The Death Series: A Dark Dystopian Fantasy Box Set: (Books 1-3) (44 page)

We got into the back of his cop car and I noticed that his wasn't as gross as Garcia's.

“This is a better ride than the G-man,” Tiff observed for me.

Smith looked at Tiff in the rear view mirror like,
huh?

“Garcia,” I answered for her and she held out her palm like I was insanely brilliant.

“Oh. Well, he has a lot of criminals he transports and I mainly hit crime scenes after the crime has been committed.”

Made sense.

We were quiet on the way to our respective houses and pulled up in front of the Weller house. It was a huge place with a tree standing guard in the front lawn and a tire swing hanging from it. Toys littered the front yard in a distractingly colorful way.

“Where'd you get that old tire?” I asked, knowing that sucker was
way-illegal.

Tiff's smile got wider and she said, “A certain refuse station had a ton lying around.” She winked.

I got it. The dump. Bry must have hauled the thing around in his crappy car.

A little kid about five years old zoomed out the front door looking a lot like Tiff's mom, Shirley.

Tiff opened the door and he leaped into her arms. “Tiffie!” he shrieked in a most annoying way.

In that moment I was deeply glad I was an only child.

“How many Wellers are there?” I asked, Smith looking on with interest.

She looked at me, ruffling the kid's hair. “I have four younger brothers.”

Geez, that explained a buttload about Tiff. She's always jockeying for position.

“What? Your parents are trying to repopulate the world?” I asked.

“Somethin' like that,” Bry said, walking up to the cop car with the
hottest chick in the world
. So this was the one he'd been eye-ballin...

She was tall and slim, but had weight in all the right spots. Long red hair, not carrot-colored like John's but like a deeply burnished copper penny, [not that those were around anymore], but I had a few in a jar. Whiskey-colored eyes that took up about half her face.
Wow.

Then she
spoke
and ruined it. “Is this the AFTD pair?” she said in a voice that rivaled Griswold's, her eyes filled to the brim with loathing.

Tiff looked at me and made a face and I knew I was in for it. I started having the insane urge-to-laugh-at-inappropriate times.

Like now.

It started from my gut and gales of laughter pealed out and it appeared that I was laughing at Miss Hotness.
Which I was,
which made me
laugh harder.

Smith looked alarmed and Tiff said quickly, “Catch ya later, Hart.”

She took off before her laughter began, the coward.

I sat in the back of the cop car with tears streaming down my face and laughed. Bry glowered at me and his girlfriend said, “Is he retarded or something?”

Bry looked mildly offended on my behalf, then looked at Miss Hotness and rethought his priorities. “Not usually,” he said with barely-there tact.

“Well,
he is today
,” she said, huffing off. She looked as good walking away as coming but I couldn't appreciate it because I was laughing so hard and she was clearly,
a raging bitch.

I hiccuped to a stop and said to Bry, “Good luck with that!” then started howling again. He slammed the door on me, jogging after the witch. Who was probably looking for her broomstick about now. She was gonna throw that sucker in low gear and take it for a spin, chasing all the Weller kids around with a pointy hat jammed on her head.

Smith pulsed his car to start and turned to me. “She was a piece of work.”

I nodded. “Yeah she is.” I wouldn't be able to wipe the grin off my face if it killed me.

He said, “You handled that well.”

Which made me laugh again. Smith shook his head and started driving and my pulse vibrated. I looked down at the screen, wiping tears away from my eyes:

The
MJ
light illuminated and I depressed my thumb on the pad and thought:
accept contact.

Guess what Hart? -
MJ

Idk.
..CH

Kent Lake flat-lined today
.- MJ

No
profanity-block!
-CH

No
profanity-block!
-
MJ

Quickly, I
thought:

Multiple-contact
and all my contact names for the group came up.

Hey
- JLeC, John Terran, AS, BW, TW, SM

Okay, J-man, tell the group.-
CH

Maybe I didn't want them all to know
.-MJ

I have proven myself and would appreciate knowing everything. John has filled me in on it all anyways.
-AS

Okay...Sims, but you have to grow on me...I'm like a fine wine...

Jonesy! Get over yourself and tell us what's happening! -
SM

Soph...don't get your panties in a twist. -
MJ

What happened at the school, Jones?
-TW

The school flat-lined.-
MJ

silence.

Like the chopper at the cemetery in June?
John Terran

Kinda like.
..
profanity-block!
You connect-the-dots fast, Terran!-
MJ

No electrical activity whatsoever? -
AS

Nada. They couldn't even get the back-up pulse generators going.-
MJ

Are you
profanity-block
kidding me? I've never heard of that happening!
-BW

Well, it happened and it was great...the adults were scrambling around like eggs trying to get everything back online and nothing! It was righteous!
-MJ

rolls eyes
you're still gonna have to do the homework, Jones.
-TW

What are they speculating?
-AS

Good question, Alex.
- John Terran

mock-bow
Thanks.-
AS

Can it, dip-
profanity-block,
they think they've got an
unclassified
in the school
.-MJ

I'm
unclassified
.
-AS

Not like you, obviously...hey, I thought you were smart?
-MJ

Knock it off, Jonesy...this is serious. Maybe it's some wacko!
-JLeC

Jade's right....when do they think they can get power back on?-
CH

Already done, my man.
-MJ

When?
-John Terran.

Soon as school was over.-
MJ

Definitely a student.
-AS

Yeah, the kids leave, the power comes on. Two plus two equals four.
-BW

Not for everyone
laughs
-TW

Just wanted you clowns to know
shrugs
-MJ

K, we're still meeting at the hide-a-way on Friday?
CH

Yeah.
- Multiple-contact response

Six o'clock then.
-CH

I'll have the AP results then, too.-
MJ

Great, we'll all sleep like babies tonight knowing that
.-BW

Piss off Bry
.-MJ

See you guys on Friday.
-John Terran

Signing off.
-AS

Signing off? Seriously?

See ya.-
Multiple-contact response.

Jade?
-CH

Still here
.-JLeC

I'm in the back of a cop car so I'll pulse you later. -
CH

K...Garcia's?
-JLeC

No...it's a long story.
-CH

You okay
? -JLeC

Yeah...ttys, Love you.
-CH

smiles
Love you too
.-JLeC

Smith rolled up to my house and turned. “You say your friend is a Null?”

“Yeah.”

“He any good?”

“Maybe better than you. Someday.” I winked. “Thanks for your help today.”

He nodded.

I turned with one foot on the cement sidewalk and one in the car's floorboard. “What's with you and Garcia?”

Smith stared at me for a second. “You're not a big talker are ya?”

I shook my head,
not really
.

“Bobbi and I used to go out.”

So?
I shrugged.

“I think he likes her and doesn't like that I was in the picture before.”

“Isn't that kinda adult info. for me to have?”

Couldn't believe he was sharing.

“Not so much. But, you and I might work together more and I would rather treat you like a peer than not. You're a powerful paranormal and that needs a dose of healthy respect. Also,” he smiled now, “like Gale said before, Garcia just missed the inoculation and maybe is frustrated over that.”

I shook my head. “I don't get that. I think maybe it's the criminals that are paranormal that's the problem. You're reading him wrong.”

After last year and all that Garcia had risked for my motley crew of friends, I was a believer that he stood for what he was supposed to:

serve and protect.

CHAPTER 8

I wasn't seeing enough of Jade and needed a rendezvous (that was a
damn
fancy word that had come up
from
Jade. She was forcing herself to take French as a foreign language class this semester.)

I remembered the conversation exactly:

*

“You should take Spanish, and all our other friends can take a different language and then we'll all know something different.” She had looked up at me with those deep eyes I'd been busy drowning in and I snapped back to attention.

I looked at her as if I was really interested in listening to school-talk. What I was really interested in was... and my gaze drifted to her mouth.

“Come on Caleb,” she'd said. “You don't see the logic?”

I didn't, and told her so. I was trying to figure out some way to take all Vo-Tech but so far, I hadn't managed it. I had to take my paranormal ability class, core, which meant all the normal sleep-through-thems: Math, English, Science, and History. That left me with one fun class (PE, duh). Which would have been fun but Griswold was teaching it this year at KPH so nothing was exciting. That left Affinity for the Dead...which was not fun yet but definitely interesting.

Focus Caleb, I thought, dragging my lustful gaze away from her mouth. That would work for about ten seconds.

“And you're taking French why?”

“I
am
French,” she said.

“I thought you were Cherokee Indian?”

She nodded. “That too.”

She smiled at me and I grinned back.

I could totally work this angle.

“So, since you're French (LeClerc), I was thinking that meant you could French kiss me?” I said, lifting my eyebrows.

She stepped closer to me, and I reached for her, pulling her in tight against my body, where she fit like a puzzle piece.

And we tried that whole French thing out
.

Finally, we broke apart, my hands lingering everywhere on her. There were so many fantastic parts of Jade, but it was her eyes that my gaze always came back to. They were full of what she felt for me...unguarded and vulnerable, her love for me a thing that lived there.

I never got tired of looking into them.

*

I pulsed her. All this thinking about Jade made me want to see her. Supper was over and it was time to connect, with all the cop stuff today, I hadn't had time. We were still in that lame first week of school where we're getting “reacquainted” and suffering through review of... I don't know,
everything.
That meant no useless homework,
yet.
Onyx pushed his head underneath my hand and I absently stroked it.

I ripped my pulse out of my back pocket and it clattered to my floor. Damn thing. It was so light, sometimes it flung itself all over the place when I got it out. I thought about Smith's and how great it would be to have a pulse that had the hover feature. You drop your phone and no big deal, it slaps back on your hip without dropping. Sweet.

I depressed the pad and
thought: Jade LeClerc.

Initializing.

Hi.-
JLeC

Hi...I'm home now, no homework, wanna get together? -
CH

Yeah! But...

What?
-CH

Brett and Carson...and some other kids are hanging out in the neighborhood and it might... ah, cause problems.-
JLeC

I didn't like that whole pack of dogs over there sniffin' around Jade.

Caleb, you're not lifting your thumb...

Oops, I lifted then depressed again.

I guess ya know how I feel then.-
CH

I always have.-
JLeC

Right, Empath.

Anyway... let me bring more people then.-
CH

I don't want a brawl...any violence or whatever.-
JLeC

There won't be, I swear!
-CH

Is Jonesy going? -
JLeC

Pause in pulse communication.

Maybe...-
CH

That's what I'm talking about.-
JLeC

Nothing will happen if
they
don't start something.-
CH

I know you won't start anything ...but, our group, as a whole... is awfully good at finishing things.
-JLeC

She had a point there.

K, here's the thing, I'll pulse the world and tell them the parameters, come over so we can hang out and it'll all be okay.
-CH

reluctance
... K.-
JLeC

I really want to see you.-
CH

Me too, Caleb.
-JLeC

And another thing...I can't protect you if something goes wrong if I'm the only dude in a pack of wolves...you got me? -
CH

Why does it always come down to that? You protecting me? -
JLeC

Cuz you're the girl and I'm the guy...it's part of my job description
laughs -
CH

Not real funny, Caleb.
-JLeC

Don't worry about it, Jade. I love you, I don't ever want to see you hurt. And I'm trying not use the Zombie Enforcers
shrugs
-
CH

****

I shrugged out of my clothes and bundled them up...hesitating  just a second, I finally threw the whole mess in the hamper (I only had dirty clothes in there now). The fragrant, eau de zombie cologne clung to them and I didn't think Jade would think that was
manly.

I opened my closet and had exactly two things hanging in it, over the hanger pole-thing, not on actual hangers. I grabbed the jeans and ancient T-shirt with a jerk, ripping it off the pole and the thing clattered to the bottom of the closet with a rattling bang.

“What was that?” I heard Mom yell from downstairs.

I picked the pole-thing up, putting it back in the plastic cups and  heard Mom coming up the stairs.

Crap.

She knocked and immediately walked in and I wondered if the knocking really did anything? I mean,
seriously?
If you're just gonna barge in...

She looked at me, then wrinkled her nose, putting her hand to her mouth. Mom glanced over at Onyx, who had his nose stuffed in my dirty clothes hamper...his tail swinging back and forth.

The Boy's clothes smelled very interesting today, the Dog thought. The Boy had been around dead things and the Dog wanted to know
more
. The Dog pressed his nose to the fragrant smells again, as a point-of-fact, if The Dog dug down further... he might be able to find
more
interesting smells...

“Your room reeks like graveyard again, Caleb.”

Huh.

“That's because I was at one with Garcia and Gale, Mom.”

“Ah-huh. But why does your room smell bad?”

Great,
as explanations went, I wasn't interested in Mom freaking out over another Zombie Episode.

“There was some trouble at the cemetery...”

Mom's eyebrows dropped like a brick over her eyes and I rushed on before a mondo-rant could start. “We had a Null, Mom. It was fine.”

“It doesn't
smell
fine, Caleb,” she said.

She spared a glance at Onyx, who was now digging enthusiastically through my heap of dirty underwear.

Why do dogs always like the sickest smells?

I sighed, I was standing there in my boxers with my new clothes in my arms. “Can we talk about this later? I told Jade I was gonna pick her up soon,” I said, pointedly looking at the clean clothes I was holding.

“
Going
,” Mom corrected me. “I want the full scoop later, pal.” She pointed a finger at me. “And your father will too.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”

She turned and I followed her, Onyx trotting reluctantly after us. I watched my footing down the stairs, which were dimly lit and steep. “Where are you going tonight?” Mom asked.

Details, details.

“Bry's
going
to pick me up and we're all dropping by Jade's house... and then, I don't know... I hadn't thought that far ahead. I haven't seen Jade much since school started and now this police thing...”

Mom glowered, she was handling Bry's hunk-of-shit car situation better now that she had Met The Parents. That seemed to always crank her down a notch if she was freaking about a new kid. My parents needed to trust me more, I mean, would I hang out with losers?

Really?

After my shower, I threw on my clothes, brushed my teeth and flew out of the bathroom. Bry and Tiff were already there and the Js stormed into the house a minute later.

“Where's Alex and Sophie?” I asked.

“We're pickin' em up,” Jonesy said, staring past me into the kitchen.

Bry laughed. “You're always on the prowl for grub man.”

Jonesy looked at him. “And you're not?”

He had him there.

Bry crossed his arms and Mom came out of the kitchen with a plate full of cookies. Well, thank God for that.

We dug in.

After three cookies, Bry commented, “Aren't we supposed to get going to Jade's?”

Oh crap!
Yeah!

“Hang on, I gotta brush the teeth again.”

Jonesy gave me a speculative look. “What's with all the big-time hygiene fetish, Hart?”

“Girlfriend,” Tiff and Mom said at the same time.

Bry barked out a laugh and Tiff's eyes narrowed. “I wouldn't talk, Bry. What about
Barbie?”

He returned her glare. “That's not her name, ya squirrel, so shut-up.”

“Hey!” Mom said.

We all turned to her while I was mid-stroke on my teeth. “No shut-up talk allowed,” she glowered at us, hands on hips.

The Wellers looked chastised. “Sorry,” Bry mumbled, looking at me like,
wow, dude, is this the word-maze you live in?

Welcome to my world.

It's not like Mom had five other kids to distract her or something.
No-oh.
She had plenty of time to concern herself over
phrasing.

Teeth finally cleaned we took off down the stairs, piling into Bry's car and Jonesy said, “We pick up Soph next, I don't want Alex sitting on my lap.”

“You just like her butt, Jones,” Tiff said uncharitably.

Jonesy winked. “I do like booty and she has a
fine
one,” he expounded. “But,” he said, holding up a finger, “I don't want a dude on my lap.”

“Homo-phobe-much,” Tiff said.

Jonesy shrugged like,
ya caught me.

We swung into Sophie's driveway and she was saying something to her mom who didn't look a thing like her. She was dark like Jonesy. Sophie turned, waving to us. Her smile slipped a little as she surveyed us all packed in there like sardines. Thankfully, her mom had gone back inside and maybe didn't notice the restraint harness issue.

There weren't enough
.

“Where am I going to sit?” she asked.

Jonesy waggled his eyebrows and she sighed but, it seemed like she was faking it. I was just wondering when these two were going to proclaim their couple-dom. Jonesy spent most his time denying he liked Sophie and watching her butt constantly, and she spent a lot of time making him feel stupid, which was futile because Jonesy had enough self-esteem for the universe. She'd never put out his self-love fire.

She succumbed to his charms, sitting on his lap and he made a big groan about how
heavy
she was and Sophie elbowed him and they grinned like the idiots they were. Brother.

Alex was last and his neighborhood was right next to Jade's and Brett's. It was a little bit better off and didn't have that distinctive, ghetto-vibe but it was still questionable.

He was already waiting outside in his polo shirt, glasses sliding all over his face, and glaringly white tennis shoes.

A fashion disaster.
But
damn
, was he strong.

He shoe-horned himself in between the Weller siblings and being as he was about one hundred pounds, they managed.

“So tell me,” Bry said.

I threw my elbows over the middle of the front seat, which took some doing, with the Jonesy-Sophie sandwich on one side and John's bony parts digging into mine.