“We’re going to stop him,” I said.
“I’m counting on it,” Zane squeezed my hand.
I felt the warmth flow through me, and I wanted to be closer to him, but I restrained myself. This now surpassed when Marcus Gibby had taken my hand over one hundred years ago. I was so busy thinking that I wasn’t paying attention to what was in front of me.
“Dammit!” I shouted as I tripped. I braced myself for falling on my face.
But I didn’t. A pair of strong arms, attached to very nice, shapely shoulders, caught me.
“Thanks,” I said, turning only a little to look at Zane.
His green(???) eyes regarded me in a way that made me feel warm all over.
“I don’t mind catching you,” Zane said.
“I’m not used to having anyone that catches,” I said.
“Your sisters do,” he replied.
“That’s not the same,” I said, not willing to pretend tonight.
As if time slowed down, I saw his head getting closer to mine. I was mesmerized by the green of his eyes, eyes that looked into mine as though there was nothing else in the world right now but him, and me.
Then his lips came down on mine. A burst of desire, and of something else I couldn’t identify raced through me, as though I’d touched a live electrical wire. But in a good way. In a really, really good way .
Holy shit, I thought. I’ve never felt that before. And I’ve kissed a lot of lips, truth be told.
Then Zane pulled away, and I was standing up, blinking as though I’d woken from a wonderful dream.
“I’ll always catch you,” he whispered. “You just have to let me.”
I ran a hand through my hair, not sure how to respond. “Kiss me again,” I said.
He didn’t hesitate. He leaned down, capturing my lips, and right there, on the streets of my hometown where I’d spent over one hundred years trying not to be seen as anything other than a nice girl with interesting hobbies, I kissed Zane McAllister. He kissed me back. It was the best thing that had happened to me in a long time.
When we finally parted as someone walked around us, we were both breathless. Zane took my hand, and in silent agreement, walked back toward the parking lot.
“I’d ask you to come back to my place, but I think it’s too soon,” Zane said.
“I think you’re right,” I said, feeling a little shy, as well as pleased that he wanted to invite me back to his place.
“So why don’t I walk you to your car, and we’ll get back into the protecting Deadwood business tomorrow?” Zane asked. I could hear the smile in his words.
“I can agree with that.”
We walked to my car, and as I unlocked it, I found that I wasn’t sure how to say good night. I turned around, and he took me in his arms, kissing me again, but without some of the heat from our earlier kiss. I realized that he was holding back.
Which was a good thing. I felt like I was about to go up in flames at his touch.
Zane let me go. “You have to make me a promise, though.”
“What?” I was breathless again.
“We go out again in three days. No matter what, Desdemona.”
“OK. Three days,” I said. I felt like I would have agreed to anything he said at that moment. His lips were like magic.
He kissed my forehead and then reached around me to open my car door. “Don’t speed,” he said.
I laughed, feeling a little more normal then. Only a little. But he knew about my ticket problem. “I won’t.”
“See you tomorrow,” Zane said, and closed the door behind me after I got in.
I drove home with the biggest smile on the planet all over my face. When I pulled into the garage, I took a moment to try and compose myself, but it was hard. I hadn’t felt this good in… I couldn’t remember how long.
Slowly, I walked up the stairs. As I came into the kitchen, I saw that the four of them were around the table, all working on laptops.
Everyone looked up as I came in.
“How did it—never mind,” DeAnna said, smiling. “I don’t even need to ask. Your smile gives it all away.”
“What smile?” I asked.
“That one,” Daniella got up. She was wearing pajamas, and I looked at everyone else.
They were all in pajamas.
“Did you get all of them moved?” I asked.
Dee grimaced. “Yes, and you didn’t warn us strongly enough how messy it is.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. Now I could feel the smile.
“No, you’re not, but that’s all right. I’m thinking of it as a baptism in nasty,” Dee said.
Everyone laughed.
“That’s a perfect way to describe it,” I said. “A baptism in nasty.”
“Hence strong showers and PJs,” DeAnna said. “But they’re in the ground, poor things.”
“So how did it go?” Daniella asked.
“Wonderful.”
“He is still our friend? You haven’t scared him away?” Deirdre teased.
“We have a date in three days,” I said without thinking.
There was silence, and then my sisters and my nieces all surrounded me, hugging me. They were happy for me, and I realized, in that moment, how stuck we were. How glad I was that Zane had insisted on moving to Pearl street, how glad I was that I’d met him.
Because this was how we’d handle the next hundred years.
By moving forward.
I hugged all of my sisters, since that was what Dee and DeAnna were becoming, and went to bed. I wanted to bask in the nice evening before the realities of the day hit.
I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
Chapter Ten
The next morning, I was still smiling when I woke. It was early, and I made breakfast for everyone. We talked about the vampire spray, and since it was still early, we all trooped downstairs to the stillroom to try out the new ideas.
It was Monday, which meant that the shop was closed. We worked through lunch, and finally, Daniella and Deirdre spelled our latest mixture.
“We need to test it,” I said.
Whatever anyone was going to say was interrupted by a banging on the door upstairs.
“What the hell?” Deirdre muttered.
The three of us ran lightly up the stairs, focusing our magic as we ran. I went to the door and opened it to find Zane.
He leaned against the door jam, breathing heavily.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, panic blooming through me.
“A zombie,” he said. “I have it in my garage. I went to the shop and you weren’t there.”
“Where’d you find the zombie?” Daniella asked.
“Is today the one day you weren’t listening to the police scanner?” he asked.
“No, we were in the stillroom all morning,” I said.
Zane looked at me, and then held up a hand. “You’ll tell me later. There was a call about a raggedy man at the Olaf Seim mine site, and the woman was worried he’d fall in one of the old shafts.”
“You have a scanner?” I asked. “After you gave me grief?”
Zane grinned, and I remembered how it felt to have those lips on mine. I grinned back. I couldn’t help it.
“Seemed like a good idea, you know, to keep up with what’s going on. You mean I got the drop on the Nightingales?”
“We’re kind of busy here,” Daniella said.
“Why didn’t you come and get us?”
“I can handle zombies,” Zane said, and I heard the thread of steel in his voice.
“You can,” I agreed.
He smiled at me as our eye met, and for a moment, it was just the two of us.
“Snap out of it!” Deirdre said. “We need you two on task, not on the moon.”
“Sorry,” I said. “You’re right. We need to get him out of your garage. What was he doing up there at the mine?”
“Digging,” Zane said.
“Just like the ghosts said,” I breathed.
Dei
rdre sighed. “Let’s get him to the shop,” she said.
“Get who?” Dee asked. She and DeAnna had come up.
“Another zombie,” Daniella said.
“We could test the spray on him!” DeAnna said.
We all looked at her.
“Well, zombies aren’t alive. Just like vampires, right?” She looked around. “What? They’re both dead.”
“You are brilliant,” I said.
“Because she’s a Nightingale,” Deirdre said.
“And a Holliday,” Doc’s voice chimed in from the kitchen.
“And a Holliday,” I agreed. “Which is a double whammy.”
In short order, I went with Zane to get the zombie down to the shop, and the rest took Deirdre’s Jeep, planning to meet us down there with the spray. We could test it on the zombie, on each other, and time it, and then if it was good, make up a large batch and get it out to Deana tomorrow.
Zane took my hand as we walked to his place, and I let him.
He had a truck with a cap on it, and I could see the zombie bumping around. It was a lot more lively than the last ones we’d had.
That was a mystery that I hadn’t figured out yet. In all my years, I’d never heard of zombies winding down.
“Good call, getting him in here,” I said.
“Well, it’s kind of a family tradition, sadly,” Zane replied. “I thought when I moved here my zombie wrangling was behind me.”
“Anything can happen in Deadwood,” I said.
“Clearly. Now what is this spray, and why do you need to test it?”
As we drove to the shop, I filled him in on the call from Deana, and her need to be able to get away from vampires in a hurry.
“They won’t be happy when they wake up,” Zane said.
“No, but when are they ever happy?” I shrugged. “Humans, even witch humans, need all the advantages they can get with vampires. They’re so damn fast, it’s hard to go against them even with magic.”
“That’s true,” he agreed.
As we pulled into the back of the shop, everyone was waiting. Daniella had chicken out before we even got out of the truck.
“Get ready with the stasis spells,” I said. “He’s a lively one.”
Dee’s nose wrinkled. “Great.”
Zane opened up the tailgate as I opened up the cap’s top, and the zombie rushed out, making us all jump back. Daniella waved the chicken, and the zombie stilled, and then began moving toward her.
With Deirdre and I ready to zap him, Daniella got him down to the cage. I breathed a sigh of relief when the door clanged shut behind him.
“I don’t like these zombies,” I said. “They’re not normal.”
“No, they’re not,” Zane said. “They are spelled for sure.”
“Why was he digging?” DeAnna asked.
“What is the master looking for?” Zane asked.
“That’s the question,” I said. “What is the master looking for? It doesn’t matter who it is. I think we can agree that he’s not a good guy.”
“We’re going with the ghost intel that it’s a he?” Deirdre asked.
“They’re usually pretty good with intel,” I said. “But even if they’re shaky on details, they’re worried. So yes, I’ll go with that. Doesn’t it feel like it’s a he?”
Daniella nodded. So did Deirdre.
“I think it’s a necromancer,” Zane said.
“We agree with you,” I said. “All right, let’s test this stuff on our friend here.”
Dee handed me the spray bottle. We’d come up with a mixture of lavender, valerian root, passion flower, and tryptophan. Then we’d added a strong enhancement spell to it. If we were right, this should knock the zombie out.
I walked to where the zombie was leaning against the bar. He snapped his teeth at me. I sprayed him in the face.
He stilled, and then snapped his teeth again.
“Give it another spray,” Daniella said.
I sprayed him again, and he stopped, mouth half open, arm reaching for me.
“He really should be dropping,” Dee said. “This won’t help her get away.”
“One more,” I said, and I sprayed him a third time.
The zombie stilled again, and then slumped against the bars.
I leaned in and poked at him.
“Hey!” Deirdre yelled. “Don’t do that!”
I poked at his shoulder, and he slid down the bar further. “He’s out. Did someone start the timer?”
We spent another hour allowing the zombie to wake, only to spray him again. Then, after we reproduced the same times for him being out—around seven minutes—we took turns spraying one another.
Which was just as hilarious as it sounded. Finally, DeAnna sprayed us all, and timed it.
It worked on humans, although only around three minutes. A little more than that, but three minutes was a safe bet.
“Let’s go make a huge batch of this,” I said, feeling happier about the situation in Deadwood than I’d felt since the zombies started showing up. “I think this will really help Deana, but we need to have some of this for ourselves.”
“I’m already carrying the spell bags,” DeAnna said. “I’m going to look silly with all these things in my pockets.”
We’d made spell bags for Dee, Deana, and DeAnna when Dee and Deana went back east to meet with a necromancer who had the angel sword we needed. I knew that Deana carried hers, but I didn’t know that DeAnna was still carrying hers. The spell bags would let them cast fire and stasis spells.
“I don’t know that you need them anymore,” Daniella said. “I mean, if you want to carry them, they can enhance things if you cast the spell, but I think you both are doing well without them.”
Dee and DeAnna looked gratified.
“Well, if we’re going to be dealing with zombies for the near future, this can stop them.”
“And the master,” Zane said.
“And the master,” I agreed.
“We need to get back on digging up where Mariah Conners went, too,” DeAnna said. “I hate that we’ve not been able to work on that.”
“That makes two of us,” I said.
Before the zombies had gotten out of control Dee and DeAnna had been working on figuring out where Mariah Conner, hedge witch with a grudge, might have disappeared to.
I didn’t want to think about the fact that she might be in her own grave. Granny didn’t seem to think she was someone with a normal life span, and most witches weren’t. Magic slowed down your aging. We all looked to be in our late twenties.
If Mariah Conners was dead, we were even more up a creek than we already were.
“Well, let’s get him,” I gestured toward the zombie, “Settled for the night, and we can get back home and get this ready for Deana.”
With the six of us, and the shop not open, Dee and DeAnna went back to the house. Deirdre and I went to gather some more herbs to make a whopper of a batch of our spray, and Daniella and Zane tucked the zombie into bed for the night. Within twenty minutes, we were headed back to Pearl Street. Zane parked out back behind our garage and the four of us trooped up the stairs.
When we walked in, Dee and DeAnna were in the kitchen. They turned as we came in from the garage. Goddess be thanked, they had started dinner, and we all sat down together at the table in what used to be the front room. When Meema had moved the house some years ago, she’d expanded it, and remodeled. Now, instead of a house built in the late 1800s, we had an open, modern house, and one that fit our needs.
I’d thought it would be too large when I came back from Hell and Meema was gone. But with Dee and DeAnna here, and Evil and Beeval, and Doc and Granny whooshing in and out, and with Zane popping in—it felt just right.
I was struck, as I was the night before we took on the demon, how lucky I was with my family. I was unlucky as shit with everything else, but my family kicked some major ass.
“What?” I asked, realizing everyone was staring at me.
&
nbsp; “Something’s up with Deana. If she doesn’t call in the next day or two, I’m going to call her,” Dee said.
“You said that before,” Deirdre said. “We’ll send her the spray tomorrow via express mail. Do you think there’s something more? How can you tell?”
Dee shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve just always been able to know when something was coming in terms of family. I knew you three would be calling before you did when Meema died,” she smiled a little. “I didn’t know why you’d be calling, but I told Mom that we’d be hearing from the crazy Deadwood aunts soon.”
“Did DeAnna rip the phone out of the wall?” Daniella teased.
DeAnna rolled her eyes. “I should have.”
“You love us,” Deirdre said.
“Someone has to,” DeAnna retorted, and we all laughed.
Beeval, our house demon, came in wearing Evil, our house chicken, on his head. “Bacon?” he asked.
Evil clucked softly. I loved seeing these two little weird things together. Evil was a rooster that Meema had decided was dinner one night, and she tried to chop off his head. He got away, head hanging off like a bad purse. After a week or so, Meema gave up and healed him magically. Magic can’t fix everything, however. Evil was not all that bright and I didn’t remember him as all that bright to begin with. He was sweet, however, and that was what counted.
Beeval was a demon, and he’d helped me escape from Hell when Ashlar the greasy asshole demon had dragged me down there with Meema. Meema hadn’t been as lucky. Ashlar had sent her to the River of Souls, and tied me to a board so I could watch the floating river of gross moved slowly overhead. I’d been able to escape, but there was no hope for Meema. The thought made me want to cry.
I stopped myself. She would be proud of us. We hardly fought at all, the three of us. We were helping our next generation of family. Granny and Doc were here and had made up. Beeval and Evil got along—loved each other, in fact.
This was the family Meema always strove to build. She’d be happy that her death had pushed us all to try just a little harder.
But I still wanted her here, damn it. Just to have her see what we’d managed to do, despite all our years of fighting.
All the living Nightingales were in one place. And we were happy about it.
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