Ember (Death Collectors, Book 1)

by Jessica Sorensen

  “But what does that mean…” I start to doze off. “And why were they fighting to begin with… Aren’t they both death? Or was it over…” Souls. I try to open my lips to ask him if he knows about the story in the book, but aching exhaustion possesses my body.

  “It’s getting late,” Asher whispers. He tenderly kisses the tip of my ear. “I have to go.”

  My eyelids flutter open. “Okay…”

  “I heard your brother come back.” He climbs over me. “So you’re not home alone.”

  I nod, barely able to keep my eyes open. “Alright, I’ll see you later…”

  He chuckles. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ember.” He kisses my cheek and seconds later I hear the bedroom door shut. I roll over and fall asleep with the calmness of Asher still lingering in my body.

  Chapter 15

  I’m woken up to a banging on the front door. They bang and bang and bang. Finally, I throw the blanket off me and climb out of bed. My room is pitch black, and blue and red lights flash outside my window.

  “Ian.” I stumble into the hall. The last time the cops showed up, Ian had wrecked the car. My mom went easy on him because Alyssa’s death was a fresh wound, but he was in the hospital for two days recovering from severe head trauma.

  I throw open the front door. Two uniformed officers stand on the front porch. One’s short and lumpy and the other tall and bulky. A black and white cop car is parked in the driveway and my neighbors have congregated on their front porches, watching their scene in their pajamas, the red and blue sirens lighting up their burn-her-at-the-stake expressions.

  The shorter officer reads a paper attached to a clipboard in his hands. “Are you Ember Rose Edwards?”

  My pulse skips a beat. “Yeah, I am.”

  “And are you the owner of a 1970 Dodge Challenger?”

  Oh shit. “Umm…”

  “And lying will only get you into more trouble,” the officer warns.

  “It’s mine.” There’s a crumb in his mustache and I can’t stop staring at it. “Or my dad’s and mine.”

  “Your dad’s Patrick Edwards?” The tall one asks and I nod. “He’s the one who disappeared a few years ago and you were brought in for questioning.”

  I nod. “Yeah, so?”

  He scowls at me and skims the paper with his finger. “It says on here that you’re on probation for drug possession.”

  I bite at my tongue. The drugs weren’t mine—they were Ian’s. But I took the wrap for it because he’d just suffered a manic episode. “Yeah, I am.”

  “You’re going to need to come with us.” He takes off the handcuffs from his belt. “Your car was pulled out of the lake tonight.”

  “I didn’t know it was a crime for your car to be in a lake,” I smart-mouth.

  He offers me zero tolerance. “No, but it’s a little suspicious you never reported it and then it’s discovered near a crime scene.”

  “What?” I stammer. “What crime scene?”

  “There was an incident at the lake,” the shorter cop explains. “A girl came up missing tonight and we got an anonymous tip that your car could be found at the bottom of the lake at the last spot she was seen.”

  “That’s bull,” I say. “I was here at my house all day.”

  “What about your car?” he asks with a condescending smirk that crinkles the skin around his eyes.

  I hesitate. “That’s been gone for a week or so.”

  “Stolen?” he asks and I shake my head. “Then why didn’t you report the accident?”

  I shrug and lie, “I didn’t want my mom to get mad at me.”

  The cops exchange consequential looks. The shorter one steps off the porch and heads to the cop car.

  The taller one says, “I’m Officer McKinley and that’s Officer Adams. We’re going to need to take you down to the station for questioning. If you’ll go easy, we won’t use the handcuffs.”

  I glance around at the ridiculing eyes of my neighbors, planning my escape. I disappeared once, and I can do it again. “Fine. Can I at least get some shoes on?”

  He points behind me at a pair of my flip flops. “Those should work.”

  Asshole. I slip on the flip flops and follow him out. The garage door is open and Ian’s car isn’t parked inside, which is weird because Asher told me he was home. Raven runs out of her house in her silky pajamas and slippers. She stops at the edge of the driveway.

  “What’s happening, Ember,” she whispers, glancing cautiously at the cops.

  “Get your brother and come down to the station in case you have to bail me out,” I hiss. “Not Ian and not my mom. I don’t want them dealing with this.”

  She nods with wide eyes. “Okay, we’ll meet you at the station.”

  I duck my head as I climb into the back of the cop car. The last time I was in one it smelled like sweat, smoke, and old meat. It smells just about the same.

  The officers climb in and slam the doors. We back onto the road and I spot Cameron climbing out of his Jeep. He smiles and gives me a little wave. Suddenly, I have an idea of who told the cops my car was at the bottom of the lake.

  Chapter 16

  I wait in the holding room for about an hour, a little cop trick before they try to break me. They forced me to take off all my jewelry and empty out my pockets. I rest my head back and slouched in the chair taking turns watching the clock, staring at the brick walls, and trying to see through the glass.

  Finally, Detective Crammer enters. She’s wearing a simple black pantsuit and her blonde hair is pulled back in a tight bun. She pulls out a chair across from me, sets a folder on the table, and puts on her glasses.

  “Ember Rose Edwards.” A conniving grin ranges her thin lips. “So we meet again.”

  I straighten up in the chair. “So we do.”

  She eyes my filthy clothes over. “Rough night?”

  I stare at her with a vacant expression. “Nope.”

  She explores the pages in the folder. “Where are your mother and brother tonight?”

  “My mother’s working at the All Night Diner,” I tell her. “And my brother’s at a friend’s.”

  “Do you need to call them?” She shuts the folder and overlaps her hands on it. “Someone needs to pick you up when we’re done here.”

  “No, my friend’s brother will come pick me up.” I cross my arms on the table. “My mom doesn’t need to miss work and Ian probably won’t answer his phone.” I worry she might force me to call, since I’m a minor.

  She slips off her square-framed glasses and wipes the lens with the sleeve of her jacket. “Do you know why you were brought in tonight?”

  I shrug. “Because my car was found at a crime scene.”

  “At a crime scene just like your father’s and Laden Miller’s,” she says. “What do you know about Mackenzie Baker?”

  “Mackenzie Baker?” Her shocking words throw off my game. “Is she the one that vanished tonight?”

  “I’ll be asking the questions,” she warns. “Now what do you know about her?”

  “She’s a junior like me, I have a few classes with her, and she’s the head cheerleader. That’s all I know about her.”

  “Were you at the party tonight? The one by the lake? A few people said they saw you there.”

  “I was at the lake before the party started,” I answer. “But I left when people started showing up.”

  She jots what I say on the top of the folder. “And how did you get home?”

  “I got a ride from a friend that I called to come pick me up,” I tell her and she scribbles that to her list.

  “Who did you drive out there with?” She writes a number on the corner of the folder.

  “A guy,” I say and her eyes elevate to me. “Cameron Logan.”

  She doesn’t seem to recognize the name, but cops are good at playing dumb. “And who is he?”

  “He just moved here from New York,” I explain. “He’s my age and lives down my street.”

  “Was he part of the reason
you left?” She puts her glasses back on.

  “Partially,” I say with hesitance. “He was flirting with another girl.”

  She opens the folder and searches through her notes. “What’s the girl’s name?”

  “Mackenzie Baker.”

  Her head snaps up. “You know lying is only going to get you into more trouble.”

  “I’m not lying,” I gripe. “That’s the truth.”

  She reluctantly returns to her notes and pens down a few more notes. Then she closes the folder and slips off her glasses. “Again, we’ll be in touch. I have no doubt about that.” She sticks out her hand for me to shake. “For now, I’d say it‘d be best for you to stay in town.”

  My muscles tense as I take her hand. A thick, vile sensation blasts up my arm. Blood and a thousand petals scattered across the dirt. An angel stands in the center of a mob, stripped of its feathers, and beaten blue. Their face is curtained with a halo of black hair. She steps forward and raises a knife, but a black figure swoops down from the sky and snatches her by the shoulders. She screams as they fly up, up, up and then drops her to the earth.

  I jerk back at the X on her wrist. “Who are you?”

  She tugs the sleeve of her jacket down and turns for the door. “I’d watch out, Ember,” she says, opening the door. “They say insanity is passed down through generations. And your dad was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which can surface at a young age.” She slams the door behind her.

  It takes every ounce of strength I own not to jump up from the chair, pick the lock on the door, and chase her down. Thirty minutes later they release me. They have no real evidence that I did anything wrong, besides not reporting that my car was missing. I go to collect my things at the window and the big-haired lady with bright blue eye shadow hands me a plastic bag containing my bracelets. She turns her back to the window and I bang on it.

  She glances over her shoulder at me, annoyed. “May I help you?”

  I hold up a bag and jiggle it in front of the window. “Yeah, I had a necklace in here.”

  She spins her chair around and stares at the bag skeptically. “One moment please.” She rolls to the phone and takes her sweet time hanging up. “That’s all that was collected.”

  Glancing at the bag, I shake my head. “No, I had a necklace with a big maroon jewel.”

  “Well then it sounds like you’ll be able to find it easily when you get home.” She huffs out of her chair and walks out the side door.

  I dump the bracelets on the counter, fasten them on my wrists, and clasp my silver-winged earrings into my ears. “I know I was wearing my necklace.”

  Raven and her brother, Todd, are sitting in the waiting room, which only has one other person, an older man eating an egg McMuffin. Raven runs up to give me a hug, but quickly stops herself. She zips up the suede jacket that’s over her thin silk pajama set.

  Todd is twenty years old and is the spitting male version of Raven. He has spiky blue hair, a lip piercing, and tattoos all over his muscular arms.

  “Hey troublemaker.” He gives me a hug and I inhale through my nose until it’s over. “What the hell did you do this time?”

  We push through the glass doors and I bask in my freedom. The sun is awake, the sky a clear blue. Elderly couples stroll up the sidewalk and eat breakfast out on the patios. Pink flyers with Mackenzie’s face on them are plastered all over the street posts, doors, and walls of the surrounding buildings.

  “Well apparently it’s a crime to crash your car into a lake and then not tell anyone.” I slide into the backseat of his 1980 Pontiac Firebird with a large eagle painted on the hood.

  “Wait? You wrecked your dad’s Challenger?” He revs up the gas and the engine backfires. “Like it’s gone?”

  Raven exchanges a look with me and I shake my head. She wants to know what really happened, but I don’t want to tell her in front of Todd. The first thing I need to do is talk to Asher. Because I think I’m ready to hear his answers now.

  ***

  Todd takes us to breakfast at Sherry’s Diner. It’s a seventies themed restaurant where they still allow people to smoke. Our waitress is Betty Lou, a middle-aged woman with big beehive hair, oval glasses, and a white apron over her pink dress.

  “Hi y’all,” she drawls. “What can I get you?”

  Raven and I are sitting side-by-side in the booth across from Todd, reading over the same menu. “Can we have just a second?” Raven asks.

  Todd hands Betty Lou his menu and tells her, “I’ll have eggs, scrambled, wheat toast, and a ham steak.”

  Betty Lou jots his order down. “I’ll go put this order in and come back and get y’alls after.”

  Once she’s gone, Todd gets up from the table. “I’m going to go use the men’s room.”

  He struts toward the back area of the restaurant and Raven whispers in my ear, “He’s screwing the waitress.”

  I pull a face. “Betty Lou?”

  She rolls her eyes and points her finger at a slender waitress with fiery red hair standing behind the serving counter. “That one… wait just a second and she’ll walk back toward the bathrooms.”

  We pretend to stare at our menus, but really our attention is on the girl. Her nametag says Steph. She’s pretty, maybe a few years older than Todd, but other than that she seems like his type. Sure enough, about a minute after Todd vanishes into the bathroom, Steph goes wandering back there.

  “How do you know about them?” I ask Raven.

  She runs her finger down the menu. “He’s been bringing me to either dinner or breakfast here almost every day for the last two weeks and it’s like a freaking routine. So are you going to tell me what’s up with the police?”

  Betty Lou appears at the end of our table and we hurry and give her our orders. She collects the menu, walks behind the counter, and refills the glasses of water for the people at the bar.

  “Before I tell you,” I say in a hushed voice. “I need you to tell me about that X got on your shoulder.”

  She frowns and unzips her jacket to show me her shoulder blade. “It was just a scratch I got when I was making out with Laden. His stupid car had a wire sticking out of it.”

  There isn’t anything left of the scratch. “Okay, then why were you acting so… happy after he died?”

  She puts her jacket back on and flips her bubblegum pink hair out of the collar. “Something really bad happened that night… Laden almost raped me.”

  My heart literally stops. “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because he disappeared right after it happened and I worried I’d become a suspect.” She peeks over her shoulder and then drops her voice. “Besides, you have your own stuff to deal with, like death and your mom and Ian.”

  “You could have told me,” I whisper. “I wouldn’t have told anyone. And I can handle more than you think.”

  “No, you think you can handle more.” She takes a sip of her water. “But it’s okay. I talked to Asher about it and he really helped me understand. And that whole psychotic episode I was having was just my need to deal with what happened.”

  “When did you talk to Asher?” My voice comes out sharp and I clear my throat. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t know you two had been hanging out with each other.”

  “Calm down.” She scoots the utensils out of the way and rests her elbow onto the table. “We’re just friends. And I was talking to him about it because he was the one who saved me from getting raped.”

  “That’s… that’s not possible,” I stammer. “He was saving me that night.”

  She thrums her finger on her lip. “Well, it was before or after he saved me then.”

  I shake my head. “There’s no way he could have made it to both places in time.”

  “I’m not sure, Em... maybe you should ask him because all I know is that Laden is a rapist and I don’t feel bad that he’s gone. And Asher was basically my angel that day.”

  “Your angel? What do you mean by that?”

  She quickly
looks away. “It’s a figure of speech, silly.”

  “And what about Garrick?” I ask. “Where does he come to play in all this?”

  “Oh, he was there that night too,” she says staring across the restaurant. “Garrick and Asher both showed up when it happened. Asher knocked Laden off me and then Garrick took me home. I’m not sure what Asher did with Laden, although I have a guess.”