Secrets of the Dead Read online

  Secrets of the Dead

  Curse Breakers Series Book 2

  Becca Vincenza

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2019 Becca Vincenza

  Cover: Covers by Christian

  Editing: Hot Tree Editing

  Proof Reading: Dawn Yacovetta

  ISBN: 9780463579176

  All rights reserved. The book may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  The books are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author‘s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Books by Becca Vincenza

  HEXED SERIES

  Hexed Hearts

  Hunter’s Heart

  THE REBIRTH SERIES

  Damaged

  Healed

  Stolen

  MERCENARIES FOR HIRE

  Freelance

  Hired

  Contracted

  Authorized

  CURSE BREAKER SERIES

  Art of Death

  Dedication

  To my twinie

  Acknowledgements

  Acknowledgements are hard because you want to make sure you thank everyone involved, even the people who had to sit and listen to you talk at them while you fix out the little inconsistencies and issues with the book. I have to thank my friends, who are more like family to me, for dealing with every second guessing, and utter meltdowns.

  Abel and Rowan are a project that I promised myself I would never do. Twins are often portrayed as these siblings that have these unconditional relationships. They are best friends always. Well thank you to my own twin that hopefully helped me balance out the dynamics that I have always felt growing up.

  A special thank you to one of my closets friends, Ethan, who had a like two-hour phone call with me, which is super unusual for me and helped me figure out the future of this series. And also being one of my fearless betas who will tell me what’s up, and when the book is shit after the first round of self-edits. And a special thank you too my other fearless betas who did the same: Vanessa, and Jen. Can’t thank you two for always being there for me when I need you.

  Thank you to my editors at Hot Tree, and also my fabulous proof-reader, Dawn. I can’t thank enough people, enough.

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  To Be Continued…

  Special Tease

  Preface

  In my life, I had always made the smart decision. The right decision. I’d been the responsible twin, the one who thought things through. So it surprised me that I’d ended up in this position.

  I thought back to the moment everything had gone downhill.

  While I detested blaming my twin, the ghost had been the crux that started it all. But if he hadn’t come into our lives, then the secrets my parents had kept would never have come to light until it was too late. I would never have the chance to stop the events.

  Even with all that said, as the blood drained from me, had I actually saved anyone? Or had I just put myself into the position I so desperately didn’t want Rowan to have to live through?

  But if she was safe, wasn’t that the only thing that mattered?

  Chapter 1

  “Abel, he’s back again.”

  “I got that,” I said. My grandfather sat next to me, a wooden pipe dangling from his lips. “Why do you insist on keeping that?”

  “Brings me comfort.”

  Breathing in deeply, I tried to remember that even if he was smoking, it couldn’t affect me. And he couldn’t physically smoke since he was dead. My ancestors had been keeping a close eye on my twin sister and me for the last couple of weeks. Our birthday was only a handful of days away, and they all seemed more agitated than usual.

  Unfortunately, the closer we got to our birthday, the weaker our powers became. Which was concerning since my powers had always been easily accessible to me. My ancestors would tell me of their worries, but at this point, I could only feel their anxieties. And I kept the information from Rowan. What would it help her knowing? The only reason I could still see my grandfather was both because of his power and the ring that circled my thumb. Having once belonged to him, it bore his initials. An heirloom passed down to me.

  I rubbed the silver ring, unnerved.

  “Whatcha thinking, son?”

  “That Rowan’s made a mistake, and I need you to be quiet so I can learn a way to fix it.” If I asked my grandfather, he would advise me to use a dark power, one I didn’t know if I could access. At least not while in my weakened state.

  “And what, pray tell, did my favorite granddaughter do?”

  “She’s your only granddaughter.”

  “Still my favorite though,” he said with the pipe dangling from his smile. “Now tell me.”

  “She displayed her powers in front of an unknown ghost, and he’s taken a certain interest in her. He claims he died not too far from here and wants her to help find his way back to his body.”

  “Ya don’t believe him.”

  “No, I don’t trust him at all,” I said.

  “What about this one floatin’ around you?” my grandfather asked, referring to the ancestor we couldn’t see.

  “There is something familiar about his presence, but this is my focus. I have to watch over Rowan.”

  “You might want to listen to this fella.” My grandfather nodded at the air. The ancestor who called out to me had been trying to get my attention for the last couple of days. Long before Rowan caught the interest of an outsider ghost, I had my own stalker. But he hadn’t been able to get close enough.

  “I’m thinking you need to pay attention to him.” My grandfather had a very jovial demeanor, and he often reminded me of Rowan. But as my grandfather looked over at the empty space, I believed the ancestor was hovering, biding his time to speak with me.

  “In time. Right now I need to—”

  “You need to listen to your elders.”

  “I always listen to the ancestors, Grandfather, but they can’t help me with this particular problem.”

  “You mean your reckless twin getting herself in heaps of trouble?”

  “Yes.” By attracting the attention of an unusually powerful ghost who claimed he’d just died, she was bringing too much attention to us. I didn’t trust the ghost, and I’d been trying to do research on him, but no recent deaths or disappearances had come across a news website or any police reports.

  “Abel,” the ancestor called again.

  “What does he want, Grandfather?”

  “Whoever he is, he’s a mystery to me. I can only hear what you can.”

  I didn’t have time to worry about the ghost that even my grandfather couldn’t hear. I needed to stay focused on the problems at hand. Rowan’s gaining the ghost’s attention wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for who and what she and I were.

  When a rival family grew jealous of our rise in both power and status, they paid a very powerful witch t
o form a curse. That very same curse had ruled over our family for generations.

  If I hadn’t been one half of a set of twins, then I would’ve just been another seventh son in a long line of seventh sons in the Hayes family. Rowan had been the catalyst that changed everything. While I was born first, the seventh son of the seventh son and so on, Rowan was born a girl. The first female in our family in centuries.

  A Curse Breaker.

  In our world, Curse Breakers were rare and often chalked up to rumors. Curses were nearly impossible to place on others, and the stronger the curse, the harder it was to break. Our family’s had lasted over centuries. The powers Rowan and I would come into in mere days could be catastrophic.

  After I found her in the bar she worked at, messing around with the ghost, we came up with a plan, but it was rocky at best—Rowan would keep a low profile while I researched a way to rid ourselves of the ghost. So far, it hadn’t gone well, and in addition to the return of our best friend, Indigo, Rowan had trouble keeping a low profile.

  “Son….”

  I shut the Tome I’d been reading. My eldest brother collected Tomes of our ancestors and those of other families whose lines had come to an end; his library was filled floor to ceiling with them. He had acted as a second father to all of us because he was much older, and he was our studious brother as well, always the learner, which I related to.

  A headache bloomed, and I tried to control my temper. Sometimes working with my grandfather nearby was more difficult than working with Rowan. As useful a well of knowledge as he was, he also liked to be right.

  “What?”

  “You could always use the powers you have now.”

  “No.”

  “Art refused his powers as well. There’s nothing dark about our magic, son. It’s why we can have this connection, even here in Sherman’s well-warded house,” he reminded me softly.

  Yeah, our shared powers. Powers even necromancers didn’t like to discuss in polite conversation. Exorcisms were respectable enough, but what my grandfather, Albert, and I could potentially do was much more. He’d been watching over me carefully since my first encounter with my magic. When we were younger, Rowan focused more on ghosts, but as she got older, her powers turned more physical while mine became more of the opposite.

  Albert, one of my other brothers, who left the Mystic world for the human one, had powers more akin to mine. He had the power of Exorcism, so he could banish ghosts. But his went to the extremes, meaning he could kill them. Ghosts who remained in our world too long sometimes didn’t know how to move on, and some of those became dangerous. Killing a ghost destroys all their memories and knowledge.

  Of course, that’s what made it so dangerous. That ability could cripple necromancers, and it put a target on their backs.

  Rubbing the ring on my thumb, I looked up at my grandfather. He’d been ancient when he passed, my father being the seventh and final son, but they still looked so similar.

  “That takes a lot of power, Grandfather.”

  “Power you have.”

  “Power that’s stifled right now. Remember the warning you gave me months ago?” All the ancestors had given me the same information. During one of my monthly visits to the crypt three months ago, my ancestors unilaterally warned me that our powers would slowly diminish before our birthday. My powers allowed me to get information from ghosts simply by touching them. My grandfather and I speculated that now I only gathered surface thoughts, but soon I’d be able to garner any information I wanted from ghosts.

  But that would be when my powers came into full. I’d never had a reason to kill a ghost before, and now my powers felt weak, barely there. Even getting information off the ghost had been an impossible task, much less anything else.

  “What Tome do you have there?” My grandfather hovered closer. It wasn’t useful, full of information about vampires, the ancestor who wrote it seemingly obsessed. Necromancers and vampires had to put treaties in place after centuries of vampires murdering or kidnapping necromancers. Interesting read but not helpful at the moment.

  “Crazy ancestor.”

  “Careful how you talk about your elders.”

  Cracking my neck, I closed the Tome. The last couple of days had been the same, trying to find a solution and failing miserably.

  I picked up my phone and checked the time.

  “I should go check on Rowan. She has a bit of cabin fever, and right now I don’t entirely trust her.”

  “You need to believe in her a little more than that, Abel. She’s a smart girl, just thinks a little differently than you do.”

  “I know that.”

  “Take it easy on her.”

  Nodding to my grandfather, I grabbed my wallet and headed out of my brother’s house. The sun had barely crested over the horizon; I needed to get back before Rowan realized I wasn’t asleep in the next room. And the ghost couldn’t know what I’d been doing. Something wasn’t right about him. His interest in Ro had been unnerving.

  I climbed into my truck and drove over to the only apartment complex in town, which had been funded and constructed by my second oldest brother, Wilson. Ibrahim, the pack Alpha who practically ran the town, had been against it, but after great debate and agreeing to put it on the town’s limits, he finally agreed.

  People came to Kodiak Falls to disappear. We kept each other’s secrets, and apartments invited the idea of temporary living. It worked in our favor since Wilson had an apartment on standby for whenever he decided to stay in town for extended periods of time. Rowan and I had been staying there since her first encounter with the ghost.

  When I arrived at the apartment, bad singing flowed from Rowan’s room. I walked over to the door and knocked.

  “Ro?”

  “No, Ro isn’t here. A husk of a being has replaced her because she got zero sleep.”

  “Rowan, are you dressed?”

  “Yes, dear brother.”

  “Gods, I hate when you don’t sleep. You get so weird.” I opened the door to the guest room. Rowan was still lying on the bed while the ghost hovered nearby watching us. What happened while I’d been at Sherman’s?

  “I hate when you don’t sleep. You get all grouchy.”

  “I slept, Rowan.” I couldn’t tell her how I spent the night researching the ghost, not with him listening.

  “I didn’t, Ab-el.” She said my name in two hard syllables.

  Time to wrap this conversation up; I needed to get out of the house and get supplies. If the onyx and agate wouldn’t keep the ghost out, then maybe fresh plants like basil or chamomile would. I’d head out to the only grocery store in town, which would hopefully have what I needed.

  ****

  At Gracie’s, the grocery store, I went straight for the aisle with candy and energy drinks. Next, I headed to what we locals called the random aisle. Since we lived so far out of the way, it’d been filled with items frequently requested. Noise-canceling headphones had been a popular demand, especially in a small town full of werewolves and shifters who had better hearing than everyone else. Grabbing two pairs, I went back to the registers.

  An old ex of mine stood behind the register and smiled at me with all teeth. Victoria, a wood nymph, had been my girl up until five years before when Indigo left. She never got along well with Rowan, and why she chose me had always been a mystery. Wood nymphs dealt with life magic while her kind normally saw necromancers as working with the dark arts. They detested us and our magic. It’d been an easy split, and we kept things friendly. But sometimes she still held out hope for random hookups.

  “V.”

  “Good to see you, Abel. Keeping yourself out of trouble?” Her unnaturally green eyes flashed with mischief. Knowing that look all too well, desire swelled inside of me. I pushed it away. Rowan needed my attention.

  “Not today, V. But I’ll keep your offer in mind.”

  “Don’t wait too long. A girl has her needs, and you cater to them so well,” she purred as she trailed her finger
s up my arm. My muscles bunched at her touch. She’d been an amazing bedmate, one I would never normally turn down.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” I started to grab my purchases, but V stopped me again, gripping my arm.

  “Also, strangers are about lately. Maybe tell your sister to keep her head down?”

  “What kind of strangers?”

  “The sharp, pointy teeth kind. The kind yours associate with.” V released me and smiled at the customer behind me.

  Picking up the small bag of goods, an uneasiness slithered through me. If V saw vampires running around, wouldn’t Ibrahim do something about it? The only reason he wouldn’t run them out of town was if they had a valid reason for being there. As far as I knew, the only people in town the vampires would be interested in was my family.

  Necromancers and vampires had a tentative relationship with each other. Centuries ago, vampires had enslaved our kind or killed us by the hundreds since stronger necromancing families could control vampires. There were rumors that some could even control Master vampires. After centuries of bloodshed on both sides, our races and government came to a decision and made a treaty.

  Most necromancers chose to ally themselves with vampires, and those who didn’t, like my family, lived in remote parts of the world with other means of protection. Werewolves were discriminated against because of their tight bond with their wolf side. Considering they could be such an unpredictable and deadly force, they often lived alone in packs like this town. But werewolves and vampires had a feud that went back ages, and their treaty was even more fragile than the necromancers with vampires. The enemy of our enemy was our friend and all that, and weres liked having necromancers around in case we could control vampires.

  The urgency to get back to Rowan increased. It seemed too coincidental that this ghost arrived, and now there had been sightings of vampires in our town. Our town full of werewolves at that.

  I climbed into the truck and drove right back to the apartment building. Once I made it upstairs and was near Wilson’s apartment, I could already hear the two-sided conversation though anyone else walking past would just hear Rowan raving to herself.