For the Love of Death by Tamara Rose Blodgett

Author:Tamara Rose Blodgett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tamara Rose Blodgett
Published: 2018-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Deegan

I crowd behind everyone but can't see anything. Being short sucks.

Why is no one talking?

Mitchell moves with me, but I’m so intent on reaching Gram, I don’t notice.

I see what everyone else does last.

She’s not here.

Dad is blank, in the middle of pulse-com with someone.

“What in the blue hell is happening?” Gramps shouts.

“Shh,” Mia says softly, and Gramps sucks on his cig like a joint.

Dad turns to him. “Intensive care. Organ failure.”

“Where?” Gramps voice is like a gun going off, and I flinch.

“Upper floor.”

“Can I swear now?” Pax asks.

“Not funny, youngster. Now get moving,” Clyde says. He and Bobbi race into the hall.

“It's all I could find,” Tiff says apologetically as we come out.

I shout in alarm, and every bit of me is sorry that I break our careful silence.

Spiders swarm the floors, turning the floors and walls black with their scurrying bodies.

“What?” Mitchell shouts, grabbing my shoulders.

Tiff smacks some gum. “The SPs are coming.”

Her eyes are big, and I know she’s made the bugs come.

“I can stave them off for a little while, but this is a newer building. There aren’t very many dead things.”

I let the fist of my death energy go. The one Dad talks about and it seeks... seeks.

I open my eyes. “There are dead.”

Pax’s gaze is on me. “No, sis—we’re not that desperate.”

I look back at him. “Not yet, Pax.”

We direct our stares to the black expanse of glass and beyond that, the federal penitentiary.

*

We burst inside the Intuitive Care Unit.

Grandpa Kyle stands, not a bit of stoop to him from age, his hand covering Gram's.

Intuitive care machines work to keep Gram alive, though her organs are quitting.

“Caleb, Jade,” Grandpa says. “What on Earth?”

Gramps stalks over to Grandpa. “Listen up, Kyle. You know I have a boatload of respect for you.” Gramps crushes the cigarette underneath his shoe and Grandpa Kyle scowls. “But we need to get Peanut away about now.”

Grandpa's eyes become slits. “Is this some scheme?”

“Yup,” Tiff guesses from behind me.

“Tiffany Weller.”

Tears brim in Grandpa’s eyes then chase each other down his face. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

A lump forms in my throat. Gram is dying, and Grandpa Kyle is trying to be polite.

Tiff smacks a bubble, causing many in the room to jump. “We're going to take Ali to an Organic and save her.” No one delivers raw commentary in quite the way Auntie Tiff does.

Grandpa gives a small smile. “I'm sorry, that's been attempted and defeated soundly. There is no cure for what ails her.”

“It’s okay, Grandpa,” Pax says. “Mitch the dead guy says his Earth has Organics that can lick it.”

Grandpa's eyes land on Pax. “Have you been blinking?” He assesses the situation that fast. His entire brain is a leap of logic.

Pax nods. “Not on purpose, but there was a... problem, and I needed to get out of here fast.”

Grandpa is super smart. Supposedly, my fat brain came from him. Like a pipeline of intellect, he jokes.

“I don’t think it’s safe to move Ali.”

Pax grips Grandpa’s shoulders, and their resemblance strikes me.

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