Keeper vs. Reaper (Graveyard Guardians Book 1)

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  Her class ended and the instructor released them with directions for the homework assignment due at the end of the week. She hurried to shove her textbook and notes into her bag and headed for the door with thoughts of her nonexistent sex life, and how she was going to caffeinate herself, heavy on her mind.

  “Make sure to call me sometime, Estmond,” Adam called from seat, where he was also gathering his things.

  “I’ll try.” Ugh, what a lame response. She regretted it the moment it came out of her mouth.

  Inside, she was shaking her head at herself. She didn’t want to make him think she was actually going to call, but at the same time she didn’t want to be rude either.

  Adam didn’t seem to think anything of it. He certainly wasn’t struggling with it as much as she was. He simply flashed her a smile and threw his backpack over his shoulder as he passed by her.

  Once he was out the door she went back to craving her coffee and hurried out to her car. She drove a simple gray Honda Civic that looked like everyone else’s Honda Civic. It had been her dad’s car, so now it was hers. At least it wasn’t a beater like Greg’s car. Most of her siblings drove shitty cars because lack of money was another problem associated with being a Keeper.

  It was about an hour’s drive back from Santa Rosa to Summer Hollow, so she grabbed a triple shot latte from a drive through coffee hut for the road. She took the twisty turns of the Saint Helena Mountain faster than the speed limit recommended, having driven this road most of her life she could probably do it with her eyes closed.

  Back in Summer Hollow, the first thing she did was head over to her sister’s shop. Olivia started her own business before she even left home. She loved cooking and baking, plus she was extremely good at it, so it made perfect sense for her to start her own bakery.

  Personally, Lucy couldn’t believe that she got up at three a.m. every fucking morning to bake ten tons of food for everyone else. But, she made a decent income and she enjoyed it, so that made it worth it. It also made Lucy happy that her sister was happy. She wasn’t oblivious to the fact that Olivia seemed to be the only one of the Estmond siblings who was tempted to get out of the family business. So, if Liv wanted to bake shit, then by God, she should bake shit.

  She parked out on the street and stared up at the sign for her sister’s bakery. There was a dark blue awning over the door and two tiny iron tables with matching chairs outside the door. They were occupied by people Lucy didn’t know, so they were probably tourists.

  With a smile for the tourists, she pushed open the glass door and waved at her sister who was behind the counter boxing up enough cupcakes to feed an army.

  “Who ordered that many cupcakes?” Lucy asked.

  Liv wore an apron over her jeans and polo shirt to keep her outfit from getting messed up, but there wasn’t even one stain on the apron that Lucy could see. She had her dark red hair bound up into a bun, as she always did when working, so that none of it would fall into the food.

  “It’s not that many, and it’s for Tabatha Jenson.”

  Lucy made a face, expressing her disgust. “Really? She actually ordered from you?”

  Liv smiled and shrugged. “I know, right. I think it’s more to spite me than anything, though. You know, to show off how much money she has. This…” she gestured to the cupcakes, “is for her son’s second birthday party.”

  Lucy opened the glass case that held a variety of baked goods and helped herself to an éclair. “Well, she may have married into money, but she is still just as much of a bitch as she always was.”

  “Don’t forget to write down that you took that,” Liv told her.

  Lucy rolled her eyes as she poured a cup of coffee to go with her éclair. “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

  Liv put the last cupcake in the one of the boxes and gently placed a lid on top. “There. All done. And, no, Tabatha will never change, she is even worse now that she married Jeremy and his money.”

  “You want me to kick her ass?” Lucy asked as she deposited her coffee and éclair to table and pulled out a chair.

  Liv shot her an incredulous look. “Why? She didn’t do anything but order a ton of cupcakes for her kid’s birthday party.”

  Lucy made a face and shrugged. “I don’t know, because it would be fun and she deserves it for harassing you all those years. I don’t know why you never kicked her ass.”

  Liv sighed. “Because, unlike you, I don’t think that violence is the answer to everything.”

  Tabatha was older than Lucy, but she still would have loved to punch her in the face. She let it go, knowing that the last thing Liv wanted to do was talk about her life-long bully. “So, what’s going on today? Anything exciting?”

  Liv placed the boxes in the walk-in to keep them cool and answered just as she was closing the heavy door behind her. “Well, Dan took his drunk ass to the bar last night and tried to start a fight with some guy.”

  Lucy had just shoved the last of her éclair into her mouth. “What?” She managed to say around the pastry. “Who was it? How do you know?” She choked down the rest of the éclair and took a desperate swig of coffee to wash it down.

  “I don’t know who it was and the only reason I know about this is because Reese was here this morning.” Liv poured herself a cup of coffee and joined Lucy at the table since there were no customers. “I’m not surprised, he has been on a permanent bender since Dad got sick.”

  Lucy felt her chest tighten. “I wish I knew how to help him.” And she was serious. Family was everything to her. Seeing her brother hurting was killing her inside.

  Liv looked just as sad as she felt. “There is nothing we can do until he wants to help himself.

  Just then, the door swung open. Lucy and Liv both turned to see who the customer was. A jean clad, motorcycle booted, black haired beauty of a man stepped over the threshold into the shop.

  Lucy might have swooned right there if it hadn’t been for the misty red aura of a Reaper swirling around the sexiest guy she had ever seen.

  Jack pulled open the door of the bakery and found himself face to face with two of the Estmond Keepers.

  “Holy shit!”

  Fuck, did he actually say that out loud.

  When he’d left the house to find something to eat for breakfast, the last thing he thought he would encounter was a Keeper and surely not two of them in the same place.

  Both girls were on their feet in the same instant, taking their fighting stances automatically, as if it were second nature to them. Although … it was probably more like first nature to them.

  The sisters were both what he would consider beautiful and he almost never thought that about any woman. But, the younger one … she was straight up fucking hot! It wasn’t just her looks either. She wore a defiant look that told him without words that she would kick his ass if he made even one wrong move.

  Surprised to see the light silvery mist swirling around the two girls, he halted just inside the door so abruptly the handle thumped him on the ass as the door swung shut behind him.

  The older red head stepped up beside her sister. “You shouldn’t be here,” she told him in a low voice. “Get out.” She pointed at the door.

  Jack, who had fully been prepared to turn around and walk right back out the way he had come, suddenly decided that he would go when he fucking felt like it. His eyes flicked over the taller older sister, and then the younger one. God, what he would do to her if she wasn’t a Keeper.

  “You heard her, get the hell out!”

  Jack held up his hands. “Whoa, calm down, I just wanted a fucking doughnut.”

  The young Keeper lifted her chin and rewarded him with the sexiest glare he had ever seen on a woman. “Get your damn doughnut somewhere else. You need to get the hell out of here and out of Summer Hollow too.”

  He should have turned around. Confrontations with Keepers in public were never a good thing, like what happened the night before in the bar. It got people talking, and that was even worse. But, f
or some reason, he could not force himself to turn around and walk back out that door. He could barely force himself to take his eyes off the younger Keeper.

  But, he did, his gaze moved to the older one again and a thought occurred to him. “Are you the Estmonds?”

  “None of your damn business who we are!” shot back the smaller one. “You have literally three seconds to take your ass out of here.”

  “Ah,” he nodded, “so you are.”

  “One!”

  “I still need my doughnut.”

  “Two!”

  “Do you have any with lemon filling?”

  “Three!” The younger Keeper charged him.

  He took his fighting stance as she flew toward him. He was ready for her. She pulled back her arm, preparing to nail him in the face. He raised his guard, ready to deflect, but at the last second she went low, sweeping out her leg.

  Jack felt her leg connect with his and suddenly his body was headed for the floor. “Shit!” The curse expelled from his lips just as the side of his body connected with the spotless white tile of the bakery floor.

  He turned and kicked out, hoping to make contact with her. No chance, before he could twist away she was on top of him, straddling his body and driving her arm into his jugular. “I told you to leave.”

  “Lucy, there are people outside,” came a soft warning from her sister.

  “Shut it, Liv. Like anyone in this town hasn’t seen my temper.”

  A long sigh from the sister. “They’re tourists, Lucy.”

  The distraction from her sister gave him just enough of an opening. He reached up and grabbed her arms, tossing her aside and then threw his leg over the top of her, reversing their positions. Now, he sat on top of her, holding down her midsection with his body weight.

  God, he really hoped he didn’t get hard. The fact that she was struggling beneath him wasn’t helping matters any either.

  “Get off me asshole!”

  “Not a chance.”

  “Just fucking go, why are you trying to make this worse for yourself?”

  He drove his arm harder into her neck. “It doesn’t look like I’m the one in a bad position here. You’re the one who attacked me and now look where you got yourself.”

  As if he sensed it was coming, he turned his head slightly just in time to catch Liv’s running shoe in the face. The force of her kick was so much that he flipped over onto the floor beside Lucy.

  His cheek felt like someone had slapped him with a brick. Time to get the hell out of here. He had almost no chance against two Keepers. But, he did have a mission, lest he forget. Seriously though, what was he going to do, kill her in the town bakery with a ton of people right outside? No, that wasn’t even an option. Besides … he didn’t know if the young Keeper was even the one he was looking for.

  He could just hear his mother now. ‘Well, the answer is simple Jackson, kill them all.’

  Yeah … he wasn’t doing that. Having to off one of them was more than enough for him.

  He stayed on the floor so he didn’t appear a threat. Lucy had scrambled to her feet and both girls towered over him, Liv had her fists raised just in case he breathed or some shit.

  “Look, I’ll leave. Okay? Just let me get up.” He rubbed his neck where Lucy had held it and realized something, there had been no burn when she touched him.

  His head snapped up and his gaze found Lucy, she mirrored his reaction. Her fingers were softly touching her throat where the bare skin of his arm had made contact. Her eyes were wide and staring at him as if he had the answer.

  That’s it. “I’m outta here.” No way was he going to sit here on the floor like a little bitch who does what he’s told one second longer. He pushed himself into a standing position, smoothed down his black tee shirt, shot Lucy one last look and headed for the door while mumbling “Fuck this shit.”

  Later, while he was holed up in his little house with some nasty doughnuts he’d acquired from the grocery store, he flipped through the channels on the TV and wondered how in the hell a badass like himself had just gotten beat by a couple of chicks.

  He bit into a chocolate glazed that tasted like someone had drizzled chocolate over dog shit and called it a pastry. Damn. He wished that he’d been able to wrangle some real baked goods out of those Keepers.

  Thinking about the doughnut only got him thinking about the young Keeper, Lucy. Boy, she was just a ball of fire all around. From her red hair to her attitude, she was the whole package. Why there was no burning when they touched was still a mystery. He would sure like to know why that was.

  Normally, when the Reapers made physical contact with a Keeper, it was painful. Mere brushes of skin usually felt like when you shock yourself from static electricity build up, but when the contact was more intense, like a grab, it felt like skin under flame.

  Apparently neither of them had felt any of that.

  Bang, Bang, Bang. A sudden pounding at the door had him off his feet in an instant. He hurried over to the table and snatched up the .45 that he had set there when he’d returned home from his failed breakfast outing.

  “Open the door, asshole!”

  Jack smiled and rested the gun back onto the table top. He hurried over to the front door and flung it open. “Aiden.” He greeted his best friend with far less enthusiasm than he actually felt. “Get your ass in here.”

  Aiden lifted his bag and crossed the threshold into Jacks rental house.

  Taking note of the bag, Jack raised an eyebrow. “You staying a while?”

  Aiden dropped the duffle on the floor. “You know exactly why I’m here.”

  Jack shook his head and sighed. “My mother.”

  “Damn straight,” Aiden confirmed. “She wants this Keeper dead … like yesterday.”

  Jack turned away, headed for the kitchen and the meager stock of cheap beer in the fridge. Aiden followed him. “What the hell, Jack? It’s one Keeper. One! I know you don’t like having to do stuff like this but it’s a matter of survival. We can’t fuck with the Reaper Council.”

  Jack pulled open the fridge and extracted a bottle of Sierra Nevada. “I’ve been fucking with the Council all my life.” He popped the top off his beer with the bottle opener and leaned against the counter as he took the first pull.

  “Jack, dude, it’s like eleven in the morning.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, did you want one.”

  Aiden shook his head, then stepped up beside Jack and opened the fridge. After taking stock of the lack of food within the contents, he shrugged and pulled himself out a beer as well.

  With a smirk, Jack handed him the bottle opener.

  “Asshole,” Aiden muttered.

  Jack loved his best friend, they had grown up together, but at this particular moment, he knew that Aiden being here wasn’t a good thing. He was going to make Jack kill that Keeper or do it himself.

  “So, mom sent you over to make sure I was getting my chores done, eh?”

  Aiden finished taking a swig of his beer and nodded. “Yeah. She is pissed, man. Really fucking pissed. She’s even talking about how you won’t make a good leader when their gone and all that bull shit.”

  Jack rolled his eyes. “I’ve never wanted to be a leader. I don’t even like most of the people on the Council, including my mom and dad. Why in the hell would I want to lead the entire species? Fuck that.”

  Aiden set his beer on the counter and grabbed Jack by the shoulders. “No. Not fuck that. You have a chance to lead, Jack. To change things. You don’t like the way your parents have led our people, so now is your chance to change that. If you do this one little thing, you will finally have some favor on your mother’s side and when she goes, you will be Emperor.”

  “I don’t want to be Emperor and that ‘one little thing’ you are talking about is called murder, Aiden.”

  Aiden didn’t blink an eye. “We are going to do this. I will do it for you if I have to, and you are going to come home with me to report it to the Empress. When she as
ks if it’s done, we tell her that you did it.”

  He thought of Lucy, her red hair, her dark eyes, her fierceness. “What if we don’t do it?”

  “Do you really want to chance not killing the Keeper who might be the Chosen One? The Chosen One who is supposed to bring forth an end to the Reapers?”

  Jack knew that Aiden would do whatever the Empress ordered him to do. He may be Jacks best friend, but he had been raised to obey the Council, especially orders from the Empress. Through their life-long friendship, Jack had never asked him to choose between his loyalty to the Council and himself, and he never would.

  Why was he even considering not doing this in the first place?

  “Fine.” He nodded. “Let’s do it. We’ll go tonight.”

  Aiden held up his beer, “That’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

  “Yeah, tonight should be good. Their father passed away a few days ago and they had a funeral, so the whole crew of Keepers were here. The place was crawling with them.”

  “How many are at the house?”

  Jack shrugged. “Should be just, Lu … just one, the rest of them live in their own places around town. They do go out and help her in the graveyard sometimes though.”

  “Good.” Aiden nodded approval. “At least you’ve been doing your homework.”

  Jack turned away and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you know me.”

  Aiden laughed. “That’s the thing, I do know you, Jack, and I know that you do everything you possibly can not to do your homework. So, tell me what you have been up to in this shithole of a town.”

  Well, first I fucked a chick and fed on her soul, and then I went to the bar and got punched by a Keeper, and then I fucked another chick and fed on her soul. “Nothing much, I’ve gone to the bar a couple of times, but mostly I hang out here.”

  “In this shack.”

  Jack shrugged. “I’m offended, I like it here. It’s quiet.”

  “And rustic.”

  “Shut up, it’s better than their shitty bank of rooms they call a hotel.”

  Aiden wandered into the living room and flopped down onto the couch. “I get why you like it here. Hidden away from life with your mom and dad.”