Waking the Dead (The Second Rising Series Book 1) Read online

  As we left Noah’s rental car, a silver two-seater with little room for anything else, the chill in the air embraced me in a way that made my skin crawl. I sensed the dead here for some reason. Perhaps it was because the ones in the crypt weren’t as separated from me as those buried in the ground. I’d noticed that feeling only a few times before in my life, but didn’t know anyone I could ask. My father had been the last necromancer I’d ever really talked to.

  “I have to tell you,” Noah said as we made our way through the gate, “Xavier has a particular reason he wants to see his brother.”

  “Don’t they all?” I asked. “I wouldn’t be doing these kinds of jobs if there wasn’t some sort of question the living wanted answered.”

  Our shoes crunched against the fallen leaves, while the moon highlighted the night sky and the wisps of clouds promising more rain. Many of the smaller trees were now bare, casting skeletal shadows over the ground like the quintessential cemetery scene.

  “He doesn’t want to ask him anything,” Noah finally spoke again.

  I looked at him in surprise, but out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement that startled me. “Noah Hawke,” a gruff voice called out from the shadows.

  “Xavier,” Noah acknowledged as he stepped forward and offered his hand. “It’s good to see you again.”

  For arriving in Durham not too long ago, Noah certainly seemed to know a tremendous number of people. But again, I reminded myself that his connections were what was making me the kind of cash I needed for my mom.

  “Is this her?” Xavier asked once he moved out from behind a mausoleum. His slight accent made me believe he may actually be Italian or Spanish. But it had been watered down and I also suspected he knew how to hide it. Nothing but a gut feeling on that one, but my gut tended to be right.

  “Yes, this is Cressa,” Noah said with pride.

  My heart skipped a few beats as I found comfort in knowing I had a partner in this. A partner in my crime against the Imperium. I stopped myself from searching the shadows for the spies River had warned me about.

  “We are safe here,” Xavier said after studying me.

  “Safe?” I asked.

  “Yes. Hidden.” He motioned for us to follow him while he made his way deeper into the cemetery. “I cast a shielding spell around the place for our little…event tonight.”

  “You’re a Sorcerer?”

  Xavier nodded, smoothing the mustache that rested on his upper lip. “I am. And I also know the risk you are taking tonight by doing this for me.”

  I turned my head toward Noah on the other side. He brushed a hand lightly over my lower back and tilted his chin toward Xavier. “He is also willing to pay you handsomely for your services,” Noah goaded.

  Xavier smiled, although it seemed a little forced. “Yes. I will pay you well, but I have one special request.”

  Here we go, I thought. “What do you want?”

  Xavier suddenly stopped. He looked up at the sky and continued to play with the hair on his face in a way that started to make my stomach churn. “I want to kill my brother.”

  “Um,” I started without thinking. “Your brother is already dead.”

  “But he will be alive, no?” The accent started to shine through as Xavier got slightly more agitated.

  “Kind of,” I shrugged. “He will be able to speak to me as long as I keep the knife in his chest.” When Xavier didn’t flinch, I continued. “You know about these rituals, don’t you?”

  He nodded quickly. “I do.”

  “Then you know that you can’t really hurt him? He’s a corpse. No blood runs through his veins. Meaning he can’t feel pain and he can’t really comprehend what is happening.”

  “I understand.”

  Glancing up at Noah, I searched for some help with this conversation. But when he stayed quiet, I tried to think of another way to explain this to Xavier. “Your brother will simply be a reanimated corpse.”

  “But can I break his bones?” Xavier asked with a darker voice.

  I swallowed, not really liking where this was going. “Yes.”

  “And can I squeeze his neck until my hands hurt and I can take it no longer?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then that is what I want to do.”

  “Xavier,” I sighed, fearing that I may have to forgo tonight’s job, “I don’t really like the idea of people abusing corpses—”

  “I will pay you five thousand dollars,” he interrupted.

  My moral compass swayed back and forth. Money was everything to me right now, but would I really want to set a precedence where people could seek revenge on those who have passed? “I’m…I’m not sure,” I said, noticing how quiet Noah suddenly became.

  “You see my dear,” Xavier continued, “My brother Philippe cost me everything. He stole cash from our company, he embezzled millions of dollars of our employee’s money, and he gambled it all away overseas. I didn’t know how much damage he’d caused until he died in his sleep. A peaceful, quiet death that someone like him didn’t deserve.”

  “But do you think this will really solve anything?” I tried to reason with Xavier while I also tried to justify this in my conscience.

  “My brother has been dead for almost a year, and every day I am learning more about his deception. So the answer is yes. Yes, this will make me feel better.”

  Had I not seen the tears shining in his moonlit eyes, or heard the plea in his pained voice, I might have walked away. But who was I to judge the reason behind a family issue. It’s not like I didn’t have any of that in my own life.

  I hesitated only a moment longer, not knowing if this decision would haunt me in the morning. “Okay.”

  “Good,” Xavier said quickly.

  “Noah, I may need your help.” Glancing toward the building we’d stopped in front of, I assumed that Noah’s telekinesis would assist me with the coffin again.

  With a slight nod of understanding, we entered the mausoleum and a few minutes later, Philippe’s coffin was lying in the center of the room. Xavier watched Noah like he’d never seen telekinesis used before, and that only sparked my curiosity even more. How did these two know each other?

  “Once I raise him, there won’t be much time before the spell will wear off. You may only have five minutes or less.” My stomach still turned with indecision. Was I really doing the right thing by letting this occur?

  “I understand,” Xavier said, staring at the unopened coffin in front of him.

  “And you can’t pull out the knife. Only I can do that.”

  “Okay.”

  “And I have to stay nearby. He will fall dead again if I get too far away.”

  Xavier just nodded this time. Okay, stalling was over. Noah sensed it too and with a flick of his hand, both lids of the coffin opened with a creak. The year-old body had started to decompose, and the sharp scent of rotting flesh nearly made me gag. Putrid odor that reminded me of a compost pile filled my nose with memories I didn’t want to relive. But the smell didn’t appear to be bothering anyone else, so I tried to rein in my reaction.

  Noah handed me my bag of tricks and I immediately got to work. Within a few minutes, I’d thrust the knife into Philippe’s chest and had my hand wrapped in a wad of gauze. We waited. And waited. For what seemed like hours. And still Philippe didn’t move. But just as I was about to give up, Philippe’s hands shot out to the side of his coffin and he sat up quicker than I would have thought possible.

  His eyes found mine, skin hanging around them like old leather bags. The longer fingernails scraped the wooden sides when he tried to push himself up to standing. I stepped back, afraid for the first time in a long time. I think I was afraid of what was to come next, and not so much of the older corpse, but either way, I wasn’t comfortable.

  “Do you…” I cleared my throat and tried again. “Do you want me to ask him anything?”

  Xavier tore his eyes away from the brother who must have looked exactly like him when he was living. Were
they twins? “Yes. I’d like to know if he recognizes me.”

  I asked Philippe who turned his head a little too far to the side in order to see his brother. Something cracked in his neck. “Yessssssss,” he hissed. “Mi hermanooooo…..”

  Xavier stepped forward, shorter than his brother who now stood in the coffin. He glared at his loved one in a way that chilled the air around us. “Does he remember what he did with the money?”

  Philippe stayed silent until I repeated the question. “Don’t….don’t understand,” he finally pushed out through his rotting teeth. But when he looked at his brother again, he slowly crossed his hand over his own lifeless heart. “Misssss you…brother.”

  The hatred etched into Xavier’s face disappeared in a flash. All of the pain Philippe had caused him took a back seat to raw emotion. Xavier still cared about his brother regardless of the suffering. I watched as his fists opened and closed, his feet shifting forward and back with indecision. For five minutes, Xavier and Philippe stared at each other as though having a silent telepathic conversation. But when Xavier retreated to the doorway, I knew he couldn’t go through with his plans. “I am done here,” he said just before walking outside.

  Noah squeezed my hand and I let out a sigh of relief. I really didn’t want to see a fight tonight and I was so thankful Xavier had taken the higher road on this one.

  Ten minutes later, Noah and I emerged from the family mausoleum to find Xavier perched on the stairs smoking a cigarette and bouncing his feet in a rhythm faster than my beating heart. “I still hate him,” he said through a long exhale. “But, I can’t…I can’t hurt him.”

  I sat down next to him and wrapped my arm around his shoulders. I’m not sure why I did it, but it felt right at the time. “Family can be the biggest disappointments in our lives.”

  Xavier snorted his response and inhaled again. “No shit,” he finally said.

  “No shit,” I agreed.

  We sat in the quiet cemetery for several more minutes—Xavier smoking away and Noah and I sitting quietly beside him. Finally, Xavier stomped out his cigarette and stood with a new mission. “I will still pay you the full price,” he said, pulling his wallet out of his pocket and flipping it open. “It is not your fault I was weak.” He handed me a stack of one hundred dollar bills and sighed.

  “You are not weak,” I said. “You are a decent human being.”

  Xavier huffed and shoved his hands in his pockets. His eyes sparkled once again with unshed tears. “Thank you, Cressa. For saying that.”

  I stood and gave him a hug. Once more, not really knowing why I was so touchy-feely tonight, but it just seemed like the right thing to do.

  Xavier quickly hugged me back and then dropped his arms. “You two go. I’ll drop the wards once you’re a few blocks away.”

  Noah stepped forward and shook hands with Xavier. “Good night.”

  The Sorcerer smiled at us, a sad smile that made me want to stay with him a little longer. But Noah encouraged me to leave and so we did. As we pulled out of the parking lot and continued back toward my apartment, I felt something snap in the air. It must have been the shielding wards and I marveled at how connected I was to the magic tonight.

  “Did you feel that?” I asked Noah.

  “Yes,” he said after a pause.

  “Interesting,” I mumbled to myself, staring at the moonlight flickering through the trees as we drove by.

  “Are you ready to go home yet?” Noah asked after we’d driven several miles.

  I rolled my head against the seat so I could see him. “Not really. Why?”

  He smiled and put on the turn signal. “Because I want to show you something.”

  Intrigued and excited enough to try to block out Xavier’s sad smile in my memories, I settled back in the heated seats and let Noah lead the way to our next stop.

  I have to admit that I was a little bit curious when Noah drove us through the downtown area and out toward the more open space. It even helped me ignore the burning from the new scar, positioned somewhere near my ribs, and the slight nausea. That part had been getting better—ever since Noah started staying by my side during the risings.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, too curious to keep waiting.

  With a chuckle, Noah reached over and squeezed my thigh quickly. “To a place I’d like to share with you.”

  While that certainly didn’t clear anything up, the closeness I felt with him right now outweighed everything else. As we drove a bit longer, I watched the trees fly by and let my mind wander to my mom. With the job tonight, I now needed just four thousand more dollars. And if we kept on finding clients like Xavier, that may only entail a couple more risings to seal the deal. Excitement tingled in my fingers, the light at the end of the tunnel finally coming into view.

  “Cressa?” Noah asked. I suspected it wasn’t the first time he’d spoken.

  “Yeah?”

  “I was just wondering where you went. You kind of disappeared on me.”

  He smiled and my heart ached. I didn’t want to think about losing him after I’d just found him, but that was the reality we faced. Noah wouldn’t be here, as a human, forever. And we couldn’t be together with him in his phoenix form. So just as I was about to get my mom back, I would have to say goodbye to one of the only people who really understood me. The pain dug deep, clawing its way through every part of my body as I pictured our last day together. Be thankful for the time you’ve had, I reminded myself. Yet that didn’t stop the stabbing ache from clenching my throat like a vice.

  “I was just thinking about my mom,” I kind of lied.

  “Well, you should be getting closer to your needs, right?” I nodded, unable to speak for fear of losing it in front of him. “I can help you get a few more clients.”

  “Why are you helping me?” I whispered. In the days since we’ve met, he’d yet to give me a real explanation.

  “Because I want to,” he said quickly.

  “But you said that you’d made a promise to a friend. Who was it?” I turned in my seat, tucking my leg underneath me so that I could get a better view. And so that I could stare at him until he answered.

  But it didn’t work. Noah leaned forward and pointed at the road ahead of us. “There it is,” he chimed in, completely ignoring my question.

  The bright lights of the University Tower lit up the night sky. A tall monstrosity out in the middle of the green fields, the tower had earned the nickname “The Pickle”. Nothing else was really built up around here; a zoning mistake no one had forgiven.

  “You’re bringing me to The Pickle?” I asked and Noah chuckled.

  “I guess I am, though I wasn’t familiar with that nickname.” He leaned forward again, studying the architecture as we drove over the road that would lead us to the parking lot. “But, I get it. I think.”

  “I doubt it’s opened,” I said, leaning back into my seat and trying to figure out a way to get Noah to confide in me. I was starting to feel like this relationship was a bit one sided, and that started to make me angry.

  “We can get in,” he said with a wink.

  The temperature had dropped several degrees since we left the cemetery, so I pulled my jacket tighter around my neck. The cool air didn’t seem to faze Noah and I wondered if that was because of his relationship with the sun—at least as a phoenix.

  As we entered the front doors, the lone security officer on duty gave us an odd look. “Can I help you?” he said. His large stomach, overgrown beard, and thick glasses didn’t seem to pose a threat to anyone. Especially not two magical beings.

  “We just left something in the office upstairs. Won’t be long,” Noah said with a wave as he pushed me toward the elevators.

  I didn’t expect his excuse to work, but the guard stayed planted firmly in his seat, unaware or indifferent to the lie Noah just told. “Is this a regular thing for you?” I asked when the elevator pinged and we stepped inside.

  “I like this place,” Noah replied crypticall
y.

  “So you come here a lot?” I watched as we passed several floors and continued our journey to the very top.

  Instead of saying anything, Noah grabbed my waist and pulled me to him. The warmth from his body radiated through me like hot coffee, while the closeness affected me once again. I let my head fall against his shoulder, reveling in the moment and trying not to think of anything else. In the stainless steel panels of the elevator, I glanced at our reflection. We looked happy, content, ready to take on the world. Just Noah and me.

  When he bent over and kissed me on top of the forehead, I closed my eyes. Why couldn’t life be like this all of the time? Simple and problem-free. I didn’t want this moment to end, but as the elevator doors opened, we were forced to keep moving forward. In every sense of the word.

  “Is this a restaurant?” I asked in awe. We made our way to the right and the hostess area opened up into one large room with 360 degree views and a silence unprecedented by anything else.

  “You haven’t been here before?” Noah asked smugly, but when I met his eyes, I saw the amusement in them.

  “No,” I replied, still taking in the views. Lights from all of the neighboring cities could be seen. They surrounded us like armies of tiny flames, each one illuminating its own commands through the night. I started to take off my jacket when Noah grabbed my arm.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” he said softly.

  “Are we leaving already?”

  He grinned. “Not exactly.” Gently pulling me toward one of the windows, he added, “This isn’t what I wanted to show you.”

  As Noah’s gaze slid over to the vast view below us, I started to get nervous. “What do you mean exactly?” This time, when his smile grew into something devilish and cunning, I took a step back. “I am not going out there!”

  His laugh warmed my heart. “Not out here,” he said with a shake of his head. “We’re going up there.”

  My eyes followed his pointed finger to the ceiling. The large skylight, shaped like a dome, covered almost the entire restaurant. Split into several large pieces, the tower on the top of the building could be seen from every angle. The instant wave of fear almost dropped me to my knees. “Are you crazy?”