by Krista Walsh
Allegra crossed her arms, hugging them tightly against her chest. “How is it you survived the link being broken?”
“You think I’m still feeding off that corpse? Look at me.” He stretched his arms out wide. “I’m of this world now, not braced between two. You did strike me a blow breaking that link, but I can summon more of my family now, with magic you can’t get your hands on. From here, we can only get stronger.”
The forcefulness of his conviction turned Allegra’s stomach. This man — this monster — was no more than a bug looking to spread its tunnels through the underground, swarming over its food until the world was nothing but a wasteland.
“Here at the Garden Hotel,” Lee said, smiling, “we work as a team. Nothing gets done by one of us when everyone can pitch in.”
Through the round windows in the doors, dark shapes approached, growing more defined as they swung the doors forward and stepped into the light. Two draugrs moved until they were on either side of Lee, with the shadows of two more coming behind. Lee shifted forward and they trailed after him, keeping flank.
For every step the draugrs took, Allegra took a step back, but there was only so far she could go. Matthew’s fingers tightened on her waist. She caught the glint of the cleaver in his hand as he raised it in front of them and knew it wouldn’t be enough. She cast a glance at the oven, and an idea dropped into her mind. According to Vera, the draugrs were susceptible to fire as well as to blades.
“I enjoyed our chats while you were here,” Lee said. “It’s not often I get to talk about my brothers and sisters so openly. It was…freeing. But now you know everything, and I’m sure you understand that I can’t take the risk of you telling anyone else.”
Allegra took a step toward the stove as Lee came around the table. She kept her movements slow and deliberate. Matthew stayed close beside her.
“Since you know I am one of you, you must know how good I am at keeping secrets,” she said, revulsion twisting her tongue at the need to feign kinship with this beast. “We could leave tonight and never speak of this again. You have a system in place — who am I to tell you to change it when I have such similar needs? Before now, no one has noticed in all the years you’ve fed here. You can find that secrecy again.”
She took another step, and Lee rested his hands on the table. He looked thoughtful. “I never thought of it quite that way,” he said. He looked to the other draugrs.
While his attention was distracted, Allegra glanced at Matthew. He had turned ghostly white, his dark eyes wide and his nostrils flared. He held the knife in front of him. Although his hand was steady, his knuckles were strained with the tightness of his grip.
“I am in no place to judge,” she pushed. She took Matthew’s clenched hand and squeezed it reassuringly, then she pried the knife from his grip. Matthew’s fingers twitched as she forced him to let go. She set it on the front element of the stove in a gesture of concession. “I have designed my life very much like yours. I choose my meals carefully, never too much too close together, and have managed to live for years in comfort with no one the wiser. There is no reason you cannot do the same if you are willing to show restraint. I could help you.”
Matthew curled his fingers into her side, but she ignored him. She understood what she was offering, how more people would die under the draugr’s sting if she let them carry on, but she was willing to make the sacrifice if it meant she and Matthew were safe.
Not that she would leave the situation at that, of course. Once they were free and Matthew was far from here, she would return to Vera and find a way to purge the hotel of the draugrs completely. In another life, Allegra might have let them be, but Lee had stolen too much from her not to take her revenge.
Lee turned to the other creatures standing around the room, two of them still flanking him, the other two now blocking the door. They said nothing, the draugrs as silent as the shadows they lived in, but from the way their heads wobbled, their rotting eyes shifting among each other, she understood they were communicating, discussing her suggestion.
Allegra took advantage of Lee’s diverted attention to turn the element under the cleaver blade on high, then shifted her position to hide the little orange light that popped up on the control panel. She could feel the heat at her back as Lee turned around.
Any iota of hope she carried that he would agree to her offer tumbled to the floor and shattered like glass when he shook his head. “It won’t do, Allegra, and I’m sorry. I just can’t take the risk. You killed my sister and forced me to kill my brother. They don’t trust you. I have to side with my family.”
The draugrs came at her so quickly, Allegra only just had time to pull the cleaver off the element and swing it in front of her. The blade sliced through one creature’s shoulder and left the arm dangling by its side, steam rising off its skin.
She thrust the handle of the cleaver at Matthew and he swung it at the monster coming for him. While he drove it into the second draugr’s chest, Allegra stretched her hands out in front of her, her nails elongating into talons. She lunged at the creature with the injured arm as the other two draugrs lumbered toward them.
Snaking her hand around the back of the damaged draugr’s neck, she swept her opposite leg at its knee. The knee joint snapped and it stumbled forward. Using the momentum of its fall, she slammed its head onto the hot element and held it in place until flames licked at its dry, rotting flesh. In a heartbeat, the fire leapt onto its face and raced over its head, consuming the rest of its body before Allegra had time to remove her hand from its neck. She jumped away, cursing, and let it loose to run back through the kitchen. It bumped into the stainless steel table, the counter beside the stove, and the draugr stalking toward them. Wherever its flaming hands touched, the fire jumped. The third draugr was quickly consumed by flame as the traces of grease on the counter surfaces caught and spread. Below the table, the jugs of oil on the floor sat waiting. Allegra backed away to avoid being close if they caught. Dark plumes of smoke wafted toward the ceiling, obscuring her view of the rest of the room.
With the cleaver in one hand, Matthew grabbed a dish towel from the counter and thrust the edge into the flames before tossing it at the fourth draugr. It hit the monster in the chest, and its flesh caught like dried tinder.
The doors swung open and four more draugrs lurched into the room.
The rising smoke tripped the fire alarm and the peeling ring echoed through the kitchen, setting off more high-pitched shrieks upstairs. The sprinklers in the ceiling switched on, but the water did nothing to stem the growing grease fire.
Sweat and water dripped down Allegra’s back, and she choked on the stench of burning oil and seared flesh. The flames licked closer to her feet, pushing her toward the middle of the room.
Lee had grabbed his book and was flipping through the pages. Allegra’s mouth went dry and her already racing heart jumped into her throat. In two months, he had learned more about necromancy than many sorcerers learned in a lifetime. She didn’t know what sort of spell he aimed to use against her, but if he went through with it, her and Matthew’s chances of escaping the kitchen in one piece would drop to nil.
Her strength slipped through its restraints, and for once she didn’t try to rein it in. Lee had threatened everything in her life she cared about, and she would not allow him to finish destroying it.
Heat poured into her arms down to her fingertips until her entire body buzzed with power. It surged upward and coated her mind, sharpening her senses. Instinct worked to take over, but she kept a firm grip on her rationality. To slip might be to make a mistake, and she couldn’t afford a single error. She had to be quick, smooth. She had to get Lee away from his book.
With a cry, she leaped up toward the two draugrs standing between her and their creator. She extended her arms and caught their heads in the crooks of her elbows as she landed on her knees on the stainless steel table. She squeezed her arms until their spines popped, then turned to the first one, gripped both sides o
f its head, and wrenched until the skin around its neck tore. The head ripped from its shoulders, and she lobbed it in Lee’s direction, catching him in the face. He staggered back and cried out when his hands brushed against the heated counter. Fire licked over the surface, penetrating deep within the drywall.
He shoved away with a furious snarl. His human glamor had faded, and his true face showed behind the failing illusion. Eyes as dark as his siblings’ glowered at her over the hole in the middle where his nose should have been. His cheeks were nothing more than two holes, thin flesh stretched over the rot. His graying skin was thicker than his less-corporeal siblings’, but just as rancid — white-splotched with decomposition.
The tips of his fingers crumbled as he braced his hands on the center table and threw himself at Allegra. She ducked and drove her head into his gut, wrapping her arms around his waist as he tried to wrap his around her neck. She ducked her chin down to prevent him from getting a good grip.
Together, they rolled to the floor, Allegra on top. Water soaked through her jeans as she squeezed his thighs between her knees and grabbed a pot from the shelf next to her. She slammed it across the side of his face. His head snapped to the side, but he recovered quickly and reached for the bag of flour beneath. Grabbing a handful, he flung it into her eyes, blinding her.
She refused to let him win so easily. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she beat him again and again with the pot as she worked to clear her vision, tracking the motion of the dark blob beneath her.
A strong hand gripped her hair and jerked her to her feet. Allegra firmed her grip on the pot handle and swung it backward over her head, landing a blow on the top of the draugr’s skull. It staggered back, but didn’t release her. She tugged away, but the pressure on her hair increased.
The heat within her rose to match the fire that was closing in around her. Her blurred vision cleared and the kitchen took on a golden haze. She hurled the pot across the room at the monster chasing Matthew and curled her fingers into claws. Reaching behind her, she dug them into the draugr’s eyes, her fingers plunging into the rotted mess before she forced them upward. The draugr released her hair to grab her wrists, but she used her weight to bend over and throw him over her back onto the floor. Then she pounced and sank her teeth into the putrid flesh at its neck, tearing its head from its shoulders.
One down, she jumped to the next. It had crouched beside Lee to protect him, but she gripped it by the neck and the shoulder and ripped off its arm. She stuck the hand into the grease fire, and once it caught, stuffed it into the draugr’s empty arm socket.
It tried to fight back, but the fire consumed it too quickly, and it crumbled to dust on the floor.
Allegra heard a shout from behind her. She whirled around to check on Matthew and found him surrounded. Three more draugrs had arrived and were attempting to push him backward into Lee’s office.
Releasing a cry, she flew at them. She curved her hands over the sides of two of their heads and slammed them together, crushing their dried bones with so much strength that their skulls burst between her fingers. Matthew cracked a cast-iron frying pan over the head of the third, caving in the side of the skull. It kept on toward him, but he swung again, this time cracking the pan into its neck. Its head rolled to the floor in a cloud of bone dust. The rest of the corpse soon followed.
Chest heaving as she sucked in what little oxygen remained in the room, Allegra cast her gold-tinted gaze around the fire. The draugrs were gone. She and Matthew stood side by side, him with the cooling cleaver in one hand and the frying pan in the other, her with her hands extended in front of her. Bits of flesh dangled from her fingernails, and she tasted death on her tongue. The dried, sour flavor spurred her on, left her craving more, but now only Lee remained.
He’d climbed to his feet and stood on the other side of the table, his white apron torn and covered in blood, flour, and gray dust. His face, battered and broken from Allegra’s beating, was contorted into an expression of hatred.
The fire curling toward him popped and flared with a rising energy that tingled over Allegra’s skin. If she could get him into the fire, this would be over. She braced herself for a second round. Her muscles ached with fatigue and Matthew swayed on his feet, but they couldn’t rest yet.
Her gaze fell on the book still lying on the table, and she cursed herself for not throwing it into the flames when she had the opportunity. With those pages at Lee’s disposal, there was a chance he could summon more of his siblings to his side until he wore them out with sheer numbers.
She had to reach the book before he did.
The fire had now blocked off the back of the kitchen and was creeping along both walls toward the exit. Already, the heat had warped the swinging doors, propping them open, and Allegra gave it a few more minutes before their escape was blocked completely.
As she tried to think of her next move, the lights of the arriving emergency vehicles began reflecting throughout the room, cutting through the flames with their red and blue flashes.
Her heart slammed against her ribs as she grounded her feet against the floor. If any civilians made their way downstairs, she didn’t trust Lee not to use them against her. She had to come up with a plan and she was running out of time.
If she moved too far from Matthew, Lee would have access to him. But where she stood now, he could keep them at a standstill until he gained an advantage.
Behind her, Matthew coughed. The sound was rough and husky, and she glanced up at the ceiling. The smoke had thickened to cloud most of the room, something she hadn’t noticed before with her demon-touched eyes. Water from the sprinklers still splashed against the floor, droplets tapping against the stainless steel table, and her chest tightened with desperation.
She had no time to debate.
Over the screaming sirens and alarms, the spray of water, and the crackle of the flames, there was no way Matthew would hear her, so she relied on his intelligence to keep himself armed and ready and bolted around the table.
Lee dodged around the opposite side toward Matthew, leaving his book out of reach. Triumphant, Allegra grabbed it, ignoring the way the flesh-made cover squished beneath her fingers, and threw it into the flames. The dried skin and paper burst with a new cloud of sparks and heat, and Lee stumbled to a halt. His jaw dropped in an expression of horror, and Allegra grinned back at him, her blood thrilling with her victory. No matter what he tried to do to them physically, his spells were gone. Now she just had to bring him down.
Her smile faltered when his sour grin returned to his lips, and her stomach hardened into ice as she realized his horror had been feigned. Sarcastic. He didn’t care about his book.
“You’ve destroyed my family, Allegra,” he called to her over the cacophony, “and the sad thing is, I don’t think you understand the depth of the agony you’ve caused me. Sure, you grieved for Cody, but who was he to you? A passing acquaintance you’ll forget about in a few weeks. You’ve never suffered the loss of someone you truly cared about — never fought for them and watched them fall despite your best efforts.” He grinned. “But you will.”
Her heart pounded as she turned to Matthew, who stared between her and Lee, the lines around his eyes hard with confusion and fear.
In her mind, she jumped over the table and tackled Lee to the ground. She wrapped her hands around his neck and squeezed the air out of him. Her weight kept his arms trapped between his chest and the ground and she choked him until he stopped flailing, going limp beneath her. The vision was so real, she swore his spongy flesh was molded into the shape of her hands.
But in reality she stood still, frozen in spite of the heat.
It just happened too quickly.
Lee reached Matthew, and Matthew drove his blade into Lee’s heart. The living draugr staggered backward, his lips peeled back in a laugh that Allegra saw but couldn’t hear.
She felt a momentary flare of hope that Matthew had been fast enough.
Then Lee opened his mout
h and his lips moved in a soundless string of words. Matthew’s eyes widened. He clutched his chest. His gaze moved to hers and in its depth his fear drained away, replaced by grief. The agony of regret.
And then nothing. A blank, as though there had never been any life in him at all.
A sharp pain blossomed inside Allegra, and for a moment she thought Lee had thrown a knife in her direction. Then the numbness exploded, and with it, she lost her hold on the demon within. Her power expanded to every cell in her body, filling her with the urge to kill, the need for energy and blood. Her elongated fangs slashed her bottom lip, and the tang of blood poured over her tongue, fueling her.
Decorum, poise, beauty — these aims no longer mattered. All she wanted now was to steal this man’s life away from him and take it into herself.
She jumped over the table, landed on Lee’s back, and had her hands around his throat before Matthew’s body hit the floor. Lee braced his legs and flailed his arms to free himself, but she dug her nails deep into his flesh to keep her place. Slowly, drawing out every inch, she twisted his neck. She wanted him to suffer every moment, not only with the current pain, but with the knowledge of how much worse it was going to get.
Fire licked at her feet and caught the hems of Lee’s pants. He dropped to his knees and she set her feet on the floor, using her height over him to force him down. The skin of her fingers tugged as the blisters tore open and the fluids dribbled over her hands to melt into Lee’s rotted flesh. He cried out and flailed his arms toward her over his shoulders, but she stood at an angle he couldn’t reach.
She said nothing as she forced his head to the side. She offered no final words or witty repartee. Speech had been ripped from her lungs the moment Matthew had fallen.
She forced her gaze to Matthew’s body, his shirt and trousers already lost behind a wall of fire, and made herself stare at him as she worked.
“It’s too late!” Lee wheezed, and sputtered a coughing laugh. “You can end my suffering, but yours is just beginning.”
