“Put that in the red garbage can. That’s my hazardous materials one,” Miss Elva ordered, her wide eyes fixed on the bowls in front of her. Luna moved to the red can, pushing the cup through a suction-type lid that would allow trash to be deposited into it, but none taken back out.
Luna turned to watch Miss Elva. The voodoo priestess hummed and muttered as she began to pick up various bottles, using eyedropper tops to drip beads of liquid into different bowls. Luna kept quiet as Miss Elva repeated the motions, adding more drops to various bowls until finally, one turned blindingly neon red.
“Aha! As I thought,” Miss Elva said, shaking her head, her eyes coming up to meet Luna’s.
“What? Is it bad? What is it?” Luna breathed, clutching her hands inside the red rubber gloves.
“This is some dark magick, child. It’s zombie dust.”
Chapter Six
“No!” Luna’s heart clutched and she fought to keep tears from her eyes. “What is that? It will make them into zombies?”
Scenes from the TV show The Walking Dead flashed through Luna’s mind, full of dead bodies come to life, eating human brains.
“No, no, no, child. Nothing like that nonsense.” Miss Elva waved the thought away and Luna was able to pull a shaky breath through the panic that had gripped her.
“Well, then don’t say it like that. Jeez,” Luna muttered.
“Zombie dust is nothing to trifle with. But it’s also nothing like what you’re thinking. There’s a famous case about this, actually,” Miss Elva mused, gently picking up the bowls and pouring the liquid from each one into a large silver pitcher.
“What does it do?”
“It’s a powerful neurotoxin poison. What happens is that it essentially shuts down the human body – but it doesn’t kill you. Instead, it puts you into a type of coma that resembles death. Doctors can literally get no pulse.”
“That’s horrible,” Luna said, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Oh, it gets worse, child. So, there are cases in history where this toxin was used – some by voodoo priests. The family then buries the body, thinking that the person has died. When everyone leaves the burial ground, the person who did this will come back in and dig the body up, stealing them away and giving them the antidote to revive them. Hence the name ‘zombie dust.’ Usually it was done to force people into slavery.”
“It will never cease to amaze me, the levels of evil that people can achieve,” Luna murmured.
“Don’t I know it,” Miss Elva said, eying the pitcher as she carefully poured a pale yellow liquid into it.
“Is it easy to make? Can just anyone put this together? I saw the margarita truck man today when I drove by,” Luna said, pacing the small kitchen.
“No, this is a highly guarded secret. Passed down in the dark magick community, not like the voodoo that I do. I shouldn’t even say ‘passed down’… more like certain undesirable elements know how to make it. It holds oddities like puffer fish extract and such,” Miss Elva said, peering into the pitcher and tipping it slightly.
“Puffer fish? That’s random. And weird. Is there a cure? Well, there has to be if people were dug up from their graves and used as slaves.”
“There is. I’m working on it,” Miss Elva said. “What did that man look like today?”
“Pale – very, very pale skin, I remember that. Dark hair. Nondescript otherwise. He looked right at me for a moment and I got a bad feeling from him. I wish I had followed up on that bad feeling,” Luna said morosely.
“Child, don’t go blaming yourself for the wrong others have done. Beau’s going to be okay. So are the rest of the people harmed, if I can get this potion working.”
Luna tilted her head and watched as Miss Elva picked up a jar with a pink crystalline powder in it and dashed some into the pitcher.
“What goes into counteracting it?”
Miss Elva raised her eyes to look at Luna.
“I can’t go telling you that. But basically, I’m getting the potion to rebel against itself. Eat itself, if you will… to transform it. So I suppose the zombie name applies in that respect as well.”
“That’s… fascinating,” Luna said. It really was. Miss Elva’s vast knowledge never failed to impress her.
“It doesn’t make sense. It shouldn’t make sense, actually. But that’s often the way of these things,” Miss Elva shrugged.
“Miss Elva, based on what you told me – this man wouldn’t have just poisoned all these people just for fun, right? There has to be a motive here.” Luna gasped, coming to a conclusion that Miss Elva must have reached on her own a while back. “He’s coming back for the bodies, isn’t he?”
The blare of Luna’s ringtone from her purse made her heart clench. Miss Elva just muttered beneath her breath and continued to focus on the pitcher of potion.
Luna already knew before she picked up the phone.
Chapter Seven
“Is this Luna?”
A breathless voice all but shouted through the speaker of the phone that Luna gripped tightly to her ear.
“It is.”
“It’s Dr. James, from the clinic,” Dr. James panted. Luna could hear a woman sobbing in the background, and her blood felt ice cold in her veins.
“Beau?” Luna asked, not daring to breathe.
“He’s been taken. They’ve all been taken,” Dr. James gasped, swearing as Luna tried not to scream.
“ ‘Taken’ ? What happened? Tell me. Quickly,” Luna said, praying that her protective spell around Beau would hold up wherever he was being taken.
“I… I’m so sorry,” Dr. James said, and Luna closed her eyes against the defeat she heard in his voice. “We had a lull in patients and since we couldn’t get anyone in to cover, my nurse told me to close my eyes for twenty minutes. We both knew it was going to be a long night. I went into the storeroom to put my head down, and woke up to screams. I… I tried to get out, but they had barricaded me in the room. I’m… I’m so sorry.”
“And your nurse?” Luna asked quietly.
“Beaten to within an inch of her life. But she was able to crawl over and let me out. I’m treating her right now.”
“Were any of the patients hurt? What can the nurse tell you?” Luna asked, running a hand through her hair and trying to calm herself down.
“They had a big van and were wheeling people out. They had guns. They shot up the office, but nobody was killed. There’s no blood.”
Thank heaven for small favors, Luna thought.
“You tell that doctor we’re coming to get him,” Miss Elva said. “We’re going on a man hunt.” Luna shivered.
“Dr. James? We’re on our way. Your services are required.”
Luna hung up on his words of protest and turned to Miss Elva.
“This is bad.” Understatement of the year, right there.
“No time for worries. We’ve got to get this antidote to the hospital, as well as find Beau,” Miss Elva gestured to two glass bottles that were now full of a deep red liquid. Their caps were secured and Miss Elva had her magickal satchel swung cross-body over her caftan. Luna threw her shoulders back.
“Let’s do this.”
Chapter Eight
Luna handled her Beetle like she was a racecar driver, zooming around bewildered drivers in the road, and breezing through red lights without a second thought. All she could focus on was getting to Beau. Somehow. Some way.
The car screeched to a stop in front of the Urgent Care clinic. Luna winced as she saw the shattered glass of the windows. Dr. James was out the door as soon as he saw her headlights, pushing his nurse in a wheelchair.
“Oh shit,” Luna breathed, having forgotten about the nurse.
Dr. James jerked his head towards a dark SUV parked at the edge of the lot.
“Let’s take my car,” he called.
Luna’s eyes slid to Miss Elva.
“I like a man who knows how to take charge,” Miss Elva decided and pushed herself from the Bug, the
bottles cradled in her arms.
“I suppose. But where does he think he’s taking his nurse? Into battle?” Luna hissed as they scurried across the parking lot. Luna couldn’t help but shiver at the flickering lights of the clinic that washed across the broken glass in the deserted parking lot. It did resemble the scene of a zombie invasion – at least the kind she’d watched in the movies.
Dr. James slid his nurse into the front seat before turning to Luna and Miss Elva.
“I’m taking her to the hospital. Then we’re going to stop this lunatic,” Dr. James said, the light catching his blue eyes.
“We need to go there anyway,” Miss Elva nodded.
“Dr. James, you don’t really have to go with us if you don’t want to,” Luna began, and Dr. James turned and gripped Luna’s arm.
“It’s Mathias. And yes I do. They beat the shit out of my nurse and stole my patients. It’s personal now,” he said, and Luna shivered. She wasn’t sure if it was from Mathias’ words or his touch on her arm. She met his eyes and nodded once before hopping into the back seat and sliding across the leather to take the bottles from Miss Elva’s outstretched hands.
“Everyone in?” Mathias called back to them.
“Yes, we’re in; let’s save our people.”
“I spoke with a doctor friend of mine at the hospital while I was waiting for you. All hell’s broken loose over there. They weren’t as successful at stealing patients from the ER or the morgue, and security has barricaded all the entrances. They know we’re coming, though.”
“Is the morgue in the same building?” Luna asked. Luckily, she’d never had to visit the morgue – yet.
“Yes, in the basement,” Mathias said as he sped along the street, shooting worried looks at his nurse, who was still unconscious in the front seat. Luna could see blood smeared across her forehead and matted in her hair.
“Miss Elva,” Luna whispered, nodding towards the nurse.
“Oh, right,” Miss Elva said, and leaned forward to place her hands on the woman’s shoulders. Luna leaned forward as well and pressed her hand to the woman’s arm.
“What are you doing?” Mathias asked.
“Sending her some of our healing magick,” Miss Elva said promptly, and Luna almost swore. Did the woman have to keep bringing up their magick? Luna was a little more discerning when it came to sharing that information.
There goes any chance of a date with the cute doctor, she thought as she caught Mathias’s raised eyebrow. He refrained from commenting, though, and Luna lowered her gaze to focus her thoughts.
“I call upon the Goddess, the light, the good…” Miss Elva intoned, and Luna closed her eyes and called upon her light to pour into the woman’s bruised and battered body.
“As I will, so mote it be,” Luna chanted with Miss Elva at the end of her spell. They had timed it well, as Mathias was just pulling into the hospital parking lot when his nurse stirred.
“The… the patients?” the nurse asked, her eyes fluttering open as Mathias slammed the SUV to a stop and reached out to touch her shoulder.
Luna could have hugged that woman. Her first concern was for her patients and not her own wounds. She deserved a raise.
“We’ll take care of them. I’m dropping you off at the hospital. Though it looks like you’re feeling better,” Mathias said, casting a quick glance back at Miss Elva before getting out of the car.
“I’m going in with them. It doesn’t look good in there,” Luna said. She could see someone, maybe a deputy, standing in front of doors that had metal barriers pulled closed behind the glass.
“That’s fine. I’m staying here with the remedy. You take one of these bottles to a doctor – you hear me? Dr. Kingston if she’s in. She’ll know what to do.”
“Are you sure?” Luna asked, gingerly cradling one bottle against her body as she slid from the car.
“Just tell her it’s like that one time in New Orleans. She’ll know what to do,” Miss Elva said as she waved Luna off.
Luna still hesitated, though she could see that Mathias was having some trouble with the deputy at the front door.
“I don’t want to leave you unprotected.”
Miss Elva roared with laughter, slapping her knee as she all but doubled over in mirth.
“Child, that’s a good one. Me. Unprotected.”
Luna rolled her eyes as Miss Elva wiped away a tear. She shut the car door, and then strode across the parking lot while she pulled a magickal shield of protection around her. Who knew what was lurking in the dark shadows of the lot?
The deputy was shaking his head at Mathias.
“No entry. Chief’s orders.”
“Call Chief Thomas down here. Immediately,” Luna ordered, coming to stand next to where Mathias carried his nurse.
“Chief. We have a situation,” the deputy barked into his walkie-talkie, his other hand positioned over the holster where his gun rested.
Luna met his eyes and waited.
In less than twenty seconds, Chief Thomas rounded the corner into the hallway and unlocked the metal gates, sliding one side open and pushing his way through the glass door.
His gun was already in his hand.
As soon as he spied Luna, he holstered his gun and looked between her and his deputy.
“What’s going on here?”
“They showed up. Demanding entrance,” the deputy shrugged. “You said nobody could come in.”
Chief Thomas sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
“This is Dr. James from the Urgent Care center. And his nurse is clearly injured. Let them in.”
“What about her?” the deputy asked, gesturing at Luna, clearly annoyed at his authority being overridden.
“She can come in as well,” Chief Thomas sighed, and then motioned for them to walk ahead of him. It was all Luna could do not to turn around and stick her tongue out at the deputy, but she held it together.
“Chief, I need to talk to you,” Luna whispered once they were through the front doors and the gate had been locked again. Mathias was already striding down the corridor, where emergency lights were flashing in the hallway.
“Luna, we’re in crisis mode here. The hospital is under attack and people are dying left and right,” Chief Thomas said, sweat dripping down his brow as they raced down the corridor.
Luna grabbed his arm, causing him to swing back and almost knock the bottle from her hand.
“Find Dr. Kingston. Now. We can save these people.”
Chief Thomas hesitated for a moment, looking from the bottle she carried back to her eyes.
“You’d better not be lying.”
Chapter Nine
Luna gasped as she followed Chief Thomas into the ER waiting room. It was absolute chaos. Families were piled on top of each other in various stages of grief. Some bodies lay prone on the ground, and a nurse was trying to fend off the people who were currently yelling at her.
“Everyone! Stop talking. This instant,” Chief Thomas yelled and, surprisingly, they did.
“We are in a crisis situation. The hospital is under attack from an unknown assailant. Stay put and our doctors will see you as soon as they can.” Chief Thomas looked at Mathias and Luna and motioned for them to follow him through a double set of doors.
“Hey! How come they get to be treated?” one woman screeched, crouched over the prone body of a man in a flannel button-down shirt.
“Because we’re going to save his life,” Luna said, pointing at the man on the floor, before the door slammed closed behind her.
“I hope to god you know what you’re about,” Mathias muttered next to her as they raced down the hallway, past a few rooms where bodies lay limp on beds. Then Chief Thomas skidded to a stop by one of the rooms.
“Dr. Kingston,” he said, and Luna pulled up behind him, her heart racing in her chest.
Dr. Kingston was a pretty woman with shiny dark skin, hair twisted into an elaborate bun, and a no-nonsense manner.
“Chief Thomas, I�
��m with a patient,” she said, not even looking up from where she administered an IV to a girl who looked to be about college age. Her face was white under her tan and if Luna hadn’t known better, she’d have thought her to be dead.
“I’ve got the cure,” Luna blurted out. Dr. Kingston straightened at once, looking past Mathias and Chief Thomas to where Luna stood.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I’m Luna. I’m friends with Miss Elva. Um, she said it’s like that time in New Orleans,” Luna said. She jumped when Dr. Kingston strode past the men, barely glancing at the injured nurse as she yanked off her latex gloves, then snagged Luna’s arm and pulled her into a storage closet. Dr. Kingston slammed the door and turned to face Luna.
“What do you know about ‘that time in New Orleans’?”
“Nothing, I know nothing. But I know this is zombie dust. That’s what Miss Elva called it,” Luna said, her eyes tracking the pretty doctor’s pacing.
“Shit!” Dr. Kingston shouted. She almost slammed her fist into the wall, but stopped herself an instant before it hit. Luna watched as the doctor collected herself, seeming to count down and take deep breaths.
“You’ve got the antidote?” Dr. Kingston said, gesturing at the bottle Luna carried.
“Yes. At least that’s what Miss Elva said. We have two bottles of it, but we need to take the other with us. There are patients missing.”
“I know. That bastard got some bodies out of the morgue before the alarms sounded.”
“Sick lunatic,” Luna cussed along with her.
“Here’s the deal. I’m going to need your help. This has to be diluted with saline and loaded into syringes. I have no extra hands right now.”
“But… We’ve got to go save Beau.”
“It’ll take ten minutes. Please,” Dr. Kingston asked.
Tequila Will Kill Ya: (The Althea Rose Series Book 2.5) Page 3