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

by Martina McAtee

  “Did you know all three of you were born with the mark of a reaper?”

  His heart stuttered. Rhys glanced at him sharply, hearing the uptick of his heart. Sometimes the mark came early but nobody was born with the mark. “What?”

  “Mm, all three of you came into this world with a mark meant for just one,” her fingers fiddled with the end of her cane. “That fear your feeling, imagine how the town felt? Three children, born to one family, possessing the potential for soul magic. Some folks thought it was a dark omen, given the town’s history with death magic and the curse.”

  “What history? Death magic?”

  “That’s a story for another time, child. Just know that your birth was significant enough to make a great deal of very powerful people nervous.” She looked to the sleeve of his t-shirt, the names of his collected peaking from underneath his sleeve. “You’re a collector. It seems fitting. You had a sweet disposition as a child, perfect for helping folks cross over.” Kai just shrugged but she continued, “Isa tells me your sister is a banshee.”

  “Well, kind of. Until the other day, she hadn’t screamed in…”

  “Twelve years?” she asked.

  “Yeah, Allister says she screamed the day our mom died.”

  She nodded.

  “So Em-November, she’s-she would have been a reaper? Like us?” Kai prompted.

  She smiled sadly, “No, child, she was nothing like you.”

  Kai grunted in frustration, agitating the wolves. “Ms. Josephine what happened to our parents? What happened to my cousin? What happened to the town?”

  She held up a hand. “It started with a meeting. Your Aunt Sera was the head of the council then but your mama worked with her. That was when the council had more than just witches. But it was the witches of the Red Oak coven who put forth the petition to preemptively bind your magic. They were spooked. They said Sera wasn’t taking the threat of three active reapers in one family serious; that she was too reckless with her authority on account you was her kin. They said she needed to let the coven bind your powers before she got herself killed and you three came to power all at once.”

  Dread pooled in his stomach, thick and heavy but he said nothing, letting the witch tell her story; their story, “Your mama and your aunt Sera were livid. They knew binding your powers was only the first step in the coven’s plan. She coulda rejected the idea outright but she didn’t. She listened. She put it to a vote. She sent everybody home and said the council would meet the next day for the vote. Your aunt was a good girl, always fair.”

  The old woman squinted, “Here’s where things get…muddy. I got a visitor that night. They told me Sera needed me to leave. Said he couldn’t say why but she needed me to come back here and stay put until she sent for me.”

  “My Aunt sent you away? Why? Weren’t you friends?”

  The old witch tightened her lips, nodding. “The why isn’t important yet. I wasn’t there for the vote but I sent my vote back letting them know I stood with Sera and Samara. I didn’t think it necessary to mess with babies. The council got their vote. The shifters, the fae and even a few witches sided with your aunt. It was close but in the end we had the votes. The council would do nothing ‘til one a you showed some signs of coming to power. Sera figured even if all three of you came to power after she died, she had years to teach you restraint and to hide that power if need be. She was wrong.”

  She looked sad, “People were angry they knew better than to argue a vote. They say everybody almost made it out unscathed. If it had only happened three minutes later, who knows how different things could have been. If people hadn’t heard…”

  “Heard what? What happened?”

  “Your sister screamed.”

  Kai sucked in a breath, “What?”

  She eyed him gravely. “Your sister foretold the death about to take place in that town. The death of your Aunt.”

  Kai frowned at that. That would mean his sister predicted the death of his aunt and his mother. It wasn’t possible. Even if they all bore the mark, none would inherit their power until Sera was dead. The old lady had to be confused.

  “But my aunt was still alive.”

  Ms. Josephine looked right at him. “Yes, but not for long.”

  Kai sat trying to digest the information. He’d always assumed his Aunt Sera died the same day as the others.

  “Seraphina died that night. Murdered, I ‘spect, though there ain’t nobody left to ask. I shoulda gone back to see…to check…but she told me to go and I trusted she had her reasons. We don’t know who done it but I still say it was a council member. We didn’t know her body was in the water but sweet little November did.”

  Goosebumps rose on Kai’s skin and his stomach rolled, remembering the dream Ember shared just that morning. “What did she do?” he asked, not really wanting to hear it.

  “They say she called her mama straight from the water. Pulled her broken body from the ocean, and brought a dead woman straight to her own front door.” Kai glanced quickly at Rhys, his expression horrified.

  “She is a reanimator.” Rhys said, more a statement than a question.

  She looked him dead in the eye, “Oh, child, she’s so much more than that.”

  “What does that even mean?” Kai asked, reaching out beside him, not sure what he was looking for until Rhys’ hand circled his wrist and he could breathe a bit easier.

  Ms. Josephine looked at each of them in turn, “Before I tell you the rest, I need you to remember she was just a baby, she couldn’t know what she was doing.”

  Kai and Rhys both nodded but Kai wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was worse than turning your own mother into a zombie.

  “They managed to put Seraphina down and burn her body but it was too late. The council was in chaos. Your sister’s scream foretold the death of the head of the council. November raised her mother’s body from the dead. Two of three reapers were showin’ powers in the same family, much too early, people were scared. Reaper powers wasn’t supposed to work like this. The coven was in a panic. They confronted your mama and November’s daddy, now that control of the council fell to them, least ‘til they could elect another. They said they’d taken a new vote without them and agreed binding your powers was for the best. Your mama refused. The witches threatened to get the Grove involved. She said it wasn’t what Seraphina woulda wanted. They said she shouldn’t get a vote on account of her being human. People were yellin’ and screamin’ with no end in sight.” She sighed. “I ‘spect you three saw these screaming people as a threat. They were attacking your family. That is when your sister screamed again.”

  “Predicting the death of my mother?”

  “Perhaps. Some say she wasn’t predicting a death but sounding an alarm.”

  “An alarm to who?” Kai managed.

  “To November, of course.”

  Kai thought he was going to puke. Tristin had screamed twice, once for his aunt and now for…who knows…his own mother? The town?

  “What did she do?” Rhys asked, voice dry, emotions raw.

  “She did what reanimators do, child,” she told him. “She raised an army to fight.”

  Kai went cold all over. The kind of power it would take to raise an army of the dead, it took people a lifetime to develop that kind of power. It couldn’t be possible. Stories of reanimators having this kind of power were the stuff parent’s told their kids at bedtime. Fantasies.

  “An army? She started a war?”

  The old lady looked a million miles away, “She started a bloodbath.”

  Rhys sounded shaken when he said, “She is the thing that annihilated our town? She killed our parents?”

  Kai could feel his agitation without looking and so could the other wolves. Rhys’ fingers tightened around his wrist. “Is that true?”

  She waved her hand in a vague gesture, “I told
you, I wasn’t there. Who’s to know who killed who?”

  “She started it though?” Rhys prompted.

  “She was a baby,” Ms. Josephine told him. “If a child found a gun and shot somebody would you call them a killer? There was no way she was ever gonna to be able to control the army she raised. She didn’t know what she was doing.” She looked at Kai and there was no mistaking the challenge in her words when she said, “She died too remember?”

  Kai swallowed hard, praying his stress levels masked the lie. He knew the last part to be untrue, he’d seen his cousin just this morning, eating waffles and conjugating verbs in French but that didn’t stop him from picturing the scene in his head. Why was Ember suddenly starting to remember these things? Why weren’t they?

  “Ms. Josephine, I’ve been having…weird dreams. Dreams about this. Could this spell be wearing off or breaking down?”

  She stared at him hard for a full minute, mouth twitching at the corner, “I suppose there could have been a spell that would wear off at a set time. Or…maybe if the caster of the spell died, the spell would break down over time.”

  “Could a spell make an entire town forget something huge like this? Can a spell make somebody forget they had abilities?”

  “Could a witch create a spell to make people forget? Mayhap, but if you are talkin’ an entire town, you’d need a whole lotta magic. That kind of magic would take more than one witch. It would take a coven. A powerful coven to erect the spell and at least an extremely powerful witch to constantly reinforce the magic.” She told him, a shudder running through her. “As for makin’ somebody forget they had a gift? Simply makin’ ‘em forget wouldn’t be enough. Their abilities would start to come out even if they didn’t know they had ‘em. You’d have to bind their magic.”

  “If,” she eyed him pointedly, like she knew exactly why he was asking, “If, there was a coven that powerful and a witch who was constantly vigilant, they could bind somebody’s magic but it would be at enormous risk to both the witch and the person whose powers were bound.”

  Kai’s mind raced with the possibilities. There was only one coven in Belle Haven. Could the Red Oak coven have been big enough to erect a massive spell like that? Could it have been the Grove?

  “How so?” he heard Rhys ask.

  “Binding a person’s power takes energy. Even a powerful witch would have side effects. He’d constantly need to recharge his power supply. That kind of energy requires dark magic, blood magic. Playing with dark magic ain’t never done nobody no good in the long run. Eventually, the devil come to collect and the spell will-” she made a motion with her hands like an explosion.

  Kai just sat there. He couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to think about the implications of the witches words. He’d grown up in Belle Haven. He knew every person in that town. He couldn’t imagine anybody meddling in blood magic.

  “What happens to the person whose powers were bound?”

  Kai glanced up at Rhys’ question. He should have thought of that.

  “Think of it like cracks in a dam. That spell, all it did was build a wall ‘round all that magic. Once the spell breaks, cracks will form, tons a’ power all trying to escape through those tiny little cracks. A body ain’t made to contain that kinda energy, child. Eventually one a’ two things will happen. That person will either implode from the crazy or those cracks will shatter that wall and they will unleash hell on the world.”

  Kai lurched forward, clutching the woman’s withered hand, “That can’t be the only two possibilities. There has to be a patch to block the leaks or a way to disarm this…energy bomb?”

  The wolves bristled at his abrupt shift but she shushed them, “I don’t know what you’re playing at, child, but believe me when I say you and your pack ain’t prepared for this.”

  “Is there?” he pushed.

  “If the…person…who’s powers were bound could find a anchor or a filter, somebody who could channel all that power or temper it maybe ’til they could learn to control it, they may be able to keep from imploding.”

  He nodded, making to stand, “Thank you for your time, Ms. Josephine-”

  She clutched his hand, pulling him back down. “Whatever you are thinking, boy, don’t muddle with things you don’t understand. This will only end badly.”

  He nodded again, jerkily.

  They were half way off the porch when the old lady spoke one last time, “Boys,” they turned to see her leaning forward in her seat, hands folded across her cane. “I know you won’t heed my warning. I’ve seen what’s to come and, believe you me, I don’t envy you. I’ll be seeing you boys real soon though.”

  Kai frowned but she nodded then, dismissing them.

  He bowed his head to Edgar as he walked past, “Thank you for allowing us into your territory. Sorry if we almost caused a…problem.”

  The older man clapped him on the shoulder and shook Rhys’ hand. He took a card out of his back pocket and handed it to Rhys. “Next time just text me and let me know you’re coming. My cell’s on the back.”

  Kai glared at Rhys contemplating murder. He held his tongue until they were in the car. “So much for feral backwoods hicks. We could have been killed.”

  “But we weren’t and we got what we came for.”

  “Did we?” he asked.

  “Yeah, we know that your cousin is a witch doctor with wonky powers and no off switch. We also know she killed our parents and about thirty other people. Serial killers get jealous over those kinds of numbers.”

  “We don’t know that for sure. She said it was just rumors.”

  “She knows,” Rhys told him quietly. “I don’t know how she knows, but she does. She also knows you were lying about Ember being dead.”

  “We also can’t tell the pack,” Kai told him fiercely.

  “How do you suppose that’s going to work? What? We go back and tell them she didn’t know anything? I’m not lying to the pack.”

  “I’m not saying lie to the pack. I’m saying we just omit certain things from the newbie witch doctor with the wonky powers. What do you think would happen if we were to tell her she not only raised her mom from the dead like she dreamed but she is responsible for the death of a few dozen people? What would that do to her control problem, you think?”

  “So we tell the other’s but not her?” Rhys’ tone implied that this was not okay with him.

  “We just go home and tell Isa and Wren about Ember’s control problem but we tell everybody else the rumor was Ember was a reanimator and that somebody erected a spell to make the town forget and bound her powers but the spell is wearing off.”

  “So…we just leave out the zombie mom, the mass homicide and the part where she is a ticking time bomb who could kill herself or us at any moment?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “We have to tell the pack.”

  Kai growled in frustration. “They will send her away. They won’t accept her. I don’t want to abandon what’s left of my family. What if it was Isa?”

  “We don’t abandon pack,” Kai opened his mouth to protest but Rhys put up a hand, “We don’t abandon family either, but we don’t lie to our pack. We will find another way.”

  Rhys’ tone implied the conversation was over but Kai wasn’t giving up. There was no way the pack could know what Ember did. If Rhys wouldn’t agree with his plan, he’d find a way around him.

  25

  EMBER

  Ember glanced at the clock for the hundredth time before going back to her sketchbook. She shaded the cheekbone of a young man’s face, before moving to emphasize the fullness of his bottom lip. Like most sketches, the face before her was unfamiliar, just an image in her head, a distraction. He was all gaunt angles and full lips. He screamed lead singer in a rock band. She used a finger to shade just below his chin and wondered if he was a real person.

  Her eye
s wandered to the clock again. Kai and Rhys had been gone for hours. Isa and the others didn’t seem worried but she couldn’t help but think something was wrong. She didn’t know why Isa cared what some old witch had to say about her but Isa said she trusted Josephine. What if they learned horrible things about her? There had to be some reason her father hated her. Whatever she had done was so bad her brain literally blocked it from her memory. How long before they found out the truth and kicked her out.

  Tristin wandered into the kitchen with Quinn hot on her heels, carrying his laptop open in front of him.

  “Somebody as clumsy as you really shouldn’t be tempting gravity like that,” Tristin told him, pulling open the fridge door.

  Ember snorted and Quinn gave her a hurt look, “Turning on me so quickly, Ember? And after I brought you back from the brink of death…no loyalty these days.”

  Ember laughed but it died when she saw Tristin’s death glare.

  Wren poked his head into the kitchen. “Tristin, I need you. We got a call. Donovan and Neoma are still closing the restaurant so you’re up. Allister wants us to check out something weird over on Lexington Street.”

  Tristin stared at him balefully, “He’ll have to be slightly more specific in this town.”

  Isa walked in, giving Ember a look, “Actually, Wren, why don’t you take Ember?”

  Wren’s eyes widened, dropping his voice to almost a whisper, “On a hunt?”

  Isa rolled her eyes, “No, out for ice cream. Yes, on a hunt,” she told him loud enough for all to hear.

  Quinn looked from Tristin to Wren to Isa. “Um, I mean this with the utmost respect, oh alpha mine, but do you really think Ember should be going out on a hunt with her little…control problem? What if she, ya know?” Quinn mimicked her vomiting and passing out.

  Ember narrowed her eyes at him and Isa’s smile bled into a snarl, “If I didn’t think it was a good idea, I wouldn’t have suggested it. But, if you would like to go as well, to provide guidance or moral support, you are more than welcome to accompany her.”