Keeper vs. Reaper (Graveyard Guardians Book 1)

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  He thought about calling Aiden, but that might only tip him off that Jack was coming. They really needed the element of surprise on their side.

  “Reaper.”

  He heard the voice behind him and swung around, ready to draw in the soul. But, as soon as he laid eyes on the soul, he stopped. It was an old man, the man he’d seen in the obituary. “Gregory Estmond?” he asked.

  The old man nodded acknowledgment. “What are you doing here, Reaper?”

  Jack offered him a weak smile. “Still guarding the souls, even though you are one, eh?”

  “Always,” Greg Sr. agreed with another brief nod, after which, he looked Jack over. “You’re the one who saved my daughter from the other Reaper.”

  Jack’s breeding to respect his elders came back quick. “Yes sir. And now she needs me to save her again.”

  “You know where to find her?”

  “I think so, but I need to … um … refuel, if you know what I mean.”

  The old man wore a solemn expression and it did not waiver from his facial features. “I was there when Olivia explained what is happening and why you may be able to help. I won’t claim to be completely on board with any of this, but my daughter’s life is hanging in the balance. I can feel your energy and somehow I know you won’t hurt her.”

  “No sir, I will do everything … anything, to bring her back to you.”

  Lucy’s dad gave his nod of approval. “Then do what you have to do … just find her and bring her home safely.”

  “I will,” Jack vowed as the old man’s molecules separated and then disappeared into thin air.

  Even with the final blessing from Gregory Estmond, he still hated that he had to do this in Lucy’s graveyard. But, there was absolutely no time to go somewhere else.

  Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long.

  He walked the path quietly, keeping his footsteps soft and light. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the glittering blue of a soul. Heading in that direction he sped up until he was almost close enough to begin the transfer.

  The soul was not solid yet. Its molecules were spread into thousands … or millions, of shimmering specks of blue. It had not detected him yet, so Jack approached quietly once again and lifted his arms so that his palms were up and directed at the soul.

  He focused on the soul and pulled with his mind. When he was young and learning to take souls on his own, he had always thought of this part of the hunt as locking them into his tractor beams. Once they were locked in, they couldn’t get away unless the Reaper broke the beam. Breaking the beam was usually when a Keeper would get to them because they were busy drawing the soul to them, but had not yet begun to reap.

  All the particles of the soul floated toward him, swirling more rapidly with each passing second as the soul tried to fight back. It was useless for the soul to fight though. Once in the beam, they were pretty much a goner unless a Keeper was able to save them.

  The shimmering mist of the soul gathered into the space between his hands, and then he opened his mouth and brought the soul close to his lips. Then, he breathed in deeply with both his mouth and his nose, letting the soul enter his body.

  Oh God, why had he been putting this off. The immediate high ravaged through his body. He felt strong and alert and … and fucking immortal.

  The transfer of the soul into himself didn’t take very long. When it was over, he closed eyes and pictured Lucy behind his lids. Then, he turned and took off at a dead run back to his truck. Time to get the fuck on the road so he could rescue his woman.

  Well … she wasn’t his woman. But, it felt like she was.

  Once again, he forced himself to go the speed limit as he drove through town. He could see all the Keepers waiting for him as he pulled into the parking lot, just like they had arranged.

  They were all out of their cars, leaning against them and talking. He came to a stop and jumped down from the vehicle.

  Daniel was on his case before he could even get one word out. He sat on the hood of the Escort with his legs propped up on the bumper. “So, Reaper, are you ready now that you’ve had your fill of innocent souls.”

  “Shut up, Dan!” Steph moved over and punched him in the shoulder. “He’s helping us, don’t piss him off.”

  “Yeah, don’t piss me off,” Jack agreed. “Now, I only have one question before we take off.” He paused dramatically. All the while the Keepers were waiting with expectant expressions on their faces. Finally he looked to Liv and Greg, “What kind of weapons do you have?”

  It was James that answered though.

  “What kind of weapons do we have?” With a smirk, the brother opened the driver door of the Escort and popped the hatch. Then he came around the back and lifted the hatchback. There, he reached in and removed a blanket that was strewn across the cargo area.

  “You think this will do?”

  Underneath the blanket there was a variety of knives, the crossbow Lucy had had the night of the attack, a few guns, two machetes and a crowbar.

  He picked up the crowbar, tested its weight and looked over at James. “What’s this for, you guys prepping for the zombie apocalypse?”

  James reached over and grabbed the tool from him. “Greg just keeps that in the car in case he needs it. It’s part of his tool kit. Geez man, we didn’t pack a crowbar for a weapon.” He threw the crowbar back into the pile and set the blanket back in place.

  “Plus we have weapons on us,” Hannah told him. “Can we go now?”

  Jack nodded. He was just as anxious to find Lucy as the rest of them were. “Hell yeah, let’s go get her.”

  They flew through the night at a speed which was probably way too fast for anyone to be traveling at. Jack had convinced Liv, Hannah and James to ride with him, while Ethan, Daniel and Steph followed in the Escort with Greg. They didn’t bring Liv’s van because it didn’t do well on the turns going over the mountain. Taking them while speeding in a van was just asking for an accident.

  “So, how do you know where they are?” Liv asked him. She was sitting in the back seat with Hannah but leaned between the seats to talk to them.

  “My mother owns a small winery in Napa. It seems like that would be the most obvious place they would take her. The Reaper royals live in Florida now. I just can’t see them traveling all that way with Lucy in a car … and they would have to take a car, since they wouldn’t be able to get her on a plane.”

  “Um, why would your mother be involved in all of this?”

  Damn, best just to tell them and get it out of the way. It was going to come out sooner or later anyway.

  “My mother is the Reaper Empress,” he announced, his voice void of any emotion.

  Silence. Dead fucking silence.

  Jack didn’t let his eyes stray from the road, but felt all of their eyes boring into him. Talk about an uncomfortable situation.

  James was the first to finally respond. “So … um … yeah, I’ve got nothing.”

  “Tell us more about what’s going on with Lucy. We got most of it from Liv, but I want to know why you are risking so much to help her,” Hannah asked.

  God he wished he knew the answer to that.

  “I don’t really know what this is. It started when I first saw her and now it only gets worse each time I see her. I really wish I could explain it more, but I can’t because I don’t know. Lucy just told me that I should go, leave town and see if it fades as we get farther apart. That is just what I was doing when you guys came to find me.”

  “And you guys don’t have the burn when you touch?”

  Jack shook his head. “Nope.”

  “Incredible,” Hannah muttered.

  “What?”

  James rolled his eyes and then explained. “Hannah went to med school. She is a medical examiner at the morgue, so she is fascinated with anything that has to do with the body or how it works.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  “Tell us more,” Hannah urged.

  “Look, all I really know is
that I feel more for your sister than I ever have for anyone in my entire life. I wouldn’t call it love or any shit like that, but when I’m not with her, I want to be. That guy who attacked her is my friend and I didn’t even know Lucy, but when he went for her … I wanted to tear him apart.”

  “And Lucy feels the same?”

  He nodded. “From what she has told me, yes. There are slight differences, like my instinct to protect her is not nearly as strong with her toward me. From what I can tell, she has more of a … sense of rightness when we are together.”

  “What will you guys do when this is over?”

  Yup, just stare at the road and pretend that none of this was happening.

  “Well, she asked me to leave, so if that is still what she wants, then that is what I will do.”

  He still refused to take his eyes off the road, but he could sense Hannah’s gaze inspecting his expression. “What if she doesn’t want you to leave after this?” she asked him in a soft voice.

  He thought for a minute and then answered. “I have never been one to give a shit what anyone else thinks. If she wants me to stay I probably will, but unless you guys are all on board, it would only make our lives miserable. So, whatever she wants … that’s what I do.” He didn’t want to hear what any of them had to say after that last part and, luckily, he didn’t have to. They were rolling into Napa.

  “We’re almost there,” he announced when they were close.

  “Greg’s car is still right behind us,” Liv told him.

  “Good.”

  It wasn’t long before Jack found the turnoff onto a staff road beside the vineyard. The Escort turned and followed him until he came to a stop at a large metal building that served as a shop for the vineyards heavy equipment. He cut the lights and the engine then jumped down from the driver seat. The others had just gotten out of the truck when the Escort came to a stop beside Jack’s rig.

  Once they were all there, Jack assembled them in a small circle and spoke in a low voice. “I guess I better get the full disclosure out of the way.” He gave Liv, Hannah and James a knowing look.

  Hannah nodded in agreement. “You need to tell them or they won’t understand why you know so much.”

  Jack took a deep breath. This shit felt like a bad dream that just kept repeating itself. You know, the kind where you’re naked in front of the whole school giving a speech. He took a deep breath and let it roll. “My mother is the Empress. I am next in line to lead when my father dies.”

  Again, the air was filled with a thick silence.

  “You’re serious?” Ethan asked, a ‘what the fuck’ look having completely taken over his face.

  “Yes,” Jack nodded, “I wouldn’t make jokes about that. For one, I fucking hate my family and for two, I wasn’t going back to them when I left Summer Hollow.”

  Greg stepped in. “Okay, there is nothing we can do about this right now. We just need to get Lucy and then we can hash all this out. Every minute that passes is another minute she is in danger.”

  “I agree.” Jack ran his fingers through his hair. “All right, I can get onto the grounds and into the house from here. This isn’t going to be as easy as it might sound because the place has cameras everywhere.”

  Greg nodded. “Just tell us what to do and we’ll do it.”

  The others muttered their agreement, all anxious to go get their sister out of there.

  “Ok, we are going to have to go on foot, cut through these grapes over here. See the house?” Collectively, they looked in the direction he was pointing. The lights from the main house were burning bright. There were also large light poles that were illuminating the grounds in front of the house.

  “The grounds to the main house are surrounded by a brick wall. We are going to have to go over the wall from the back yard where the lights aren’t as bright. If you stick with me, I will take you the path with the least cameras.”

  Dan rolled his eyes and leaned against the Escort. “How do you know how to get in and out of here without being seen?”

  Annoyed, Jack glared at him and shrugged his shoulders. “My family has come here every summer for most of my life. I snuck out all the time and was never caught.”

  “Maybe they just didn’t care.” Dan returned the glare and then reached into his coat for his flask. Once he had it out, he took a long swig and then tucked it back into his pocket.

  Well, that was a reasonable explanation, if you didn’t know his mother. “That’s possible, but unlikely that my mother wouldn’t have punished me if she knew I’d done it.

  “Now, once we are in the back yard. We are going to go into the side entrance that is mostly used by the staff. It will take us through a few bedrooms and then we will go into the main part of the house. Got it?”

  A bunch of the Keepers nodded and a few muttered ‘got it’ in response.

  “After we are in the main house, we will have to see what is happening in there before we can figure out where to go from there. Just watch for my signals.”

  Ethan stepped back and rubbed his fingers to his temple.

  “Something wrong, Keeper?” Jack demanded.

  “This just feels strange, I mean, we are following you right into the home of the Empress of the Reapers. What if we are walking right into a trap?”

  Jack opened his mouth to make some smart-ass remark, but Greg beat him to it. “Then we still have no choice. Trap or not, Lucy is in there and we are going in to get her.” He gave Jack a pointed look. “We will just have to trust that he is telling the truth.”

  Ethan only looked more pissed off. “We were taught never to trust a Reaper.”

  “Well get over it,” Greg snapped. “We have also never had one of our lives hanging in the balance.”

  With a nod, Jack clapped his hands together. “You guys ready to do this.”

  Everyone agreed and then headed to the cars to get ready. Each of them donned a hoodie and some gloves to conceal their auras.

  Then, they all strapped down with weapons. Jack had a gun, but he also chose one of the knives that the Keepers had in the Escort. He needed something silver that could damage, but not kill, a Reaper.

  The Keepers, on the other hand, already had a crap ton of knives on their bodies. Greg, Liv and Ethan selected guns, checking the clips to make sure they had bullets in them. As Jack watched the Keepers getting prepared, he desperately hoped that no one had to fire a weapon.

  The least amount of death possible would be the best turn out for this infiltration. He also mentally prepared himself because he knew that he would see his mother in there, and probably Aiden too.

  He was going to have to fight them … for Lucy, who was a Keeper.

  Now that was definitely a situation he never thought would happen in his lifetime.

  Once the Keepers were ready he led them into the vineyard. They ran, crouched over so that the long rows of grapes concealed their presence, following Jack until they reached the brick wall that Jack had assured them would be there.

  He beckoned the group to follow him and they hurried along the wall until they reached the spot where they needed to go over. “I’ll go first,” Jack whispered. “Then, send the girls over, you guys follow after them.”

  Jack didn’t need any help getting over the wall. He had done it a hundred times before, so for him, it was like riding a bike. He backed up and charged the wall, grabbed the top, and then swung his entire body over.

  Landing softly on the other side, he quickly scanned the area and found it clear. He also checked the area where he knew there to be cameras. Good, that point of the fence line was still the gap in the cameras view. He just hoped they hadn’t added any since he’d last been here.

  The girls came over the top, one by one, and then the guys followed, each landing on the soft grass with ease. Thank goodness these Keepers were all in shape or he would have had a hell of a time trying to get them all over the top of that wall, even if it was only six feet high.

  He put a finge
r to his lips, warning them to keep silent, and then signaled for them to follow him again.

  They sprinted across the lawn at exactly the right moment between the movements of the cameras and gathered by the back door.

  Before he opened the door, Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This was fucking hard for him. It seemed so wrong. He was a traitor … but, on the other hand he was saving Lucy, the woman who had somehow become his everything.

  Beside the door, there was a keypad that required a code to be entered. Jack reached over and entered the numbers of his birthday and then gently turned the knob until he heard it click. Sweet, his code still worked.

  He turned and waved his hand in a ‘come on’ manner. The group of Keepers followed, each of them moving silently over the hardwood hallways of the massive home. So far, the house was quiet and they hadn’t come across anyone yet, but Jack knew that wouldn’t last long. His mother always traveled with an entire entourage, and there were several staff members who lived at the home year round.

  The hallway ended and opened up into a wide crossroad. The options would take them right, left or up. Jack had just begun to lead them up the staircase when they heard footsteps thundering toward them.

  “Oh fuck.” Jack turned, preparing to fight. He wasn’t ready to draw his knife yet because he was hoping he wouldn’t have to use it at all.

  All the Keepers were staring in the direction the Reapers were coming from, but James looked to Jack. “You think she’s up there?”

  “I don’t know, but we should search there.”

  James nodded. “Then you go, we will handle it down here.”

  Just as he finished the sentence, four Reapers appeared in the hallway. He didn’t recognize them, but he knew they were part of his mother’s guard because they were all dressed alike in black jeans and matching tee shirts. “Stop right there!” one of the Reapers called out.

  The Keepers weren’t about to heed the warning, they were ready to fight. Greg drew his knife and took his fighting stance. “Jack, go! We got this.”