The Death Series: A Dark Dystopian Fantasy Box Set: (Books 1-3) (66 page)

I watched her wavering form through the glass as she moved to the door and through it.

She never looked back.

I wanted to puke.

It was my plan but somehow, I had a bad feeling about it.

As it turned out, besides AFTD, I wasn't too bad on intuition either.

CHAPTER 30

The next two weeks were the worst of my life. Jade and I had to act like we didn't like each other. Tiff and I were called in twice for suspicious clues that turned out to be nothing and I was stuck in a ton of core classes that had me bored to weeping.

What was really interesting was that Jonesy was still an Unclassified but we all knew what he was: an Electra-Magnetic. It was sweet. Once again, the adults were in the dark (like mushrooms, singing in their own shit). I liked it that way. The ones I thought were bad were sometimes good, the ones that were good sometimes weren't.

Brett was trailing after Jade and I was on a fine line of tension all the time. She'd spread around the school that we'd broken up and there were a few guys that had taken notice (of course) and Brett was the main one. Always there, always following.

As I was cramming my pulse-readers into my locker, Jade walked by and I stared at her like a guy starving; the sweep of her back with the hair falling in the middle of it, swinging as she walked by. The pink tee she wore underscored by a chocolate-colored lace cami. Her pink flats peeked out from skintight pants, but her face was a pinched mask.

Looking away, I scrubbed a hand over my face and when I looked up Sophie was there. I looked for Jade but could barely make her out. She was getting swallowed in the crowd with
Brett
trailing after her.

I stood so fast that I was light-headed, my fists curling. I actually moved to go after him when Sophie put a hand on my shoulder and I remembered she was standing there. Jonesy walked up and put an arm around Sophie.

“Hey,” he said.

My eyes strayed to where Jade had been. I looked back at Jonesy, “Hey.”

“Looks like you're wantin' to put a hurt on somebody.”

“Yeah.”

“Is it who I'm thinkin'?”

“Yeah,” I ground out, my fists like hammers by my side.

“Caleb,” Sophie started, “she's not liking it any more than you are. She's as helpless as you.”

“I'm not helpless. I'm steaming,
effing pissed
.”

Jonesy smiled. “About that...”

John arrived with Tiff, Bry and Mia. “Did you get the pulse, Caleb?” Tiff asked.

I looked at Tiff. Shit, I turned to my locker and found my pulse where I'd left in on the lone interior shelf at the top of the lockers. I depressed the pad and a message was there from Garcia:

Another crime scene; location under strictest confidence.
- Garcia, Raul-KCP

Location as follows:

I
thought
my password again to unlock the location and looked at Tiff with surprise and she raised a finger to her lips.

Right
, couldn't say it out loud. I nodded my understanding.

I began to pulse Jade, I just had to make that connection. Right now, until this shitty investigation was through...it was all we had. The strain was taking its toll. My thoughts touched on Brett again and my expression darkened.

Jonesy got in my grill. “Listen Hart, calm down...”

I looked down at him. Not by much, we were closer in height than we had been. We were towering over the chicks now. A superb development.

“I can't help it. That turd is scenting on Jade and she's not into it
at all,
” my fists clenching again.

John shrugged. “Just ask to be taken off the case. It's interfering with your life.”

“No,” Tiff said. “We're in it for the long haul. And it isn't gonna be much longer. It's bigger than us,” she motioned to everyone milling around in the hall, spilling out into the huge commons area.

I hung my head and muttered, “Tiff's right, but it blows.”

John clapped me on the back. “Man up, your birthday is coming up and I bet you this will all be over by then.”

John was trying to cheer me up but I was in my own black cloud of agony.

At least we could go to Gramps'. It'd be bonfire time, all the little kiddies out trick-or-treating and us around the fire trying not to freeze our asses off.

“We're going to your grandpa's right?” Sophie confirmed.

I nodded.

“No lake, though?” John asked.

“Yeah, it'll be drained by then,” I said.

“Bunch-o-stumps, Hart!” Jonesy said.

I shook my finger at him. “We're not doin' any of the shootin' off fireworks this year. Gramps about got his ass handed to him for that.”

What a disaster that'd been. Jonesy thought it was a great idea to light the fireworks on the exposed stumps that poked out of what was left of the lake water.

“Nobody hands your grandpa his ass I'm just sayin',” Tiff  remarked.

Alex walked up. “What about asses?”

We all looked at him and Jonesy said, “We're just talkin' about Caleb's grandpa, perv-boy.”

Alex gave a puzzled expression, “Why are we talking about old guys' asses?”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “We're not! Jonesy, ugh!” She threw up her hands and he leaned in close to her and whispered something in her ear that caused her to giggle.

Cozy.

“You guys are aggressively fixated on body parts,” Mia commented.

“Only one!” Jonesy said and Sophie's eyes narrowed.

Nice, the ass fetish back on-line. John and I shared a full look and trudged off to class, right after school I was gonna have to do another crime scene. Strange that Tiff and I weren't going right away.

I hauled out my pulse to let Jade know but instead of the message I should have sent, I pulsed what was swimming in my head, never leaving my mind:

Initializing

Jade LeClerc

Hey.-
CH

Hi...it's good to get your pulse.-
JLeC

I gotta see you...can you sneak out between Science and English and meet me by the restroom? -
CH

nods
I love you-
JLeC

Me too.-
CH

Pulse to Hibernate

I watched the green luminescence fade and sighed with relief. We'd sneak a moment and that would get us through today. I was so done with My Plan. It seemed doable in the beginning but it was pretty much sucking ass now. Having to act like the moon didn't set on Jade's head was not working. And that ass-clown Brett needed to back the hell off.

*

I pushed Jade up against the small alcove wall that separated the boys' and girls' bathrooms, my palms planted on the wall on either side of her head, her chest pressed against mine. I could feel her heartbeat, her breath warm on my neck. I moved in and kissed her before she had a moment to think, groaning.

God, I missed her.

She kissed me back, all too briefly, then pushed her hands on my chest.

“What?” I asked, my hand falling to take a chunk of her hair between my fingers, playing with the silk of it.

“You're going to another crime scene?”

My eyes flipped up to meet hers.“Yeah, Tiff and I. Another murder.”

“God!” she half-yelled and a few kids in the hall looked over at us as they poured out of their classes and I moved away from her, feigning indifference for the eyes that found us together.

The green of her eyes darkened  and I knew a huge girl-rage was coming on. “I need this to end, Caleb.”

Duh.

Some of what I was feeling must have showed on my face 'cuz she went on, “I mean it. I am tired of pretending,” she said as she lowered her voice, “I want us to be together again.” She put her hand on my forearm, stroking the skin and that chemistry we had sprung between us. Our gazes locked, the hall with the other kids melting into the background. I actually did a stupid thing and began to move toward her again, to hell with appearances when Brett walked up.

“Hey guys.” he said with a smirk, shattering that swirling heat. It dissipated like mist.

Brett hadn't missed the growth spurt train and we stared at each other for a tense interval.

Finally, Jade said, “Hey Brett.”

He broke the stare and looked at her with eyes that softened. He was gone on her, even I could tell.

“What are ya doin' hanging around with him?” he asked, jerking his head in my direction.

She shook her head. “Caleb had a question about a class...” she trailed off and our eyes met. Her hand on my skin a burning memory.

“Okay, why don't we go to Science together?” Brett asked.

Jade nodded, and my heart paused in my chest. “See ya, Caleb,” she said with a sad little wave.

I watched her walk away with Brett, their size a huge contrast. He was so big compared to her. I felt like a loser. The final blow was him glancing over his shoulder and sending me a wink.

The fucker.

Mia walked over, seeing my expression. “Sorry, Caleb.”

I looked at her. “I want to kill his ass.”

She shrugged. “You got to see this through, like Tiff said.”

I nodded. “See ya later.”

I stalked off to class.

I had made up my mind. They'd have to find someone new. I wasn't gonna risk losing Jade.
Nothing was that important.

Even death.

CHAPTER 31

I looked over at Tiff and she shrugged her shoulders. We were back at Clemen's Cemetery, both on our bikes.

“They didn't pick you up?” I asked.

“No, Garcia said to meet us here.”

That was weird. Usually there was always a cop picking us up to take us to the crime scenes.

“Ya know, it's weird that the killer would do somebody else at this cemetery.”

The same cemetery where all the fun with the Graysheets had been had. Yeah, that.

I nodded. “Yeah, this whole set-up is weird.”

We dismounted and I got my pulse out to let the Parental Unit in on where I was but Tiff stopped me.

“Don't pulse anyone, I had to use my password to unlock this location. We're not supposed to say.”

“My mom won't like not knowing where I'm at after school.”

“She gonna have a cantaloupe?” Tiff asked.

I laughed, I couldn't help it. “Nah, I'm thinkin' that would kinda hurt, duh.”

Tiff rolled her eyes. “Ya know what I mean! Is she gonna like, alert the media or something?”

I thought about it. Maybe.

“She's kinda a panicker...” I began.

“What about your dad?”

I shook my head. “No, he'll think it through logically.”

“That's great considering how illogical your life is.”

There
was
that.

We heard voices and trudged up the same path we'd trudged just a few months ago on a hot summer day. The season was different, the feelings the same.

“I hate this place,” Tiff whispered.

I shrugged. “Yeah, nothing good has happened here.”

“It's a friggin' trend,” she said.

We got to the top of the knoll where the old wood fence stood, its slats like decaying teeth wrapping the perimeter of the old graveyard.

I caught sight of Smith the Null, Garcia and Jade.

What the hell?

Tiff whipped her head to me. “What the hell is goin' on?”

I shook my head. “Not sure, but I don't like it.”

Things did not add up here. Where were the dead-techs? The tape,  the body?

Actually, there was a body. As we approached, I recognized it was McGraw. His pulse was in his hand, sightless eyes looking into a sky that was growing dark.

My heartbeat quickened and I said to Tiff in a whisper, “Be ready.”

“K,” she whispered back, her voice shaking.

We stood within ten feet of Garcia, Smith and Jade. My eyes sought Jade's and I found terror there. My power welled to the surface like a wave to shore and stopped.

My gaze shifted to Smith.

“Oh my God, he's tuned up,” Tiff said.

Eff-me.

My eyes traveled back to Jade and that's when I saw it. Smith had a gun pressed to Garcia, a defenseless Jade in the middle.

Smith reached out with a hand and stroked Jade's hair and she whimpered.

“Don't touch her,” I said in a voice choked with rage.

“I'm sorry Caleb, I never saw it,” Garcia said.

“Shut up, Raul,” Smith commented conversationally, never taking his eyes from mine.

“Your little girl here...” Smith said, sinking his hands into her hair and jerking her against him as she yelped.

I moved forward. “Don't,” Smith said, cocking the hammer with a dull click and pushing it into Garcia.

Our eyes met. I was helpless to protect her. I could feel my power swirling like smoke in a glass box. Fingers seeking escape, constantly moving for exit.

Finding none.

Tiff moved closer and Smith's eyes moved to her. “Stay where you are, death-lover.”

Wonderful.

“Jade...
Jade
... I'll get you outta here, I promise,” I said, my voice breaking.

“No one is going anywhere. This place is about to get a little more full,” he said toeing McGraw on the ground. “He was a little too sharp for comfort but it was her that I was worried about.”

I looked at Jade and her face filled with regret.

“Explain to lover-boy how you got my complete attention.”

She glared at him and he jerked her again, using her hair like a handle and she screamed.

I moved without knowing it and he took the butt of the gun and hit Garcia in the face with it; Garcia fell to his knees.

“Stay put Caleb, or it will be Jade next. Don't think I won't.
I love to hit girls.”
He pressed Jade against him, his gun a black disaster in his hand.

My fists clenched, my jaw locking on the enunciation. “Tell me Jade.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I thought, I could talk to one of the policemen about you. That I could tell them how much of a strain it was for us but...”

“Too upset? Fine. I'll explain,” Smith said.

Garcia made his shaky way to his feet.  As he did a girl came out of the caretaker's cottage and my memories burst out of me in a sickening rush.

It was the Aura Reader, the one that had been in the crowd when I saved Onyx.

I looked at her and then at John Smith. They looked alike.

Smith smiled. “You got it; she's my sib, Caleb. Right under all your noses and you never knew. She was pegging all the Nulls, and doing a bang up job until Garcia called you in.” His eyes narrowed on Garcia.

“Watch him,” Smith said.

Apparently, that meant put a gun on him. His sister walked over to where Garcia stood, blood ringing his mouth, the side of his jaw swelling grotesquely.

She put the barrel of a shotgun against his back and looked at me. “I'm not the shot my bro is here, but the spray will leave a mark.” She barked out a laugh.

Nice girl.

“You did McGraw?” Tiff asked.

“Oh yes. It was a long time coming for him.” He waved that away. “So, as I was saying, your plaything here,” and he shook Jade again and she bit her lip to keep from screaming again. “She came by the precinct today to defend you!” he laughed. “Anyway, I caught her before she came inside and directed her to my car.”

God, this was so awful. She'd been trying to get me out of this mess on the sly, so I wouldn't have to do it myself. I closed my eyes briefly; she was so much more than I thought.

And here she was in the killer's arms.

Damn
. Tears of anger and frustration flooded my eyes.

He went on, “And I was fully tuned, this Empath couldn't get squat off me. She'd never know. But that's not what her strength is? Is it, doll-face?” he said next to her ear through gritted teeth. “She can get all kinds of readings off of things, Caleb. She's not just an Empath, she's clairvoyant too...”

Jade was starting to hyperventilate as he held her in a deadlock, her hair straining away from her face.

I'd never wanted to kill someone.

I did now.

“I told her to get in the car and she touched the door handle...and her face gave everything away. She knew what I was, what I'd done. All that careful planning and deception, ruined by this
girl
.”

“Come on, John. Whack them already, leave them for the crows,” his sister said.

As if by macabre cue, a crow landed on a grave marker and cawed, its slick inky eyes lighting on McGraw's body.

Her face was turned away and Garcia used that moment, grabbing the barrel of the shotgun he twirled it. On the upswing, he bashed it into her head before she could react and she sunk to the grass like a stone in water.

He trained it on Smith. “Let the girl go, Smith,” Garcia said in a voice garbled by his swollen mouth.

“You'll regret that,” he said calmly and flung Jade at Garcia, her hair streaming behind her with the speed of the throw. Garcia instinctively dropped the gun to catch her and Smith turned the gun on me.

There I stood, paralyzed in the moment.

Suddenly McGraw was standing in front of me, his dead body a shield.

“What the blue fuck?” Smith shrieked and Tiff looked at me, stunned.

It wasn't my power.

Smith started to unload into McGraw, his dead body jerking as the rounds penetrated.

Out of the woods came Jeffrey Parker and my head became light, the situation so acutely insurmountable I could hardly breathe. In my peripheral vision, I saw Garcia had Jade and Tiff stood at my right as Smith clicked empty.

He smoothly reloaded and pointed it in my direction as Clyde burst through the opening Parker had made.

Holy shit.

Parker had two zombies with him, I could feel them as they drew near and Smith whipped out another weapon.

Flame-thrower. But it was ultra-modern, mimicking a gun.

I saw the blue at its tip and shuddered, he was going to take on the zombies.

Tiff grabbed my hand and I fed off her like a starved battery while Smith was distracted.

I used my power like a honed arrow and screamed my mental call to Clyde:
Protect!
I yelled with everything I had, my mind ringing with the command.

I siphoned from Tiff and she sunk to her knees. I watched Clyde become more, his eyes filling in, his clothes mending themselves, hair sprouting on his head.

A glittering intelligence came alive in his gaze.

That gaze landed on Smith and with the barest glance at Parker, he and the other two zombies worked in unison, flanking Smith.

Smith had his gun on Parker and the flame-thrower pointed at Clyde who inched closer. “Call your dead dogs off or I kill you.”

“You've got the wrong AFTD, it is Caleb that is the threat.”

I had let go of Tiff's hand and was a mere three feet behind Smith when he spun on me, gun in hand. I looked at that slick metal hole facing me and my stomach dropped just as Clyde barreled into him. They fell on me, their combined weight pinning me to the ground.

“Caleb!” Jade screamed.

Smith released his gun and pulled a knife from the waistband of his pants, the hover pulse falling from his pocket and zipping into the blade as it tried to reconnect with his body. I watched the blade rise in the air above me, the dying sunlight glinting off the metal as it arced and Clyde's teeth sunk into Smith's neck, an arterial spray splattering my face. Clyde and the zombies mewled at the smell of copper in the air. They surged forward, Smith a squirming gurgling mass on top of me. They yanked Smith off of me.

Then the zombies fed.

I lay on my back. My enemy, Jeffrey Parker, was above me. His  silhouette was a black shadow, lined in red as the sun sunk like a fiery ball behind him.

Garcia walked over, the feeding of the zombies in the background a grotesque music. He had Jade in his arms, his face broken up.

I sat up. “Is she okay?”

“Passed out.”

I looked to where Tiff was throwing up.

Great. I looked at Parker, who was watching the zombies drag Smith off a few feet, his arms flailing less and less, then finally stopping.

“You're going to let them kill Smith?” I asked him.

Parker nodded. “Do you think this is the worst I've seen? I've done?”

Garcia and I stared at him.

Smith's sister began to stir on the grass. Garcia laid Jade down and looked at Parker. “I know who you are and who you work for.”

“You know nothing.” Parker said, his gaze steady. “I won't hurt the girl,” Garcia's eyes took in Tiff and me. “Or them.”

Garcia strode over to Smith's sister, handcuffing her and using zip ties to secure her ankles together. She wasn't going anywhere.

Jade lay beside me pale and unmoving.

Without the Null tuned up my power was there for the using. But it would be an impasse. Parker was a five-point too. Without the nifty Life-transference, but more experience.

We were equal. I was shaky; Tiff was barfing.

I stood, that was an improvement. We faced each other.

“They don't know, Caleb. They don't know I'm here.”

Who?

“The Graysheets?” Garcia asked, coming over.

“Graysheets? Oh, who I work for. That's your moniker?” he laughed. “I guess that works. Yeah, they don't know. But we have Caleb on a monitoring system right now. His clever father put a lot of heat on them last year. We needed to lay low. The respite will not last forever, Caleb. They will come for you. McGraw is who alerted me that you were in danger.” He scrubbed his face, looking at McGraw, a zombie with spots of fading daylight leaking through his body.

“He was a good man,” Parker said, his arms planted on lean hips, nerdy look replaced with determined hardness.

Garcia snorted. “Him?” McGraw turned his rotting eyes to Garcia and he stepped back.

“Yes. He was deep undercover.”

“I'll say,” Garcia said, moving his jaw from side to side.

I kept my eyes on Parker and walked the few feet to Jade, her chest rising and falling. I flicked my eyes up to Parker, then over to the zombies, who returned my look with steady regard. They stood, leaving Smith's body, their mouths decorated by his blood. In the twilight it looked black. My stomach turned at the sight and Smith's sister started howling.