Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (Dead Things Series Book 1)

by Martina McAtee

  “Why is that?” Ember asked. “How did two reapers end up living with a pack of wolves, a human and a…faery?”

  Kai thought about it for a while. “I don’t know, really. It was such a long time ago. I just remember Allister bringing us here and telling us this was our new home.”

  “But who took care of you? Isa couldn’t have been much older than we are now.”

  “Younger, she was sixteen when she became alpha. She didn’t even get to finish school. She took care of Rhys, Tristin and me. Allister found somebody to help run the restaurant but other than that, Isa was on her own. Well, until Wren came courting.” He snickered.

  “What about Quinn and Donovan? What about Wren and Neoma.”

  He laughed, “Quinn and me met in class. He was the only one who would talk to me. Since our mom’s ran the council when everything went down twelve years ago, they were still blaming reapers for what happened back then. Tristin and I didn’t have any friends. The kids who did acknowledge us just made fun of us but not Quinn. He just sat down and started talking.”

  “Everybody keeps talking about this thing that happened twelve years ago, what is it? I don’t understand. What happened to all of your parents? What happened to my mom? Why don’t I remember anything?”

  Kai shook his head, “I wish I could tell you but nobody knows. Well, maybe people know but they won’t talk, especially to us. Everybody is always telling us we will understand when we’re older but I think it’s a lie. I don’t even know if they know what happened here. All I know is everything changed when it did.”

  “Do you remember me? Cause I don’t remember you.”

  He thought about it for a long moment. “It’s strange. My memories of my life before everything changed are…I don’t know how to explain it.” His eyes narrowed in concentration. “Okay, like, when I remember things that happened to me after they play like a movie. I can replay it in my mind. But the things that happened before…the people…you are like photographs. Just single still moments. I can see your face but I don’t remember us playing together. I can see my mom but I don’t remember hugging her or her voice.”

  There was a hitch in his breath as he finished. She hadn’t meant to upset him. “I don’t remember my mother at all. I’ve only seen one photo of her. I don’t know what’s worse.”

  “I don’t know either.”

  He blinked rapidly and she couldn’t handle the sad look on his face.

  She changed the subject, realizing she didn’t want to talk about her mom either, “Tell me about how you met the rest of the pack.”

  “Donovan showed up about eight months ago. He stumbled over the county line and we found him bleeding out in the woods. He was barely recognizable. We didn’t even know he was a wolf at first glance.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “We don’t normally let outsiders into our territory but he was so injured Isa didn’t think he’d survive the night. When he finally woke up, he told us his pack was forcing him to fight other wolves for sport. That was it. He never left. Isa never met a stray she didn’t like.”

  Including her, she thought. “What’s an omega?”

  “Omega’s are sort of loners, I guess? In some packs, they are the lowest in the pack but they are also wolves that are part of the pack but like their space. Donovan disappears a lot. He doesn’t go far but he’ll full shift for a few days and live in the woods. He doesn’t like to be tied down.”

  She nodded as if it made any sense at all but didn’t press further, “And Wren and Neoma?” Ember asked, almost afraid to know. Each story seemed more horrid then the last.

  “Neoma came with Wren as for how she met Wren, that story is hers to tell. It’s…intense. She may tell you one day. As for Wren and Isa, they’ve been betrothed since before they were born. It’s an arranged marriage.”

  “You’re lying,” Ember gaped at him. “No way, they are all googly eyed over each other.”

  “Now.” Kai laughed. “You weren’t here when Wren showed up to say he was sent by his pack to enforce the betrothal. Isa punched him in the face, went full shift and tried to rip his throat out in the doorway, almost succeeded too. He’s been in love ever since.”

  “But, an arranged marriage? Really. Isn’t that sort of old fashioned?”

  Kai tossed the pillow, reaching out and snatching it from the air as it went wide, “It used to be common in packs years ago. It’s such an antiquated notion nobody really cares about enforcing them outside of pack politics. Most betrothals are for show; a way to honor traditions and let other packs know two packs are allied. Sometimes when packs are small like ours, they are perceived as weak and sometimes an alpha will agree to follow through for the good of the pack.”

  “So, they are only getting married because his pack wants them too?”

  Kai barked out a laugh, “Hah, no. After Isa was done whipping Wren’s butt all over our front lawn, she stopped long enough to listen to his side of things. He wasn’t trying to stake a claim as alpha of our pack. He doesn’t even want to take over as alpha of his own pack. Wren prefers to take orders; which work out well because Isa prefers giving them.”

  Ember could see Wren wanting to take orders. He was tough and smart but he wasn’t a strategist. He was more a kill-first-ask-questions-later type. Isa seemed to think everything through to make the best decisions for the pack.

  “Couldn’t they just rule together?”

  Kai arched a brow and gave her a look. “It’s a nice theory, but somebody has to have the final say.”

  “So what happened?”

  Ember listened as he talked; telling her the story of how Wren and Isa fell in love. His voice was soothing and the steady rhythm of him throwing and catching the pillow was luring her into a trance. She let her head lull to the side, gaze falling to the edge of the property. She sat up with a gasp at the figure standing below. She looked to Kai and back but he was gone.

  “What? What is it?” Kai was on his feet and staring out the window.

  “Nothing,” she told him, cheeks going red. She didn’t know why she lied. “I guess I just caught my reflection.”

  “It’s the woods,” he told her. She stiffened as he put a hand on her shoulder, “It makes you see things.”

  There was a stilted knock before Rhys stuck his head around the corner looking at Kai. “Hey, we gotta go. Somebody spotted something weird out in the woods.”

  Kai frowned looking out Ember’s window, “Where?”

  “Somewhere off of Highgate Road. Why?”

  Kai just shook his head, giving the woods outside her window one final glance.

  “Sorry, Cuz.” He sighed, gently setting her pillow back in place.

  “It’s fine,” she told him, “I think I just need some sleep.”

  “Okay,” he said, “See you in the morning.”

  Ember sighed, the group seemed to disappear at least once a night to investigate ‘something weird’. Kai said it came with the pack admission; something about protecting their borders.

  “Thanks for keeping me company,” she said.

  “You could come downstairs. We don’t bite. Well, you know what I mean.”

  “I know. I will.” She smiled but her mind was racing.

  As soon as the door closed, she flipped her lights off and returned to the window seat. She snagged her pillow and comforter setting up her post at the window. She knew there was no way it was possible but it had to have been him. She chewed at her thumbnail, scanning the property for any sign of movement. He was out there. He was watching her just like at the funeral. She could feel him like an invisible cord tugging at her center.

  Mace was in Belle Haven.

  17

  KAI

  “Are you sure she said it was Mrs. Carlton?” Rhys asked Kai for the tenth time.

  “Yes,” Kai told him, shoving
back an errant branch and slapping at a mosquito on his neck. Rhys’ boots beat out a steady cadence behind him as they crunched through beds of pine needles.

  Kai stepped on a tree branch and it cracked loud enough to make himself jump.

  “Could you make a little more noise?” Rhys muttered.

  Kai flung a glare over his shoulder, “Oh, right, we might spook it. How well do zombies hear?”

  He didn’t get why he had to be traipsing round in the woods with Rhys while Tristin, Wren and Quinn got to hang out at home. Isa was sending them out on a wild zombie chase all on the word of a disturbed old lady. Everybody knew Sylvia Goode was crazy. She called at least twice a week claiming to see the craziest things. Six months ago, she claimed she’d caught a unicorn. Now they were chasing zombies. The whole thing was ridiculous.

  “We don’t know it’s a zombie,” Rhys grumbled.

  His footsteps fell with more force as he thought about it. Mrs. Carlton had been dead for eight weeks. Isa was obviously still mad at him. This was a punishment. It had to be. She could have sent him out there with anybody. But no, as usual, it was Rhys. It was always Rhys.

  “No, there is an excellent chance it’s a delusional fantasy created by a demented old witch.” Kai said, letting go of a branch, smiling as it smacked hard against Rhys’ chest.

  The wolf grunted. “But what if it is a zombie?”

  Kai rolled his eyes at the fancy term, “Zombies don’t exist because there are only five registered reanimators in the world and none of them are permitted to use their magic.”

  “What if one of them went rogue?”

  Kai couldn’t help but snort, “A reanimator went rogue and turned my third grade teacher into a flesh eating zombie? What would be the point of that exactly?”

  “What is the point of any of the things these grims do? Evil things do evil-like things, it’s sort of their…thing.”

  Kai snickered before he could catch himself. He risked a glance back at the wolf hoping the slip up wouldn’t have Rhys dropping into embarrassed silence. Kai lived to mock Rhys; he considered it his life’s work really, but he tried not to mock Rhys’ when he fumbled for words. He’d gotten enough of that when he was a kid.

  “Even evil things have to have a reason to evil. No matter how random it may seem to us. I can’t imagine some random reanimator wandering through town and deciding to raise some old lady’s body for kicks. It just seems…farfetched.”

  Rhys scoffed, “Last week Quinn had to disinfect a wound on my side caused by a manticore and a rogue reanimator seems farfetched?”

  Kai cringed at the thought of that bite on Rhys’ side. That thing had been nasty. It seemed some new creature was wandering into their territory almost every day lately like they had turned on a vacancy sign. Kai turned to snark back a reply, but instead found himself abruptly yanked back against Rhys’ chest. “What the f-” Rhys clamped a hand over his mouth.

  “Shh,” he said against Kai’s ear. “Listen.”

  Kai froze, eyes drifting closed. It was faint, a strange scraping sound and then something clanging softly like an old ship’s bell. “Where’s it coming from?” he asked, lips moving against skin, voice inaudible to human ears.

  Rhys’ muscles tightened, dropping his palm from Kai’s mouth. Kai could practically feel him concentrating, “I think it’s the old school. It sounds like the flagpole.”

  “Isn’t it condemned?” Kai asked, trying to focus on anything but the feel of Rhys plastered to his back.

  “What does that matter?” Rhys asked.

  It didn’t really, but how was he supposed to concentrate with Rhys that close. He was glad it was dark out so he couldn’t see the heat rising under his skin. “Let’s just go,” he muttered.

  They crept closer to the noise, scanning the trees as they went, not entirely sure what they were looking for. It could be an animal but the cold feeling in his gut was telling him otherwise. If there was one thing he’d learned, in this freaking town they could be dealing with anything.

  They stopped at the edge of the tree line butting up to the school property. The bell sound they heard was indeed the flagpole, a metal loop clanged at the top where it still held the tattered pieces of an American flag. The place looked like a construction zone. Yellow caution tape wrapped around the columns of the school’s entrance and tiny red flags stuck up from various parts of the ground, warning of danger that Kai’s eyes couldn’t make out in the dark. Several pieces of equipment sat on the property, including a bulldozer that had seen better days.

  He found the source of the scraping noise and recoiled. “Oh, that is so wrong,” he groaned.

  The metal spikes on the bottom of the bulldozer’s bucket pierced what had once been Mrs. Carlson through her abdomen, holding her hostage in front of the dilapidated school. She was still moving. Her hands scraped uselessly against the rusted metal bucket, though it didn’t appear she was trying to free herself. It didn’t appear she was doing anything. She was just…there.

  “What was it you were saying about zombies not existing?”

  “Don’t gloat, it’s unbecoming,” Kai squinted, noting the way her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Her skin looked grey and sloughed off in places. So gross. “What do you think she’s doing all the way out here?”

  Rhys shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe she was trying to get back to the school?”

  That was the most depressing thing Kai ever heard. He couldn’t imagine coming back from the dead and trying to go back to work. “This doesn’t make sense. Don’t you think your wolfy senses would have picked up a reanimator?”

  “Why didn’t your reaper senses pick up a reanimator?” Rhys snapped back.

  “I don’t have super awesome hearing or x-ray vision. You are the superhero,” Kai said.

  “Then I’m putting in for a new sidekick. A quieter one.” Rhys told him, conversationally.

  Kai rolled his eyes in the dark. “Whatever. The only thing that really matters is what do we do with her?”

  “It’s not a her, it’s an it. It’s not alive.”

  “She looks pretty alive to me,” Kai told him.

  “Semantics. What do we do? How do we kill it?”

  Kai shrugged, “Text Quinn?”

  Rhys nodded once.

  Kai dutifully reached for his phone. Mrs. Carlton is a zombie, how do we ice her?

  The response came immediately. Seriously? Take a picture.

  Kai snapped a picture and sent it because he was a good friend.

  “Really?” Rhys asked, exasperated.

  So cool. How do you think it happened? Is there some kind of rogue reanimator roaming around Belle Haven?

  Sometimes Kai felt like he lived in a real life episode of Scooby Doo.

  You too? I don’t know. Focus. How do we stop her-it-her, dammit.

  I don’t know, not a lot of hands on experience with zombies. In the movies, you sever the brainstem.

  Aww, come on, man. She taught me how to multiply my nines and you want me to stab her in the head?

  I don’t want you to do anything. I didn’t even know zombies were a possibility. My only reference materials are The Walking Dead, comics and some very outdated human google references.

  K. Keep you posted.

  Rhys leaned against a nearby pine tree, massive arms folded across his chest. “Well?”

  “Sever the brainstem.”

  Rhys pulled the knife strapped to his leg and handed it to Kai handle first.

  “Why do I have to do it?”

  Rhys’ mouth hitched at the corner, “She was your math teacher; given how you feel about math, I thought you might be feeling vengeful.”

  Kai rolled his eyes. Mrs. Carlson was nice. He had no interest in stabbing her in the head. He snatched the knife anyway, marching forward with grim determinatio
n. As he got closer, his resolve flagged.

  She didn’t look like somebody who’d been dead for two months. She looked…well, dead and rotting, but not as much as he would have imagined. Up close, her skin was grey in some places and black in others. She looked at him with vacant eyes, jaw snapping and hands reaching for him. Her nails were torn and jagged, caked with dirt. He shuddered. She’d crawled through six feet of dirt and rocks and roots only to be thwarted by an errant piece of construction equipment.

  He stood, frozen; he’d never killed anybody he knew before. After a minute, Rhys pulled him away and tugged the knife from his hand. His mouth was a hard line as he held her head still and Kai looked away as Rhys drove the blade into the base of her skull. He still couldn’t escape the slick scraping sound of the blade against flesh and bone.

  Her body went slack. Kai didn’t know if he was relieved or disappointed she’d gone so easily. Rhys wiped the knife on his pant leg and shoved it back into its sheath. Kai shuddered a little.

  “Now what do we do with her?” Kai whispered.

  Rhys’ brow furrowed, “Why are you whispering now? She can’t hear you.”

  He was whispering because he was spooked. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was missing something.

  Rhys pulled her from the blades of the bulldozer as if she weighed nothing and laid her on the gravel patch where the grass had long since given up. He pulled a lighter from his pocket.

  “Dude, what are you doing?”

  Rhys looked at him as if he was nuts. “What do you think I’m doing? I’m burning the body. We don’t know if she’s dead, dead. No body, no reanimation.”

  Kai nodded, he wasn’t wrong. There was a reason so many residents chose cremation. Nobody wanted their graves robbed for spells or their bodies desecrated for any other nefarious purposes. It was the smart thing to do; he just hated the smell of burning flesh.

  He sat on the step of the school’s porch as flames engulfed her body. Rhys leaned against the railing, testing it first to make sure it could hold him.

  “I feel like we are missing something.” Kai finally said aloud. “Everything feels…different since Ember got here. Not bad but-am I crazy? Can you feel it too?”