Keeper vs. Reaper (Graveyard Guardians Book 1) (25 page)

Lucy clutched her knife tightly in her hand, hoping to God she wouldn’t have to use the thing again. “Let’s get the hell out of here
,” she said, rather calmly, as she stepped over one of the bodies.

Everyone muttered their agreement, but before they could move another inch
, the French doors on the opposite side of the room swung open and the Empress strode into the room.

Flanked by two Reaper guards, she entered with the confidence … and bitch
iness … of a royal. She wore a Scarlett business suit and sensible black heels that clicked over the hardwood floor. The dark haired Empress examined the room, with all the bleeding bodies of her guards and the toppled furniture, then looked up and caught the eye of her son. “No one is going anywhere.”

With a quick glance to the side, Lucy checked to make sure that Emily was still in her hiding spot. She couldn’t see her, so that was reassuring.

Jack stepped forward before Lucy, or any of her family could respond. “You can’t stop us.” He paused and then added “we won this time and now we are leaving.”

Somehow that bitch managed to crank her thin lips up into half a smile. “Why, Jackson, you speak as though you are one of them.”

He thrust his shoulders back and stared his mother down. “Tonight, I
am
one of them. You kidnapped her,” he gestured to Lucy. “You tried to have her
murdered
. I don’t want any of that in my life.”

Aiden stumbled in behind the Empress, holding his bloody shoulder and squinting through his newly blackened eyes. He didn’t say anything, but leaned on the door jamb beside one of the other guards.

Lucy saw the confusion in Aiden’s green eyes and knew that he and Jack had been close. Even though Aiden had been her kidnapper and the one who tried to kill her, she felt the tiniest bit sorry for him. Tiny … like, really, really, really small.

The Empress thrust her chin out. “You have no choice but for this to be part of your life.” She retorted.

“No, mother, I do have a choice.” He pointed to Lucy again. “And I choose
her
.”

Lucy could have fainted at that moment had she not been in a room full of Reapers and danger. He chose her. What did that really even mean? Her mind tried to spin the logic on it, but her heart felt like it was going to explode from happiness.

The Empress glared at Lucy, but spoke to Jack. “You appear to be forgetting one little thing here, you are a
Reaper
, you must have souls to live … and Keepers won’t let you have them.”

Jack stepped forward and spoke very calmly. “I don’t care.” Then, his voice rose as if he wanted the entire world to hear him. “I renounce my title as the next Emperor. I renounce my heritage and I renounce
you
!”

“You wouldn’t dare … over a Keeper
, Our enemy?”

“You are no longer my mother
,” he declared coldly. Then he turned to Lucy and her family. “Let’s get out of here.” He slid his arm around Lucy to guide her out. Thank goodness too, because she wasn’t sure she could move very far without help. She was so shocked she felt like a statue.

“Now
,” the Empress ordered. That is when everything went into slow motion. The Reaper guards who flanked her both reached behind them, and when their hands reappeared they had guns.

“Nooo!” Jack yelled and stepped in front of Lucy. In a feeble attempt to protect him, she pushed him out of the way and tried to move into a position in front of him. She had no idea what her brothers and sisters were doing because her eyes were on the Reapers with the guns.

Just as the guard on the left was pulling back the trigger, Aiden jumped from his spot against the wall and kicked the guy’s hand. The gun fired above all their heads and went flying into the air.

Everyone ducked to avoid being shot by the stray bullet. The other guard had probably had aim on one of them, but he missed because of Aiden’s surprise attack. The bullet from his gun lodged into the wall to the right
, behind the group of Keepers.

The Empress turned her head and glared at Aiden. “What is the matter with you? How dare you intervene?”

He clutched his shoulder again and bent over, growing weak from the silver. “I don’t give a flying fuck about these Keepers, and you may not care if one of these idiots shoots your son, but I fucking do.”

“You are going to be severely punished for this.” The Empress scolded him in an icy voice.

“Do what you want with me. I know how valued I am to you. So go right ahead and punish me however you see fit.”

Lucy almost wanted to crack up. Aiden standing up to her made her seem so much less of a threat than she actually was.

Again, Jack slid his arm around her waist to urge her out of the room. “Let’s go. We’re done here.”

The Empress tried one last time. “Jackson…”

“Shut it. We are leaving so don’t follow us.”

Taking his verbal cue, the entire group backed slowly out of the room toward the entryway, where the front door was located.

Frustrated and angry for having lost the battle and her claim on the Chosen One, The Empress called out to them. “I want you all to know that this is not over. In fact, it just got much, much worse. Enjoy the little time you have left, because it’s not going to last long. And Jackson, you’ve actually done me a favor. My days have been spent wondering what we are going to do when your father dies since you aren’t competent enough to lead. Now that you’ve renounced the throne as well as your family, I don’t have to worry about that. I can appoint it to whomever I feel is deserving of the job.” With that, she spun around and retreated back into the room from which she had come, the guards shutting the doors behind her.

“Holy Shit
,” Greg breathed. “Let’s go, let’s just fucking go.”

“Hold on
,” Lucy whispered to her brother and then strode over to the corner of the room as quick as she could. “Emily, are you still down there?”

Instantly, Emily’s head appeared from underneath the desk she had crammed herself into. “Yes
,” she answered in a whisper. “I’m here.”

Lucy held out her hand for Emily to grip and helped pull her out. “Come on, we have to go right now.”

Everyone in the group, except Ethan and Jack had confused expressions on their faces since they didn’t know who Emily was. Lucy shook her head as she approached with Emily. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain later, but she needs out of here too.”

Emily’s big brown eyes were wide as she inspected each of the Keepers who were grouped together in the room. “Thank you, thank you so much
,” she whispered.

“Pleasure,” James winked and held his hand out. “I’m James.”

Good grief, was her brother really flirting with the Seer right here in the Empress’s house? Greg, on the other hand, was just staring at her the whole time, even as she took James’s hand and gripped it. Then he shook his head as if coming out of a dream. “I’m getting the hell out of here.”

The group made for the front door
, practically clogging it up as they all tried to get out at the same time.

Once they were out in the fresh air, Lucy breathed in a long breath through her nose and blew it out through her mouth. God it felt good to be out of that place.

“Come on,” Jack urged her across the large lawn. “We have to go over that wall.”

S
he followed Jack and let him help her over the wall. Everyone else did the same and then they were off and running through the grapes. The leaves from the vines slapped at them as they ran as fast as they could manage to wherever it was that Jack was leading them. Lowering her head, she plowed forward, not wanting to slow down until she was as far away from that awful place as she could possibly get.

After running for a bit, they emerged at an opening in the vineyard where a metal building sat. It was illuminated with fluorescent lights which were mounted to the outer walls. She bent over for a moment to catch her breath, then stood and found everyone else doing the same. A quick survey of how many bodies were with them told her they’d lost someone. “Where is Emily?”

The others glanced around them, looking back and forth as if she might pop out of the vineyard at any time. “Dammit.” Lucy kicked the gravel.

Greg, look
ing a little wistful, pulled his hood down off his head. “She must have broken off from us in the grapes.”

Liv shrugged. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now. We need to get our own asses home.”

Lucy agreed. They got her out of the Reapers compound, so there was nothing more they could do anyway. “Still sucks, I would have liked to know more about what she knows. I’ll fill you guys in on that later.”

That was when her eyes fell upon Greg’s car and Jack
’s truck waiting for them near the building, and she realized she was actually going to make it home.

It wasn’t until they were on the highway, racing back toward Summer Hollow, that Lucy was able to relax. She sat in the middle of the front seat in Jack’s truck, wedged somewhat uncomfortably between Jack and Ethan.

Apparently no one felt like talking and Lucy was all right with that. Liv and Hannah sat in the back seat, resting after the impromptu rescue mission. Ethan stared out the passenger window into the darkness
, ignoring everyone else in the vehicle.

Jack had one hand on the wheel and the other resting on Lucy’s thigh. She wanted to scoot over until she was practically sitting in his lap but didn’t because
, with Ethan there, it would definitely be weird. The disapproval radiated from Ethan so thickly that she was sure Liv and Hannah felt it too.

She couldn’t worry about him and his feelings right now though. The last thing she ever wanted to do was hurt him, but she had an inkling his behavior was more about Jack being a Reaper than his relationship with Lucy. Most likely, if Jack had been some ordinary guy, he wouldn’t be reacting the way he was.

When they rolled into Summer Hollow, Jack drove straight to Lucy’s house and parked his truck beside all the other vehicles in the driveway. He helped her down from the truck and let the girls out of the back.

Greg’s Escort pulled up behind him with the rest of her family cramped inside the tiny vehicle. Once they were all out and standing in the brisk night air, Greg eyeballed Jack and then held out his hand for a shake. “Thanks for the help man.”

Jack gripped her brother’s hand and they both grimaced. “Anytime,” Jack responded and then released Greg’s hand. “Well … I should probably…”

“Why don’t you come in for a while and unwind. We should probably discuss a few things as far as further planning and…”
he glanced at Lucy, “other stuff,” her brother’s voice trailed off.

Oh good lord. What were they going to talk about? She wished that this relationship, or whatever it was, was just between her and Jack. But, as much as she hated her business being a public matter, her family had to be a part of it. “Geez Greg, subtlety never was your strong suit.”

She felt Jack take her hand. “Sure. I’d love to come in.”

Everyone went into the house and piled into the kitchen where they proceeded to inspect all their wounds and start cleaning up. Hannah opened a cabinet and extracted two gigantic bottles of peroxide, a tube of triple antibiotic cream and a box full of bandages. The box had every size and shape of bandage you could imagine. They kept the supplies handy since they used the stuff all the time.

“Get over here,” Hannah mumbled as she rifled through the box.

Lucy examined her arms, looking for an injury that she may not have noticed. Sure enough, there was a large cut on her shoulder. “Oh.” She strode over to join Hannah by the sink. “I don’t even know where or when I got that.”

Hannah wet a cotton ball with some peroxide and touched it to Lucy’s cut. “It doesn’t matter. It was chaos in there so it could have happened at any point.” She continued to treat Lucy’s wound while the others tended to their own.

Greg opened the fridge and rummaged around until he found some bottles of beer in the back. He grabbed two and offered one to Jack. “You want one?”

“That, is exactly what I need right now.” Jack accepted the beer and twisted off the cap. He closed his eyes and took a long pull, then leaned back on the counter beside Lucy. “Look, I know how awkward and strange this is,” he began.

Greg held up his hand. “Stop. I think we can be done with that part. You helped us rescue Lucy and you … um, you renounced your … mother. I think that pretty much takes care of most of our trust issues.”

Dan let out a noise that sounded a lot like a snort. “I still don’t trust him. I don’t give a fuck how much he helped us.” He opened the fridge and got a beer out for himself.

Having Jack inside of her house, hanging out and having a beer with her family
, was something she never thought would happen. Her expectations had never gone beyond trying to stop the attraction between them. The fact that a Reaper was in their home at all was mind blowing.

“What is this?” Hannah asked, pointing at the small round bandage that Aiden had given her after the blood draw.

Lucy shrugged. “They took some blood. They didn’t hurt me or anything.”

Jack swung his head around, as did her brothers and sisters. “What the fuck do you mean they took some blood? What for?”

“Oh…” Lucy caught Jack’s eye. “Um, you know that girl … Emily?”

“Yeah.”

James finished cleaning his cuts and scrapes and sat down at the table. “Yeah, what was she doing there anyway?” he asked.

Looking to each of the siblings, Lucy saw that they were all waiting for an answer. “Okay, hold on.” She waited for Hannah to finish up with the antibiotic cream and slap a bandage on her arm. She moved to the table and sat down so that she could relax. Immediately, as if he were her shadow, Jack pulled out a chair and sat next to her.

“I’m not sure if this lady is just crazy, or if there is any truth to it, but they claim Emily is a Seer who has given the Empress a prophecy of her own concerning the Reapers and the Keepers.”  Jack’s eyes met with hers. “No offence about your mom,” she added.

He held up his hand. “No worries.”

“So, anyway …” She began, and then told them everything she knew about the Empress and Emily. 

After hearing the whole story, Jack leaned back in his chair. “So that’s why she changed her mind about killing you.”

She nodded. “Yes. She thinks that together, our blood will be able to put an end to the warring of the Keepers and the Reapers. But, like our prophecy, there aren’t any specifics. The seer said that it doesn’t work like that. 

Daniel threw his empty beer bottle in the trash. “Well, that is all behind us for right now. What we have ahead is a bigger problem. We really, really pissed her off and I have a feeling that this place is going to be crawling with Reapers soon.”

Greg nodded. “He’s right. We need to figure out both our offensive and defensive moves here. This is obviously going to get worse before it gets better.”

Lucy leaned forward on the table and yawned. “Can we do it tomorrow though? I’m exhausted.”

There was a loud murmur throughout the room as the others agreed that they needed to get some rest.

She turned to Jack, wanting to say something but not sure how it was going to go over with her family … or Ethan. “You’re welcome to stay the night if you want. We have space on the couch.”

Jack narrowed his eyes, the protective instinct appearing once again. “Sorry, but if I’m going to stay here, I’m staying with you. I don’t want you out of my sight for one fucking minute.”

And she was worried about what
she
was going to say. Looked like Jack took care of the shock factor for her.

Ethan shifted against the counter he was leaning on. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Lucy felt the panic fluttering into her stomach again. She started to speak, cleared her throat and then tried again. “I’m an adult Ethan. I can have sleepovers if I want to.”

He rolled his eyes and turned away. “Whatever. Lucy, he is still a Reaper. We probably have a better chance of avoiding this whole mess if he
weren’t around.”

Greg shook his head. “No. Lucy probably would have been killed that first night if Jack hadn’t saved her. And even if she had avoided that, we wouldn’t have been able to rescue her tonight if he wasn’t around.” He looked at Jack, “No offense here, but I don’t really think
the Empress cares that much about what you do. She is pissed at all of us and most of this would be still be happening without you involved. Right now she’s probably more worried that you will tell us Reaper super secrets or some shit.”

Jack closed his eyes for a second and then opened them. Lucy found herself reaching over to hold his hand. She gripped it in her own, letting him know that she was there for him. He focused his gaze back onto Greg. “No, you’re right. She doesn’t care. And she is going to come for all of you full force regardless of if I’m around or not. Now, it’s not just about Lucy being the Chosen One, it’s about the fact that she didn’t get what she wanted. More Reapers will definitely be coming.”

Greg considered this. “I won’t make decisions as far as you and Lucy, although I admit this is fuckin’ weird, but you are welcome to stay.”

Jack nodded, but Lucy could see the look in his eye that said he wouldn’t have left anyway.

“I think Dad’s waiting for us?” Liv changed the subject. She stood near the window facing the graveyard. “I’m pretty sure that’s him on the edge of the yard.”

James scooted his chair out and stood. “We’d better go fill him in and let him see that Lucy is all right.” He looked at Jack. “Maybe you should hang out here.”

Jack also stood. “If you’re worried about me and your dad and the soul eating thing, I already met him when I was here before we left.”

“You met my dad?” Lucy asked.

He ran his hand through his dark hair, which was all messed up from the fighting and running. She thought it made him look even sexier. Then he shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Yeah, he gave me the go ahead to … well, he told me to do what I had to do as long as I brought you back.”

Whoa … that was a shocker, but pretty much everything that had happened within the last twenty four hours had a pretty high shock value.

“Well…” Lucy didn’t want to make him stay in the house, so she nodded. “I guess you can come with.”

“Don’t worry
,” he reassured them, “I’m not going to go on a soul binge or anything. I’m good for a while.”

Daniel rolled his eyes and headed for the door. “I feel so much better now
,” he muttered sarcastically.

Lucy watched Jack and realized he was, and had been, internally battling
with himself. He looked like he wanted to get in Dan’s face and tell him off. Instead, he just moved closer to Lucy and said, “Look man, I understand that you have a problem with me. Believe me, I get that, but unless Lucy asks me to leave I’m staying and you’re going to have to get used to me.”

Uh oh.

Dan turned around slowly until he was facing Jack. “Reaper, you know
nothing
about my problems. The love of my life was killed by one of you mother fuckers. So excuse the hell out of me for not wanting you around at all, especially not around my sister.”

Still battling, Jack kept his cool. Thank God. “I am not that Reaper. I am not like most Reapers
, and I never have been. I helped you save your sister, but dude, you are her blood … If it came down to it, I would go through everything that we went through tonight all over again, even if
you
were the one who needed saving.”

Suddenly, the tears wanted to make another appearance. He was telling her brother that her family meant just as much to him as she did. That was pretty much swoon
-worthy.

“I don’t need you to save me
,” Dan shot back, then spun, shoving open the door and headed out into the night.

Lucy squeezed Jacks hand. “Thank you.”

Jack only let out a long breath and nodded. “Let’s go.”

So, out into the night they went, the entire clan of Estmond Keepers and one sole Reaper. They must have made quite a sight to anyone who could see the auras, with the misty red of a Reaper enveloped by the shimmering silver of the Keepers.

Lucy strode across the yard with Jack and her family. Indeed, she could see her father’s soul waiting at the line between where the yard ended and the graveyard began. The moment he caught sight of all his children, her included, marching toward him, his transparent face lit up with a smile.

“Oh, thank the Lord, you’re all right
,” he cried out as they approached, “all of you, thank God!”

“We’re okay, Dad. Tired, but okay.” Lucy stepped forward, wishing that she could give him a hug. She missed that so much.

“And you have brought your friend back with you?” 

She reached out once again for Jack’s hand and he entwined his fingers with hers. “I guess Liv explained things.”