Rhonda, a satisfied smirk on her lips, said, ‘as of this moment I’m no longer your wife. You’re nothing but a chauvinistic bully and I’ve had enough of you. I’m leaving.’
Understanding followed by anger crossed Dad’s face. He lunged forward and grabbed Rhonda’s arm. ‘Don’t be stupid. You’re nothing without me. You have nothing. The house, the car, everything, it’s all in my name. You’ve got nowhere else to go.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong. I’m moving in with Tyler.’ She wrenched her arm free and smiled at me. ‘You can entertain your father while I pack.’ She strode from the room, moving with a spring in her step.
I watched her disappear down the hall and into the bedroom she had shared with my dad for the last twenty-four years. I wasn’t sure what shocked me more; finding out Rhonda was a Tr’lirian or watching her walk out on Dad. A hard shove sent my head flying and I scrambled backwards, out of Dad’s reach.
‘What have you done to my wife?’
‘I didn’t do anything to her.’
‘Of course you bloody well did. She was normal when I left this morning. Now look at her. You’ve gone and filled her head with nonsense, and I won’t have it. You hear? Go find your mother and make her see sense.’
I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders. ‘She’s not my mother, and you’re the one who needs to talk to her. Not me.’
Maybe he could talk her out of her insane plan to move in with me. No way did I want to be sharing the flat with my stepmother, even if I understood why she didn’t want to live with Dad any longer.
Face red, Dad roared at me. ‘Don’t you take that tone with me, girl. She’s your mother if I say she is.’
I stood my ground, refusing to be cowed even though I had never seen him this angry. The veins in his temples stood out like purple snakes, emphasising how red his face had gotten.
‘My name is Tyler, not girl, and I already have a mother.’ I let out my breath, fighting the urge to grin, euphoric to be standing up to him.
Dad sneered as he loomed over me, trying to intimidate me into backing down. ‘You killed your mother. Your brother too, after turning him into a psycho.’
Heat blazed inside me. ‘That’s it. I’ve had it with being the scapegoat for everything that has gone wrong in this family. I did not kill Mum. She died in a car accident, it was not my fault, and Andrew got himself killed.’
‘Now you listen here –’
‘No,’ I poked him in the chest, forcing him to take a step back. ‘It’s your turn to listen. You want someone to blame for Andrew, look in a mirror. You treated him even worse than you did me, just because he didn’t fit your image of the perfect son. I’m not saying you turned him into a monster, he was obviously sick for a long time before he started killing people, but you didn’t help. Maybe if he’d felt loved when he was a child, if his mum hadn’t abandoned him, he wouldn’t have turned out so bad.’
‘How dare you talk to me like that?’ His breath was coming in gasps.
‘Why not? It’s how you talk to everybody else.’
‘Get out. Get out of my house.’ He shoved me and I stumbled backwards. I dodged a second shove as I scooped up my handbag. ‘You’re not welcome here. You’re not my daughter. I disown you.’
I retreated to the door. ‘Andrew’s dead, Rhonda’s leaving you, and you disowned me years ago. One of these days Connor will realise what kind of man you are and turn his back on you too. Or worse, he’ll turn out just like you and ruin even more lives.’
‘Get out.’
His roar pushed me through the doorway and I ran to my car, hands shaking as I unlocked it. I wanted to drive off, to just start the engine and keep driving until I ran out of petrol. But as much as I disliked her, I couldn’t leave Rhonda stranded. So I sat in the car and waited for her to come out of the house I had grown up in, the house I would be happy to never set foot in again.
I was done trying to make Dad like me, to make him proud and have him accept me as an equal. He was never going to change, but I had to. Connor, Emily, even Rhonda, they depended on me to save them from Malia and Grimm.
It was time for Daddy’s neglected little girl to grow up.
15
Rhonda emerged from the house lugging two suitcases. Dad watched on from the doorway as I got out and helped her put one in the boot and one in the back seat. Rhonda didn’t spare him a glance as she got in the car, but I did and squashed the momentary flash of pity at the forlorn figure he cut. Shoulders sagging, all his bluster gone, he didn’t move as we backed out of the driveway and out of his life.
‘Finally, I’m free.’ Rhonda reached up and pulled her hair out of its tight ponytail. She tossed her head from side to side and let her hair tumble around her face. I blinked, surprised by how much younger she looked with her hair down. She glanced over at me.
‘What?’
I shook my head. ‘Where do you want me to take you?’
‘To your flat, of course.’
‘Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable somewhere else, like with Connor?’ I asked, trying not to show how much I wanted her to say yes.
Rhonda wrinkled her nose and gave a carefree laugh. ‘Connor wouldn’t want me cramping his style, and neither would his housemates. And I certainly don’t want to stay with a bunch of young men, who’d no doubt expect me to cook and clean for them. It would be worse than living with your father.’
I snorted. ‘Seriously, if that’s your excuse I don’t buy it.’
She rolled her eyes at me. ‘Fine, you want the truth, here it is. I don’t like you and I also don’t think you have what it takes to keep Connor safe, but you’re the only hope I have. So I’m going to go where you go, and make sure that when Grimm and Malia tear you down you don’t take my son with you.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘What have I got to be confident about? You let Malia trick you into telling her how to get a new body, practically handed your cousin to her on a plate, and endangered Connor in the process.’
‘And maybe none of that would have happened if you hadn’t kept what you knew to yourself.’ I wasn’t going to be Dad’s scapegoat, and no way in hell was I going to be hers.
She tossed her head. ‘It doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done and unless you find a way out of the mess you landed us all in, you’re going to die. Grimm will make you release Almorthanos from Demania and then he’ll come for Connor.’
‘So, help me. Tell me everything you know about this necklace and how I can use it to stop them.’
‘Fine, but I doubt it will do you any good.’
I pulled into the driveway of the flat and helped Rhonda carry her suitcases into the spare room. Emily’s stuff was strewn all over the place and I carefully packed it in her suitcase, hoping one day soon I would get to return it.
I carried Emily’s suitcase into my room and stashed it in the back of the wardrobe. I tossed the shoes Malia had left on the floor back in the bottom of the wardrobe and shut the door. Not so easy to shut out the memories. Emily had only been in my life for a short time, but she’d made a big impression, lightening my heart with her constant chatter and good nature.
What if I couldn’t get her back? How could I face her parents and tell them I had let a bitch like Malia take over her body?
I couldn’t tell them, not the truth, and hoped it wouldn’t come to me having to come up with yet another lie to explain to Emily’s parents why their daughter was never coming home.
I trudged into the kitchen and found Rhonda making herself at home. She was rummaging through the cupboards, looking for a glass to go with the bottle of white wine she’d found in the fridge.
‘Isn’t it a little early in the day to start drinking?’
‘It’s never too early. How else do you think I managed to stay with your father for so long?’ She found my wine glasses, filled one to the brim and downed half of it in one gulp before topping it up again. Then she t
urned to me. ‘Want one?’
‘No, thanks. I prefer to keep a clear head while facing the end of the world as we know it.’ I sat at the table as she brought the bottle over and joined me.
‘I’d have thought that was the best excuse to start drinking, and never stop.’
‘Do you want to find a way to protect Connor or not?’
‘Of course I do. But I’m realistic enough to know I’m on the losing team.’ She saluted me with her glass before taking another gulp.
‘Rhonda.’ I slapped my hand on the table.
She emptied her glass, refilled it, and put it on the table in front of her. ‘Fine, here’s what I know. After Malia was made mortal, it became her life’s mission to get her wings back. She hated the thought of dying. She had all of us scouring the world for any tales of magic, shamans, witchdoctors; anyone she thought might be of use to her. When we found a possible candidate she would travel through the astral plane to visit them, convince them to spill their secrets.’
Rhonda took a long swallow of wine, grimacing like it tasted bad. ‘Not everyone was keen to share and Malia quickly discovered seducing them got better results. That’s how your family line was conceived, so you can thank her search for power for your existence.’
It was my turn to grimace and Rhonda gave me another salute with her now empty glass before she poured the last of the bottle into it.
‘Anyway, one of the shamans taught Malia how to imbue her body with aether, which was supposed to make her live forever. But it didn’t work out that way. She died at a very bitter old age and all the power she had hoarded was fused into your necklace when her body was cremated. Although, it didn’t look anything like it does now.’
‘It changed after I used it against Grimm.’
‘Malia was furious it no longer responded to her, wasn’t she?’ Rhonda wore a satisfied smirk. ‘In fact, I’d say she was even more furious than when she found out she couldn’t use it to bring herself back to life. One of her pet Tr’lirians finally found it and delivered it to her in the Underworld two weeks ago, and she was not happy to find out it wouldn’t work for her.’
Two weeks. Only days before I had been murdered so Grimm could chain me with the necklace, turning me into the key to free Almorthanos. I shook myself, dispelling the horror of that night and focused on Rhonda, frowning as I considered her words.
‘Malia didn’t have a body to go back to. Why did she think the necklace would bring her back to life? And I thought it was only supposed to work for her eldest female descendant.’ Me.
Even then, from what Chris had told me, it would only resurrect me if no one took it from my body before the power had time to kick in.
‘Grimm controls everything in the Underworld. He made her a body out of nether that looked and felt as real as you or I. They thought that as the necklace had come from her original body it would bypass the whole descendant thing. But the necklace wouldn’t fasten around her neck. So they decided to kill you, to see if it would work. Bet they’re regretting that now, along with their decision to get you to find Grimm’s missing reaper before they got you to release Almorthanos.’
Rhonda double checked the empty bottle of wine. ‘Got anything else to drink?’
Someone pounding on the front door saved me from answering.
‘What the bloody hell is going on?’ Connor pushed passed me when I opened the door. ‘Dad said you stole Mum.’
‘Hello to you, too,’ I said as he marched over to the table.
‘Connor, my darling son. How lovely of you to join us.’
‘Have you been drinking?’ Connor scowled down at her and then turned his displeasure on me. ‘Did you get her drunk?’
‘She did that on her own, and I’ll let her tell you all about it.’ I scooted into the lounge, grabbed my phone, keys, and handbag and raced outside before either of them could stop me.
‘Damn.’ Connor’s car was parked behind my Corolla. I wasn’t going anywhere, not by car at least. But no way was I going to stay here and get dragged into Rhonda’s mess. She could fill Connor in on all the gory details without any help from me.
I pulled my phone out of my bag and started to dial Chris’s number.
‘Oh no.’ I stared at the gold BMW that pulled up at the kerb, Sam behind the wheel. I stuffed my phone back into my bag and took several deep breaths as he got out of the car and strode towards me. He had sunglasses on so I couldn’t gauge his thoughts, but his purposeful movements and tense shoulders suggested this wasn’t a social call.
‘We need to talk.’
‘Now is really not a good time.’ I fiddled with my handbag, deliberately letting my fringe slide over half my face. ‘I’m in the middle of a family crisis.’
‘That can wait.’
‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that. My stepmother just left my father and has decided to move in with me, and Connor just showed up so it is all going to get messy.’
‘Tyler, enough. I don’t want to have to arrest you. It will make both our lives that little bit easier if you just come with me.’
‘Arrest me? What for?’
He shrugged. ‘Obstruction of justice, aiding and abetting. Whatever I can make stick.’
‘But that’s crazy. I didn’t do anything wrong.’
‘You want to know what’s really crazy,’ he said, shaking his head ‘I’ve got dead bodies escaping from the morgue and going on killing sprees. Dozens of people have been murdered in the last twenty-four hours and not all of them have stayed dead. It’s like a goddamn zombie movie, and they’re talking about putting the whole town under quarantine in case it’s some freak virus doing people in. I know you’re connected to it and you are going to tell me everything you know.’
‘I don’t know anything.’
‘Then how do you explain this?’ He pulled an evidence bag out of his pocket and I froze when I saw the contents. My teardrop, from the birthday party massacre.
I swallowed down my nerves. ‘I don’t see what a trinket has to do with me.’
Sam’s smile didn’t reach his hazel eyes. ‘I had it analysed by a friend of mine at the university. Clever man, he can do things with his equipment the guys in our forensic labs can only dream about. This “trinket” is a crystallized tear, and when I gave him a DNA profile to compare it to, he got a one hundred percent match. Want to guess whose DNA it is?’
16
Shaking my head, I backed away but Sam caught hold of my arm and held me in place. ‘This ends now, Tyler.’
Numb, I let him lead me to his car. He opened the car door and I slid inside. I closed my eyes and leaned into the seat, unresisting as he stretched across and buckled me in. The gentle touch on my chin as he angled my face upwards surprised me into opening my eyes.
He’d taken his sunglasses off and I could see the war going on inside him as the man fought with the homicide detective.
The man won.
He pressed his mouth against mine and I parted my lips, welcoming his kiss, the firmness of his touch. I drank him in, his tongue stroking inside my mouth, and heat flared low in my belly.
I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck, wanting him closer, needing to feel his body pressed against mine. But he broke off the kiss with a groan, peeling my hands away and placing them in my lap, leaving me breathless and wanting more.
He pulled his head back and put his sunglasses on, the emotion leaving his face as he closed the door. Breathing ragged, pulse pounding in my ears, I didn’t look at him as he hopped into the driver’s seat and started the engine. We travelled several blocks before my brain started to function and I realised just how much trouble I was in.
I rummaged in my bag for my phone, opening up a search engine.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Ah … I’m just letting Rhonda and Connor know where I am.’
He reached over and took the phone off me, a wry smile curving his lips as he read out what I had typed in. ‘Can you get DNA from tears?’
He tossed the phone into my lap and I scrambled to stop it sliding off, not sure if I should risk reading the answers the search engine had come up with. His tone had been suspiciously mild and I wondered if I had made another major blunder.
‘For your information, yes, you can get DNA out of tears, though I doubt any laboratory would come up with a result this fast. And they’d need some of your DNA to compare it to.’
‘You were bluffing.’ I shook my head.
‘Not really. You were there last night. I might not have been able to see you, but I heard you, could sense your presence. I don’t know how you did it, but with zombies on the loose I’m learning that anything is possible in this town.’
I put my phone back in my bag and looked out the window for the first time. ‘This isn’t the way to the station.’
‘I’m taking you somewhere we can talk without interruptions.’
Somewhere quiet turned out to be the lookout on top of Mount Pilbeam, named for one of Easton’s founding fathers. Years ago an outdoor café had operated at the lookout, but now it sat empty, its popularity dwindling once more upscale venues opened in the town centre.
Sam escorted me to one of the picnic tables out the back of the café. Large trees cast shade over the picnic area and birds called to each other as they announced our arrival to every living creature in the vicinity. I took a seat and gazed out over Easton, conscious of Sam’s presence beside me but not ready to acknowledge him.
Beside me, Sam gave a quiet sigh and twisted in his seat to face me properly. ‘Why don’t you start at the beginning?’
I shook my head, refusing to look at him. ‘Please, Sam, you don’t know what you’re asking.’
‘Some crazy shit is happening in this town and you’re right in the middle of it. People are dying, Tyler, and I don’t buy the Health Department’s line that it’s some kind of mutated virus. This is murder, and it’s my job to catch whoever is responsible. But I can’t do that if you won’t help me.’ He gently turned my head.
Winged Reaper Page 8
