by J. C. Diem
My dad pulled his gun as the undead rose through the ground all around us, but Viktor sprang into action. “To me!” he shouted and more bodies appeared out of the soil. One of the zombies took a bullet to the head that had been intended for its maker. It fell, but there were dozens more to take its place. “Kill him,” the necromancer commanded and pointed at my father.
I called on my own minions, stealing them back from Viktor’s control without him even realizing it. My small group of twenty zombies that I’d left lurking in the shadows in town sank into the ground and rose out of the soil to surround my dad. Zeus barked in warning and I turned to see more of the undead rise. Taking hold of the golem head, they disappeared into the earth.
Intent on murdering the man who had raised me, Viktor directed his army towards my father. Dozens, then hundreds of undead shambled into view. Moaning hungrily, they began to attack my zombies. My dad coolly shot the closest walking corpses through the eye, dropping anything that came into his sights. Each one that fell healed and struggled back to its feet. Kurt had indeed boosted Viktor’s power if he could heal them so quickly.
We had limited ammunition and there were too many for us to fight. I could have used the zombie highway to move us to safety, but I decided on another approach. Calling on my necromancer, she surged to the fore. Death magic swelled inside me, dwarfing D’Ath’s power by far. He blanched when he realized just how powerful I was.
Sweat popped out on my brow as I concentrated on his minions. It wasn’t easy to wrest control of them without feeding them my blood first. One by one, they stopped attacking and turned to me. Just like he’d done to his own father, I’d stolen them from their master and had made them mine.
The few zombies that still remained beneath Viktor’s control gathered around him protectively. “That’s impossible,” he breathed. “No other necromancer should be able to take over my servants. Jorgen promised me that I’d be the most powerful necromancer alive!”
“That’s the thing with faeries,” I said. “They twist their promises to suit themselves. You are the most powerful necromancer who is fully alive, but I’m part-vampire, which means I’m technically partially undead.”
His lips pressed into a thin line when he realized that he’d been duped. “This isn’t over,” he said with dark promise then one of his lackeys took hold of him and disappeared beneath the ground. He’d finally figured out that his zombies could transport him elsewhere. It was a trick that had come in handy for me a few times. I wished he hadn’t discovered it.
My undead army watched me, waiting for further instructions. Feeling Viktor’s power dissipating, I knew he wouldn’t be back tonight. He’d need to find new servants to turn if he wanted to use them against us. Having his minions stolen had been demoralizing and he would be lurking somewhere, licking his wounds. “Return to your resting places,” I instructed them. Turning, they shambled back to the places where they’d fallen and became inert again.
Ava watched me with an intent stare that I couldn’t interpret. “I don’t believe I have ever met a more powerful being in all of my thousands of years of existence.”
“I guess you haven’t met Natalie Pierce then,” I said dryly. Her expression was puzzled. “She’s Fate’s champion from another world,” I explained. “Apparently, she has more abilities than she can poke a stick at.”
“And she looks really hot in leather, too,” Kala said with a snigger. Mark sent her a withering look that didn’t faze her in the slightest.
Reece crossed to me when he felt my onset of guilt and misery. “What’s wrong?” he asked and put his arm around my waist.
Everyone gathered around as I struggled to articulate my feelings. “I don’t think Fate picked the right person when she chose me. Thirty thousand people are dead and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
What Sabine said next chilled me because it was the plain truth. “There are always casualties in war. Death is inevitable. Minimizing the fatalities is your purpose. You must find and destroy your enemy before he grows too powerful.”
Zombies, golems and the minions that they could command apparently wasn’t enough for Jorgen. He’d warned us that he would soon have the power to eradicate everyone on the planet. He apparently now had the ability to delve into hell itself. God only knew how many unholy soldiers he would be adding to his army.
Zeus had proven that he could destroy individual demons, but I had a feeling they were small and weak compared to what was coming. Our main goal now was to find the half-faery before he raised something that couldn’t be stopped.
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Chapter Eight
With the chimera’s head now gone and our trap sprung, there was no point staying in Wardel. There was no need for Kurt to send his army of golems and their minions here again now that everyone in the city was dead. Their mission had been accomplished and they would move on to a new target.
“What is the plan now?” my father asked, bowing to Mark’s far greater experience at dealing with monsters.
Mark shrugged wearily. “Unfortunately, using the chimera for bait was my only plan. I guess we’ll now have to wait for the golems to attack another town or city. My hope is that Jorgen will be with them and that we can arrive in time to catch him.” He was dispirited as he turned to me. “Can you take us back to our base in Colorado?”
I nodded and everyone gathered in close. Concentrating on our compound near Denver, we sank into the ground. A moment later, we popped up right outside the door to our base.
Kala shook her head in amazement. “That’s just as fast as teleporting, but somehow so much cooler.”
“I’m just glad it doesn’t leave me feeling disoriented,” Mark said. Laurylayne had teleported him a short distance once and he’d been rattled by the sensation.
He opened the door that led to the kitchen and we trooped inside. I headed straight upstairs to take a shower. Zeus didn’t bother to take the stairs and materialized inside my room. He flopped down on the floor, unofficially standing guard until I emerged from the bathroom. He didn’t bother to follow me into the hallway. He instead turned insubstantial and sank into the floor like a ghost. He’d only been undead for a short time and he already couldn’t be bothered to walk.
Shaking my head at his laziness, I entered the coms room to see Mark and Ava sitting at the computer table. Both of the wall monitors were on. They each showed four different news channels. Mark would no doubt keep watch night and day for the next attack. He also had contacts that were stationed in police offices all over the country. One way or another, we’d hear about the next raid soon after it happened.
Ava stared at Mark longingly from the corner of her eye. She wanted to talk to him, but she wasn’t quite brave enough to say whatever was on her mind. He was staunchly trying to ignore her existence, but his stiff body language told me that he was very much aware of her. I almost wished she was just a normal human and hadn’t lost his trust. Lying was one sure way to annoy him.
I was pretty sure she was on our side and that she wasn’t just another spy that had been planted in our midst by the half-faery. Her feelings for Mark seemed to be real. She’d stepped up and had helped us to subdue the chimera despite her vow not to interfere. Maybe a naga hadn’t been born to become her mate because Fate had intended someone else to fill that role. It boggled my mind that her machinations could go back for five millennia.
I headed downstairs to find my father in the boxing ring with Flynn. Reece was acting as their referee and Sabine watched the match from the sidelines. Her gaze was riveted on Flynn and a tiny smile curved her mouth upwards. She clearly liked seeing him in action.
Kala sat on one of the black leather couches in the living room. She was angled so she could watch them spar. Her expression was bordering on hungry as she watched my father. He was shirtless and even I had to admit he was in good shape. He was no match for a shifter, but Flynn was doing his best not to use his superior speed and strength as they threw kick
s and punches at each other.
A mug of coffee was waiting for me on the coffee table. I sat down then took a tissue out of my pocket and tossed it to Kala. She looked down at it when it landed on her lap. “What’s that for?”
“To wipe away the drool from staring at the eye candy,” I said dryly.
Her cheeks reddened slightly. Balling it up, she threw the tissue back at me then resolutely turned to the TV. “I know what you’re all thinking,” she said softly. I lifted an eyebrow in enquiry. “You think I’m acting like a giggly little schoolgirl.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I replied as I put the ruined tissue on the table. “You’re not really a giggler, but you do bat your eyelashes a lot.”
“I can’t help being attracted to him,” she said defensively. “He’s exactly the type I prefer above all others; tall, fit, handsome, blond, blue eyed and he has an alpha personality.”
“If he was anyone other than my father, I’d tell you to go for it.”
She sent me a hurt look and I sensed a vulnerability that she’d been hiding. “You don’t think I’m good enough for him?”
“Of course you’re good enough, but that isn’t the problem,” I replied with a grimace. “You’re way too young to become my stepmother.”
That prospect horrified her. “I don’t want to marry him! I just want to jump his bones.”
“Eww,” I complained and wrinkled my nose at the image that conjured up. Reece looked over at us with a small grin. Flynn shook his head and received a punch to the ribs for allowing himself to be distracted by our conversation.
Kala picked up her half-finished coffee and drained it. Plonking the empty mug back down on the coffee table, her expression turned sly. “I’ll make you a deal,” she said too quietly for the others to overhear us.
Remembering the last bargain that I’d made, I wasn’t keen to make another one. Kurt Jorgen had bamboozled me into agreeing to help him. He’d ordered me to raise a corpse that had been dead for four hundred years. I still had no idea what he’d wanted from her, but I doubted it would be anything good. “What deal?” I asked suspiciously.
“I’ll try to stop flirting with your Dad for now, but after we’ve saved the world, he’s fair game.”
There was no guarantee that we’d be able to stop the faery apocalypse, but I was still reluctant to give her my blessing. “I can’t speak for my father,” I hedged. “I’m pretty sure you’re way too young for him.”
Her smile was supremely confident. “I’m pretty sure our age gap won’t be a problem.”
I held my hand up before she could give me any details on how she was going to seduce him. No doubt, it would involve her being naked again. “Fine. Once we’ve saved the world, you can try to get him into the sack if you really have to. Just promise me I’ll never have to hear the details.”
She put a hand on her heart. “I promise,” she said solemnly.
Reece had listened to our conversation and was trying to control his amusement. When we win this war, I’ll have to warn your father to go into hiding.
I doubt it would do any good, I thought back at him dourly. She’ll hunt him down one way or another. My father was strong both mentally and physically, but even he wouldn’t be able to resist a determined werecougar when she was on the prowl. Now that he’d seen her in the buff and knew exactly how gorgeous she was, I wasn’t sure he’d even put up much of a fight.
By the time they finished their training session and headed upstairs to shower, I was hungry. We’d only eaten snacks while we’d waited in vain for Jorgen to take the bait. I decided to cook a late dinner. I’d never cooked for so many people before, but you couldn’t make too much food when shifters were involved. I made spaghetti bolognaise because it was my favorite dish and it was easy to prepare.
We all sat down at the dining table when the meal was ready. Mark sat at the head with Flynn to his left and Kala to his right. I sat next to Kala with Reece beside me instead of across from me. Sabine sat next to Flynn, in Reece’s usual seat. Ava sat next to her and my father sat next to Reece. Zeus was lying at my feet beneath the table.
After we finished eating, Mark addressed us. His usually mild grey eyes were intense. “It’s no accident that we’ve been brought together. We have one task; to support Lexi in her goal to save mankind from extinction.” He raised his glass and proposed a toast. “If we continue to work together, I believe that we can save humanity.”
Blinking back sudden tears, I raised my mug of coffee and the others did the same. Mark had complete faith in me and in my abilities. I only wished I shared his confidence. We didn’t have much of a plan so far. Sitting around waiting for our enemy to strike was far from ideal, but we didn’t have much of a choice. With all of the gadgets at our disposal, we didn’t have a magical faery tracking device.
After dinner, I settled on the couch with Reece to watch a movie. Kala, Flynn and Sabine joined us. Worry kept me from being able to follow the plot. Mark, my father and Ava were in the coms room, monitoring the news channels. The movie was nearly over when Ava made a soft sound of distress. We looked up through the glass wall as Mark switched the monitors from eight different channels to just one. It depicted a scene from a horror movie.
Reece picked up the remote control and switched the TV to the same channel. This time, it wasn’t golems and their minions attacking a town. Viktor D’Ath had unleashed his zombies. Hundreds of walking corpses shambled towards a town. The person filming the scene on their cell phone was trembling so badly that the picture shook wildly.
“As you can see,” the news anchor said in a frightened tone, “these creatures were once human.” A zombie lurched into view and the picture froze on her milky eyes and blackened teeth. Her hair hung in stringy clumps and her flesh held a green tinge. Viktor hadn’t expended any effort to make his minions look like living people.
“Just hours ago, a city by the name of Wardel was attacked by three gigantic monsters that appeared to be made of stone. The creatures could apparently control animals and spiders and directed them to attack the townsfolk. Now it seems that the dead have risen from their graves.” Her eyes were wide with terror and she had to swallow before resuming. “There is speculation by many that we may be experiencing an apocalyptic event.”
“Yeah, we kind of figured that,” Kala said as Reece muted the TV. As we’d suspected, Kurt was no longer trying to hide his intentions. The humans knew they were being targeted and they were already beginning to panic.
Giving up on the movie, we trooped up the stairs and crowded around the computer table. “Which town was just eaten by zombies?” I asked.
Mark brought up a map on one of the monitors. He zoomed in to show a town near Wardel. “I suspect that Viktor used the corpses from Wardel to invade the next town,” he said. He hacked into the CCTV cameras around the city that had been decimated earlier today. Just as he’d predicted, the streets were now empty of bodies. I thought Viktor would have searched for new corpses to use as his minions. Instead, he’d merely waited for us to leave before doubling back to snatch them up again. Since he’d originally raised them, it seemed that he could take control of them again if I wasn’t there to stop him.
“With each new town or city that is attacked, he’ll gain more zombies for his army,” my father said grimly.
Mark directed a question at me. “How many undead do you think Viktor can control at once?”
If he’d been an ordinary necromancer, he would have only been able to control several hundred. With the half-faery’s boost of power, he was far stronger than that. “I’m pretty sure he’ll be able to control tens of thousands of zombies,” I said grimly. “Maybe more.”
“How many could you control?” Flynn asked me curiously.
“We think Lexi has the potential to control a lot more than that,” Reece said for me. I didn’t want to admit that I could potentially raise hundreds of thousands of corpses. Doing so would require vast quantities of supercharged blood to pu
ll it off. I was sure my friends would volunteer theirs, but it could leave us drained of energy. I’d only resort to using them if all else failed.
₪₪₪
Chapter Nine
Lying beside Reece later that night, my mind was racing too much to allow me to fall asleep. The attacks would continue night and day until Kurt had wiped out every living being in the United States. With the new additions of my father, Ava and Sabine to our team, we were only nine in number. The PIA had been formed to deal with threats to humanity, but they weren’t going to be able to fight this war. We needed to find Jorgen and end him before his army became unstoppable.
I eventually slept and was drawn into a strange dream. I stood on a stage with a backdrop of a town behind me. Looking up, I saw Kurt Jorgen staring down at me with a nasty smirk on his pale, pinched face. Fate stood beside him. She was a shadowy figure dressed in a black cloak that hid her face. Tendrils of black hair floated around her, almost appearing to reach for me. At first, I thought the pair were giant sized, then I realized I was much smaller than usual. They each held a number of strings that were attached to my arms and legs.
Ominous music swelled, coming from an invisible orchestra. The four stone golems appeared on the sidelines and began to advance on me from both sides. The hydra, Cerberus, spider and chimera were miniature versions of the real thing, but they still towered over me.
This was a recreation of the puppet show that I’d read about in Thomas’ journal, but with me as the star. Glancing behind me, I searched for an escape route, but the stage was surrounded by darkness. When I looked back, the backdrop had changed. It now depicted dozens of towns and cities that had been decimated by the zombies, golems and their minions.
Fate held the strings on my right and Jorgen held the strings on my left. They were pulling me in two different directions, both trying to force me to follow their lead. My feet tangled and I fell as the golems surged forward and formed an arc around me.