You die.”
“Okay, let’s not do that.” I shifted on the rock.
“Necromancy is about will. You have to want or need what or who you are raising. You have to focus solely on that and nothing else.”
“Then how the hell am I raising shit in my sleep?” I couldn’t help the frustration in my voice.
Louis met my gaze. “That’s instinct. Not control. If you want to raise what you’re trying to raise, you have to concentrate.”
Something about his words filled me with dread. “Why’d you say it that way?”
“What way?”
“As if I could raise something more than the dead?” The clearing grew quiet.
His eyes met mine. “Lexie. There are a lot of dead things on the planet. Not just humans but animals, dinosaurs, and other larger extinct supernatural races.”
Oh, that didn’t sound good.... I raised an eyebrow. “Larger?”
“Yes. You don’t only raise dead humans. That’s why you need to learn how to raise what you mean to.” He walked over to a pile of sticks. “There’s a dead squirrel here.”
I looked and didn’t see anything. “How do you know?”
“Because I can feel it.” He turned back to me. “When you’re alive, you have barriers. And when you’re dead, you don’t. So, first thing you’re going to learn is how to sense the dead.”
“And we’re going to start with the squirrel.” It made sense, start small.
“Exactly.”
Oh boy…
Chapter 14
I growled and slammed my palm in the dirt. “This is fucked up. I can raise a fucking bear in my sleep but can’t find a stupid squirrel!”
“Getting angry won’t help.” Louis called from the log he sat on besides Hades. “You’re using your own will to get the job done.”
“How does that help me connect to the dead?” I turned to him. “I don’t want to have anything to do with them!”
His face softened. “And that’s your problem.”
I grew still. “What?”
“Being a necromancer is a delicate balance between living and death.” He held his hands out, palm up. “If deep down you don’t want to deal with the dead, you will never get control of those abilities.”
I growled in frustration. “Can you blame me?”
He gave me a half grin. “No. I spent most of my life doing the exact same thing.”
The frustration pulled back some. “You did?”
He nodded. “I had many bad years because of it. I wasted so much time being miserable and hiding because I didn’t want to deal with the dead.”
When the Dead Have It Easy Page 21