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

by Martina McAtee

  Rhys nodded but said nothing.

  “You don’t think…” he let the idea die on his lips. It was impossible. There was no way Ember could do this. Except there was Tristin, his brain argued. Maybe Tristin wasn’t a reaper because of the twin bond. Maybe it was their family. Ember did have the mark. Could Ember be a reanimator?

  “You smell like anxiety,” Rhys grumbled, hand shooting out to touch him. Kai knew better then to read anything into it. Wolf DNA made Rhys’ need to comfort him override his loathing of him.

  “We need to find out what is going on with Ember,” He said finally, trying not to dwell on how pathetic he felt as he pushed into Rhys’ touch.

  18

  EMBER

  Monday came faster than Ember anticipated. It turns out enrolling in high school in a mystically charged town was surprisingly easy. They didn’t seem too concerned with the proper paperwork and documentation. Ember was almost disappointed. The idea of school made her stomach turn. She wasn’t sure she could handle it if things went badly here too. Isa assured her she had a built in clique. She’d never be alone here.

  “I can’t believe they didn’t at least ask for my ID or a social or anything.” Ember remarked to Tristin.

  “Well, when everybody here could easily conjure up whatever documents they ask for, doesn’t really seem worth worrying about.” Tristin told her. They waited outside the office for Ember’s schedule.

  Kai and Quinn stood nearby at their lockers, deeply engrossed in what was probably a conversation about video games, comic books or obscure eighties movies. It seemed to be the only topics the two of them ever discussed. Kai’s eyes cut to a stocky blonde guy, words dying on his lips as the guy strode down the hall. He had too many muscles and a smirk on his face. On his way past, he gave Ember a leer so invasive she wanted to go home and shower and winked at Tristin. She made a gesture that implied she was vomiting.

  When he saw Kai, he sneered and said loudly, “Hey Lonergan, made your sister scream lately?”

  Kai smirked as all eyes in the hallway rolled towards him, “No.” Kai said, “But your brother looked pretty satisfied when he left the other night.”

  The guy’s face contorted in rage and he launched himself sloppily at Kai. To her cousin’s credit, he didn’t even flinch at the large fist heading towards his face. It never hit its target. Instead, Rhys was there, eyes flashing, a deep growl rumbling from his chest as he held the boy’s fist in a crushing grip.

  Ember’s heart pumped double time. Where did Rhys even come from? Did he just lurk in the shadows waiting to fight with somebody? How old was he?

  “Walk. Away,” Rhys rumbled in a tone no human could match. He used the boy’s own fist to shove him backwards, hard enough for him to fall on his ass.

  “Your bodyguard won’t always be here to protect you, bitch,” the other boy told Kai.

  “Big talk from a guy named Eugene,” Quinn piped up from where he stood just out of the way.

  “It’s a family name,” the boy spit, rubbing his bruised hindquarters as he walked away.

  Quinn smirked, pleased with the outburst.

  Kai’s chest was heaving but it seemed to have more to do with his proximity to the wolf then the excitement of the confrontation. He punched Rhys’ chest, flinching as his fist made contact with the solid wall of muscle. “I could have handled that myself.”

  He glared at Kai, nostrils doing that weird flare thing he did whenever in Kai’s presence.

  “Really? Cause you looked like you were about to handle it by getting punched in the face.”

  Kai flushed from his neck to his hairline. “Nobody asked for your help,” he whispered.

  The wolf placed a hand on Kai’s chest, pressing him back to the locker. “My sister will kill me if I let anything happen to her pet.” He leaned forward, his lips inches from Kai’s ear. “Stay. Out. Of. Trouble.” He turned on his heel and walked away.

  Ember didn’t get what his problem was. He was such a jerk. He had to know Kai had a crush on him, right? Her cousin stared down the hall before straightening his bunched up shirt.

  “Whatever, douche,” he muttered to the werewolf’s retreating back. Rhys’ shoulders stiffened but he kept walking.

  Well, so far, it appeared super powers didn’t make high school suck any less. She had government first period, which meant separating from the others.

  Kai smiled at her encouragingly, “Don’t worry, Donovan and Neoma are both in that class. They’ll keep an eye on you.”

  Tristin rolled her eyes. “It’s not her first day of preschool. She doesn’t need a babysitter,” she grabbed his arm. “Come on.”

  Walking into the room, actually felt very much like her first day of preschool. These people all knew each other. She could already feel herself starting to sweat. Nice, that’s attractive. She straightened the skirt of her new dress and took a deep breath. Maybe she could just make a run for it.

  “Hey, hot stuff.”

  The squeak that erupted from her was both mouse-like and embarrassing. This delighted her attacker all the more. He kissed her cheek before dancing away.

  “Donovan!” she wheezed in exasperation, narrowing her eyes at him. He was wearing yet another sleeveless hoodie; this one a royal blue that made his Husky blue eyes even lighter. Did this school even have a dress code? She was positive that his biceps were going to distract her from learning about their government.

  A dark haired man, who she could only assume was the teacher, sat at the front of the room. He didn’t look like the teachers at South Oleander High. He wore jeans, a red-checkered shirt. He’d rolled his sleeves to his elbows revealing tattoos running all the way down to his fingers. They resembled runes she’d seen in her dads books on alchemy. He wore black framed glasses and he was, objectively speaking, good looking…well, for somebody who was her dad’s age. Gotta love that paranormal DNA.

  “Excuse me, Mr. Bishop?”

  He didn’t look up, “Yes?” What was with the people in this town not making eye contact? “I’m new. Ms. Kelley told me to give this to you.”

  She slid the paper underneath his nose. He pushed it to the side, “Thank you. Take a seat.”

  She turned to scan the classroom. Donovan gestured grandly to the empty seat next to him in the second to last row. Neoma had taken a seat behind him and she smiled shyly at her. She scowled at Donovan on principle, but was relieved she didn’t have to look for an empty seat. She smiled at Neoma as she settled.

  The moment the bell rang, the teacher looked up. He stood, smiling at the class. “Good morning, young people. It appears we have a new student.”

  All eyes turned to her, “Our new student is…” he faltered, looking apologetic as he struggled to reach the piece of paper he’d left on his desk. “November Lon-” he stopped abruptly, eyes skittering to hers, startled. He recovered, clearing his throat, “Lonergan. November

  Lonergan. Welcome, November,” his voice died off and he stared at her as if he’d seen a ghost.

  “Ember,” she corrected, “Just Ember.”

  He smiled tightly, “Of course, Ember it is.” He shoved the piece of paper in his pocket. “I hope you are better at government than the other Lonergans I know. Okay, people, open your books to chapter six.”

  A girl in the front row watched Ember all the way to her seat. She had black hair, ivory skin and an extremely nasty scowl on her face. If Snow White and Dracula had produced a child, it would have been this girl. Ember took her seat, giving the girl one last look before she opened her book.

  The rest of the class was uneventful, though she could feel the eyes of the other students boring into her. As class ended, people started to file out.

  “Ms. Lonergan, may I have a word?” the teacher called out.

  “See you at lunch?” Donovan asked slinging an arm around Neoma.

  She nodd
ed absently before she walked towards the teacher. “Yes, sir?”

  “You don’t have to call me sir. Most kids just call me Alex.”

  “That’s weird.” She told him, not entirely sure what to make of him. He seemed like he was trying too hard.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  She stared at him for a full minute before cautiously answering, “You are Mr. Bishop, my government teacher?”

  “That’s not quite what I meant.”

  Why was everybody in this town so enigmatic? “Should I know who you are?”

  “I would hope so. I’m your uncle.”

  Ember felt herself go numb to her fingertips. Tiny little sparks licking up her arms like she stuck a fork in a light socket. She took a few deep breaths. She couldn’t get all charged up at school. There was no ice water to hose her down.

  “I’m pretty sure my cousins would have mentioned my teacher was also my uncle.”

  He laughed humorlessly, “I’m almost certain you are wrong about that. I suppose you are staying in that makeshift boarding house with those wolves?”

  She thought of the five-bedroom house with its insanely large bathrooms. “I’m hardly staying at a youth hostel.”

  “Your father wouldn’t want you there.” He snapped. Ember flinched, taking a step back. His tone softened then. “Listen, Kai and Tristin didn’t have any choice about where they lived. All their family is gone. You have choices. You aren’t like them.”

  “You are telling me I’m a witch?”

  “Kai is a reaper. Only one exists at a time in a family. He inherited the…gift,” he looked like the word stuck in his throat, “when his mother died. You certainly aren’t human. I can feel the energy coming off you.”

  That really didn’t answer her question. He talked like a politician. This information only made the energy tingling over her move faster. “I don’t even know you,” she told him.

  “You don’t know them either.” He reminded her.

  “No, but they came to find me. Why didn’t you ever come to look for me? Why didn’t my dad ever mention you? If you and my dad were so tight, why were we living in Louisiana under an assumed name? Did you know I was alive?”

  The older man paled at the barrage of questions but Ember didn’t care. She could feel her anger building. “If we were such a tight family where were you while my dad was drinking himself to death? While our family was unraveling?”

  “Ember, please calm down. I promise, if I would have known about you, I would have come to find you. I thought you were dead,” he told her beseechingly. “We all thought you were dead.”

  “So, I guess the question is, why didn’t my dad trust his own brother to know we were still alive?”

  He heaved a sigh, “Ember-”

  “I’m fine where I am.” She told him numbly. She grabbed her bag, walking quickly through the door. She jumped as she came face to face with Donovan. She slapped one of his arms, “Stop scaring me. Were you eavesdropping on my conversation?”

  He shrugged, not denying it. “Listen, I’m not going to tell you what to do but I will tell you the witches lie. They lie about anything. They will do or say anything to maintain the balance.”

  He pulled his hood up and shoved his hands deeper into his jacket pockets. He looked ridiculous.

  “And not for nothing,” he told her, walking backwards away from her down the hall, “But your uncle just lied to you.”

  19

  EMBER

  Every class put her more on edge. Each teacher greeted her with the same dropped jaw fascination as her fellow students. She was a ghost returned from the dead and the entire school seemed intent on treating her as such. By lunch, she was starving and her head was pounding.

  Quinn knocked into her shoulder gently in the lunch line guiding her along and joking about nothing while she piled food onto her plate. He offered to carry her tray but given his ongoing struggle with gravity, Ember declined.

  Once he paid, he guided her to a table. She felt the knot in her chest come undone. For the first time in her life, she didn’t have to search for some place to sit at lunch or hide in the bathroom.

  Everybody was there but Neoma. Quinn said she’d left early to help Isa with a catering job. Even Rhys lurked at the end of the long table, brooding over his pizza like it wronged his family. Kai and Donovan parted for her to sit between them as Quinn dropped down next to Tristin. She smiled gratefully. She started shoving French fries into her mouth, moaning obscenely at the taste of salt and carbs. She barely stopped to chew.

  “God, I’m starving all the time lately.” She said to nobody in particular.

  The wolves all nodded in understanding. She noted the massive quantities of food piled on their plates as well. Not that it stopped Donovan from trying to steal her fries. They must expend a lot of energy. Even Kai seemed to be eating more than the average human.

  The only person who seemed concerned about caloric intake was Tristin. She ate a spinach salad and salmon. There was no way she bought that at the cafeteria. She must have packed her lunch. For some reason the idea of her badass cousin carrying a lunchbox was amusing, not that she’d ever dare say so.

  Once she’d finished her pile of fries, her cheeseburger and three bites of her pizza she asked Donovan, “What did you mean after first period? You said my uncle lied. How would you know if my uncle was lying?”

  Kai and Tristin looked at each other, so she addressed them too, “Yeah, I know you didn’t tell me about my uncle. Did you really think I would somehow make it through his class without him saying anything about the return of his long lost dead niece?”

  They looked sheepish, “It was Allister’s idea. We wanted to catch him off guard. See how he responded. We knew Donovan would be there to watch his reactions. This whole town thought you were dead. They thought your dad was dead. We just wanted to see if he’d known the whole time,” Kai told her.

  “Granted, it was a poorly executed plan,” Quinn shrugged. “But we tried.”

  “So…how do you know he lied?” Ember gestured to Donovan.

  “Wolves have excellent hearing and our sense of smell works differently. When Alex told you he didn’t know you were alive, his heartbeat told me he was lying and he smelled weird, kind of sour. He smelled like a lie.”

  “So I’m not a witch?” she asked. Donovan’s gaze dropped down to his plate before he looked to Tristin and Kai.

  Quinn spoke first. “That’s a little more complicated. Witches usually have a really obvious scent. You can smell their magic. The wolves say you don’t smell like a witch. You don’t smell like anything they’ve scented before, right?” Donovan and Rhys nodded.

  “It’s not like you can trust anything your uncle says anyway. We all know the witches are dirty liars,” Tristin grumbled, snatching one of Quinn’s fries.

  “Wow, little brother, are you just going to sit there and let your girlfriend slander us like that?”

  Quinn glanced up to the girl standing behind Rhys giving her a flat smile. She shared his same dark brown hair and golden eyes. She wore her long hair braided down her back in a complicated way that looked like it took hours and she dressed like she’d stepped out of a fashion magazine. She couldn’t be more different then her brother.

  Every muscle in the wolves’ bodies tensed. If they’d been in wolf form, hackles would have raised all around. “Awww,” he pouted, “the truth hurts, sis.”

  She snorted, glancing around the table with disdain. “I will never get why you hang out with these…orphans when you have a family at home who loves you.”

  “Hah,” he said, “That’s rich, coming from you, Astrid. Dad barely tolerates me and treats me like I’m useless. I have a place in the pack. They treat me like an equal.”

  Kai threw his arm around Quinn’s shoulders, squeezing affectionately, “Aww, you are an equal,
man. Even if you are a smooshy human,” Kai’s leg jerked and he hissed in pain, looking at his sister with hurt eyes, “Ow. What the hell?”

  She smiled, eyes glittering meanly, “Just reminding you that you too, are a smooshy human.”

  “It was the sentiment…” he grumbled rubbing at his shin. Quinn beamed at Tristin, winking at her. She rewarded him with a bored expression and an epic eye roll.

  The girl who had been watching her in class came to stand next to Astrid. She supposed one might find her pretty in a gothic horror movie kind of way.

  “Alex is right, you know,” the girl said, trailing one too long red nail across Rhys’ shoulder. “You should be with your own kind not this ragtag band of losers.”

  Quinn glared at the girl.

  “Awww,” she pouted, “Truth hurts, doesn’t it?”

  Beside her, Kai tensed, eyes following the girl’s hand along the wolf’s shoulder. “Settle down, Cruella; no need for name-calling. Isn’t there a fresh batch of puppies for you to skin?”

  “Mmm,” she grinned, leaning into Rhys to simper sweetly, “There is one puppy whose skin always looks yummy.”

  Rhys looked pained, swatting her hand away. “Go away, Stella.”

  The girl shrugged, like she was used to Rhys blowing off her advances and walked around the table slowly until she stood behind Ember. Ember stiffened, she couldn’t help it. She didn’t like having Stella behind her. She leaned down, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply.

  Her magic rippled along her skin, bristling at the intrusion into her personal space, “I’m getting real tired of people sniffing me.”

  The girl pushed her hair behind her ear, batting her clearly fake lashes, “Let’s go, Astrid. She’s not one of us. You can practically smell the stench of reaper on her. That’s almost as bad as people who breed with animals.”

  Astrid snickered but Ember let her eyes go blank, making sure she met the girls gaze with laser focus. At first they laughed but it only took about forty-five seconds of awkward staring before Stella cracked, “What are you staring at, freak?”