Shadow of Nevermore

by Lilly Black

  Aiden looked through the lodge, knocking on doors and asking around. No one knew where she was, but when he came to Savannah's room and found her hanging out with her friends, she suggested that he check the dungeons since he'd already checked everywhere else.

  As the teenagers lounged in her room with Evil, Aiden took the hidden spiral stairs in Savannah's closet down to the secret bunker, leaving the door open. He didn't know his way around because he had never actually been down here, but it didn't take him long to find his girlfriend locked up in a cell. She had fallen asleep in the silence after Dani left, and concerned that someone had caged her against her will, he grabbed the key from the hook around the corner and opened the door.

  Moments later, Savannah heard growling and screaming. Evil's ears perked, then she jumped off the bed and ran into the closet and down the stairs, followed by Savannah, who pulled her gun out of the holster. Led by her sense of smell, the cat went directly to the cage, and when Savannah entered the room, she saw Aiden on the ground in a pool of blood and a giant wolf fighting with Evil.

  "Evie! No!" she cried, terrified as she aimed her gun at the wolf. She took a deep breath because her hands were shaking, but she had to save her feline sister. She forced herself to steady, then she fired, putting a bullet in the wolf's head. The wolf collapsed, and certain it was dead, Savannah ran into the cage. As she stood over it, planning to empty the clip just to be sure, it began to morph back into Liana.

  What the fuck? she wondered, but regardless of whether it made sense, the wolf was one of the immortals, which meant that she would be waking up soon. Savannah called out for Sally and Bella to come downstairs immediately because she wasn't strong enough to get Aiden out of the cage in case Liana woke up and turned back into the wolf who had slaughtered him. She dragged Evil out of the cage herself, and when the girls arrived, followed by Rey, the first thing they noticed was Aiden lying dead on the floor. Hoping he would come back, they carried him out of the cage, laid him down in the hallway, and began to examine him.

  With his chest ripped open, they didn't think it looked promising. Though Rey had seen the man resurrect before with his own eyes, the damage seemed far worse this time. Parts of him were missing, and his chest cavity so mangled, they could see his heart, which no longer pumped blood as a thick trail of it followed him out of the cage like a red carpet runner.

  They had rushed to take care of Aiden before Rey had a chance to realize that his mother was dead on the other side of the cage, but when he looked back as he heard Savvy whisper to her friends to close the cage door, he noticed a nude body lying face down on the floor inside. Whoever she was, she had his mother's hair, and he felt his heart leap into his throat.

  "What happened here?" he demanded. He didn't know if she was alive or dead. Sally and Bella didn't either, and Savannah was in no position to answer his questions as she sat on the floor, cradling Evil in her arms and sobbing, the cat's shallow, labored breathing seeming to indicate that these were her last moments with the only sibling she'd ever known.

  "Oh, God, Evie," she cried, stroking her head and kissing her. "Please be okay. Please." Savannah had never felt such pain, her heart broken by the knowledge that without hesitation, Evil had given her life to protect her from the wolf. "Please, Evie. God! Please don't die."

  "Did she do this?" Rey demanded, looking at the claw marks on Aiden's chest. "Did that fucking wild animal kill my mother?" He moved toward Savannah and Evil as if he might attack the cat in his anger, and Savannah pulled her gun, cocking it and aiming it at his head.

  "Don't you fucking touch her!" she screamed, and fearing what might happen next, Sally went to Savannah to calm her while Bella pulled Rey away.

  "I don't think the cat hurt your mom," Bella said. She had noticed that Liana's wound looked more like she was shot in the head, but now that Savannah had pulled a gun, she was afraid to point that out to him. They didn't know what to do, and when Dani finally returned, they hoped having an adult around would help diffuse the situation, but she was just as grief-stricken.

  "Oh, God, no!" she cried as she witnessed the scene before her. "What have I done?"

  Day 143

  June

  June woke from a dream in the middle of the night. She couldn't recall anything about it, but she knew it must have been intense as her heart was racing, her mind haunted by the feeling that something wasn't right. She looked at the clock. Ravi should have been back by now.

  When he didn't answer his phone, she put on her robe to step out onto the porch to listen for activity down at the gate or the lodge. Everything was dead silent in the compound except for the night animals in the dormant winter trees. Then she heard music. It was faint and far away, and she couldn't pinpoint the direction from which it came as it drifted like a whisper from mountain to mountain.

  Still, she distinctly heard the words, "You are my lady."

  Ravi!

  He was her first thought, and her second was a crippling fear that she was hearing his deathsong.

  It only lasted a few seconds before it faded entirely, and once it was gone, she tried to pretend she hadn't really heard it at all. But deep down she believed that she must have because when Ravi left this time, he had forgotten to say the words: "I promise to come back to you, my lady."

  It shouldn't have mattered.

  Ravi should have returned because the spell she, Liana, Dani, and Olivia had cast in Pittsburgh was proven to protect the men they loved from death, and June did love Ravi. She had admitted it to herself and had even begun contemplating admitting it to him when he was back in her arms. She even confessed it to God as she stood under the full moon tenderly clutching her abdomen and praying that the song on the wind had been the trick of a tired and frightened mind.

  Then she heard the whispers of a second song - a dark, baleful melody creeping through the cold, morning mists, and her heart sank.

  Day 144

  Early Morning

  The journey home was uneventful for Olivia, Reid, Alek, and the others, particularly once they were far enough from the Sinner's compound to use the headlights to navigate the cold, early morning fog that was starting to obscure the way ahead, but when they were within minutes of reaching the Deadfall, they found the road blocked. It appeared that a large, older model Impala had crashed into a tractor trailer, and though the semi was jack-knifed, the car seemed to have taken the brunt of it with both the driver and the passenger dead and reanimated. Reid and Alek went to either side of the car, blades in hand to kill those inside, and when they dragged the bodies out, Reid got in the driver's seat to try to clear their path. The engine wouldn't turn over, and the grating sound began to draw the dead.

  A few came out of the woods up the mountain to the right, and they could see more in the distance. Ravi got out to fight them, and though she hated to leave the warmth of the car, when Olivia noticed a couple of corpses crawling out from beneath the semi, she got out to help. She put them down, then climbed up to look behind it where she saw a third vehicle. It was a small box truck, and the dead were slowly squeezing out of the back of it where the door was tied down, causing an opening of less than a foot at the bottom. Realizing someone needed to close it, she asked Ravi if he could handle the dead coming down the hill, and when he nodded, she hurried toward the smaller truck. That's when she heard the loud music suddenly come blaring out of a speaker behind her.

  From the song, everyone knew instantly that it was Ravi's MP3, and those who could see him looked, hoping to find that he had thrown it to distract the zombies. But that was not the case. Even though a few more were coming down the hill, he hadn't overestimated his abilities when he told Olivia he had it under control. Ravi was a quick, strong, and very capable fighter, but neither he nor Olivia had noticed the zombie behind him that someone else had left for dead in the ditch on the side of the road. It was crippled, yet it still managed to prop itself up on its rotting arms and take a sudden bite out of Ravi's calf. He cried out, and thou
gh the others called back, asking if he needed help, he refused it. Knowing he had received a death sentence, he did the only thing he could, setting off the music to draw the rest of the dead to him so his friends could survive. A romantic ballad came blasting out of the speaker as he walked away backward, thinking of the woman who inspired his deathsong, the woman he would never see again as he slowly led the corpses away from the group like a piper, and when Reid and Alek noticed, both felt a deep sadness at the loss and sacrifice. They nodded their heads to him in reverent appreciation, whispering "farewell, brother" as they continued to cut down the dead as more came to join the fray from behind the tractor trailer.

  After Olivia climbed through the mud and leaves on the hillside to get around the front of the semi that nearly took up the entire road, she waited for her best opportunity to get to the door on the moving truck, and listening sadly to Ravi's song growing fainter as he attempted to draw the dead away, she made a dash for it. She had to stop and take out one corpse along the way, but those already heading toward the semi to crawl under still seemed to be attracted to the music even though Olivia could hear the blood rushing through the veins in her own ears louder than the song at this point. At the back of the truck, she paused and waited until the last zombie to slip out disappeared under the trailer, then as she tried to close the door, she had to fight the next one, its arm and leg hanging out of the truck, making it impossible to pull it all the way down.

  "Fuck," she hissed under her breath, grabbing the machete at her hip to cut off the limbs. Cringing at the thought, she raised it in the air aimed at the arm, but before she could bring it down, a corpse was suddenly on her from behind. She struggled to turn and fight until she felt teeth at her neck.

  Oh, god, no! her mind screamed as she felt a jolt of adrenaline and pure terror in her chest as she drove her blade into the skull of the culprit. It wasn't a bad bite. It barely felt like a bite at all, but she knew it only took the tiniest nibble to be sired by a zombie.

  She was fucked. It didn't even matter that she might be immortal because life as a walking corpse was no way to spend eternity, and when her lust for the blissful endlessness of Demerol made its way to the forefront of her thoughts, her fate was as good as sealed. Without the slightest deliberation, she hit the button on her MP3 then plunged 50 mg of liquid orgasm into her veins. Instead of the pain of her flesh being torn from her body, she felt the delicious burn of the Phenergan, and she hit the ground before her song even caught the attention of the men fighting on the other side of the trailer. The last thing Olivia heard was the door on the back of the moving truck going all the way up as she was thrust into oblivion while dozens of corpses suddenly poured out of the vehicle and surrounded her crumpled body.

  On the other side of the semi, her husband and her lover abruptly froze as the sound of her deathsong fell upon their ears, instantly sucking the breath from their lungs. They looked at each other, both knowing that the slow, eerie version of Don't Fear the Reaper had to be coming from Olivia's MP3 player, and praying they would find that she had thrown it, they immediately began making their way toward her. Alek used his sword and Reid his knife as they impaled the skulls of the corpses that stood between them and Olivia, going around the back of the semi now that they had moved the wrecked car enough to clear a footpath.

  Back at the car, Austin hid Sheri in the floorboard and covered her with his coat while he got out to kill the few strays that remained on his side of the tractor trailer, but behind it, dozens of corpses stood in the way as Alek and Reid fought toward the sound of the deathsong of the woman they loved. When they were finally close enough to see the spot on the ground where the bulk of the dead had congregated, they found only the evidence of their meal, flesh dangling in sinewy shreds from closed, full mouths, but they did not see Olivia.

  Then Reid noticed a corpse with a handful of golden hair dripping blood.

  "No!" he cried as he looked to Alek, desperate for a denial that Alek could not give him.

  "Oh, God! Oh, God!"

  Alek breathed the words over and over, and for a moment, the two were frozen in their worst nightmare until rage took over. With a tormented, guttural roar, Alek rushed headlong into the teeming throng of the dead, and Reid followed, both men viciously slicing them apart, destroying the bodies as well as the brains that kept them functioning beyond death. With no regard for their own safety, they were fueled by an inexhaustible, grief-born ferocity as they fought until the very last corpse lay truly slain.

  Finally, Olivia's husband and her lover stood bathed in blood over the spot where she went down, but amid the fog and carnage, they found only a mangled heap of bloodied clothing, bone, and long, blonde hair.

  Alek fell to his knees, looking up at Reid, his lip trembling as he tried to form words that would not come, and Reid had to turn away, staggering through the minefield of gore until he collapsed atop a pile of corpses.

  On the other side of the semi, Austin had cleared the area, then he and Sheri rammed the electric car into the old Impala to move it just enough to squeeze the smaller car through. When he saw Reid and Alek, he put it in park, getting out and moving the bodies from the car's path, then he tapped Alek on the shoulder and jumped back for fear that he might lash out. But he didn't. He slowly turned his head and looked up, his expression utterly blank.

  "It's time to go, my king," Austin said softly, and like a zombie himself, Alek did as he was bidden, his eyes vacant, his muscles like lead weights hanging from his bones. Austin led him to the car, putting him in the backseat next to Sherri where he slumped over, empty and numb, and when the kid went back for Reid, he was met with the same reaction. He ushered him into the passenger seat where he fell into a fetal position against the door as it closed on him. Desperately sad, Austin drove them home, though neither Reid nor Alek believed anyplace would ever feel like home again.

  Excerpt from

  Book III of

  Lilly Black's Gods of Earth Series

  Day 151

  In the black, windowless bedroom that was once his, Reid crept across the floor. He knew he had to be quiet. The door to the office where Alek was sleeping on the sofa bed had been left ajar, and since they had agreed to leave Olivia's room vacant for as long as it took for them both to let go, he didn't want to risk waking Alek. He just could not resist the urge to wallow in his misery in the bed he used to share to his wife one minute longer.

  Olivia had always slept on the left and Reid the right, and missing her desperately, he went directly to her side. He reached for her pillow, but it wasn't in its place, so he slid under the covers and felt around toward the opposite side, searching for it blindly. Instead, his fingers came in contact with someone's face, and though he quickly withdrew his hand, Alek was roused.

  "Olivia," he whispered, groggy as he slipped through the veil between sleep and consciousness.

  "Sorry. I didn't know you'd be here," Reid said.

  "Reid?" he asked. "What are you doing?"

  "Nothing. I'll go," he yielded.

  "No, stay," Alek urged as he pushed Olivia's pillow toward him. "It still smells like her."

  Reid pulled the pillow up to his face, and when he took a deep breath, his mind was flooded with memories. It wasn't just the scent of the products she used. He could smell her, and Alek heard his breath catch as it brought him abruptly to tears.

  "I know," Alek said as Reid felt his hand against his face in the darkness.

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