The Death Series, Books 1-3

by Blodgett, Tamara Rose

  “Why don't you get your gun off my zombie?” I said disrespectfully.

  Clyde hissed at Garcia, his black mouth opening, decay wafting out in an errant rush.

  Dammit, I couldn't let emotion rule because Clyde was tuned into my frequency, wasn't he?

  “Clyde, cool it, I got this.”

  Clyde straightened, his dead gaze glittering on Garcia, taking his measure. Garcia didn't know it but Clyde was calculating range, not judgment.

  Zombies weren't huge on ambivalence.

  “Caleb...” Dad said, warning me about my behavior.

  I gave him a look, and he looked back, watch it, pal.

  I sighed. “Listen, like my dad said, he came to our house. He shoved my mom.” My hands balled into fists and Clyde sidled closer to LeClerc. Garcia motioned with his gun at Clyde to move away from LeClerc. It wasn't until I gave the signal that Clyde moved to stand closer to me.

  “This is the danger I was talking about, Caleb. You're dangerous.”

  “Only if you threaten me,” I said, giving a look at Clyde.

  Gale and Smith were looking at Garcia. Slowly, Bobbi Gale took verbal charge. “I don't sense,” she swallowed as Clyde gave her a zombie-smile (black mouth, a couple of teeth, partial tongue), “that the zombie will act unless you threaten Caleb, Raul.”

  “I'm not threatening Caleb,” Garcia said.

  “He feels like you're threatening his zombie,” she responded.

  “What does the zombie matter?” Garcia asked.

  “It matters,” Gale and I said at the same time. We looked at each other. She got me.

  Of course, she was AFTD.

  Smith said, “Garcia, we don't need this show of force. I'm a five-point Null, I think I got this.” He splayed his arms out away from his body like, duh.

  Garcia holstered his weapon, looking at Smith like bitch-slapping was an option. What the eff was happening with Garcia?

  Everyone in the room let out the breath they'd been holding. Clyde stared at Garcia, his guard was still up and the smell was a cloud of rot. I was okay, but the rest of the group had their hands over their noses.

  Mom said, “Caleb, would you have... ah, Clyde, step outside for a moment please?”

  What was left of his eyebrow cocked and some of it fell on the floor. Huh, he was in tough shape.

  “Clyde, can you go outside just for a sec?” I asked.

  “Of course, if that is what you wish. But, there are those present who give me lingering doubts about your safety.”

  Huh.

  “Tell ya what, why don't I call you if things get stupid again?'

  He nodded, leaving to stand outside the front door.

  Everyone's hands dropped off their noses.

  I looked at Garcia again. “Anyway...LeClerc needs to get the shaft because he touched my mom. He broke into our house, he was going to hurt us, it's jail time for him.”

  “That's not for you to decide,” and Gale opened her mouth to rebut Garcia who continued before she could, “but he has violated the terms of the restraining order that Andrea LeClerc initiated, so you're in luck.”

  Dad gave an apologetic look to Jade then said, “We're pressing charges. That man laid hands on my wife while she was here unprotected...”

  Clyde cleared his throat discreetly from outside. Dad looked at him. “...almost unprotected.” and Clyde nodded. “There should be a clear consequence for this behavior. My son has just returned from the hospital and was in no shape to offer assistance; he shouldn't need to.”

  Get at me.

  Smith whipped out his pulse-pad and laid his thumb on it. Facing Dad he said, “Ready.”

  Garcia and Gale hauled up a struggling LeClerc and Jade pressed herself against me. Garcia slapped cuffs on LeClerc as Dad detailed the events as they happened, pausing to let me fill in the blanks. He was almost finished when there was a voice from outside the door.

  “Excuse me?”

  This was unbelievable! The Organic from the hospital was here. She was doing a polite, backward lean from Clyde, who hadn't budged from his sentry post at the front door, her hand covering her nose.

  “Master?” Clyde asked.

  “Nah, she's okay Clyde.”

  A tension that had been running through Clyde eased.

  He was on it.

  My zombie bodyguard. Nice. The Js were gonna really appreciate this.

  Speaking of which there they were. I could see John's red hair flopping as he walked, a half a head taller than everyone else. Well, wasn't this turning out like usual.

  A catastrophe followed by everyone on earth showing up.

  “Hey Clyde, how's it goin'?” Jonesy asked, squeezing past Jezebel the Organic, with John on his heels.

  I smiled, I couldn't help it.

  “I have rights!” Jade's dad bellowed into Gale's ear.

  “Not right now, when you decided to violate the terms of your parole, your rights were negated,” Garcia told him.

  Jade trembled against me and I sucked her in tighter.

  John came up to me. “What now?” he asked.

  “What's this crap all over the floor?” Jonesy asked delicately and Mom slapped her forehead.

  Brother.

  Gale smiled while she struggled to subdue LeClerc, who was so into resisting arrest.

  Again.

  He was a slow learner, the doofus.

  Smith had just shut his pulse-pad down and was turning to look at LeClerc when Jezebel asked, “Is this a bad time for Caleb's follow-up?” her eyes flitting from LeClerc, to mine, to my parents, the cops and finally settling on Clyde. He was straightening the shredded lapels of his suit jacket.

  Huh, yeah, kinda a bad time.

  Mom shrugged. “No, he needs to be seen after yesterday's ordeal,” she paused. Then as an afterthought said, “Excuse the odor.”

  Clyde sniffed at that and she shot him the, I'm sorry but ewww-gross look.

  This was all so weird. Jezebel stepped through the lingering cops, corpse and creep and came directly in front of me.

  Giving me a severe look she said, “You were supposed to rest today.” Her hand hovered over my core, and with a nod of satisfaction she stepped back. “You're subjecting yourself to way too much excitement here, Caleb.”

  The Js snickered behind me.

  Too Much Excitement, yeah, that was so Not My Life.

  Mom's hostess ability came on line and she said, “Jezebel, thank you for coming, you can come into the living room and look Caleb over in there.” She looked at Jade, then the Js. “You guys can come too.”

  “No way...” Jonesy said. “I'm staying out here with our man, Clyde.”

  John nodded. “Stuff could go down, what if Caleb needed us to manage things while he's playing patient?”

  Mom and Jade rolled their eyes. “Fine,” Mom said with a tone.

  Jonesy shrugged, he knew future food was more or less secure, no worries.

  Jade was more than happy to go with me, leaving her dad in the foyer.

  But, as I turned around he had reached out with his cuffed hands and latched on to the molding that ran the perimeter of the door. Smith had already made a wide berth around Clyde and Garcia was trying to jerk LeClerc off the wood.

  “Allow me,” Clyde said, and before anyone could do anything, he latched onto LeClerc and heaved him right out onto the front lawn.

  We all just stared at the spot LeClerc had been. Then, how he'd evacuated the atrium and now lay in a heap on the lawn.

  “Damn man! You never disappoint, Hart!” Jonesy said, fist pumping.

  That was me, Mr. No Disappointment.

  “This is so out of hand I don't even know where to begin,” Garcia said, scrubbing his face.

  “Raul, let me stay behind and deal with...” and she looked at Clyde, who strode over to her.

  How she maintained her position was beyond me but she stayed rooted to the spot. His body came to stand in front of her. All that decomposed strength waiting, the vib
rating energy of the dead coming off him in waves.

  “How may I be of service, necromancer?”

  Gale gulped. “Caleb! A little help!”

  I walked out there, leaving the gang inside, the Js standing in the door opening, Dad standing behind them, John was taller than he was now.

  Clyde leaned into her, smelling her neck.

  Okay, this was getting frickin' weird.

  Gale mewled but did the lean, staying where she was.

  Garcia's hand hovered over his pistol. “Caleb!”

  “Get off me, I got this.” I looked at him, and he looked back, we were really starting to have a misunderstanding. “Stop being a panicker,” I said. “Clyde.”

  His head bent over Gale, but his eyes flicked to me. “Why don't you step away from Gale and we'll go from there.”

  He straightened, looking at Gale like a drowning man, his skin sloughing, but his eyes looked disconcertingly human...very human.

  She straightened up. “Thanks.” Shaky.

  “Welcome.”

  Garcia looked from one to the other of us. “Okay, I want it,” he pointed at Clyde, “back wherever he came from.”

  Smith said, “Come on, Raul, let's get back to the station, get bozo the clown booked...”

  “I heard that!” LeClerc hollered from the lawn.

  Smith and Garcia sighed, walking out together. “We'll keep in touch.” Garcia pointed to me and I knew he meant the case.

  “Tiff would love the clown reference,” John commented.

  “Yeah, she would,” I agreed.

  “It qualifies his shit,” Jonesy said.

  “There are ladies present, young man,” Clyde said with menace.

  Jonesy looked at Clyde. “Right. I didn't think about that.”

  “Possibly a pastime you should embrace,” Clyde responded.

  “What?”

  “Thinking,” he said, the suffix lost to the garble.

  Jonesy looked offended but didn't say anything more.

  Thank God.

  Jezebel poked her head out from between all the males at the door.

  “Okay, let's get hot, daylight's burning.”

  I trudged back in and turned once to give Clyde the signal that could he, by God, stay out here so I didn't have Mom pissed at me for the grave smell in the house.

  He nodded, his eyes on Gale, and hers on him.

  CHAPTER 17

  Jezebel gave me a clean bill of health and I was über-relieved because we had a big weekend/sleepover planned for Gramps and I'd never missed a Labor Day weekend at his house since I was born.

  As a Level Five Organic, she knew what she was doing. Although, I had the distinction of being her first minor to heal. Big surprise, that.

  Right now, Clyde was a problem that we needed to deal with. He couldn't hang around in the garbage separator. It was somehow, wrong and Mom was having a turtle about it.

  Parents.

  Gale, the Js, the Wellers (minus that dumb honeypot, Christi), and Alex had stopped by the house. It was Saturday morning and we were gonna deal with Clyde first then get hot at Gramps'.

  “Let's swing by the cemetery and get Clyde back to rest,” Gale said. Looking at all of us her gaze finally came to rest on Clyde. She struggled with some emotion that I couldn't understand but something was down, that was for sure.

  She turned to me. “Caleb, you and Tiff can put him to rest, right?”

  We nodded.

  “Okay, let's get to the cemetery.”

  I turned to Clyde. “Clyde, can you meet us at the cemetery?”

  “The place I dwell when I sleep in the earth?”

  I nodded.

  He stared at me. “Yes, I will rendezvous with you there...” he looked at a timepiece, the only whole thing of his outfit, “...twenty minutes from now.”

  “Hey, does that work?” Jonesy asked, eying the pocket watch.

  Clyde's perfectly human eyes met Jonesy's. “Yes.”

  “Damn, Caleb, you gotta get organized! The eyes and the watch?”

  “Clyde needs a makeover,” John said.

  “Yeah,” Tiff said, snapping a bubble.

  “Raise in haste...”

  “Don't say it,” I warned Jonesy.

  He grinned, a slash of white in the shadows.

  Gale rolled her eyes. “Bry, can you take your sister and Jade, we'll meet up there.”

  “Ah, I want Jade with us. The Js can go with the Weller's.”

  She shrugged, whatever.

  Mom poked her head out the front door. “Are you going to take care of Clyde, then meet us at Pop's?”

  I nodded.

  “No dawdling, get straight there.”

  Dawdling, yeah-right.

  The Js were facing me and giving me the big Puss Alert.

  Dumb-asses.

  “Okay Mom, don't worry about it, I think I can handle a simple corpse rest with Tiff and the Police Officer in Attendance.”

  “Anyway,” she said, undeterred, “in light of your hospitalization, I want to be humored. So do it.” This was getting close to the I Will Eviscerate You lecture so I agreed in order to circumvent that possibility.

  I grabbed Jade's hand and got in the creepy cruiser again, noticing it was as gross as all the rest I'd ever been in.

  We watched the scenery whiz by. “Where's Sophie?”

  “She's going to meet us there,” Jade said.

  I nodded.

  As our hands intertwined I looked to see if Gale's eyes were on the road. They were.

  I leaned over and put my mouth by her ear, kissing the outside edge, my lips brushing up against the cold metal of her hoop, the heat from my mouth warming it.

  Smiling. “That tickles,” she giggled softly.

  I liked making her giggle.

  “Later we can swim at Gramps', it'll be nice and private.” I was envisioning her in that tiny swimsuit she had.

  Her eyes met mine. “Caleb, we can't always make out.”

  Why not?

  “We can sneak some time in,” I said, unfazed.

  She grinned. “Okay,” as her cheeks colored a soft pink.

  We passed under the gate for the cemetery, the swirling scrolls marking our entrance.

  Gale rolled to a stop as close to Clyde's plot as we could get. I looked at my watch and noticed we had ten more minutes until my boy showed up.

  Gale turned around in the seat. “What's going on with Clyde?”

  I shrugged, who knew?

  She sighed. “I mean, why is he constantly popping up?”

  I barked out a laugh, thinking about the jack-in-the-box thing.

  “Ah, not funny, Caleb.”

  I shook my head. “No, it's just, the way you said it made me think of something else.”

  Snark.

  Jade looked at me with raised eyebrows and I gave her the, later look.

  “The theory on corpse-raising is once raised, they're easier to raise again,” Gale said.

  That'd been my experience; I think I'd bypassed theory totally.

  “I didn't try to raise Clyde. And him running around was because I didn't get a chance to put him back because of the hospital thing,” I said.

  “Why do you think he responded?” she asked.

  We got out of the car and I slammed the door. Looking around, I took my time answering. The great fir trees swayed in the wind, their branches almost caressing the ground.

  I leaned on the top of the car's hood. “I think because he was my first, ya know, corpse to raise and we're just connected. I'm not gonna lie, I don't really know. Clyde just feels tight, ya know?”

  “Like a friend?” Jade asked.

  I nodded. “Kinda... but, more like a body guard. A zombie body guard.”

  “He feels different than the others,” Gale said, with a shiver.

  Huh.

  Clyde broke through the tree line after she said that, his feet a slimy mess, the muck inside his shoes oozing out of them.

  Must've run,
I thought.

  He turned his gaze to me as the Weller car brought up the rear, the Js piling out. Then his eyes went to Gale's.

  Jonesy rubbed his hands together. “K, let's get cookin', I'm dying to go to Mac's.”

  Clyde scowled at him, which made another ball o' flesh slide off and land on the grass. Facial expression really took a toll I was noticing.

  “Okay, chill, kinda touchy for a corpse,” Jonesy said, getting nervous.

  Bry said, “Jonesy, could you just not.”

  Jonesy crossed his arms, huffing.

  I walked over to Clyde and we looked at each other.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  He inclined his head, “If I may be presumptuous enough to add counsel before I go.”

  Okay.

  “Those young men, who caused you such harm....”

  “The doofus brigade,” Jonesy said.

  “Quiet, Jonester,” John said and Jonesy huffed off, parking his ass on a tombstone, his head in his palm.

  He swung his face away from Jonesy and back to me. “They are not a light threat. I have known people before that are without a conscience. There are people like this now, in your time. There will be more to follow. I advise you use whomever you have at your disposal to dispatch this threat.”

  “Kill 'em all, right?” Tiff clarified.

  Clyde inclined his head again and Officer Gale stuck her fingers in her ears and chanted, “Not listening, not listening!”

  “As plans go, I can't fault it,” Alex said.

  Bry said, “I like it.”

  “You guys, listen, there's always going to be a Carson. Look at what's happened. He got into high school and sucked up a couple more clones,” Jade said.

  “Losers proliferate,” John said.

  Alex laughed. “Yeah, what he said.”

  Clyde leaned in real close and I stifled a gag, poor guy. “We are connected now, you understand this?”

  I nodded; I was so getting that.

  “It is as if I rest below the surface of a restless pool of water. One ripple and I awaken. There is no denying that I will respond to you when you are in distress, no matter what the distance. It is compulsion now.”

  Great.

  Gale approached. “So, you are not in control of this?”

  Clyde looked at her with disbelief, planting a rotting hand against his chest. “My dear, I never was, I never was. He,” and he pointed at me, “is in charge of all that is dead. Caleb has brought me closer to being alive again.” He closed his hand into a fist, the skin stretching close to splitting, the meat of it lightly touching his chest.