Hemlock (Academy of the Dead Book 1)

by Rue Volley

  The taller man cleared his throat and let his eyes float over me, but he recovered at breakneck speed. He extended his hand to my dad, and of course, my dad took it. He’s nothing if not polite.

  The man stared at their hands in disbelief. Maybe he’s just awkward or eccentric. His reactions were confusing at best. Then he perked up.

  Max nudged him. “I thought they were—” he muttered, but I heard him.

  “Were what?” I asked, knowing what he meant. They thought I was leading him back to a compound where they would be able to take advantage of more people.

  David shrugged his friend off.

  “My name is David Dryer. I, well, the truth is we’re sort of lost. My assistant was supposed to have this tour all planned out, but my navigator is pretty bad.”

  He pointed at his friend, who rolled his eyes. “I’m telling you; the GPS went out. All the electronics went—”

  David ignored his friend and continued to talk to my dad. “Normally, things aren’t so disorganized, but I’m in the middle of, well,” he paused, and his friend leaned in and finished his sentence. “A divorce, a really messy one.”

  I think his friend was trying to get him back for interrupting him.

  My dad tilted his head while shaking his hand. I assumed he would ignore the personal admission that David had made, then he spoke, proving me right. “David Dryer, from that show on television?”

  David smiled. “Yes.” He glanced at the man beside him. “And this is Max, my cameraman. The rest of my crew will be showing up tomorrow.” He pulled out his phone and shook it. “If we can get the phones to work.”

  Max piped in. “I told you that all the electronics are out. Everything.”

  My eyebrow cocked. “Not your camera.”

  He cleared his throat and stared at it. Then he shook it. “The battery’s dead,” he added.

  My dad eyed his phone and gave the nod. “Technology is mostly useless here.” He looked up at the sky. “It’s probably the trees and the storms.”

  David paused to look at his friend. “So, you have no Wi-Fi here at all?”

  My dad shook his head. “Nothing to speak of, but honestly, it’s fine. Peaceful, really.”

  “What about a landline?” Max asked in a huff. Suddenly we weren’t so interesting to him.

  My dad chuckled. “With these storms rolling in? It will probably be a few days.”

  “Great,” Max muttered, but David ignored it.

  “Well, we’d been investigating a disturbance in Salem, but it turned out to be nothing.”

  “A disturbance.” I repeated, and David looked at me.

  “Yes, we, well…” David tried to say, but my dad moved the conversation along as he’s known to do by looking at the sky and then back to him. He let go of his hand. “So, David, I take it that you and your friend need a place to stay tonight?”

  David nodded. I stared at him for a second longer than I needed to. He noticed. A memory sparked, and I snapped my fingers. “You’re Arc Angel,” I said as I looked him over.

  David grinned. “That’s just a stage name, but yes, that’s me, but most of my friends just call me Angel.”

  The line between my eyebrows deepened. “You look different.”

  Arc Angel was this very gothic guy from head to toe, and that’s not what was standing in front of me. David was wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and black and white Vans tennis shoes. On the show, he had long black hair like Antonio Banderas in Interview with the Vampire and wore eyeliner. If anything, he reminded me of Chris Angel. I often thought about whether he straight-up ripped him off or just decided that Arc Angel was the catchiest thing he could dream up.

  He scratched his nose then nearly sneezed. We waited until he waved a hand, indicating that it had passed. “Well, I cut my hair, and I don’t wear makeup anymore.”

  Max leaned in. “Cancelled. The show’s been canceled for a few years.”

  David glared at Max then snapped. “We’re on tour.”

  “Self-funded,” Max muttered.

  I pressed. “You look older.”

  David narrowed his eyes. I think that Max and I could team up and have David down in under three minutes if we wanted to.

  My dad spoke up. “Well, my name is Evan, Evan Ellis and this is my daughter, Harper, who you’ve already met, obviously, and the dragon was my son, Innis, the knight, Gunn, his twin, and my wife—”

  My mom interrupted again, “Your wife is making dinner so wash your hands! All of you.”

  My dad laughed and shook me from the side. “Well, you heard her, and her name is—”

  My mom entered the room, along with the sweet scent of lavender. “Lindy Ellis; why don’t you come on in and shut that door? You’re letting every bit of the heat out. We have plenty of room. The storms are coming and along with it the winds.”

  David held his hand up. “Are you sure? We don’t want to inconvenience you and your family.”

  My eyebrow cocked. “Why? You had no problem playing on my empathy when you thought I was just a simple little girl—” My dad gently pushed me inside and chuckled.

  David leaned to the side and smiled at me. “I deserved that.”

  I relaxed a little. He was nice, as nice as a stranger could be, but he wasn’t here to make friends, and I wasn’t looking for any. He wanted ghosts, and all I could think is that he came to the right town.

  The dead outnumber us ten to one.