“Why not?”
“Because they were desecrating bodies in the process.”
“Sure, but what’s worse? Is mistreating live human beings better than enslaving dead bodies that should, at least in theory, be soulless?”
“That’s a very interesting dilemma.”
“It was a harsh world,” I supplied. “It’s still a harsh world. Maybe the roots of what’s happening now extend back to that time. I mean ... maybe someone is trying to raise an undead army for a specific reason.”
“And what reason would that be?”
“I don’t know.” And that was the most frustrating part of all of this. We had no answers. “I don’t think it can be anything good, but none of the bodies that have been raised have attacked anyone.”
“That we know of.”
“Don’t you think word of that would’ve spread like wildfire?”
“I guess.” He dragged a hand through his hair and cast me a sidelong look. “You’re good at this.”
“What?”
“Thinking things through. When you first joined the team, I wasn’t happy. I asked Chris to get someone older. I thought you would be a distraction.”
I pursed my lips. “Aren’t I distraction?”
“Oh, you’re definitely a distraction.” He let loose a hollow chuckle. “You’re all I can think about sometimes and it drives me crazy.”
“Do you wish I hadn’t joined the team?”
“No.” He immediately started shaking his head. “You’re good for the team. You think outside the box. You’re willing to embrace Chris’s crazy theories. You’re also willing to break from him if the evidence suggests he’s on the wrong track. You’re good for us.”
“For you?”
He broke into a charming grin. “You’re definitely good for me ... even though I told myself you should be the last thing I wanted. I couldn’t make myself pull away from you. I tried. I mean ... I really tried. I think you were inevitable for me.”
He was baring his soul and it felt nice. “Do you believe that there’s only one match for everybody?”
“No.”
I arched an eyebrow. “No?” That was a bit disappointing. “I thought maybe you believed in fate.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t believe in fate. I simply don’t think there’s only one possible match for everybody. If that were true, there would be no love. I don’t believe things are predestined. I think sometimes things happen that can make life so much better. You’re that for me.”
I went warm and gooey all over. “I can’t believe you just said that. I feel as if I’m in a romance novel.”
“Do you want to be in a romance novel?”
It was a sincere question and I was caught off guard. “I don’t know how to answer that without looking like a doofus,” I admitted.
“Just tell me the truth. What do you want?”
“What do you want?”
“No, no, no.” He wagged a finger. “This isn’t about me. It’s about you. I want to make sure you’re comfortable, Charlie. I don’t want to push you before you’re ready. There’s a natural progression to a relationship, though, and I feel as if I’m caught in limbo.”
I graced him with a sloppy smile. “You mean that you want to make a move but don’t want to do it too soon. It must be difficult to be a guy. You have a lot of expectations hanging over you.”
“I just want to do the right thing by you.”
And that’s what sealed it for me. “I think we should finish researching for the night.” I carefully closed the laptop and moved it to the nightstand.
He swallowed hard. “Do you want me to go?”
“No.”
“Do you want me to stay?”
I was exasperated. “Do I have to say it out loud?”
“Yes. I need to hear it.”
“I want you to stay.” Once I’d said it, some of the trepidation I’d been carrying around for weeks disappeared. We still had a winding road ahead of us, but it was going to be okay. I honestly believed that in the depths of my soul. “I want you to stay all night and ... you know.”
He smirked. “I should make you say that part, too.”
“If you do, we’ll never get anywhere.”
“I figured.” He leaned in close. “Okay. I guess it’s time to wow you.”
My eyebrows flew up my forehead and a giggle, unbidden, caught in my throat. “You have a very high opinion of your abilities. I hope you can live up to the hype.”
“Me, too.”
I WOKE THE NEXT MORNING and stretched languidly. I felt remarkably good for a woman who had spent an hour throwing up the previous day while her boyfriend held her hair. I felt reborn. I was naked as the day I was born, so that was a good thing.
Jack made a muffled groan next to me. He was on his back, one arm thrown over his head, and he was caught somewhere between consciousness and slumber. He was ridiculously beautiful in the morning sunlight.
As if feeling my eyes on him, he slowly turned and greeted me with a smile. “Morning.” He gave me a soft kiss. “How do you feel?”
Leave it to Jack to immediately go to the practical. “I’m not sick, Jack. How many times do I have to tell you?”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Oh.” My cheeks burned. “I’m good. How are you?” The question came out a lot more stilted than I intended.
Instead of being offended, he chuckled. “I’m good.” He moved his arm around my waist and tugged me so my head rested on his chest. “We only have a few minutes before we have to get up. You should rest.”
“I’m not sick.”
“No, but you must be tired after last night.”
If it was even possible, my cheeks burned hotter. “You have a ridiculously high opinion of yourself. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to know who.”
“I tell myself that every day.” He tickled my ribs, causing me to gasp. The levity was welcome. “I have a really high opinion of you, too. You should feel proud.”
“Oh, yeah?” I laughed as he tickled me again, this time rolling so I was on my back and he was on top of me. His eyes were earnest when they met mine.
“You’re okay?”
I nodded. “I’m good, Jack. In fact, I’m great. You don’t have to worry about me. I swear that I’m fine. I don’t think I’ve felt this … great … in a really long time.”
“Yeah, well ... me either.” He lowered his mouth to mine and gave me a long kiss. “I love that you smell like coconuts in the morning.” He buried his face in my hair and I wrapped my arms around his back so I could hold him for a bit. “You’re so warm. Are you always this warm in the morning?”
“I think that might have something to do with sharing a bed with you,” I pointed out. “We practically slept on top of each other.”
“I slept good. I can’t remember when I last slept that hard.” It was almost as if he was talking to himself. “Usually I dream about being overseas, having to run. Sometimes my sleep is more tiring than my work. Not last night. Last night I only dreamed about you.”
That was an unbelievably flattering comment. “Oh, well ... .”
He laughed, his breath tickling my ear. “You are slow in the mornings. It takes that sarcastic tongue of yours some time to catch up.”
He wasn’t wrong. “I guess I’ll have to work on it.”
“I like it. In fact ... .” He broke off, frowning when he heard someone futzing with the door. “What time is it?”
I immediately turned my attention to the clock on the nightstand. “It’s not even eight yet. We’re not expected to be downstairs for breakfast for an hour.”
“Wait here.” All traces of romantic Jack fled when he hopped to his feet. He had the foresight to grab the boxer shorts he’d discarded on the floor the night before, but he didn’t bother with more clothing than that. He strode toward the door with a purpose, ready for a fight.
I sat up, clutching the sheet to my chest. I felt caught. If something was on the other side of the door getting ready to attack, I would have to step in and use my magic. I wasn’t ready for that conversation yet. I wanted to bask a bit longer. It seemed I didn’t have a choice.
Jack threw open the door, his body ready to pounce. The look on his face, which I could only see in profile, went from predatory to mortified in a blink. “Millie!”
“I wondered if you were in here.” Millie breezed past him and into the room, pulling up short when she caught sight of me in bed. “Well, well, well. Look what we have here.”
I glanced down to make sure I was completely covered and then pinned her with a furious look. “What are you doing here?”
“Chris sent me to make sure you two were up. We’re moving early this morning.” Her gaze bounced between Jack and me. “You guys look radiant ... and you’re glowing!.”
“We are not.” Jack shut the door and stalked toward the bed. “Why can’t this wait a freaking hour?”
“Chris is convinced he’s about to prove zombies exist,” Millie replied. “I’m sure if he knew he was interrupting your morning-after bliss he would’ve delayed his urges to give you more time to cuddle.”
“Shut up,” Jack growled. He flopped on the bed, but he didn’t crawl under the covers, his cut torso on full display. “Go ahead and do your worst. I don’t care how much you tease us.”
“I’m not going to tease you.”
I waited, not believing her for a second.
“Okay, I’m not going to tease you just now,” she corrected, her grin mischievous. “I need to wrap my head around this. Last time I checked, Charlie was sick. This wasn’t the scene I expected this morning. In fact, I thought there was a chance I was going to have to fight with Jack to get him to leave you.”
“I’m fine,” I supplied. “I feel much better.”
“Obviously.”
“What is going on that requires our attention first thing in the morning?” Jack asked. “It had better be good. Otherwise I’m going to track down Chris and shake him for an hour, until I burn up every ounce of frustration that he’s caused.”
“I’m honestly sorry for interrupting you.” Millie looked contrite. “It’s just ... there was a disturbance at one of the cemeteries. Apparently someone reported multiple people walking around last night and Chris is convinced a bunch of zombies were raised.”
“Ugh.” Jack slapped his hand to his forehead. “I can’t even ... he’s a menace.”
“He’s a believer,” Millie corrected. “You used to understand that, accept it.”
“I do understand. It’s just ... he ruined my morning.” Jack wearily rolled to a sitting position. “How long do we have?”
“Thirty minutes.”
“We’ll be ready.”
Millie’s lips curved. “I’m sure you will.” She grabbed the door handle. “By the way, you two are so adorable I just want to bottle whatever it is that you’ve got going and sell it because I would make a million dollars off your essence right now.”
“Goodbye, Millie,” Jack snapped.
“See you soon, Jack.”
He slid his eyes to me as soon as she was gone. “Well, so much for our morning.”
“It’s okay.” I tossed off the covers. “We’ll have a lot of mornings … at least I hope we will.” I shot him a smile. “I want to prove that zombies are real.”
He let loose a world-weary sigh. “Of course you do. Let’s get to it.”
Seventeen
All eyes were on Jack and me when we reached the lobby. The look on his face practically dared anyone to say a word. Bernard, Chris and Hannah were wise and did nothing but smile in an absent sort of way. Perhaps they didn’t care. Millie’s lion-that-ate-the-hyena grin wasn’t easy to dismiss. It was Laura’s expression, though, that raised my hackles.
“It’s about time,” she sneered, hands on her hips.
“We’re here, aren’t we?” Jack shot back.
“Like it matters.”
“What is your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem. You’re the one with the problem you ... you ... fornicator.”
That wasn’t the word I expected to escape her lips. “Wow! A four-syllable insult,” I muttered, causing Millie’s smile to widen.
“Mind your own business, Laura,” Jack instructed, turning his attention to Chris. “Do we have vehicles?”
“They’re arriving right now,” Chris replied. Either he was oblivious to what had gone down or he simply refused to engage. “We have reports that at least ten people were seen shambling around Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District. We can’t walk there so I thought it was best to arrange for drivers.”
“That’s fine.” Jack steadfastly refused to meet Laura’s petulant gaze. “Do we know what these people were doing in the cemetery?”
“That’s just it. No one saw them go in. They only saw them leave.” He looked almost gleeful as he leaned forward and lowered his voice. “They were walking in a line, moaning, and they didn’t pay any attention to the people watching from across the street.”
Jack blinked several times. “And in your mind that means they’re zombies? Have you considered it was regular people playing a prank?”
“Nope. It was zombies.”
“Of course it was.” Jack dragged a hand through his hair and found me watching him. He was clearly frustrated, but the second our gazes met he grinned. It took him a minute to realize what he was doing, and then he collected himself and went back to scowling, but his happiness was hard to miss. I wondered if I looked the same way.
A quick look at Millie told me I probably did, because she moved closer when the first sports utility vehicle pulled up. “I’m going with Jack and Charlie,” she announced. “You guys can take Laura.”
Chris made a face. “Fine. I guess I can deal with that.”
“Hey!” Laura was incensed. “You should be so lucky to have me in your vehicle. I’m a delightful co-worker.”
“Yes, that’s what we all whisper when you’re not around,” Millie agreed, giving me a small shove toward the door. “Come on, Charlie. I can’t wait to bend your ear.”
That sounded like an uncomfortable ride, but I didn’t see where I had much choice. It was either her or Laura — one form of torture or another — and Millie was much more pleasant than our resident harpy. “Sure. I’m looking forward to it.”
Bernard joined our group and sat in the front seat, leaving Millie, Jack and me to scatter throughout the middle rows of the SUV. Jack moved to take the spot next to me, but Millie expertly hip-checked him out of the way.
“I think you should sit behind us,” she ordered, her magnificent smirk coming out to play. “I would hate for you to lose your head and develop a case of wandering hands when we’re on the clock.”
Jack growled but slid into the backseat. He winked at me as he fastened his seatbelt, but otherwise remained silent.
“So ... how are you feeling?” Millie’s presence was hard to ignore as I stared out the window to my left.
“I’m fine, Millie.”
“You look ... shiny and new.”
“Is that a compliment?” I couldn’t quite work it out.
“It’s most definitely a compliment. I kind of want to bottle whatever you use on your hair to make it so glossy. I swear, it’s almost as if you’re glowing.”
“Oh, geez.” I slapped my hand over my eyes even though it was my ears giving me issues. “How far is the Garden District from here?”
“Not far,” Jack replied. He had his phone out and was reading. “Lafayette Cemetery was founded in 1833. It’s the city’s first planned cemetery and notable because of its cruciform layout, which is perfect for parades and second lines. Who throws a parade at a funeral?”
“I want a parade at my funeral,” I offered.
“You do?”
“Yeah. I don’t want people to mourn me. I want them to celebr
ate my life. I want them to say, ‘That Charlie Rhodes is going to be missed, but look what she did while she was here.’”
Jack furrowed his brow. “How about you just don’t die until after me — like when we’re ninety — and I don’t have to think about it? How does that sound?”
Millie chuckled. “Oh, I think I might overload on the cuteness.”
“Shut up, Millie,” Jack barked. He was genuinely fond of the woman, went out of his way to help her and share conversations that I wouldn’t normally believe entertained him. However, she was obviously on his last nerve today.
“Stop being such a spoilsport,” Millie shot back, seemingly unbothered by his tone. “This should be a happy day. The fact that you keep smiling between snarls tells me you think so, too.”
“Shut up,” Jack repeated, with less vehemence this time. “We need to focus on work. Not ... other things.”
“What other things could we be focusing on?” Bernard asked from the front. He was the quiet sort, and had a longstanding relationship with Millie that they didn’t broadcast because her ex-husband was everyone’s boss. He also was inquisitive, and I didn’t miss the hint of mischief weaving throughout his words.
“There is nothing else to focus on,” I said hurriedly. “All we care about is work ... and the zombies.”
I didn’t miss the way the driver flicked his eyes to the rear-view mirror, as if trying to ascertain if I was purposely being ridiculous. I held his gaze for a moment, until he went back to watching the road, and then turned to look at Jack.
“What else does it say about the cemetery?”
“Interview with a Vampire and Double Jeopardy were filmed there.”
I perked up. “Really? That’s kind of cool.”
“It was also damaged heavily during Hurricane Katrina, and apparently there’s some ‘Save Our Cemeteries’ group fighting for conservation. It’s supposedly architecturally significant.”
“Then I’m excited to see it.” I meant it. This day was going well. I couldn’t wait to see what was around the next corner. “I’ve never been to the Garden District. This should be fun.”
The Undead Uproar Page 16
