Requiem for the Living (The Reanimation Files Book 2)

by A. J. Locke

  He looked down at himself and shrugged, but said nothing.

  “Everything OK with you?” I pressed. “I mean beside the dead girl out back.”

  “Yeah, why?” He got up and retrieved his messenger bag then slung it over his shoulder.

  Was it me or did it seem like he was avoiding eye contact?

  “We should get to the office, Selene; we’re late enough as it is.”

  I looked at him a moment longer then went to brush my teeth. While I was rinsing, some water went down the wrong side I had a coughing fit. When I lowered my hand from my mouth I was alarmed to see blood on my palm. It wasn’t because of aggressive brushing. I glanced at my reflection but quickly looked away because I didn’t like the fear I saw in my eyes. I didn’t do fear, I was strong, damn it. But little by little, day by day, the Rot was letting me know who was really in charge of my fate. I washed my hands, then gripped the sink, bent my head, and took a few deep breaths. Ilyse told me almost daily that she wouldn’t let the Rot take me. Micah too, but that just sounded like empty words of comfort.

  “Selene? Everything OK?” That was Micah on the other side of the door. I straightened up and tried to shake off the doom and gloom.

  “Fine.” I yanked open the door. “Let’s go do that thing we do with ghosts.” I paused. “I in no way meant for that to sound sexual.”

  He gave me a half smile and followed me back to the living room. Luna ran after us, thinking I was heading to the door to take her for a walk, but I scooped her up and deposited her into Ethan’s hands.

  “You,” I said to Ethan. “Look up home security companies and arrange for someone to come in as soon as possible and set up the best security system in the backyard they can manage. If a butterfly floats in I want the alarm to go off. There is no way I want this to happen again. Got it?”

  Ethan nodded.

  “And you,” I said to Luna. “Would you hate me if I traded you in for a dog who’d do a better job of letting me know someone was burying people in my backyard?” She nipped my finger, then Micah and I headed to his car and off to work.

  * * *

  Today seemed like it was going to be unusual all around. Micah and I stopped abruptly when we got off the elevator on the tenth floor and stared through the glass doors at the scene playing out in the suite. The runes that were painted all over the office were glowing, and a necromancer circle was fully activated. About ten necromancers I did not recognize were holding hands and controlling the circle, while the people who actually worked here hung back and watched.

  The first shocking thing I saw was Tielle, the dead witch from the government who was hell bent on getting my reanimation power stripped. I hadn’t seen or heard from her since the showdown with Larry. That she was here could in no way mean anything good for me. The second shocking thing was who the ghost inside the necromancer circle was. Andrew.

  Micah and I headed into the suite, and when Tielle saw me, her expression wasn’t one of smug triumph like I thought it’d be the next time I saw her. She looked extremely unhappy. I could only figure it was because the ghost caught in the necromancer circle wasn’t going anywhere.

  There was light and magic galore inside the circle, and Andrew was standing in the middle of it in one of his tailored suits with his hands clasped in front of him. As soon as I entered the suite he had eyes only for me. There was an energy rune around his neck, something that was a constant accessory so he could effectively do his job as the head of Affairs of the Dead. After his ghost had risen and paid me a visit, he came back to claim Affairs, and since we were in such a mess after the events with Larry and Michael, there wasn’t anyone to dissent to Andrew being our ghost boss.

  At least there wasn’t much dissent from the people who worked here. We needed a leader, and I guess the ghost of our leader was better than someone else or no one at all. The government however, had a lot to say about Andrew’s ghost hanging around, and had not believed me when I said that Andrew’s ghost was being anchored here through my power. I guess that was the reason Tielle and her government necromancers were here trying to get rid of him.

  “Are we done now?” Andrew called out, looking at Tielle, whose eyes narrowed.

  He looked at his watch. “It’s been five minutes already, do you really want to keep risking these good people’s lives?”

  The necromancers were looking worse for the wear. If they kept this up, they might start dropping.

  “End it,” Tielle said through clenched teeth. The necromancers recalled their power and deactivated the circle, and a few minutes later the runes were once again invisible and there was no more light and magic racing around the suite. Andrew smiled.

  “Satisfied?” He walked forward and stopped in front of me. “Selene. Late again as usual.”

  He did not acknowledge Micah. Needless to say there was no love lost between Micah and Andrew. He had tried to get rid of Micah but I’d told him if Micah went then I did. Andrew liked to flatter himself by thinking I stuck around to stay close to him, but really it was because no other agency would hire me, and I needed to maintain a steady income. I smiled stiffly at Andrew.

  “Having an eventful morning I see.”

  Andrew shrugged. “The government’s puppets did not believe that I could not be circled away. But I think they do now. Am I right?” He glanced at Tielle, who was checking on her necromancers.

  She came over to us. “Selene Vanream,” she said coolly.

  “Tielle Mai Chen,” I replied, just as coolly. One of her eyebrows rose. I had done my research on her, so I knew her whole name, that her parents had emigrated from Hong Kong before she was born, that she was divorced with one son, Jian, and had worked for the government for over twenty years. Had to be informed about the person who was hunting me down, right?

  “I’d say it was nice to see you again but I’m trying to lie less these days,” I continued. “Should I be holding my wrists out for you to handcuff? Or do you want to be more dramatic and have task force officers tackle me to the ground?” I looked around. “Where are the armor clad lackeys anyway?”

  “I’m not here to take you in,” Tielle said. “We finally got permission to perform a necromancer circle on the ghost of Andrew McNabb.”

  “And now that you see you can’t get rid of him what are you going to do?”

  “Stick around to monitor things,” Tielle said.

  I balked. “Come again?”

  “I, along with several other dead witches and necromancers from the government’s Paranormal Sector have been assigned to work out of this office for the foreseeable future.” She smiled in a way that made me want to punch her in the face. “Don’t get me wrong, we will still deal with you accordingly, Ms. Vanream. It’s just a matter of cutting through all the red tape involved in what you’ve become and how best to take care of you.”

  “Take care of me,” I stated. “Like I’m a slab of meat that you aren’t sure you want to cut into steaks or make ground beef out of.”

  “Use whatever colorful metaphors you want,” she said. “But I will be keeping my eye on you. The moment you prove yourself to be a menace, that warrant will be in my hand.”

  “Great, glad you have something to look forward to.” I smiled as brightly as I could.

  “Sounds like things will be getting a lot more interesting around here,” Andrew said, sounding amused.

  Yeah, I bet he’d get a kick out of all this. Andrew was a problem I’d have to put on the backburner. Sure I now had solid proof that he couldn’t be gotten rid of, but other than coming on to me endlessly, he wasn’t doing anything to raise red flags. He’d really gotten Affairs back on track even if our image was stained in the eyes of the public. A lot of people had quit after the Larry situation and we were no longer the top ranking ghost agency. So I could push him aside for now and deal with my other problems.

  “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’d better go see how many ghosts I get to deal with today.”

  “None just y
et,” Tielle said.

  I stopped and turned back to her with a sinking feeling.

  “There will be a live press conference in twenty minutes,” Tielle said. “In the twelfth floor conference room. For the express purpose of discussing you.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. Is that really necessary? Why the hell am I only now finding out about this?”

  “So you’d have less time to try and weasel out of it,” Tielle said. “I already know that’s your forte.”

  I almost slapped her smug face. I settled for giving an exaggerated sigh. It was bad enough I was still jarred from finding that little girl’s body in my backyard, the last thing I wanted was to have cameras in my face and obnoxious reporters shouting ridiculous questions at me. It wasn’t like there was a huge support system for me. The only thing I had in my favor was that I was dying from the Rot, but it was a pretty terrible thing to have in your favor. Speaking of the Rot, it was continuing to make me feel fatigued on top of everything else, so that was yet another reason I wasn’t keen on a damn press conference. From the look on Tielle’s face though, I knew I had no way out of this.

  “Well, I’m not going to spend the next twenty minutes staring at your face,” I said. “I’m going to see Ilyse.” I gave Micah’s hand a squeeze then headed to Ilyse’s office on the eighth floor. My head felt overstuffed, so I readily drank the soothing tea Ilyse had waiting for me, leaning back and closing my eyes as I felt the tea calm me. I opened my eyes and looked at Ilyse as she prepared the runes to draw ghost energy from me, noting that like Micah, she also seemed a bit run down. She had taken to dying her graying black hair, but I could tell it had been a while since she’d done so. It was swept up in a messy bun, which was the hairstyle of the harried and couldn’t-care-less crowd.

  “Have you been getting enough sleep, Ilyse?” I spotted a stack of thick, old books on the floor next to her desk and knew they were from paranormal libraries all over the country. She told me she’d had to call in a few favors to get some of them. She was hoping one of the books would hold the answer to saving my life.

  “I shouldn’t be the one getting fussed over,” Ilyse said. She reached out and touched my cheek. Her green eyes were full of worry. “Selene…”

  “I’m still breathing. So let’s continue to say we’re winning.” I had to constantly try to keep her and Micah from crushing me with their concern. I wanted them to act like everything was OK, even if it was as far from OK as we could get. Ilyse nodded, and spent the next few minutes drawing ghost energy from me. Then she put the runes away.

  “Got a whiff of what’s happening on tenth?” I asked, continuing to sip my tea.

  “Tielle and her crew have descended on us,” Ilyse said. “I can’t say I’m happy with having her so close. She’s the type who would get frustrated that things aren’t going the way she wants and take matters into her own hands.”

  “Well, let’s hope the Rot kills me before that!”

  Ilyse’s mouth dropped open in shock.

  “I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “That joke was in bad taste, even for me.” I gave her a quick, tight hug. “You know I don’t want to die. I’m just having a bad day.”

  “Are you feeling more ill?” Ilyse asked. I wanted to lie, but what good would that do?

  “I coughed up blood. Not a lot, but even a little isn’t good, right?”

  Ilyse said nothing, but the expression on her face said it all.

  “I’m going to ask you something I’ve avoided asking before.” I gave her a direct look. “How long do I have?”

  “Selene…”

  “Don’t talk around it, just tell me.”

  Ilyse sighed and took my hands into hers, holding them tightly. She didn’t say anything.

  “Ilyse?”

  “You won’t make it to the end of summer,” she said.

  It’s not like I expected to hear I had years left, but my stomach still felt like it had dropped to the floor, and a cold feeling spread through my body. It was mid August. Ilyse was telling me I would not make it to the end of September. I swallowed hard and nodded. Keep it together, keep it together, I kept telling myself.

  “And you still haven’t found anything that could help?”

  “There are a few things I am looking into,” Ilyse said. She had said that before, so I was taking that as her way of saying she had nothing positive to offer but didn’t want to flat out say no.

  “The prognosis is bleak, same as always.” Time to switch topics, maybe the less I thought about how soon my life was going to end the less real it would seem.

  “I found a dead body in my backyard this morning.”

  Ilyse’s eyes widened.

  I probably should have led up to that statement, but it was what it was. “A little girl,” I continued. “She was wearing a hospital gown. Micah and I think her parents arranged for her to die around me so I could anchor her ghost and they could keep her around.”

  “Unbelievable,” Ilyse said. “What did you do with the body?”

  “Left it there. Calling it in would draw attention to me that I don’t want, especially since Tielle has made it clear that she’s waiting for me to mess up. If she found out about Isabelle it wouldn’t matter what I said to try and prove that I had nothing to do with her ending up buried in my yard.”

  “True,” Ilyse said. “But now you’re going to have to be even more careful. What are you going to do?”

  “I’m not sure. I can try to find Isabelle’s ghost, but then what am I supposed to do? I just watched them unsuccessfully try to necromancer circle Andrew away, so it’s not like I’d be able to get rid of this girl’s ghost.”

  “But you have to make sure this doesn’t lead back to you,” Ilyse said. “What if whoever is involved in this starts talking?”

  “I thought about that. If the girl’s parents did it on their own, then it’s unlikely they’d talk because they’d face serious jail time. I’m sure all they care about is keeping Isabelle around, even if she’s a ghost. If a third party is involved, which is the scenario that seems more likely to me, then I could definitely end up getting in trouble if they mess up.”

  Ilyse put her hand on mine. “Let me know if I can help you in any way.”

  “You can help me by smuggling me out of the building so I don’t have to endure this press conference. I’m sure you’ve heard about it.”

  “I did, and you know I will be there to support you, though I do think it’s in bad taste for Tielle to hold it right now. No one found out about it until we came in this morning.”

  “And no one could be more put out about it than me.” I reluctantly stood up. “As much as I’d love to run home, I’m gonna head back up since the press conference is going to start soon. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  She nodded, and I left her office and headed back to tenth, trying my best to stop calculating how many weeks I had left alive. I was so distracted by my thoughts that I didn’t hear Micah calling my name until he was practically yelling it as I made my way to my desk. When I looked up, he was standing near his desk talking to a middle aged man I had never seen before. He waved me over.

  “Hey,” he said, slipping his arm around my shoulder and kissing my temple. “Everything OK?”

  “As OK as ever.” I’d tell him what Ilyse said about how much time I had left later. Maybe. I looked at the man he’d been talking to and realized that he bore a resemblance to Micah. His hair was wavy like Micah’s, though shorter and slightly graying, and he had dark brown eyes that almost matched his complexion. He was dressed in an expensive-looking, charcoal gray suit.

  “Selene, this is my uncle, Renton Morse, he’s one of the necromancers who came with Tielle. He’s also one of the government’s top necromancer scientists.”

  Renton flashed his pearly whites as he extended his hand for a shake. I recalled knowing that Micah had a relative in the Paranormal Sector.

  “You flatter me, Micah,” Renton said. “It’s nice to meet you, S
elene. Micah has told me a lot about you.”

  “Nothing you couldn’t have found out by watching the news, I’m sure,” I said.

  “I’m disappointed with the way some of the media outlets are portraying you,” Renton said. “I understand the confusion and fear that arose as a result of your bond with that ghost, but that’s no reason to paint you as a monster.”

  I shrugged. “People are afraid I’ll go all big bad wolf and start trouble for my own amusement or something.”

  “That’s why I think the press conference will be a good thing,” Renton said. “People will get a chance to properly understand your situation and hopefully realize that you aren’t a threat. I volunteered to come with Tielle’s team because I wanted to make sure there was someone here who’d be on your side. Plus, I hadn’t seen my nephew in a while. He’s never accepted my invitations to visit me in D.C. no matter how big I tell him my pool is.”

  Micah smiled and clapped his uncle on the shoulder. “Maybe once all this quiets down Selene and I can make the trip.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Renton said. “I know this press conference may not be appealing, but I hope you will attend the one I will be holding in a couple days.”

  “You’re holding a conference too?” I asked.

  “Not to put you on display, I assure you,” Renton said. “My team and I have been working on various developments with rune magic for the past few years that we want to unveil. I will be giving a few demonstrations which I hope will be both fascinating and helpful.”

  “Wow. That type of work isn’t easy; good for you for taking on that headache.”

  Renton smiled. “Runes are hard to work with, I’ll admit. And hard to evolve past what we already know they can do. But I have long held the stance that the capabilities of runes are not limited. We simply have to push them, even force them, to get them to do more.”

  “Sounds dangerous,” I said. “But I’ll admit, I’m interested. My rune classes were the ones I liked best when I was in college and in training to become a working necromancer. I’ll come to the conference.”