Keeper Under Fire (Graveyard Guardians Book 3)

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  One of the other blond men was her sister’s boyfriend, David. He was hot too, but totally off limits and always had been. But the last one, he was a Reaper.

  That should be enough for her to look the other way … but, it wasn’t. He wasn’t just good looking. He was smoking hot and it was hard to concentrate on the things she needed to concentrate on when he stared at her with his piercing green eyes and his perfect lips that hardly every smiled.

  Dammit. She shook her head to clear it. She was doing it again.

  Most of her family kept discussing whatever they were talking about when she entered, but it all seemed to fade away when Aiden lifted his eyes and their gazes locked. He gave her a nod and then turned back to Greg, who he was speaking to at the moment.

  She knew there was something between them, but she didn’t know what it was. It couldn’t be anything like Lucy and Jack. Her sister and her Reaper were connected in some strange way. Neither of them felt the burn that Keepers and Reapers both felt, so they were able to touch freely.

  Maybe all that was between her and Aiden was hatred for the other’s kind. That, and distrust. Him being good looking didn’t change the fact that he was the enemy. Yeah, so he had proven himself a few times now, but she just couldn’t seem to bring herself to fully trust the guy.

  Good lord, had it been so long since she’d been on a date that she was beginning to think that Reapers were hot. She was suddenly tempted to run over to the window to see if there were flying pigs out there.

  “I already told you, at least twenty,” Aiden was telling Greg.

  “You’re sure?” her brother asked.

  Aiden answered with a nod, “Yeah. They are meeting up at the Napa compound this evening.”

  “Are you going to be there?”

  “I should be, if we want to keep my cover.”

  Jack lowered his arm from around Lucy’s shoulders. “I don’t know man, maybe you should stay with us.”

  Aiden rolled his eyes. “I have to meet them at the compound, at least. After that they will know whose side I’m really on. We need to prepare for this to be my last day there. So …” He eyed Lucy and Jack, “if you still have a place for me here, I’m probably going to need it.”

  “Of course you can stay here,” Lucy told him.

  Liv felt her muscles stiffen. She had been perfectly fine with him staying in Napa. Though, on the other hand, it may be better if he was closer. She could keep a better eye on him that way. Well, when she wasn’t working or at home, then she could.

  Jesus Liv, why don’t you just invite him to stay at your house so you can watch him sleep, too?

  “What about the souls?” Daniel asked. “Will you be able to control yourself being this close to the graveyard?”

  The entire room was suddenly silent. The air seemed to buzz around her as they waited for the answer. Liv watched him shift uncomfortably and then glare at Dan. He had just opened his mouth to respond when Lucy shook her head and shoved Dan. “Do you really think that he’s going to tell you that? He would do his best not to do any soul binging, but it’s his nature.”

  “Then I don’t think he should stay here,” Dan retorted.

  “You don’t get to decide.”

  Aiden’s eyes were flicking back and forth between the both of them. “I’m right here you guys. I can speak for myself.”

  “Shut up!” Dan and Lucy snapped in unison.

  Greg held up both his hands. “All of you shut up. Dan has a point. We can’t put our souls in more danger than they are already in.”

  “You were going to let me stay before,” Aiden pointed out.

  Greg nodded. “And you still can, but at Liv’s house instead of here.”

  “Wha … Excuse me?” Liv was so shocked she could barely get the words out, which was pretty rare for her. She had always prided herself on her quick wit and now it had failed her.

  Aiden shook his head and held his hands up. “No way, she hates me. She will probably dip my toothbrush in the toilet or poison my food … or, or something.”

  Liv met Greg’s eyes and silently pleaded with him. She could not have that Reaper in her house. It was bad enough she had to deal with him being around at all. But, no, her brother only raised an eyebrow and said, “It’s the best solution right now. And then neither of you will be alone if anyone comes after you at your house.”

  “I don’t need a protector,” Liv snapped, her anger beginning to flare as she realized that her brother was entirely serious.

  Greg rolled his eyes, “I know you don’t and that is not what I meant.”

  Steph stood next to James, her twin. Both had been silent up until now, “It’s a good idea.” Steph offered in a soft voice. “Liv, you said he was a friend and you trusted him, so why are you balking now?”

  Yeah Liv, she asked herself, why now?

  “Not hating him and sort of trusting him not to kill us is not exactly the same as being comfortable with him being in my home,” she answered.

  “Again, I’m right here,” Aiden practically growled.

  “We vote,” Greg announced.

  Liv stomped her foot into the carpet, “It’s my house, you can’t vote on that!”

  “All in favor of Aiden staying at Liv’s instead of here, raise your hand.”

  Liv glared as the betrayals happened in one shot. Every single one of them, aside from Aiden, lifted a hand into the air.

  “You guys suck,” Liv hissed. “You’re all cut off at the bakery.”

  “It’s done,” Greg told her. “We have important matters like a Reaper attack to talk about now.”

  “You cannot vote to move someone into my house if I don’t want them there.” She looked to David. He would help her. He was a cop, so that meant he had to do the right thing. “Is this even legal?”

  Hannah shot him a look that dared him to answer in Liv’s favor. “If I answer that, I may have to stay with you, too.”

  “I hate you all.” Liv shook her head, knowing that she just lost this battle. Dammit, what in the hell was she going to do with a Reaper? Moreover, she had to leave him alone there while she went to work. She never left anyone at her house alone.

  Aiden turned to her. “I am as excited about this as you, but right now there is a bigger threat. Reapers are coming with orders to burn this place to the ground and take all of you down with it. This needs to be taken care of first, then we can deal with the rest.”

  Liv rolled her eyes and turned away from everyone so that she could take a deep breath and get herself together. He was right, they needed to survive and save the house before they could worry about petty issues like where Aiden was going to sleep.

  “Okay, okay.” She spun back around, only to find that everyone in the house was staring at her. She threw her hands up. “Let’s get ready.”

  The look of determination on Liv’s face when she turned around to face them was a stark contrast to the uncertainty that he had seen in her only seconds before. A spark had ignited within those dark brown eyes and, somehow, he knew it was because she was focused on the safety of her family.

  He forced himself to turn away from her penetrating stare. “I should really go back and meet them at the compound. It will give me the upper hand when we all arrive here.”

  Jack shook his head. “No way man, I think you should stay here.”

  Aiden took a step closer to his best friend. “I am going to stay here, but if I don’t show in Napa they will know that something isn’t right. We can’t afford for them to know that I tipped you off.”

  “I just don’t like it.” Jack’s face took on the same look he had made since they were kids. Like he was thinking, but still set on the fact that he was going to get his way. Problem here was that Aiden was just as stubborn as his friend was.

  “I’m going back. I have to. Right now, we need to start gathering as many weapons as we can and setting traps or something. I’ll see what I can do about making sure they never get a fire going. That’s one of
the reasons I need to be with them when they get here.”

  “We need to warn dad and the rest of the souls.” Lucy had turned and was staring out the window on the side of the house that had the best view of the Graveyard. “I’m going to go do that now.”

  Jack gave her hand a squeeze as she slipped away with a distant expression pasted on her face. As soon as she was out of the room, Jack tossed worried glance to Dan, who silently threw his hands in the air as if to say, ‘really dude’, then released a long sigh, rolled his eyes and hurried out the way Lucy had gone, “Hey Luce, wait for me.” He called after her.

  Greg tilted his head, “Follow me. Let’s see what we have in the back room.”

  Aiden followed and discovered that the back room wasn’t much of a room, but more like a storage closet. Boxes were stacked so precariously on the shelves, Aiden felt like they might topple down onto them at any moment. A desk was shoved into one corner of the room and a couch pressed against one wall, but no one could ever sit on it because it was covered with forgotten coats. Most likely those coats were never used because this state was so fucking dry all the time. In any case, Greg approached one of the largest safes that Aiden had ever seen and went to work on the combo.

  “Here we go.” Greg used both hands to swing open the double door.

  Jack was the first to move in with Aiden right beside him. “Dude,” Jack exclaimed, reaching in and picking up a rifle. “You guys sure have amped up the heat in the last month.”

  Greg took the weapon from him and replaced it within the safe. “We need them. The last time we weren’t as prepared as we should have been and luckily we didn’t end up regretting it.”

  David shook his head. “You guys can’t use guns. You live right on the outside of town, the cops would be here within minutes. Not to mention every single nosey citizen of Summer Hollow would rush over to find out what’s going on.”

  Aiden nodded. “He’s right, it has to be blades.” He nodded toward the inside of the safe, “And it looks like you aren’t lacking in that area.”

  Jack tapped his foot. “It will be fine. We won’t need guns because they don’t know that we know they are coming, so we can ambush them while they think that is what they are doing to us.”

  “Exactly,” Greg agreed.

  James squeezed in between Aiden and Jack. Aiden ignored the burn on his arm when their skin made contact and stepped aside. James lifted a small crossbow from inside the safe. “I wish we had more of these, we could take them all out fast.”

  Aiden took it from him.

  “Hey!”

  “Don’t get your panties in a wad, I’m giving it back,” Aiden assured him. “But you’re right. If we all had one of these, with silver arrows, it would take them out fast and they would never even see it coming.”

  “I’ll look into it,” Greg muttered as he selected knives, both large and small and began to distribute them. “We aren’t used to having to kill. Just defend.”

  Aiden was more aware of that then they would ever know he was. Keepers were all the same. It wasn’t just the Summer Hollow Keepers. Every time he had ever had to face off with one, they pretty much only fought the Reapers off to protect their souls.

  The Reapers were on the same page as the Keepers, though. The unspoken rule was that they didn’t kill, because the bodies were hard to deal with. Not to mention all the investigations and forensic shit that came along with a death. Most of the Reapers who went out on missions for the Empress were off the books with fake identification, like the one Hannah had dealt with. But, also like what Hannah experienced, the police still give a crap.

  So, as shitty as their weapons selections were, at least they had some. “This is nice, though.” Aiden turned the little crossbow to the side to examine it. James reached out and snatched it back.

  “Thanks. Lucy’s is way nicer, but it’s old, too.”

  Aiden raised an eyebrow. “Lucy has one?”

  Jack nodded. “It’s a family heirloom. She got it from the trunk of stuff that their Grandmother left for them. But, like he said, it’s old.”

  “It may be old.” Lucy strode into the room behind them. “But, it gets the job done. Age doesn’t matter for some things.”

  Jack grinned. “I’ll remember you said that when we’re sixty.”

  She shook her head in mock defeat. “You are going to be one dirty old man. I can tell.”

  “Focus people.” Greg finished up in the safe and locked it up again. “Lucy, did you warn Dad?”

  The youngest red head nodded. “Yeah, he is going to tell the rest of the souls so that they can stay hidden.”

  They followed Greg back into the living room. “We need to decide if we want to protect the house and fight them as they come, or if we should hide in the woods and attack from behind.”

  Still uncomfortable around all the Keepers, Aiden stood off to the side in the room so that he could watch and listen without being right up in the middle of it all.

  James reclined back on the couch. “If we defend the house, we take less of a risk of losing it. But at the same time, if we attack from the perimeter, there is less chance of losing one of us.”

  Dan clapped his hands together. “It’s settled then. We are more important than the house. We all know that is what Dad would say.”

  Hannah moved closer to David and he encircled her waist with his right arm. “He’s right.” She agreed. “A house can be replaced, people cannot.”

  David shook his head and Aiden could see his inner cop kicking in. “You know, I could have the county police on this if you want me to. It would only take a few phone calls and they could stop it before it even starts.”

  And there it was.

  “No,” Greg said. “This is for us to settle. The Empress needs to know that we aren’t going to back down that easily. That we will fight for what’s ours … our house, our souls, our family.”

  The slight nod that Greg offered Jack along with his last words, did not escape Aiden’s attention. It appeared that Jack had really become a part of this family of Keepers. He had already known how Jack and Lucy felt about each other, but he’d really thought it would have taken the rest of the Keepers longer to warm up to a Reaper being so close.

  A slight wave of anger washed over him and momentarily, he wished that things were how they used to be. Back when it was him and Jack against the world … against his parents. Back in time, before everything went to hell. After a moment of struggling to push the anger away, he realized it wasn’t anger, it was jealousy.

  He missed his friend.

  While pondering that topic, he almost physically shrank back as another thought hit him. Jack wasn’t just his friend, he was Aiden’s only friend.

  He closed his eyes and tried to send the thoughts away. Had he really gone this long without realizing that he was alone without Jack? That he had no one else?

  His parents had pretty much abandoned being parents long ago. They were even worse than the Empress when it came to actually being parents. They were stiff, angry people who only cared about the status of their family. So, obviously, they didn’t care that their son spent more time in the royal home than he did in his own. As soon as he was old enough to train for the Reaper Guard, that is what he did. It was the best decision he had ever made and he would never regret it.

  “Aiden.” Jack’s voice brought him back from the past.

  “What?”

  “You want to come out and help us find the best places to hide in the woods?”

  “Yeah, lead the way.”

  Jack led the group across the expanse of lawn, past the little white picket fence and out into the tree line. Aiden had been in these woods before, back when he’d kidnapped Lucy. He had spent a day staking out the Estmond place so he actually did know some good view points of the house.

  “Stop here,” he ordered. The group halted and he pointed to an opening beside him. “Everyone needs to stay with a partner, always take a buddy. So, if we put
two here, they would get the best view of the east side of the house.” He reached out and snapped a branch off one of the trees, then quickly drew an X in the leaf-covered earth to mark the spot. “Let’s move on.”

  Aiden led them through the woods along the property until he found the second spot. “Two more should be here, this faces the backside of the house.” Still carrying the stick, he marked the spot in the same way he had before. They continued on like that, moving in a semi-circle around the Estmond home while Aiden pointed out the best places for them to hunker down and wait.

  They emerged from the woods on a path leading into the graveyard. He could sense the energy of the souls, but he couldn’t see them. They were hiding from him … and all the other Reapers that would eventually find their way to the Keepers’ home.

  Shit. Not only were the Estmonds worried about their home, they had to be at least a little concerned with the possibility that all those Reapers could massacre the souls they had sworn to protect.

  Moving forward, he strode through the cemetery and tried not to think about how good a soul would make him feel right now. He was weak from not feeding on a regular basis, and he hated feeling weak.

  They were there, somewhere, only a few feet away and could have been easy picking on any other day. But no, he made a promise to Jack and he intended to keep it. Because of Jack, the Keepers were willing to help him get out of the Reaper life. He didn’t want to mess up the only chance he had of being able to have a life after all this.

  Wow, depending on Keepers … that was something he never thought would happen.

  Back at the house, he was finally able to breathe out a sigh of relief. Amazing how it felt so much better being only a short distance from the graveyard.

  Liv stepped into the house behind him and shot him a glance, then turned to the fridge and opened it. When she bent over to dig for something on the bottom shelf, the sight of her jean-clad ass caused his breath to hitch. Quickly, he looked away and found James staring at him, his eyes set in a glare.