“You usually aren’t given to prophecy,” Thaughn said in his melodic voice.
“It’s not prophecy,” he grinned, “Those fools on Olympus thought they locked us out of the mortal world forever. She, my dear brother, is the key back in.”
EIGHTEEN
And then—they were home. The mist faded into the bookstore within seconds of their arrival. Stale air greeted them with a hint of wood smoke. Alexi scanned the room no threats presented themselves. The building wasn’t on fire and nothing was trying to kill them at the moment.
The Fae faded like a memory of a dream. She struggled to hang on to it to remember it in detail but the memories were allusive.
“It’s okay. It’s normal for mortals to forget the Isle. If you ever go back and I hope you don’t, your memories of your time there will return.”
The confusion on Savanna’s face must mirror her own for Warren to pick up on it so easy. Savanna stretched out her hand to marvel at it. The brown skin matched the rest of her, she was whole again.
“Thank you,” she said. Alexi felt off like she was supposed to be doing something but couldn’t remember what. Her clothes were the same as when they left. She expected to be wearing something else. She put her hands in her pockets. She had her phone, house keys, and her favorite red lipstick. She flipped open her phone to check for messages.
No Service.
“How long were we gone?” Savanna asked.
“It’s hard to say, days most likely. Are you two okay? I have to check on a friend—she helped us cross over and I need to know she is okay.”
Savanna nodded, “Alexi?”
Alexi waved her hand at him, still trying to pull up service on her phone. No messages, no text, no service. “Yeah, we’ll be fine, thank you for your help. Also, thank your friend for us. I’m not sure what happened, but I know we owe you.”
“We had a bargain, Alexi, you and Savanna owe me nothing.” The air popped and Warren Vanished.
“It would be nice if people stuck around long enough to chat,” Alex said.
“I guess we let ourselves out?” Savanna asked as she looked around.
“Yeah,” something wasn’t right. The little hairs stood up on the back of Alexi’s neck.
“Check your phone?” she asked.
Savanna held up her phone, the blue light of the screen illuminated her features. Nothing.
“Let’s get out of here and get some answers. Maybe John can fill us in on what’s been going on.” Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of him. It brought a smile to her face. The detective was… something, she wasn’t sure what exactly he was, but he was something. A friend at least. She didn’t know if she wanted it to be more. It would be nice to have a relationship with a normal person. No werewolves, vampires, or end of the world.
Not to mention, now that Savanna wasn’t in danger of becoming the walking dead she could look into the matter of her family. She had put it off long enough, she had a daughter and she needed to do more.
Savanna smiled as she played with her hand. Alexi was thrilled their plan worked even if they couldn’t exactly remember the details. It was hazy. She remembered a field of green and trees. Her mind was a jumbled mess of fear, danger, and excitement. She couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Whatever they went through, it was done and they had come out the other side alive.
The door closed behind them. Cold Seattle air greeted them. “Well, either we were gone for a whole year, or not very long. It’s still winter,” she said.
Alexi turned east to head for the main street that ran North and South through this part of Capital Hill.
She froze.
Inside the air smelled faintly of woods smoke, outside it was impossible to ignore. A look at Savanna told her that her friend smelled it too.
“What is that?” Savanna held her hand up to her nose. The acrid air burned Alexi’s nostrils. She sniffed again closing her eyes to better hone her senses. She wasn’t sure how she knew it was the smell of burning wood, but she did. The other smells were harder to identify, but the bittersweet smell of burning flesh was impossible to ignore.
“We need to go, Savanna. Somethings not right, I can feel it.” Alexi grabbed Savanna’s arm and pulled her along. Pain lanced through the back of Alexi’s head like she was hit with a bat. She dropped to her knees and used all her willpower to keep from screaming. Savanna crumpled next to her. The girls head smacked the pavement with a sickening crunch. As suddenly as the pain started it disappeared. Alexi shook her head and blinked away the afterimages. When she could trust herself she turned to Savanna. Alexi crawled over to Savanna, blood leaked from the wound on her scalp. Her pulse throbbed with life in her throat. With no other choice, Alexi lifted Savanna’s head and quickly closed the wound. The taste of the witches blood was as rich and sweet as ever. It sent a thrill down her spine and cleared her head.
As her mind cleared she realized she could hear footsteps all around them. Alexi narrowed her eyes to scan the darkness beyond the pool of light in front of Warren’s shop. The lack of street lights should have clued her in much quicker that something was wrong. The whole city was dark with the exception of a few of the high-rises and public buildings.
Her pupils dilated opening far wider than humans ever could letting her see in the dark as if the sun was up. She jumped to her feet, jerked her sword free and stood over Savanna with both hands on the hilt. She carefully straddled Savanna with her feet so that nothing could get to her.
The street swarmed with shambling corpses, and they all shambled toward her.
***
John fired his shotgun again. The explosion of buckshot sent the corpse out the door it had walked in. Two uniformed cops rushed forward with a metal desk to shore up the battered door. It was the last line of defense.
He racked the slide sending another round into the chamber.
“Detective were running low on supplies. I don’t think help is coming.” The uniformed officer on his right said as he wedged the desk under the wooden door handles. Everyone else had already left. Yu foolishly stayed behind. The last word had been to stay put help who they could help and hold out for the Army.
That had been three days before. Now it was just him, Jones, and Siegel. Jones was a big black man who walked the beat in South Seattle, he could handle himself and was from this part of the city. Siegel was nothing more than a glorified traffic cop and while she was a halfway decent shot she was only a hundred and twenty pounds hardly strong enough to get into hand to hand with—zombies. He still couldn’t wrap his head around it.
The brass called it a virus. People were sick with some experimental virus and all attempts were to be made to avoid hurting them. They weren’t responsible after all. That went out the window the second the corpses rose and joined the army of the dead. As crazy as it sounded, they were in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. The two officers looked at John. There was fear in their eyes but also hope.
He waved for them to follow him. The station was on the north end of Capital Hill close enough to 23rd that they had access to the main road.
“Are there still vehicles in the garage,” John asked them.
“Uh, I don’t know,” Jones responded.
“There should be. This station is assigned several cruisers and park vehicles,” Siegel said with a stutter as if she were afraid to talk too loud. John knew the feeling. Every corner they went around, a door that opened, or breeze that blew by put his nerves on end. He squeezed the grip on the shotgun with his sweaty palm.
“It will be okay. If we stick together, we can get through this. Which way to the garage?” he asked. This wasn’t his usual station. He only had been here because they were shorthanded.
“Two floors down,” Siegel said, “the stairs are this way.” John took up the rear. Not wanting to use the shotgun in close quarters, he slung it over his shoulder and unholstered his Glock. A quick press on the barrel told him he had a round in the chamber. With both hands on the pisto
l he kept the black barrel chest high and pointed behind them as they moved.
The door to the stairs loomed in front of them. Siegel’s hand hovered over the press-bar.
“What?” Jones grumbled.
“I don’t want to get eaten alive—understood,” she said without turning around.
“Roger that, officer, we won't let it happen,” John said sympathetically. He’d already witnessed too many good men and women go that way. It wasn’t anything he would want to experience himself.
She pushed the door open and they followed with guns in the ready position. The inside of the stairwell was illuminated by the harsh lights of the emergency beacons. Deep shadows stretched over parts of the stairs. With a deep breath, Siegel took her first step. John kept his head on a swivel as they made their way down. He didn’t want to get blindsided from behind, at the same time he couldn’t walk down the stairs backward.
The garage door was the fire kind, large, sturdy and it required key-card access. John fished his out from the inside pocket on his jacket and slid it through the reader. The door buzzed. All three winced at the sound. Then it popped open with a click.
John went through first, Shotgun leading the way. Two squad cars and an SUV were parked in the maintenance area. The rest of the garage was bare lines and empty stalls.
“When they cleared out of here they must have taken everything,” Jones said.
“Look!”
Siegel’s forced whisper spun Johns head around in the direction she pointed. The large bay doors that led to the street were open.
John waved them toward the mechanic's section where the three vehicles were.
“Half the time these things are in here for oil changes. Check the SUV, I’ll grab the keys.” He broke off from them and headed for the cage. The mechanic's duty station was behind a locked cage. When officers checked in the cars there was an attendant on duty who took the keys and marked it off. The board with the keys and the numbers to each unit was behind the bars on the far wall. All three vehicles had their keys hanging up. He craned his neck to make out the number on the SUV…P616-B…sure enough, there were the keys. Now he had to get in.
“It’s good, just in for an oil change,” Jones whispered loudly across the garage. The only problem was the door to the cage was metal with the standard shatter-resistant glass that would take a sledgehammer to get through. There was no way to do it quietly.
“What are you waiting for?” Jones asked, a little louder this time.
John motioned with the shotgun at the door. Understanding dawned on both officers. They moved around to the side of the SUV away from the entrance to the garage. John eyeballed the distance. He wouldn’t have long to get the keys and then cover the distance to the vehicle.
The spread on the shotgun was set to fifteen feet. He walked back the distance from the door, turned and pumped the shotgun.
The boom from the shotgun echoed in the garage. He racked the slide, the spent red shell bounced off the ground. After the second shot, he couldn’t hear anything. The third shattered the window. He scrambled over the bits of glass, stuck his arms through the hole, and flipped the lock. His ears rang as he ran to the keys. A duffel bag caught his eye. He snagged the keys then knelt down. It was full of ammo, a couple of pistols and a radio.
He hefted it over his shoulder. A glance at the entrance confirmed that the zombies were making their way slowly down the ramp. He ran. His legs pumped as he spun the corner on the door. Jones and Siegel opened fire with their pistols. John slammed the keys into the rear hatch. It popped open and he slung the bag in.
“Get in,” he yelled. Cold flesh grabbed his head. He ducked down and fired his pistol straight up three times. He didn’t wait to see if it died. He rolled sideways, scrambled on all fours to the driver door. It was locked.
“Open the door,” Siegel screamed as she fired her pistol. John turned the key and climbed in. He slammed the door shut and triggered the unlock. Siegel fired two more rounds before she climbed in. The door closed behind her.
“Jones?”
They didn’t have long, the garage was filling up with the undead. And while they would be safe in the reinforced SUV, there was no guarantee they would be able to get the traction to power through that many dead bodies.
With a silent prayer, John turned the key.
***
Savanna never felt her head hit the pavement. She opened her eyes to see a hazy indistinct world. Her vision swirled into a whirlpool. Feelings of pain, loss, guilt, they all hit her at once. Savanna tried to shield her mind from the sudden influx of emotions she knew were not her own. It was too much. She screamed without sound.
The world coalesced into a dark room. A beam of light shown through a ragged hole in the roof. It shown down to spotlight a body on the ground. Savanna willed herself to look closer.
Alexi.
Her own sword protruded from the center of her chest. The blade obviously jammed into the concrete beneath her. It wasn’t her only wound, though, she was savagely beaten. Her face battered into one bruise of purple and yellow. As Savanna drew closer, she realized that wasn’t the worst of it. Beyond Alexi was everyone she knew. Her mom, half eaten in a pool of her own blood. Sing was slumped against the wall, his legs mere stumps.
Connor shielded someone with his body. His colorless face indicative of his body being drained of all its blood. Her heart ached from missing him. Their time together flashed through her mind and for a second the reality around her shifted to resemble that night. But Connor was still dead, his colorless lips kissing hers, his cold flesh touching her bare skin. She pushed him away and screamed.
“I tried to save you,” his voice said though his lips didn’t move.
His body fell over and there she was, shielded from harm by him. Still alive as the world burned around her. She screamed in her head. In the past, her visions gave her something to go on, a clue, or person. She saw nothing but death and decay to the horizon.
It shifted again. She was far above the city. A cold wind blew through her chilling her to the bone. The city below burned. The fires spreading in every direction. Savanna flew higher into orbit and watched as the fires consumed the entire planet. After a few minutes, there was nothing left, not man nor beast.
Her cured hand burned with power. Not the power of her blood or another's but ancient power, eldritch power. It was for something. If only she could remember what. Her time on the Emerald Isle was a faded memory of a dream she couldn’t quite recall. She had come back with a cured hand. Could she cure others?
A building formed around her it’s frame reached for the sky. The darkness was replaced by indoor lighting. A loud argument drew her attention as the building coalesced and the darkness became the light.
“You don’t know what you're asking,” it was Connors' voice. She smiled she had longed to hear it.
“Connor, please help us. We need to find the source,” Alexi said.
She could see it now. Alexi, herself, and an Asian man….Yu, she remembered him from the night she turned those poor fools into pigs. If the zombies craved flesh, she hated to think what had happened to those poor fools trapped in her minuscule backyard.
There were other people there. Men and women. They walked and talked like Connor, with builds… Arcanum. She walked through them like a ghost seeing herself and Alexi arguing with a group of Arcanum agents.
“We have no better chance of finding the head zombie than you do,” a women's voice said. She had an accent that…it was Monique.
Savanna stood next to herself now. Her other self cast a look down. She held her dagger. The enchanted blade that channeled her magic.
“I can find it,” she heard herself say. No one heard her over the yelling as Alexi screamed at them to help. “I can find the head zombie,” she whispered again. Savanna could tell from the look on her face that she was gathering the arcane power necessary to perform the spell. Just as she had the night she freed Alexi from Dupree’s wards. I
t would take everything, would it work? When no one listened to her Savanna plunged the dagger into her own heart. Blood bubbled up from her lips. Alexi screamed and Connor ran to her side. She watched as her future self cast the spell that would locate the prime zombie.
Only it didn’t work. Savanna watched as she died, confusion on her face. Time fast forwarded. The world burned. Within a month every human on the planet was dead.
NINETEEN
“Savanna I really need you to wake up now,” Alexi said between swings. A score of bodies surrounded them in a neat circle. Their heads cleaved from their bodies. Alexi swung her sword again decapitating the next one. She kicked it back into the crowd knocking several of them down. Alexi spared a glance to Savanna. She breathed at least, but not for long if she didn’t get up. They were closing in on them and she couldn’t put her sword away to scoop her up and run. Not that there was anywhere to run to.
She sliced through a middle-aged man in a suit. Another she pushed down to act as a barrier.
“Alexi?” Savanna’s voice was weak in the din of the shambling dead.
Cold fingers grasped Alexi’s neck and yanked her back. Her boot slipped on the copious amounts of blood on the ground. Alexi landed on her back with a thump.
“Now would be a really good time for some mojo,” she groaned, trying to fend off the multitude of hands that pulled at her. The buzz of magic welled up in her head. It roared like a wind and ripped through the zombies. In a flash of blue light, they were shattered. A crater of people parts spread out around them. The rest of the pedestrian walk was flattened and all the windows were blown out.
“Come one,” Alexi grunted as she stood up, “If we can make it to the street we might be able to get a car,” she pulled her friend to her feet.
“Thank you,” Savanna said.
“No, no, thank you, I was getting my ass kicked there if you hadn’t noticed,” Alexi smiled.
Blood Sacrifice (Faith of the Fallen Book 2) Page 18
