The Queen of Zombie Hearts

by Gena Showalter

  "No." She stomped her foot. "You listen. I'm going!"

  O-kay. I suddenly understood why Cole was as hard-core as he was. Arguing with your allies wasted precious time. "Kat. Please. Be reasonable."

  Cole didn't give her a chance to respond. "Two choices. You'll do what she says." In full commander mode, he added, "Or you'll do what she says. Feel me?"

  Her eyes narrowed to tiny slits, the patent stillness of a predator coming over her. "Oh, I feel you all right. Now you're about to feel me."

  He flattened his good hand on the car, caging her against the metal, leaning down to get into her face. "You want to try something? Go ahead."

  Ding, ding. Round one of The Bloodbath has begun.

  "Gavin could be bleeding out right this minute." I glared at one, then the other. "We could have targets on our backs. Get in the car and go, Kat."

  Still she shook her head, stubborn to the bitter end. "I'm going after Frosty. That's final."

  I looked to Cole. He was practically hemorrhaging determination. Hard decisions came with hard consequences--he was getting ready to make one. One of us would have to go with her, and we both knew it.

  "It's time for you to prove number seven." That he would stand back and let me fight. "You're injured. I'm not. I'll be the one to find Frosty."

  I expected an argument. Instead, he gave me a clipped nod and grabbed Kat by the waist, hauling her inside the car, holding her down. She fought like, well, an alley cat, hissing, clawing, scratching, and it tore me up inside. Every fiber of my being screamed to help her, to stop this, to give her what she wanted, but I didn't. Sometimes what we wanted wasn't what we needed. I would apologize later, and she would have to forgive me...because Frosty would be with me.

  Please, let him be with me.

  I stored my .44 at my waist (safety on). As the car sped away from the curb, tires squealing, my gaze collided with Cole's, and through the window, we experienced a moment of total understanding. He'd do whatever was necessary to protect the girls. Even at the cost of his own life.

  It had better not come to that.

  The second the vehicle was out of sight, I sprinted into the forest, heading toward the shopping center where the Wok and Roll was located. The activity helped loosen my regret, and I began to warm, my blood rushing faster and faster through my veins.

  Eventually, gnarled trees gave way to a paved road. I went up a hill, down a hill, through another neighborhood, careful to study every passing car, before finally reaching my destination. My lungs burned. Despite the cold, beads of sweat rolled down my spine.

  It was Saturday, and shoppers were out in droves. Building after building stretched on both sides of me, each peppered with stores and restaurants. Being around so many people unnerved me. Anyone could be with Anima, just waiting to strike.

  Strike and die.

  A bell tinkled over the door as I entered the buffet. The scent of fried meat immediately assaulted me, and I almost hurled.

  Only one other customer was there. A middle-aged man who definitely wasn't Frosty, and I highly doubted he was with Anima. He had to be one egg roll away from a heart attack.

  Frustration cut at me. Enraged Kat for nothing.

  No, no. Maybe Frosty had taken off, but had plans to return.

  There was still hope.

  A bright-eyed hostess approached me, smiling a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "How many?"

  Could she be with Anima? "Just one."

  She led me to a table in the center of the room.

  "In back, please."

  Shoulders stiff, she moved to the booth hidden by a huge aquarium and arched a brow, a silent is this good enough for princess?

  "Perfect." I scooted into my seat, accidentally on purpose brushing against her to feel for weapons. Nothing. "Thank you."

  Her lips compressed as she set a menu in front of me and took off.

  I pulled out my phone and texted Cole. Frosty isn't here. Gonna wait N case he comes back. Has Kat calmed down?

  Cole: Kat--no. U--DON'T WAIT LIKE SWEET LITTLE TARGET, GO HOME.

  Swear I heard his irritated voice reverberating through my mind. He'd let me do this, and now he regretted it. Figured.

  Me: News flash, Holland. ALL CAPS DOES NOT INTIMIDATE ME.

  Cole: IT SHOULD. THE WRATH OF C.H. IS NOT A PRETTY THING.

  Me: Bite me.

  Cole: This just in--I will. W/pleasure. But I want U 2 come back & get me. Currently there R no other cars available. BTW this is nonnegotiable.

  Me: Sorry, babe, but this was an FYI exchange & not a solicitation 4 orders. U can use the time apart 2 negotiate this. (I used an emoticon to flip him off.)

  Cole: So that's a soft yes?

  Good glory. I put the phone away, before he distracted me from my purpose. More than he already had.

  Think! Even if Frosty had plans to come back to the Wok and Roll, he wouldn't have gone very far. Unless he was forced. He would probably move from shop to shop, where he could watch the restaurant's front door for Gavin without allowing anyone to get a lock on him.

  But...if that was true, he would have spotted me and come racing over.

  "Know what you want to order?" asked the hostess--waitress now--when she reappeared at my table.

  "Hey, was there a fight in here today? Any kind of yelling match?" Any hint that my friend had been spotted?

  Her brow furrowed with confusion. "No. Why?"

  Rather than answer, I threw a twenty on the table. "Never mind. I've got to go."

  She didn't try to stop me as I stalked outside. I leaned against the brick wall, as if taking a moment to warm myself against the cutting breeze. Really, I was scanning the shops across the way. Clothes. Clothes. Coffee. Shoes. Bakery. Cloth--

  Coffee.

  He could stay there longest, without drawing notice.

  I rushed over and entered the warmth and deliciousness of the caffeine-scented shop. I studied the occupants, my nerves about to reach the breaking point, and--

  Found him!

  Joy. Such profound joy. He was in the corner, looking out the glass window. He'd hidden his pale hair under a hat. The coat he wore had to be stolen, because I'd never seen him wear it, and it wasn't his size. It was also pink with purple flowers.

  I walked to Frosty's table, pulled out a chair.

  "Get lost--" Relief eroded all hints of anger. He leaned toward me. "Thank God it's you. Tell me everything you know. Start with information about Kat."

  "She's alive and well and desperate to see you."

  He closed his eyes, one of which was black, and sagged against the table. "You have no idea how badly I want to see her, too, but when I searched Ankh's place last night, she was gone."

  "There's a secret passage that leads from Ankh's to an underground facility," I said. "She was staying there."

  "Was?"

  "As of this morning, she's back at Ankh's. He's refortified the security."

  Frosty's hand curled into a fist. "I've been so worried...."

  "I know," I said, patting that fist. "Why didn't you come to the Wok and Roll when I arrived?"

  He frowned. "I didn't see you."

  "But you were supposed to meet Gavin there."

  "No. I was supposed to meet him at the coffee shop across from the Wok and Roll."

  I'd blame Gavin's confusion on blood loss.

  "Is he okay?" Frosty asked, an edge to his tone.

  He expected bad news. "He will be," I said, determined. "Right now, he's in pretty bad shape. Cole, too, though he's doing much better. He was shot." Keep it together. "They're both with Mr. Ankh."

  "Good. That's good." A grim cast overshadowed his expression. "Cruz is--"

  "Yeah. I know." The sting of tears. Shut down the waterworks. Now. "Trina and Lucas, too."

  He ground his fists into his eyes. "What about the others?"

  "I wish I knew. You haven't heard or seen anything?"

  "Only that Justin and Jaclyn are missing."

&
nbsp; Had the twins been kidnapped? Or were they dead?

  Jaclyn and I weren't the best of friends, but we were no longer enemies. I hated the thought of her out there, suffering--or worse.

  "I planned to give Gavin five more minutes," Frosty said. "Then I was going to head out and start searching for the others."

  More proof that ticking clocks sucked. Had I arrived a few minutes later, I would have missed him. "What happened last night? With you, I mean."

  Bleakly, he said, "I was at home, in bed but still awake. I heard a squeak and tried to sit up. A hard hand slapped over my mouth, and a needle jabbed into my neck. It was an instant mind-screw. I was dizzy. I was weak and compliant. The guy must have drugged my guardians, too, because he was able to get me downstairs and out the front door without their interference. Then he made the mistake of putting me in the front seat of his car. The moment the dizziness eased, I was able to force him off the side of the road, get out and head for the gym."

  "But it was already burning to the ground," I confirmed.

  "I noticed armed men chasing an injured Gavin and did my best to gain their attention. I succeeded, but it took almost two hours to lose them and another two to make it to Ankh's. I kept passing out. Then I came here."

  So. Anima hadn't wanted to kill Frosty. But they'd certainly wanted to kill Cole. Why?

  What was their plan? Their purpose?

  "Do you know where any of the others might have hidden?" Bronx. Mackenzie. Veronica. Collins.

  "Bronx...maybe. I was going to check a meeting place of ours when I left here."

  "I'll go with you. Just need to tell Cole what's going on."

  "He micromanaging?"

  "Something like that."

  I texted Cole and Kat at the same time. Found Frosty. He's alive & well. We have lead on Bronx. More soon. & Kat...I'm sorry. I will make it up 2 U, swear!

  Cole's response came seconds later. Keep me updated.

  Kat's came a few seconds after that, and only after I'd read it did I chill. Bring my boy toy home & all will B 4given.

  Oh, how I loved that girl. She wasn't going to hold a grudge or even yell at me.

  "So," Frosty said as we stood. "I have to ask you a personal question, because our next move hinges on your answer."

  I tensed, unsure about what he could possibly want to know. "Ask."

  "How do you feel about stealing cars?"

  Chapter 7

  KEEP CALM AND

  CARRY A GUN

  Fact: life is a giant classroom and every day is an opportunity to learn something new.

  Fact: you have to be prepared for pop quizzes, because they can come from anywhere or anyone.

  Also fact: I wished I'd called in sick today.

  What I learned from Professor Frosty? How to properly boost cars. The guy could do wicked things with a single piece of wire.

  "I'm a criminal now," I lamented as we soared down the highway. Killing in self-defense didn't count. "I'm an accomplice. A thief."

  "Actually," he said smoothly, "you're a freelance valet. All you're doing is moving a car from one location to another. There's nothing wrong with that, now, is there?"

  I snorted, humor momentarily overcoming my reservations. "Freelance valet?"

  He hiked his shoulders. "Just go with it."

  Why not? "So, how'd you learn to do it, anyway?"

  "I'll tell you, but you can't ball like a baby. You'll want to, because it's tragic. Like, break your heart and--"

  "I get it. No one has ever suffered like you. Go on."

  He huffed and puffed for a minute. "Does Cole know you're made of ice?"

  "Yes. He likes to melt me."

  "Anyway. It's like this. I've been able to see zombies since birth. I cried all the time. After a while, my dad couldn't take it and left. My mom was on her own and had to be the one to calm me down every time I screamed about monsters. It freaked her out, and she put me through all kinds of medical and psychiatric tests she couldn't afford. No one could figure out what was wrong with me, and by the time she had a new boyfriend, she couldn't take the constant stress anymore, so she gave me to my aunt and uncle. I started hanging with the wrong crowd." He studied my face longer than necessary, considering he was behind the wheel of a car. Checking for tears?

  I admit, I was tempted to offer one or two in supplication. He'd been abandoned. Forgotten. But I held them back and lifted my chin. "I'm sorry you went through that. I am. But everyone comes with baggage. Did I ever tell you about the time I lost my entire family in a car crash?"

  He barked out a laugh. "You and Kat, man. You're, like, the only girls on the planet capable of surprising me. I expect sympathy, you give me lip service. It's kind of nice."

  A bit of a backhanded compliment, sure, but I'd take it. "So, what happened to your mom?"

  His fingers tightened on the wheel, a testament to his discomfort. "She visited me a few times, and now that I can drive, I have an open invitation to visit her, but she has a new family now, so..."

  Even more heartbreaking. I threw him a bone and changed the subject. "How'd you meet Cole?"

  Now his lips curved into a naughty smile. "You familiar with prison rules, Ali-gator?"

  Stupid nicknames. They were the equivalent of verbal fungus. You couldn't ever get rid of them. "Somewhat. According to Kat, there's only one. Kill now, ask questions later."

  "Actually, there are ten. But the first and most important is this--whenever you're the new kid, flat-out annihilate the current king, and no one will ever mess with you. Well, when I moved to Cole's district, he was the current king, so I challenged him in front of everyone. He knocked me out flat, then helped me up. We've been friends ever since."

  "Brothers at first punch," I said, and he nodded.

  "Something like that."

  I wondered how many other kids were out there, able to see zombies but uneducated about the truth.

  My dad had been able to see zombies, though he hadn't known what they were. As a boy, he'd watched one murder his mother. Over the years, his fear of them had only grown...and grown...until he'd later turned to alcohol and locked my little sister and me away.

  But then, that's what fear did. That's the destructive power it wielded, and that's why I was so determined to resist it, no matter what was going on.

  Sometimes, though, my determination wavered--and it usually revolved around one person.

  "Can I ask you a question?" I said.

  "Isn't that what you've been doing?"

  Har har. "Kat's kidney disease."

  A beat of taut silence. "Waiting for the question."

  "Is there anything we can do?"

  "You think I haven't researched? Made appointments just to talk to specialists about her?"

  "And there's nothing?"

  "Nothing," he repeated hollowly.

  I peered out the window, silent. Basically, Kat's death was just a waiting game. A ticking clock that would soon zero out.

  "Let's talk about something else," he said, taking a corner faster than I liked. "Like the current sitch. Anima has had multiple opportunities to come after us like this, but they never have. I mean, the time they had you, Kat and Reeve locked up we wouldn't have fought to kill, because we would have been afraid they'd hurt you girls in retaliation. So, I have to ask myself. Why now?"

  Good question. "Let's take a look at what we know. They've been working on ways to control the zombies, to steer the creatures to attack anyone standing in the way of their research. And they hope to use the zombie toxin to create a serum for eternal life, without consequences, and supposedly save mankind from disease and death, but in the meantime, they don't mind experimenting on and killing innocent people."

  Frosty thought for a moment. "What if they've succeeded?"

  "You suspect...what? That they want us out of the picture, so that there will be no one able to stop what they're doing, because no one will know about it."

  "Exactly."

  Then the situation did
not bode well for us. Because Anima would strike again. And soon, while we were injured and weakened.

  I could almost hear a countdown in my head. The tick tock, tick tock I could never escape.

  My hands curled into fists. Calm. Steady.

  No fear, remember?

  Frosty stopped in the school parking lot. Asher High. Home of the Tigers. (Go Tigers!) I frowned. There were several other vehicles there, so ours didn't stand out. But...

  "You think Bronx came here?" I asked.

  "Maybe."

  Well, okay, then. That was good enough for me.

  We entered the building--the doors were unlocked, saving us from committing another crime. We stuck to the shadows as we wandered down the halls. I kept a hand on the inside of my purse, my fingers curled around the hilt of one of my daggers. Just in case. No one jumped out at us and we were able to enter room 213 without incident.

  But...dang it! There was no sign of Bronx. I wanted to stomp my foot.

  "You contemplating throwing a hissy?" Frosty closed in on the chalkboard. "There's no need. I was right. He's been here."

  I looked left, right. Saw nothing. "How do you know?"

  Frosty motioned to the chalkboard. "He left me a message."

  I read the words scribbled across it. Love me. Hurt me. At midnight. Party like rock stars.

  O-kay. "What does it mean?"

  "Take the first word of each sentence. Love hurt. At party. Meaning, Mackenzie Love is hurt and he's got her...where?"

  Crap. How bad were her injuries?

  "They're at...a party-supply warehouse? Doubtful." He was mumbling now, clearly talking to himself, trying to reason things out. "A place we partied? More likely. But he wouldn't have picked just any place. He would have... Someplace I'd remember... The last place? Yes, yes, yes. I know where he is!"

  My heart drummed with excitement. "Then let's go."

  *

  We ended up in a run-down neighborhood about fifteen miles out of Birmingham. After wiping our prints, we ditched the car--maybe someone else would decide to do a little freelance valeting, moving it out of the area entirely--and hiked to the worst house of the lot.

  It had peeling paint, broken shutters and cracked windows. Pieces of shingle hung from the side of the roof. The planks of wood on the porch released a death rattle as we walked to the door.

  Frosty knocked. A shadow soon crept over the bottom of the door, and I knew someone was looking out the peephole.