Dead of Night (Hunters of the Dark #4)
Page 41
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“I was wrong about this one,” Roma announced, dropping the rock next to Krystal’s fallen body. “I can’t control her.” She looked up, meeting Shanna’s eyes. “But I can end you all here and now.”
Shanna took an involuntary step back, horrified by Roma’s bloody face that was partially-dented on the right side, and completely purple with bruise. Roma saw her look and chuckled, lifting her head carefully from her shoulders before setting it back down again.
“I am a necromancer, you simpletons,” she said. “I control the dead. Do you think just because my body is dead that I would be so easily defeated? Why, I have more control over my body now than I did before!”
Shanna swallowed hard, then held her head high, hoping her voice came out stronger than she felt. “Just stop this. Leave with what dignity you have left.”
Roma’s right eye was swollen shut, but her left eye still functioned, and was looking Shanna up and down with amusement. “Spare me your speeches. I am a voodoo queen, and will not suffer such indignity from a trollop.” She sniffed loudly. “Anyways, I waited until the moment you stepped into my orchards for a reason. This is where my friends and loved ones were buried long ago. Their broken bodies, worn down from years of servitude and hard labor, were dumped here in shallow graves, to be discarded and forgotten, with pathetic little ceremonies hardly worth my master’s breath.” She looked at them each in turn. “But now, they will rise up again. And for once, I am thankful that they weren’t buried with more care, that their bodies are no deeper.”
Shanna felt a tug on her leg and looked down to see a skeletal hand wrapped around her ankle. She let out an involuntary shriek and yanked on her leg, to no avail.
“Shanna!” Quinn cried, then grunted as he realized that he was also being targeted. In fact, all of the hunters were being attacked, as dozens of skeletal arms reached through the grass, grabbing hold of the living.
“Krystal!” Jade yelled. “Krystal, you really need to wake up now!”
Roma laughed, watching them all with sadistic glee in her eyes. “Pull them into your resting places, my friends. You will be alone in death no longer!”
For such old bones, the skeletons were sure strong. Shanna yanked with all her might, until she fell over onto the soft dirt. She watched as another arm appeared from the soil, joined by a skull, its eyes sightless, dirt falling from the hollows like sand following a dream. It grabbed her other leg and dragged her toward it, as if its muscles were still there. And it stared at her like it still had eyes with which to regard her.
“No,” she pulled back hard on a leg and managed to shake it free. Then she kicked at the skull with all of her strength.
The jaw clicked horribly in the skull’s head before it fell from where it had been lodged. And then the arm holding her other leg fell apart as well.
Shanna frowned, then glanced over at Quinn, who had been pulled a little ways into the grave of his skeleton before it had begun to dismantle. She met his eyes and smiled, before looking up at Roma.
“No,” the necromancer whispered, staring around at her rapidly vanishing army of skeletons. “No. I control them. I control all the dead.”
Amelia called a short, strong burst of wind over them, and the remaining life in the skeletons seemed to disappear with it as it knocked them apart and swept away, carrying various bones with it. She looked at Roma with cold eyes and shook her head sadly. “Magick must come from somewhere. With no life in you, you only had a short reserve. Residual energy. The dead can not fuel the dead.”
Roma watched her for a moment, as if trying to make sense of what she said. Then her head fell from her shoulders and to the soft earth. Her body followed shortly afterward.
Shanna eyed the body for a minute before getting to her feet.
“That bitch had better be dead this time,” Jade murmured.
“She is,” Amelia assured her, prodding Roma’s head with her boot. “She is.”