Quinn blanched, clearing his throat, “I’m more of a behind the scenes kind of guy. Planning, healing, general research, I’d just get in the way. Besides, Dagger and I were sort of in the middle of something.”
Isa arched a brow, “Mm, then why don’t you leave the decision making to me?”
“Of course,” Quinn said, “Good idea.”
“I’ll go too.” Tristin said, “I don’t mind. Somebody who knows what they’re doing should be out there to cover Wren.”
She looked at Ember with contempt. Ember couldn’t say she disagreed. She had no idea what she would do if faced with something paranormal. She felt the others were far more qualified to deal with those things given her control problem…especially now that Mace was back in town. Tristin had at least kept her mouth shut about that though Ember didn’t know why.
Isa nodded at Tristin and that seemed to be the end of the discussion. Tristin bolted upstairs and returned with a knife strapped to each wrist and one strapped to her thigh. On the way out, Wren pulled a gun from the hall closet, checking the clip and making sure there was a round in the chamber. He holstered it and slid it onto his belt. Ember’s stomach rolled. What could they possibly be worried about fighting that Wren couldn’t defeat with his razor sharp teeth and claws?
They took the SUV for the short ride to Lexington, Ember letting Tristin ride shotgun. The street wasn’t crowded but a few stragglers were leaving a dimly lit bar aptly named The Witches Brew. Witches were really full of themselves, Ember thought.
“So what are we looking for again?” Tristin asked.
“Not sure. Allister asked us to check out a complaint made by Addison Leary. Said she saw some weirdo lurching down the alley and she couldn’t tell if he was drunk or something else.”
Ember didn’t know many people yet but she knew Addison because she worked at the coffee shop Kai made them stop at every morning. She was a shy pretty human girl with bad acne and a sweet disposition. She always gave Ember extra cinnamon.
“So are you like the cops around here?” Ember asked as they slid from the Suburban.
Wren grinned, “As close to cops as you get in this town. Now, be quiet and stay close.” They crept slowly down the alleyway, Ember feeling silly, Tristin and Wren sweeping back and forth in what seemed like total darkness. They reached the chain link fence at the end of the alley with no sign of Addison’s weirdo.
There was another street to the left and an abandoned two-story building to the right. Wren began moving towards the building, when the sound of glass rolling across pavement caused him to freeze. Ember’s chest tightened. She willed herself to calm down. It could just be a stray animal.
He gestured for Tristin to check the building and for Ember to follow him. He put a finger to his lips, though she hadn’t said a word. Her thundering heartbeat was probably getting on his nerves.
They crept closer towards what looked like an old storage shed. A dumpster with peeling green paint sat to her left, her stomach lurched at the smell of rancid food and dirty diapers. She had no idea what store they stood behind but she was making it a point to never go there.
By the time they reached the warped door of the metal shack, Ember was sure her heart was in her nose. She took a shaky breath as tiny little jolts of electricity started to pulse along her skin, whimpering as heat rushed over her faster than anything she’d ever felt before. She held her hands before her, positive she’d see flames.
Wren turned, nostrils flaring. “Ember? What’s wrong?”
She opened her mouth but the door slammed open behind Wren. A shadow staggered forward with a groan and Wren yelled as the thing bit into Wren’s shoulder.
Her eyes widened, as the thing tore at him. It was almost human but the pupils were white, the flesh rotting. On some level, her brain supplied words like ‘not human’ and then ‘zombie’. She registered the sound of Tristin’s boots on the pavement and willed her to move faster.
“Wren,” Tristin’s frantic scream echoed in the empty alley, breaking whatever spell held Ember frozen. Her hand shot forward, her fingers knotting into its hair, trying to pry his mouth from Wren. Skin slipped loosely over bones as part of his scalp came away in her hand. She screamed, dropping the flesh and swallowing hard to keep her dinner down. The thing didn’t seem to notice its scalp missing. She hesitated, afraid to try again. If its face came off she might actually vomit and die as Quinn predicted.
The thing yanked hard, and Wren hollered, trying to dislodge its grip as it tore through muscle. Ember screamed, light exploding from her fingertips with enough force to rock the thing back on its heels. Wren jerked from its grip leaving her and the creature face to face. She could see now it was a man, at least by the build. The flesh was missing from a portion of his lower jaw, revealing bloody teeth. He groaned and whatever was in his mouth fell wetly to the pavement. She didn’t look at it. He looked so familiar, high cheekbones, wide set eyes. She knew she’d seen him before.
Wren wrenched her back just as Tristin’s knife entered under its jaw and out the back of its skull. It jerked twice, a strange hissing sound escaping before falling to the ground in a heap. Ember stood gaping. Tristin knocked her aside, tearing at the bottom of Wren’s t-shirt with an ease born of adrenaline, inspecting the wound.
“Shit, that looks bad,” Tristin told him.
She wasn’t wrong. The wound was deep and ragged, flesh missing and blood flowing freely.
Wren flinched as Tristin tied the scraps of his shirt tightly over the injury. When she continued to fuss over him, he shooed her off, “Its fine. We need to burn the body like they did the other night. I’m not taking any chances.”
Tristin turned on her, “This is all your fault. You distracted him. You could have gotten him killed.”
Ember’s mouth fell open, more herself then a few minutes ago. “What? I didn’t ask to be here. I didn’t deliberately freak out.”
“Tristin, enough.” Wren told her, “I’ll be fine. Ember saved me. Whatever she did stunned it enough to let me get away,” He looked at her, “How did you do that?”
Ember shrugged not knowing what to say, “I really don’t know.”
Tristin sneered, “Shocking.”
It took only a few minutes for Wren to get the gasoline and set the body ablaze. Ember wasn’t sure what to think of them doing this enough to keep body burning supplies in the car. After a while, she asked, “Not to be stupid but…was that a zombie?”
“Zombie, revenants. Whatever you want to call them,” Wren said.
“We shouldn’t be calling them anything. There aren’t any zombies. Reanimation is forbidden.” Tristin told him.
“Well, never the less, there it is. The second zombie in just over a week.”
Tristin glared at Ember again, as if she was to blame. Seriously, what did she ever do to her?
Wren slung an arm around each of them, wincing, “Ouch. Come on; let’s get home so Quinn can disinfect this thing before it closes wrong.”
“Yeah, I think you need stitches,” Ember told him, nose wrinkling.
He laughed, “Naw, I’m good.”
When they arrived home, chaos ensued. Donovan jumped up from his spot on the sofa. “Holy crap, dude, what got you?”
Neoma crinkled her nose at the blood and looked at Ember with a sudden interest. Ember frowned at her interest and the girl looked away. Wren kept walking, everybody following in his wake, asking questions he didn’t bother to answer. Isa met them in the kitchen from the backstairs, Quinn behind her with the first aid kit.
Had someone texted or had Isa smelled the blood? Wren peeled the tattered remains of his shirt off and Quinn untied the scraps of cotton from the wound. This clearly wasn’t Wren’s first fight. In addition to the new wound on his shoulder, a huge bite mark rested just over his heart and another long scar ran just underneath his ribs on the right side.<
br />
While everybody fussed over Wren, Ember collapsed back into her seat from earlier, wishing she’d never left. She picked up her charcoal pencil, idly tapping it against her lip. Her eyes fell to her sketch from earlier, really taking in the details for the first time. High cheekbones, narrow face and wide set eyes.
She gasped as recognition dawned, pushing the sketchpad away, like it burned her.
Tristin turned, gaze zeroing in on the sketchpad. Ember reached for the book, trying to get it back before Tristin could see but it was too late.
Tristin snatched it up, staring at the image for a long time before showing it to Wren, “I told you this was all her fault.”
To his credit, Wren took the information in stride. In the picture, the young man was in much better shape then he’d been when he’d taken a chunk out of Wren’s shoulder but there was no doubt he was the same guy.
“Well, that is certainly an interesting turn of events,” he said, handing the picture to Isa.
Ember closed her eyes, waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was no way they’d keep her if she was somehow conjuring zombies.
26
KAI
It was way past midnight when they stumbled through the door but the entire household was awake and an intense argument was well under way.
Isa loomed over Wren who sat shirtless on a kitchen stool. “Just let him put in a few stitches so it heals properly. You could get an infection. We aren’t bulletproof.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing I didn’t get shot,” Wren mumbled.
Quinn stood by, preparing to suture a raw looking wound, silently waiting to see who would win the argument. Ember sat at the breakfast nook looking miserable.
“What’s going on?” Rhys asked. “What happened?”
Wren spoke first, “I took Ember and Tristin to check out a call. Things got…complicated.”
“You took Ember on a call?” Rhys shouted, “Why would you do something so stupid?”
Wren smiled kissing Isa’s flushed cheek, “Because my alpha told me to.”
“Do you have something you’d like to say to me, brother?” Isa asked, folding her arms and gazing up at the wolf.
He huffed, “No.”
“So what was it?” Kai prompted, pointing at Wrens wound.
“Revenant.”
“That she conjured,” Tristin sneered, pointing at Ember.
Kai and Rhys looked at each other. “What do you mean?”
Tristin snatched away Ember’s sketchpad and showed them the picture. “She was drawing this before we left. This zombie got Wren. She created him.”
Rhys sighed. “I know that guy.” He looked like he was wracking his brain, “Mike, yeah, Mike Hutchins. He was the guy who worked at the body shop.”
“How could Ember have conjured a zombie in what…minutes? It would have taken him a while to climb out of his grave, don’t you think? Maybe she’s just psychically linked to them?” Neoma said from where she lay inexplicably on the kitchen floor.
They looked at the picture with more interest. Kai suddenly had an idea. “Can I see that?”
He took the book and flipped back a few pages, looking at face after face until he found the one he was looking for. There she was, Mrs. Carlson. He showed it to Rhys, who just grunted his acknowledgement.
Ember looked green, “What’s going on?”
“We’ll tell you but first we need to talk to Wren and Isa alone. Ms. Josephine wanted me to give them a message privately.”
Rhys set his jaw, eyebrows drawing together, looking like he wished he could strangle Kai with his bare hands.
“Porch, now,” Isa told them.
Once they were safely away from the others, Kai told them about their visit with Ms. Josephine. He told them about the spell cast on the town, how somebody, more than likely Ember’s own father, had bound her powers and that, essentially, she was a ticking time bomb unless they could teach her to channel her energy.
“Is that everything?” she asked.
Rhys stared hard at Kai, “Th-”
“Yeah, that’s it. Isn’t that enough?” Kai asked, cutting off Rhys while casually sliding out of his reach. Luckily for Kai, Rhys spent so much time glaring at him nobody seemed to catch his blatant lie. Rhys might trust the pack to overlook Ember’s responsibility in the death of their parents but he just couldn’t risk it. Not yet.
She sighed. “Tell everybody to be in the living room in twenty. I’ll call Allister.”
Wren’s brow furrowed, “He’s going to want to know why you sent the boys without his permission.”
She waved him off, “I’ll tell him it was a last minute idea that I figured wouldn’t turn up anything and I didn’t want to bother him.”
Kai pulled a face, Isa might trust the witch but he didn’t. There was no way Allister could be unbiased despite his protests to the contrary. The distrust between witches and other supernatural creatures went too deep. Besides, the guy was a dick to his own son. Good guys didn’t act like that.
The pack took the time to freshen up. Kai took a quick shower and threw on pajama pants and a clean t-shirt, running a towel over his damp hair as he padded barefoot downstairs.
People flopped wherever seating was available, impatiently waiting for answers. When the doorbell rang, Rhys stomped to the door and yanked it open, turning away from his guests before they could say a word. Kai smiled to himself. Rhys didn’t like Allister either.
Allister entered, immaculately dressed as usual. Did Allister ever sleep? He wasn’t alone. Astrid stumbled in behind him, dressed in a light yellow sundress and cardigan, exhausted and wearing a sour expression.
Quinn sat up straighter in the armchair. “What is she doing here?” he asked, staring down his sister.
“Someday she will take over my seat on the council. I need to make sure at least one of my children carries on my legacy with dignity,” His tone was jovial but his smile cold. Quinn flinched as his sister smirked. Tristin shifted to sit on the end of the armchair, not touching Quinn but positioning herself between him and his family. Astrid glowered at her, but Allister just raised a brow.
Ember rubbed her eyes, “Is anybody going to say anything or are we just going to stare at each other awkwardly? How do you guys stay up all night like this? I’m tired. We have school in like five hours.”
Neoma giggled from her spot on the couch next to Isa. She covered her mouth with her hand when the others turned to her, flushing at the sudden attention.
Rhys filled in the pack with military precision. Tone clipped, embellishing nothing. Kai’s heart knocked hard against his diaphragm waiting for him to divulge the information he’d kept from the others but it never came.
“So that’s everything?” Allister asked. “She didn’t know who was responsible for what happened to the council?”
Rhys stared hard at Kai before saying, “Yes, that’s it.”
“She said nobody lived to tell what really happened,” Kai only half lied. “I mean, she did tell us a lot but she said it was just rumors. We know what Ember is now. We know that a council meeting started whatever happened. We know Tristin screamed at the council meeting,” He glanced at Allister, “but I guess we already knew that.”
Ember stayed silent throughout Rhys’ explanation, chewing her thumbnail, feet tucked underneath her. She looked exhausted and confused.
“So reanimators are just zombie makers?” Ember asked.
Quinn spoke. “Reanimators are a rare type of reaper. Their powers allow them communication with the dead, either by summoning an apparition or by raising the body from the grave. The raised aren’t alive like people, just moving bodies with no thought process. It makes them easy to control. It’s why reanimators have to register with the Grove. They don’t want them creating an army of ravenous corpses and that’s why it’s illegal t
o reanimate a corpse without the Grove’s consent.”
He looked pointedly at Kai when he said it, trying to relay a message. Kai’s mouth went dry. All canine eyes turned to Ember. The color drained from her cheeks. He didn’t know if the wolves smelled her anxiety or heard her heartbeat go wild but he was grateful the witches didn’t possess the same abilities.
Why hadn’t he thought of that? He knew it, of course. He’d talked to Rhys about it last week. He’d just been so relieved to know what Ember was, it never occurred to him what she’d done was illegal. She’d reanimated two corpses that they knew of, but there were three other pictures between Mrs. Carlson and the other guy, Mike. Were they hanging around town? Had they come back too? If the Grove knew what she’d done, they’d come for them both.
Ember ran her hand across her face before combing it through her hair, “So I can make zombies and conduct séances or raise an army of the dead, but not really because it’s illegal?” she asked, voice flat. “That seems like a really lame super power.”
Quinn shrugged, “Reanimators are not only rare. Their magic is so highly regulated because they are very powerful. It’s actually really cool.”
Ember didn’t look convinced.
“And dangerous,” Rhys added. “Nobody wants to be on the Grove’s radar.”
Kai glared at Rhys but Allister said, “I’m afraid he’s right. For now, I think it’s best we say nothing. At least until Ember has gained some control. Since she hasn’t actually reanimated anything, I think we are safe for now. We can control it.”
The others looked to Isa. She hadn’t told him about the revenants they’d killed. Isa had lied to Allister. Kai took a minute to digest the new information. Ember looked ill. There was a long pause before the alpha said, “He’s right. Ember hasn’t hurt anyone. We say nothing for now. We need to know more.”
Ember looked shocked. Rhys’ gaze bored a hole through Kai but Kai had never been so proud of Isa in his life. It was official. Isa’s lie told the pack Ember was one of them. She would protect her. Even if the Grove came for him, Isa would protect Ember so it wouldn’t all be for nothing.
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (Dead Things Series Book 1) Page 17