Trying To Live With The Dead (The Veil Diaries Series Book 1)

by B. L. Brunnemer

“Hold it.” Zeke growled his eyes on my face. “The library?”

  “Yeah, there was a dead woman in the stacks. Two ghosts in one day and the physical side effects get worse.”

  “I think I know the answer to this but, the hike?” Ethan asked rubbing his fingers over his eyes. I bit the corner of my bottom lip before answering.

  “Yeah, Karen Malone only wanted her body found.” I told them honestly.

  “You weren’t sick because of the body, were you?” Miles asked his face blank.

  “That had two parts. She walked with us for awhile so she could show me where her body was.”

  “How long?” Isaac asked his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Since the first time I supposedly had to find a tree, till we found her.” I admitted wincing. Rory frowned.

  “How long was that boys?” Rory demanded. Oh come on, I almost died to today. Didn’t that give me a 'don’t get chewed out' pass?

  “Forty five minutes to an hour.” Asher offered. Rory’s eyes bored into mine. I swallowed hard.

  “God damn it, Lexie!” Rory shouted at me. “You can’t fucking expose yourself to the dead for that long!”

  “She stayed back mostly.” I raced to explain. “I only had a nosebleed for the last ten minutes.” Rory ran his hands through his hair, clearly pissed with me. But he was quiet, so I continued. “At the end, when we found her body she stood too close and the memories of how she died kind of poured into my head. I felt everything that she did when she died.” The guys cursed, Miles clenched his jaw. “I usually can keep that from happening, but I was distracted at the time.” I looked back at the guys and went back to what I was trying to tell them before. “Basically I get nosebleeds two ways. The first is just by being around a ghost. It also depends on how old the ghost is; the older they are the more juice they have. The more juice, the faster I have a bloody nose.” I took another drink before continuing. “But the angry ones like to do it on purpose.” I wasn’t explaining this very well. So I tried again. “All the angry ones want is to hurt someone, most of the time. They can barely manage it on a normal person. It takes everything out of them.” I swallowed trying to get rid of the knot in my throat. “Then here I come, a person sensitive to the dead, which means they don’t use as much energy to hurt me as they would a normal person.” I shrugged and summed up. “I’m a shiny new toy to play with.” There were curses all around the table. Ethan’s eyes were stormy; his face dark, Isaac was frowning. Miles’ eyes were unfocused. Asher seemed bewildered. And Zeke, Zeke was glaring at the table, his face hard, jaw clenched. The effect was scary. His blue eyes met mine; he was shaken. He blinked, and it was gone so fast I started doubting I saw it at all. His face was like stone again.

  “Let’s go back to this afternoon.” Rory broke the tense silence. “I know she kept you from getting to your last class on Friday. You did some research and had that theory about barriers.”

  “Yeah, and I was wrong. She’s getting more juice from somewhere.” I admitted freely. I fucked up, and I had no clue what to do.

  “How?” I scoffed out a laugh.

  “I have no fucking idea.” I said wearily keeping my gaze on Rory. “She shouldn’t have been able to. She bulldozed me.” I explained, my voice becoming hard. “She took control hard and fast.”

  “Is that why you dropped like that? She took control?” Miles asked.

  “Sort of, I reacted fast enough that she couldn’t take full control. She had control of my body; I had control of my mind. We were both too busy attacking each other for either of us to use my body.” I answered him before turning back to Rory. “I realized pretty damn quickly that I couldn’t knock her out of me. I managed to get the upper hand long enough to get a few words out.” My eyes moved to Zeke, met his gaze then back to Rory’s. “After that I could only hold her off. She realized that I was stalling. She slammed down on me and knocked me out. The last thing I remember is the backseat of a car.”

  “If she knocked you out, then why didn’t she take control of your body?” Miles asked, pushing his glasses back onto his nose.

  “She couldn’t, I was still in my body, and my body was out cold. So, she did the only thing she could.” I looked at Rory hesitating.

  “She tried to kill her.” Rory told them for me, his face dark. Curses sounded around the table. Isaac rested his hands on his head, his fingers pressing into his scalp. Ethan was twirling one of the rings on his fingers, Asher began rubbing his neck, Miles fingers were tapping and Zeke was running his hand through his hair. They all looked upset or pissed to some degree; Miles face was blank. Rory looked around the table at the guys. “She would have died if you guys weren’t there, if you hadn’t listened to her.” Rory swallowed hard. “Someone would have called an ambulance; she would have gone to the hospital and died. It would have looked like an aneurysm.” I watched his hands shaking. He was remembering Claire. He couldn’t take this right now, not after today.

  “Rory.” I called my voice soft. “I got this now, it's okay to take a walk.” Rory met my eyes, his brown eyes brimming with tears. He nodded, got up and walked out the back door. I waited till I knew he was away from the house. I looked around the table as they looked at me questioningly. “That’s how my Aunt Claire died.” I explained. “She was eight years old.” Soft curses came from them. I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the table determined to get it out. “So, if your unconscious and you have a dead person's soul inside trying to kill you. The only thing you can do is get them out.” I looked around at their faces trying to judge how they were taking this. I didn’t get much. “Hot water keeps your temperature from dropping, while scrubbing with salt forces the ghost to leave.”

  “Why salt?” Miles asked his eye calculating.

  “It’s a pure mineral I’m guessing. It’s the only thing my family has found that keeps the dead away.” I bit my lower lip hard before looking up at them. “Rory told me you guys were the ones who got me in the shower, started scrubbing with salt.” I looked around the table meeting each pair of eyes. “Thank you, you guys saved my life.” A tense moment followed, no one knew what to say. So naturally, I had to be a smart ass. I pretended to look confused. “Who’s the butt guy? Cause I’ve got like, road rash on my ass.” Everyone burst out laughing, it was a little desperate, slightly hysterical but exactly what we needed. Miles was the first to pull it together.

  “You don't really, right?” Miles asked actually looking concerned. I shook my head as another round of laughter went up this time at Miles. When we all settled down, I grinned at them.

  “So, that’s everything. You now know all my deep dark secrets.” I told them, half joking, but mostly feeling naked in front of them. I really didn’t like feeling this vulnerable; it made me twitchy.

  “Seems to me...” Miles began drawing everyone’s attention, pulling his cell phone out. “We need to find something that will keep a ghost from touching you. Correct?” I smirked at his choice of words.

  “Yes, I need a ghost condom.” I told him in my most serious voice. I burst out giggling at myself as the boys groaned, a couple of them chuckled. Miles' ears turned red. I liked being a smart ass.

  “Oh, Red. That was bad.” Isaac told me still laughing. I shrugged as I stopped laughing and was serious again.

  “I don’t know if there is anything like that.” I admitted, looking down at the middle of the table again. “I’ve never really had chance to do any research. Not with…” I stopped myself before I told them about my mother. I looked up to find almost all the guys were looking at their phones. Thankfully, no one had noticed.

  “You were just trying to survive Lexie.” Miles said absently, tapping away at his phone. “Just surviving isn’t good enough, we want you to thrive.” Several sounds of agreement, including a grunt or two came from around the table. I couldn’t stop staring at them. They weren’t leaving. I had a problem; it was freaky, and weird. Instead of walking away, they were trying to find an answer. They were fucking
amazing. I felt that feeling again in my chest again, that feeling of being cared about. It was really going to take time to get used to it. I picked up my phone and started looking too. A while later Rory came back inside and asked what we were all doing. Miles was explaining when Asher interrupted.

  “Okay, I’ve got one.” He didn’t bother looking up from his phone. “Rosemary, it says it’s a banishing herb.”

  “How is she going to use that?” Miles asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

  “Maybe she could wear it.” Asher offered his eyes still on his screen.

  “Anise can work too...oh wait that can be toxic.” Isaac’s voice started happy but then slid into grumpy.

  “Yeah, we’re trying to keep her alive.” Zeke grumbled.

  “I found something, but it’s for the house.” Ethan announced hesitating. I looked up at him and nodded encouraging him. He looked back down at his phone and read out loud. “Growing Betony around your house will help keep evil and malicious entities out.”

  “Guess we’re getting some Betony.” Rory declared. “That'll have to wait till spring though.” I looked up and found him looking through his own phone. It went on like that for over several hours. The boys calling out what they found and debating the best way to use it. It was near 11 when Rory called it and sent the boys home. I gave them each their own hug, thanking them again for saving my ass. Then they were gone. Rory let me go to bed for once without icing my back.

  Chapter 10

  I bolted up in my bed heart racing. Gasping as my head throbbed. That fucking chill running down my neck. Fear tightened my chest as I snapped awake.

  “Shit, fuck, shit, fuck.” I cursed, my eyes closed tight against the pain. “Claire that better be you.” I snarled to the room.

  “Yeah, sorry.” A girl's voice replied. “I felt you in trouble today.” Claire must have backed up because the pain went down to manageable. I opened my eyes and turned on the lamp on my desk. I looked at my Aunt Claire from across the room. The 8-year-old was dressed in pair of jeans with a hole in one knee and a care bears t-shirt from the 80s. Her face was sweet with her dark red braids down to her shoulders. Her green eyes smiled at me. I put my feet on the floor and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

  “Yeah, I got jumped today.” My voice was still sleepy. “By a ghost that shouldn’t have had that much juice.” I saw Claire’s bad news face. The one every 8-year-old has when they don’t want to tell you something. Her nose scrunched, her mouth twisted, and she squirmed. “What?” I asked immediately. Claire’s shoulders lifted as if she took a breath, even though she couldn’t.

  “I was out of town looking for someone to help you. Someone gifted.” She shrugged and dug her shoe into the floor. “I taught you everything I could years ago, but it’s not enough.” Claire wasn’t too far away for me to feel her emotions. She felt so guilty for not being able to help more. I couldn’t have that.

  “Claire, without you I would have died or gone insane by now.” I told her honestly. “You have saved my life a lot.” She looked up at me, her eyebrows raised, looking hopeful.

  “Really?” I snorted.

  “Really.” I got the smile I loved to see from her; it made her whole face shine.

  “Well, I finally found one, someone who can help.” She announced. Everything was silent, it didn’t quite compute in my head for a full minute.

  “Seriously?” She nodded, her braids bobbing. “Who? Where?” I couldn’t even form a complete sentence.

  “She has a shop in Bridgeport, it's a couple towns away, around the mountain.” I got up, tore into my bag and pulled out a notebook and pen. Claire gave me the name of the shop and the address. “She’s a witch, so she’s used to working with, well, the living. But she could hear me a bit.” She explained. “She might not be able to, you know, give you lessons like I did. But she’s a good place to start.” I was so happy I could have kissed her, if she had a body and all.

  “Claire, this is great news.” I began. “What was with the bad news face?” Claire started playing with one of her braids.

  “The dead here are weird, angry, they’re not right.” She told me. I raised an eyebrow.

  “There are always some angry ones.” I offered, though my stomach was knotting. She shook her head; she looked scared.

  “Not like this. Ghosts are having more juice than they should. Like, even the newly dead. There's a whole lot of energy floating around, just waiting to be picked up.” She twirled her braid in her fingers. “The whole area is...wrong. It scares me.” Her eyes met mine. “The other dead here scare me; I don’t think I can be around them, not until it’s fixed.” I nodded, suddenly very eager to get Claire out of town. How the hell was I going to fix this? Where the hell was I going to start? I couldn’t have Claire scared all the time.

  “Okay, stay out of town. Keep your head down.” Claire waved her hand dismissively.

  “I’ll just go to the cemetery, the dead never go there.” It’s strange but true, the cemetery was always empty of the dead. When I had too many encounters with ghosts in the past, I would drive to a cemetery and sleep in the back of the blazer. There was still a sleeping bag and pillow in there. “That way if you need me you can find me.”

  “Sounds good to me.” I noticed the way she was edging towards the wall, a small smile on her face.

  “Are you going to pop in on Rory?” She smiled like the little kid she was.

  “Yeah, just want to mess with him a bit. I’m thinking the butter dish this time. I’ll see you later, stay safe.”

  “You too.” I shut off the light and climbed back into bed. My head wouldn’t shut off. What the hell would give the dead that much juice? What can warp the dead? And why the hell was there energy just lying around to be picked up? And how the hell was I supposed to fix it? I wasn’t going to sleep. I got up, turned on my laptop, and spent the next five hours trying to find some explanation as to why the dead would be acting so strange. I looked for every variation on the Sight, every religion I could, every culture I found. When my alarm went off, I still had nothing.

  I took a quick shower and got dressed for the day. I dressed for my mood. My favorite old pair of boot cut blue jeans. A loose black v-neck boyfriend shirt tucked into the front of my pants and a green and gold plaid long sleeved shirt left unbuttoned. I pulled the front half of my hair back into a small clip to keep it off my face and said fuck the rest. I heard Rory shouting down stairs about his losing his keys as I was putting on my belt. It made me smile. That was Claire's favorite trick, hiding his keys in weird places. I made sure to pick up coffee on my way to school, four espresso shots this time. The barista had looked at me like I was nuts. I didn’t care; I needed caffeine. It was overcast today; big thick gray clouds hung low over the town. Please don’t rain on me again; in this shirt, it would be hard to hide it if I was cold. Some blue Honda in my spot so I had to park on a side street a block from the school. I didn’t really care; I had coffee. I was drinking that coffee when I turned the corner in the hall and found Zeke and Asher waiting for me at my locker. Zeke in his usual black. Asher wore a button down shirt again, but today it was open showing a white t-shirt underneath and his tan cargo pants and blue hoodie. Overnight it had really started to sink in that they weren’t going anywhere. A small part of me thought they were nuts, the rest of me was just grateful.

  “Hey.” I greeted yawning. I was trying to open my locker for the third time when Zeke stepped up behind me, reached around and grabbed the dial.

  “What's the combo?” He barked at me, but I felt numb enough that I didn’t care. I gave it to him.

  “Ally girl, didn’t you get any sleep last night?” Asher asked coming over to lean against Isaac's locker. As Zeke was opening my locker, he stood close enough that I felt his body heat.

  “Man, you’re like a furnace.” I don’t know why I said it but since I did, I didn’t really care. Zeke finished opening my locker for me and moved to my left, to lean against the locker
next to mine. I felt both of them examining my face.

  “About 3 hours, after burn sleep doesn’t count as rest.” I answered Asher honestly. Then I tried for cheerful. “No rest for the ones who see dead people.” Yeah, that fell flat. I looked at my bag, the coffee in my hand, then at the books. It took longer than I’d like to admit to figure out what I was going to do. I finally handed Asher my coffee and started loading my books into my bag. “I saw my Aunt Claire last night.” I told them, my voice matter-of-fact. “She said the dead in town aren’t right, something’s wrong with them. Other ghosts are also getting extra juice that's just floating around out there to be picked up.” I closed my locker. Then looked up at them, Asher looked surprised. Zeke’s face was looking at me his brow drawn down. Then I realized I hadn’t told them that Claire was a ghost. I waved my hand dismissively. “Oh yeah, Claire's a ghost, she’s been helping me since I was 8. She’s honestly the only reason I’m alive today. Don’t tell Rory.” I stopped talking and took a long drink of coffee. Zeke raised an eyebrow before looking at Asher.

  “She sounds drunk.” Asher told Zeke. “You know, like her filter is shut off.” Zeke smiled wickedly.

  “We can ask whatever we want.” They both looked very happy with the idea. I swallowed my drink and continued.

  “Anyway it scared Claire, so she’s going to hide out where there aren’t any other ghosts. Ya know, the cemetery.” I took another drink.

  “There aren’t any ghosts at the cemetery?” Asher asked. “That's weird.”

  “Why is that weird? You don’t see people in the cemetery so why would the dead want to be there?” I asked as if it was obvious. I took another drink; I was halfway through my giant coffee. My brain was starting to wake up; I blinked and looked up at them. “Coffee is cure for no filter, if you have questions ask them now.” I warned my voice turning singsong. Yeah, I was extremely tired.

  “What do you really think of my sister Jessica?” Asher asked his face excited. I blew a raspberry.