Book of the Dead: AESLI-00: (A reverse harem, post-pandemic, slow-burn romance) (The JAK2 Cycle, Book 1)

by V. E. S. Pullen

  Jason shot him the bird, and then Sasha was speaking up. “And second, I startled her in the bathroom and she dropped something. When she tried to catch it, she accidentally hit the sink and split her lip. There was nothing weird about it. Is that all you got?”

  I saw the glances shoot between them — taco dude, the jock, Claire, and Marissa — and figured they thought they had plenty of evidence but weren’t saying.

  “Who are we discussing?” Gemma asked, feigning boredom. I should’ve known that no one was that fascinated by Sasha and Ryan, she’d been listening to us the whole time.

  “Dude, we’ll talk again in a month and you’ll be right here with us,” said a different guy, a no-neck bruiser named Bobby or Billy or something equally childish. He completely ignored Gemma, making Ryan smirk.

  We did our triplet mind-meld: eyes meeting, messages passed and received. We were all thinking the same thing: the only person we could imagine still talking to in a month was Azzie.

  “Well, whoever she is, she seems to have all of your attention,” Adriana said pointedly, eyeing her sister the same way we’d just communicated a world of thoughts in one glance. “And suddenly I’m interested. What did you say her name was?”

  Claire hesitated, then said “Azrael Vokaty” like she regretted drawing Adriana’s attention to anyone, even if it was someone she hated. That primal slug brain of hers recognized the threat, but she fought against her instincts to suck up to Evil Twin One.

  “Interesting name,” Gemma said, tilting her head. “Who are her people?”

  “No one,” Marissa shrugged, edging towards the Evil Twins. Clearly she didn’t even have the brains of a slug. “I think she lives with her aunt and uncle? But they care even less about her than we do. I was in the office one time when she was sick and the secretary was trying to get ahold of her aunt, and her aunt told them that she can take care of herself and she knows where to go if she isn’t feeling well. It was cold.”

  “She has no friends,” the bitch straddling Jason’s thigh piped up, running her fingers through his hair. He smiled at her indulgently, like she was a pet monkey performing a cute trick.

  “I’m her friend,” Luka spat out like a fuckhead, because now both the Evil Twins were openly intrigued, even more when Jason said, “Me too.”

  “That’s obvious,” Claire giggled, looking around at all of us. “Since you’re sitting here with us and not in the library or bathroom or janitor’s closet, or wherever it is she goes to eat her disgusting meals. True besties!”

  I stood up, knocking that whiney bitch away without a thought, deeply regretting having her all over me when Azzie walked in. I was pretty sure she saw me — I’m pretty sure she sees everything — and thinks less of me for it.

  I think less of me for it.

  I don’t even know why I let the bitch crawl all over me to begin with, she was annoying as fuck. To be honest, there wasn’t any strange here that measured up to a single piece I had on the outside, and not a damn one was worth disappointing my friend.

  As I crossed the room to get another taco or two, because I could, I acknowledged an inescapable truth: We’re. So. Fucked.

  Chapter Nine

  Spider

  The text I received from my brother was both cryptic and annoying: “Detention unwarranted. Abort! Abort!”

  Jackass.

  I slid my phone into my pocket and debated whether to eat the lunch I brought or go to the cafeteria. On the one hand, the delicious smells emanating from that area were really tempting, and tacos would be way better than PB&J and an apple. On the other hand, students.

  Fucking students.

  I’d like to think that Tai and I weren’t like these little shits when we were in school, way back when JANUS-23 was just a twinkle in some zoonotic organism’s eye, but I had a suspicion we were. If I thought any one of my teachers was still alive, I might be tempted to send them an email and apologize because these animals were infuriating.

  All it took was one day on the job for me to be ready to call it quits and request another posting. One day with all of three regular classes and one study hall, which was one day of aggravation, cloying perfume, hormonal body odor, willful stupidity, and the triplets.

  With orientation, we’ve been in this place just over a week, and I was already so sick of PB&J that I couldn’t believe I ever missed it. Onward to the cafeteria… and I didn’t give a damn what Tai thought he knew about what (or who) Sasha was doing the day before, I wasn’t feeling at all merciful—

  “What the fuck are you doing here? Are you following me?” an unfamiliar voice hissed, and I looked sideways at a girl sitting on the floor against an open locker, holding a covered cup with a straw poking out. She was pale, a little thin for my tastes, with dark auburn hair in two braids hanging just past her shoulders that (hopefully) made her look younger, and big hazel eyes that were narrowed and glaring at me.

  “Excuse me?” I reared back from her in full-on teacher mode, all kinds of offended by this kid swearing at me and acting like she knew me.

  I realized what was going on the same time she did, and my “You must know my brother” overlapped with her “You’re not Soldier Boy. Who are you?”

  A pregnant silence descended, both of us waiting. “You’re Tai’s twin brother,” she finally said, her face a mask but there was something there… something dark and thick with rage. She tried to hide it but wasn’t doing a very good job. “What’s your name?” she demanded, in a tone that was over the line.

  I was still a fucking teacher here, and her attitude was all kinds of bullshit. “Spider,” I answered slowly, trying to rein in my temper, something I’ve never been terribly good at. “But I suppose you should call me Mr. Chandler here.”

  There was no attempt to mask the fury any longer. “S. Chandler?” she shrieked, and now I knew who she was, and maybe what my brother’s text was about. He knew her, somehow, and it had to be through the hospital — it would be easy enough to cancel the detention if she had a valid reason, but this little girl needed to get her fucking attitude under control before I lost my fucking mind.

  I moved back, trying to wrestle down my instincts. “I suppose that’s correct, yes,” I said coldly, a pretty clear warning in my tone. She got to her feet.

  “You gave me a detention. For study hall,” she said through clenched teeth, advancing.

  Fuck this noise.

  “It was an unexcused absence,” I said calmly, the soul of rationality in the face of her erratic responses — no one could look at the tapes later and deny I maintained my professionalism even without audio.

  “No, no it wasn’t,” she snarled at me, like a rabid dog, stepping forward again. I held my ground, expecting her to completely lose her shit, maybe even physically attack me, but she pulled herself together. She lowered her voice and leaned in, looking up at me through the thick fringe of her eyelashes.

  I had a sudden, visceral, and completely inappropriate reaction to her, to the depth of her fury, her fearlessness, and the way she threw out this new challenge like we were equals. She acted like we were perfectly matched opponents — I physically dwarfed her, almost twice her width and towering over her, and she still stepped up to me, and it felt like a hand reaching out and grasping my cock.

  But her next words pushed my temper over the edge.

  “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told your brother,” she hissed at me, “right now, my hostility isn’t personal. I give no fucks about you.” Clearly. Christ, I had to clench my fists to keep from reaching for her and shaking her until her teeth rattled, but she just kept talking. “You’ve got a whole school of people here who will give a damn about what you have to say and who you are, but I’m not one of them. I’ll serve your fucking detention, Spider Chandler, but you’re making assumptions about things you know nothing about.”

  What the fuck was that supposed to mean? What assumptions? It threw me, actually did me a favor by distracting me long enough so that I
didn’t put hands on her, lose my job, and fuck up our participation in the study. I stared blankly before coming to the decision that it didn’t matter — whatever she was going on about wasn’t nearly as important as her unacceptable tone and attitude. “Who the fuck do you think you are, little girl—”

  “Do you all think I’m stupid?” The little bitch interrupted me, and my vision went red around the edges, but then… then she shocked the everliving fuck out of me. “I’m so far from stupid, and this heavy-handed bullshit is nothing but a goddamn insult. You should take the other twins and the fucking triplets and go, I’m not going to fall for whatever this is. You know what? Fuck this. Just stay out of my fucking way, I don’t have the time or energy to deal with this bullshit.”

  This was— she thinks this is about her? Who the fuck was this girl? “Well that’s going to be a little difficult, seeing as we have two classes a day together,” I full-on smirked at her, looking forward to bursting her sheltered little bubble. I glanced down at my watch without even really seeing it. “In twenty minutes, in fact. I’ll expect to see you there, you entitled little bitch, or you’re looking at a suspension.”

  I went too far. I knew it immediately. Teachers shouldn’t swear at the students, and they really shouldn’t call them bitches. That is generally frowned upon, even in a situation like ours. She could have my balls in a vise if she wanted, and I had no doubt that she’d—

  “Looking forward to it, fuckwad!” She was full-on beaming at me, her face lit up in something resembling joy. It transformed her from a sorta-pretty-but-awkward teen to a beautiful woman, and I staggered backwards in my brain, recoiling from the wall of lust I just slammed into. Fuck. FUCK.

  She folded her long-ass legs beneath her and sank back to the floor, taking a deliberately long suck from the straw in her drink that I felt it in my dick. I stared down at her, memorizing every line of her body, the pucker of her lips, her luminescent eyes gazing up at me, the way her hand coiled around the cup and her slim fingers grasped it tightly. It was an image I’d recall again and again as I fisted my cock, and the prospect of two hours a day with her in my sights was both thrilling and terrifying. I could easily ruin everything, and right now, I gave no fucks.

  I walked away, blindly continuing on to the cafeteria as I contemplated trying to explain to my brother — my family — why I jeopardized everything over a teenaged girl with ageless eyes and entitlement issues. And then I thought back over what Tai had said, and more importantly what he hadn’t, I wondered if he had exactly the same thought.

  We’re so fucked.

  Azzie

  I couldn’t believe it, Tai had shown up at my school — wearing a tie no less — and was now just wandering the halls as if he belonged here. Admittedly it was nice to have a little Tai-eye-candy anytime, but I think I preferred the slightly too-tight scrubs over this khaki-cargo-pants-and-button-down-shirt look. He looked weird. He looked like a teacher. No bueno, not even a little.

  And to cement my dislike of this version of Tai, he acted like he didn’t know me — like he didn’t even see me — and walked right past me without a word! I have no illusions about Tai, but even when I’ve been cold to him or even a bit mean, he’s been decent, and that more than anything has had me considering cutting him some slack. Being disregarded like this stung, and that’s probably why something venomous came out when all I intended to do was say hi (and maybe force him to acknowledge me).

  “What the fuck are you doing here? Are you following me?”

  Tai stopped dead in the middle of the empty hallway and turned towards me, outrage practically rolling off of him. It was then I realized that it wasn’t Tai.

  He looked almost exactly like Tai: the same beautiful brown eyes surrounded by thick, sooty lashes; the same razor-sharp cheekbones and chiseled jaw; the same warm copper skin and lush mouth and black velvet hair. Even the same build, the same musculature, but not the same somehow. It wasn’t Tai. I said “You’re not Soldier Boy, who are you?” at the same time he said “You must know my brother.”

  Tai is a twin.

  I don’t believe in coincidences.

  “You’re Tai’s twin brother,” I said, giving nothing away. He had no idea how agitated I was, the spike of fear and distrust making me weak. “What’s your name?”

  “Spider,” he said carefully. “But I suppose you have to call me Mr. Chandler here.”

  “S. Chandler?” I asked, fury eclipsing my caution.

  “I suppose that’s correct, yes.” He backed up a step. I got to my feet.

  “You gave me detention. For study hall,” I said slowly, gritting my teeth.

  “It was an unexcused absence.”

  “No, no it wasn’t,” I snarled, drifting forward. I lowered my tone, forcing him to bend towards me. “And I’m going to tell you the same thing I told your brother: right now, my hostility isn’t personal. I give no fucks about you. You’ve got a whole school of people here who will give a damn about what you have to say and who you are, but I’m not one of them. I’ll serve your fucking detention, Spider Chandler, but you’re making assumptions about things you know nothing about.”

  He’d gone rigid, staring at me with a cold fury I bet he’d only used on enemy combatants before now. “Who the fuck do you think you are, little girl—”

  “Do you all think I’m stupid?” I interrupted him, causing a vein to pulse in his temple. “I’m so far from stupid, and this heavy-handed bullshit is nothing but a goddamn insult. You should take the other twins and the fucking triplets and go, I’m not going to fall for whatever this is. You know what? Fuck this. Just stay out of my fucking way, I don’t have the time or energy to deal with this bullshit.”

  “Well that’s going to be a little difficult, seeing as we have two classes a day together,” he sneered, then deliberately looked at his watch. “In twenty minutes, in fact. I’ll expect to see you there, you entitled little bitch, or you’re looking at a suspension.”

  There was something absolutely refreshing about his hostility. The honesty of it. It stopped me in my tracks and I couldn’t help it, I beamed up at him. “Looking forward to it, fuckwad!” I said, genuinely cheerful. At school. Unprecedented.

  His brow furrowed like he didn’t know what to make of me. I smiled again, sitting back down and taking an excessively loud slurp of my smoothie, watching him the whole time. He stared down at me, the rage tapering off to something calculating.

  He nodded and turned away, continuing down the hallway in the direction he’d been heading before I stopped him.

  Chapter Ten

  Spider

  One conversation with Azzie and I felt like I’d been on a rollercoaster.

  Our interaction began with my annoyance climbing to previously undiscovered heights, then things leveled out briefly — maybe even enjoyed a slight dip into smug superiority — only to skyrocket all the way into pure rage before rolling to a stop somewhere between confusion and a weird, bothersome fondness.

  For whatever reason, calling her an entitled little bitch and having her calling me a fuckwad in return became a bizarre kind of “meet-cute” in my brain. She wasn’t flirting, not even a little — she was feeling legit hostility towards me for reasons I can’t even fathom, and that had my interest.

  As soon as I left that infuriating little creature behind, I pulled out my phone and texted Tai that I had a run-in with a friend of his. The second her name came up, he added the fucking triplets to the conversation, and I was already so close to losing my shit that I immediately went on the offensive when they attacked; her going off with Sasha instead of coming to my classes was bugging me. A lot.

  On top of that, Tai fucking gave them access to our secure text channel — I really wanted to know when he had them install the apps because this was bullshit — and I might have lashed out a little.

  Luka: What did you do?

  Me: Why do you think I did something?

  Sev: What the fuck did you do, Spider?

&
nbsp; Me: WTF? Why do you even give a shit that this girl is having a goddamn temper tantrum?

  Luka: She’s. My. Friend. Why do I need to keep saying that today? WHAT DID YOU DO?

  Sev: She’s pretty much the only one here I don’t want to end slowly and painfully. She’s not like the rest of them.

  Me: Bullshit. She’s an entitled little bitch.

  Tai: She’s not. I told you the detention was unwarranted.

  Me: Again, BULLSHIT. I don’t know why you’re all on board with giving her special treatment but rules are rules. She skipped two of my classes yesterday to go off with Sasha. She’s lucky she only got one detention, no one would indulge these fucks out in the real world. I’m so damn sick of this place already.

  Tai: She’s sick, Spider. She’s the girl that comes to my lab every morning, she’s got this type of blood cancer. I’ve been researching it, it’s pretty bad and they aren’t really treating it.

  Sasha: She didn’t “go off with Sasha” and I know what you’re implying, ass. She hurt herself yesterday, bled everywhere. WE took her to our place to get cleaned up and she fell asleep. Slept for like 17 hours. That’s why *she* missed classes. I stayed home so she wouldn’t wake up alone in a strange house, which is why *I* missed classes.

  Sev: It was his fault she got hurt too. Him and asshole Jason Callis.

  Me: Why didn’t she fucking tell me any of this?

  Luka: What do you mean they aren’t treating it?

  Tai: She’s not on any meds, and there are some that would help. No one will explain why she isn’t on anything, afaik her doctor just doesn’t want her taking them.

  Sev: They won’t give her meds? What the actual FUCK?

  Luka: She can’t even eat real food right now, she’s living off of these godawful smoothies that smell like compost. The lunch lady told me after she left that Azzie is on this really rigid diet and her aunt supplies all her food and even when she’s feeling better, she has to avoid all kinds of things because they make her liver or spleen hurt or something. It’s why she’s so thin.