Free Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) by Tamara Rose Blodgett Page A

salutations,” he winked.
    “Lady-love,
Dad? So retarded!”
    “Caleb!” Mom said, mouth unhinged. A theme
today.
    “ Sorry,”
I mumbled. But it was retarded, who said that? They couldn't help it, being old and all.
Hard to believe that mom was Gramps' daughter.
    “You have to be more sensitive with your
language.”
    “ 'Lady-love'?” eyebrows raised to my
hairline.
    “I guess that was a little out-of-date,” Dad
agreed.
    “Ya think?”
    “So tell us more about Jade,” Mom said.
    “Well,
she is really interesting.”
    “That's not what I thought about your mother
when I first saw her,” he said with a smile aimed at mom.
    Over
share-much ... “I
mean, she is different than the other girls. She doesn't do that
stuff girls do that's super-annoying.”
    Mom crossed her arms again. Uh-oh, I'd stepped in
it.
    “What
do girls do that's so annoying?” she asked in that innocent tone
(translation: I will eviscerate you).
    I
looked at Dad for help but he looked back, clearly,
you couldn't have just said that.
    I was on my own.
    Girls make us nervous, they act like they like us
then treat us crappy the next day. In a word, confusing.
    What
I said was, “She treats me the same all the time, not just when
she's in the mood. She pays attention to what I'm saying, she
actually listens.”
    A slow smile spread across dad's face while mom
sat speechless at my words, a rare thing, “She sounds great. I like
a woman that is self-possessed.”
    “And she's cute too, right?” Dad winked.
    “ Yeah,”
I said. “There is that , ”
grinning back.
    “Oh
you two, annoying guys.” Mom smiled.
    Dad said, “Tomorrow we flesh out your
abilities.”
    “What are you doing tonight?” Dad asked. Mom
looked up from wiping down the kitchen table.
    “Ah... John brought over some papers about the
Parker kid.”
    “Don't you have a textbook from school that
addresses these abilities?” He looked a question at Mom.
    “Yes, he does. He must. First semester in eighth
grade they're required to have one quarter health and one quarter
paranormal development. They're linked you know,” Mom stated.
    Yeah,
they were linked alright. That Health class had been the dumbest on the planet. I can never get their lame-ass music out of my head.
It was some stupid thing like, “Body changes, everyone goes
through... body changes.”
    No shit, Sherlock.
    “Were you listening Caleb?” Mom asked.
    I stared blankly at Dad.
    “Hey pal, I asked if you still had the textbook
here in the house from last semester?”
    I looked at mom. “Try under your bed, that would
be my first guess.”
    I turned back to Dad. “I don't know, I'll take a
look.”
    “Okay, good. Now that these events are coming to
pass, a refresher would be an excellent pursuit of your time. The
sooner the better,” he said with gravity.
    I jogged over to the stairs taking them two at a
time. Tearing open my door, I launched myself on my bed, scooping the
papers up as I fell.
    I bent my head over them and began to read.

    CHAPTER 7

    Chocolate-brown eyes stared through the mist,
luminous, shining. I blinked and they were gone. My eyes flicked down
at my feet that were bare, my boxers my only clothing. I looked at my
surroundings and realized with dawning horror that I was in the
cemetery again.
    I glanced to where the eyes had been and the dog
stepped forward, an inky silhouette in the midst of an ethereal fog.
The mist was wet, swirling around my face, drenching my hair like
fingers attached to my skull. With a start I realized that it was The
Dog, from the accident.
    He
spoke, whispered, thought: Rescue
me .
    The eyes bored into mine with an eerie intensity,
that connection I'd felt since the accident still tied.
    Images flooded my head from the dog, like a movie
running frame by frame:

    A
boy, close to my age, throwing the ball. The Dog's pure joy at the
chase, the return, and the reward of the boy's laughing
acknowledgment of him.
    Then, a stranger that coaxes me/us with