More Than Flesh & Bone

Chapter 36

BURDEN OF PROOF

I woke up sprawled on the floor in an unfamiliar bedroom. There was no telling how much time had passed since Zayne knocked me out… and by extension of the blood rite, his brother too.

My mouth was filled with the metallic taste of blood. I pushed myself to a seated position and spat. "Zed?" I called, my voice a hard rasp.

He groaned from somewhere above me. I jerked my head, wincing and instantly wishing I hadn't. While the zombie reapers had seen fit to toss me on the floor, they'd given Zed the bed. Chivalrous fucks, weren't they?

"Addie?" he mumbled, his brown eyes filled with worry as he sat up. "You okay?"

"Of course I'm not okay," I said, slamming my hand down on the floor beside me. "Your brother was smarter than us again. I'm really tired of him always being one step ahead."

Zed let out a sigh. "Didn't quite go the way you planned, did it?"

I glared at him. "As much as I dream about the day you and I are locked up together in a bedroom, no, I can't say this is how I wanted things to go."

His brows lifted with amusement, and he extended a hand to help lift me up off the floor. "So what's the plan, then?"

"Find a way out, obvi. If your brother is leading them to the wolf, it's not because he suddenly had a change of heart. You know it's gotta be a trap."

We eyed the sparsely furnished room. There was a bed, desk, bookcase, and small dresser. What there wasn't, was a window.

I turned to face the door, eyeing it. "What are the odds that's unlocked?"

"I'd say slim to none."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too," I murmured, taking two steps forward and kicking my leg out.

"Addie…"

But it was too late. My foot had already crashed through the door.

"Just because they can lock me up doesn't mean I'm going to stay put. What's the point of super-strength if I don't get to use it?"

Zed was shaking his head. "I'm not sure I'm ever going to get used to that."

"What? My being stronger than you?"

"No, my fear for your safety."

I paused, pulling my foot back and stuffing my hand through the hole I'd created as I fumbled with the doorknob. It was hanging half-off, but the door was no easier to open because of it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" a familiar voice called from the other side.

"What's it look like?" I asked, my voice filled with mock sweetness.

"Escaping."

"Bingo."

Shadows rippled on the other side of the hole, and I was sorely tempted to punch out and see if I could score a quick one against the Fuckface. I resisted the urge. Barely.

"Bucky, let us out," I demanded.

"Why should I go and do that?"

"Because that little piece of shit has you all fooled! We need to stop him."

Bucky laughed. "Yeah, right."

I groaned. "This really isn't the time for your macho pig bullshit. He's lying to you guys. That wolf is his. He's the one behind all these murders. Not me. I wasn't even here for most of them."

Silence was the only answer.

I pressed my advantage.

"The wolf killed my brother. My twin, Bucky. Think what you want about me, but Tracey and I were close."

"He didn't talk to you the entire time he was here," Bucky argued.

I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed, hating that I had to share this part of me with him. "Because we got in a fight about him joining. When my dad died and the Zeta Omicron Mu alumni claimed it was a hunting accident, what was I supposed to think? My dad never hunted. You guys only covered it up half-assed because you have the police in your pocket. Meanwhile, my brother wants to join the same fraternity, and I was worried it would get him killed… and look how that turned out."

The broken doorknob jiggled, and the panel flew open.

Standing in front of it were Bucky and Bonzo. The former holding a .45mm pistol pointed at my head.

"Sit," he said, motioning to the bed.

Zed scooted to the edge, and I plopped down next to him, careful to keep both my hands in front of me… not that I had anything on me. If they were competent jailors they'd know that, but given Zayne was able to fool them all and was about to get the whole house killed, I didn't exactly have high hopes in their favor.

"I'm telling you the truth," I said. "I know I accidentally let the wolf get away that one time. It's because I saw these fragments of souls in it. One was my brother. One was my dad. There were other fragments too… fragments of reapers that died."

"I hope you know you sound crazy as fuck, Wells," Bucky said. "Reapers can't see dead souls. And no one that's confronted that thing and lived has seen what you're talking about."

I looked at Zed, and he subtly shook his head.

"We gotta…" I said quietly. "He won't believe me if he doesn't know everything."

"Speak up, Wells," Bucky said, motioning with the gun.

Zed looked at the ceiling. "Fine… but can you try not to make this worse than it already is?"

I smirked a little. A gunshot went off and we both jumped.

"The fuck was that for?" I yelled.

Bucky had the gun pointed at the ceiling where a hole now appeared.

"You start talking or I'm closing this door."

"Okay, but you need to understand, my story is going to get a little crazier first…"

Another gunshot went off. I didn't jump this time, but I did glare at him.

"I don't hear an explanation," Bucky said.

Bonzo gave me a small shrug like he didn't agree with what was going on, but he wasn't going to make any moves to stop it.

I shook my head. "Look, dude. I'm not a reaper. I'm a Daughter of Death."

Both of them paused and looked at me like I'd grown a third head.

Gretel chose that moment to pop up again.

"Oh now you've done it," she said.

"You're soooo not helpful right now," I told her.

"Who's she talking to?" Bucky asked Zed.

"Judging from her tone? The ghost of Gretel," Zed answered.

Bucky gave him an 'are you shitting me' kind of look.

"The ghost of Gretel?" he repeated.

I nodded.

"Like Hansel and Gretel?" Bonzo asked.

I looked at the ghost and she gave me a wicked smile. "She's smiling like she killed someone, so… I'm going to take that as a yes."

Bucky shook his head. "Nope. I started to believe you for about a half a second, but you're just nuts. Zayne was right."

He started to close the door, and I jumped to my feet.

"Wait!" I yelled. "I can prove it!"

He paused. "How?"

I bit my lip.

"No…" Zed said, apparently knowing where my mind was going. "No fucking way. Sit your ass back down, Addie."

"Kill me," I said, ignoring him.

Bucky's eyes widened. "What?"

"Kill me," I repeated. "I can't die. Well, that's not completely true. I die for a hot second and then I come right back."

"You're fucking nuts," Bucky said, shaking his head. "I'm not going to kill you, Wells. If for no other reason than my doing so gets Zed killed as well."

"Who, him?" I asked, looking at Zed. "You don't have to worry about him. He'll come back with me. Unforeseen perk of the blood rite… Thanks for that, by the way. Super handy."

Bucky was shaking his head, looking back and forth between me and Zed. "Your girlfriend is crazy," he said.

"Tell me about it," Zed muttered.

I wanted to debate the point, or at least tell Zed to fuck off and remind him that he loved my crazy, but with Zayne on the loose, I couldn't afford to get sidetracked.

"Stop wasting time. Just fucking kill me already. You'll see that I'm telling you the truth. And if not…" I trailed off and shrugged, "Well, then you don't have to worry about me anymore."

Bucky crossed his arms and shook his head. "I said no, Wells."

I turned to Bonzo.

He held up his hands. "Don't look at me. I don't even have a gun on me."

I sighed. "You're really forcing my hand here, fellas."

"Even if I wanted to shoot you… which I will admit is tempting… Zevon specifically said not to. I'm not getting my balls handed to me because you're batshit."

"Fuck it," I muttered, cocking back my arm and throwing it into Bucky's face.

There was a crack and the spurt of blood as it poured out of his nose.

"What the hell, Wells?!" Bucky asked, his voice muffled.

"Fight back," I said, drawing back for another blow.

I heard Zed sigh deeply, but he made no move to stop me.

This time I punched Bucky in the kidney and then moved to knee him in the groin.

"Will you fucking stop that? I don't want to hurt you," Bucky insisted, parrying my blows, but only just. I'd surprised him, and he was struggling to keep up with this unexpected change of events.

"What part of kill me are you not understanding? This would all go so much faster if you would just do as I said."

From behind me, Zed laughed. "I've been telling you that same thing for weeks."

I sighed. "Fine, I'll just do it myself." I reached for the gun still in Bucky's hand.

He pulled back, shock registering on his face when my hold didn't break. His strength was no match for mine. He tried to push me away, to pull out of my grip, but I held on, slowly pulling the gun down between us.

There was a loud crack as the gun went off. Pain exploded in my stomach.

"Fuck!" Bucky shouted, the gun falling from his fingers as he tried to catch me. "I didn't…. Zed, man, you have to believe me, I didn't…"

The edges of my vision were already going black, but I managed to catch a look at Zed, slumped over on the bed, blood pouring out of a matching wound in his belly.

"Are you happy now?" he hissed, looking more annoyed than hurt.

"See you soon," I said, blowing him a kiss.

My body was going numb, and Bucky adjusted his hold on me, carefully laying me back onto the floor.

It only took a few suspended moments for darkness to consume me a second time that day.

For most people, dying was a bitch. For me? It was Tuesday.

I blinked and the room came into focus. I was standing next to my body. Zed stood beside me, arms crossed over his chest.

Bucky was performing CPR on Zed's dead body, and Bonzo was pacing like he was about to be arrested. It would be a legit concern if we weren't coming back.

"What an asshole. No one is even trying to save me. Just you. Go figure."

"You just had to fucking kill us again, didn't you?"

"It was the fastest way to show them I'm telling the truth," I argued.

"She's got a point, you know," Gretel said, popping up on my other side.

Zed jumped. Me and the ghost girl snickered.

"That's not funny," he said.

"Oh really? Because this is my life," I said, motioning to the room with dead bodies and ghosts. "And death, apparently."

Aurora popped into existence next, with her tub of popcorn in tow. I lifted both eyebrows, a thought occurring to me. "Can I have some of that?"

"You've got to be kidding me," Zed lamented.

"Have at it," Aurora said, handing over the tub to go hang on Zed's arm and run a delicate hand down his front.

I took a bite and nodded along. "This is pretty good for not being real."

"Addie…" Zed grumbled, motioning to the teenager that was all over him.

"What? She's like five," I said, not at all threatened.

Aurora turned and glared at me. "I'm sixteen," she said like it meant something.

"And dead," I pointed out.

She knocked the tub of popcorn out of my hands like a bitch.

"Well, that was just rude," I said, watching the pieces disintegrate over my dead body. It was oddly fascinating... if a little morbid.

"You do realize she's a succubus that used to lure men into her tower and then kill them with sex, right?" he said.

I blinked, eyeing her a little more suspiciously. "That was not in the movie I saw," I said.

Aurora smirked. "No shit, Sherlock." Her tongue darted out, licking her front teeth as she looked at Zed like he was a snack.

"Alright, as fun as it is to watch them freak out thinking we're actually dead, I think it's time to go."

"But…" Aurora opened her mouth to complain as I touched my face.

A dizzying sensation overcame me. I blinked, and I was back in my body.

"Well… that was fun." I stretched my arms over my head to work out the kinks.

Bucky jumped and then paused in shock. He and Bonzo stared at me like, well, like they'd seen a ghost.

"You died," Bucky choked out.

"Yup."

Cue the mind-blowing moment they realized I was telling the truth.

Zed sat up, sucking in a breath like he'd been drowning.

Bucky jumped back, throwing himself away from Zed's body to the other side of the bed. "Holy shit."

Bonzo pulled a blunt out of his pocket and lit up with shaking hands. I bit back a smile. All things considered, I couldn't blame him for wanting to take the edge off.

Bucky's skin was pale, his eyes wide and raised hands trembling. "I… I…"

I pushed myself off the floor, taking a brief second to mourn the loss of my vintage Heart T-shirt.

"That's sort of how I felt the second time."

"Second time?" Bucky asked.

I nodded. "So, like I was saying. I'm not a reaper. I'm a daughter of Death. Dying is what helps my powers level up… apparently. I can see and talk to ghosts. I have super speed and strength. I figured out a way to put shredded souls back together…" I trailed off when it was clear my words weren't really registering. Shrugging, I added. "We're still figuring it out."

Bucky looked between Zed and me. "You knew about this?" he asked Zed.

Zed ran a hand through his hair and nodded. "I wasn't sure what to believe at first, or who Addie and I could trust. And then I experienced it myself. There's king of no use denying it after that."

"So this isn't the first time you…" Bucky gestured to the places our dead bodies had been lying seconds earlier.

"I've been killed and brought back?" Zed filled in. "No. Addie and I were killed by Zayne a week and a half ago. Imagine his surprise when we found him in the parking lot of the Bitter Brew the next morning. That's why we did what we did. We were trying to get answers and keep everyone else safe."

"So he was…"

"Lying," I said. "Yeah. So do you believe me now? We really need to go after them. Your reaper buddies are in trouble."

Bucky blinked, seeming to put himself together as he processed what he'd just learned. "Yeah, okay. The four of us will head out there. My van is already loaded with gear, and I know where they're going." He checked his watch. "They have an hour and a half head start. They were moving slowly and carefully for a surprise attack. If we hurry, we should be able to catch up with them before they get to the cabin in the woods."

"So what are we waiting for?" I asked.

Bucky and Zed came to their feet, while Bonzo blissfully ignored everyone around him.

"Should we leave him here?" I asked, gesturing to where Bonzo stood in the corner.

Bucky eyed him. "Nah. Believe it or not, he really does function better when he's loaded. He just sucks at being a reaper."

"Alrighty then," I said, rubbing my palms together, "time to go take care of this sonofabitch once and for all."

Bucky grabbed Bonzo by the arm and pulled him out of the room. I was two steps behind them when Zed stopped me with a hand against the small of my back.

"What's up?" I asked, body already poised to race down the stairs.

Zed looked at me, his eyes unreadable. With a frustrated growl, he leaned down and pressed his lips against mine. The kiss was over almost as soon as it began.

I leaned forward, my lips chasing his when he stopped me up short.

"You pull this off, Addie, I'll buy you a lifetime supply of your fucking Takis."

I blinked up at him, a laugh escaping even as my heart clenched. It might have been the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me.