by E. A. Copen
In a panic, I flung out a tendril of unfocused necromantic magic, aiming for the zombie. It hit him, and he staggered back. The magic pulled at me, drawing me further away from the roller coaster while I wrestled for control. Please work.
My skin prickled as another presence awoke in the mind I was grappling with, this one belonging to the zombie’s creator. I expected it to fight me, to try and keep control of the creature, but instead, I got the distinct feeling the other necromancer was smirking at me. His mind withdrew from the zombie and let mine slide into place.
The zombie threw himself forward, arms outstretched to catch me. I landed in his arms with a loud thump. The sudden stop hurt like hell, but at least I wasn’t dead.
Emma’s gun barked, and the zombie’s head exploded all over me. I fell the last few feet to the ground while the zombie toppled over, but hitting the ground was the least of my worries.
Agony exploded inside my head like a lightning strike. I swore I felt flesh rip and bone shatter. My brain seemed to bounce and turn itself inside out. My body jerked and my lungs froze. Sudden nausea made my stomach surge. I gagged on something bubbling out of my mouth. When I tried to swallow, I found I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even blink.
“Laz!” Emma knelt beside me, putting the gun on the ground. She tore open my coat and pushed up my shirt. Her ear went to my chest and stayed there for a moment of tense silence.
With a snap of magic power, my soul was forced out my body, and I found myself standing over my body while Emma started CPR. I glanced around, looking for my Reaper. In the past, when I died, they usually appeared and whisked me away to somewhere private. We’d chat, and I’d somehow convince them to send me back. My heart sank as I realized no one was there. Dammit, I’d been meaning to meet my new Reaper. Maybe the gods hadn’t gotten around to assigning me one yet. That thought was terrifying. Without a Reaper, I might be trapped on Earth forever, doomed to become a restless spirit. Worse, I might not get to go back into my body.
“Come on, Emma,” I whispered. “It’s up to you now.”
She tilted back my head, cleared my airway, and gave my body a few rescue breaths. Shit, this was bad. Really bad. Not at all how I planned to go. What the hell had even happened? It felt like a psychic attack. But that couldn’t be. I had my mental shields up. No one should’ve been able to get past them.
A shadow shifted at the edge of my vision. I spun around in time to see it turn away and dart into the night. Whatever power had been holding onto my body went with him, and my soul snapped back into my body.
With a pained gasp, I drew air into my lungs and blinked before pushing myself onto my side to throw up.
“God, Laz, I thought I’d lost you.” Emma pushed some of my hair aside while I spat. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” I wheezed and turned my head to look at the spot where I’d seen the shadowy figure. Whoever he was, he was long gone.
Chapter Two
Emma helped me back to her black Escalade. I could stand on my own, but the CPR had done a number on my chest. I’d be sporting a bruise come morning. A normal person would go to the emergency room after dying, but I didn’t have insurance, nor did I have a way to explain what happened yet. I had my theories, but they’d have to wait.
Baron Samedi, my boss, was waiting by Emma’s SUV, leaning on his skull-head cane. He was a tall, thin black man with bony features and bright eyes. Normally, he dressed in purple suits and matching slacks, but that evening he’d chosen a rust-colored outfit. He removed his top hat. “Did you get them?”
I nodded. “All seventeen zombies are dead.”
“Good.” Samedi replaced his hat and tucked his cane into his elbow. “I’ll see to the remains.”
Emma pulled open the passenger door and stuffed me inside. “Make sure missing persons can find and identify the remains with DNA. Those families deserve some closure.”
“Speaking of closure.” I rubbed my chest. “Any idea who rose them in the first place?”
The Baron shook his head.
Whoever had done it was likely the same person behind the psychic attack that nearly did me in. He’d been working on zombifying those seventeen people for at least a month since that was the oldest matching missing person’s report. The victims had seemed random, unconnected by anything that either Emma or I could identify.
The one thing I knew about the man behind the magic was that he was a necromancer, which should’ve made him easier to find. Not many necromancers in New Orleans. The witch community thought that kind of black magic was bad business. I’d been shunned ever since I came into my powers. At least this guy wouldn’t have any allies here either.
“Whoever he is, he’s still out there.” Emma checked the ammo in her gun and tucked it back into her holster. “And there are more missing people. Reports spiked six months ago and haven’t let up since.”
In a tourist city the size of New Orleans, missing people weren’t unheard of. People got drunk and fell into the river or wandered into the bayou to get eaten by gators. Some people just disappeared for natural reasons. It was usually impossible to tell them apart from those who disappeared for supernatural reasons until it was too late. I could use a finding spell to help the cops if they’d have let me, but I was lying low since I was dating a cop. I didn’t want to put Emma’s career at risk. A couple of detectives were being hardasses about her dating a felon.
The only reason we’d found the zombies was because we got a tip. Someone texted Emma directly with where to find them and how many there were. We didn’t know who that lead was either. It felt like someone was messing with us, but we couldn’t just ignore zombies on the loose.
I unscrewed the cap on the water bottle sitting in the cup holder and chugged half of it. “He was here.”
“What?” Emma crossed her arms.
“Yeah. What happened earlier wasn’t random. He hit me with a wallop of magic that somehow sailed straight through my mental shields. Some kind of curse. I shouldn’t have come back from it.”
Samedi stroked his chin with two fingers. “The Horseman mantle should’ve protected you from an assault. It makes your magic stronger.”
“What are you saying exactly?” Emma asked.
I met Samedi’s bloodshot eyes. “He’s saying whoever did this is at least as strong as me, if not stronger.”
Emma chewed on her bottom lip a moment before asking, “So are we dealing with another Horseman? Famine?”
“No.” I shook my head. “It wasn’t Beth. Or Felicia. The shadow didn’t look like Haru, either. And this isn’t Haru’s style.”
I chugged more of the water, creating an excuse to be silent a moment. There were other mantles in the world. I’d been the Sandman for a bit, and I knew there was a Devil mantle for the ruler of She’ol. There were also gods and angels out there, the latter of which Emma didn’t know about yet. Any of them could match my power. If it was another Titan, he could beat me easily, but Titans fed on magic. They didn’t raise the dead, and they didn’t waste their time toying with people. Titans killed without hesitation. Whoever this other necromancer was, he’d released his curse on purpose. He didn’t want me dead, but he wanted me to know he could kill me. Why?
“It’s not a Horseman,” I said. “It’s not anyone with any kind of mantle, I don’t think. The man controlling the last zombie, he felt human. I don’t know how to explain it, but he was… familiar. Like I knew him.”
The Baron leaned forward on his cane. “Do you know of any other necromancers, Lazarus?”
“It’s not like there’s a guild or anything, Samedi. No. If I could guess even remotely at who was behind this, I’d tell you. Believe me.”
He pursed his lips and grunted before lifting his cane. “Well, I have work to do. Ms. Knight.” He tugged on the brim of his top hat. “I will ensure your officers find the remains. However, there’s no way to leave them without making it suspicious in some way. I foresee a busy few weeks ahead for the homi
cide department.”
Emma sighed. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
After Samedi swaggered into the abandoned park, Emma got into the Escalade, and we drove across town to pick up my daughter from the sitter.
Nate Frieder was the night shift coroner for New Orleans Parish, and it was a few hours past the beginning of his shift, which meant his wife, Leah, was watching Remy. They lived in a little two-story yellow house with red shutters near the lake. It looked like a house straight out of a children’s storybook.
I knew something was wrong when we pulled up and found Leah’s Kia missing. The front door was wide open, and the doorknob lay in pieces on the ground. I threw open the door and was halfway up the walk before Emma got the Escalade stopped. The front room was even more of a mess with overturned furniture, blankets tossed in piles, and a broken vase on the floor.
“Remy? Leah?” Cold panic gripped my chest and I rushed for the stairs, pulling magic into my fist. “Leah?”
Silence answered me.
Emma slid through the front door, her gun drawn and pointed at the floor. She met my eyes and gestured for the stairs, then toward the kitchen, silent for, “You check the upstairs. I’ll clear the kitchen.”
I nodded and climbed the stairs, trying to keep my emotions in check. If anything happened to either of them, I’d never forgive myself. Dammit, nothing supernaturally bad should’ve been able to get in. I’d talked Leah into letting me put up some wards around the property. I should’ve known about it if anyone but me crossed them while Remy was there, yet I hadn’t been alerted. Either whoever had done this wasn’t supernatural, or something even worse was going on.
The carpet sloshed under my foot. My breath froze as I looked down and realized I stood in a puddle of blood, enough to soak the carpet. A muffled groan made me turn my head. The blood trail led to a closed door. The linen closet.
I gripped the doorknob and pulled. Leah rolled out, her wrists and ankles bound with plastic zip ties. Someone had stuffed a dirty sock halfway down her throat as a gag, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Shiny red blood glistened on her chest.
“Call a squad!” I shouted and dropped to my knees. “Hurry!”
Emma’s footsteps thundered up the stairs behind me. “Jesus, it’s Leah!”
“Call them, Em!” I yanked the sock out of her mouth and put my hands over the bleeding wound in Leah’s chest and tried not to let myself think about what might’ve happened to Leah and Nate’s baby girl, let alone Remy.
Emma put the phone to her ear and relayed the situation to dispatch.
Leah’s eyes fluttered open. “Don’t hurt her. Please.”
“EMS is on the way. Don’t talk. You’re going to be okay.” I added more pressure. She was bleeding everywhere. How could she have lost so much blood and still be conscious?
She blinked, letting tears fall. “Don’t hurt my baby.”
I gritted my teeth. “Where is she, Leah? Where are Remy and Jessica?”
Whatever Leah mumbled in response was incomprehensible. She slipped into unconsciousness.
“Emma.” I twisted, giving her a pleading look. “Find them.”
She nodded once, raised her gun, pointed it down the hall, and went to search the nursery.
What if she’s gone? I squeezed my eyes shut. What kind of monster would hurt unarmed women and children? I hoped it was a literal monster. When I found out whoever was responsible for this, I would take my time killing them. If Remy was hurt… No. That wasn’t possible. I couldn’t even let myself entertain the thought. My daughter had to be alive wherever she was.
Emma came out and ducked into the second bedroom quickly before returning. She tucked her gun away. “They’re not here.”
I stared at her, trying to process what she’d just said. “What do you mean?”
“I mean the kids aren’t here, Laz. Someone took them.”
Chapter Three
An ambulance came for Leah, and the cops came to talk to me. Somehow, I’d found my way down to the kitchen table and sat with my head in my hands, trying not to snap at the police.
“When was the last time you saw your daughter, Mr. Kerrigan?” He looked up from the notes he was writing.
“After dinner,” I said in a monotone. “We went out to catch one of the parades, and then all six of us went to dinner.”
“All six?”
“Me, Emma, and Remy plus Nate, Leah, and Jessica.” I lowered my hands. “Do we have to do this now? Shouldn’t you be out looking for her? Putting out a BOLO or whatever on Leah’s Kia?”
“Try not to panic, Mr. Kerrigan.” He scribbled something in his notebook.
I balled up a fist and struck the table hard enough it made the glass of water in front of me jump. “Try not to panic? Are you shitting me? My daughter’s missing! My best friend’s wife could be dead, their kid is gone too, and you want me to calm down?” I pushed up from the table. “Let me tell you something, buddy—”
“Sit down, Lazarus.” A tall guy with slick hair in a suit muscled his way into the room and flashed a badge at the officer. “We’ll take it from here, officer.”
“Detective Drake,” I said through clenched teeth as I sat. Just who I didn’t want to see. “Didn’t realize this was your beat.”
“Special case. Now, let’s start from the top.” He clicked a pen, licked a finger, and flipped open a notebook of his own, thumbing through the pages. “You said you went to dinner. But you and Detective Knight went off on your own afterward, huh? Dumped your kid on your friend’s wife? Why? Go out to party? Bourbon Street?”
“Do I look like a fucking tourist, Brad?”
“I hear you like the bottle. Files say your old man did too. What else do you two have in common?” He lowered the notebook. “Right. You both have a record. Violent records, if I recall. You ever hit a woman?”
“No, but I’ll make an exception in your case.” I stood up fast enough that the chair toppled over behind me.
Drake’s eyes widened, and his arms tensed. His eyes snapped to my clenched fists resting on the table and back to my face. “Where did you and Detective Knight go?”
“For a walk by the river.”
“And she’ll vouch for your whereabouts under oath?”
“Ask her yourself.” I grabbed my coat from the back of the chair. “I’m done letting you bust my balls.”
Detective Drake stepped in my way. “Maybe you’d be more comfortable talking about this downtown in a very small room?”
“That’s enough, Brad.” Emma stopped in the doorway and crossed her arms. “I was with him all night. I called it in. You want to grill someone, I’m right here.”
Drake clicked his pen and turned. “You know the D.A. can poke holes in that kind of alibi like Swiss cheese, Knight. If I don’t get the details, and that kid turns up floating in the river tomorrow morning—”
He never saw the slap coming, but from the loud crack of her palm against his cheek, he felt it. Drake’s head jerked the side, eyes wide. Every muttering voice in the house went silent. Drake’s partner, Detective Codey, leaned in from the stairway to survey the scene.
“You just assaulted a police officer,” Drake sneered.
Emma raised her chin. “Fine. Run me in. Then, when I tell my side of things to the chief, I’ll get the chance to tell him about all the harassment and inappropriate comments that’ve come out of your mouth the last few months.”
He rubbed his face and stared at her.
“Or you can pull your head out of your ass and we can do some real police work and save lives. That is what you signed up to do, isn’t it, detective?”
Before Drake could answer, every police radio in the room kicked on, dispatch relaying the same message. “All units be advised. White Kia Optima, plates Adam Henry Robin fifteen seven has been located at Magazine and Cadiz Streets.”
Leah’s car. They’d found it just up the street from my office. Why there?
I shrugged on my coat. �
�Don’t just stand there. Someone find out if the kids are there!”
Emma grabbed a radio from one of the nearby cops. “Dispatch, who’s responding?”
“This is Officer Gordan,” came the crackly voice of another cop over the radio. “Who’s this?”
“This is Detective Emma Knight. There are two missing infants connected to that car, Gordan. Tell me they’re in the back seat.”
“Negative, detective. I don’t see any—”
There was a sound, a booming crackling sound like fireworks going off, and then the radio died.
Emma hit the talk button on her radio frantically. “Officer Gordan. Gordan!”
Other voices quickly drowned her out, shouting over the radio.
“Officer down! Officer down!”
“—Explosion! The fucking car exploded!”
“Dispatch, get the firetrucks out here now! And get the fucking bomb squad!”
Emma lowered the radio and met my eyes. “I’m sure the kids weren’t in the car, Laz.”
I barely heard her. My whole head felt like I was underwater. I needed to get there, see for myself. Just in case. Numbly, I staggered past Detective Drake.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” His hand clamped down on my shoulder.
I spun around on him without thinking and punched him right in the jaw, realizing too late that it was a mistake. Drake teetered like a tree and fell to the floor, dead weight. The house sprang to life with officers everywhere scrambling to tell me to keep my hands where they could see them. Shit. I raised my hands in surrender.
Someone grabbed my wrists and twisted them behind my back. “Once a criminal, always a criminal,” Codey spat as he cuffed me.
“Hey, he put his hands on me. Damn, man. That hurts. Easy on the shoulder.”
“Codey, don’t,” Emma said as Codey tightened the cuffs until they bit into my wrists.
He spun me around. “Stay out of this if you want to keep your badge, Knight.”
Emma met my eyes and sighed.
I nodded. “Find them. This is nothing. I’ll be out in no time.”