AfterLife (24 page)

Seth could hear Rahul’s breathing grow heavy as his body
struggled to push air through his swollen airways. After another minute, he was
no longer breathing. Seth stood up and looked at the dead body with disgust
before walking away.

I
t wasn’t a day
to be outside. It was bitter cold, windy, and cloudy. For the living, it was
the kind of day where one would stay huddled inside and not even consider going
out unless absolutely necessary. However, to Wes, that didn’t matter. He and
Meri had made their way back to Chicago that morning, and it felt good to be in
the city again. He always loved it here.

Their apartment was a small two-bedroom flat with an open
layout that included the kitchen, dining area, and living room in one space
with two small bedrooms off one side of the main living area. Situated within
walking distance of the Chicago Loop, it was a new apartment for Meri, too. For
security reasons, AfterLife determined it would be best to move her following
Jordan’s departure from AfterLife for the Atumra.

After settling into their new living arrangement, Wes
decided he wanted to go out and take a walk. It took some quick talking to
convince Meri, but she finally agreed to accompany him. Before he and Meri left
AfterLife that day, they had given him another makeover so no one from his
previous life would recognize him, but when he’d offered to venture out on his
own, Meri wouldn’t allow it. “We do things together,” she said. Either she was
serious about that or she was worried Wes might try to contact people from his
life.

She didn’t need to worry, considering he didn’t have any
intentions of contacting anyone he knew from his antemort life. If any of them
cared at all, they would have already spent time grieving over his death. The
only person he would even consider trying to talk to was his brother, Lyall.
Sadly, theirs was a relationship Wes didn’t think he could fix as a Mortui.

Each dressed to blend in with everyone else walking around
in the freezing temperatures. Wes put on a heavy coat, scarf, and hood. Meri’s
coat was longer and covered her knees and she tucked her hair under a knit cap.
They started down Michigan Avenue and then headed toward State Street. Sticking
to busier streets enabled them to go into some of the stores and shops to
graze. Their conversation remained light and nothing of any significance was
discussed until Meri changed the course of the conversation. “You like Emily,
don’t you?”

The directness of the question caught Wes off guard. He was
slowly learning this was common conversational behavior for Meri – she always
addressed the elephant in the room. In that respect she was similar to Ken. “I
do,” Wes admitted, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hide anything from her.
Besides Ken, she was the only other person to notice, or at least mention his
attraction to Emily.

“You can tell me to butt out if it’s none of my business. I
know that sometimes I can be too forward, and I’m not trying to make you talk
about anything you don’t want to. Emily’s great, but just don’t get your hopes
up.” She tucked some stray hairs that were hanging below her knit cap behind
her ear.

“You don’t have to worry about me, Meri. I already told her
I liked her and she doesn’t feel the same, at least not that she’ll admit. I’m
just living on the hope that someday I can change her mind.”

“The thing is that I think she does reciprocate but can’t
quite let go of her past.”

Wes could understand that; he carried his own relationship
garbage around. It was a thought that occurred to him when Emily turned him
down under the fireworks. Part of him knew she reciprocated the feelings he had
for her. What was holding her back though? It was possible Meri held the
answers to his questions. “What would she be holding on to?”

“I can’t say for sure. It’s possible that it has something
to do with her death. I only know what others have told me. AfterLife is kind
of like a big family and it’s sometimes hard to hide things about yourself.
You’ll see what I mean when you’ve been with us awhile. It sometimes seems like
everyone knows everyone else’s business. Usually, no one really minds.”

They passed by a street corner and redirected their walk
onto State Street. “How did she die?” Wes asked.

“She was murdered by her husband shortly after they were
married. He drowned her at a beach in Texas near their home.”

“I’ve seen it, the beach that is,” Wes said as he thought
about the first night he met Emily. Emily told him the beach meant a lot to her
and that she would go there regularly to think and clear her head. Why would
she willingly go back to the place where she was killed, and why would she use
it as a sanctuary? It almost seemed like self-torture. “I’m sorry. I would
never have known.”

“I imagine she’s still trying to cope with her husband’s
betrayal. I know it would take me a few thousand years to move on from
something like that.” Meri stopped to look at a pair of boots in a store
window. “A little too pricy for me,” she said, confusing Wes until he realized
she was referring to the boots. She resumed walking.

Meri’s information did help clarify some things. Emily had
said she couldn’t have feelings for him. She never said she didn’t. If she was
still holding onto her past it would prevent her from being able to establish a
relationship with someone else.

As Wes was processing this information his eyes fell upon a
woman walking in the same direction on the other side of the street a few yards
ahead of him and Meri. It was mere coincidence that Wes saw her face at all,
but as she turned her head to look up at the man she was with and laughed, a
gust of wind blew her hair back and gave him a snapshot of her face. He
immediately recognized Jez, and she had her arms wrapped around the arm of a
man whose face he couldn’t see. Meri noticed her at the same time and placed
her hand on Wes’s arm to steady him.

“This isn’t the time to confront her,” Meri said with a tone
of command in her voice Wes hadn’t heard before, “but, it might be a good idea
to follow her for a bit to see where she’s going. We’ll stay on this side of
the street.”

“Can you see who she’s with?” Wes strained to see the guy’s
face. “Is he a Mortui or another one of her antemort recruits?”

“I don’t know.” Meri shook her head. “I’d have to see his
eyes and sync briefly to know for sure if he was Mortui or not.”

“We have to find out. If that man is an antemort, I can’t
let her kill him.” Wes felt a sense of urgency to protect the life of this
stranger. If he was already Mortui, Wes wouldn’t have to worry about it, but if
he was an antemort Wes would do everything he could to prevent Jezebel from
killing him.

“Wes, we can’t—” Meri said and then stopped herself. “I know
what you’re thinking. You feel responsible for this man because of your history
with Jezebel.”

“You’re right about one thing. For whatever reason I do feel
responsible for his life. Let’s at least follow them until we find out if he’s
an antemort or not. Besides, maybe we’ll find something out about the Atumra.
That is our assignment isn’t it?”

Meri shook her head and nodded at the same time, which
looked like she was rolling her head in a small circular motion. Her eyes
searched for an argument to counter him, but Wes could tell she couldn’t find
one. “It is, you’re right. It’s both of our assignments though, so remember I’m
here with you and don’t do anything stupid.”

“Okay, okay.” They continued to follow Jez and her mystery
man from the opposite side of the street. “Why don’t you wrap your arms around
me too?” Wes grabbed Meri’s hand and wrapped it around his arm. He was trying
to break the tension that had mounted since they’d seen Jez. “You can pretend
to be my girlfriend.”

“I’m too old to be your girlfriend.”

“This is Chicago,” Wes said. “There are much stranger things
than a young guy with an older woman.”

Meri did as he suggested, but Wes felt it was more to
maintain a tight hold on him and keep him from doing anything that would alert
Jez to their presence. He was supposed to meet with her at some point to gain
information, but they didn’t want Jez to know that and he’d hardly expected to
see her his first day back in the city. If she suspected they were using her as
an informant, they might not get anything from her at all.

“I’ll call Oscar and see if he can help us track her. Maybe
he’ll be able to use a traffic cam or something to see who she’s with.” Meri
pulled out her phone and called Ops. She retained her hold on Wes as she made
the call. After a brief conversation, she put her phone in her pocket and put
her earpiece in. “Oscar, can you hear me? Good, we’re still following a few
yards behind her on the opposite side of the street.”

Wes looked down at Meri. “Does he have anything yet?”

“Not yet,” Meri responded. She adjusted her earpiece under
her knit cap. “He’s checking the cameras in the area to see if there’s one he
can use. So far he doesn’t have anything.”

“Does he have our location?” Wes felt strangely agitated
that he still didn’t know who the man walking with Jezebel was.

Meri squeezed Wes’s arm. “Calm down, will ya? Of course
Oscar knows where we are. The phone has GPS.” She slowed her pace, forcing Wes
to slow down also. “Now slow down, please. If you keep walking so fast we’ll be
right next to her and she’ll see you.”

Wes listened to Meri and slowed down. He didn’t have much
choice since she was clinging to him.

“Oh good,” Meri said into her earpiece.

“Oh good what?” Wes looked down at Meri. “Does he have a
visual on them yet?”

“No,” Meri said. “Anne Marie and Zach are with him. They’re
helping.”

“Good.” Wes kept his eyes on the pair on the opposite side
of the street. At any moment they might walk into a store or turn a corner, and
Wes wanted to make sure he’d be able to stay close to them.

“They have them on the traffic cam from the next
intersection,” Meri said, pointing to the top of the traffic light ahead of
them at the next street, “but they’ll have to wait until they get closer to see
any detail. The camera is a digital black and white one so the picture isn’t
very good.”

Jezebel and her companion approached the intersection and
crossed the street to the far side. Wes and Emily were about to cross the
street when Jez turned to walk down the intersecting street away from them.

“Did Oscar get a look at them from that intersection?” Wes
asked Meri sharply.

“No, his face is buried in his coat,” Meri said. “They
weren’t able to get a clear enough picture to identify him in any of our
databases.”

“They’re going down that street. We’ll have to cross here to
stay up with them.” Wes pulled Meri along like a rag doll as they dodged cars
on State Street to get to the other side of the road. Then suddenly it didn’t
matter that the team at Ops couldn’t get a good look at the man Jezebel was
with. Jez walked out to the road they were walking parallel to and hailed a
passing cab. A cab pulled up, and Jez turned to the man she’d been walking with
and kissed him. As he followed her into the cab, Wes saw the man’s face and
knew instantly who Jezebel had been holding onto. As he broke into a run, his
horrified whisper said it all. “It’s Lyall.”

“Y
ou can’t help
him right now,” Meri called as she sprinted after Wes.

Wes was already running after the taxi and for once the
street was clear of the usual heavy traffic, but before he could catch it the
cab turned a corner and was gone. He ceased running to stare after it,
frustration evident in every motion of his body. Of course Atumra would try to
recruit his brother! Why wasn’t that something he had considered before now? If
he was of interest to them, it only made sense that his brother would also be a
candidate for recruitment.

Meri finally caught up with him. “Anne Marie says to let him
go for now. She and the Ancestors are already talking about what we can do to
get him back.”

 “It’s my fault they took him,” Wes said, turning back to
Meri and pacing back and forth along the sidewalk in front of her. “Jez had
been recruiting me before I was picked up by AfterLife. Of course she would go
after my brother. We have the same genes! Maybe they have a quota on how many
people they have to recruit.”

“This isn’t your fault, Wes,” Meri said and then lowered her
voice as a lady walked by huddled in her coat. “This has nothing to do with
you.” She took out the earpiece she was using to communicate with Ops and
placed it in her pocket.

Wes knew it had everything to do with him. It had to. It
wasn’t a coincidence that the very person who had tried and failed to recruit
him was also trying to recruit his brother. Now if he and AfterLife couldn’t
find his brother before the life was sucked out of him, he would become a
Mortui too. He didn’t want that for Lyall.

“We have to do something fast. How long do they wait before they
finish the recruiting process with a person?”

“Look,” Meri said, taking Wes’s arm again and guiding him in
the direction of their apartment, “for now we should go home and wait for the
Ancestors to decide what they want to do. We don’t know how far along Jez is in
the recruiting process. They might not tell them what’s happening, but they try
to develop a relationship with the person to make them feel comfortable before
they’re killed so they’ll want to stick around after they become a Mortui.
That’s one of the ways they ensure retention of their new soldiers. Look at
what happened with you. You thought you were in love with Jez. We may still
have some time before that happens to your brother.” She led him back toward
their apartment. “Maybe our walk should be done for today.”