by Alexa Dare
The beats of five hearts joined the wind as if in a chorus.
Only five?
The twins held strong patters within their chest. The heart of the new girl banged fast and strong. Darcy Lynn and Hannah’s steady beats raised a lovely duet. Yet the sixth beat failed to drum.
Nora’s knees gave way.
The teen rushed over.
“Don’t. If you touch me, you might be harmed.” Even dead, she undoubtedly could kill skin to skin.
Dead? A thinking, feeling zombie. How?
The cruelty her son dealt her…. She was able to think and speak, while her body rotted away. That was what the Queen of the Dead drawing was all about.
“This has to be Vincent’s doing, or else the other children would have been infected.” Nora reined in her straying thoughts. Not yet. But soon, when she could view her son’s demise first hand. “He may be my son, but I’ll see him dead.”
The girl spread her arms as a shield and stood in front of the boy twins.
“No. I’m sorry. You’ve no need to be afraid.” Nora felt her wrist for what seemed to be a nonexistent pulse. “As you can see, I’m not myself.”
“I see you’ve brought a few more of our clan into the fold.” Roderick stepped from the brush. “I survived a fall part way down the cliff and hit of a bolt from the sky. However, I made it back to you, Nora Belle.” A burn mark gashed down the side of the man’s head. One of his eyes glazed white. The fixed eye aimed up. The normal one gazed at her face.
“You’re still…?” He’s obviously Yates in the guise of Roderick’s body. Nora stroked her hair to calm the ends. She must truly be a sight. A lock of brown clung to her fingers and slipped from her head. In slow flicks, she shook her hand to fling the loose strand of hair away.
The lightning strike or decomp?
Roderick’s heart thrummed steadily under the curve of his ribs, so although injured, the troubled man lived.
While Nora…
“We will find our perfect vessels, my love. I promise you,” so said the man whose heart beat.
“I fear I am…” Zombie Nora shed no tears. Yet saliva traced with an acidic flatness pooled in her mouth and a chilled heaviness spread through her chest.
“The essence of you lives on. We need to find the perfect vessel for you. Sooner than later. You’ll be able to choose who you want to be.” Yates, who somehow inhabited the other man’s physical form, grinned and nodded.
Zombies fed only to feed again. Yet Nora could think, reason, and use her talent. Dead, yet she continued to exist.
She smiled.
“Scary,” said Twin Boy One.
“Hungry.” Twin Boy Two took a step back.
“Young lady, you get the little girl. I’ll take the other one.” Roderick hauled a limp Hannah from under the tree and lifted her. “Are you boys okay to follow on your own?”
“Yep,” Twin One said.
“Best tell your elders yes and call them sir or ma’am.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Sir,” Twin Two said, eying Nora, “can we have a snack?”
Roderick carried Hannah and offered his elbow to Nora.
The warmth of his flesh inside the camo sleeve seeped into her cold dead hand. “Yates or Doc or whoever you are…”
“I am all three.” Yates stared out at her from another man’s ruined face.
Nora shrugged. “I am dead.”
“It is time to shed your current physical shell. In time, we will locate worthy forms. We are immortal; therefore, we shall live on.” Roderick led her and their new family deeper into the trees. His living smile gave her hope. “That’s my, Doctor Halverson’s, and Roderick’s gift to you.”
“Are you going to take care of us?” a twin asked.
The two boys held hands and trailed behind the teenaged girl that carried Darcy Lynn.
“Of course we shall.” Nora’s lips lifted into what must be a grisly grin. “For not only am I mother of all, but as my son willed, I live on as a true Queen of the Dead.”
Epilogue
Raindrops, like tears, slid down Hannah Jenkins’ cheeks. How long has it been since I cried? As best she could recall, she had not shed a single tear since the big storm. Yet, upon awakening, she was part of the rain. Each drop refilled the drained aspect of her thirteen-year-old self.
Droplets caught in her lashes to weight them against her upper cheek.
On her side upon a hard surface, fresh water, as sweet as local honey, seeped between her smiling lips. The rain quenched her thirst and welcomed her home. A surge of belonging wrapped her skin in a moist sheen.
Her ability, once again part of her, rose like an incoming tide.
Power. Strong. Part of. As one.
Water smoothed stone. Water snuffed fire. Water flowed in waves before the wind, to outsmart the gusts once the water reached shore. Water, the greatest element of all.
I am water. Water is me.
Feelings—right now joy—spurred her power over water. She welcomed the wetness on her face. Little patters of rain stroked her skin like feathery tickles. With a flutter of her lashes, she opened her eyes to the rainfall.
The room held a metal shelving unit shoved to one side. The sagging shelves held stacks of colored paper, with jumbles of pencils and magic markers banded in clumps by rubber bands.
Overhead, a haze of clouds hugged the ceiling.
From the opposite end of the warped shelves, a gentle breeze whipped from the left back corner.
Darcy Lynn, dressed in grass- and mud-stained white tennis shoes and clothes, rested on the concrete floor. In her sleep, as if in a wind play dream, her little fingers twitched and wiggled. Like a cocoon, a light draft swirled over the sleeping girl.
From the shadows of the room, a rotten meat reek, more sweet and rank than ground burger gone bad, carried on the wind and hung in the indoor rain shower.
“What’s that nasty smell?” Hannah wrinkled her nose.
“You’re awake,” a guttural voice rasped from the rear right corner, the area responsible for the stench. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Not home at all.
<><><>
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DEDICATION
This series is dedicated to Ben, Breanna, Mattie, and Jada, the closest to Children of the Elements I have ever been honored to know. My gratitude for your inspiration!
About the Author
Multi-genre Author Alexa Dare stepped out of the realm of Top-Secret documents (shh, don’t tell…) to write sci-fi and paranormal fiction.
Alexa survived and escaped both the entertainment field and the government-contracting environment, craves the Walking Dead, and entertains what-if tidbits about “supposed” technological and biological advances.
No stranger to the goings on in the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Alexa Dare blends a down-home flavor with a former in-the-know—hypothetically, of course—technical background to craft the twists and intrigue of Secret City Adventures.
Alexa welcomes contact from readers and invites you to visit her website. You may contact her, read her blog, and sign up to receive notice of new releases at:
www.alexadare.com
Table of Contents
Contents
Raging Inferno
&
nbsp; Copyright
Books by Alexa Dare
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
About the Author