I thought about sitting down the way I'd been last time she came but that seemed downright stupid under the circumstances. How could I risk resting with those things at the gate?
The sun sunk below the horizon and the soft hues of dusk arrived, settling over the cemetery making the shift to darkness feel slow and leisurely. Then the light winked out and the cemetery was dark. The street lights turned on adding a yellow tone to the night.
Checking the gate again, I counted ten bodies pressing against it. As I watched, a small figure pushed through the legs of the others and reached its arm through, then a leg. It went to bring its head through and got stuck. A child. I turned away.
My watch told me it was after 8 pm. How much longer could I wait? Where else could I go? "Hello," a voice said behind me. I whirled around, bow raised, and pointed it into Suki's face. She wore the same outfit as the last time I'd seen her, all white with just the red embroidery on her head scarf. She frowned at me. "Lower that weapon," she said in a voice that seemed to vibrate the air around me, a loose brick in the mausoleum next to me fell, breaking into pieces when it hit the path. I lowered the weapon.
Suki turned back to her gravesite and I followed her down the path. With her back to me she reached up and placed a candle on the roof of the mausoleum. With a small wave of her hand the wick flared and then glowed warmly, creating flickering shadows in the narrow space. "That bow is too big for you," she said without turning around.
"What is going on?" I asked. She didn't answer, instead she picked up one of the mini bottles of liquor. She twisted off the top and it made a cracking noise that seemed loud even over the creak of the zombies pressing against the gate. "Emmanuel is dead." My voice hitched as tears caught in my throat.
Suki bent down and picked up my sugar packet handing it to me behind her back. I took it and dabbed at the tear which had escaped me. Her fingers waggled at me and I handed it back. "Can I help him?" I asked.
She laughed, low and only for a moment, a sound that made it clear I didn't know anything. Suki turned around, seeming to bring the candlelight with her. In her arms a thin, yellow snake slithered, working its way around her arms in a figure eight, its corn-colored scales smooth and shining in the light. "You can't help them," she said. "Or yourself."
She stepped forward, the snake seeming to speed up, turning almost into a blur of light in her arms. "You're no good to anyone," she said and raised the ball of light, squatted to her right, bringing her arms above her head and then pushing hard off her feet, launched the sphere over the graves. I watched it arch low, lighting the graves below it, then disappear by the gate. A hissing started slow and then grew louder. So loud that I had to cover my ears. Suki watched me, smiling.
"What are you doing?!" I yelled over the sound. Her face darkened, her eyebrows inching closer above narrowed eyes. "You're so powerful, huh!" I pointed with one of my hands letting the hissing sound batter against me. "What are you going to do about it? How are you going to stop this?!"
"Get out," she said, her voice even louder than the hissing, the buildings around me shaking under the sound. "Now!"
I turned and ran to the aisle, looking toward the entrance and my bike. The hissing faded and I saw that the zombies were gone. Running down the path I picked up my bike and looked through the gate, pushing my face so that I could see in both directions, no zombies, no snakes. Unlocking my chain I wrapped it back around my waist, climbed on my bike, pushed through the gates, and pedaled as fast as I could away from the cemetery.
She'd upset me. I was hardly thinking, not listening, not paying enough attention as I headed toward the hospital. I came around a corner and there was a wall of them. As soon as my eyes lighted on the crowd of zombies, I heard and smelled them. I braked hard and turned around, pedaling back the way I'd come.
I looked over my shoulder and they were filling the space between the buildings, pouring around stopped cars, knocking into pillars. Some falling and others climbing over them. A chaotic, determined mob of bloated corpses. They hadn't been dead long. It all changed in a moment. Hints of disaster, then an explosion of chaos.
I faced forward just in time to see a zombie stumble out from behind a car into my path. I smashed into it, falling off the bike. It was on me instantly. Biting down hard into my leg. The sound of ripping flesh sickening as it tore through my muscle. The rest of them were right there, stumbling around the corner, seeing me on the ground, and arms outstretched, pressing against each other to get to me.
I pulled my bow and killed the one on my leg, my arrow thundering through its ear and stabbing the thing’s brain. I stumbled to my feet, the pain in my leg numbed by the mass of adrenaline pumping into me. Backing away from the herd, firing as I went, I realized I'd never escape. My arrows found their mark and I killed two before another reached me. It grabbed at the bow and I fired through its mouth. Another grabbed my arm and I felt it's teeth sink into me as I dropped the bow. I screamed, pulling a knife and thrusting it through the thing’s eye but then another was on me, my forearm between its teeth.
Dimitri was suddenly there. He swiped away the creatures like they were nothing. Batting them aside with wide sweeps of his arms. They flew against the surrounding buildings hard enough to crack plaster and break windows.
Dimitri wrapped his arm around my waist and jumped up. Wind rushed in my ears for a moment before he laid me down on a roof, its black tar still warm from the sun. I knew I was bleeding badly, the warmth of it surrounded me, pooled under me as I stared up into the dark sky. The stars were falling away from me. I was dying. There were sirens, and the strangled, guttural sounds of frustration from those horrific, plague-like creatures.
"Darling," Dimitri said, holding my face, his warm hands cradling me. His eyes flashed grey as I breathed in. Color rose in his cheeks as I felt that tie between us. "Yes, Darling, take from me," he said, bringing his lips to mine. Wet, focused, aching for me. His energy passed through his skin, warming over mine and into my bloodstream, searing through my veins, and healing me. Curing me. Feeding me. Saving me.
<<<<>>>>
"That was the first time I'd fed. Consciously fed."
"But you must have reached maturity much younger. Weren't you feeding off your stepfather?"
Her gaze darkened and her brows furrowed. "He fed off me."
"But how? I thought you killed him?"
She shook her head. "And here I was thinking you were the experts. Don't you have an entire department on my kind?"
I felt my cheeks warm under her scrutiny, her penetrating, enthralling gaze. I felt it travel down my neck and it was like a hot, wet lick. Desire welled in me, my nipples hardened and warmth pooled between my legs.
"So you think you've studied my kind. Because you've read the legends." She shook her head. "Why do all beings feel the need to write things down in books, then treat them like rules to live by?" She shook her head again. "Do you think that is what separates me from all the other beings in the universe?"
"What? Your lack of scriptures?"
"Our lack of religion. Belief. I don't believe in anything."
"But you're willing to fight?"
"I don't want to die."
"But what about the universe? Don't you want to save it?"
She smiled. "I told you I don't want to die."
<<<<>>>>
About the Author
E.J. Kimelman is the paranormal pen name of Emily Kimelman. She splits her time between the Hudson Valley and traveling the world with her husband, Sean, and her dog, Kinsey (named after Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone), researching exciting locations for her Sydney Rye Mystery Series. Emily is enjoying writing about places that only exist in her imagination with the KISS series. Kimelman has a passion for traveling and spends as much time as possible in the pursuit of adventure.
You can follow along on the adventure through Instagram, Facebook, and on Emily's blog.
If you've read Emily's work and want to get in contact with her she can be r
eached via email [email protected], on Twitter @ejkimelman, on Facebook, and at her website www.emilykimelman.com. Sign up for Emily's newsletter to stay in touch.
A Note from Emily
Thank you for reading TWO KISS. I'm super excited that you made it through my whole bio right here to my "note". I'm guessing that means that you enjoyed my story. If so, would you please write a review for TWO KISS? You have no idea how much it warms my heart to get a new review. And this isn't just for me, mind you. Think of all the people out there who need reviews to make decisions. The children who need to be told this book is not for them. And the people about to go away on vacation who could have so much fun reading this on the plane. Consider it an act of kindness to me, to the children, to humanity.
Let people know what you thought about TWO KISS by leaving a review on Amazon.
Thank you, E.J. Kimelman
Two Kiss: An Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy (Transmissions from the International Council for the Exploration of the Universe Book 2) Page 6
