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

by Martina McAtee

  “So now what?” Tristin asked.

  “We need to know more about her magic, right?” Donovan asked.

  “Couldn’t you access the Grove library, daddy?” Astrid asked, smirking at her brother. She knew how badly he wanted access to that information.

  “I’m afraid that won’t work. There is no way to access the library without alerting the Grove. We already have a big enough mess on our hands if they find out she’s not really dead…”

  Ember yawned, “How do we know they don’t already know? Couldn’t they have sent me and my dad away?”

  Allister tilted his head at her, “The Grove doesn’t handle things that way.”

  Ember paled, “So if they do find out I’m alive? That I’m a reanimator?”

  Allister looked pained, “The Grove will do anything to maintain the balance. Imagine how…unbalanced three reapers in one family may seem.”

  Quinn stared at his father with suspicion. Astrid looked uncomfortable at the attention on her father. She had to be questioning why her father would help them cover up what was sure to be a death sentence for all involved if the tree huggers found out.

  “It’s already risky. We weren’t careful. People know you’re alive. Your family knows you’re alive. The Grove may already be aware. If people believe you are a reaper like your cousins, they may become scared. Things could get…ugly.” Allister said.

  Kai looked at Allister sharply. That’s exactly what Ms. Josephine said. Had Allister been involved in what happened twelve years ago? Josephine said she’d been out of town, that’s how she survived. How did Allister survive?

  “It’s going to be a bit hard to keep her powers under wraps if she can’t control them. She is barely keeping it together on a regular basis.” Wren said, subconsciously touching his shoulder.

  Ember blushed, tucking her feet under her further. Donovan turned and patted her leg comfortingly. She didn’t flinch at his touch, just smiled. The knot in Kai’s chest loosened a bit. She was warming up to their ways.

  Tristin snorted. “Barely keeping it together? That’s an understatement; she practically spewed magic all over us today in class.”

  Kai shot a glare at his sister. “What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, that’s right. You weren’t there today. Ember’s little friend made an appearance at school and her magic went nuts.”

  Ember was staring at Tristin, mouth hanging open.

  “Little friend?” Allister asked.

  “Yes, the grim from the cemetery, the one that tried to kill her. He followed her all the way from New Orleans.”

  Tristin told them, smirking at Ember until Isa’s eyes bled gold and she growled.

  27

  TRISTIN

  “It seems my pack has forgotten who the alpha is around here. Is there any reason you four decided this information was unimportant to me?”

  Tristin went still and Neoma buried her face in Isa’s shoulder, where she sat tucked under the alpha’s arm. The others gazes slid to the floor.

  “That…thing is here because of you? Of course it is,” Astrid rolled her eyes. “We haven’t had anything like that settle in this town in years.”

  “Yeah, and why do you think that is, sis?” Quinn questioned. “Oh, that’s right. Because we run them out of town while you guys hide behind your sad Grove approved spells and your huge egos.”

  “Quinn,” Isa warned gently. “Enough.”

  He adjusted his glasses and slid his hand over Tristin’s leg. She gave a shaky breath at the feel of his touch, running her palm over his but not looking at him. She ignored the raised eyebrow from her brother. She didn’t need to explain their relationship to him.

  “Right now,” Kai said, “Our main priority needs to be figuring out how to get Ember’s power under control so we don’t have to worry about her blood boiling or her ‘spewing’ her mojo all over us or anybody else.”

  “Tristin helped me in class,” Ember supplied.

  “Huh?” Tristin looked at her in confusion. She doubted very much the water she supplied helped her.

  Ember nodded, “When we were in there. Whatever you did helped.”

  Tristin looked around the room. “I didn’t do anything. I swear.”

  “Interesting,” Allister said, before adding, “So, how do we help November get some control over this power of hers?”

  “What about trying to have her use her powers in a controlled environment?”

  All eyes swung to Neoma. She blushed at having so many people looking at her.

  Tristin watched as her brother looked to Rhys before letting his gaze skitter back to the faery. Rhys moved closer to him, hand sliding along his lower back. What the hell was that about? Isa watched them too.

  Ember looked flushed. Was she sweating? She really hoped this conversation wouldn’t get her worked up. She didn’t think she could handle another round of dunk the reaper in the bathtub.

  “Ms. Josephine said she needed somebody who could filter or channel her magic.” Rhys supplied.

  “I could try to let her use me as a channel?” Kai shrugged.

  Allister shook his head, “I don’t think that is a good idea. From what I saw the day she arrived, that is a lot of magic. It may kill you. I think we need another way. Perhaps, Neoma is right. We need a controlled environment. Deliberately attempting to use her powers might help her gain some control.”

  “Okay, so controlled environment,” Wren smiled at the Neoma. “What did you have in mind?”

  “We could go to the cemetery,” she offered, picking at the flower detail on her robe.

  “No!” Kai and Rhys both shouted.

  What was going on with those two? She looked at Quinn knowing there was no way he was missing their strange behavior. He watched them carefully.

  Neoma slunk further into Isa who snarled at the two. Rhys moved to sit next to the girl. “It’s a great idea,” he told her. “Really. It’s just maybe we should start with something smaller. An even more controlled environment.”

  Isa and Wren still glared at them, “Such as?” Isa asked through clenched teeth.

  “Morgue?” Tristin offered.

  “God, no. An entire bay full of fresh corpses is probably a bad idea,” Kai shuddered.

  “He’s right. Besides, it’s hard to access and even harder to explain if we get caught.” Quinn said. Tristin nodded.

  Tristin looked at her alpha, who was currently extending and retracting her claws like a pissed off cat. Cats. Yes. “What about the pet cemetery?” she asked.

  Rhys’ hand partially shifted so his claws pricked through the fabric of her brothers shirt. Kai hissed but looked to Rhys, “It’s actually not a bad idea. Worst case scenario, she raises an army of bunnies and really old cats.”

  Ember shuddered but said nothing.

  “What do you think, Ember?” Isa asked.

  Ember shrugged, “Sounds like a plan, I guess.”

  Tristin couldn’t help feeling they were all going to regret this.

  “Wonderful. Is that it?” Allister asked.

  “No,” All eyes swung to Quinn who narrowed his eyes at his father. “I have some questions, dad.”

  “Questions? For me?” Allister snorted, “Such as?”

  “How did you know Tristin screamed at the council meeting?”

  The witch flushed, “Excuse me?”

  “Ms. Josephine said she heard Tristin screamed at the council meeting. You’ve been saying she screamed for years. I just assumed it was because Tristin was at home with us and you heard from whoever watched us. But Josephine says they were at the meeting, right?”

  Quinn looked to Kai for confirmation. Kai nodded hissing quietly as Rhys’ claws pierced his skin. Yeah, they were definitely hiding something.

  “You were on the council, dad. You knew Tr
istin screamed. Sounds like you were there. I mean, somebody had to get the kids out of there, right? Everybody said you and Ms. Josephine were the only council survivors. She was out of town, so that leaves you. How did you know Tristin screamed if you weren’t there like you’ve always claimed?”

  “Exactly what are you accusing me of?” Allister sputtered.

  “I’m not accusing you of anything, dad. I’m just saying you said you heard Tristin scream but Tristin was at the meeting. So you had to have been at the meeting too? Somebody rescued them from the conveniently unnamable evil that annihilated our town.”

  “What’s your point, Quinn?” Tristin asked, nicer than she would have asked anybody else.

  “You said you were the only council members to survive but that’s not true. Ember’s dad survived. Ember survived. You said Tristin screamed that means you were there. You know what happened to the council, you know what happened to mom, to all of them. You have to know what happened. Have you known all this time and kept it from us? From all of us? If you know, you need to tell us.”

  Tristin put a gentle hand on Quinn but he was too far gone. The tension between the two of them had been building for some time. If Quinn thought his father had lied to him about his own mother’s death, there would be no going back for them. Quinn might be overreacting but given the look on Rhys and Kai’s faces she didn’t think so. Quinn was onto something.

  Allister’s mouth split into a sneer. “You ungrateful little bastard; do you dare to question me, to question my loyalty to this town? You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” Quinn said nothing, “You think I would lie about what happened to your mother? My own wife? My friends? I grew up in this town,” He pointed at Ember, “Your father was my best friend,” He shoved a hand through his hair, agitated. “That old witch is a trouble maker, always has been. She knows nothing. She wasn’t even there. That’s why she really refused to tell you everything. She had nothing to tell. Was I there? I don’t know. None of us do. They took it from us. They wiped my memories, just like the rest of the town and replaced them with whatever fake ideas they chose to implant. For all I know, they wanted me to know Tristin screamed. Maybe I did rescue you children. Maybe it was Ember’s father or Alex. I’ll never know. None of us will ever know. That is what they do. They fix things. The Grove always cleans up their messes.”

  He was breathing hard by the time he was finished. Quinn was blinking rapidly and Astrid looked like she had invisible hands around her neck but Allister wasn’t finished. “You don’t know shit about what happened back then so don’t pretend I’m the bad guy.”

  Quinn snorted, “That’s convenient; you survive but the Grove Men-in-Black’s away your memories?”

  “Quinn, please,” Kai pleaded, looking back and forth between Allister and his friend.

  Allister shook his head, “You’ve made your choice. Don’t bother coming home. You don’t live there anymore. I’ll have your things delivered here since its clear where your loyalties lie. Let’s go, Astrid.” To Isa he said, “Let me know if anything changes.”

  Isa nodded, eyes on Quinn.

  Quinn sat, stunned. Her brother moved to comfort him but Rhys held him still. Tristin turned from where she sat on his armchair, sliding herself into his lap. She could feel him shaking. Quinn’s arms went around her automatically, leaning his head against her chest.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  Quinn took a shaky breath, before shrugging, tone more confident then he must be feeling, “Whatever, I barely live there anyway. This is my home,” His eyes darted to Isa, “I mean, if-that is-can I-”

  Isa stood. “This is your home, Quinn.”

  She clapped her hands together, “Now, everybody go to bed, we have to animate some corpses tomorrow.”

  Everybody drifted away but Tristin stayed where she was, tucking herself across Quinn’s lap.

  “Are you really okay?” she finally whispered.

  He shook his head against her shoulder, “No, but it doesn’t really matter. He’s lying. I know he is.”

  “Yeah, he’s not the only one. Kai and Rhys are up to something too.”

  “Maybe it’s just all that unresolved sexual tension,” he mumbled against her skin.

  She snickered, sucking in a startled breath at the way his lips dragged across her shoulder. “Hey, I’m trying to comfort you here. You better not be malingering just so you can check out my boobs.”

  He laughed too but it died just as quick. Finally, he looked at her and said, “He’s never going to love me, is he?”

  Tristin’s insides twisted at the hopelessness in his eyes. She wrapped her arms around him awkwardly, not sure how to really comfort somebody hurting like this. She kissed his forehead. “Fine, you can look at my boobs for a little bit longer. Then its bedtime.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Your bed, Romeo.”

  He groaned. “You’re no fun.”

  “Ha, I could be lots of fun. You don’t know.”

  “I’ll wear you down eventually.”

  “Keep telling yourself that.”

  28

  EMBER

  Ember shuffled off to bed with the others. The plan was to meet after school at the tiny pet cemetery located deep in the woods behind the house. The idea of raising mutilated corpses of long dead family pets made her difficult sleep, impossible. She didn’t understand the purpose of this power. It felt disrespectful. But what choice did she have? Isa and the pack had already done so much for her. They’d taken her in and given her food and clothes. So far, all she’d done is make their lives much more dangerous.

  She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. She’d memorized every tiny crack and divot. She thought having a name to put with this energy would make things easier but she’d been wrong. Naming it wasn’t the same as taming it.

  Most nights, her powers were like a dull itch under the skin, annoying but manageable. Other nights it was like she was being slowly roasted alive, her magic burning her from the inside. Knowing it was a spell wearing off, didn’t make it better. If anything, it made it worse.

  Tonight the sensations were driving her mad; making her shake out her hands or dig her nails into her flesh to keep the feelings at bay. She tried her best not to think about it, to think of other things but those other things always involved galaxy silver eyes, messy hair and a cocky demeanor.

  She was a terrible person for letting her mind go there. Sure, he was beautiful. Perfect, even. But he tried to kill her. Now he was technically stalking her. Not the qualities one should look for in a boyfriend. Boyfriend? No, not a boyfriend. She wouldn’t be that girl. But he’d said he wasn’t trying to kill her, her traitorous brain supplied. So, it was a what? A joke? Who jokes about that? Psychopaths. Crazy people.

  It didn’t matter that he smelled really good or that he looked at her with more interest than anyone else ever had. He was clearly insane and smart girls did not fall for killers. They definitely didn’t fall for people who specifically wanted to kill them.

  If he’d wanted to kill her. Which he said he hadn’t. She rolled over, shouting her frustration into her pillow. She flipped her phone on, looking at the time. It was almost six. She might as well get up. She threw back the covers and headed to the bathroom down the hall.

  She rolled her head around on her shoulders, trying to breathe evenly as her magic decided to wake up too. She stripped her pajamas off and stepped into the cool water, like she did most mornings now, biting her cheek hard not so scream at the feel against her suddenly overheated skin. She scrubbed quickly, hopping in place to keep the blood flowing to her limbs.

  Her chest tightened, realizing they were going to make her call this power to the surface on purpose. She couldn’t contain it now. She already spent half her time feeling like peeling her own skin off, what would it be like if she just let the
energy overtake her? This might kill her. Her life had gone from complicated to unrecognizable in less than a week. How could her father have done this to her?

  She got dressed, throwing on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. She could hear the others starting to stir, getting ready for school. She had a math test in first period. How could they expect her to do algebraic equations and then reanimate corpses? She couldn’t do it. The idea of sitting through seven periods, made her brain burn. She needed to relax.

  She made a decision, grabbing her book bag and her sketchbook; she had to get out of the house for a while. She just hoped Isa wasn’t too mad. She crept down the front stairs, hoping the wolves were all preoccupied enough upstairs to miss her departure.

  The heat engulfed her like a warm, wet blanket. It was barely seven o’clock in the morning and it was oppressively hot. The humidity making her skin instantly damp. She dragged her hair off her neck and pulled it into a knot on her head just to try to get some relief. Living in Florida took some getting used to; living in Florida with her power surges was a special kind of hell.

  She made her way down the dirt road that lead to the main street but turned off before she hit pavement following a tiny dirt trail. She’d never explored the town alone, only going to school and back or out with the others to the diner or for coffee. She had no idea where she was going but she just kept walking.

  She cut through the woods until she hit the railroad tracks through the center of town. She walked along the railing. She’d never heard an actual train come through so she figured she was safe enough. She wondered how the witches had handled the train when they cloaked the town.

  She had never really been this far West before. It was a far cry from the center of town with its small café’s and charming Victorian houses. The woods to her right gave way to beat up roads with old boarded up shops and empty houses. It was so quiet. No people. No animals. Even the air seemed too still. Something was wrong here. A sudden realization made her stop dead, rattled to her core.

  Cars sat in driveways. A rusted bicycle sat outside a flower shop. One of the houses still had a swing set sitting in the front yard. There were still trash cans at the end of people’s driveways. These people hadn’t sold their houses, they’d abandoned them…or something far worse.