More Than Flesh & Bone

Chapter 34

DEADLY SURPRISES

The scent of bacon pulled me from a dream state. My eyes cracked open. I rubbed the sleep from the corner, sniffing the air.

"You're as bad as a damn bloodhound," a voice said, making me jump. I sat up straight and then narrowed my eyes at my best friend. She sat on the other side of my bed, fully dressed in borrowed clothes.

"Why are you being a creeper and staring at me in my sleep?" I grumbled, getting to my feet. I padded around the bed and to my bathroom.

"I was coming to wake you up, thank you very much," she called through the door while I used the bathroom and brushed my teeth. One look at my white hair told me fixing that haystack after sleeping on it wet just wasn't in the cards today. I ran my fingers through the tangled mess that was my hair and tried to unknot it.

"Why were you coming to wake me up?"

"Because your boyfriend made breakfast," Bree said.

I opened the bathroom door and stared at her. "He's not my boyfriend."

Bree lifted a perfectly sculpted brow. "Oh really? Because the last I looked you two are basically tied together forever, and if that weren't enough, he cooks for you. You should go buy the poor dude a ring. Or ya know… give him a blow…"

"Bree," I groaned, cutting her off. "It's too early to talk about blow jobs. Can you chill with the succubus shit for a hot second?"

Bree stood from the edge of my bed. "Whatever you want, Addie. The other reason I came to wake you is because I need to get back to campus. My mom called a meeting in an hour, and I'll be in hot water if they realize I've been here with you."

"You heading out now?"

"Afraid so," she said. "My ride will be here in five. I told her to meet me at the end of the driveway."

"You didn't have to…"

"Missy has a tendency to shoot people with a crossbow. I figured less questions were better in this case," she said, almost kindly. "It's alright. It's just the end of the drive. Text me when you're ready to deal with the Zayne situation, will ya?"

"Can do," I said, walking her out.

We passed the kitchen and the scent of bacon made my mouth water. Like the good friend I was, I waited at the front door as Bree walked all the way to the gate. When I saw a hot pink Porsche stop and Bree disappear inside it, I closed the front door and hightailed it for the kitchen.

"Soooo…." I drawled, eyeing the spread. Zed had really outdone himself. Huevos Rancheros, pancakes with chocolate syrup, and bacon were set out on the counter. "I can't tell if you're trying to get laid or just be nice," I said offhandedly, taking a seat on the counter.

"The latter?" Zed said, almost like a question.

I peered up at him. "Uh-huh…"

"Never said I'd be opposed to the former, though," he added, a dangerous burning light in his eyes. Without the Zayne thing between us, my reservations about going there were all but nonexistent.

Suddenly I wasn't sure what looked better, the food I was currently piling on my plate or him… unfortunately for me, that choice was decided when Missy barged into the kitchen, killing any hint of a mood there was.

"What on Earth are you wearing?"

My aunt looked down at herself and back up at me, clearly not seeing anything unusual about her clothing choices. "It's a harness."

"Uh-huh… and why are you wearing a harness?"

"I'm going to go bungee jumping."

"Don't they usually provide those?" Zed asked, giving Missy an amused glance as he took a bite out of a piece of bacon.

"If you're going with an instructor, sure. But I'm an expert."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Absolutely no. I did not just put you back together so that you can go jump off a goddamn bridge and undo all my hard work."

Missy's mouth gaped. "I'm forty-seven years old. You don't get to tell me no."

"I sure as shit do when you're being insane. Nope. No way. You are not going bungee jumping, on your own, the morning after we just brought you back to life. Not to mention Zayne is now out there again. Sorry, not sorry. Better luck next time."

Missy was fighting a smile by the time I was done. "Don't you see, Addison? That's the best time to go. It's a total adrenaline rush. No better way to celebrate my second chance and feel more alive. Besides, if that twat decides to show his face and kill me again, you can always bring me back. Problem solved."

"No, not problem solved. Go get laid if you want to 'feel alive.' I hear a good orgasm works too," I muttered, not even close to caving on this one.

Zed started choking on his bacon, but Missy let out a whooping laugh. "That's my girl. Good thinking. Maybe I'll give Richard a call."

With that mysterious comment, Missy turned around and sauntered back out of the kitchen.

I was staring after her, still shaking my head.

"Can you believe that woman? If I manage to do one-tenth of the shit she does by the time I'm her age, I will consider myself truly accomplished."

Zed's face was red, and his eyes were still a little watery.

"You okay?" I asked, tilting my head. Since I wasn't also suffering from symptoms of choking, I had to assume his current state was more mental than physical.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just surprised that you basically told her…"

"To fuck it out of her system? You bet I did. She regularly tells me to do the same. At least this way I don't have to worry about her lying dead at the bottom of some river basin where I won't be able to put her back together again."

Zed shook his head. "I suddenly understand where you get it from."

"Get what from?"

"Your devil may care attitude."

"Life is short. Girl's gotta live while she has the chance, especially when there's a psychopath werewolf running around…" My eyes traveled from the top of his mussed hair and down to the defined abs his T-shirt in no way hid.

His eyes heated once more, and he shoved a plate of pancakes my way with a single finger. "Speaking of psychopath werewolves. I've got plans for us today."

My heart kicked into gear as I picked up a fork. "Oh yeah?" I asked, feigning nonchalance.

"I think it's time we go pay another visit to Eliza."

All the tingling anticipating in my body died a quick tragic death. "Oh," I said, dropping my eyes to my plate. "Eliza… right."

"We need to find out more about your powers and see if there's a way to do it that doesn't involve us dying again."

I added a hefty dose of hot sauce to my eggs. "I don't disagree that we need to figure my powers out, but doesn't finding Zayne and dealing with the werewolf take precedence? I mean, Bucky may be a Fuckface but he's now down for a while because of that thing. Another dude is dead. The body count is mounting, and just when I think we have answers, Zayne makes a break for it." I took a giant bite and hummed in delight. Life might be a hot mess, but at least there's good food.

"Zayne isn't an idiot. He knows if he goes home, we'll find him. If he goes to the frat house, we'll find him. Right now he's hiding, but eventually, he'll make a move, and when he does, we'll be ready… because we'll know more about your powers."

I eyed him dubiously while making my way through the food on my plate.

"You're making a lot of assumptions there. And what about the werewolf?"

Zed sighed, leaning onto the kitchen counter with his forearms. "The werewolf can wait for an hour. My dad had the reapers pull back on patrols for the time being. Too many people have died. The Council will be deliberating over the next few days about how they want to move forward, which means we're off the hook for the time being… Just don't go running around in the woods in the middle of the night."

"That sounds an awful lot like they're doing nothing," I said.

"More like they don't know what to do. Every run-in with the damn thing ends with someone dead or injured. Reapers can't seem to handle it, and people just keep dying, so a new plan is being made." Zed snatched a piece of bacon off my plate, and I slapped his hand away.

"Get your own," I said through a mouthful of food, pulling my plate closer.

"I made it," he argued.

"And I'm eating it. Your point?"

He shook his head, pulling away from the counter. "There's more…" Zed said, not looking at me.

My chewing slowed. "What?"

"My dad… he plans to start an investigation into Alpha Psi," he said.

That was both better and worse than I expected. "You know as well as I do that won't go over well. It's just going to make tensions even worse."

"Yeah, well, currently the only house that is a fan of ours is SU. The guys were talking about it a few days ago. Apparently, the succubi have gotten very friendly in the past week or so. Not that they're complaining. Well, most of them. Bucky isn't happy about it."

I snorted. "Why am I not shocked?"

"He blames you… and me," Zed added.

"Again, not shocked here." I polished off the rest of my plate. "Alright, I'm going to get ready, and then we're going to hit up Eliza's. I want to check in with ZOM after that and see what the deal is there. Maybe between the two visits we'll figure out our own game plan for tracking Zayne and/or his stupid pet wolf down."

I stood and made a grab for my plate.

"Go, I got it," Zed said.

I raised a brow. "He cooks and he cleans. Watch out, Zed. You just might be a keeper." I made for the door as his eyes started to smolder.

"Might be?" he called after me.

I stopped and looked over my shoulder. "Well, there's one or two things that remain to be seen." I winked, not trusting myself to say anything further and still be able to carry on with the plan at hand. Even with the mound of shit that was constantly being heaped on us, he still somehow found a way to get to me.

This zombie stuff really was a major cock block. How were we ever supposed to find the time to explore what was clearly between us when we were always dealing with dead bodies and murder-happy supes?

Hopefully, our trip to Eliza's and the frat house would give us our next lead. Because once this was over, Zed and I had a date. The bed was optional.

The parking lot was empty as we pulled in.

"That's weird," I said, climbing out of the car. "This place is hardly packed, but there's always a couple of cars here, aren't there?"

Zed nodded as he, too, scanned the deserted lot. "Yeah…"

We exchanged an uneasy glance as we made our way to the Bitter Brew. My hand was already on the handle trying to open the door when Zed's hand shot out to point at a sign that had been hung in the window.

Closed until further notice.

"What the fuck?" I asked, my hand falling away from the door as I looked back at Zed.

He shook his head, his expression tense.

"Whatever it means, it can't be good. The Brew is never closed."

"Never?" I asked.

Zed shook his head. "This is the first time it's happened. At least that I know of."

"Well, Eliza would have left a way for us to reach her, right? She always seems to know when we're coming. If she isn't here…" I let the words trail off as my unease turned to dread. Somehow that one little sign felt more ominous than everything else that had been happening lately, and I had no clue why.

I lifted my hand over my eyes and peered into the window, trying to see if someone was inside, or if there was some hint about what had happened.

"You're not going to find anything in there," a voice called from across the street.

Zed and I turned as one, my eyes widening slightly at the sight of barista dude. His eyes were red-rimmed, his expression haunted. The evidence of emotion was already out of place on his traditionally stoic face, but somehow it was more off-putting to see him outside of the coffee shop. It's not where he belonged since he was pretty much a staple of the joint. His being out here only underscored the growing sense of wrongness that had been building in my stomach since we got out of the car.

"Why are you guys closed?" I asked. Even from this distance, I could see his throat bob as he swallowed.

"Didn't seem right opening, given what happened."

Zed and I looked at each other again. With all that had happened in Seabrook recently, it was impossible to know what he was referring to.

"What happened?" I asked.

Barista dude checked the street before crossing over to us. "I'm sorry, I thought you knew. You were here when they brought her out."

"Wait, what?" I asked, not following. "I was here? When?"

He shrugged. "Last night? Maybe I was wrong and was seeing things. I was pretty messed up. I just thought I saw your face in the crowd. I remember thinking that it was nice she had people who cared when she died. Maybe I was just imagining things though since she seemed to like you and…"

"Back up," Zed said. "Who died here last night?"

"Eliza."

White noise filled my ears as the word sank in. Zed and the barista continued to talk. I could see their lips moving, but I didn't hear anything they said. I was too focused on the fact that yet another person had been snatched away from me. Eliza had been the key to my past. Losing her… it was a major blow.

There was no room for grief. Instead, there was only anger. As familiar and all-consuming as it'd been when I got the call about Tracey.

My fist slammed out, flying into the glass panes of the floor-to-ceiling window.

The guys ducked as glass shattered, shards spilling into the coffee shop and onto the sidewalk. My fist and forearm were shredded where glass had cut the skin, but I barely registered the sting. My fury continued to rise, burning up every other emotion.

"When I find that murdering sonofabitch…"

"Addie, we don't know if it was him," Zed said, holding out a bloody hand.

"The hell we don't. It's too fucking convenient that he escapes last night and then Eliza happens to die. He murdered her, and you know it."

Zed's lips pressed together, unable to contradict my assessment.

"I'll pay for the window," I said to barista dude, storming off toward the car.

"Addie," Zed called after me. "Addie, where are you going?"

I didn't answer him, right now I just needed to move.

Once again Zayne had found a way to steal another person from me… and in the process, taking away the answers I desperately needed. It was time I returned the favor. I needed to find a way to take from him the only thing he seemed to care about.

His place in the brotherhood.

It was time to have a talk with Zevon about his youngest son.