Magic and Decay

by Rachel Higginson

I thrust out my hand and my Magic snuck between them just in time. The Feeder snapped and hissed like a rabid, starving animal. Thick puss dripped from his mouth and ran down his chin. His eyes flashed with frenzied bloodlust, but my Magic stopped him from sinking his disgusting teeth into my husband’s body.

  Then I used that same Magical field to break his head off.

  That’s right. Off. All the way off.

  The head dropped to the side and blood gushed out of his headless body.

  Kiran wasted no time in shoving the dead creature off him and jumped to his feet.

  He stood and faced me, hitting me with a look that said everything he didn’t need to say out loud. His turquoise eyes practically glowed with intense gratitude and deep love. I felt my heart stutter in my chest as I absorbed all the feelings this man had for me.

  I thought it was a little silly that he needed to feel gratitude, but it energized me in ways only my husband could. Of course, I would save him though. Of course, I would do everything in my Immortal power to keep him safe and us together. Forever. If we truly had forever to live then I wouldn’t go a single second without him near me.

  We turned in unison to the rest of our group. I lost the ability to think or move as I stared at them in horror.

  They all fought to survive beneath a small horde.

  Apparently the Feeder that landed on me was the only one that died on impact. The rest had managed to survive and it was only by a miracle that the rest of our group had also managed to survive thus far.

  Kiran and I dove in immediately.

  He jumped at one of the Zombies that had Ivy pinned, propelling both of them to the side.

  Another Zombie went for Ivy’s beaten body and his claws sliced into her back. I winced at the site of those jagged fingernails coming away with blood.

  Ivy threw her head back and let out a scream of agony. The Zombie’s nails slashed at her head and tangled in her pretty red hair.

  That was enough for me. I lunged forward and used my Magic again to rip off his head. More blood. More guts.

  Ivy collapsed onto the Zombie when his grip loosened on her hair. She fought to untangle herself while keeping her composure. She did all right except for all the screaming and freaking out.

  Eventually, she got free of one Zombie while two more took his place.

  Kiran had his guy finally under control, and by under control, I meant dead, and helped me knock out the other two Zombies before we turned to Ryder, Reagan and Hendrix.

  Ryder lay on his back with his feet shoved into a Zombie’s mouth. His thick boots gave the Zombie something to chew on, but the Zombie was getting frustrated and violent. Ryder’s jeans were shredded from the Zombie’s claws. His blood dripped through the tears in his pants and sent the Zombie into a blind fury.

  Sweat beaded on Ryder’s forehead and his legs shook with the effort to hold the creature at a distance. Ivy cried out words that I couldn’t make out between the Zombie screeching and the gunshots coming from Reagan and Hendrix’s direction.

  “Help him,” I begged my husband.

  He nodded once and then attacked the Zombie. Kiran’s hands gripped his head and twisted. His Magical energy surged with power; I felt it all over me before the weak bone structure cracked and the rotted skin ripped. Kiran took the Zombie’s head and tossed it into the crowd pounding at the now-complete force-field surrounding us.

  Ryder kicked the lifeless body to the side and scrambled to his feet. He didn’t bother saying thank you or acknowledging us at all. He only had eyes for Ivy.

  He moved to her with feral grace. His long legs ate up the space between them and then his arms crushed her in a heavy embrace.

  They were covered with slime and goo and blood, but they didn’t seem to care about any of that. They had each other. That was all that mattered.

  I could relate.

  Kiran and I moved on to help Reagan.

  She was at least on her feet, but just as I moved in her direction the gun she held in her hand clicked empty.

  I watched her face blanch with panic at the same time the Zombie she hadn’t managed to take out leaped at her.

  I made a move to stop the Zombie with my Magic and caught him with a blast of energy straight to his chest. The Zombie stumbled back before righting itself.

  A lone shot rang through the air as Hendrix wasted the creature with one of his last bullets. With his attention diverted to Reagan’s battle, though, the Zombie he had been trying to take out took the opportunity to tackle him.

  Hendrix went down with a smack against the pavement and his gun clattered away. Kiran and I sprinted forward sending our Magic at the Zombie trying to eat through Hendrix’s backpack.

  I heard fabric tear and shred in the sharpened teeth and prayed that he hadn’t nicked Hendrix in some way.

  I held my breath and used Magic to punch the Zombie in the side, hoping to lift him off Hendrix so Kiran and I could finish the job the Zombie-plague had started in his rotting body.

  This Zombie was stronger than usual, though, and held onto Hendrix with fierce determination.

  I upped my energy, but there was no way to spare Hendrix completely. I heard his grunt of pain as I finally dislodged the Zombie from his back.

  Kiran was on the creature as soon as he was free, and in the next second, its head was gone and its body bleeding into the coagulated, sticky swamp of blood we’d created in the last ten minutes.

  Reagan lunged forward and shot at the headless body with Hendrix’s gun. She’d apparently retrieved it and decided to use it pointlessly.

  “Reagan,” Hendrix wheezed. “I’m all right.”

  I was surprised she heard him through the cacophony of raging Zombies, but her hand fell to her side and her head hung.

  Hendrix lay on the ground and looked up at her with a mixture of confusion and agony. When her shoulders started to tremble, he shook off both of those feelings and jumped to his feet. Immediately he flinched and grabbed his side where I’d accidentally hit him with Magic. I opened my mouth to offer him some healing blue smoke when his arms went around Reagan’s middle and he yanked her back into him. He buried his face in her neck and started speaking in a low, reassuring voice.

  I didn’t know what he said. I didn’t need to know what he said. It was obvious that he was reassuring her that he was alive and unharmed.

  His backpack hung off his shoulders, spilling the contents out of the hole the Zombie chewed, but he was alive and unbitten.

  I looked for Kiran, but he had turned his attention behind me. The force-field was firmly in place, even over our heads, but the Zombies were more infuriated than ever. They beat against the Magic they couldn’t see and didn’t understand. They growled and screamed and hissed, but nothing would get them past this Magic.

  Nothing.

  I thought Kiran might be checking out the Zombie situation but when I turned around to see for myself, I found something more disturbing than the hundreds of Zombies surrounding us.

  Something so much worse.

  Ryder and Ivy stood two feet apart, staring at each other with an expression that made me feel sick and helpless.

  Ivy’s hand pressed to her neck and shook violently. She pulled her hand away and it dripped with blood. She wiped it on her shirt frantically and then pressed it to her skin again.

  I took in her action and somewhere in my head I knew what was happening, but my mind refused to understand the details of the moment.

  Ivy’s hand came away again and more blood covered her perfect skin. This time when she wiped it against her shirt, I could see the wound where the blood originated.

  The wound.

  The bite.

  The Zombie bite.

  Ivy started crying as realization set in with her, too. Her big green eyes reflected misery and fear and each of those sentiments was mirrored in Ryder times one thousand.

  Ivy had been bitten.

  I hadn’t managed to keep her safe after all.

  Ch
apter Five

  Ivy

  I froze.

  Froze.

  I couldn’t think. I couldn’t act. I couldn’t do anything.

  I just stood there trying to wipe the blood from my neck onto my clothes. The dirty, contaminated, infected blood.

  My blood.

  Fear snaked through my stomach and wrapped around my heart. It squeezed and squeezed and choked the life out of me.

  I felt the change immediately. I felt my blood die in my veins. There was life and then there wasn’t. I was a living, breathing, thinking person and then… I wasn’t.

  My skin turned chalky with sweat. Saliva pooled in the back of my throat and I nearly choked on it. I struggled to make my throat move, to force the slimy spit down my deadening muscles.

  Oh, god.

  I was a Zombie!

  What now? Was this it? Is this where I died?

  Not at Nix’s brutal hands or in the middle of some ancient Greek war? But like this?

  This is what I got for hating my beauty all my freaking life. Was this the Universe’s way of proving a point?

  Fine. I’m vain. There. I said it. I’m incredibly vain. I hate my beauty, but I like it too!

  I didn’t want to lose my looks this way. I didn’t want to start rotting like a corpse before I ever died. I didn’t want to smell bad and not be able to think.

  And I really, really, really didn’t want to change my diet from whatever it was before to brains.

  My limbs locked tight and my heart slowed to nearly stopped. I shot Ryder a pleading look and felt the tears slip from the corners of my eyes.

  He looked horrified. He reached for me, but Reagan grabbed him before he could get too close.

  “You can’t,” she told him in a broken voice. “She’s already changing.”

  A sob hiccupped in my throat and more tears slipped from my eyes. No. No! This couldn’t be happening!

  The bite on my neck burned like hot coals. The Zombie had gone right for my neck. He’d pinned me to the ground and savagely attacked my body. He’d cut gashes into my skin all over and I hadn’t known he’d actually bitten me until I stood up and realized the wound on my neck hurt more than any of the others.

  But now I couldn’t feel anything else. I wanted to scream in agony, but my lungs wouldn’t cooperate. I felt the life drain out of me. Whatever made me human, whatever pieced together my soul seemed to seep out of me through my feet. My thoughts started to rush around and crash into each other.

  And then the worst of it.

  The first hunger pain for flesh.

  My new friends stood around me and they looked… delicious.

  I locked eyes with Ryder and pleaded with him to anchor me, to keep me grounded. My mind was on the verge of floating away and my body already betrayed me.

  I felt a trickle of drool fall from the corner of my mouth, but I couldn’t do anything about it! I couldn’t even wipe it away.

  More tears leaked out of my eyes, the only sign that I could still feel.

  And all the while my neck screamed with pain. Would I feel this forever? If I lived beyond the next few minutes would I always suffer from this pain?

  Only there would be more of it.

  Eventually, my skin would begin to decay. My bones and muscles would become exposed. Every part of me would rot and slowly peel away and I would feel every moment of it.

  “Ryder,” I croaked.

  He shoved Reagan and Hendrix off and rushed to me. He pulled me into his arms and pressed a kiss to my pasty forehead.

  I tried to shake my head, to warn him off, but he just held me tighter.

  “I’m not letting you do this alone, Red. This is my choice not yours. You left me once before. I won’t let you leave me again.”

  “Ryder, move out of the way!” Hendrix shouted at us. “I’m going to shoot her, Man. Let me put her out of her misery before it really begins.”

  “You’re going to have to shoot me too!” Ryder turned me into him and shielded me entirely with his body. I would have wept if I could have, but the tears had dried up now and I couldn’t even blink.

  I needed to blink!

  The not-blinking was really starting to freak me out!

  “We’re not going to shoot you! Move out of the way!” Reagan sounded panicked and I didn’t blame her. Ryder needed to move and he needed to move now.

  I wasn’t going to bite him. I couldn’t.

  I couldn’t hurt him again.

  I wouldn’t do this.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t know if I would be able to stop myself. Excess saliva gathered at the back of my tongue and I felt the hunger sear through my veins hot and demanding.

  A whimper pushed out of my chest and the sickening feeling that I wouldn’t be able to stop this, myself or this disease settled like lead in the bottom of my stomach.

  Oh, god. I was going to eat someone!

  Ryder’s entire chest vibrated with fury when he shouted, “Shoot me too, then! I’m not going to let her die like this! I won’t let you do this!”

  “Think of what she’ll become! Do you honestly think Ivy would have wanted this? Don’t you think she’d rather die? Let us put her out of her misery.” Hendrix begged Ryder, his voice hit a low pleading that punctured my Zombie haze and forced me to feel for possibly the last time.

  They should shoot me. They should end this before it begins.

  I don’t want to hurt someone.

  I don’t want to taste blood and flesh and bone.

  I looked out at the sea of Zombies that pounded against some kind of invisible wall of Magic. They were desperate to get to us. And I would be one of them soon.

  Please shoot me.

  Please.

  “What’s that?” Reagan asked sounding slightly hysterical.

  “What the hell?” Ryder held me at a distance just as the urge to snap my teeth at him hit me hard. I held it back, but just barely.

  Something cool misted around my ankles. I felt it through my stiff jeans. The sensation brought relief, the first of it in several minutes. I let out a slow exhale and my lungs moved with the effort.

  I perked up when I realized that my lungs had all but stopped because of the infection, but could now move with some freedom.

  What was happening now?

  Was this a good sign? Or a sign that the disease had gotten worse?

  The tingles of relief moved up my body. A gentle breeze washed over my thighs and waist. My heart started beating with purpose when it reached my chest. My neck stopped burning like the sun. The heat pulled back and the agonizing pain eased.

  “Ivy,” Ryder whispered.

  He let go of me and I stood on my own. My mouth stopped watering and my blood rushed through my veins with purpose and life again.

  Just as I felt the life slowly drain out of me, I now felt it return with vigor.

  I wiggled my fingers and after that, I wiggled my toes in my shoes. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  I felt the infection dissipate inside of me.

  I felt my thoughts organize and my consciousness piece itself back together.

  I felt my body heal.

  By this time, I couldn’t make out much through a thick, wispy navy blue smoke that covered me completely. It looked like someone had let off a few smoke bombs right at my feet.

  I expected to start choking on it, but I breathed through it easily.

  I couldn’t really see though. I stepped forward, hoping to find Ryder.

  Three or four steps later I left the smoke behind me. Ryder stood on the outside of it with his hands grasping at his wild hair and his gray eyes brimming with unshed tears.

  I threw myself at him. I was too happy to care about our history and the bad feelings between us. I didn’t care that we weren’t supposed to care about each other and that our world was falling apart. I didn’t care that there were hundreds of Zombies trying to get to us, trying to kill me.

  All I cared about was Ryder.

&nbs
p; His arms wrapped around my waist, and he squeezed me so tightly that he lifted my feet off the ground.

  “You’re okay?” he whispered into my hair.

  “I’m okay,” I swore to him.

  His lips pressed into the curve of my neck where he kissed me. His chin scratched my skin, but I relished the sensation, drowned in it.

  His heat wrapped around me and my heart swelled at our closeness. Tears fell again, wetting my cheeks and soaking his filthy t-shirt, but I didn’t care.

  We had each other again.

  “Eden, that was you?” Reagan’s question cut through our happy reunion.

  I lifted my head but didn’t pull away from Ryder.

  Eden sat on the ground with her legs curled to the side and one arm propping her up. Kiran crouched at her side with a protective hand on her shoulder.

  She looked exhausted.

  The blue smoke I’d walked through pooled around her body and seemed to play against her skin.

  More Magic?

  Eden nodded at Reagan’s question. “That was me,” she rasped.

  Kiran stood up and swept his wife into his arms. “It took everything out of her,” he explained. Her head dropped to his shoulder, and her eyes drifted shut. “She isn’t used to healing other species, er, humans. Even when she heals our people she tires easily. But this was… that was an extraordinary circumstance.”

  I met his uniquely blue eyes and hoped my authenticity could be seen in my expression. “Thank you,” I told them both, although I thought Eden might be asleep by now.

  Her breathing had evened out and she didn’t twitch or move at all in his hands.

  “You’re alive. That’s what matters.” Kiran’s grave voice held a truth I didn’t want to argue with right now. Or ever.

  Ryder squeezed me against his chest again and whispered something I didn’t understand into my ear. I pulled back just slightly so I could look him in the eye and ask him what he said, but Kiran started speaking again before I could form the words.

  “We have to move,” Kiran commanded. “Now. With Eden so weak, I won’t be able to hold the force-field for long. If we don’t make a run for it this second, we won’t be able to. And this time, Eden won’t be able to save any of us.”

  Well, damn. That was not good.