Ralph ran to my right-hand side and away from the action. I stopped running and yelled, “Why are you going that way?” I shrugged when he turned to look at me. “The corpse went this way.” I pointed at the nearby shed, the door banging shut.
“You go that way, I’ll go this way,” Ralph said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. His wavy brown locks held tightly in a ponytail. Every couple of years, he’d either shave his hair close to his head or grew it long, reminding me of a grizzly bear; like now. “Didn’t your mother teach you various maneuvers to get the dead guy?”
“Ha, funny.” I rolled my eyes. “But you’re going far off, buddy. The dead guy went inside the shed.”
“That’s what you think,” he sang and continued up the stairs and into the house. “I’ll flush him out,” he yelled. “Be ready with those deadly palms of yours.”
“Fine,” I yelled. “I’ll just catch him here,” I grumbled to myself, pulling my gloves out of my pants pocket and slipping them on. I crept toward the shed and slowly opened the door; the sun behind me casting the small room in enough light to see. “Where did you go, you zombie?” I mumbled to myself.
“Scout!” Ralph shouted.
I spun around in time to see the animated corpse reach for me, its beady black eyes dripping pus while the rest of his body losing chunks of rotten flesh in its wake. I couldn’t believe I missed him. For a dead guy, he was pretty smart and quick on his dead feet.
“Aaaaar,” mumbled the corpse. His head flopping from one side to the other while he growled with lips that were no longer there. He only had a few teeth left after the fight that had put him in the grave, and those few stood in different directions.
“Not today, buddy,” I said, shoving my palms into his chest.
The corpse grabbed my wrists, its slimy grip tightened.
“Ew, you’re so gross.” I gagged, then pulled a face when a chunk of green, rotten flesh fell on my new sneakers, which angered me. “No,” I screamed as I pushed my power into his chest, pushing the corpse backward.
Heavy footsteps stomped down the stairs and approached me. The corpse’s soul flew out of its body as Ralph stopped beside me, out of breath, and sprinkled salt around us. The salt wasn’t always necessary, but we needed it because the animated corpse was so volatile. And to my other side, Blaire, my mother, ran up to us, whispering an incantation, keeping the soul out of its body. The incantation was necessary but sometimes I’d forget to say it. When that happened, I had to work harder, pushing their souls out of their bodies.
I whistled a specific tune. The ghostly figure of the ferryman appeared in his phantom boat, scooped up the silently screaming soul, and continued on his merry way. His eyes glaring at me from the back of his head like it did every time. I no longer shuddered or glanced away, instead I waved and smiled.
I let go of the corpse and his body crumpled to the ground, and dusted my gloved hands. After flicking off chunky pieces of the corpse, I carefully removed the gloves. “All in a day’s work,” I said, beaming.
“Good job, my child,” Mom said, kissing my cheek. “But don’t relax too much. We have another case,” she thumbed behind her at Ralph’s vehicle. “I suggest we grab something to eat before heading that way.”
“Good,” Ralph said, grinning. “I’m starving.”
“You’re always starving,” I chortled, smacking his abdomen. “What’s the other case?” I asked, slipping my gloves into a plastic bag. They’ll need to be dry-cleaned before I could use them again, but I had another pair in the car.
Ever since I started working with Mom and Ralph at Ulysses Assassins, the need not to touch those we were after became greater. There was something about me shoving their souls out of their bodies that made me feel queasy, but wearing gloves seemed to remove the nausea.
“It’s at the aquarium. There’s an issue with their new orca,” Mom said, scratching the left side of her chest until it became inflamed. “And a village in Peru just vanished,” she said absentmindedly as she scrolled upward on her touchscreen phone. “Weird things are happening around the world,” she rambled, still scratching her chest with her free hand.
I reached for her and stopped her from scratching. “You’re about to make yourself bleed,” I said, pointing at the raw skin.
“Blaire seems to be allergic to the new detergent as well,” Ralph chimed in. “Come, I need food.”
Lately, my mom had been struggling with allergies; first it was tomatoes, then her shampoo, and now it’s her detergent.
“I’ll be fine. I’m seeing Mel later,” Mom said with an urgent need to scratch.
“Stop it.” I chastised her like she used to do to me. “You can’t see Mel now?” I asked. Mel was a werewolf and the doctor for every shifter in Sterling Meadow. She was great at what she did, and the wolves didn’t seem to mind sharing her with every supernatural. Years ago, when they formed the Were-Animal Alliance—the WAA—, Sterling Meadow became one of the safest towns for shifters and supernaturals to live in. Even the vampires didn’t seem to mind working with everyone.
“She’s busy with the leopards,” Mom said, rubbing the inflamed area with her index finger.
“You probably can’t put anything on that right now? It might sting the crap out of you.” I winced looking at the reddened area.
“I’ll be ok,” Mom said, slipping her arm through mine, and resting her head on my shoulder. We walked in silence toward Ralph’s vehicle, but before I opened my door, a warm wind caressed my cheek and all the hairs on my body stood on end.
Mom let go of me and spun around with her weapons drawn, ready to use it. I unsheathed my knife, glancing around for the attacker. Unfortunately, Ralph was very human and human slow. He noticed nothing until he turned around and saw us standing like we were ready to strike an invisible force.
Tiny blue sparks flickered at my fingertips, ready to blast this creature approaching.
In the distance, a tall, dark figure approached with a dog running beside him. I eyed him narrowly and mumbled his name.
“Who?” Mom asked, ready to pull the trigger.
The blue sparks at my fingertips died down like an ice-cold bucket of water washing over me and my heart stuttered in my chest. My breath caught in my throat, and I swallowed hard.
It was River…