by Zoe Forward
“Always am.” Tempted beyond endurance, he captured the back of her head and put his lips to hers. He coaxed her mouth open with his tongue. She deepened the kiss with a groan of surrender and gripped his arms.
She wanted him. The knowledge was more intoxicating than any high-inducing drug or enticement spell. This was what he’d remembered about her, but had convinced himself was no more than the product of fantasy. Kissing her wasn’t just a kiss. It was a full-body, mind-altering experience. It blocked out the rest of the world and all of reality.
His brain nudged him about the warlock. Yet, this…this was so much better than whatever sickfest he’d find inside the house. He wanted her, this, and everything that came next. Hell, he’d wanted it, dreamed of it, and run away from it for over a decade.
He pulled away and forced his brain back on the job at hand. The drive to finish what he’d started with Shannon warred with responsibility.
This was about a little girl. She wasn’t just any little girl, but Chad’s princess. He had to hurry.
Hoarsely, he rasped out, “I gotta go.”
Her already flushed face turned a deeper shade of pink. “I didn’t mean to distract you. I’m so sorry. You need to get to Chad’s daughter. Go.”
His smile was hard to smother, but she’d probably slap him if he showed an ounce of humor. “I don’t think you’re entirely to blame.”
He grabbed his tactical vest out of the backseat and zipped it into place, removing an amulet from the front pocket. “Take this. It’s a crystal talisman from Colombia that’s enchanted to provide protection. Wear it around your neck. There’s foul magic at work up the road. If for any reason it strays here before your ride arrives, this should help.”
She accepted the talisman and followed him to the driver’s side. “If you’re in trouble, call me. I can help.”
He wanted to say okay, but he wouldn’t allow her anywhere near the vile creature he expected to face. If he didn’t agree to her, though, he had a bad feeling she’d follow him. “Give me your cell phone number.”
She rattled it off while he plugged it into his phone.
The air temperature dropped a few degrees. He hoped he wasn’t too late. Temperature drops happened when a death ritual was close to completion.
No time for more delay. “Put it around your neck. Stay put or get a ride home.”
He hopped in and left. Her reflection in the rearview mirror watched him as he drove away.
He shouldn’t have left her alone with a measly talisman as her only protection.
***
The SUV disappeared down a dirt road less than a quarter mile away. Him alone bothered her. No one should go up against evil by himself.
Shannon’s gut urged her to follow Merck. Everyone could use backup, but the evil emanating from up the road scared her. She didn’t have the skills to face off with a warlock. She didn’t even know the capabilities of a warlock who used black magic.
The warlock was probably here for the Trident. If Merck failed or got himself killed and she followed without her bodyguard, then she’d be in the same situation she’d almost been in last night. Dead.
Her safest bet was to call for a ride. She pulled out her cell. No signal. Crap. How was Merck supposed to call if she had no signal? Maybe there was a payphone inside and she could call for a ride.
A blue sedan circa 1980-something roared down the road. It screeched to a halt just as it passed her, backed up, and pulled into the old gas station. The car was as large as a mid-size boat. It could probably run over a high curb with the driver feeling little more than a slight rocking motion. A Smart car would fit on the hood of the giant vehicle.
The driver hand-cranked to roll down his window. He said something, but she couldn’t hear over the roar of the car’s screechy motor belt.
She shook her head and pointed at her ears. She walked closer. “Can’t hear you.”
He cut off the car. “Where the hell’s Merck? I know he didn’t take you home last night after we were at the bar. So he must’ve dumped you here to wait while he...” He stopped as if realizing she might not know what Merck did.
This had to be the grownup version of the lovable-but-obnoxious, rotund blond who as a kid she used to trade homemade pie for his Little Debbie cakes in elementary school. “Heavens to Betsy. Chad, is that you?”
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“It’s been ages since I’ve seen you. High school. God, you look just like I remember. I heard the guy Merck went after might have your daughter. I’m so sorry. I mean, Merck will get her out. He has to.” She rubbed her arms against an unseasonably cold breeze. It felt like fifty-something out here when a typical July midafternoon should be uncomfortably hot and humid.
“Where’d Merck go?”
“I think you should let him do his thing. Sounds like whatever he’s going up against isn’t something we can help him fight.”
“Not when they’ve got my daughter. Now which road did he take?” He scowled. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll drive down every road until I find him. He can’t be far. This was the general location I saw on Danny’s map before he shut down his computer.”
“Let me hop in, and we’ll go together.” Distract him. Give Merck time to rescue his daughter.
“He wouldn’t want you there.”
Or you. The passenger side door creaked as she opened it and slid into the vinyl bucket seat. “This door weighs a ton. Why does it smell like fish in here?”
Chad pulled the car back on the road. “My brother sells shrimp out of here on weekends. He spilled one of the coolers in the backseat on Saturday. His idea of cleaning is to get all the shrimp off the floor.”
“I think Merck turned here.” She waved at the dirt road on the left, even though it wasn’t the road he’d taken.
Chad gunned the car down the pothole-rich road. It rocked through the small holes but caught a large hole and sailed upward for a few seconds before its front fender landed on the road in a metal-crunching crash. She whiplashed forward and gripped the oh-shit handle as he sailed through another large hole, throwing her back in the seat. He ground to a stop at the end of the drive, which dead ended at a mobile home.
“He’s not here,” Chad announced.
“Maybe I was wrong.”
He glared as he hit Reverse and subjected her to the return journey through pothole hell. Another ten minutes and three dirt roads later, Chad released a litany of curses.
He turned onto the right road, not that she confirmed. Coldness seeped into her body as if in warning to turn around. Adjusting the air conditioning vents to point away from her didn’t help.
The road ended at a dilapidated house. An unnatural fog obscured the edges of the house and treed areas surrounding.
The car stalled out not far from Merck’s SUV. Chad turned the engine over and over, but it wouldn’t catch. He hit the steering wheel. “Damn it. I just had the battery replaced.”
Evil energy, which reminded her of the one who gave her the non-healing wound on her stomach, shrouded the area. Chills slithered across her shoulders. Perhaps they’d driven into a death trap. The car dying might not be a simple mechanical problem.
She whispered, “We shouldn’t be here.”
“I’m getting my daughter.” Chad jumped out of the car, brandishing a gun like he was James Bond on meth. She pushed open the bulky door with two hands, ran forward, and caught his arm when he took a few steps in the direction of the house.
“We don’t know for sure whatever’s in there has her. What’s that?” She pointed to a shadow in the mist. Her heart jumped into her throat. A human shape stumbled. Its gait was stilted and unsteady. It didn’t have an aura. Not living. “Shoot it.”
“What? You sure?”
“Yes. Shoot it.”
Chad targeted the staggering form. He pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. “What the hell?”
“Safety’s on,” Shannon said.
He rolled his eyes, clicked
it off, and fired two rounds, not hitting anywhere close. “Damn it.”
The staggering human-like creature wasn’t deterred.
“Give it to me.” She wrenched the gun out of his fist instead of waiting for him to hand it over. Deftly, she shot two rounds, hitting it center chest. Yeah. Weekend target practice, a mandatory activity in the Randolph household throughout her younger years, had paid off. The creature shuddered but kept moving. Grabbing Chad’s arm, she pulled him around to the back of his car and to a kneel, not that the car provided much cover.
“What is that thing?” Chad peered around the car at it.
“I don’t know. A ghoul or zombie? I’m pretty sure it’s not alive. There’re more coming from around the house.” Her legs felt weak, her body shook. She grabbed the bumper to steady herself.
Run! Her instinct was to bolt. She couldn’t die right now, not from a zombie attack.
“We gotta get out of here.” Chad peeked around the car again. “Oh shit, the one you shot is closing in. Get in the car. I’ll get it started somehow and get us out of here.”
“They’re coming from behind us too. They’ll trap us inside there.”
She fished her cell phone out of her jeans, praying for signal. It had one bar. Great. She dialed Jen.
“Jen, I need a protection spell.”
“Oh, thank God, it’s you. Where have you been? Everyone’s freaking out.”
Shannon tried to interrupt, but Jen continued, “I’ve been a mess. If you’re in trouble, I’ll be there. Well, I’ll try to be there. I’m the worst at the dimension-hopping business. I can’t promise I’d be there fast, but I’d be on my way. Eli…I can send him. He’s at your house.”
“Calm down. I was out last night and slept at a friend’s place. I’m fine. I’m calling because I need a protective spell to ward off zombies. I’m needing it pretty fast.”
“Zombies? That doesn’t sound like you’re doing fine. I’m on my way.”
“No, please don’t. It’s not safe. Maybe I’m not exactly fine right now, but I’m fine from last night. You’re the spells guru. I need your best protective spell. I’ll tell you more in a few minutes once there aren’t zombies.”
“Can’t you use your other powers, like wind to blow them away? I’m worried about you trying a spell. You’re not good at them.”
“I need to try. I don’t trust my abilities. These undead things are the product of black magic or voodoo or something like that.” She shot one of the zombie-type creatures that got too close. It fell backward and didn’t move. Maybe they could be stopped if she aimed for the head. The zombie she’d just shot twitched. Oh, no. It was getting back up.
She put her hand over the phone and asked Chad, “Got more ammo?”
He shook his head.
“None?”
“Didn’t think I’d actually need to shoot anyone. The threat of shooting someone is usually enough to stop them. Merck might have more in his car.” His terrified gaze never left the corpse on the ground whose fingers were still moving.
“What caliber is this gun?”
“8mm.”
“Merck had an ammo container in the backseat. Let’s go. Here, you take the gun and hold them off with the few rounds that’re left.” As she jogged for Merck’s SUV, she asked, “You still there, Jen?”
Shannon balanced the phone between her shoulder and ear while yanking open the back door of the SUV. Score! Ammo can...but no ammo inside. There was a gun, though. She checked and it was loaded.
“Anything?” Chad asked.
She flinched, not realizing he’d moved directly behind her. “Just a gun.”
Chad pushed her aside to grab a discarded tactical vest. He patted pockets and took out a second gun.
Jen yelled in her ear, “Pop away from there. Go to another dimension. Gunfire, zombies…this is not you being fine. Get out of there.”
“I can’t leave right now. Will the spell work for two? There’s a guy here with me.”
“It should. Do you have some salt?”
“No. I’m outside a car with a gun and a cell phone. That’s why I’m calling you.”
Chad fired five rounds into a new approaching undead thing. Good for him, hitting the thing this time. Her ears echoed as if everything was now down a long hallway.
“Did you say something? I couldn’t hear you,” Shannon said into the phone. She turned up the phone’s volume.
“I said draw a circle around yourself.”
“Hold on.” She pulled Chad a few feet away from the SUV’s bumper. “Don’t move.” She grabbed a rock and etched a rough circle around her and Chad in the sandy soil. “Okay. Circle drawn.”
“I’ll give you a spell, but when you say it, you have to believe it’ll work. You have to feel it deep in your soul. Say this three times:
Great goddesses of day and night.
Protect us with all your might.
Let all who venture near feel your might’s burn
Until none are left to make us squirm.”
“Squirm? Did I hear you right?” Shannon asked. “Is this a real spell?”
“I’m not good at creative spells under pressure. You can do this. You have to do this.”
“Give me clear direction to make it work, please.”
“When you cast it, you must find something to focus on which you believe in with all your soul. Something powerful. Think about it while you say the words. I can say it with you, if you want. On the count of three.”
“Yeah, that’d help.” She didn’t hear Jen counting from the other end. “Jen? You there?”
Nothing.
Then the phone flashed: Call lost.
Crap.
She shoved the phone into her pocket. Something she believed in? The Greek Gods, perhaps, but she didn’t like any of them since they seemed to like mucking around in the lives of their descendants. Her mind skirted through images. Her mother. Jen and the other Pleiades witch ladies. The image that popped into her brain and stuck was him. Merck. Inexplicably, she believed in him. He’d do what needed to be done inside the house to win. Focusing on him, she intoned the spell three times.
A walking corpse closed in. Chad emptied what was left in the gun into it, knocking it down with a head shot. A second corpse reached for them. Chad released an earsplitting scream. He tensed as if to move.
Shannon grabbed his arms. “Stay still. Don’t step outside the circle.”
“It’s going to touch me.” His body bowed away from the dead hand reaching toward them.
“Stay. Still.” She wrapped her arms around him to keep him in place.
He grabbed her tight and screamed again, causing her ears to ring.
The necrotic hand hit the circle boundary and ignited into flames that consumed its entire body.
Holy cow, the spell worked.
“So long as we stay inside the circle we should be okay.” She wasn’t sure he heard her through his terror.
Fifteen burnt corpses later, the remaining zombie-esque creatures fell to the ground like someone had unplugged them from their energy source. None moved. That could be good or it might mean something worse would come next.
“I think you can let go of me now. It looks like the zombie-things stopped.” She shook Chad, who’d gone from screaming to frozen.
Chad blinked rapidly a few times. “It was like The Walking Dead, only we were in it. What were those things?”
“I’m not sure, but there don’t look to be any more coming at us. We should leave. Perhaps, we go back to the gas station and wait for Merck there.” She wanted to get as far away as possible from a being that could conjure zombies.
Her phone buzzed against her hip. She wiggled to dig it out. “Hello?”
“Oh, God. I was so scared. I lost you and I thought the worst. Thank goodness. You’re okay?”
Shannon tried to cut in, but Jen’s babbling didn’t stop. “I didn’t know what to do. I can’t dimension hop well and—”
“The
call got dropped. Sorry. I’m fine. Your spell worked. So, thanks.”
“Why are zombies trying to get you?”
“Long story…” She stopped talking when Merck emerged from the house carrying a small girl who couldn’t be older than five or six. An almost painful relief seized her insides.
“Merck’s coming.” Crap, she hadn’t meant to reveal his name to Jen.
“Who’s Merck?” There was a pause.
“I think he might’ve eliminated whatever controlled the zombies, at least I hope he did. I gotta go. We’ll talk later.” She shoved her phone back in her jeans.
Chad ran to Merck and grabbed the little girl out of her arms. “Is she...?”
“She’s sleeping.”
“Time to wake up.” Chad jostled her.
The girl’s eyes popped open. “Daddy? Uncle Merck?”
“How’re you doing?” Merck asked.
“I had a weird dream. There was this bad sorcerer who took me…”
Merck touched her cheek. “You know I’d never let a bad sorcerer take you or hurt you, Princess.”
“I knew you’d rescue me. You’re my knight.” She smiled a toothy grin.
“In a previous lifetime I might’ve been a knight. Not now.”
The girl put her hand on Merck’s cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Princess.” A gentle smile transformed Merck’s face, one that hit Shannon mid-gut with a serious case of the awws.
Over the top of her head, Chad said, “Thanks, man. I owe you one.”
“Couldn’t let the warlock…er, sorcerer get our princess.”
Chad smiled in gratitude, but his grin fell as he glanced around at the dead bodies. He pulled his daughter against him to keep her from seeing.
“What are you two doing here?” Merck’s expression shifted to fury and targeted her. “I told you to stay put.”
“No, you said to get a ride home from someone else after dumping me. Guess what? There wasn’t any cell phone reception at the gas station. Then Chad showed up with a firecracker up his ass to find you. I delayed him as long as I could.”
Chad scowled at her.
“Sorry, Chad,” she said. “Then we had to deal with zombies.”
“Zombies, huh?” Merck met her gaze.