Requiem for the Living (The Reanimation Files Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Acclaim for A.J. Locke

  Look for these titles from A. J. Locke

  Copyright Warning

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  About the Author

  Also by A. J. Locke

  More Fantasy from Etopia Press

  Acclaim for A.J. Locke

  For Affairs of the Dead

  “The best thing about a well paced book is that feeling that you can't put the book down, and I definitely got that feeling from reading this book. Anyone looking for something new in the urban fantasy genre should definitely check this book out…”

  —Urban Fantasy Reviews

  “This story is hysterical. I laughed out loud, and I don’t do that very often. I loved the sarcastic, rule bending-to-the-point-of-breaking, tough talking, softie Selene. She is my kind of heroine.”

  —Books, Books, and More Books

  “This was a really fun read, I love books about ghosts and the paranormal… A.J. has a great writing style that kept me glued from beginning to end.”

  —Stitch, Read, Cook

  “From the first page this story grips you. Selene, Micah, and Ethan are great characters. An on-the-edge-of-your-seat read that will have you impatiently waiting for book two!”

  —Faerie Tale Books

  “This urban fantasy is a fast-paced, fun and sexy read. There were many twists and turns that kept me hooked from beginning to end in this laugh-out-loud page turner. I look forward to reading more from A. J. Locke.”

  —Who’s Reviews

  “The humor and sarcasm that runs rampant throughout this novel is fantastic. Our heroine is a very likable character… The world-building was done well; not too much or too little, and it all makes sense in the end. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.”

  —Sapphyria’s Book Blog

  “This book really put me through the wringer. But in a good way. Locke's worldbuilding is amazing. This woman is a great storyteller.”

  —Offbeat Vagabond

  Look for these titles from A. J. Locke

  Now Available

  The Reanimation Files

  Affairs of the Dead (Book One)

  Requiem for the Living (Book Two)

  The Ravaging In Between (Book Three)

  Black Widow Witch

  Coming Soon

  A Torment of Savages (Book Four)

  Requiem for the Living

  The Reanimation Files Book Two

  A. J. Locke

  Copyright Warning

  EBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared, or given away. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/).

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Published By

  Etopia Press

  136 S. Illinois Ave. Suite 212

  Oak Ridge, TN 37830

  http://www.etopiapress.com

  Requiem for the Living

  Copyright © 2015 by A. J. Locke

  ISBN: 978-1-941692-74-5

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Etopia Press electronic publication: May 2015

  CHAPTER ONE

  There were a few things that made me feel like my day was not off to the best start. For starters, I had overslept by an hour and a half so I was monstrously late for work. Then there was the scent of smoke creeping into my bedroom accompanied by loud swearing, which meant my ghost roommate had made a disaster of whatever he was trying to procure for breakfast. The sky was overcast so it’d probably be a rainy day. I had a slight headache…and oh yeah, I was looking into my backyard at my Yorkie, Luna, digging furiously in the dirt. I was almost certain what she was trying to unearth wasn’t one of her toys.

  I stood there for a few moments more, trying to decipher what it was that Luna was pawing at, then shook my head and ran out of my bedroom. I almost collided with Ethan, who was on his way to my room with a frying pan in his gloved hand and the charred remnants of what he’d come to dub the wake-up bacon.

  “It’s burnt, but I figured waving it under your nose would still get you out of bed any—Hey, what’s wrong?”

  I brushed past Ethan and ran into the yard where I snatched up Luna, then had a good, hard look at what she’d been wrestling with. I’d been hoping that it was some oddly shaped root or five fingered toy I didn’t remember buying for her, but no, it just had to be the worst possible thing.

  A human hand.

  My stomach roiled, and I looked around my small yard, seeing nothing out of place except for the hand, which from the size had to belong to a child. That made me feel worse. What were the chances there was only a hand buried here? I looked down again and saw that the amount of dirt that had been upturned was enough to bury a small body. I took a slow breath and exhaled it just as slow.

  “Selene?” Ethan stood uncertainly in the doorway. “What’s going on?”

  I walked over and handed Luna to him. “Take her to the bathroom and wash her off, will you?” She’d gotten dirt into every crevice she possibly could. “I have to deal with the body someone buried in my yard.”

  Ethan balked. “What?” He looked past me and his blue eyes widened when they landed on the hand. “That’s a…it’s a…so there’s a…”

  I placed my hand on Ethan’s shoulder and made him look at me. “Take Luna to the bathroom,” I said as calmly as I could, because the two of us freaking out wouldn’t help. “Go.”

  Ethan managed to close his mouth and headed inside with Luna. That left me with the fun task of deciding what the fuck to do now. I sat down on the steps for a moment to try and gather myself. Who could possibly hope to have a good day after waking up to their dog trying to dig up a body in their backyard?

  I closed my eyes and dropped my head into my hands. I had a slight headache that I prayed would stay slight. Being late for work because I’d overslept wasn’t anything new, but lately it was true exhaustion and not laziness that kept me in bed longer than I should be there. And that exhaustion was due to the fact that the Rot was continui
ng to have a field day with my insides because Ilyse still had not come up with a way to stop it from killing me.

  But I didn’t have time to focus on the ticking clock on my life. That’s a true sign of a bad day, right? When you were dying, but there was something even worse going on that took focus from it? I raised my head. Should I dig up the body? Call the police? Go inside, eat some burnt bacon, and pretend this never happened? Then crawl back into bed and stay there until the Rot ate me up? So many options and yet all I did was continue to sit there.

  “Selene?” I turned to see Micah in the doorway. He had come over to pick me up for work since we rode in together a few days a week. Even though that made him late too. He saw the hand. “I really hoped it was some kind of weird joke when Ethan muttered something about you being in the backyard digging up a body. But I can see it’s no joke.”

  “Not unless you have an extremely morbid sense of humor.” I stood up and swayed a little. Micah put his hand on my elbow to steady me.

  “Selene…” The look in his eyes let me know just how stellar I did not look. Nothing like a slow death to wreck havoc with your appearance. I shook my head and walked back into the yard.

  “I’m fine, bigger problems right now.” I indicated the tiny shed off to the side. “Shovels in there.”

  Micah retrieved two shovels and we spent a few minutes carefully digging up whatever was attached to that hand. When we were done, I almost bent over and retched up the nothing that was in my stomach, but managed to avoid it.

  “Shit,” Micah said, looking away, just as I had. She couldn’t have been more than eight years old.

  “Who the hell would do this?” I looked around the yard again as though I’d see the guilty party lurking in a corner rubbing their hands together in evil glee.

  “And why?” Micah came to stand next to me as we continued to not look at the body.

  “I think why is clear enough. It’s no secret what my reanimation power has morphed into on account of being bound to Ethan. I can anchor ghosts to this world. Like our dear old boss Andrew who’s waiting for us to show up to work.”

  “So you think this girl’s parents offed her then brought her body here to bury with the hope that if her ghost rose around you they’d be able to keep it?” The skepticism in Micah’s voice grew as he spoke.

  “Do I think her parents killed her? No. But look at what she’s wearing.”

  “A hospital gown.”

  “My best guess is she was a terminally girl, and her parents took a chance. If they couldn’t have her alive, they’d keep her ghost around and just buy energy runes from the Underground so they’d be able to see and talk to her.”

  “That’s sick,” Micah said. “I can’t believe anyone would do that to their child. Why wouldn’t they want her soul to rest?”

  “Grief and desperation,” I said, shrugging.

  “So you think her ghost already rose?”

  “Quite possibly. The body isn’t fresh; she’s been here at least a few days, which is more than enough time for the ghost to rise, get nice and anchored, and walk off into the sunset with mommy and daddy.”

  “Not a bad theory.”

  “What do we do here, Micah?”

  “We can’t tell anyone, that’s for sure.”

  I had already come to that conclusion.

  “If anyone finds out you’ll take the blame, and that warrant to round you up might finally be given.”

  About a month had passed since Andrew’s ghost had shown up on my doorstep making his intentions for me clear, and the government was still in a stalemate over what to do with me. The judge who could grant the warrant had been loudly touted as a left wing liberal extremist by the dissenting media, so I could only thank her daily for her refusal to grant that warrant. I had been doing my part by keeping a low profile and trying to show that I was harmless, just an evolved reanimator bound to a ghost, but that hadn’t stopped the outcry from all those who feared the power I had now. There was some sympathy over the fact that I had the Rot, but not enough to stop the opposition from wanting me off the streets. Going to the grocery store was a lot more difficult these days than it should be.

  “We need to stay ahead of this,” Micah said. “Tracking down this girl’s family would be job one. If they successfully gleaned their daughter’s ghost then there’s a chance they’ll tell other people and you could end up with bodies all over this yard.”

  I shuddered at the thought of that.

  “Then there’d be no stopping the government from doing whatever it takes to control you,” he added.

  “You mean strip me,” I said. “Regardless of the consequences.” I ran my hands through my sleep tousled hair and made a sound of frustration. Then I took a deep breath that I immediately regretted.

  “We can’t have forensics ID her because that will lead to questions we can’t answer,” Micah said. “But we need to figure out who she is.”

  “That hospital ID bracelet on her wrist could help,” I said, pointing. I so badly wanted to take a hot shower and go eat whatever Ethan had cooked in whatever condition it was in.

  “Good eye,” Micah said, kneeling down. He checked the bracelet.

  “Isabelle Rye.” He stood up and dusted off his hands. “We have a place to start.”

  I nodded, and we buried Isabelle’s body again, every part of me feeling sick over it. Grieved parents or not, this was an extreme choice to make just to preserve some part of your child.

  “Like my life wasn’t hard enough,” I muttered as Micah and I put the shovels back and headed inside.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Physically, I felt a little better after showering and eating breakfast, which Ethan had salvaged after cleaning Luna up. I felt stronger, and the headache receded to an ignorable level. Mentally though, I felt like a tiny bomb had exploded in my head. I couldn’t stop seeing Isabelle’s face, and let’s face it, the face of a dead child just wasn’t one you wanted to carry around with you.

  “So you’re going to leave her there?” Ethan said as he cleared up our plates and took them to the sink. He wasn’t trying to keep the nervous thread from his voice.

  “You think it’d be better to take her body to the morgue and not be able to explain how she ended up in my backyard?” I asked.

  Ethan started washing the dishes, but I saw him shudder.

  “It’s creepy knowing a little girl’s body is out there,” he said. “It’s making me feel off.”

  “She’s been there for a few days and you were fine,” I said.

  He gave me an unfriendly look.

  “I didn’t know about her before. It’s different now.”

  I sighed and nodded. I was being snippy for no reason. My nerves were on edge. I wasn’t any more comfortable with a buried body in my yard than he was.

  “Although…” he said.

  “What?”

  “I few nights ago I felt that a ghost was around but I didn’t think much of it.”

  “You can feel ghosts?” Micah asked.

  “Yeah,” Ethan replied. “I can usually sense if a ghost is around before I see it.”

  “So you think the ghost you felt a few nights ago was Isabelle?” I asked.

  “Maybe,” Ethan replied. “I thought it was a ghost passing by since there’s a ghost agency a few neighborhoods over, but now that I think about it what I felt that night was a presence that lingered for a while. Usually if ghosts are passing it’s a fleeting sensation.”

  “Was I home?” I asked.

  Ethan nodded.

  “And you didn’t think to mention this lingering ghost feeling?”

  Ethan looked sheepish. “I was playing a video game and was in a really intense shootout so I didn’t pay that much attention…”

  “OK, nerd,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Best guess it was Isabelle’s ghost you felt.”

  “We need to figure out what to do,” Micah said. “Isabelle was taken from a hospital, which means everyone who was taking care o
f her knows that she’s gone. The last thing we’d want is for them to end up looking for her here.”

  “They have no reason to though,” Ethan said as he walked back over to where Micah and I were sitting around my small dining room table. I had never sat here so much before Ethan started living here and experimenting in my kitchen. He was making me consider buying a larger one.

  “But they could,” I said. “If whoever buried her there finds their tongues flapping.”

  “You mean her parents?” Micah said.

  “Or whoever they used to help them accomplish the goal of getting her ghost to rise around me,” I said. “We can’t assume her parents did it all on their own, this is the type of thing that would involve a third party.”

  “Yeah.” Micah frowned, and I eyed him. He looked almost as tired as I did and there was stubble on his face that indicated he hadn’t shaved in a few days. I had no problem with the stubble since I found it sexy, but Micah liked to be clean shaven. For that matter his shirt was wrinkled, and he was wearing an old pair of Chuck Taylors. He could also use a haircut, though his hair being a little longer just meant more fun for my fingers.

  “What?” Micah said, noticing me eyeing him.

  “You kinda look like crap,” I said.