Keeper vs. Reaper (Graveyard Guardians Book 1) (6 page)

“Shit!”
he heard Reese shout from behind him at the same time as Sadie squealed and jumped out of the way.

“Damn it!” Jack cursed. Instinctively, he reared back and returned fire on Daniel. He didn’t even realize that he had hit him until he felt his knuckles connect with the Keeper’s jaw. Daniel staggered backward, recovered his footing and then lunged again, but Reese jumped over the bar, baseball bat in hand and shoved it into Daniel’s chest. “Fucking stop it, Daniel, you’re drunk again.” She looked up at Jack. “Time for you to go, man. I’ve got to take care of this.”

Jack nodded. “I don’t even know this guy.” He wanted her to know that, even though she probably didn’t give a flying fuck.

“I know. Just go now please.”

He turned to Sadie. “You coming?”

For a moment, she looked like she might back out, but then she nodded. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

Yeah, she was going to be coming, all right.

God
, why was he such an asshole.

“Let’s go.” He reached out for her to take his hand and they both hurried out of the bar.

The warm summer air carried a slight breeze, which hit him right in the face as he opened the door of the bar and ushered Sadie out onto the sidewalk. The streets weren’t as busy as when he’d come in, but there were still a few people milling about on the sidewalks.

“I’m parked around back.” He grabbed Sadie’s hand and led her around the building to the dirt parking lot. “This is me.” He gestured to his big black truck.

“Nice ride,” she commented as he disengaged the locks.

“Well, hop in
,” he told her.

Jack didn’t want to take her back to his place and have a replay of that morning all over again. Asking them to leave was always
an awkward business that he would rather not have to deal with. So, once they were settled in the truck, he backed out of the dirt lot and headed a few blocks down and then made a left. He was headed for the old stone bridge that he had found on his earlier exploration of Summer Hollow.

Before he had even pulled out of the parking lot, Sadie had scooted over into the center of the bench seat and pressed herself up against him. “I hope you
’re ready for a real fun ride, cowboy,” she whispered into his ear. He felt her lips graze his lobe and then move a bit lower to his neck.

Why was it that these slutty chicks always said pretty much the same thing? Was there some sort of hand book with a script, like ‘Sex Lines for Dummies’
?

Before he could respond he felt her hand on his thigh, moving up slowly until she was cupping his cock.

Holy shit.

As he pulled over into one of the two spots beside the bridge, his
dick was pressing hard against his jeans and was more than ready for her. He slammed the truck into park and turned to the side, taking Sadie down onto the bench seat of his Ford.

His mouth found hers at the same time as his fingers moved the camisole top down and his thumb grazed her nipple. She moaned and arched her back. He took the signal and pushed his hips forward, grinding himself fully clothed against her.

“Please … please.” He heard her begging for him and that was all the signal he needed. He lifted his weight off of her, letting her unbutton her jeans and wiggle out of them. While she did that he reached over and unlatched the glove box, letting it fall open. Reaching in, he fumbled around until he came into contact with one of the condoms he had thrown in there. Then he worked on his own jeans, only bothering to undo his belt, unzip and let them fall to his knees.

“Wow.”

He looked down at her and saw that she was staring at his erection with wide eyes. “I can’t fucking wait to have you in me.”

It wasn’t the first time he’d heard a woman in awe of his size, but it still sent him over the edge.
He had the rubber on in a flash, pulled her silky red panties to the side and pushed himself all the way inside of her.

“Oh. My.
God,” she screamed out upon first entry. He gave her a second to adjust to the intrusion of him inside her and then he began pumping his hips. He grabbed her legs and pulled them up so that he could get even deeper. His hips slammed against her again and again until she called out that she was close to climax.

He leaned over her as he felt her hot core clenching around him. His lips took hers and for the second time that day, he pulled a soul from a woman’s body. She rocked against him, moaning into his mouth as her soul slid from her body into his.

Suddenly, his own orgasm hit hard as his body absorbed the energy. He arched his back and released her mouth, letting out a slight moan of pleasure.

When it was over
, he pulled out of her and turned away so that he could take care of the condom. Turning back toward her, he yanked his pants up. She lay there across the seat with her legs spread wide open and her bare sex glistening. He wanted to roll his eyes because it appeared that she didn’t plan on moving any time soon.

“That
… was amazing,” she said between breaths.

He had to wonder why the fuck she was out of breath. He was the one who did all the work. All she had to do was lay there.

He smiled and reached out to help her sit up. “It was amazing. Fucking awesome.” He leaned over gave her a kiss and then set her pants on her lap. “Here’s your pants, honey.”

She looked slightly confused, as if any man would be crazy not to have her sitting half naked in his truck. “Oh, ah, thank you.”

“You going home or back to the bar?” He turned the key in the ignition and fired up the engine.

Now she was really getting the clue that she had just been used. Guess she was normally the user, not the other way around. “Um, home, I guess.” Her voice was barely above a whisper and a solemn expression
crossed her face as she gave Jack directions to her house.

Jack lit a smoke and handed it to her then lit one for himself. After taking a long drag, he pulled out onto the bridge and crossed over it. Oddly enough, Sadie lived up Cemetery
Road so he had to drive by the graveyard on the way to her house.

He peered out his window as they passed by and he saw nothing but the soft glow of the street lamps that had been placed by the benches on some of the trails through the plots. There were no glowing blue souls to chase after, at the moment.

A few miles later, he found himself pulling into a short dirt driveway and coming to a stop in front of a double wide trailer house.

Sadie flicked her as
h out the window and then tossed the entire cigarette out into her driveway. “Do you want to come in for a while?” Her voice was hopeful.

No way in hell.

Jack shook his head and smiled charmingly at her. “Nah, I’ve got to get home and get some sleep.” He noticed how her face fell and added. “I’ve got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Lots of work.”

She seemed happier with a response that sounded valid. “Oh, all right
. Well, let me give you my number just in case you want to get ahold of me later.” She opened her purse and took out a little piece of paper and a pen, scribbled her digits onto the paper and shoved it into his hand.” With one last look at him she opened the door and hopped down into her driveway. “Thanks for the ride.” She clutched her purse, wobbled over the gravelly driveway and into her house.

Jack backed out of the driveway as soon as he saw that Sadie was safely inside her house. On his way out of the driveway he opened up the glove box
again and added Sadie’s number to the rest of the little bits of paper and business cards he kept in there.

He drove down Cemetery
Road in the thick darkness, but as he approached the graveyard, he clearly saw misty blue shimmers cutting through the night. Not too far from the blue, he spotted the silver auras of the Keepers. There were at least three of them out there in the graveyard with the souls.

The darkness was anything but camouflage for a Keeper, a Reaper
, or even the souls. Briefly the thought crossed his mind to just go in there and take care of all of them and be done with this godforsaken town, but then reality kicked in. There were far too many Keepers here for him to attempt anything tonight. He was pretty damn strong, but going up against three or more well-trained Keepers wasn’t ever a good idea.

Fatigue suddenly hit hard. He slammed his foot into the accelerator and heard the engine roar as he sped off into the night.

Lucy and Ethan followed Greg Jr. up the narrow stairwell leading into the attic. Greg stopped at the second to last stair and reached for the door knob. “Eeeek!” he squealed like a girl and swiped both his hands blindly in front of him.

Lucy and Ethan burst into laughter as Greg lurched backward, almost teetering off of the stair he was standing on. Ethan reached out and pushed on Greg’s back to keep him from tumbling off the stair and taking both of them with him.

“Fucking spider webs!” Greg mumbled under his breath after he had regained his balance. “Didn’t you and Dad ever clean up here, Lucy?”

Lucy shook her head. “No, Greg, the two of us cleaned this whole house and after Dad got sick it was just me, so pardon me if I didn’t get to the attic.”

“Well these webs are everywhere.”

Lucy rolled her eyes even though her brother couldn’t see her. “So sorry, I’ll just have the cleaning lady get right to that. She is scheduled to come when I win the fucking lottery. Now shut up and open the door.”

After girlishly waving away more spider webs, Greg managed to get the door open and they all filed into the dusty, dark attic. Greg found the light switch to the right side of the room and flipped it on. A single, dim bulb illuminated the large room and the three of them all sighed in unison. “Well, it looks like the search for Grandma’s trunk is the name of the game,” Ethan whispered.

Lucy looked around at the crap that was piled everywhere and wondered where in the hell they accumulated all of it. Trunks galore were stacked all over the place, boxes and filing cabinets were pushed into every nook and cranny, there was furniture covered with sheets
, and even a freaking piano had been shoved into one corner.

She wandered through the maze of antiques and memorabilia, running a fingertip through the years of dust that had settled on top of everything. “Well,” she said turning to the guys
, “this could take forever. There is so much stuff up here.”

Ethan looked around the room with an expression on his face that was a cross between awe and frustration. “Yeah, this could take a while.”

She shrugged and wiped her finger on her dress before wandering over to a stack of ancient looking trunks. “I guess we better get moving then, help me unstack these.”

Greg and Ethan each grabbed hold of a handle of the top trunk, lifted it down and then did the same with the middle one. Dust
, which had lain undisturbed for so long, billowed up around them in a large cloud. Once the trunks were down, each of them opened one and began to inspect the contents.

Finding nothing in the those, the three of them searched the attic, finding several more trunks before Lucy finally spotted one over in the corner that, while appearing the same as all the other trunks, had an emblem on the front that wasn’t on the others.

Lucy abandoned the open trunk before her, drawn in the direction of the trunk in the corner. The leather was a dark, stained brown. Wide straps spanned the circumference of the giant chest, holding it together with antique buckles. The emblem on the front was a two inch circle, made of bronze and engraved with the letter J.

Her grandmother’s name was Josephine.

She knelt down onto her knees in front of the trunk and ran her fingertip across the bronze emblem. This had to be the one.

Looking over her shoulder, she saw that Greg and Ethan were busy sifting through the masses of junk lying around in the attic. She turned back to the trunk and blew out a long breath, sending the thick layer of dust up into a tiny storm as it flew up and away from the trunk. Slowly, she unlatched the buckles holding the trunk together.

Before opening the lid, she paused and reflected for a moment. This old chest could possibly hold the proof that she was some kind of prophecy. Her life, from this point on was probably going to change. She didn’t know how, but she was sure that there was no way it could remain the same.

She lifted the lid of the trunk.

The hinges creaked with age and lack of use as she slowly lifted the top and looked inside. The first thing she saw was a very, very old crossbow lying on top of a white silk cloth. The cloth covered the rest of the contents in the trunk, keeping it from sight until someone got around to removing it.

With a trembling hand, Lucy reached out and lifted the bow. It was so old she felt that it would crumble in her hands
when she picked it up. But, when her fingers wrapped around the metal and wood of the weapon, she knew that it was made for her.

Gently, she lifted the crossbow from the trunk and turned it over in her hands. It was old, but she was sure it was sturdy and reliable. Her eyes caught something engraved into
the side of the handle, and she turned it so that the light shone more directly on the weapon.

There, carved into the metal, was a circle with
the number seven inside of it. At the top of the circle, above the seven, was her family name, Estmond. Below the seven, at the bottom of the circle, was the word ‘Guardian.’

“Guys
,” Lucy called out, not taking her eyes off of the weapon. “Hey guys, I found it.”

She heard shuffling behind her and knew that Greg and Ethan were on their way over. “Wow, nice crossbow
,” she heard Ethan say as he and Greg settled down on their knees on either side of her.

“Yeah. It is
,” she mumbled, more to herself than anyone. “Look at this.” She pointed to the engraving on the side.

“That’s awesome
,” Greg told her, holding his hands out for the weapon.

Reluctantly, Lucy handed it over so that he could inspect it. Since she now had her hands free, she looked down into the trunk and then carefully removed the silk to see what other treasures were nestled inside.

The first thing she saw was the arrows, six of them. Lifting one, she examined it and was sure that it was made of solid silver. Silver was a Reapers weakness. They could die like humans, but they were naturally just stronger and more powerful than regular humans were. The silver weakened them, slowing them down and harnessing them so that the Keeper could kill them … or give the soul they were saving time to get away.

“Look
,” Ethan whispered from beside her. She looked away from the arrow and set it aside to see what Ethan was looking at. He had reached into the trunk and was extracting a large, leather bound book that looked far older than the Keeper lines themselves.

Carved into the leather on the front of the book was the same symbol of a seven with their family name that was on the cross bow. Ethan set the book carefully on his lap and opened it. Lucy leaned over so she could get a better view. The pages of the thick book were yellowed and brittle with age. Ethan flipped through the first section with a delicate touch. Peering over, Lucy could see that the first entries inked into the book were in a foreign language.

Boy, I hope the whole book isn’t like that.

The history and lineage of the Keepers was a topic that Lucy had been fascinated with since she was a small child
, which was one of the reasons she was so pissed that she didn’t know about this legend of the Chosen Keeper crap.

“Lucy.” Greg had set the bow down beside him and had his hands in the trunk. “Check this out.” He lifted out a piece of parchment, rolled up snug and tied with a bit of red ribbon. Greg’s eyes flicked to Lucy in question and she gave him a nod. Guess it didn’t really matter who opened it, even if she was supposed to be the
Chosen One and all.

He nodded back at her and then gave the ribbon a tug with his forefinger and thumb. The ribbon came loose from the parchment with ease and Greg set it aside on the dusty attic floor. With both hands steady, he gently unrolled the parchment, holding it open so he could read it.

“God, I hope it’s in English,” Lucy whispered.

“It is
,” Greg told her as he scanned over the antique document.

Ethan leaned over Lucy, trying to get a look. “Well, what’s it say?”

Lucy swatted at Ethan. “Get off me.”

Ethan rolled his eyes and set the book he was holding back in the trunk. Then he got up and went around to lean over Greg
’s shoulder.

Greg cleared his throat a little bit and began to read.

“My name is Anabel Estmond. I am the daughter of Keepers, Samuel and Mary Winward. I am the wife of Jonathan Estmond.”

“Our great
-grandmother,” Lucy murmured.

“Yeah, now keep quiet so I can read
,” Greg shushed her and then continued to read. “The Estmond bloodline stems from the original Keepers. There were only seven bloodlines in the beginning, and Abraham Estmond was of the very first.

“
I write this today as witness and to record.

“
Not long ago, I met an oracle. A true oracle. We happened to meet on the street. I went to town to put a letter in the post. As I was leaving the post, I dropped my coin purse and bent to pick up the scattered coins. As I bent, my arm grazed a woman passerby. This woman, she was normal. There was no strange aura, no odd feeling, she gave no sign of being someone who would have known that I was a Keeper.

“
She paused as I gathered my coins and then bent to help me. But, really she wanted to whisper something upon my ears.

“
‘You are a Keeper, yes?’

“
My hands began to tremble. I knew not if she was dangerous since I could not see any aura from her.

“
‘Fear not,’ she told me. ‘I mean you no harm.’ Her hand rested gently upon mine. ‘I have seen what the future brings for the blood of your blood.’

“
My coins were gathered so we stood. Her hand grasped mine even more firmly once we stood face to face. We appeared to any passersby as merely ladies speaking quietly amongst each other.

“
‘Your offspring are of the original Keeper lines. It is a long told prophecy that the seventh child, of one of the seven original Keepers, will be born on the seventh day of the seventh month. This child will bring forth an end to the Reapers who plague the earth. I have seen that this child will be of your own bloodline.’

“
I could not speak. How could this woman know such things? However, if Keepers and Reapers and other such beings existed, why shan’t a seer of the future exist as well.

“
‘Will it be my child?’ I asked her.

“
‘That much I cannot see,’ she whispered, ‘only that the child will come from your blood.’ She released my hand and I looked into her beautiful blue eyes and saw truth. ‘I must go,’ she told me. ‘I apologize for the intrusion. You have a wonderful day.’ With those last words, she left me standing there in confusion.

“
My days afterward were spent searching. There had to be a record of a prophecy of such importance somewhere in the Keeper records. I contacted the other original bloodlines and asked to search any documentation that they might have. I did everything I possibly could to find proof, for no one would ever believe the word of a woman I’d met on the street who claimed to see the future.

“
Finally, the day came when I found it.

“
In the vast library of an original Keeper bloodline, I found a very, very old book. Written in a language I did not know. I knew that this book was old, and even the possibility that there could be information about the prophecy drove me to do something I’d never done ever before.

“
I stole it.

“
I hid the book among my belongings and left the Keepers mansion after thanking them for allowing me to use their library. Afterward, I found someone who could translate the first entries in the book and discovered that the language was Gaelic, the language of our origins. And there, in this book, I’d finally found the proof I’d been looking for. The written word of another had been told by a seer of the future, the very same thing which I had been told.

“
This document is record of my experience. I have added it to the book as well, so that it may become a part of history. This document, however, is for my family, to stay within our blooded relations should the book ever go missing. If the book disappears, I do not want the proof of our destiny to fade along with it.”