He pressed his lips together, the cogs crunching in his brain about what to believe. “Good point.”
“Then let’s go,” I ordered.
Wary, we raced out of the multiplex, ready to fight any zombies left behind.
When we reached the food court, it remained eerily quiet. But no one came. No zombies fled out of the shadows. I held on to my reclaimed weapons Kaleb had got for me on our way out.
All of us remained silent, staying on our guard after the traumatic experience of fending off the risen dead for so long. And losing the fallen soldiers. A heaviness settled inside at the thought of all those men and women losing their lives. And I’d led them to their slaughter.
“Take a breath,” Kaleb whispered from beside me. “Don’t put the burden on your shoulders.”
“Did I send my thoughts to you?”
“No. But I sensed your sadness. I’ve always been attuned to your emotions. You’re not exactly a closed book. But now I feel them more keenly.”
“Your fault for mating with an emotional basket case,” I muttered.
He laughed. “Nah. I’m taking it as a win.”
“I guess anything is at the moment. And if we get out of this alive, I’m telling you now, we’re going on that date.”
“When we get out alive, we’re going on that date,” he promised.
The sound of something crashing to the floor had him lifting his weapon toward its source. Everyone did the same, seeing a hanging light fitting collapse the rest of the way. Nothing else came. But the silence taunted at the promise of new atrocities.
Annoyed by the fresh quiet, I hurriedly said, “So. Where are you taking me on this date?”
“Well. The movies are out,” he replied.
I snorted. “Yeah. I won’t look at them the same way again.”
“And nowhere too public like a restaurant.” He took his hand in mine. “I want to spend most of our date kissing you.”
My heart raced for a different reason this time. And it eased the tension of walking through the dark hell of old walls and graffiti, ready to face off with a powerful mage. I’d taken down a zombie army by snuffing out the magic with my energy. I’d done so because with Kaleb being my mate, the bonding had provided an anchor for my essence. Did that make me powerful? Dangerous? A freak? A target?
I refused to dwell on it. Because if I thought on it, I’d worry over it. And my pile of worry was about to topple me over.
“How about a midnight picnic in the trees at the back of the house?” I suggested in a whisper, glad when the exit from the mall came into view.
“Where I saw you kissing my brother?” Kaleb retorted. “No, thank you.”
“You really want to talk about that kind of stuff here?”
“Only Bernard can hear us if we’re whispering. We’ll all good.”
“You whisper like a foghorn.”
“Doesn’t change the fact you kissed him. So that’s off the list.”
Bernard chortled having heard our conversation. “Terra’s getting around. Me, Cole, Kaleb. Grady and Zax had better watch out.”
I glared at him. “I’ll chop that damn day ring finger off if you keep up your shit.”
He laughed.
Libby said, “And people call me a ho.”
“Hey!”
“They’re just hating on you, Terra,” Mayra said from beside our vampire friend. “And you’ve only slept with two of them. With Cole, he just felt your boobs and—”
“Not helping Mayra,” I said through gritted teeth.
Kaleb growled and snapped, “How about we drop the conversation of my mate’s conquests before my wolf eats you all?”
I grinned. “I’m down with that. I’ll grind their bones for you. It will make it more palatable.”
“Bernard started it,” Mayra replied.
“Actually, I believe Kaleb did,” Bernard said. “How about you feed him to the zombies?”
“I might if he annoys me enough.”
Kaleb scoffed, “You won’t do that.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
“Oh, I’m sure. I’m under your skin now, baby. That means you won’t want anybody eating mine.”
“That is so gross.”
“Don’t you know it.”
Shaking my head with the normality of exasperation, we reached the doors to the outside. But when we got there, my heart fell into my stomach.
Dreven was at the rear of the parking lot, all right. And the bastard wasn’t alone.
31
A sea of the dead swarmed the vast parking lot.
I checked my watch, surprised at how long we’d fought getting through the mall. Our respites were fleeting, but my aching limbs confirmed the truth.
Zombies we’d fought and hadn’t taken down stared back at us. Many grinned to show they were more than a mere shell controlled by magic. Evil and twisted souls pulsed within them, ready to take us down.
But the worst sight hit us.
Dreven, sat in a bubble of green light, had surrounded himself with monsters not known to Earthside. Monsters he must have brought through the portal with him.
Drake, the only witness to the bomb that had blasted through portal security, had given a description of those who he’d thought he’d seen breach the portal border. And maybe—maybe the Fey vampire I could see from this distance out was one of them. A hat or cap could have covered his long white hair to throw off the fire drake witness who’d flown above them. His shape was human enough. And even though Fey vampires are extremely rare and dangerous, he wouldn’t have stood out as someone who concerned Drake. Not until he saw the blood-red eyes, or intricate veins that sat beneath skin as white as snow. But the bugbears he would have noticed.
We’d expected more of the escaped prisoners may have hidden in the trees when the bomb went off, but not these nasty beasts. Huge, and in their armor, the terrifying creatures waited for us, eager for the fight, and for us to make the first move. A hunched hobgoblin, leathery skin, they had ears flopping into points, and large fangs protruding from their bottom lip. They lived deep in the Fey Lands back home.
Small in number, but ferocious in a fight, Dreven had most likely recruited them with the promise of human dinners.
And that wasn’t all. Two shifters had joined the show. One had already shifted into his lion. Noticing us waiting behind the glass, he roared, showing off his strong jaws and sharp teeth. The other. A hybrid. One that looked in between a cat and a wolf. He shifted, morphing to show us his animal shape, then shifted back and licked along his sword with an unusually long tongue.
Dreven kept his eyes closed, his hands palm up as he worked on something. And worry hit me about the wards. We had to act. And we had to act now.
‘Good job we took out those with the guns,’ Kaleb sent to me. ‘We’ve got our hands full with this lot.’
I sent back, ‘Another horde of zombies, a few monsters, a powerful necromancer mage pulling it all together. And only seven of us to lead the charge. Good odds, eh?’
He glanced over to me and smiled. “It’s what we do.”
“Any chance you can cast your magic toward the mage from here?” Zax asked Mayra, his concern for her getting too close to the mage clear.
She scrunched up her brow in thought. “No. We need to take down his shield and I need to be near to the source to do that. He will throw magic once it’s down. That means you need to kill him quick. You can’t do that from all the way over here.”
“Then there’s our plan.” Libby poised her weapon ready to do damage. “We kill these assholes, Mayra takes down the shield, and we gut Dreven. I’m down with that.”
“Sounds easy,” I muttered, the snarls growing loud enough to echo through the glass. The waiting army grew impatient.
“We aim for Dreven,” Bernard said. “I’ll cover Mayra and get her close. They can cut and bite me all they want. I’ll heal.”
Zax straightened. “I’ll lead you both in. No one will get near
her.”
“And I’ll take the rear,” Libby added. “Let’s hack our way through and I’ll take down anyone who comes at your back.” She looked at me and Kaleb. “You two lead the charge. Dreven addressed Terra before. His focus will be on her, so put her up front.”
Kaleb frowned, but got the logic of it. To me, he ordered, “Stay close to me. Focus on the zombies. When we get near Dreven, you and Grady focus on the bug bears. They’re tough, but slow. Hack away at their knees, their throat, weaken them, and take them down.”
I looked at Grady. “You okay with that?”
He’d paled. His eyes wide. “They’re monsters,” he whispered, the words barely forming.
“They’re like big goblin babies,” I patted his arm, “that’s all. We’ve both fought worse. And their breath is worse than their bite. Trust me.”
“You gonna be all right, Grady?” Kaleb asked, looking at him with concern.
“Yeah.” He blinked hard and grabbed his weapon. After taking a breath, he stepped up. “Yeah, I am,” he mumbled. “I see ghosts. I’ve fought zombies. I’ve got this.”
“I’ll go for the shifters,” Kaleb said once satisfied. “Libby. When we get close, go straight in for the Fey vamp. They move fast, faster than a normal vampire, and they possess magic. You must—”
“Use my gift to distract him.” She interrupted. “Not my first Fey encounter. Undead or otherwise. I’ll handle him. And he looks kind of cute.” Everyone turned to her. “What? A girl can look, can’t she?”
Zax shook his head. “If we survive this. Screw champagne. I’m buying everyone a beer.”
Kaleb grinned. “I’ll hold you to that.” He pulled me close and kissed me, his tongue fierce and penetrating. He sent to my mind, ‘I want that date. So no sacrificing your damn self.’
‘Same goes. But I know I love you if—’
‘Nothing bad is going down. We will get that beer. And we will have that date. You used your power once before, remember?’
‘He’ll have prepared for that.’
‘I think you overestimate him. Let’s get us as close as we can. Kill as many as we can. Then I’ll anchor you while you use your gift again.’
‘How will I know when to use it?’
‘How about a safe word?’
I had to laugh at that. ‘A safe word?’
‘Sure. Or we can call it a “shit is about to hit the fan” word. Your preference.’
I fed off his confidence and smiled. ‘Fine. What safe word would you like, Kaleb?’
‘How about ‘Pink Pineapples?’ I think that will work.’
Grinning, I said out loud. “Fine. Let’s get as close as we can, people. After that, we’ll pull out the big guns. If things get hairy for us all, bellow ‘Pink Pineapples’ and we’re good to go.”
“Pink Pineapples?” Mayra said, confused.
“Yep. Kaleb thinks we need a safe word.”
“The bond?”
“Yep.”
“You can converse with one another?”
“Yep.”
Kaleb hooked his finger beneath mine, and projected, ‘The next time we’re alone I’m planning on burying my head between your legs.’
My mouth fell agape in shock, and heat pulsed through my body.
Mayra rolled her eyes, and guessed, “He said something rude, didn’t he?”
“Yep.” I shook myself free of him.
She laughed. “Well, this is an interesting turn of events.”
“What? Seven of us taking on a dead army and a mage while Kaleb sends me dirty thoughts?”
“Yes. But I’m also starting to understand what happened back there between the two of you. Get as close as you can to the mage before pulling out those so-called big guns.” She turned to the others who had confused expressions on their faces. “I’m no General. But don’t aim on taking them all down. Fight a pathway to the mage. Keep them back when I’m close. Kaleb and Terra will do the rest when we’re there.”
“And the others will have your back,” I told her, no wiggle room for negotiations.
“I won’t let anyone get near you,” Libby said with ferocity, a raw truth in her eyes as she stared at Mayra with intent. Mayra blushed. And there it is again.
“Neither will I,” Zax said, his chin raised with determination. His crush on Mayra became more clear at that moment. But it was evident after all this she only saw him in the light of a young kid rather than the old dragon he was. I hoped she’d let him down gently when all this shit was over.
“Time to frisky,” Kaleb said as a few zombies raised their weapons, their grunts now fevered, all patience gone.
“Frisky with the zombies?”
“I mean frisky as in fighting. You know, lively, kicking their ass.”
“Maybe you want to lick their ass.” I smiled, needing the humor, needing the nonchalance for what we were about to do.
“I’ll lick your ass,” he drawled. “Later.”
“TMI!” Zax said.
“So gross!” Libby pushed him.
“Use your head voice, Kaleb,” Mayra reprimanded. And he laughed.
“Can’t handle the heat. Get out of the kitchen.”
I shook my head. “Any more stupid sayings?”
“Can we fight now?” Grady snapped, eager to get going.
“Fine.” I rolled my eyes. “Let’s go kick some zombie butt.”
“That’s what you’re going with?” Kaleb snorted.
“That’s what we’re going with,” Bernard said before I could reply. His fangs elongated, and the predator in him came forth hungry to hunt.
And that’s what we did, weapons raised. We pushed open the doors, and jumped into the crowd of the waiting dead, ready to take on the mage.
32
Time stood still. My only reality was the jaws of the dead, and the hands of magically enhanced carcasses.
Those merely puppets proved hard to take down because of the time it took to hack off their limbs. Some of their dismembered parts refused to burst into dust, grabbing onto my leg or arm and squeezing tight.
Dealing with them, we helped each other, staying close, so we lost no one in the fray. But then we had the independent zombies to deal with—the ones that included Dreven’s strategy of bringing evil souls into the dead bodies with the promise of life. They operated independently from his magic, eager for freedom. Eager to take us down. They saw us as only an obstacle to their feeding on the humans beyond the shield Mayra had conjured—one that wouldn’t last long when we were dead.
No. Not going there. We wouldn’t die. We had a plan. One that Dreven didn’t have time to counteract. And we had to use it to our advantage.
“Watch out!” I yelled to Zax, hacking off the arm of a lanky zombie with part of his head missing. I spun on my heel, taking the head off another. My eyes were everywhere, I sliced and chopped and cut without reprieve. We couldn’t afford to stop.
Mayra had to get near to the mage so she could work on the surrounding magic. Only then could we get close enough to fight. But it meant risking her to do it.
And she was more than a competent witch. The only one I knew able to wield both light and dark magic. She’d trained at the schoolhouse, got a license for both, and met once a month with a powerful coven to connect and balance her powers. But being over on Earthside had changed all of that. She’d had to try different ways to work her magic, our recent visit to Portiside helping with such. She’d gotten stronger, her power more capable than ever after being pushed out of its comfort zone. But still. To go against a strong mage? And one who wanted his escape?
Fear grew, a pulsing seed in my belly. But we couldn’t do it without her.
A hand yanked my hair, tugging me backward. I dug my heel into the hard ground, refusing to go down. I’d already experienced how that ended back in the multiplex, all of them dropping to dine on me.
No, thank you.
An elbow caught me in the face, knocking me off guard. I head butted whatever ca
me close, shoving my blade into its stomach and slicing up the torso. It didn’t stop the roaring ogre of a man. A dead man. A zombie. Or whatever the hell it was. He aimed for my neck to take a bite.
A flash of Kaleb came from behind him, the light disappearing from the zombie’s eyes. The top of his torso slid from the bottom half of his body as Kaleb hacked, keeping him down until he burst into particles.
Libby stayed close to Mayra, Bernard and Zax the same. Grady fought alongside Kaleb and me, his gun long gone. Tightening his hand around the blade, the predator in Grady came forth, and he fought like a master. He was no regular FBI agent. He may rock the suit. Enjoy the logic of puzzle solving. But here he was in his element. In battle he found his dance.
Kaleb shoved a zombie hard who tried to thrust a knife into Grady’s neck. Grady nodded in thanks for the save, taking advantage of the zombies stumbling from their buddy thrown at them. He thrust his blade into every decaying orifice he could find. And we helped. Continuing to move toward the others, inching closer and closer toward Dreven.
‘Can you see what Dreven is doing?’ I sent to Kaleb, unable to get a decent view among the battle of the dead.
‘He’s chanting. I can’t see his face.’
‘Are we drowning in zombies here or are we making headway?’
‘We’re making headway. Move in with me.’
‘Wait. What?’
‘When we leave all this shit behind. Move in with me.’
I punched a zombie hard, stabbing into his neck when he came back for seconds. ‘You’re asking me this now?’
‘Why not?’ I caught him grinning. He elbowed another in the stomach, twisting his head so it lolled to the side. The zombie staggered, hands blindly reaching for something to attack. Zax ended its misery.
‘Because we’re in the middle of chopping arms and legs off these assholes.’
He caught my eye and winked. ‘No better time in my opinion.’
I laughed in exasperation, kicking at a zombie, feeling the sting of another biting my arm. I stabbed him in his empty eye socket and wiggled. Kaleb sliced the bastard’s legs off and threw him away.
‘So,’ he continued, ‘how about it?’
Death Be Rising (The Terra Vane Series Book 7) Page 20