A Torment of Savages (The Reanimation Files Book 4) (7 page)

Once I finished up breakfast, I noticed Luna was doing her “I want to go outside” prance.

“Did Ethan take Luna for a walk before he left?”

“Nope, he fed her, but said he didn’t have time to walk her. I would have done it, but I was rune-less.”

“I’ll just let her out into the yard. I’m already monstrously late. Tielle wanted me to meet her at nine-thirty.”

Kyo gave a bark of laughter. “How have you managed to keep jobs, woman?”

“My winning personality. And cleavage. Kidding about the cleavage part.”

“I’ll bet,” Kyo said wryly.

I hustled Luna to the backdoor so I could let her outside. I thought about leaving her and asking Kyo to bring her back inside, but the way he was absorbed in that game, it was likely that he would forget her out there. I opened the door and Luna prepared to launch herself out, but before she could take a single leap I bent down and snatched her back, staring with wide eyes at what she had just been about to run out into.

Birds. Dead birds. They were everywhere, all kinds: pigeons, brown birds, sparrows, even a crow or two. Their stiff corpses were scattered all around the yard. And there were squirrels and rats too. All dead, lying like a macabre taxidermy scene. Except these animals weren’t stuffed, and it wouldn’t be long before they became a rotting, maggot infested mess in my yard.

I stumbled back from the open door, clutching Luna, who was not happy about me dangling freedom only to take it away. I couldn’t stop staring at the scene before my eyes. I was confused and a little scared. This wasn’t the first time I found corpses in my small yard. It was a far cry from digging up a little girl’s body, but it was disturbing nevertheless.

I found my voice. “Kyo!”

There was no answering reply, but seconds later Kyo was at my side. He opened his mouth to speak, but I just pointed and he turned his head to take it in.

“What the fuck is going on?” I whispered. I had my face half buried in Luna’s fur. She was calmer now, and I needed the comfort. “Is something killing off animals? Some disease going around?” I held Luna tighter. I didn’t want to think about finding her corpse. I had already lost her and reanimated her once. That was enough.

Kyo said nothing, his face stoic. He slowly moved forward until he stood just outside the door.

“This was not done by any kind of disease,” he said, looking over his shoulder at me. When I looked into his eyes I felt as though he knew something I didn’t. Something I probably didn’t want to know.

“Then what did this?” I asked, swallowing past the dryness in my throat. Kyo turned back to the yard and shook his head.

“Darkness,” I heard him say. “This is a sign. Darkness has risen. Darkness is here.”

“What do you mean?” My voice was a shaky whisper. The tone of his voice made me more anxious than I would have felt over dead animals in my yard. I walked up to stand next to him.

“Look at the ground,” he said. That intense expression was still on his face. I looked out and saw what I had missed since the initial shock of seeing all those corpses had overwhelmed me. But beneath the corpses I saw that the ground, while it certainly hadn’t been luscious green grass since it was still winter, was definitely different than it should be. Where there should be icy, hard dirt, there was black, scorched ground. That had not been how my yard looked before these animals died in it. And now that I had calmed down a little, I picked up on a dark energy that filled my yard. It felt uncomfortable, like a thousand pins were sticking me all at once. I had never felt energy like this before. Not even from Magda.

“What the hell is this?” I was trembling, and it wasn’t because of the icy wind that was blowing against my face. Luna’s shivers were from the cold though, so I stepped back inside the house. Kyo came as well, closing the door behind him. I followed him back to the living room where he started pacing.

“Selene, there are entities that have been in the Afterlife for longer than you and I can fathom. They are the darkest dark. They are beyond ghosts who just suck up other ghosts for strength. I think these beings are where the human lore for demons comes from.”

“Demons,” I repeated. “You’re trying to tell me demons are real?”

“I’m trying to tell you that not everything on the other side fits neatly into the category of ‘ghost.’”

“You mentioned something like this before,” I said. “Some kind of hierarchy of power that exists in the In Between.”

“Yes,” Kyo said. “We referred to them as the
Kage-Oni.”

“
Kage-Oni?”

“Shadow Demons,” he said. “Everyone in the In Between pretty much has their own name for them, although it’s more or less some variation of ‘Shadow Demon’ in different languages. Some of my Japanese warlock brethren came up with
Kage-Oni.”

“Understood. So the…
Kage-Oni
…”

“Have been known throughout history to come over to this side and wreak havoc. Far more havoc than those crossover ghosts did. These beings aren’t driven by a thirst to complete their unfinished business or find other ghosts to eat. They are evolved far beyond that. All they care about is causing death and destruction.”

“Well this sounds peachy.” I sighed.

“I don’t know everything,” Kyo said. “But I do know that their calling card is blights such as the one in your backyard. And right after that comes death. For many. I don’t know which one of them is here, but none of them are good…”

“I’m so confused,” I said, shaking my head. I was sitting on the couch, still holding Luna. “Some ancient, dark being has crossed over here to cause trouble? And caused a bunch of animals to drop dead in my yard? Why?”

“I don’t know if you were targeted or if this was random,” Kyo said. “I am certain there will be more scenes like that popping up. It won’t only be here. Just know that this is not a good sign, Selene.”

“Trust me; I didn’t take a yard full of dead animals to be a good sign.”

“I’m serious. This is way beyond that.” He looked agitated.

“I get it, it’s bad, it’s unexplainable. But what the hell am I supposed to do?”

“Go about your day, go see Tielle. I’ll clean up the yard. Then I’ll go look around and see what else might be going on.”

“I’m supposed to just get up and go about my day like you didn’t just tell me darkness and death has risen in my yard?”

“It didn’t rise there,” Kyo said softly. “But it is here. And I have no idea how to stop it.”

* * *

My mood was bleak, as were my thoughts, as I walked into Tielle’s office. After Kyo had convinced me to leave, all I could think about on the drive here was what I had found in my backyard and the sinister, yet unclear information Kyo had given. As I drove, I half expected some dark wave to rise up out of nowhere and crash over my car, suffocating me then dragging my soul to hell. Well, back to hell.

At my entrance, Tielle looked up from where she’d been bent over a tablet near the windows on the other side of the room. She’d been looking at it with Micah, who had been frowning but smiled when he saw me. Despite my bleak disposition, I couldn’t help but smile back. I was happy to see him. That feeling of wanting to be wrapped in his arms so I could forget all the bad shit going on stirred inside me. He came over and gave me a hug.

“I heard about what went down with Leena,” he said. “I’m so sorry you had to find her like that.”

“Part of the job I guess,” I said. “Sorry I didn’t call you last night. I was exhausted.” I glanced at Tielle. “Does that warrant me an office now, Tielle?”

“No,” Tielle replied, coming over to us. I immediately coughed as a strong scent caught in my throat. I swallowed, and cleared my throat, but ended up coughing again.

“Are you okay?” Micah asked. “Need some water?”

“No, I’m okay,” I said. I looked at Tielle. “Your perfume is rather strong.” Overwhelmingly so. It was a sweet scent, but far too strong, like someone had decided to take all the sweet scents and mix them together.

Micah gave me a look that said he agreed with me but hadn’t planned on being the one to say anything about it.

Tielle gave a tight smile. “The perfume I’m wearing was a gift. I’m trying to do the nice thing by wearing it.”

“The nicer thing would be to pour it down the sink,” I muttered. My throat had that itchy feeling that prompted coughing, but I tried my best to suppress it and took a not so subtle step away from Tielle.

“Anyway, if we’re done discussing my perfume, we have other rather pressing matters on hand.”

What had her panties in an even tighter bunch than usual? When I looked at Micah, I noticed that his smile had faded.

“What is it?” I asked. Tielle handed me the tablet they’d been looking at.

“There’s been another article,” Micah said grimly as I started to read. “It…it’s worse than the first one.”

If you thought I was not serious about exposing Selene Vanream, you were wrong. Many of you still hold on to the notion that this woman is a hero, but I am here to tell you otherwise. We all know that about half a year ago, Selene contracted the Rot. There is no cure for the Rot, yet Selene managed to overcome it. Maybe you think it had to do with her dying and being revived, that it wiped the Rot from her system. Well, you would be wrong. The truth of how Selene overcame the Rot is truly dark, and twisted, and fully showcases how black a soul she has. In order to be saved from the Rot, Selene accepted a cure that put the reanimation power of stripped reanimators into her body. The Rot would target the new power and leave hers alone. It was a Band-Aid cure, but one that would ensure Selene’s continued existence as long as she subjected herself to periodically absorbing the reanimation power of others. Power that was obtained from the runes that contained reanimator’s stripped power, that are supposedly kept under lock and key. Nothing her boyfriend and his madman uncle couldn’t get around of course.

And here is the very worst part: once the Rot consumed the added reanimation power in her body, the former reanimator it belonged to would drop dead. As we know, reanimators cannot live without their power, but this held little regard for Selene. Four stripped reanimators are dead because of her: Gina Rivera, Lenard Hoff, Jun Pak, and Crystal Feld. Know their names, look them up, and see the obscure, swept-under-the-rug way their sudden deaths were handled, all around the same time last August. Know that Selene Vanream and her counterparts were fully responsible for their passing, yet are walking free under the pretense that they are heroes.

Selene Vanream is no idol, and it is high time she is torn down.

I felt sick enough to throw up. I shakily collapsed onto the chair in front of Tielle’s desk and put the tablet down. Micah came to kneel down next to me, taking my hands. I felt like I was going into shock.

“He really meant it,” I whispered. “He is really trying to destroy my life.”

“Jacob won’t get away with this,” Micah said.

“But we have no proof that he’s the one releasing these articles,” I said. “His verbal threats against me don’t stand.” I looked at Tielle. “Micah told me you took care of the situation with the dead reanimators and the missing runes that Renton used. How did Jacob even find out about all of this?”

“I am not sure,” Tielle said. Her face looked as severe as I’d ever seen it. “However, you will not be toppled by the words of an anonymous article that is so clearly meant to viciously attack you.” Her words were strong, but there was an edge of uncertainty behind them. “If there is real pushback from this, I may be forced to open an investigation, but I will do everything I can to take care of you.”

I wasn’t comforted, but I nodded.

“We need proof to stop Jacob,” Micah said. “If we can do that, then this goes away.”

“Something tells me it won’t go away so easily,” I said. I thought about Carlos again and knew that I had to go see him sooner rather than later. He was my only hope of getting proof, but I couldn’t let Tielle know that, since he conducted highly illegal business. I took a deep breath to try and calm myself but ended up inhaling more of Tielle’s perfume and coughed instead. Micah went over to a small table where Tielle had a few bottles of water and brought one over for me. I took a drink and allowed myself to relax. Knowing I could get the proof I needed to stop Jacob’s attacks helped make me feel better. I stood up.

“Jacob the troll is not going to ruin my day,” I said. “He will be dealt with. In the meantime we have other things on our plate. What’s the latest on Leena?”

“Sedated,” Tielle said dismissively. “She won’t be able to be questioned for a while.”

My eyebrows rose slightly. Last night Tielle was all over this investigation of Leena. It was the entire reason I was even here, to talk it over. Now she was just brushing it aside. It probably meant there was something even heavier going on. That didn’t leave me with a good feeling, not that I’d been having any good feelings today.

“What else going on?” I asked. Because obviously that damn e-mail wasn’t enough. Micah was frowning as he exchanged a glance with Tielle.

“There was an incident at the area where the open necromancer circle is,” Tielle said. “The PTF officers who were standing guard were found unconscious, and the ground beneath them and the circle was scorched black.”

“Wh-what?” My eyes widened.

“Dead animals were also found in the area,” Micah added. “Pigeons, squirrels and rats…”

“Shit. It happened there too?”

“What?” Tielle and Micah said in unison.

I told them what I had found in my yard.

“This is not good,” Tielle said.

“To say the least,” I said. “Do you know what the hell this could mean?” I had been about to tell them what little I knew, but that information had come from Kyo and I had to keep his presence a secret. I gave Micah a quick glance, feeling a pang of guilt go through me. I really needed to tell him about Kyo.

“History speaks of occurrences such as these as being harbingers of great death and chaos.” Tielle had walked away to stare out the window, her hands clasped behind her back. I wasn’t surprised that she knew what Kyo knew. It was her job to be educated about all things paranormal far beyond the rest of us. “Deep knowledge about these happenings is obscure, and I can’t recall any record of it happening in the last century or so, but this is the start of something bad. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t matter…”