I opened and closed my mouth, not sure how to respond. For one, I was basically back to where I started when I came to town: in hiding.
However, Dom had a good reason. Fucker.
Of course I voted for him, and this is what I get. But . . . there was one good thing that would come of it.
I would get plenty of time to deal with Thana.
“I’ll try to keep a low profile for now,” I said.
His eyebrows drew together. “Really? You will?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Have I ever lied to you, Fuckface?”
His look of surprise morphed into annoyance. “I’m your superior now. You’re going to have to stop insulting me.”
I let out a laugh at that, wiping the corners of my eyes. “Am I? Did I treat Alexander any better when he was in charge?”
“No, but—”
“Do you want me to stay away?” I asked testily.
Dom bit down whatever his following response was. “Yes,” he answered through gritted teeth.
“Then I’ll call you whatever I want. Not like you can do anything about it. As you said yourself, I’m basically a super soldier. One that currently feels like listening.”
Graves let out a chuckle as Dom massaged his temples.
“Just . . . get out of here. Both of you. I’ve got other shit to deal with right now.” He turned on his heel and walked away, not looking back once or he would have seen the grin on my face.
“I’m half convinced you voted for him just to fuck with him,” Graves said as we stepped out of his room.
“Nah, that’s just a bonus.”
We were still chuckling as we walked through the frat house and back to the car.
“Man . . .Tam and Dom in charge. That’s going to be entertaining,” I murmured as we took off.
“No kidding. It’ll be interesting to see who the others choose.”
“I’d put money on that lavender-haired chick. She seemed to have a lot of sway, what with calling for the vote in the first place.”
Graves nodded beside me. “Yeah, I think Nocturna is a given. The others? Anyone’s guess.”
“Well, we’ll find out soon enough.”
We fell silent after that, each of us lost to our thoughts as we pondered what fresh hell these new changes would bring because there was no way things would be smooth sailing. Changes of this magnitude always had ripples. I was willing to bet this time the ripples would be a damn tidal wave.
I swung off Mansion Lane and into the drive, eyeing my house warily.
“Why are you looking at it like it’s going to grow legs and run at us?” Graves asked with a smirk.
“Because with the way my life has been lately, that’s exactly what will happen.”
Graves squeezed my knee. “I think you’re probably safe. At least until we walk through the door.”
“Expecting a crossbow?” I asked, shooting him a grin as we walked up to the door.
“I think I might be disappointed if she doesn’t shoot at us. Means she doesn’t see us as a threat,” Graves murmured as I pushed the door open.
“To be fair, I don’t think Esme sees anyone as a threat.”
Other than his footsteps and soft chuckle, the house was silent. My stomach twisted.
“Uh oh,” I whispered, setting my keys on the table and moving deeper into the house. “That can’t be a good sign. Esme? Thana?”
When I finally found them, my mouth fell open in shock. I couldn’t manage to find the words to announce my presence as I gaped at them, Graves in a similar state at my back.
Thana and Esme were on the floor, bodies contorted as they both tried to reach for a green circle with their feet.
Here I was, more than half expecting them to be in the middle of a mutual assassination, and they were busy playing a friendly game of Twister. Okay, maybe not friendly. There was a decidedly competitive gleam in both their eyes, but out of all possible scenarios that had flitted through my mind, this one hadn’t been one of them.
“Uh, hey guys,” I finally managed.
“Hi dear,” Aunt Esme panted, not bothering to look up as she nudged the spinner with her finger. “Right hand blue,” she called out.
I watched in rapt fascination as my aunt and my doppelgänger barely managed to maneuver into place.
“Having fun?” Graves asked.
Thana glanced at us over her shoulder, her ass high in the air.
“You better keep your eyes on her face,” I gritted out in a low voice. “Don’t care if her body looks like mine.”
Graves brushed his hand against my lower back, and I felt his lips graze my neck. “Green isn’t your color, Salem.”
I grunted.
“This is our tie breaker,” Thana announced, totally unaware of the conversation taking place between us. Or at least acting like it. “Esme kicked my ass at darts, and then I trounced her at rock climbing, so we’re seeing who the winner is.”
I frowned. “Darts and rock climbing, huh?”
“Nothing wrong with a little test of skills,” Esme said, her face red but determined.
“How exactly are those a test of skills?” I asked.
“I thought it was fairly obvious. One for accuracy, the other strength,” Thana informed me, her focus back on their game. “Both heavily mixed with strategy. Twister also includes endurance, flexibility, and mental stamina.”
“If you say so,” I said, shaking my head and adding to Graves, “I can’t with these two.”
“It’s better than the alternative,” Graves murmured back.
“That being . . .” I trailed off. The look in his eyes told me exactly what he meant.
The alternative of Esme being dead. Again.
I swallowed hard.
“I’m going to get some food. You guys come find me when you’re done—”
“Left foot red,” Esme grunted.
In the next second, Thana’s eyes glinted deviously as her foot swept out and knocked Esme off balance. My aunt hit the ground with a thump, and my gray-haired twin contorted her body into place. She held the pose for a few seconds as Esme lashed out and tried to do the same. Thana was far faster. In a flash, her body whipped around in a show of both flexibility and strength that I certainly did not have.
It occurred to me that Thana was probably entertaining Esme. Then again, knowing my aunt, she was probably doing the same.
Her gray eyes met my own. “I’ll join you,” she said, suddenly standing up like none of this had happened.
Esme let out a curse. “This isn’t over,” my aunt called.
“I’d expect nothing less of a reaper,” Thana replied. I paused, looking between my aunt and my doppelgänger.
“Esme isn’t a reaper.”
“Yes, she is,” Thana said, strolling past me and toward the kitchen. “She’s too fast or strong to be human, and she comes from a reaper line. Although”—she glanced back at my aunt as if assessing—“you look older. Reaper lifespans are longer. How long ago did you die?”
Esme, not missing a beat, answered, “Week or so.”
Thana nodded. “That makes sense. The aging has slowed, but it’s not reductive.”
“Wait,” Graves said. “So, women can be reapers?”
“Of course. It’s only the Brotherhood’s own misogyny that keeps your faction smaller, and therefore, weaker.” Thana strode by, tossing the words over her shoulder almost flippantly.
“You’ve only been in town for all of what? A week? How do you know this?” Graves asked.
Thana’s eyes flashed. “I see you’ve caught this one up to speed.”
“Answer the question,” Graves replied, his voice hard.
Thana let out an exaggerated sigh. “I’m over four hundred years old. Do you seriously think I only just discovered the reapers? Come now. I thought you were smart. Salem’s past selves usually picked more intelligent partners.”
Graves’ fist clenched, and I stepped between them.
“You seem
to know an awful lot about her past selves,” Graves said.
Thana narrowed her eyes. “I always search for her. Sometimes I was lucky, and I got there soon enough. Other times . . .” Something flashed in her gaze that almost looked like regret. “I was too late.”
“And yet she died every time, all the same. Makes me wonder how well you can truly protect her from anything,” Graves said almost nonchalantly. His words were anything but.
Thana’s expression darkened. She stepped forward, the front of her body only an inch from mine, but it wasn’t me she was looking at.
“You might be faster and stronger than a human, but I created you, mortal. You are nothing but a weak, watered-down version of us.”
Her chilled words cut me to the core.
I opened my mouth to correct her, but Graves’ hand settled on my shoulder.
“If I am so weak by comparison, perhaps you should show me just how superior you are?” he said softly.
My eyes narrowed on my twin. While I knew what he was doing, I didn’t like them arguing like this. Call it jealousy. Call it territorial. I didn’t really care, but Graves was mine to argue with until we both pissed each other off enough we needed to make out. I didn’t like seeing that same tension building between them.
“I hate to break up this little threesome you kids got going—”
“Esme!” I snapped.
My aunt lifted both her hands. “No judgement, Salem. I’ve participated in my own share of sexual experiments.”
I was going to be sick. The urge to act like a child and stuff my fingers in my ears while saying “la, la, la” was great. I chose to be an adult and settle for crossing my arms over my chest, putting a little more of a buffer between Graves and Thana.
“Do you have a point you were working toward?” I asked.
“Yes, actually.” She pointed across the room. “Who are they?”
I glanced over and did a double take. “Gretel? Rumpy? What are you guys doing here—” My words dried up on my tongue. They weren’t translucent like they usually were.
They were . . . real.
“Hello, Salem,” Gretel said, all business. She looked past me. Her eyes hardening. “Thana.”
My sister’s lip curled back in a snarl.
It hit me at once, the realization of who and what I was staring at, but that didn’t make sense.
The ghosts had been here since the beginning. Even if they were spying, Thana said the monster hadn’t found me . . .
Unless that wasn’t true. She just hadn’t found it.
6
When the Dead Come Calling
“What the fuck, Not-Morticia?” I said, slipping into my old nickname for the tween vampiress. “You can”—I gestured at her body—“turn yourself into a real girl and you’re only just now making use of it?”
I wasn’t ready to accept that Gretel was here for nefarious purposes, even though she was shooting definite eye daggers at Thana right now. The ghost girl had been with me since the beginning, and while she was an annoying shit most days, she hadn’t let me down yet. I could give her the benefit of the doubt a little while longer.
Gretel gave me a long, bored look. “I’m here to deliver a warning.”
“A warning? For who?” I asked.
Her ancient eyes swept across all of us, but landed on me. “You have one week to eliminate the abomination, or we will come back and do it for you. Trust me when I tell you, you do not want that to happen. If we have to take matters into our own hands, there will be no survivors.”
Gretel started to blur at the edges, and not knowing what else to do, I lunged toward her.
Thana was faster. She was across the room standing in front of the very corporeal ghost, with her hand around her throat before I managed to lift my leg.
“Who sent you?” she snarled.
“You know,” Gretel replied, her voice as even and cold as always.
If Thana had a reaction to that reply, I couldn’t see it with her back facing me.
“What abomination?” I shouted, desperate for more information, but certain that I wasn’t going to get it.
“Now’s not the time to play stupid, Salem. You have a week.”
Thana’s free hand was plunging into Gretel’s chest, but the almost teenager grinned, a savage look that had chills racing down my back, and she vanished. There wasn’t even a puff of smoke this time. She was just . . . gone.
“What the fuck just happened?” Graves demanded.
But there wasn’t time to answer him.
The walls began to shake, books and dishes flying off shelves, furniture toppling over. I may not be a native Californian, but I recognized an earthquake when I felt one. Although, the ground wasn’t so much shaking as the house itself.
“Get to a doorway!” I shouted, not that I was sure it would be much of a help when things seemed to be flying across the room.
Esme was the first to act, grabbing Thana by the wrist and tugging her along. Graves and I were moving in the opposite direction. Before we even managed to reach the other doorway, the sound of hundreds of ghostly voices began to wail.
I’m not talking about a bunch of sad sack ghosts crying about their plights. I’m talking front row at a metal concert, sirens screaming, literal blood was coming out of our ears, wailing. My brain rattled around in my head, the noise so painful that tears were leaking from my eyes, and I dropped to my knees.
I couldn’t think, let alone stand.
My eyes were squeezed shut, so I couldn’t tell if the others were faring any better. I couldn’t hear any screams, but that didn’t mean anything, because I couldn’t hear anything over that ghostly shriek.
Then, as quickly as it began, the noise faded.
The resulting silence was disorienting. Ringing filled my ears and I couldn’t hear anything at all. It was like stepping into an old movie.
People were moving. Talking. I could see their actions, but the words didn’t filter through.
My entire head felt like it was going to explode, the residual pain still so intense it rendered me speechless.
Despite that, though, it wasn’t the pain that preoccupied my thoughts.
Across the room from me, Thana lifted her head. Our gray eyes met. Blood dripped from her ears as well, but there was a dangerous sort of detachment in her expression, like the pain didn’t even register. Rage burned in her eyes.
I moved my mouth, trying to form words, but the act proved too difficult.
The ringing had abated, but my pain tolerance was only so high.
Hands gripped my waist as darkness started to close in and, despite my desire to do otherwise, I drifted.
Something warm brushed against my cheek. I leaned into it. A groan escaped me as that warmth trailed down my neck, over my shoulder, and down my back. I hummed in approval.
A masculine chuckle pulled at my attention.
I rolled, and that warmth clamped around my hip. Reaching out, I ran my hand down his side. My fingers seemed to have a mind of their own as they slid into his waistband.
“Best not to do that when your aunt is only a few rooms down.”
My eyes snapped open. If not for the complete darkness of my dreams, I wouldn’t have been able to make out the dark shapes of my bed and dresser and door.
We were in my room.
The tightness in my chest eased. I released a breath. I turned my head and groaned; my neck popped.
“Motherfucker,” I muttered. “Why am I so stiff . . .” It came back to me then. The day before. Going to the graveyard. Thana. The Council. The ghosts.
I winced at the phantom memory of my eardrums bursting.
“The ghosts bombarded you and Thana. You took it the worst because her body healed as the damage was being done. It seems you’re not quite far enough in your level-ups for that to happen.”
I rolled onto my back, feeling every hard ridge of him pressed up against me.
When I’d passed out from the pain, waking
up in bed with Graves was not where I thought that would go.
“Where is she?” I croaked.
Warm fingers skimmed my side lazily.
“Sleeping in Shep’s room. She wanted to stay with you, but I wasn’t leaving, and apparently Esme has decided she’d rather leave you in my hands than your long-lost sister’s.” A smirk tugged at his lips.
“I need to talk to her. I’ve never seen ghosts just become real like that. And their warning—”
“Thana has a lot of explaining to do. She said she wasn’t saying shit until you woke up, though.”
“Did she actually say it like that?”
Graves laughed. “Yes. She seems to flip in and out of speaking like she’s as old as she claims.”
“It’s weird,” I said, my thoughts drifting.
“Very weird.” He agreed. “How are you feeling?”
“Wait,” I said, pushing myself up so I could look at him. “How are you feeling?”
Graves scratched the back of his head, the move causing his shirt to lift. If I wasn’t so focused on hearing his answer, I definitely would have been distracted by the flash of that mouthwatering vee. “I feel about as good as you do, probably, thanks to Dom and the fucking blood rite. The ghosts screaming was hard on me, but not as bad as you. Your eardrums both burst under pressure.”
“But if my eardrums burst, then how are you—”
“Fine?” He chuckled. “I wasn’t. I just have a higher pain tolerance than you, and I was more motivated in putting a buffer between you and that bloodthirsty sister of yours. I don’t want her knowing about the blood rite just yet, which means one of us had to stay awake. We’ve been healing over the last few hours. Thankfully, reaper hearing isn’t as sensitive, and Esme is pretty much fine apart from a bad headache.”
“So Esme’s fine now?” I asked.
“Same as ever. If anything, she seemed excited about the idea of facing off with a pack of ghosts.”
“Of course she did,” I said with a sigh. Everything in me wanted to lay back down and use Graves as a human body pillow, but with the memory of the day before came the memory of Gretel’s threat. She may call it a warning, but that didn’t change the truth.
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