Death Weeps Part 40

But if they'd thought that I'd pull a suicide card or some stupid c.r.a.p like that? Just because everyone I knew lost it? Well, they didn't know me very well. Sure it would have been... awful.

I thought of Jade systematically going crazy and shuddered. Maybe more than awful.

"Dad?" I said and he turned, his eyes dim and slack.

Huh.

"Caleb?" he said, confused.

"Yeah, Dad. I have some medicine for you."

He backed away, his eyes slid to Clyde. "What's he doing here?"

Great... and here comes the paranoia. Loved the side effects of this s.h.i.+t. I bet it wasn't FDA approved. Uh-huh.

"He's just hanging out, Dad."

"I'm not keen on corpses, son," he said, trying to enunciate and failing. This enhancer c.r.a.p must affect the speech area of the brain. When Dad was back on board, he'd let me know.

Clyde and I circled him like sharks in blood-infested waters.

Dad was strong but Clyde was stronger and I was determined.

We took him down on the three by three meter patch of sanctioned gra.s.s and nailed him with a drop.

Mom proved to be harder.

When I came to the door, Onyx stood there expectantly and I gave him a soft pat. "Where's Mom, boy?"

He whined in response, giving me a half-wag.

Things didn't look good.

Clyde stood in the open doorway, cradling my six foot-one, two hundred pound Dad against his chest like he was a sack of flour.

I jerked my head to the couch where a colorful afghan lay bunched.

Not folded.

My eyes scanned the house. It was a wreck. And it didn't smell. It was devoid of the good food smells that I was used to. The kitchen lay unused and dark.

When Mom popped out of the pantry with a knife, Clyde deposited Dad on the couch, comatose. As Mom flew at Clyde, the silver of the blade glinted as the last of the afternoon light caught it above her head.

"Clyde, watch out!" Gale yelled and Onyx gave a sharp bark.

"Do not worry, Dear Heart," Clyde said, latching on to Mom's arm like a snake striking.

I didn't have to tell him to be gentle. It was a river of emotion that bound us together, what I felt, he felt.

She was nuts but she was my mom.

The knife clattered to the floor and Bobbi picked it up, putting it on the breakfast bar.

Mom struggled against the force that was Clyde.

It felt somehow wrong to have my zombie restrain my mom. Some things I think a son shouldn't have to do.

Like watch their parents go crazy.

Use the dead to save them.

Feel like killing everyone a.s.sociated with the Graysheets.

I'm sure there would have been clear DI if I'd been tested at that moment, Mom struggling and flailing while Clyde held her still so I could give her the drop.

Gale sat on her legs and I whispered, "Sorry Mom."

Her grayish-blue eyes looked into mine and she said in a voice hoa.r.s.e from shrieking, "You don't love me."

It wasn't true. But in her impaired mental state, it was true to her.

"Don't listen, Caleb. She doesn't know what she's saying," Gale said logically.

Then why did it make me feel like dogs.h.i.+t?

And why did it make me think of Jade?

We put Mom beside Dad on their bed. They slept like the dead.

Not even remotely funny.

I gulped and bit back a sobbing hiccup, seeing my parents lying there like that.

Clyde put a hand on my shoulder, his hazel eyes piercing me, feeling the swollen waters of my emotions. "Some events make future ones clearer."

I looked back at him while I listened to my parents breathing in the background. Finally I responded, "Much." I was disgusted by the choices I had been forced to make. Disgusted by the certainty of ones I'd have to make in the future.

The Graysheets had been perfectly right about one thing: I was definitely the threat they'd thought I was. But did the chicken come before the egg? That's what Gramps would have asked. If they hadn't put things in motion, would I have responded like I did? We'll never know. Because they did set those events in motion. And follow-through guy that I was, I finished my part.

We walked out, Onyx racing ahead of us to hop into the Camaro.

He'd sure gotten over his fear of cars.

The Dog saw that his Boy would leave. Casting a furtive glance at the Alphas resting peacefully in their inner sanctum, he shadowed his Boy until he made his way to the foul-thing-which-moved. He loathed the box with its horrible acrid smells but sprinted to it, hoping his Boy would take him. He had a sense that the Old Alpha needed him.

The Dog was loyal to his pack.

His Boy, the Dead One and his female (that is how he thought of the female, as she had that same smell that his Boy and the Dead One had), came to be in the car.

He wagged his tail and a.s.sumed an appealing stance.

His posture was successful as his Boy slid in beside him, giving him the rough pat that he'd come to love. The Dog knew that his Boy was most pleased.

Wag-thunk-wag.

Jade Jade awoke in Brett's arms and instantly felt awkward. Where was she? She looked around... they were outside the hideaway. Her mind was thick and she felt groggy, like she'd had too much sleep. Jade tried to wrack her brains for what had happened. She saw all her friends were milling around, talking quietly. They looked ragged, like they needed food, sleep and showers, not necessarily in that order.

She tried to stand and Brett grunted. "What?" she asked, getting upright and straightening. Her head spun and she threw a palm out, touching the fender of a stacked car. The cold metal was a relief. Solid, sure, there.

Brett responded, "My ribs, they're busted."

Jade turned to face him, looking up at him.

Gawd, when had everyone grown up? She swallowed the sudden lump that was there.

Then she remembered Howie and fear loomed.

Brett saw her face and reached out for her. She allowed her hand to be taken and her Empath vibes came online.

He loved her.

Brett loved her.

T-M-effing-I.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed her hand away and he just stared. Finally, he spread his palms out to the side of this body. "I don't have anything to hide, Jade. Ya know what the deal is."

He studied her some more, asking the question that kept them safely out of Mondo Awkward Territory, "What scared you?"

"Where's Howie?" she asked in response.

Brett glanced behind her and she saw a strung out Howie, his mouth duct taped.

With cheetah print tape.

Jade's eyes found Sophie's and she giggled, shrugging. "It's what I had."

What girl carried animal print duct tape? Better question: what girl carried duct tape anyway?

She caught Alex staring and he smirked, waggling his eyebrows and Randi punched him and he laughed.

Perv-boy.

Tiff said, "It's the s.h.i.+t. On a desert island, that'd be one of the things I'd have for sure." Tiff thought about it some more, "and gum." A bubble went off like a bomb.

Jade shook her head, a small smile touching her lips.

Then she heard a familiar car pull up outside the fence of the Kent Refuse Station and the smile faded.

Caleb tore out of the Camaro, his eyes searching the area behind the fence for one person.

Jade.

He didn't see her but John came to the gate, pulling the lock from the inside and sliding the numbers into position.

It didn't work.

Archer walked over there.

John said, "Pre-pulse, Lewis."

His eyes met John's. "Haven't met a lock that I couldn't romance, John."

"Right," John said, stepping aside for Archer.

"Is Jade okay?" I asked John through the metal holes in the fence.

He nodded. "Yes... but I think there is some residual," he waved his hand back and forth, "influence to contend with."

Jonesy grinned. "People who were more affected are going to be crazier than s.h.i.+t for the duration, Hart."

John rolled his eyes. "So helpful Jonesy."

"Yeah, I know, right?" He winked at me.

Effing marvelous.

I wouldn't feel calm until Jade and I could talk like normal people. Well, normal for having AFTD and Empath abilities. But maybe we could save future generations from having the great experience we'd had, courtesy of the Graysheets. We weren't meant to have this yet. It had been a forced leap into our evolutionary future that humanity wasn't prepared for.

But right now what mattered was getting to Jade, seeing how she was doing.

What Brett had planned.

Then there was Howie.

Complications, complications. The story of my life.

Archer caressed the lock and it broke open like spoiled fruit.

I pa.s.sed through and my eyes went straight to Jade, her hair hanging in limp strands, dark circles underneath her green eyes, filthy clothes.

She was the sweetest sight.

I stopped myself from running to her and scooping her up into some dramatic embrace like I wanted to. It wasn't pretty but I managed. Actually, love was a mess. Why did everyone want it? The mystery of life.