The Undead Uproar

by Amanda M. Lee

  That wasn’t what I was expecting. “Oh, well, how do you think he’ll be able to help?”

  “I don’t know that he can. His name is Leon Romero. He’s ... a little odd. He used to complain when we were on missions that he missed his mama’s beignets something fierce. We all laughed at him. The way he talked about the city was magical, though. He’s fairly well respected in the area, so I thought he might be able to offer us some information. I thought you might want to come with me.”

  The invitation caught me off guard ... and put me in an awkward position. “Oh, um, that’s sweet. Do you think he’ll want to meet me?”

  “Is there a reason he wouldn’t?”

  “You saw me drink my milk earlier. Sometimes I’m not presentable for public consumption.”

  He laughed, the sound low and throaty. “You’re fine. The milk thing was cute. I figured you would have to learn about the spicy food the hard way. You’ve got a head like a rock sometimes.” He lightly knocked my noggin to let me know he was teasing. “I want you to meet him. You don’t have to come if you feel awkward right now. I understand.”

  “Just so you know, I feel awkward almost every single day of my life. No joke. Sometimes I look in the mirror and wonder how you ever even bothered to look at me.”

  Jack’s lips tipped down. “I don’t like that. You’re beautiful, Charlie. You may not see it, but I do. Please don’t put yourself down.”

  “That’s not what I was doing.” Mostly that was true. “It’s just ... you’re always smooth and never trip over yourself when you’re talking to people.”

  “I don’t feel smooth when I’m with you. I feel awkward, too.”

  “Bad awkward?”

  “No, just ... clumsy. I want to be debonair, but I can’t because my heart is always racing and you make me laugh so much I often trip over my own feet.”

  He was being sweet, which I liked. “I thought I was the only one who tripped.”

  “No. Not the only one.” He leaned forward and gave me a soft kiss. “I want you with me if you want to come.”

  Part of me wanted to go with him. The other part recognized I had to stick to the plan I’d already made. “Oh, well, while you were busy with Chris and Thibodeaux, Millie came by and invited me on an adventure. I thought it would be fine since I’ll be with her.”

  Jack’s smile slipped. “See, the idea of you and Millie together terrifies me. Where are you going?”

  “A voodoo shop around the corner. We’re going to ask about raising the dead.”

  “I see.” Jack’s expression was hard to read. “Is that what you really want to do?”

  I felt caught. “I would love to meet your friend. It’s just ... I promised Millie.”

  “And the voodoo shop sounds more fun.”

  He wasn’t wrong. “I’ve never been to a voodoo shop.”

  He barked out a laugh and pulled me in for a hug before kissing my forehead. “Have fun at the voodoo shop. It’s probably best if I meet Leon on my own this go-around. I guarantee you’ll have a chance to meet him before we leave. I want to see how he’s doing first anyway.”

  Something about his tone worried me. “Is there something wrong with him?”

  “He suffered from PTSD after our last tour. I heard he needed treatment. He sounded fine when I talked to him on the phone.”

  On impulse, I pressed my fingers to his pulse point in the hopes of getting a vision of his time with Leon. It worked, and I was rewarded with a picture of the two men sitting in a cozy office and laughing. Everything appeared fine.

  “I’m sure he’s great. I want to meet him. I just want to go to the voodoo shop first. I think it’s going to be fun.”

  “I think you and Millie are going to terrorize those poor voodoo ladies,” he countered. “Something tells me you’ll be fine. Do me a favor, though, and don’t give them any money. If they tell you a curse is hanging over you, don’t pay them to remove it. That’s a common grift down here.”

  “I’ll do my best to keep from being taken. Besides, I don’t have much money.”

  Jack immediately reached for his wallet, causing me to balk.

  “I’m not taking your money.” I was mortified. “I have enough to pay for anything I need.”

  “You need to get over the money thing,” he chided. “Take this anyway because it will make me feel better.” He pressed a fifty into the palm of my hand. “If you don’t spend it you can give it back. I’ll feel better knowing you’re covered if you need something to drink or anything ... more milk maybe.”

  I scowled. “I’m never going to live down the milk, am I?”

  “Not as long as I’m around.”

  I was hopeful he would be around a long time. Fear is a funny thing, though. Now that I had him, I’d never been so afraid of losing anything in my entire life.

  “WOW!” THIRTY MINUTES LATER, I raised my eyes to the sign over the ornate purple store and read the hand-lettered advertisement. “‘Madame Brenna’s Shop of Horrors.’ It doesn’t sound very welcoming, does it?”

  Millie, who appeared to be even more in love with the city than I was, cackled as she put her hand to my back and gave me a shove. “It’s going to be fine. Trust me. These are our sort of people.”

  I opted to take her at her word.

  The first thing I smelled when I crossed the threshold was cloves. It was one of my favorite scents and I closed my eyes as I inhaled. The second thing I smelled was marijuana. No one was smoking, but I had no doubt it was a regular occurrence ... and I was fine with that. Millie obviously smelled it too because she winked at me.

  “These are definitely my type of people.”

  “How may I help you?” a theatrical voice asked from behind the counter. There, a beautiful woman — tall, statuesque, boasting the most magnificent chocolate skin I’d ever seen — stood watching us. She looked to be in her sixties but exuded youthful appeal. She also appeared to be amused ... and maybe a little predatory.

  “You must be Madame Brenna,” Millie said, not missing a beat. “I’ve heard wonderful things about you.”

  “Of course you have. I’m wonderful.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing at the woman’s response. She was obviously a master at reading people and she pegged Millie as the sort who respected strength, so that’s how she greeted her.

  “My ex-husband told me about you,” Millie started.

  “Hold up.” Madame Brenna stopped all pretense of being pleasant and waved a finger as she clucked her tongue. “If someone said I was with your husband, I guarantee that didn’t happen. I’m never with no one’s husband.”

  “I said he was my ex-husband. I don’t care if you were with him. In fact, if you were, I would be impressed. I’m pretty sure you could eat Myron as a snack and spit him out in favor of something better without even working up a sweat. I’m not accusing you of anything.”

  “Myron?” Madame Brenna cocked an eyebrow. “Are you talking about Myron Briggs?”

  “I am.”

  “Well, well, well.” Madame Brenna’s smile was so big I could almost count all of her teeth. “I should’ve recognized you. Myron described you to a T when he was in here last.”

  “Oh, yeah? How did he describe me?”

  “The Devil in Levi’s.”

  Millie laughed, tickled. “I kind of like that.”

  “I thought you would.” Madame Brenna gestured toward the table in the corner of the store. “Have a seat. I need to take a load off. It’s been a long day.”

  Millie led me to the table and we wordlessly sat as Madame Brenna got comfortable. Millie finally broke the silence. “You’re probably wondering why I’m here.”

  “Not really.” Madame Brenna tilted her head to the side and smiled. “I know all about Myron. He comes in here every six months for a reading to know his future. He’s told me about the Legacy Foundation ... including the bit that his ex-wife and nephew do for it.”

  “Well, that saves me from
having to explain things,” Millie noted. “We’re here about the zombie thing.”

  “And you came to me?”

  “Myron always told me you didn’t deal in bullshit. That’s the sort of person we need to talk to, so I figured I should visit you first.”

  “Okay. That makes sense.” Madame Brenna flicked her eyes to me. “Who is your friend?”

  “This is Charlie Rhodes. She’s the newest member of our team. She’s harmless.”

  Madame Brenna merely shook her head. “She’s pretty far from harmless. Obviously she’s not ready to embrace who she is, so I’ll let her be.”

  Millie and I exchanged wary looks but didn’t comment. There was nothing to say. I wouldn’t admit to having powers in front of a perfect stranger and Madame Brenna obviously had other things on her mind.

  “We just want to know about the zombies for right now,” Millie pressed. “My nephew is gung-ho when it comes to stuff like this and I’m afraid he’s going to let his imagination run away with him if we’re not careful.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because he’s ... a lovely boy with a heart of gold. He would sell his soul for proof of the supernatural, though. It’s a sickness with him.”

  “Really?” Madame Brenna’s eyes were heavy when they landed on me. “Imagine that.”

  I was uncomfortable under her weighted gaze and cleared my throat. “So ... the zombies?”

  “I would like to tell you they’re not real, but I saw one of them myself,” she said, returning to business. “It was an old man. I knew him. He was local, lived in an apartment around the corner. I never knew his name but I heard he died when his wife came in wanting a potion to mend her broken heart. She told me about his passing.”

  “And you saw him?” Millie queried. “You’re positive?”

  “I am. More than that, I sensed him. If you operate on a different wavelength like me — and your friend over here — you can feel evil from a great distance. I felt that when I saw him. He was never evil before. Now, he was something else entirely. His eyes were white. He couldn’t see anything yet he stared directly at me.”

  “Did you call the police?” I asked. “I mean ... if I saw a dead man walking around, that’s the first thing I would do.”

  “Really?” Madame Brenna was obviously feeling full of herself as she snickered. “Darling, we both know that’s not true. You’re a fighter, not a runner. You’ve been that way your entire life. You’ll have to stay that way if you expect to get the things you want — even the man that you want.”

  I swallowed hard, horrified. Could she see inside my head? It was possible, although I’d learned to shutter at a young age. It was also possible she could merely read the smile on my face when we’d entered. I was still basking in happiness thanks to my encounter with Jack. This woman could very well be a professional grifter like Jack said. I couldn’t get a feeling off her, so I wasn’t certain.

  “Well ... I’m fine with fighting,” I said finally.

  “And she won’t be alone when it comes to that,” Millie added pointedly. “Stop trying to show off and make her uncomfortable. She’s fine as she is. We want to know about the zombies.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” Madame Brenna said as she extended her long legs in front of her. It was only then that I realized she was barefoot and a tattoo of a large snake wrapped around her ankle. “I only saw the one. He was there one minute and gone the next. I tried to find him, locked the store up and everything, but he disappeared. I have no idea where he went.”

  “What about the wife you mentioned?” I asked, my mind busy. “Have you seen her? Has she mentioned seeing him?”

  “Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen her.” Madame Brenna pursed her lips. “I think it’s been a good three days since I saw her and I usually see her at least once a day when she crosses in front of the shop when she heads out.”

  “What do you think the zombies mean?” Millie asked. “I mean ... you must have an idea.”

  “They mean the end of the world.”

  I waited for her to whip out a punchline but she didn’t. “The end of the world?” I challenged. “Isn’t that a bit heavy?”

  “It’s what I feel. This city is in trouble. I think it could fall thanks to the evil forces working in the shadows to bring it down.”

  There was that word again. Shadows. That word kept popping into my head when we were at the cemetery earlier. “How do we stop the city from falling?”

  “I have no idea. If you find out, tell me. I want to help. I love this place. If it falls, I can’t help thinking the rest of the world will, too.”

  “Well, we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “We will,” Millie agreed, retrieving a business card from her pocket. “If you hear anything else, call me. We’re at the Royal Dauphine.”

  “If you hear something, I expect the same courtesy.”

  “Consider it done.”

  Seven

  Jack was in a good mood when he arrived at my room before dinner.

  “How do you feel about going out to eat?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “I could eat ... as long as my tongue doesn’t catch fire again.”

  He grinned. “I thought maybe we would head somewhere on our own. The others are having dinner together, but I already told Chris we wouldn’t be joining them.”

  I was intrigued. “So ... it will be just the two of us? That’s fun.”

  “I thought you might like it.”

  I glanced down at my clothes. I was wearing simple khaki capris, Nike sandals and a plain T-shirt. “Am I dressed okay? Should I change?”

  “You’re fine.” He gave me a quick kiss. “I figured we would pick a quiet and casual place for dinner and then maybe hit up one of the haunted tours that go through the French Quarter at night.”

  That sounded interesting. “You don’t strike me as a haunted tour guy.”

  “I’ve been on tours.”

  “That doesn’t mean you like them.”

  “I like you, and you’re a haunted tour sort of girl. I think I’ll survive.”

  His ho-hum reaction made me grin. “Then let’s go.”

  He watched as I grabbed a few twenties from my purse, making a face when I shoved the fifty he gave me earlier back in his direction.

  “You said if I didn’t spend it to give it back,” I reminded him.

  “Yeah, well, I think I need to talk to Myron about how much they’re paying you,” he grumbled as he slid the fifty into his wallet. “You don’t need a purse. I’m buying dinner.”

  “What about the tour? I need to pay for that.”

  “That’s on me, too.”

  “That doesn’t seem fair.”

  He looked exasperated. “Just let me pay and stuff your complaints. You don’t need a purse, but make sure you put your phone in your pocket.”

  “Yes, sir. Are there any other orders you would like me to follow, sir?”

  He shot me a look. “That’s cute only some of the time.”

  “Is it cute now?”

  He looked reluctant to answer. “It might be cute right now,” he finally hedged. “I’m starving, though, and I want dinner. I would prefer it if we headed out rather than played games.”

  “Okay, but I was just gearing up for a round of Monopoly and now you’ve ruined the fun.”

  He shook his head. “You have the weirdest sense of humor sometimes.” He grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the door. “Come on.”

  “I really do like board games.”

  “We’ll spend our time playing board games if we ever get locked in a haunted hotel for the winter. How does that sound?”

  Surprisingly, it was a fun suggestion. “Do you promise?”

  He stilled by the door and searched my face, probably to see if I was serious. “I promise,” he said after a beat. “If we ever get snowed in — and that’s a definite possibility because we live on the East Coast — I will play board ga
mes with you all night.”

  “Do I get to pick the games?”

  “This feels as if you’re trapping me. Are you into freaky board games?”

  “No. Clue is my favorite.”

  “Then we’ll play Clue.”

  “I even have Golden Girls Clue. I had to save up two months for it, but I got it.”

  He furrowed his brow. “You had to save up two months for a board game?”

  “It’s a collector’s edition.”

  “Geez. I’m definitely talking to Myron about how much you get paid. That is ridiculous.”

  “Don’t get me fired.” The thought horrified me. “I’ll have to leave if I get fired. I won’t have a choice if I don’t want to be homeless.”

  “You’re not going to be homeless.”

  He sounded sure of himself. Me? Not so much. “I’ve been close to homeless.” It was hard to admit. “I lived in my car for a month when I was waiting to hear about this job.”

  Jack looked pained. “How is that possible?”

  “I didn’t have any money.”

  “I know that, but ... .” Frustration wafted over his features. “I forget that you’ve been on your own for the better part of your life. It’s what makes you so strong, and I happen to be a big fan of your strength ... even if it makes you reckless. You’re not alone now, Charlie. I want to help you.”

  He was sincere, which caused my heart to ping. “I don’t want to be your charity case. That puts me in a position of weakness.”

  “Is that what you’re worried about? I don’t see you as weak. I never will.”

  “Maybe ‘weak’ isn’t the right word,” I acknowledged. “Vulnerable might be more apt.”

  “It’s okay to be vulnerable.”

  “You’re not vulnerable.”

  “I am where you’re concerned.” He didn’t look ashamed to admit it as he rubbed his hands up and down my arms. “I don’t want you going without. It bothers me.”

  “I’m used to going without. In fact, you’re the biggest indulgence of my life ... and you’re free.”