Garcia and Gale hauled up a struggling LeClerc, and Jade pressed herself against me.
Garcia slapped cuffs on LeClerc as Dad detailed the events as they happened, pausing to let me fill in the blanks. He was almost finished when there was a voice from outside the door.
“Excuse me?”
Unbelievable. The Organic from the hospital was here. Jezebel was doing a polite, backward lean away from Clyde, who hadn't budged from his sentry post at the front door. Her hand was pressed over her nose.
“Master?” Clyde asked.
“Nah, she's okay Clyde.”
A tension that had been running through Clyde eased.
He was on it. My zombie bodyguard. Awesome. The Js were gonna really appreciate this. Speaking of which there they were. John's red hair flopped as he walked, a half a head taller than everyone else.
Well, wasn't this turning out like usual? A catastrophe, followed by everyone on earth showing up.
“Hey Clyde, how's it goinʼ?” Jonesy asked, squeezing past Jezebel the Organic, with John on his heels.
I smiled, I couldn't help it.
“I have rights!” Jade's dad bellowed into Gale's ear.
“Not right now. When you decided to violate the terms of your parole, your rights were negated,” Garcia told him.
Jade trembled against me.
I sucked her in tighter.
John came up to me. “What now?” he asked, surveying the general mess.
“What's this crap all over the floor?” Jonesy asked delicately, and Mom slapped her forehead.
Gale smiled while she struggled to subdue LeClerc, who was so into resisting arrest.
Again. He was a slow learner, the doofus.
Smith had just shut his pulse-pad down and was turning to look at LeClerc when Jezebel asked, “Is this a bad time for Caleb's follow-up?” her eyes flitting from LeClerc, to mine, then to my parents, the cops and finally settling on Clyde.
He was straightening the shredded lapels of his suit jacket.
Yeah, kinda a bad time.
Mom shrugged. “No, he needs to be seen after yesterday's ordeal,” she paused. Then as an afterthought said, “Excuse the odor.”
Clyde sniffed at that, and she shot him the, I'm sorry but ewww-gross look.
This was all so weird. Jezebel stepped through the lingering cops, corpse and creep and came to stand directly in front of me. Giving me a severe look she said, “You were supposed to rest today.” Her hand hovered over my core, and with a nod of satisfaction she stepped back. “You're subjecting yourself to way too much excitement here, Caleb.”
The Js snickered behind me.
Too Much Excitement, yeah, that was so Not My Life.
Mom's hostess ability came online and she said, “Jezebel, thank you for coming, you can come into the living room and look Caleb over in there.” She looked at Jade and the Js. “You guys can come too.”
“No way,” Jonesy said, “I'm staying out here with our man, Clyde.”
John nodded. “Stuff could go down, what if Caleb needed us to manage things while he's playing patient?”
Mom and Jade rolled their eyes. “Fine,” Mom said with a tone.
Jonesy shrugged, he knew future food was more or less secure, no worries.
Jade was more than happy to go with me, leaving her dad in the foyer.
But, as I turned around he had reached out with his cuffed hands and latched on to the molding that ran the perimeter of the door.
Smith had already made a wide berth around Clyde and Garcia was trying to jerk LeClerc off the wood.
“Allow me,” Clyde said, and before anyone could do anything, he latched onto LeClerc and heaved him right out onto the front lawn.
We all just stared at the spot LeClerc had been. Then how he'd evacuated the atrium and now lay in a heap on the lawn.
“Damn man! You never disappoint, Hart!” Jonesy said, fist pumping.
That was me, Mr. No Disappointment.
“This is so out of hand I don't even know where to begin,” Garcia said, scrubbing his face.
“Raul, let me stay behind and deal with,” and she looked at Clyde, who strode over to her. How she maintained her position was beyond me but she stayed rooted to the spot. He came to stand in front of her. All that decomposed strength waiting, the vibrating energy of the dead coming off him in waves.
“How may I be of service, necromancer?”
Gale gulped. “Caleb! A little help!”
I walked out there, leaving the gang inside, the Js standing in the door opening, Dad standing behind them, John was taller than he was now.
Clyde leaned into her, smelling her neck.
Okay, this was getting frickin' weird.
Gale mewled but did the lean, staying where she was.
Garcia's hand hovered over his pistol. “Caleb!”
“Get off me, I got this.” I looked at him, and he looked back, we were really starting to have a misunderstanding. “Stop being a panicker,” I said. “Clyde.”
His head bent over Gale, but his eyes flicked to me. “Why don't you step away from Gale and we'll go from there.”
He straightened, looking at Gale like a drowning man, his skin sloughing, but his eyes looked disconcertingly human—very human.
She straightened up. “Thanks.” Shaky.
“Welcome.”
Garcia looked from one to the other of us. “Okay, I want it,” he pointed at Clyde, “back wherever he came from.”
Smith said, “Come on, Raul, let's get back to the station, get bozo the clown booked...”
“I heard that!” LeClerc hollered from the lawn.
Smith and Garcia sighed, walking out together. “We'll keep in touch.” Garcia pointed to me, and I figured he meant the case.
“Tiff would love the clown reference,” John commented.
“Yeah she would,” I agreed.
“It qualifies his shit,” Jonesy said.
“There are ladies present, young man,” Clyde said with menace.
Jonesy looked at Clyde. “Right. I didn't think about that.”
“Possibly a pastime you should embrace,” Clyde responded.
“What?”
“Thinking,” he said, the suffix lost to the garble.
Jonesy looked offended but didn't say anything more.
Thank God.
Jezebel poked her head out from between all the males at the door.
“Okay, let's get hot, daylight's burning.”
I trudged back in and turned once to give Clyde the signal that could he, by God, stay out here so I didn't have Mom pissed at me for the grave smell in the house.
Clyde nodded, his eyes on Gale, and hers on him.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jezebel gave me a clean bill of health and I was relieved because we had a big weekend/sleepover planned for Grampsʼ. I'd never missed a Labor Day weekend at his house since I was born.
As a Level Five Organic, she knew what she was doing. Although, I had the distinction of being her first minor to heal. Big surprise, that.
Right now, Clyde was a problem that we needed to deal with. He couldn't hang around in the garbage separator. It was somehow wrong, and Mom was having a turtle about it. Parents.
Gale, the Js, the Wellers (minus that dumb honeypot, Christi), and Alex had stopped by the house. It was Saturday morning and we were gonna deal with Clyde first then get hot at Grampsʼ.
“Let's swing by the cemetery and get Clyde back to rest,” Gale said. Looking at all of us, her gaze finally came to Clyde. She struggled with some emotion that I couldn't understand but something was down, that was for sure. She turned to me. “Caleb, you and Tiff can put him to rest, right?”
We nodded.
“Okay, let's get to the cemetery.”
I turned to Clyde. “Clyde, can you meet us at the cemetery?”
“The place I dwell when I sleep in the earth?”
I nodded.
He stared at me. “Yes, I will
rendezvous with you there,” he looked at a timepiece, the only whole thing of his outfit, “twenty minutes from now.”
“Hey, does that clock thing work?” Jonesy asked, eying the pocket watch.
Clyde's perfectly human eyes met Jonesy's. “Yes.”
“Damn, Caleb, you gotta get organized! The eyes and the watch?”
“Clyde needs a makeover,” John said.
“Yeah,” Tiff said, snapping a bubble.
“Raise in haste...”
“Don't say it,” I warned Jonesy.
He grinned, a slash of white in the shadows.
Gale rolled her eyes. “Bry, can you take your sister and Jade, we'll meet up there.”
“Ah, I want Jade with us. The Js can go with the Weller's.”
She shrugged as though saying, whatever.
Mom poked her head out the front door. “Are you going to take care of Clyde, then meet us at Pop's?”
I nodded.
“No dawdling, get straight there.”
Dawdling, yeah-right. The Js were facing me and giving me the big Puss Alert.
Dumb-asses.
“Okay Mom. Don't worry about it, I can handle a simple corpse rest with Tiff and the police officer in attendance.”
“Anyway,” she said, undeterred, “in light of your hospitalization, I want to be humored. So do it.” This was getting close to the I Will Eviscerate You lecture so I agreed in order to circumvent that possibility.
I grabbed Jade's hand and got in the creepy cruiser again, noticing it was as disgusting as all the rest I'd ever been in.
We watched the scenery whiz by. “Where's Sophie?”
“She's going to meet us there,” Jade said.
I nodded. As our hands intertwined I looked to see if Gale's eyes were on the road. They were. I leaned over and put my mouth by her ear, kissing the outside edge, my lips brushing up against the cold metal of her hoop, the heat from my mouth warming it.
Her cheek pushed against my lips as she smiled. “That tickles.” She giggled softly.
I liked making her giggle.
“Later we can swim at Grampsʼ, it'll be nice and private.” I was envisioning her in that tiny bikini she had.
Her eyes met mine. “Caleb, we can't always make out.”
Why not? “We can sneak some time in,” I said, unfazed.
She grinned. “Okay,” she said, her cheeks coloring a soft pink.
We passed under the gate for the cemetery, the swirling scrolls marking our entrance.
Gale rolled to a stop as close to Clyde's plot as we could get. I looked at my watch, noticed we had ten more minutes until my boy showed up.
Gale turned around in the seat. “What's going on with Clyde?”
I shrugged, who knew?
She sighed. “I mean, why is he constantly popping up?”
I barked out a laugh, thinking about the jack-in-the-box thing.
“Ah, not funny, Caleb.”
I shook my head. “No, it's just—the way you said it made me think of something else.” Snark.
Jade raised her eyebrows and I gave her the, later look.
“The theory on corpse-raising is once raised, they're easier to raise again,” Gale said.
That'd been my experience; I'd bypassed theory totally.
“I didn't try to raise Clyde. And him running around was because I didn't get a chance to put him back because of the hospital thing,” I said.
“Why do you think he responded?” she asked.
We got out of the car and I slammed the door. Looking around, I took my time answering. The great fir trees swayed in the wind, their branches almost caressing the ground. I leaned on the top of the car's hood. “I think because he was my first, ya know—corpse to raise that we're just connected. I'm not gonna lie, I don't really know. Clyde just feels tight, ya know?”
“Like a friend?” Jade asked.
I nodded. “Kinda... but, more like a body guard. A zombie body guard.”
“He feels different than the others,” Gale said, with a shiver.
Huh.
Clyde broke through the tree line after she said that, his feet a slimy mess, the muck inside his shoes oozing out of them. Must've run.
He turned his gaze to me as the Weller car brought up the rear, the Js piling out.
Then his eyes went to Gale's.
Jonesy rubbed his hands together. “ʼKay, let's get cookinʼ, I'm dying to go to Mac's.”
Clyde scowled at him, which made another ball oʼ flesh slide off and land on the grass. Facial expression really took a toll.
“Okay, chill—kinda touchy for a corpse,” Jonesy said, getting nervous.
Bry said, “Jonesy, could you just not.”
Jonesy crossed his arms, huffing.
I walked over to Clyde and we looked at each other.
“Thank you,” I said.
He inclined his head, “If I may be presumptuous enough to add counsel before I go.”
Okay.
“Those young men, who caused you such harm....”
“The doofus brigade,” Jonesy clarified.
“Quiet, Jonester,” John said and Jonesy stalked off, parking his ass on a tombstone, chin resting in his palm.
He swung his face away from Jonesy and back to me. “They are not a light threat. I have known people before that are without a conscience. There are people like this now, in your time. There will be more to follow. I advise you use whomever you have at your disposal to dispatch this threat.”
“Kill ʼem all, right?” Tiff asked.
Clyde inclined his head again and Officer Gale stuck her fingers in her ears and chanted, “Not listening, not listening!”
“As plans go, I can't fault it,” Alex said.
Bry said, “I like it.”
Wellers.
“You guys, listen, there's always going to be a Carson. Look at what's happened. He got into high school and sucked up a couple more clones,” Jade said.
“Losers proliferate,” John said.
Alex laughed, jerking his thumb toward John. “Yeah, what he said.”
Clyde leaned in real close and I stifled a gag, poor guy. “We are connected now, you understand this?”
I nodded; I was so getting that.
“It is as if I rest below the surface of a restless pool of water. One ripple and I awaken. There is no denying that I will respond to you when you are in distress, no matter what the distance. It is compulsion now.”
Great.
Gale approached. “So, you're not in control of this?”
Clyde looked at her with disbelief, planting a rotting hand against his chest. “My dear, I never was, I never was. He,” and he pointed at me, “is in charge of all that is dead. Caleb has brought me closer to being alive again.” He closed his hand into a fist, the skin stretching close to splitting, the meat of it lightly touching his chest.
With that Clyde walked to his grave, lying down on top of the undisturbed earth. I released the stranglehold of my power. The energy leeched out from my splayed fingers, hitting Clyde like a two by four. He closed his eyes, a sigh escaping his mouth, the grass rolling over him like green water.
We all stood there quietly for a minute then Tiff said, “Huh, you didn't even need me, I feel hurt.” She clutched at her chest over her heart.
I looked at her. “Be glad that I didn't!”
“Yeah, no shit,” Jonesy said.
Gale just shook her head, “I'm going to forget Clyde was encouraging murder. Yeah, I think I've got amnesia on that.”
Wish we all did.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I think I could smell Grampsʼ house from the cruiser as it swung onto Driftwood Key Road. He would already have his BBQ-er lit up, ready for the dogs and burgers.
I couldn't wait. Jade had a smile on her face. This summer had really mattered for her. Spending time with my mom, gardening (Gee, pick me), and weekends at Grampsʼ had been good for her to spend time with my normal family.
&
nbsp; Well, mainly normal. Cuz Gramps was kinda his own thing. I was thinking he and Clyde would see eye-to-eye on a butt ton. Yeah.
Gale dropped us off at Grampsʼ and lingered. I told her to hold on and ran over to Gramps.
He was flipping burgers and dogs already. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was noon; my belly rumbled. I guess the smell was the only reminder needed to Awaken the Beast.
Gramps said, “Hello there, Caleb. Who's your friend?” he asked, pointing the tongs at Gale.
“Yeah, about her,” I began and he raised his eyebrows at me, “she sorta helped out today and I think it'd be great to—”
“—The more the merrier is what I always say,” he said, flipping a burger and keeping his eyes on the BBQ.
Sweet. Gramps could never say no to the chicks.
I jogged back to the cruiser, and Gale said, “Okay, you guys have a good time...”
“Listen, Bobbi, Gramps wants you to hang out with the Fam.” That wasn't entirely accurate, but it was the best way to put it.
She looked skeptical. “He doesn't know me...”
I shrugged. “He likes a crowd.” The right crowd.
Bry's car limped up the driveway and he parked it in front of the garage door. Alex, the Js and the Wellers got out and shut the doors at the same time.
The passenger door fell off with a big clatter on the concrete driveway, shuddering and bouncing in a slow spin.
We stared until it fell still.
Gramps walked over and said, “Caleb, go watch that BBQ-er.”
Hell, Dad had a natural gas one. I didn't know anything about briquettes—or whatever outlawed fuel source Gramps used.
I trudged over there.
Bry and Gramps looked at the door laying on the driveway. Bry had a bemused expression but Gramps was resolved. “I can weld this sucker on after lunch,” he said, palming his chin.
Bry's eyebrows lifted. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, you'll never use it again but it'll stay on there like super glue.”
“Super what?”
“Never you mind,” Gramps said, checking out the perimeter of the hole left by the door. “Yeah, I'll get my grinder out and rough this surface up,” he smoothed his hand along the edge, “and it'll be good as new.”
“Ah, what about,” Bry pointed to that pesky little point-of-entry challenge.
The Death Series, Books 1-3 (Dark Dystopian Paranormal Romance): Death Whispers, Death Speaks, and Death Inception Page 47