Grim Tempest

by Amanda M. Lee

  “We’re not particularly worried about Rogan,” Redmond fired back. “We’ve handled rogue reapers before.”

  “Yes, but he is especially bloodthirsty. He will kill you if he gets the chance.”

  “I heard him when you were outside Harry Turner’s aunt’s house,” I supplied. “He sounded as if he wanted to kill you, too. He must be an absolute delight to work with when you’re betraying your family.”

  The look Mom shot me was one of overt irritation. “That is not what’s happening here.”

  I waited for her to expound, but she remained silent. “Oh, well, if you say it with such feeling and emotion we must surely have to believe it,” I drawled. “I guess that means we’re done here.” I smacked my hands together in an annoying gesture that I knew would get under Mom’s skin. “We’re all finished. Everything is good and right with the world again.”

  Mom gripped my wrist, her fingernails digging in as she lowered her voice and hissed. “Stop making so much noise.”

  “Why?” I refused to back down. I was in a mood, after all, and I never back down when I’m in a mood. I don’t care if I’m right or wrong. I will have my say and make those around me wish I was right just to shut me up. That’s how I roll. “We’ve already told you that we’re not afraid of your friend Rogan. All we want from you is answers.”

  “This is an inconvenient time,” Mom said. “I don’t have answers to give.”

  “Oh, well, she doesn’t have answers to give.” I flicked my gaze to Redmond. “Don’t you feel all warm and gooey inside when she says things like that?”

  Instead of joining in my “irritate Mom” session, Redmond remained calm as he pinned her with an unreadable gaze. “I wanted to trust you. I convinced myself all the red flags we were seeing and hypothesizing about couldn’t possibly be true. I feel a bit stupid for that now.”

  Mom’s expression softened. “Redmond, not everything here is as it appears. I can’t explain it all now. I don’t have time, and this is certainly not the place.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Redmond rested his hand on my shoulder. “You’re not our priority. Ending the storms is our priority. Is that what you’re doing in the Olivet mausoleum? You’re looking for the discs we took from the basement the other day, right?”

  Mom was at her limit. “I know about those discs. I saw them. We’re looking for the other disc.”

  “The one at Harry Turner’s house,” I supplied. “That’s the one you need to turn off the storms, right?”

  Mom’s expression reflected curiosity and confusion. “How do you know about that?”

  “I’m smarter than I look.”

  “Which we’re all thankful for,” Redmond added. “Of course, Little Miss Genius didn’t listen when I warned her about Starbucks running right through her, but that’s beside the point.”

  I elbowed him – hard – in the stomach. “Now is not the time for this discussion. I made a mistake on the Starbucks. You need to back off and focus on the issue at hand. We need to focus on Mom and her evil boyfriend.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend,” Mom protested. “He’s not even a co-worker. He’s a necessary evil right now. We have to find that disc.”

  I thought about Dad. He was probably steaming as he barreled toward my townhouse. He would let himself inside with the spare key, curse my very existence under his breath as he was forced to search the pants I was too lazy to pick up from the floor, and then bring the disc to us. I was comforted by that knowledge. There was no way I would share the information with Mom, though.

  “Why did you do this?” The longer I faced off with Mom the angrier I got. “Did you think it would be funny? Was it simply a way to get your jollies? Were you hoping to get someone specific with the spell?”

  Mom’s eyebrows flew up her forehead. “I didn’t cast the spell.”

  I didn’t believe her. She was lying. Who else could’ve cast the spell?

  “If you didn’t cast it, who did?” Redmond challenged. “Why would you possibly want to come here and clean up someone else’s mess?”

  “It’s … complicated.” Mom held her hands out in front of her in a placating manner. “I swear I will explain all of it later. For now, you have to get out of here. It’s the only safe play we have.”

  “No.” I immediately started shaking my head, wiping the water from my forehead as I glared at her. “Even if we could leave, we wouldn’t. We have our own play. It’s a family play, and you’re not invited.”

  Mom narrowed her eyes. “And what play do you have?”

  “Don’t you worry about it.” I wagged a finger. If I wasn’t so worried about Griffin – where he was and what he was doing – I would’ve enjoyed the fire in Mom’s eyes a little more. She thought she could control us and was only now realizing how wrong she was. “I think it would be best if you and your friend left so we can handle this situation.”

  Redmond leaned closer and lowered his voice. “I know you like to talk big, but do you really think that’s a good idea?”

  I matched his tone. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Because we don’t know anything about the spell to end this thing, but clearly Mom does.”

  Crap. He had a point. I hated when that happened. “Fine.” I squared my shoulders. “We’ve discussed it. You can stay. We have a few conditions, though.”

  Mom rolled her eyes and snorted. “Would those conditions include the fact that you need me to turn off the curse?”

  “Is that what this is?” I shifted tactics and turned serious. “Is this a curse?”

  “It’s the discs,” Mom corrected. “The discs were long thought lost, but someone found them and that someone called a storm that he didn’t know how to control.”

  He? Hmm. “And why would someone want to cast a storm spell?”

  “I think you’ll get a chance to ask him yourself,” Rogan said, sliding out of the bushes to our left and fixing us with an intrigued look. “Well, well, well. What do we have here? Mama Bear, you told me the cubs were out of the loop on this one.” He made a tsking sound with his tongue. “I think you’ve been lying to me.”

  Mom didn’t as much as flinch. She remained preternaturally calm as she shot Rogan a withering look. “They think they know more than they really do. They’re not a threat to the operation.”

  “They look like a threat,” Rogan pressed.

  “Well, they’re not.” Mom was firm. “Did you find anything of use inside?”

  Rogan shook his head. “The basement has been stripped clean. The books and discs that we didn’t need are now gone, too. That’s on top of the disc we need to stop the storm, and the book that vanished right before all this started. That’s a little too coincidental if you ask me.”

  “Yes, well, if you have a way to find those things I’m all ears.” Mom didn’t react at mention of the discs or books. She didn’t volunteer what she knew. She didn’t even offer the possibility that we had any of the items in question. I had no idea what to make of the situation. “Last time I checked, you were as clueless as me as to what happened to those things.”

  “I still don’t know,” Rogan snapped. “The fact that your offspring showed up at the exact moment we’re searching for stolen items makes me think they know.”

  “They’re here looking for me,” Mom lied smoothly. “Aisling is getting married and I’m supposed to go flower shopping with her.”

  Of all the lies I’d ever heard, that was possibly the worst. Still, there was something about the worry lining her eyes that made me wonder for the first time if perhaps I had read something wrong in the scenario. “Yes, we’re having a tremendous fight about dandelions versus lilies,” I drawled. “She seems to think we should go with the lilies for obvious reasons, but I’m a big fan of yellow so it’s really difficult.”

  “Lilies?” Rogan furrowed his brow. “Oh, lilies because your name is Lily. I get it.”

  I arched my eyebrows and did my best to keep to myself the myriad dumb jokes t
hat floated through my mind at Rogan’s slow reaction.

  “Wait a second.” Rogan was back to being suspicious when he looked at me. “Aren’t dandelions weeds?”

  “That’s like arguing that tomatoes are fruit so you can’t use veggie dip on them,” I shot back.

  “I … what?” Rogan was easy to distract. I liked that in an enemy.

  “Never mind.” I waved off his confusion. “As you seem to be done here for the day, it’s probably best if you head off on your own. I need to keep Mom around to talk me out of my wild dandelion bouquet desire, but we’re no longer in need of your services.”

  “Is that so?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, I don’t think that’s going to work.” Rogan took a menacing step in my direction, but Redmond cut off his avenue of attack and put a hand out to keep me behind him as he glared at the rogue. “Are you going to take me on, sparky?”

  “I guess we’ll have to see,” Redmond replied calmly. “Whatever happens, you’re not laying a finger on my sister.”

  “Your sister is a mouthy slut.”

  “Hey!” I extended a warning finger. “I am not a slut. I’m engaged, for crying out loud.”

  “I like that you didn’t bother arguing with the mouthy part,” Rogan said. “You’re fine with that, huh?”

  “The sad thing for you is that I haven’t even gotten going yet,” I shot back. “I mean … I haven’t even found the time to make fun of your outfit yet. You should probably be thankful that I’m too distracted to deal with that.”

  Rogan glanced down at his leather coat and jeans. “What’s wrong with my outfit? This is a classic.”

  “Oh, there are so many ways I could answer that question,” I muttered, shaking my head. “I guess I’ll just go with this.” I lifted my hands in front of me and extended both thumbs. “Aye!” I swung my hips as I exaggerated the single syllable.

  For his part, Rogan merely stood there with a blank expression on his face. “I don’t know what that means.”

  My smile slipped. “He’s old enough to remember the Fonz, right? I mean … if I know who the Fonz is, he should know.”

  “You only know from Nick at Nite reruns,” Redmond argued. “It’s not as if you watched that show during its original run.”

  “Your father loved that show,” Mom noted, taking me by surprise with her unnecessary participation. “He used to watch it in his office. When you were up late – which was often because you knew he would spoil you if you were the last one standing. You would go into his office and he would tuck you on his lap and you would watch Happy Days together.”

  I had a vague memory of that. “He had a thing for Mrs. Cunningham.”

  “I think it was the apron.” Mom smiled. “He liked the brood of youngsters running around together, too, even though they weren’t all related. There were a lot of boys and one girl.”

  I didn’t remember that, but it sounded right. “He used to keep licorice in his drawer and let me eat it while watching.”

  “He thought I didn’t know about that, but I always knew.”

  I dragged a hand through my sopping hair. The storm was increasing in intensity, which wasn’t a good thing for Griffin … wherever he was. I scrubbed at the side of my face as I tried to put things into perspective. “Can you end the storm if we find the disc?”

  “Do you know where the disc is?” Rogan’s voice took on an edge.

  “We might,” Redmond hedged. “I believe I warned you about stepping too close to my sister, by the way. Back up.”

  Rogan rolled his eyes. “You’re not the boss of me.”

  “I’ll beat you bloody if you don’t back up,” Redmond warned. “I’ve already fought for her honor once this week and that was against a guy I genuinely like. I have no problem taking you down.”

  Something occurred to me and I focused on Rogan. “Speaking of that … why isn’t he affected by the storm?”

  “I’m a reaper,” Rogan answered. “That means, just like you guys, I’m not affected.”

  Hmm. “You’re a rogue reaper,” I pressed. “Does it work the same for you?”

  “I was born a reaper but left the business for years before returning,” Rogan replied. “The money is better on the freelance side, so that’s what I did.”

  “So you are clear.” I rubbed my cheek. “Who cast the spell?”

  “Never you mind about that,” Rogan snapped. “Just give us the discs and we’ll handle things.”

  “Just tell us who cast the spell and we’ll handle things,” I countered.

  “No. Do it our way.”

  “That’s not going to happen.” I folded my arms over my chest. “It’s my way or the highway.”

  Rogan refused to back down. “Then I guess we’re at an impasse.”

  “I guess so.”

  We glared at each other for what felt like a really long time before another person joined the fray. The face that stepped onto the pathway with us was one I recognized, although it was the last one I expected to see.

  “I think we need to talk about a few things,” Detective Green said between clenched teeth. “This situation is simply unacceptable. I need answers.”

  He wasn’t the only one.

  29

  Twenty-Nine

  “Why is he here?” I took an immediate step away from Green, panic licking at my insides. “Why are you here?”

  The look Green shot me was pitying … and a little triumphant. It made me nervous. “Why do you think I’m here?”

  “I’d say you were following us, but that’s impossible because we snuck out of the house,” I replied without hesitation. “We know you’ve been watching Grimlock Manor, by the way. You showed your hand when you followed us here the other day.”

  “And yet I’ve been watching you for weeks and you just figured it out.” Green made a clucking sound. “You’re not very bright, are you?”

  I considered throwing down – I didn’t like him, so it wouldn’t be much of a hardship – but Redmond kept his arm in front of me, offering a quelling look before speaking. “It seems you’re quite interested in my sister. I don’t suppose you want to tell me why? Green cocked a mocking eyebrow. “Your sister? What makes you think I’m interested in your sister?”

  “She’s the one you’ve been following.”

  “Perhaps, but that’s only because she lives in Royal Oak and I had to keep up appearances at work if I expected to use the department’s resources,” Green supplied. “I followed the brother that lives next door to her just as often as I followed her.”

  If that was supposed to make me feel better … well, it didn’t. “You’ve been watching us for weeks?”

  “Of course I have.” Green was haughty. “Did you really think I would simply let things slide after what happened?”

  “What happened?” I risked a brief glance at Redmond to see if he was following the conversation better than me. He clearly wasn’t. “Are you talking about the zombies?”

  “Don’t say that word.” Green turned serious, and mildly threatening. “Zombies are not real. You did something to cover up your culpability in those murders. Zombies aren’t a thing.”

  I almost felt sorry for him. “I didn’t murder those people. Technically none of them were murdered. Er, well, I guess some of them could’ve been murdered. It’s not as if I did a lot of research on them or anything. We didn’t murder them. They were dead long before they were resurrected to come after us.”

  “Knock it off!” Green looked deranged as he gestured with his finger and glared. “Zombies aren’t real, and I’ve had just about enough of your mouth.”

  “Welcome to my world,” Mom lamented, earning a slit-eyed glare from me. She sobered quickly, shaking off whatever she’d been thinking about. “Detective Green, I believe we talked on the phone and you agreed it was time to end this little … experiment. That was the agreement.”

  Experiment? People were dead. Others were maimed. Even more were traumatized. W
hat kind of experiment was worth doing all that? “Experiment?” I swiveled so I faced him. “You did this as an experiment?”

  Green shrugged, unbothered by my tone. “Something had to be done.”

  “But … why?”

  “Because you’re abominations. You don’t belong in this world.”

  If I was confused before, my uncertainty doubled within mere seconds. “You did this to make us pay?”

  “Why wouldn’t I? You got away with killing people, and I wanted to teach you a lesson.” Green was certainly full of himself, his face contorting with rage as the rain streaked down his cheeks. Something occurred to me and it took everything I had to refrain from jolting.

  “You were the ones who were supposed to pay.”

  “You did all of this because of us?” Redmond was dumbfounded. “You were trying to make us pay? But … how?”

  “He wasn’t alone when he cast the spell.” Mom kept her voice low and even as she locked gazes with me. It was almost as if she was trying to convey something to me, some warning perhaps, that I couldn’t quite make out. Unfortunately for her, I had other things on my mind.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Redmond challenged. “Who was with him?”

  “Harry Turner,” I answered for Green, a few things clicking into place even as more questions cropped up. “He did it with Turner.”

  “Clever girl.” Green beamed. “You’re getting smarter.”

  “That’s not being smart. That’s simply not being stupid. He’s the only person who makes sense. He was the one who died right before the storms started. He had the other disc in his house.”

  “A disc that has conveniently gone missing,” Rogan grumbled. “We can’t end the curse without that disc. We must find it.”

  “We’ll find it.” Green sounded awfully sure of himself. “It has to be in Harry’s house. I’ll find a way to get inside – I was interrupted this afternoon by somebody – and give it a thorough search this afternoon.”