by T. G. Ayer
Who was this woman?
The hazmat suits and gurney trundled past, taking the other undead away. Her focus was the sleeping woman, who was so deeply unconscious she didn't even know what was happening around her.
A few of the homeless had gathered to watch the activity. Many were pointing and whispering, and Maya could understand the sight of hazmat suits would be far from comforting.
She didn't have to wait long before the team returned, bringing a second gurney straight for the woman's tent. Maya stood aside as they leaned in and grabbed a hold of the sleeping bag.
"Be careful," Maya said, her voice filled with warning. "She isn't dead."
One of the hazmats turned to look at her, and she made out a pair of startled blue eyes behind the thick glass of his helmet.
She couldn't determine the expression, but she said, "She does look like she is sick."
The guy's eyebrows rose.
Maya nodded, understanding his disbelief. "She is sick. She's got a fever and a slight cough. And she's sleeping really deeply, so I'm assuming she's either unconscious or in some kind of coma."
His expression remained skeptical and Maya could well understand it. Undead illness was unheard of, as far as Maya was aware. Which begged the question: What the heck was wrong with this particular zombie?
The agent nodded, then leaned inside to say something to his partner who was already kneeling beside the woman's head. They were much more gentle with her now, sliding her out and carrying her carefully to the gurney, although Maya had to wonder if their tenderness had more to do with ensuring they didn't upset her because she'd probably go nuts, try to defend herself, and injure them in the process.
Still smart.
Maya followed, Sabala a few steps behind, a still silent Joss at her side. They watched as the agents wheeled the woman to the ambulance. Maya stood a few feet from her still invisible car, her arms wrapped around her body, and watched as her father coordinated the bagging and tagging of both the zombies, living and dead.
When the ambulance sped off in silence, only its red lights flashing, Dev turned to her and said, "Meet me at the medical centre." His tone was curt.
So he was still pissed off at her.
He turned on his heel and headed for his car, leaving the two girls watching as he drove off.
Maya was ready for the sounding off she knew was coming. What she couldn’t wait for was to hear what Nik had found out. As much as Maya was feeling useful right now, she was still frustrated at how little understanding she had about the dream and what it meant.
The only good thing was she hadn’t felt the compulsion to dance in the last hour. Who knew how long that would last?
Maya turned to Joss. "Need a ride?"
Sabala dropped the glamor and revealed the hidden blue Mini.
Staring at the suddenly visible car, Joss snorted and headed for the passenger door.
Chapter 13
MAYA FOLLOWED HER Dad's car all the way to the Headquarter's high-rise in the middle of LA. She headed into the underground, glad she'd been given a parking pass a few weeks back. She'd been here a few times to visit Claudia during her recovery. Until, of course, the day came when Claudia refused to see her. The doctors had claimed she was having difficulty coming to terms with her inability to walk. Then she’d made a sudden turnaround and was back to work as if nothing had ever happened.
Any way you looked at it, Maya had chosen to save Stefan's life. Which meant she'd also chosen to sacrifice Claudia. Although Claudia had assured her she was not upset with Maya, something told her her aunt hadn’t been entirely honest. Her parents had assured Maya it would take time for Claudia to accept her new reality, and Maya had prayed she would be fine in the end.
She couldn't turn back time, but she would damn well do everything she could to make it up to her aunt.
She pulled into the parking lot beside her dad and shoved open the door to allow Sabala to get out. KALIMA had had to provide the hellhound with a special spell to allow him to enter the facility as it was standard practice to ward all agency properties against demons.
The fact that Sabala never revealed himself to anyone while within the building irked a few people. It put them on edge never knowing where the creature was, but nobody had said anything to that effect.
Maya and Sabala hurried after Dev as he headed for the elevator. Joss scrambled behind her, slipping into the elevator just in time. The small glass-walled space wasn't the best environment to be standing face-to-face with a man who was furious. The vein in his temple stood out, sharply raised.
Maya wished she’d had her mom to help defend her. She swallowed and shifted her gaze away from his.
Coward.
By the time she decided she should meet his fury head on and apologize, the elevator slid open with a woosh.
Inside the reception room they headed through the interior doors with barely a glance at its occupants. By now, the security people and the receptionist knew Maya and Joss. Joss had spent days confined to the office, manning the call-center phones during the zombie outbreak.
The girls followed Dev as he strode down the corridor, swiping his card twice before they reached the medical wing. It never failed to surprise Maya that when she stepped inside she couldn’t find a difference between a proper hospital and this facility. Even this late in the day, things were humming along.
They'd spared no expense, with top-of-the-line equipment, everything in place to take care of their agents when they needed medical help. In the beginning the organization had found it difficult to explain the strange injuries received by their agents, to doctors and nurses within the public system. It hadn't taken long for them to decide that having their own medical facility made the most sense.
Sabala stopped at Maya’s side as she and Joss came to a standstill while Dev spoke to a nurse in the ICU. She looked quite somber, and Dev was about to ask her something else when the doors to their right opened and Claudia rolled through in her wheelchair.
They all turned to the dark-haired woman, who despite her disability still dressed in her usual badass jeans and boots style and looked like any minute now she’d stand up and race out of the place, gun in hand, close on a demon’s tail.
Claudia gave them a tight smile, the lines at the corners of her eyes pinched. "The medical team is looking at the female.” She glanced at the glass doors behind him before saying. "The other one . . . is definitely dead. No doubt about it."
"How long before the autopsy is done?" Maya asked, eager to learn more about what had happened to him. The hellhound moved closer, nudging her knee as if wanting to warn her about something. She stilled the urge to scratch his head, remembering Claudia was always uncomfortable about the hellhound’s invisibility.
Claude’s eyebrows rose a little, but she seemed to restrain the urge to voice her thoughts. "They've already sent him down to Dr. Arturo. She will have a report sent within the hour. She's made him her priority."
Maya nodded and began to pace, leaving Sabala shifting his head left to right as he watched her.
Dev cleared his throat. "I think it's best for you and Joss to go back home. I'll bring you the report when I know something."
"I don't want to go anywhere just yet.” Maya shook her head. “I want to see how she's doing."
Claudia narrowed her eyes at Maya. “Maya, are you disobeying a direct order?” Claudia’s body was stiff with anger, and Maya could have sworn she’d noticed her left knee twitch. Maya glanced down at Claudia’s limbs and stared, expecting the movement to repeat.
Only it didn’t and when Maya lifted her gaze back to her aunt’s she recognised the emotion flickering there. It lasted only a second before Claudia regained control of her features, but Maya was dead certain she’d recognise that emotion anywhere.
Fear.
What did Claudia have to be afraid of? Was it something to do with the undead, or was it more personal?
Dev frowned and held a hand up to Claudia. “M
aya, that woman is dead. There's no helping her.”
She stopped pacing and turned to face him, ignoring the irritation in her aunt’s eyes. “So what? They'll experiment on her to find out what makes her tick?"
Dev’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to respond. Maya lifted a hand, stopping him in mid-sentence.
“Okay. I don't believe you'd be that inhumane,” she said, although she didn’t miss the look Dev and Claudia exchanged. Maya inhaled. “She's sick. Dead or undead, she is aware of her surroundings, we all know most of the undead we’ve encountered weren't entirely aware they are gone. We all know the trouble we had rounding them up and ensuring their passing was completed."
Her dad grunted. “Yes. We all know."
Maya nodded. She hadn't forgotten her father had been in the middle of it all. Seemed at the time he was doing everything possible to stay away from the house.
Stay away from her mother.
Maya imagined it couldn't be easy for a man to discover his wife was the reincarnation of the Earth Mother. How many men could handle being married to a goddess without feeling even the slightest bit emasculated?
Add to that the fact that Leela had been forced to kill her own child. Kas was the son of the Mother Bhumi, and by virtue of that, kind of Maya's stepbrother in a weird, convoluted way.
That her mother had gone to the length of actually killing him had been as much a surprise to Maya as Dev. But then Maya's life had hung in the balance and her mother had made the best choice she could.
Claudia glided her wheelchair around so she came to a stop in front of Maya, forcing her to focus as her aunt said, “Maya, I really think you’re getting ahead of yourself.”
The action put Sabala on edge, and Maya had to bite her tongue as he got to his feet and placed himself between her and Claudia. Clearly the dog didn’t take kindly to her aunt’s tone.
“What do you mean?” asked Maya, slightly irritated.
“This is not your concern. The undead has been transferred to this facility. You’ve been told to go home. Our team has plenty of experience in dealing with the undead. They’ll handle it from here. Your part of the mission is completed.”
Maya stared at Claudia. “But-”
“No buts, Maya. As an agent you’ve been given an instruction and you are expected to obey it. Remain in defiance and you risk suspension.”
With that, Claudia spun the wheelchair around and headed down the hall.
“What was that all about?” Maya muttered.
“She’s just doing her job, Maya,” said her Dad softly, although his tone was still filled with disapproval. Of Maya.
Maya sighed, and began to pace again. The doors opened and a handful of doctors flowed out. One headed for the ER and had a quiet conversation with Dev. When the doctor left, her father glanced at Maya, pausing for a moment.
He was going to tell her to wait there while he went inside, but he hesitated for a moment, as if fighting some inner war on the matter.
Then he sighed and crooked a finger in the girl’s direction before turning on his heel and heading through the doors.
Despite Claudia’s words, Dev was still taking her in to see the undead. Odd for him to also be defiant of the rules.
She followed him, almost trotting, knowing Joss and Sabala would be close on her heels. They headed into a small viewing room overlooking the secure hospital room. The undead female lay on the bed, skin colorless as tubes snaked around her, and her arms bore a few more IV’s than Maya thought was necessary.
The hellhound took up position beside the door, as if he was making a point about not wanting to go any further into the room.
“The undead have vital signs?"
Dev laughed. "Something like that. After all the studies they did on the undead, the researchers discovered that when a person dies the body dies with them, but the brain is much slower to listen. When that person is given a second life and becomes stranded, electrical sparks begin to fire up the brain again."
"That's what makes the undead sentient even though they have no life." Joss's voice came from behind Maya. When Maya turned to look at her, her friend’s gaze was focused on the body beyond the glass.
"Supremely creepy, but it totally makes sense."
She was about to ask another question when a sound came from inside the room. Sabala grunted and got to his feet, his nose pointed in the direction of the two-way window. Maya stepped closer to the glass and listened. The woman spoke and as Maya looked at her, her heart stuttered.
The zombie woman in the next room was looking straight at Maya, her eyes focused on her face. Her mouth moved and Maya strained to hear what she was saying.
The speaker on the wall was working perfectly, and Maya sucked in a breath as she heard the words.
“Tell my family.”
Chapter 14
MAYA MET HER father's eyes, and blinked away the heat of tears. "We have to help her."
Dev gave a little shake of his head. "Best not to get emotionally involved. Especially with the undead. They're already gone. Nothing we can do to help them."
Maya glared at him, and pointed a finger at the woman in the room. "Are you telling me you're not in the least bit affected by her appeal? She’s asking for her family, Dad.”
"Of course, I am affected. But I'm also trying to remember she isn't alive."
"But didn't you just tell me that when an undead is resurrected, electrical impulses are activated within the person's brain."
"That's the medical description of the process."
Maya nodded. "Then wouldn't that mean memories and experiences and emotions come back to that person, even though they are not technically alive?"
Her father shrugged. "I'm not exactly clued up on the technicalities."
"But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that this woman is asking for help." Maya looked at her dad. "You see her eyes? Everyone around here can tell me that she is dead, but I saw desperation in her eyes. She wants her family. She certainly doesn't want to go on a rampage killing everything in sight. What if her family have no idea she is dead? Who are we to make that decision, to decide that they don’t have the right to know the truth?”
"So, what would you have us do?" he asked patiently.
"We should find them for her, Dad. No undead has ever asked for anything of us, let alone to get their family. Maybe she needs closure. I have no idea."
Joss shifted beside Maya. "I agree with Maya. We treat this woman like she means nothing, then we become inhuman. I know that's not what we stand for. This whole organization was created to help people. And if anyone here told me what Maya is saying is wrong, then I'm going to start questioning the integrity of the entire agency."
Maya stared, amazed at her friend's passion. Joss had always been the one ready to aid those in need. If she could have, she'd have given her trust fund over to the first person who said they needed help. Only problem with Joss was she didn't seem to have the best judgement in terms of who to help. She could all too easily be taken advantage of.
Good thing I'm here to look out for her.
Maya nodded and looked at her father. "She may have gone to the camp seeking refuge. It’s obvious this isn’t the kind of situation we faced when Kas let all the undead roam the Earth. Those creatures were insane with bloodlust and inhumanity. This one is . . . different. We can’t just terminate her like we did back then. Her fingerprints should tell us who she is. With that we can find her family."
Her father sighed. "You have a unique way of thinking. And you have a true heart. The older you grow, the more I see similarities between you and The Mother."
It had taken a while for Maya to accept her origins. When her parents had first explained it to her, she'd found it completely unbelievable. But the dreams she'd had, had allowed her to see the truth.
Maya was the reincarnation of a holy priestess, the teacher who'd spearheaded the organization for which her parents worked. She was also the woman
who’d taken her mother, an abused wife, under her wing and turned her from a submissive girl into a strong woman.
From her own ragged memories, Maya knew the Mother had been frustrated with her job. Despite her caring and benevolent ways, the mother had had a passionate streak within her and on her deathbed she'd begged the goddess Kali for an opportunity to help her in a more physical way.
The goddess had given her the boon she'd requested, allowing the Mother to be born again. As Maya. For a long time, Maya had hated the idea that she wasn't her own person. It had taken weeks for her to reconcile the reality of her life now, with the powers Kali had given her, and the life she'd lived in her past to earn it.
Although she didn't retain all the memories from her previous life, Maya did remember enough to understand it was the real thing, not another figment of her parent's imagination.
Maya nodded and gave her father a gentle smile. "I'm beginning to see the same thing myself."
He raised his eyebrows and turned to her, completely forgetting the problem at hand. "You're remembering your past life as the Mother?"
Maya shook her head. Even though she'd remembered a few things, she wasn't ready to admit it to her parents. She'd seen the utter devotion the two of them had had for the Mother, and it made her uncomfortable when they looked at her with that same expression.
Weird.
She shook her head again. "No. Nothing specific. Just feelings."
Dev looked disappointed, but he gave her an encouraging smile before looking out into the room. The woman was sleeping now, although her face did not look in the least bit peaceful.
Machines beeped, and her chest rose and fell.
Dev nodded. "Okay. We'll start with her identity, and go from there. I'll keep you posted."
Maya smiled. Her instinct had been to reach out and give him a hug, to show her gratitude.
Was she now too old for simple things like hugs? Was there some kind of separation between her and her parents, now that her memories of her previous life were returning? Maya hoped it didn't mean she was going to end up turning into the Mother and losing everything she'd been as Maya.