More Than Flesh & Bone

Chapter 35

BUSTED

"What the hell are you doing?" Zed called, running after me.

I threw the door to the Impala open and hopped in the driver's seat. The passenger side opened right as I turned the key. The engine roared to life.

"Going to Zeta Omicron Mu," I said, not waiting for him to close the door before I put it in reverse.

Zed let out a string of curses as I hightailed it out of the lot. I drifted around the turn, and his door closed on its own accord.

"Addie, that's fucking crazy…"

"Is it?" I asked. "What's the worst that could happen?" I demanded.

In the backseat, Gretel appeared out of thin air, and Aurora right beside her.

"The Council…"

"Can't do shit," I said over the electric guitars of AC/DC as they blared in the background.

Zed swiped at the sound knob, turning it off before twisting in his seat to face me fully.

"Just because they can't kill us, doesn't mean they can't do shit. You know this. You pointed it out to begin with," he started, trying to speak reason.

We were a little past that.

"Yeah, and then Zayne escaped and now my only source of real fucking information about my past life is gone. He's a killer, but he cares about his reputation as a reaper. If I tell them all that he's been up to, there's no way they'll accept him. Even if the Council is pissed with us, they'll be more pissed with him." I floored it on the highway and the speedometer passed a hundred and twenty miles per hour.

"That's a gamble and you fucking know it," Zed argued.

I was past the point of debating with him. He may be on my side. He may be able to do what needs to be done when we found his piece-of-shit brother. That didn't mean he was always right, though.

In the backseat, Aurora conjured a tub of popcorn and started munching away.

"Seriously?" I asked her. "Do you have to do that right now?"

"Do what?" Zed demanded, throwing his hands up.

"Not you," I snapped. "Her," I thrust my chin toward the rear-view mirror, and Aurora grinned maniacally. It reminded me of an odd mix between Missy and Bree. More than a little crazy and sensual.

"You're the one putting on a show," she shrugged.

"Ugh, go away."

And like that, they both disappeared.

The tub of popcorn dropped and spilled on my backseat before disappearing as well, sniped out of the air by a single pale hand not attached to anything else.

"Fucking ghosts," Zed muttered.

I pulled into the lot at ZOM.

"You can say that again."

I parked the Impala haphazardly in the back lot next to the deck. For once there were no spots. It was entirely full. I frowned but didn't let that stop me as I cut the ignition and started for the back door.

"Wait, Addie…" Zed called, coming after me.

I threw the door open and eyes turned our way from every corner of the frat house. The number of people inside wasn't a surprise given the state of things in our town, but I couldn't figure out what they were all doing at this moment. It's not like a meeting had been called.

"I'm looking for Zevon," I announced, pushing my way through the zombie reaper dudes until I was standing at the base of the stairs.

The sound of footsteps and whispers filled the room. My gaze darted to Zed. He looked paler than normal, his eyes wide and the vein in the side of his neck was pulsing wildly. What the hell was up with everybody?

Then I realized the reason for the odd reception.

Zayne stood at the top of the staircase. His eyes filled with crazed light as he grinned down at us. "Ah, if it's not the prodigal brother and his… partner." The way he said it emphasized that I was anything but a partner.

The world dropped out from underneath me.

"Motherfu…"

Zed's hand snatched out and closed around my wrist, silently willing me to keep my cool. Fat chance.

Zayne's smile stretched. "Are your ears burning?"

It was such an absurd question that it temporarily threw me off guard. "My ears? You know what, don't talk to me. Don't look at me. You don't fucking exist." I spun away, ready to start tossing zombies out of the way in my search for Zevon. If Zayne was already here, we needed to act fast and restrain him before he escaped again. "Where's Zevon? He needs to know…"

"Ah, Addison. After what you did, don't you think it's only right that I should be the one with all the vitriol?"

Ice filled my veins as his words registered.

"What I did? You murdering sonofa…"

Zayne spoke over me, his voice sounding mildly amused like he was addressing a naughty child. "I mean… you did kidnap and torture me, with the help of my brother no less. Not exactly brotherly behavior, is it?"

The whispers grew louder around us. I glanced around, my stomach twisting in knots as Zayne's presence here started to make sense. In the end, we'd had the same plan. I'd hoped to turn the brotherhood against him, but he'd beaten me to it. Instead of allies, I was now surrounded by a sea of accusing stares.

The brothers parted as Zevon moved into the room. His brows lifted in surprise as he saw me and his eldest son. Maybe it wasn't too late.

"Zev…."

He lifted his hand. "If you don't mind, I think I would like to be the one to do the talking. Especially in light of what my son just told us."

Shit. Definitely too late.

What had felt like a bulletproof plan was rapidly falling apart.

"That's just it, whatever he told you, it was a lie."

More whispers swelled but were silenced by a sweeping glare from their leader. "Unless you already know what he told us, how can you know it was a lie?"

"If his mouth is moving, he's lying," I said, arms crossing over my chest.

There was a bark of laughter that was quickly silenced.

"So you're telling me that you didn't hold him against his will in your basement?"

"Well, yes, but…"

"And did you not repeatedly hit and threaten him?"

"Yes, but…"

"Zevon's eyes were glacial as he leveled them on me. "So, not lies, then."

"He's in league with the werewolf!" I snapped. "He's somehow using it to kill people. He killed my dad and my brother. It's his fault reapers have died."

A hush fell over the room. Brothers exchanged glances, but I knew better than to hope at this point.

I was a girl. A reaper as far as they knew, but still a girl.

Zayne was Zevon's son. A murdering psychopath that was fucked in the head, but still his son, and most importantly… male.

It was misogyny at its worst.

Or best, depending on your take.

They'd never admit it, but no one believed me because I had a vagina. Whereas Zayne had no real proof, and a history fraught with holes that they didn't want to see.

"Really?" Zevon asked, his voice booming. "Because my son told me the same story. Except he said it's you working with the werewolf. You're the reason we can't find it. You're the reason it got away when your team did find it. Isn't that what you told me, Bartholomew?"

"Yes, sir."

"That's such a load of bullshit…" I said.

"You're right. It is," he said. "I can't believe I let you in this house. To think that a reaper could be a woman?" he asked rhetorically. A few brothers chuckled. "You may have the blood. You may have the gifts. But you're a disgrace to the Brotherhood. You both are."

Zevon motioned with his hand, and brothers stepped up on either side of Zed and me.

I backed away, my hackles rising with the injustice of it all.

The only real saving grace was that we couldn't die.

My hand clenched around the staircase railing. One of the brothers, the one who looked like a lumberjack, reached for me.

A crack sounded as the railing broke.

I stumbled, but quickly regained my footing, and used the now two-foot shard of wood as a bat. I caught him in the shoulder, and he went flying. I hit two other guys, taking them both out, but there were more guys there to replace him in an instant.

"Addie…" Zed said under his breath. "You're not really helping our case right now…"

"I wanna know why the fuck they're crowding around us," I said loudly.

Zevon watched with interest. "Such a waste of talent," he said, shaking his head. "Zayne has told us where the werewolf is. You two are being confined for the time being until the creature is brought down and the Council can be called."

A sense of dread filled me.

Did anything in relation to that feeling come out of my mouth?

Nope.

"You're a fucking idiot. For some almighty head of the reapers, you can't see what's right in front of you. He wants us out of the way so he can kill you," I said, holding the piece of wood in front of me and lifting my eyebrows at the fucker that was shifting side to side, waiting to grab me.

Zevon shook his head. "Subdue them both, but don't kill them. They're bound by the blood rite."

He turned his back on us, disappearing in a sea of twenty-something young men that worked out way more than me. And while I had bad-ass strength… Zed? Not so much.

They made a grab for him, and I lunged, leaving my side open.

Fighting wasn't exactly my forte, and I was regretting not putting in more time with the weights when something hard hit me in the back of the head.

I twisted around to see Zayne holding a gun at an angle.

He must have hit me with the butt of it.

The last thing I heard before the darkness took me was his slightly manic chuckle.

"Goodbye, Addison."

Nothingness took me. Too bad it wasn't death.