The Ravaging in Between (The Reanimation Files Book 3) (8 page)

I took a moment to think about what he said, then I released a sigh. “I understand how you’re feeling. And I want you to do whatever you have to in order to feel like you are redeeming yourself. I just can’t help but have reservations about the path that you chose. Maybe the wound is too fresh, but I think we should stay away from Alchemy for a while. I can’t believe you would sign up to work for them so soon.”

“They recruited me,” Micah said. “Not too long after everything went down, they approached me, and Tielle suggested that it would be a good idea to take what I had learned from Renton and go in a positive direction with it. Plus, it wasn’t hard for me to decipher that the Paranormal Sector wanted to keep their eye on me in case I went rogue. So this gives them peace of mind as well.”

“I figured they’d want to keep you close,” I said. “But I still don’t like this.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

I shrugged. “It is what it is. You made your choice. What exactly is your role anyway?”

“I’m working with the experimentation team to come up with new developments. They want to utilize whatever I learned from Renton. The good parts.”

“I see.” There were probably more questions I should be asking, but I didn’t have it in me right now. Micah and I were still muddling through the murky waters of our relationship and this new development had thrown me off even further. Alchemy could do good, yes, but for me, all it had done was bring terrible pain and terrible choices to make. If Micah and I were going to attempt a fresh start, I didn’t think we could do it with Alchemy still an active presence in our lives.

But I didn’t say any of this to Micah. I wasn’t ready to put more nails in the coffin of our relationship. I still wanted there to be hope that we could forgive each other and move past the pain we had caused one another.

“I have a lot on my mind right now so I could use some space.”

“You want me to leave?” The hurt in Micah’s voice made me feel bad, but I still needed some space.

“No, I’m gonna leave. I need some fresh air.”

“So you’re just gonna go walk around by yourself?”

“No, I’m gonna go get my shit from Affairs. I have no doubt that Jacob will toss it and there are things I would like to retrieve. Then I’m going to look for Ethan. It bothers me more and more every day that he’s gone.”

“OK…” Micah didn’t sound happy, but I really needed the space.

“I’m gonna go change…” The vibe was slightly awkward now, so it was best I left the room.

When I came back out fifteen minutes later, Micah was gone.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I was a mix of emotions as I drove to the office. It was a drive I had made countless times, but going there to pick up my things because I no longer worked there gave the drive a completely different meaning. A painful one. I hoped I’d be able to keep it together while I grabbed my stuff and endured whatever tirade Jacob would unleash on me. He had said he wanted to chat, but I wasn’t born yesterday.

My dread and nervousness didn’t subside as I headed up the elevator to the suite. I was dealt an even further painful punch when the elevator passed the eighth floor and I thought about Ilyse, sitting in her office, offering me soothing tea and clucking her tongue as she drew excess ghost energy off me. I’d be regaling her with yet another story of how I’d shared my personal energy with a ghost because I’d forgotten my runes again. I would give anything for a moment like that again. For one day when everything was simpler and the chain of events starting with Larry and Michael never happened.

The elevator doors opened and I headed toward the glass doors of the suite. During this time of the day, the suite would normally be bustling with necromancers working with ghosts at their desks, or typing up their reports. Andrew would be in his office doing his boss thing, and I’d be flitting over to Micah’s desk to flirt or to the break room to see if there were any donuts left. My eyes grew warm with tears but I blinked them away. I did not come here to fall apart.

There were a few people here, but I recognized none of them. Must be the new people Jacob brought in to replace everyone who decided the bullshit that had gone on here was too much to deal with any longer. There were no ghosts though, so the necromancers were either sitting listlessly at a desk or walking around looking for something to busy themselves with.

There was one familiar face though. Amy was at her desk looking like she’d rather be anywhere else in the world. She was known to come to work looking her absolute best, but that was a far cry from how she looked now. She seemed to be trying a Bohemian thing with a flowing skirt and oversize sweater. Guess since Micah wasn’t around, she had no reason to try and look like a hot piece of ass. Her eyes widened when she saw me.

“Selene! Uh…hi. I heard that you were out of your coma. I’m glad you’re all right.”

“Thanks, Amy.”

“That was really brave what you did to stop Renton,” she said. “I don’t think I could ever do something like that.”

“I hope I never have to do it again.” I looked around. “I see things have changed a lot here. I’m sort of surprised you’re still here.”

“I would have left,” she said, lowering her voice. “But I’m scared that I won’t find a job elsewhere. I never finished college and Andrew hired me out of a favor to my father, who was a friend of his father’s. So I’m afraid my most marketable position is my job here, which I don’t think will make any prospective employer rush to hire me.”

“You speak the truth,” I said. “I don’t know if Affairs of the Dead can ever be what it once was. It’s really sad to see it like this.”

“I know, it’s like this every day. Ghosts that get drawn to us are redirected by our competitors before they even get to the lobby. The necromancers Jacob hired are mostly people who just finished their certification and were looking for their first job out of school so they could start earning some money. They spend the majority of the day doing track and retrieve. Those are the only clients we get.”

“Well, that’s where newbies start out anyway,” I said. “But if they aren’t able to help more ghosts, Affairs will definitely sink. The government funds ghosts agencies based on how many ghosts they help. If Affairs is no longer pulling in big numbers, the funding stops.”

“Then I’m really out of a job,” Amy said nervously.

“Maybe you can finish your degree and work part-time somewhere else while you do so,” I said. “Outside the ghost agency business. It might be good to take a break from that.”

“I sure wish I could,” Amy said with a sigh. She looked tired, like there was more on her shoulders than her work status. “I’ll let Jacob know you’re here.”

She called Jacob to relay that I was here. Then she indicated that I could head to his office, aka Andrew’s old office.

I headed to the hallway where Andrew’s office was located. It was a familiar walk, but one I had never walked with quite so much reluctance. I hesitated outside the door, then knocked. Jacob invited me in, so I opened the door and stepped inside.

“Selene. Please have a seat.” There was no hint of emotion in his voice. I took a seat on the chair in front of the desk.

“Let me be frank with you, Ms. Vanream,” he said. “I find myself very troubled and puzzled over the demise of my brother and this company, and it is very clear to me that you are at the center of it all. Trouble seems to follow you wherever you go, if the events of the other day are any indication.”

“Look, Jacob…”

“Mr. McNabb. And I am not finished speaking.” His tone was so stern I actually sat back in my seat to give myself a little more space away from him.

“What happened to my brother?” he said. “I need to know. You got him murdered, that much I am aware of. As well as the fact that his ghost was anchored to the living world through you, but it appears so much more happened.”

“Ja—Mr. McNabb, it was never my intention to get Andrew killed. I did everything I could to stop it, but I wasn’t able to get to him in time. Yes, it was because of certain circumstances in my life that Andrew was killed and his ghost anchored, but none of it was of my choosing and I am very sorry that any of it happened. I am well aware of the damage caused, and not just to Andrew. There’s no way I could possibly make it up to you or anyone else who has been affected.”

“You did not answer my question,” he said. “My brother. My anchored ghost of a brother. What happened to him?”

“You want the full, dirty truth? I’ll give it to you.”

I wasn’t going to hedge around what went down with Andrew in his condo. “Andrew was obsessed with me in life and it carried over into his death. He wanted to be with me and there was no logic that could convince him otherwise. Without anyone knowing, Renton Morse created a new body for his ghost to inhabit. He then kidnapped, tied up, and beat up my boyfriend, then he absconded with me to his condo where he forced me to wear lingerie, eat dinner and dessert, and dance in front of my said bound and beat-up boyfriend. He then took me to his bedroom to have sex, which I can assure you, I was not a willing participant of. I used the opportunity to stab him with the heel of my shoe. A fight ensued, and the damage sustained to Andrew’s new body caused it to disintegrate, and his ghost followed suit. Renton Morse is at fault for that. That’s the long version. The short version is that Andrew simply does not exist anymore. I am sorry that the truth is so ugly, but that is the truth.”

Jacob was quiet for an unnerving amount of time, his face half hidden behind his steepled fingers. His eyes narrowed into slits as he stared at me, and his body was tight with tension. Finally, he lowered his hands and I braced myself for his verbal explosion. But to my surprise, he was calm when he spoke. Which just put me more on edge.

“My brother does not exist anymore. Not as a human, nor a ghost at peace on the other side. He simply…does not exist. That’s a very interesting truth to have to accept, Ms. Vanream.”

“I know…” I said shakily. His demeanor and the tone of his voice were making me want to get up and run as far away from this building as possible.

“You know, my brother and I had not been very close these past few years. After my father gave Affairs of the Dead to him instead of me, it cast a sour note in our relationship. Recently, it had been getting better. And when I had to deal with his death and subsequent existence as an anchored ghost, you can imagine how difficult that must have been. On the one hand, my brother was dead. On the other hand, his ghost was still around and would be permanently. Or so I thought. Now you bring me a story of an obsessed ghost who took drastic, unheard-of measures just to claim you as his own. What is it about you, Ms. Vanream, that drove my brother to such a place?”

I wasn’t sure he actually wanted an answer so I remained quiet. My brow was damp with sweat and I felt a bead of it slip down my back.

“Now my brother is gone. No longer can we work on mending our relationship. The company our father spent decades building, and Andrew spent the past few years making even stronger, is just about ruined. I came here to try and save it, but as I’m sure you’ve gathered, there’s not much to save. My family’s company, our legacy, is forever tarnished. All because of you.”

“Mr. McNabb, I understand all of that, I just really don’t know what to say.”

“Save your words,” he said, voice low. “There is nothing you can say. Did I mention that even my sister-in-law is dead because of you? But of course you already knew that. The way Andrew treated Cecelia because of you was despicable. I thought if I met you in person I could see some spark of what he saw in you, but I’ll admit I fail to.”

I let the insult slide. Jacob was in a lot of pain, but it was high time I got out of here. I knew no good could come from this meeting.

I rose from my chair and was thankful that Jacob didn’t snap at me to sit back down. “Mr. McNabb, you aren’t a fan of me and you shouldn’t be. I can’t apologize enough for what I’ve inflicted on you and the McNabb name. I know it won’t change anything, but apologies are all I have. And now…” I started to edge away from the chair. “I think that I should probably go.”

“Yes.” Jacob stood up and buttoned his blazer. He moved around the desk and I backed up even further. “It was very enlightening speaking to you, Ms. Vanream.”

I did not like the utter calmness in his tone.

“It put a lot of questions that I had to rest.”

“Um, great. That’s good…I’m glad. Have a…great day.”

“Same to you, Ms. Vanream.”

I left that office as quickly as I could. The tone of Jacob’s voice could not have conveyed more how much he detested me.

I released the breath I’d been holding and hightailed it out of there with my box of crap. I barely said good-bye to Amy and didn’t feel better until I was sitting in my car. I did not want another face-to-face encounter with Jacob McNabb again. I could not stand the weight of emotions coming from a man who blamed me for his family’s downfall.

After I took a few moments to shake that meeting off, I switched my focus to something more important. Finding Ethan. Ethan could be halfway across the world at this point, but it would give me a small amount of ease to do something to find him. If Ethan was still here and trying to hide out, it was likely that he would take to the Underground. I just worried that he would not find anyone there who would be genuinely kind to him. Someone was sure to recognize him as the ghost who was kicked out of his body and bound to me, and I didn’t want to think about what they would try to use him for.

But I was getting ahead of myself. It didn’t have to be a worst-case scenario with Ethan’s whereabouts. He could very well be on a sunny beach somewhere, relaxing under a coconut tree.

One place he wasn’t was his parent’s house though. I’d spoken to them a couple days ago and they were distraught that Ethan was missing and hadn’t seen him since the time I forced him to visit.

I drove to Chinatown to start my search of the Underground. If I found nothing promising there, I’d head to the Underground in Brooklyn, then call it a day and hit the other boroughs tomorrow.