The Rift (7 page)

“He’s a wolf,” Thad said in a low voice.

Jed’s eyes widened and he shook his head.
“Pack wolves typically keep their distance from humans.”

Thad shrugged. “Not all wolves are part of
the packs, and I’m telling you, Jed, he was a wolf.”

Jed nodded like he accepted that. “Angelica,
I don’t know what that guy told you, but there’s no way he’s Bruce.
Reapers can’t reap wolves, not even for a short time.”

Angelica shook her head. “It was Bruce. He
knew me and he knew…things that only Bruce would know.”

“If he did,” Jed said in a soothing tone. “He
was told to say it. I’m sorry, Angelica, but that wasn’t
Bruce.”

Angelica didn’t argue any more. She glared at
the wall behind the couch, and I could tell she’d stopped listening
to anything anyone said. She’d already made up her mind. I’d seen
that look on her face myself, when we were roommates and I’d
questioned her obsession with the occult. She was going to go back
to that bakery no matter what anyone said.

“Does someone want to tell me what’s going
on?” I asked. “What’s a wolf? And why were you in the bakery in
town?”

Angelica sniffed and looked at me, her eyes
lighting with hope. She expected me to be on her side and, since I
felt like it was my fault Bruce had been killed in the first place,
I really hoped I could be. “I always check the bakeries, wherever I
go,” she said. “You know how much Bruce loved running that bakery
in Briarton, right? He loved getting up before everyone else and
making food that people enjoyed. Food that was a treat for most
people. I can’t search for him in the spirit world, but if he…if
he’s alive again, he’d be working in a bakery. So, I checked here,
and I found him.”

Angelica had agreed to work for Yvonne
because Yvonne had offered to help her find Bruce, but I’d been
certain Angelica would never be okay with Bruce reaping someone. I
was wrong. “And this guy in town, he told you he was Bruce?”

She wiped her cheeks with the heels of her
hands, her short blonde hair mussed, but still adorable. She looked
so young and so hopeful. “When I walked in, he froze and couldn’t
take his eyes off me. He said, ‘hello, babykins.’ That’s what he
used to call me when we…were alone. No one except Bruce should know
about that.”

“That’s not a unique enough nickname,” Thad
said. “It could be coincidence.”

She ignored him. “He told me he’d missed me,
but it was too dangerous for him to go looking for me. He started
asking me where I’d been and what I’d been doing, but then Thad
walked in and dragged me out.”

“All I saw was some huge guy, a wolf, getting
in your personal space,” Thad said. “He was acting aggressive and
it was time for us to go.”

“So why didn’t you?” I asked. “If you were so
certain that guy couldn’t possibly be Bruce, why’d you come back
here?”

Thad met my eyes. “Lately, I’ve seen things
that shouldn’t be possible, and if there’s a chance that this guy
really is her guy…I knew she couldn’t just let it go. We should
find out if this guy is really Bruce and then get the hell out of
town. Something’s not right here.”

Jed shook his head. “Wolves can’t be reaped.
The wolf’s hold on life is too strong and, even in the rare cases
when it isn’t, no reaper’s ever survived occupying a wolf body.
It’s like the wolf body rejects a spirit that isn’t also wolf.”

“Whoa, wait a minute,” I said. “Are you
talking about a werewolf?” I whispered the last word so my mother
couldn’t make it out if she was listening. Jed and Thad nodded,
reluctantly. “So how can you be sure?”

“Above average height, unusually thick hair
on the arms and face, longer than average canines, and orange
eyes,” Thad said, like that settled it.

“You’ve just described the stereotypical
mountain man,” I said. “If Angelica thinks she’s found Bruce, we
should follow up on it.” I knew Houston being around couldn’t be a
coincidence, but I didn’t tell them. They’d pack me off to hide at
Varius, and Angelica would lose her chance to find out if the guy
was her Bruce.

Thad shook his head. “I’ve met enough wolves
to recognize one when I see one. I’m telling you this guy was a
wolf, and this whole thing is giving me a bad feeling. I think we
should all get the hell out of here.”

“No way,” I said. “We aren’t going to leave
if there’s a chance Angelica’s found Bruce. Thad, you take my mom
home or to the nearest bus stop, and Angelica and I will go to town
and check this guy out.”

Everyone started talking at once and I just
sat back and let them argue. I felt calmer and easier than I’d felt
in a long, long time. I had something to do, something that didn’t
involve killing reapers, a way to make it up to Angelica for all
the ways I’d hurt her.

“I don’t like this,” Jed said. He looked
exhausted and worried, but he also looked angry, his hands fisted,
a vein in his temple throbbing. “I agree with Kelsey, though, that
we should get Mrs. Fitzhugh home. Thad, you take her and get back
here as fast as you can. I’m going to call Varius and find out what
they know.” He looked at Angelica and smiled with a warmth I hadn’t
seen from him in a long time. “I’m not going to let you go into
town alone to talk to this guy, but we’ll work something out, okay.
I promise we won’t leave here until we know for sure what’s going
on.”

Thad slapped his knees and stood. “I’ve got a
bad feeling about this, and I don’t get bad feelings very often,”
he said. “But I’ll play along for now. I’ll get Angelica’s bags
from the car. Kelsey, go get your mom.”

I nodded and stood, without argument. Momma
didn’t ask me any questions as I escorted her out to the car. She
just hugged me and told me to take care. I held her close. Despite
our differences and the distance, she’d always be my mother and I
loved her.

“Congratulations, Momma. I’m happy for
you.”

She kissed me on the cheek and let me go. I
watched her get into the car and walked around to Thad.

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and
whispered in his ear, “Be careful. Don’t let her talk you into
anything crazy with her southern charm.”

He hugged me back and kissed my forehead. “I
really don’t like this, Kelsey. This whole thing feels like a
set-up. There’s no way Bruce reaped a wolf on his own, and there’s
no
good
reason for any of the reapers to help him. There’s
also no way Mr. Cautious Jed is really okay with this, unless he’s
got some ulterior motive.”

“Maybe he just wants to help Angelica. I
admit this whole thing seems a little weird, but I don’t see what
he could possibly gain from it.”

He sighed and studied my face for a moment.
“You know, there’s a reason I don’t get serious about any woman,
Kelsey. Love clouds your judgment and, in our world, when no one is
ever who they seem to be, clear judgment is the only thing keeping
us alive.”

“What are you trying to say?” I wondered if
he was talking about Momma, and it hit me that her fiancé might not
be who he claimed to be. “Would you mind having a look at Momma’s
fiancé when you drop her off?”

“I can do that, but I’m not talking about
her. I’m saying watch your back. I know you care about Jed, but
keep your eyes wide open.” He squeezed me until it was hard to
breathe. “I’ll get back here as quickly as I can, okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” I said, but my mind was on
Jed and the possibility that he was up to something sinister. I
believed him to be a good guy, but if his mother wanted him to do
something for her, I couldn’t see him telling her no.

Thad smiled and took my face in his hands.
“The truth is, Jed’s grown on me and I’m beginning to believe he
might be good enough for you. I just want you to be careful. Watch
him and watch out for him.”

“Thad, I—”

But Thad hadn’t finished his thought. “You
need to stay strong and positive. This isn’t a good time for high
emotion and drama.”

“Okay, alright. Keep it boring. Got it.”

“Good.” Thad glanced over my shoulder, then
leaned in and kissed me hard. A bruising kiss that had me pushing
him away before he could force my mouth open.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I
whispered. I glanced at my mother in the passenger seat, but she
was looking the other way. Lord only knows what she would think of
me kissing some other guy while my boyfriend was less than 10 yards
away.

Thad ginned and hugged me one last time. “I
was providing some motivation.” He got in the car, and I glared at
him as he backed up. He just waved and smiled until he was out of
sight.

Jed stood on the porch, his hands fisted, his
jaw clenched. I walked up the stairs and stood next to him, staring
down the driveway.

“You talked to Varius?” I asked.

“I talked to my mother. She feels we can
handle one wolf on our own.”

“Don’t wolves usually run in packs?” I
asked.

“Yes. I’m pretty sure we’re being set up.”
The echo of Thad’s warning in Jed’s words made my skin prickle with
goose bumps.

“By Varius?” I asked.

“She says she wants you to continue your
sessions with Doctor Veronica, but she also wants you to be
involved in talking to the wolf. She’s calling this your first
mission, a good test for you.”

“What? But what can I really do?”

“That’s what I asked,” he said, his voice
rough. “She hung up on me.”

“Shit.”

“My thought exactly.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Why would
she go to all the trouble of sending me out here for intensive
therapy, and then ask me to go talk to a potential reaper? Why is
she offering me a mission, now, when she’s been refusing me for so
long?”

He stared out at the forest for a long
moment. When he finally spoke, his voice made me jump. “The
intervention wasn’t her idea,” he said, his voice barely above a
whisper. He turned and walked back inside, but I stayed on the
porch for a moment, dumbfounded. If Yvonne hadn’t insisted on the
intervention, then it had to have been Jed’s idea. I might not be
an alcoholic, and I might be hating every moment of the
intervention, but I was lucky to have a friend like Jed. He’d set
the whole thing up to help me, and why? Because he worried about
me, not because he saw anything to gain. I wanted to follow him
inside, wrap myself around him, and thank him, but I knew he
wouldn’t appreciate it. I had to get my feelings under control,
accept his friendship as the gift it was, and stop wanting anything
more.

“What did I miss?” Tucker asked. He’d been
helping Len out with some job in the Midwest, and was probably back
because he’d heard about Bruce. I had no desire to get into another
fight about whether or not I should be allowed to remain in the
same town as a scary reaper werewolf.

“There have been a few developments,” I said.
“Can you agree to just listen for once without any psychoanalysis
or snarky comments?”

“Nope.” His tone was curt, with an underlying
current of anger. Something was clearly bugging him, but I didn’t
have the energy to ask. He could be as moody as me, so I chalked it
up to grumpiness. If he wanted to talk about it, he would.

“Maybe I should tell everyone at the same
time, then.”

Tucker nodded and gestured for me to lead the
way.

Inside, I found Jed, Henry, and Angelica
sitting around like they were waiting for something. Doctor
Veronica had disappeared into the back, probably making her own
phone calls to Varius to ask how she was supposed to help me
recover from past traumas while I was rushing into potentially new
trauma. That was her problem. I was just relieved to have something
to do other than another memory session with the doctor.

I sat down next to Angelica. “I think
Angelica and I should go talk to this guy alone,” I said. “If she
shows up with the two of you, he might get scared off.”

Jed’s nod shocked me. “Fine. We’ll stay
outside the shop while you talk to him.”

“Fine.” I glanced at the clock on the wall.
“It’s noon now. Why don’t we go talk to this guy, then have lunch
in town and look around. See if we see anything else fishy going
on.”

“Bruce isn’t…Why would you think—?” Angelica
asked.

I took a deep breath. “I saw Houston in this
house the day I arrived.” I wasn’t about to send my friends into
that town not knowing that a hugely powerful, and cruel reaper was
hanging around. I’d hesitated before, but I’d been wrong. Thad’s
and Jed’s warnings had made it clear we all needed to be on the
same page before we spoke to any wolves. Tucker was the only one
who didn’t look surprised, and I suddenly wished I’d told him about
Houston alone, so I could find out what he knew.

“And you didn’t tell anyone, because…” Jed
said.

“I didn’t want to get sent back to Varius,” I
said. “Because if I leave here without completing the therapy, I’ll
be under an even more intense house arrest than I was before. I
didn’t want to run because of one stupid reaper who makes a habit
of screwing up my life. And it’s not like he did anything or made
any threats, he just showed himself and left.”

“So to satisfy your own whim, you put us all
in danger by not telling us that a super-reaper was hanging
around?” Jed’s harsh tone made me flinch.

“Hey, Jed, ease up,” Henry said.

“My whim?” I asked. “Do you want me to
apologize for thinking about what I want when I’m enslaved to
Varius? Do you have any idea what it’s like to be stuck there all
day every day with everyone studying the minutiae of my life and
reporting it back to your mother? Not to mention that I am so
fucking bored I’m about to lose my mind. And why am I even there in
the first place? Did my whim make me sign that contract—?”

“It was your choice to sign that contract,”
Jed said, his teeth clenched. Angelica and Henry had flattened
themselves against the seat cushions like they were trying to
disappear, and Tucker looked bored. “And now that it’s done you
need to accept it and move on. If you’d be more compliant—”