“Zeke, Zeke, Zeke, Zeke, Zeke!” Scotlyn shrieked his name, not caring if everyone else in Vegas heard her.
“Oh Christ yes.” Zeke erupted inside of her, his palm still clutching hers. “Scotlyn.” His huge body went taunt and then collapsed against her, his face buried in her hair. “Finally.” The word was a sigh of completion, as he held her close. “Finally.”
Scotlyn cuddled against his chest. “Wow.”
“I love it when you say that.”
“Seriously, this is what you deserve a doctorate in.”
“It would’ve made for an interesting thesis, that’s for sure.”
Scotlyn let out a long breath and waited for the world to stop spinning. Eventually, she raised her head to look at him. “Don’t laugh, but did I do everything right?”
Zeke burst out laughing.
“I’m serious, you ass.” She batted his shoulder. “You’re super good at it and I’m…”
“We’re super good at it.” Zeke corrected, cutting off her words. “You and I together make it good.” He brushed back her hair and gave a tender smile. “Believe me, I’ve been with a lot of women…”
“Wonderful. Just what I longed to hear.”
“…But, it’s not the same.” He continued like she hadn’t spoken. “You were right. Sex doesn’t mean a damn thing unless it’s with someone special.” He gave her a kiss. “I should’ve waited for you, Scottie.”
“Yes, you should have.” Scotlyn agreed staunchly. She didn’t like the idea of him being with another woman. Zeke was hers.
His hand went back to exploring her body. “Forgive me?”
Scotlyn tried to look stern and failed. “No.” She decided. “You’re going to have to make it up to me.”
“That sounds promising. How do you want me to apologize?” Black eyebrows waggled. “Feel free to use your imagination.”
“Oh, I will.” She assured him, sweetly. “I know! You can begin by helping me plan our wedding.”
His face fell. “Right now? Really?”
“Really.” Scotlyn grinned, delighted in his pouting. Unable to keep up the game when she felt so good, she gave him a smacking kiss. “After you teach me some more.”
His eyes traced over her, bright with emotion. “Jesus, Trix. Comparing you with anyone else is like comparing a tsunami to a ripple in a pond. You are my entire life.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and his lips finding her palm. His thumb brushed over her engagement ring, like he enjoyed seeing it. “About the wedding… You get it’s probably going to be hard to find a caterer and a white dress and all, right? It’s not going to as perfect as you deserve.”
“Sure it will. Don’t worry. I’ll figure something out. I have it all pictured in my head.”
“I don’t doubt that.” His teeth tugged on her earlobe. “Tell you what… why you concentrate on organizing the ceremony and I’ll be charge of the honeymoon plans?”
Scotlyn sighed in delight as his new seduction techniques got increasingly interesting. How in the world had she resisted the man for so long? “I could probably be persuaded to…”
Someone pounded on the door, interrupting the fun. “Ya better come take a look at this.” Brewer called in a nonchalant tone. “City’s burning down.”
Chapter Sixteen
Bright side to the zombie apocalypse:
No clocks mean it’s always happy hour.
Zeke stared at the skyline. In the distance, smoke rose from the buildings, turning the sunset into a diffused rainbow of eerie yellows and smoggy reds. “Yeah… that can’t be good.”
The Strip was burning to cinders and nothing was going to stop it.
“It’s those fucking humans.” Brewer surmised. “They lit up Fremont and now the fire’s spreading through souvenir shops, strip joints, and McMansions all over town. Ain’t like any firefighters are gonna show up.” He arched a brow. “Vegas is toast, kid. Trust me, I was there went Chicago got incinerated back in ‘71. I know what it looks like.”
Scotlyn’s eyebrows climbed. “The Chicago Fire of 1871? You were alive in 1871?!”
“Sure.”
She looked over at Zeke, like she still didn’t believe it.
“I told ya shifters live for a long time.” He shrugged. “Brew was on the Mayflower.”
“Praying and rats.” Brewer summed up with a shudder.
Scotlyn blinked and turned back at Zeke. “Hang on, how old are you?”
“Thirty-four.”
“Brewer’s at least three hundred and ninety and you’re thirty-four?”
“Everybody who gets to be three hundred and ninety was thirty-four at some point.” He pointed out. “Cale, Darcy, and I are the babies of the pack.”
Caleb nodded. “And Brewer never lets us forget it.” He sat on the edge of the pawnshop roof, watching the city burn. “How long do we have before the whole place is ash?”
“Don’t know.” Brewer took a bite from a Snickers bar. “We’d better figure it out, though, if we’re going to get to the airport before the flames do.”
“Son-of-a-bitch.” Zeke pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’re approaching full on Aliens here.”
“I know.” Brewer agreed. “I told Joseff that pink shit came from outer space, but then those human dicks started taking credit…”
Scotlyn cut him off. “He means that movie he made me watch fifty-seven times. Right now, we’re as screwed as the characters in Aliens were when they were watching the nuclear reactor core meltdown, while monsters hunted them, and they had to find that stupid kid.”
Zeke nodded. “The kid got lost later on in the film, but yeah pretty much.”
“Nerd.” Caleb intoned. He casually lit a cigarette, his feet hanging over the edge of the building.
Scotlyn leaned over to grab it from him. “No smoking, Cale. It’s bad for you.”
Zeke smirked at his brother’s mystified expression. When Scotlyn cared about you, she took it upon herself to control your life. Zeke had always relished her bossy displays of affection, because they showed he mattered to her. He found her micromanagement adorable.
Caleb must have felt the same way, because he surrendered the cigarette with nothing more than a blink. “You want me to quit smoking?” He seemed confused by the idea. Shifters weren’t used to other people being concerned about their wellbeing.
“You just did quit smoking.” She informed him. “I don’t care how long your kind lives, there’s no reason to risk lung cancer.” She held out her palm for the rest of the pack. “Hand them over.” She snapped her fingers to hurry him along.
Cale handed them over.
“Good job.” Scotlyn gave him ‘atta boy’ smile.
Caleb’s mouth curved at her praise. “Say, I’ve been meaning to ask you… is that dress a Valentino?”
Scotlyn beamed at him. “Yes, it is.”
“I thought so. Thank God there’s someone else here with some style. Do me a favor and teach my brother how to dress, will you? I get sick of looking at hula shirts and superhero logos.”
Zeke flipped him off.
Brewer finished his sixth candy bar and opened another. “Point is, we gotta find us a plane pretty soon and beat the rush outta town.” He continued like the others hadn’t spoken. Odds were good that he’d just ignored them. He only paid attention when he was talking.
“We can’t leave until we find that map.” Zeke insisted. Without it, they would literally be flying blind.
“Topless Golf is surrounded by zombies, remember?” Caleb scoffed, refocusing on the problem at hand. “It’s still impossible. Only now it’s more impossible, because there’s a big ass fire.”
“I know.” Zeke ran a hand through his hair. “We still have to get there, though.” He wrapped his arms around Scotlyn, his chin resting on the top of her head. Impossible or not, Zeke wasn’t giving up. So long as he could hold his mate, he had absolutely everything to live for. “Gimme a minute to figure this out.”
Scotlyn turned her
face to look up at him. “Are you sure this map is legitimate? Where did you even get it?”
“Poker game.” He kissed her temple. “I win all my best stuff in poker games.”
Caleb snorted. “It’s probably going to lead us to a shoe outlet in Akron.”
“You have no sense of adventure.”
“You have no sense, at all. It’s a full moon tonight, Z.”
Scotlyn frowned. “What?” She looked up at the sky. “Jesus, we’re not all going to turn into werewolves, are we?”
Brewer choked on his candy.
“No, we’re not going to Change into werewolves.” Zeke assured her. “First of all, we aren’t werewolves. We’re shape shifters. And secondly, shifters always have a choice when they Change. A full moon just means we can Change without passing out.”
“We’re also stronger today.” Caleb told her. “It’s much easier to Change, because all our instincts are sharper. It actually might help us, Z. If we can get close enough…”
“Hey, morons, the city’s on fire!” Darcy called from down below, cutting him off.
“No shit.” Brewer shouted back. “Snag me a beer, will ya?”
Scotlyn shook her head, clearly not wanting to dwell on her non-humanness. She watched the casinos burning in the distance. The Luxor was engulfed in flames and the Eiffel Tower in front of Paris Las Vegas had disappeared completely. “It’s spreading fast.” She whispered. “I think my apartment is probably gone already.”
“We should have a moment of silence for all your underwear.” Zeke said gravely, wanting to cheer her up.
She flashed him a smile and his heart flipped over with love.
“Don’t worry.” He dipped his head to nuzzle her hair. “I will help you adjust to being a shifter. It’s not so different than being a human… It’s just more. Your senses are heightened and you can heal faster. You can do more. And you live longer, so you’ll have a lot of time to figure it all out.” He gave her a squeeze. “Don’t try to process it all today. We’ll take our time and we’ll do this together, okay?”
She gave a jerky nod.
“So, the plan is to sit here and roast like marshmallows, then?” Darcy demanded, climbing up the ladder to join them. She tossed Brewer a warm beer from the mini-fridge. “Christ, I leave you guys alone for a little bit and you just freeze like deer in traffic.”
“Zombies to the left of us. Fires to the right.” Brewer sing-songed, lifting his bottle in a toast. “Stuck in the middle with you, Darce.
Darcy rolled her eyes. “Seriously, people, we have to get out Vegas. Now.”
Joseff came up behind her, his black gaze sweeping around the horizon. The vampire was always good at sizing up the odds. It was all part of being unconquered. “We need a tank.” He decided.
Zeke grunted. Finally, someone was talking his language. “That’s what I said. You know where we can steal one?”
“Military base?” Scotlyn guessed.
“We don’t have time to get to Nellis.” Darcy pointed to the conflagration on the strip, unhappy that they weren’t already evacuating. “Not with that headed this way.”
Brewer frowned. “Do Air Force bases have tanks?” He asked in a considering tone. “Seems like those probably belong to the Army.”
“It doesn’t matter, because we can’t get to Nellis.” Darcy repeated, stalking back and forth in frustration. “Seriously, I just want to go to the airport and fly to someplace that isn’t burning. Vampires and fires don’t mix.”
“I don’t think fires and werewolves mix, either.” Scotlyn concurred.
“We’re shape shifters, baby.” Zeke corrected for the millionth time.
“Jesus, why does she keep saying we’re werewolves?” Brewer sounded appalled. “Is that what you’ve been telling her, Zeke? Huh? That we’re frigging werewolves?”
“No…” Zeke began, but of course Brewer talked right over him.
“Werewolves are just animals, girl.” He gave Scotlyn a wise nod. “Big, dumb, killers for hire, who hate us. Nobody wants to be around those bastards.”
“So different than the shape shifters.” Joseff deadpanned. “Amazing that the woman would get the two species confused.” He absently touched Darcy’s hair as she paced passed him, smiling as the dark strands glided across his fingers.
Darcy sent him an arch look. “You promised to be nicer to my family.”
“If I did, it was under duress.”
“Being naked and happy isn’t duress, Joseff.”
Caleb and Zeke cringed in unison at that mental image.
Brewer didn’t appreciate being compared to the pack’s oldest enemies. “Fuck you, vampire! You’re lucky we’re on the same team now or I’d be beating your ass.”
“Darcy’s right.” Caleb put in, ignoring Joseff’s taunts and Brew’s outrage. “We should just forget about that map. We can go to Peru without it.”
“We can’t find Iasia without it, though.” Zeke insisted. “That’s the whole point of it being a lost city.”
Caleb rolled his eyes.
Brew wasn’t done complaining about werewolves. “And, you know, it’s not just shifters. Werewolves hate everyone. That’s why we have to hate them back. It’s only fair.”
Joseff sighed like a martyr. “Fine, Brewer, you’re not as God-awful as the werewolves. Happy?”
“Damn straight, I’m not.” Brewer agreed righteously.
“And I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but Zeke is right.” Joseff continued. “We have to get to that golf course. It’s our best chance.”
“Look at the streets!” Darcy gestured in the direction of TGW. “It’s wall-to-wall zombies out there. How are we going to wade through them without being ripped apart?”
“Or burning to death.” Caleb interjected.
Zeke’s eyes narrowed as inspiration struck. His attention snapped back to smoldering skyline and his mouth slowly curved. “We’re going to use a tank.” He told them.
***
“This is a still bad idea.” Caleb said.
Zeke snorted. “Now you’re starting to sound like my mate. She always hates my ideas when she first hears them, but then she always comes around at the end.” He winked over at Scotlyn. “Right baby?”
She made a face at him. “Your brother’s right. This plan is all about you having the maturity level of a preteen boy, Ezekiel.”
Caleb nodded over at her, the two of them a united force in their “Anti-Zeke” crusade. Given their new alliance over designer clothing, he foresaw centuries of his mate and brother ganging up on him. Overall, he was pretty sure he’d liked it better when they were bickering.
Zeke rose above their negativity. “We needed a tank. I got us a tank.” He patted the dashboard of what was now the second great love of his life. “God, I always wanted to be a fireman.”
The gigantic red truck was a miracle of modern engineering. It was a tanker model, which had to weigh two tons, had eight massive zombie-flattening tires, and had no problem plowing right through the monsters and assorted debris in their path in like battering ram. Stealing it had been the most fun he’d had since the zompocalypse began.
Well, with his clothes on.
Zeke chortled in satisfaction as a zombie in a chef’s coat tried to grab hold of the fire truck’s door and ended up smashed under the wheels. “Fuck stealing a plane. After this, I say we just drive to Peru.”
“You can’t, dumbass. Not without a boat.” Brewer didn’t look up from an issue of Penthouse that some fireman had left behind. “There’s no road between Panama and Columbia.”
Everyone turned to stare at him.
“What? I can’t know geography, now?”
Joseff flipped through the truck’s operating manual. “You know this machine is rated to go eighty miles per hour and you’re still driving too fast?” He told Darcy.
“Try not to be such an old geezer, honey.” Darcy was behind the wheel, because she’d won the drawing with Zeke. She was the only
other person enamored with their shiny new toy. Big machines, fast engines, and high speeds were all right up her alley.
Darcy might have been against the trip to TGW before, but once she realized she got to drive a fire truck she became a vocal supporter of Zeke’s scheme. Taking the corner like a stock car racer, she crushed a sidewalk newspaper dispenser as if it was an aluminum can. She laughed gleefully as a hurricane of pages went sailing into the air.
“Darce, slow down.” Caleb ordered in his best older brother tone.
Zeke and Darcy exchanged a long suffering look at their sibling’s tight assery. In the tradition of control freaks everywhere, Cale was a notorious backseat driver. “Fine.” She muttered and eased off the gas. “You guys seriously need to lighten up. We’re running down zombies in a freaking fire truck. How is this not the most awesome road trip ever?”
“Seconded.” Zeke lifted a hand.
“I was once on a road trip with Johnny Cash.” Brewer said. “That was way more awesome than this, even with the zombies.” He started humming God’s Gonna Cut You Down, while he turned the magazine to look at the centerfold. “Hey, you think this chick’s been airbrushed?”
Caleb tilted his head to survey the model. “Absolutely.”
“Shit.” Brew tossed the issue aside with a disappointed frown. “I hate that. It’s like cheating.” He consoled himself by make cooing noises at Pucci, who stared at him worshipfully from her pet carrier. For some reason known only to cats, Brewer turned out to be the fuzzy demon’s favorite person in the world. “It’s like getting a guy all worked up to fuck a cartoon character, isn’t it, kitty-kitty?” He started baby-talking at his one and only fan. “Yes, it is. Wes it wis.”
Joseff rolled his eyes. “This is not my best road trip ever, for those of you keeping score.” He reported from his seat. There were only three chairs in the cab, so Zeke, Caleb, and Brewer were sort squeezed in between them. God knew, king of the assholes wasn’t going to stand.
“What is your best trip then, beloved mate?” Darcy challenged in a deadly honeyed voice. “For your own health and safety, it had better not include another woman.”
Love in the Time of Zombies Page 21