by Opal Carew
To his relief, he made it up to the second-floor landing undetected. At the top he hesitated, wondering which way to go. But then he heard soft chanting coming from down the hall to his right. Knowing it had to be the Voodoo priestess, he headed that way, but stopped in his tracks when two huge zombies stepped out of one of the rooms.
Drake tensed, expecting them to come at him, but instead they just stood there and stared blankly at him.
Deciding they must be confused by the glamour spell, Drake cautiously walked toward the two zombies. He kept a tight grip on the bat just in case, but the zombies just continued to stare at him slack-jawed.
Drake didn’t understand it. Even if they didn’t recognize him for who he was, the zombies should have made some attempt to stop him from going into the room. While he was relieved they didn’t, he was concerned it might be some sort of trap. On the other hand, maybe Aniyah’s spell worked even better than she’d thought it would and the zombies couldn’t see him at all. Hopefully, the Voodoo priestess wouldn’t be able to, either.
Inside the room, the old black woman was kneeling on the floor chanting. Completely surrounded by burning candles, she had her back to Drake, seemingly oblivious to his presence.
Taking a deep breath, Drake slowly made his way across the room, carefully stepping over the debris on the floor so as not to make any sound that would give him away. It was then that he saw the two additional zombies. They were standing off to either side of the circle of candles, but like the ones out in the hallway, they didn’t appear to even notice him. Quietly setting the baseball bat down on the floor, Drake pulled the knife from his belt and moved closer to the woman. He could do this. For Simone, he could do this.
Tightening his grip on the handle, he lifted the knife over his head, prepared to plunge it into the Voodoo priestess’s back, when the chanting abruptly stopped. Drake was so stunned he didn’t even realize she’d gotten to her feet until she turned to face him.
Her lips curved into a malevolent smile. “How nice to see you again, Mr. Parrish.”
Drake stared at the old woman in shock. She looked exactly like she had that day she’d come to his office all those years ago, her face just as lined, her eyes full of that same hatred.
For some reason, Aniyah’s spell hadn’t fooled the priestess like it was supposed to. But at the moment, he didn’t care much about that. The spell had only been intended to get him close enough to the old woman so he could kill her. And he was definitely close enough to do that. One step and he’d be able to put an end to the hell she had subjected him to for the past eight years.
When Drake tried to take a step forward, he discovered he couldn’t move. He tried again, willing his feet to obey, but it did no good.
“You’re wasting your time, you know,” the old woman said, her voice dripping venom. “You can’t move. Unless I allow it, of course.”
Shit. She put a spell on him just like she had done to Simone back at the cabin. What the hell was he going to do now?
The priestess eyed the knife in his hand as she took a step closer. “I bet you’d love to plunge that wicked-looking blade right into my heart, wouldn’t you?”
Drake wanted to tell her that was exactly what he was going to do, but he couldn’t move his mouth, either.
The old woman reached out and pulled the knife from his hand as if she were taking a toy from a child. She studied it with interest before turning those black, soulless eyes on him again. “Where did you get this trinket, I wonder? Oh, I know. From that stupid woman who owns the Voodoo shop on Flatbush Avenue. The same shop where your precious Simone is waiting for you. Am I right?”
He wanted to tell her to stay the hell away from Simone, but no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn’t make his mouth work. The old woman must have seen the fury burning in his eyes, though, because she let out a harsh laugh.
“If looks could kill, my boy, I’d daresay I’d be as dead as my zombies, wouldn’t I? What would you say if you could talk, I wonder? Would you threaten me with harm if I didn’t promise to leave your pretty girlfriend alone? Or would you beg me for her life instead?” She eyed him thoughtfully. “Even if I did allow you to speak, threatening me would do no good since I have control over you. And begging me would be just as useless, I’m afraid. That little bitch owes me for this.” She lifted her free hand to run one long, bony finger down the jagged scar on the side of her face. “And I’m going to make sure she pays.”
The thought of the Voodoo priestess hurting Simone sent rage coursing through Drake. His breathing quickened, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He’d never wanted to kill someone as much as he wanted to kill the old woman in front of him.
“But don’t worry,” she continued. “When your pretty Simone realizes you haven’t succeeded in killing me, she’ll come over here looking for you. I know women. That’s what they do. They always come looking for their man. And when she does, you’ll get to see everything I’m going to do to her.”
Trapped inside his body, Drake panicked even more. Desperate, he fought against his paralyzed muscles as hard as he could, but to no avail. He couldn’t so much as blink his eyes. If he had, he would have closed them as he prayed. Please, God, don’t let Simone come over here looking for me.
The Voodoo priestess slowly circled around behind him. “What shall we do to pass the time, I wonder?”
Coming to stand in front of him again, she placed a gnarled hand on his right forearm. Beneath her fingers, his skin turned that ugly black color he was so familiar with. Helpless, Drake could only stand there and watch in horror as the putrid decay slowly spread over his entire body. After a moment, his heart slowed to a stop and his breathing ceased. He didn’t have much use for either in his zombie form.
The Voodoo priestess released his arm, then took a step back and looked him up and down as if admiring her handiwork. Behind him, the two zombies in the room moaned as if in recognition.
“Now you are like my other pets in every way. Every way but one, that is. You can still feel pain. That’s a special trick I did just for you. I’ve always wanted you to feel pain. It’s only right that you do, considering how much misery you’ve brought me.”
As if to prove her point, she lifted the knife Aniyah had given to him and pressed the tip to the side of his neck just below his ear. If Drake had any breath to hold, he would have held it, but all he could do was wait while she pushed the knife into his blackened skin, then slowly slit his throat.
The feel of the blade cutting into his skin was like a white-hot fire and if he could have made a sound, he would have screamed in pain. He couldn’t scream, though. He couldn’t do anything except stand there and take it. But he knew the pain he was feeling now was nothing compared to the anguish he’d experience if the bitch hurt Simone like this.
Please don’t come looking for me, Simone. Please.
Chapter Seventeen
“He’ll be okay.”
Simone was still staring at the door Drake had just gone through, but at the sound of Beck’s voice she turned to look at him. “Do you really think so?”
“I know so.” He held out one of the baseball bats. “Ever swing one of these?”
She took the bat from him. “Not since high school. And I wasn’t very good at it then.”
He looked toward the shop’s front windows. “Well, something tells me you’re about to get a lot of practice.”
She followed the direction of his gaze to see a group of zombies standing in front of the shop. There were so many of them that they were packed shoulder to shoulder, four deep. Her hand tightened reflexively around the baseball bat. There was no way she and Beck would be able to fight so many of them. She only hoped Drake was able to kill the Voodoo priestess before it was too late.
Beck glanced at her. “Stay back here with Aniyah. I’ll hold off as many as I can.”
He didn’t wait for an answer, but strode toward the front of the shop without looking back. Baseball bat in hand, S
imone walked over to where Aniyah still knelt on the floor deep in some kind of trance. It looked as if she was going to have to keep Aniyah safe because the other woman was completely defenseless in her current state. Simone wished she knew what the heck Aniyah was up to right then. She doubted she would have understood the magic of it, but it would be better than just seeing the woman kneeling there as motionless as those zombies outside.
Simone nervously shifted from one foot to the other as she waited for the zombies to storm the shop, but they just stood outside staring at them through the windows, their jaws slack. After a moment, the ones closest to the windows reached up to tap on the glass.
She’d been so focused on running from the zombies the first two times they had attacked she hadn’t really taken the opportunity to look at them. But standing there now, she gazed at them in bizarre fascination. God, they were gruesome. Like something out of a low-budget horror movie. While some of them were little more than skeletons in tattered clothes, their empty eye sockets staring at her as if they could actually see, others looked more recently deceased. Their clothes were less tattered and they still had skin on their bones and eyes in their heads. As she watched, two of that kind shouldered aside the older, more skeletal zombies near the windows so they could beat at the glass with their fists. Another started to kick the door.
Their movements were so slow and mechanical Simone thought perhaps the glass might actually hold up, but the creatures were relentless and soon cracks appeared in the glass. A moment later, one of the windows broke and crashed to the floor. The zombie standing there hesitated, seemingly startled by what it just did. But then, as if figuring out that it finally had a way in, the thing hoisted itself up and crawled through the opening.
The other zombies bashed through the windows. Within seconds, they had broken every window in the shop. Once through the openings, they wasted no time in heading straight for Beck. Fortunately, they didn’t move very fast, so he was able to engage one or two at a time, keeping them at bay. But there were so many that soon he was almost completely surrounded by them. He was swinging his bat as fast as he could, but she knew there was no way he could deal with all of them. If she didn’t do something, he was going to be overwhelmed.
Simone was just about to hurry over to help Beck when something strange happened. As if in response to some command, more than half of the zombies turned away from Beck and lumbered straight toward her. She tensed as they advanced on her. Oh, crap! Well, she had wanted to help Beck. Now was her chance.
Gripping the baseball bat tightly in both hands, she spread her feet wide in a batter’s stance and swung at the first zombie with everything she had in her. He was one of the older-looking zombies in the room and when her bat connected with his head, his skull immediately shattered into pieces. The chicken stew Simone had eaten earlier threatened to erupt out of her stomach at the sight of the zombie flailing around the room without a head.
But Simone didn’t have much time to dwell on the fact she’d just knocked the head off a walking corpse because that one was quickly replaced by two others, these with more flesh on their bones. When she swung the bat at them, she discovered the younger ones could take a lot more damage. She might as well have been hitting a tree for all the good it seemed to do. And when she finally got both of them down on the floor, they still tried to reach out and grab her ankles in an effort to pull her down with them. She had to spend as much time whacking at the ones on the floor as she did the zombies that were still on their feet.
She quickly sidestepped a gnarled hand trying to grip her foot, only to yelp when she realized she’d inadvertently moved right into the arms of another downed zombie. This one wrapped his bony appendages around her leg and tried to clamp his jaws onto her leg. She swung the bat awkwardly at the creature’s head and was able to get it to release her, but not before the thing gnawed its way through the material of her jeans. Although Aniyah had assured her getting bitten by a zombie wouldn’t turn her into one, the woman also said it could result in a nasty infection that modern medicine would find hard to deal with. Simone had no desire to find out one way or the other.
Quickly moving to a clear section of floor, Simone looked around to make sure she wasn’t within reach of any more teeth before turning to confront the next zombie. She could barely hold back a scream when she found herself face to face with a huge zombie covered with tattoos. It made him look even more terrifying than he already was and she swung at his head as hard as she could. The added terror of the zombie’s appearance must have given her extra strength because the thing went down with one whack.
Simone was still standing over the tattooed zombie waiting to see if he was going to get up again when she heard Aniyah gasp. Afraid the zombies had gotten past her and to the other woman while she was otherwise occupied, Simone whirled around, fearing the worst.
But Aniyah wasn’t being attacked by a zombie. No longer in a trance, she was trembling, her eyes wide.
Simone rushed over to crouch down beside her. “What is it?”
The other woman swung her gaze on Simone, her eyes full of fear. “The bokor has broken the glamour spell I put on Drake. He’s in terrible danger. I can feel it.”
Simone’s heart seized in her chest. She knew this stupid plan was never going to work. “Beck! Drake is in trouble. I have to go to him.”
She didn’t wait for a reply, but turned and raced for the basement door. Beck and Aniyah would just have to hold off the zombies the best they could. Drake needed her.
She ran down the steps so quickly she almost fell. Once at the bottom, she didn’t even stop to catch her breath, but ran as fast as she could through the darkened passageway. She was forced to slow down as she climbed the stairs that led to the exit, but the moment she got to the top, she twisted the knob and shoved open the door.
Outside, she raced down the alley at full speed, thankful there weren’t any zombies around. When she got to the street, however, she realized she didn’t have a clue which way to go. Aniyah had told Drake to head east, but Simone didn’t know which direction east was. She looked left, then right, then left again. She closed her eyes, trying to picture the layout of the streets in her head as they looked on a map. Left, she thought. It had to be left. Praying she was correct, she headed in that direction.
When she rounded the corner and saw the dilapidated building a few minutes later, Simone breathed a sigh of relief. Holding onto the bat tightly, she ran up the front steps of the building. She wondered why there weren’t any zombies guarding the entrance. Wouldn’t the Voodoo priestess have positioned some there to keep watch? Oh God, what if that meant the woman had already killed Drake and left?
Suddenly Simone couldn’t breathe and she had to stop in the doorway to calm herself down. Stop thinking like that. Drake is alive and you’re going to save him.
Remembering Aniyah had said the Voodoo priestess was on the second floor, Simone hurried over to the staircase. The steps creaked loudly as she ran up them, but she couldn’t concern herself with that. Something told her that she had to get to Drake as quickly as she could.
At the top, she hesitated, wondering which way to go. Then she caught sight of a light flickering in a room off to her right. She started down the hallway, but then stopped in her tracks when she realized there were two huge zombies standing guard outside the door. Good heavens, they had to be over seven feet tall. How the hell was she going to get past them? She had no idea, but if it meant getting to Drake, she’d find a way.
Heart pounding, she lifted the bat in both hands and slowly made her way down the hall. But to her surprise, they made no move toward her. Instead, they only stared straight ahead as if they didn’t even see her.
Afraid they might suddenly reach out and try to stop her, Simone darted past them into the room with the flickering light, only to stop when she saw Drake.
He was standing in the middle of the room, his back to the door. Relief flowed through Simone at the sight of him. She�
�d been terrified the Voodoo priestess had already killed him.
Uncaring about her safety, she lowered the bat and rushed over to him. When she stepped around in front of him, her heart plummeted in her chest.
Drake had turned into a zombie again. Only this time, there was something different about him. Instead of standing relaxed and naturally like he had at the cabin, his body was rigid and tight, as if he were a statue. Or one of the two zombies out in the hallway.
Simone’s throat closed up. What if the Voodoo priestess had killed Drake and truly turned him into one of her mindless creatures?
She lifted her gaze to his face, terrified his eyes were going to be as cold and lifeless as those two monsters outside the room. What she saw there both relieved and horrified her. His eyes were blessedly alive, but held a look of terror she’d never seen before, not even when they had been fighting those zombies at the cabin. She also couldn’t help but notice a jagged wound that ran all the way down the side of his neck from his ear to his collar bone. Although it wasn’t bleeding, it still looked incredibly painful. What had that evil bitch done to him?
“Drake, are you okay?”
He didn’t say anything. Instead, he just continued to stand there unmoving, his eyes beseeching.
Why wasn’t he answering her? Confused and even more alarmed now, Simone took a step toward him only to stop when the Voodoo priestess materialized between them out of nowhere.
Startled, Simone took a step back.
The old woman gave her a smile. “He can’t answer you, chere, because he’s completely under my control, just like my other zombies. All he can do is stand there and watch while I kill you.”
The hatred in the other woman’s black eyes was so terrifying that Simone involuntarily took another step back. She let out a startled gasp as cold, clammy hands wrapped around her upper arms and she jerked her head around to see a zombie standing on either side of her. The one on her right reached down with his free hand and relieved her of the baseball bat she didn’t even realize she was still holding.