Undead for a Day

by Chris Marie Green, Nancy Holder, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

  “You don’t want him to endanger himself. I get it.”

  Natalia only nodded.

  So this was it. The true end of the line for Kiko.

  “I won’t involve him,” Dawn said, feeling as if something had already been taken from her.

  She didn’t have a soul stain right now, but she had a heart that was getting rawer by the second.

  After Natalia thanked her and left, Dawn rested her head against the wall, glancing out the window, feeling the tick-tock of the seconds running by toward the sunrise.

  Well, there it was. Another part of her past gone. The thing was, she wasn’t sure what life would be like without the guy who’d become one of her best friends.

  Her fellow slayer, not by her side anymore.

  She knew she wasn’t alone when Costin sidled up to her, caressing her hair with his invisible force.

  She didn’t want to think about the sadness or even feel it when she probably had just this one night to escape from all that.

  But the imprint of sadness was there, anyway.

  “If you’re here, who’s with Lilly?” she asked.

  “Jonah has a revolver pointed at her for insurance. He is feeling much better and cannot seem to stay in bed.”

  “Stubborn donkey.”

  Costin nuzzled her neck, and she felt her defenses lower.

  “You’ve decided?” he asked.

  Stay here for good and play it safe? Or take the ultimate initiative?

  “I keep going back and forth on this,” she said.

  “You need a calmer mind, yes?”

  “I need a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get them.”

  He chuckled, an airy pressure against her neck that sent a spiral of yearning through her.

  “Perhaps I can help in at least one area....” he said.

  When Costin eased into her, she sucked in a sharp breath, turning around and grasping for the wall.

  This was the first time in a long time she’d felt him without the soul stain interfering, and it was as if she was experiencing a new rush of electric shock, of knee-melting, aching need.

  He stroked her from the inside out, and she was barely aware of the dragon pasting itself against her side, as if all it wanted to do was hide from Costin.

  But that wasn’t the reason he was in her right now—to subdue the evil blood marks as he did every morning. No, he was caressing her, wave upon wave of sensation, making her ready and oh-so willing.

  She slid down the wall, her fingers grasping, finding nothing to hold on to as pressure built inside her, stoked and heated by every move Costin made.

  Swirls and whirls that painted her with rough strokes, smooth strokes, both. He was like sunlight, beaming through her, burning her, singeing and cleansing and rising, rising, until—

  At the booming explosion that rocked every cell to bits, she fell to all fours, taking as much oxygen into her as she could because she was starved for it. Dizzy and high with it.

  Laughing as if she would always feel this way.

  “Pity,” he said, still inside her, his voice an echo that buzzed in all the right places. “If only we had more time to calm you.”

  It really was a pity that this might be the last time she could experience Costin like this before Samhain ended and the stain might come back.

  But...

  Damn it, who said the effect would wear off at sunrise?

  Hope sprang eternal as Dawn rolled over and felt his weight inside her, warm, hot—everything. She wrapped her arms around herself, as if trying to keep him in, feeling him and not feeling him, holding on to every burst of sunlight she could.

  EIGHT

  The Other Other Woman

  Later, after Costin had left Dawn to herself, the grandfather clock downstairs struck three o’clock.

  She wandered downstairs, where Jonah was pointing the revolver at a statue-like Lilly while she sat captivated in her chair. She was staring straight ahead with that dumbfounded, white-eyed look on her face.

  “Can you believe my life has been reduced to this?” Jonah asked when Dawn entered the room. But he didn’t take his gaze off Lilly, even if it seemed as if she was the nicest little keeper ever.

  “I’m here to give you a break,” Dawn said. “Go lie down like you’re supposed to.”

  “Listen, all that happened was that I got nicked by a tiny little hammer that just so happened to hit the sweet spot on my head. I’ve handled worse.”

  “It was enough to knock you out, Hercules.”

  “That old man had good aim.” He gestured with his free hand toward his bandage-covered temple while keeping his gaze straight ahead at Lilly. “Do you know what it’s like to be a man who was taken down by a weapon a hobbit could’ve thrown?”

  Dawn gave into a laugh, then sat on the sofa, taking the revolver from Jonah, slipping into guard mode.

  “Scat,” she said.

  “Just tell me that you’re chasing me off for some rest because you’ll need me later...if you guys decide to track down the Meratoliages once and for all.”

  He was asking in a roundabout way if she’d made a decision.

  “You’ll be the last to know when I make a choice.” Then, with actual appreciation, she said, “If we do go out again, I will definitely need you to be at your best, Jonah.”

  He didn’t move. Maybe he was gobsmacked by the compliment.

  “You know,” he finally said, “it’s good to have you this way. The opposite of mopey. You’ve been depressing lately, Dawn.”

  She wasn’t sure she liked the fact that she was living up to the standards an occasionally unhinged person like Jonah had set.

  He asked, “Are you waiting for Kalin to come back to make your decision?”

  “That would be ideal.”

  “What if she doesn’t? What if the Meratoliages found a way to capture Friends, just like the Hollywood Underground did, and that’s why she hasn’t reported in?”

  That had already occurred to Dawn. “I’m giving her a half hour more.”

  “Then?”

  “Then I’ll do what I do.”

  At the end of her be-kind-to-Jonah rope, she shooed him out of the room, then got comfortable, planting her combat boots on the floor, leaning forward and resting her arms on her thighs while pointing that revolver at Lilly.

  “Alone at last—the zombie and the vacillator.” She didn’t often use big words like that. It might’ve even been the first time she’d tugged this particular one out of the depths of her vocabulary. Hell, it might’ve even been a remnant from the SATs she’d blown back in the day. “Is zombie even the right term for you?”

  She hadn’t been expecting a response, so when Lilly stopped peering straight in front of her and connected with Dawn’s gaze, Dawn sat up.

  “I knew you wouldn’t play possum for long. You’re too feisty for that.”

  The tips of the girl’s gaped mouth somehow turned up, as if she remembered the fights they’d had in London, when they’d managed not to kill each other. And if Lilly had been re-tuned in the head during some kind of Samhain ritual, she would definitely recall all those fights.

  Was Lilly ready to communicate? It might be a good idea to find out whether the girl had been telling the truth when she’d given those visions to Kiko. After all, Dawn doubted that she’d just strolled to the beach house to surrender to them like she had.

  “You’re no zombie,” Dawn said. “At first, I wasn’t so sure you were anything more than a bozo with zero gray matter in your head. But you can use that noggin of yours, can’t you? I’ll bet you even have memories of all the custodes that came before you, and you remember your life, too.”

  Lilly didn’t respond.

  Dawn took another approach. “Or maybe I’m wrong. I bet you can’t do anything more than your family’s dark magic allows you to do. They’re commanding your every move, aren’t they? Because God knows, you were never this much of a shrinking violet before. Something has to be r
estraining you.”

  Lilly wrinkled her nose in a snarl, and Dawn wasn’t sure if it was because she was taunting her or if it was because a girl like Lilly didn’t do restraint very well, whether Dawn was doing it or whether her family was.

  The girl widened her eyes and surged forward, straining against her bindings. For a second, Dawn thought the keeper was about to hop out of that chair, popping her ropes like a mini-Hulk and coming in for the kill.

  But then Lilly shuddered and went still, as if something was holding her back.

  Meratoliage ritual magic? Was Dawn right about Lilly being restrained by the family’s powers?

  Hmm.

  When Lilly made a little sound in her throat, it reminded Dawn of a dog who wanted some petting, and there they were—back at square one with the zombie and the vacillator.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Dawn asked.

  Lilly cocked her head to the side. Yikes. But Dawn was starting to catch on.

  “Is there something that you want? Something you can’t put into words?”

  One long whine.

  Should she get Kiko down here to do his psychic thing again? Right. She’d made a promise to Natalia not to pull him into the action anymore.

  But Dawn had the feeling that Lilly needed to tell her something, and Kiko was the man for the job. Some promises had to be broken.

  “Kik!” she called out, pointing the revolver at Lilly as the girl kept cocking her head. “Could you come here for a sec?”

  Moments later, Costin zoomed into the room with such force that the curtains belled away from the windows. Kiko and Natalia came running, and she was looking at Dawn as if she wanted to take a pair of pliers and extract her teeth one by one.

  Before anyone could ask what was wrong, Dawn shoved the nozzle of the revolver in Lilly’s direction. “She’s reacting to things I say when she wasn’t before. Why?”

  Kiko stepped toward Lilly, but Natalia got hold of his long sleeve.

  He whispered to his wife, and Dawn thought she heard him say, “Just one more time.”

  When Natalia let go of him and tightened her jaw, just before leaving the room, a pang of remorse hit Dawn.

  But it didn’t stay for long as Kiko touched Lilly’s neck, as he had when he’d interviewed her.

  Dawn asked the questions this time. “Are you messing with us, Lilly?”

  After a hesitation, Kiko shook his head. “I’m not getting much of a read on her. Everything’s scrambled in her head right now.”

  Meratoliage magic at work?

  “Lilly,” Dawn said, louder now, “were you lying to us about anything tonight?”

  This time, Kiko received a quick answer from Lilly. “The location of the family...” he mumbled before strength came back to his voice. “She lied to us about not knowing where the family is right now...”

  But then he shook his head, as if he didn’t understand what he was reading in Lilly anymore. “Damn, she went on the fritz again.”

  Dawn had the feeling that Lilly was playing with them once more, and she bristled. It was time to get the little bitch out of here. Interview over.

  When Kiko removed his hand from Lilly’s neck, he focused his gaze on her face. “She’s blank now, but I did get something at the end there. Her thoughts were fading in and out, like she’s losing energy. Maybe it’s because the sun is getting closer to rising and the dark powers that raised her are waning. I don’t know. But I got the vibe that she actually wants to show you where the family is.”

  Costin spoke from his side of the room. “Perhaps she wants to lure Dawn there with the dragon.”

  “No,” Kiko said. “I felt...bitterness. Betrayal. Rage.”

  When he looked at Dawn, she saw how pumped up he was. He loved being in the thick of things and would never be the same man without the hunting to keep him going.

  But he had a whole other life ahead of him.

  “Thanks, Kik,” she said softly, simply. What else could she tell him?

  He nodded, then glanced over to where Costin was lingering by the curtains before he paused, then finally quit the room.

  Something was in Dawn’s eye, and she blinked it away. But that only left the same something wet on the top of her cheek instead. Dammit.

  Costin breezed over to her. “Dawn...”

  She didn’t know what alerted her to Lilly—a twitch she saw out of the corner of her eye, a gut feeling?—but the next thing she knew, ropes and cuffs were flying, and Lilly was standing up and raising some kind of object in her hand...

  Suddenly, Costin’s essence was being pulled away from her, and she reached out, as if she could hold onto him.

  “Costin!”

  But by the time she saw what Lilly was holding it was already too late.

  A box. A tiny black box that looked like a button from the keeper’s shirt.

  Just like that, Lilly snapped the box shut and pressed something on her opposite wrist, targeting Dawn.

  Liquid squirted toward Dawn, and she sprang out of the way, but not in time to avoid being hit on the neck, where she wasn’t covered by her shirt.

  Her skin sizzled, and she slapped a hand over it, yelling.

  Acid. And from the look of the ropes and the cuffs all over the floor, Lilly had used it to subtly escape while they’d been momentarily distracted by Kiko leaving.

  Dawn heard a vicious laugh and looked up to see Lilly shoving the little box onto her belt. Then she leaned forward and, with another hellish sound—just like fast, dry, loud clicks coming from her throat—she jumped over a sofa and bounded toward the glass door.

  With one powerful, fast-running kick, she smashed it open and dove outside.

  But Dawn already had her revolver up, and in spite of the burning on her neck, she squeezed the trigger.

  The bullet seemed to catch Lilly in the leg, making her stumble, but she didn’t fall. She just took off into the night with the most precious thing Dawn had.

  Costin.

  Had the Meratoliages wanted him all along and Lilly had schemed her way to him?

  Without thinking about the consequences, Dawn screamed. She thought she heard a clamor as the others rushed into the room, but she’d already jumped through the glass door, avoiding the shards, running as fast as she could to catch up to Lilly and Costin.

  Compared to a superhuman revenant, she didn’t match up, but with a wounded undead creature?

  Dawn would make it a close race.

  She saw Lilly down the beach, limp-running, heading toward the village of Del Mar.

  Everything was a blur as Dawn passed: water, houses, kids hanging out on the beach before the cops told them to get home. Drunken screams egged her on, and she didn’t stop to think of what a sight she made pumping down the shoreline, chasing the girl who looked like she was wearing a ghoulish, white-eyed mask.

  Up ahead, when she got to the street, she saw where Lilly was heading, and she panted, standing in place to catch her breath.

  The keeper was climbing up the balcony of an upscale hotel with some kind of fancy French name Dawn couldn’t pronounce, and she was headed for the inverted V roof.

  Dawn’s acid-swiped neck kept burning, but not as much as her lungs as she watched Lilly reach the apex.

  She looked at the keeper and the keeper looked at her, perched on top of that angled roof.

  Dawn didn’t know if the Meratoliages had implanted this luring scheme in Lilly’s head or if the retired keeper was capable of thinking of it all on her own, but she had to have gotten that spirit box from somewhere. No telling what they’d do to Costin with dark magic.

  She had to get him back, even if she had to run all the way up the coast to get him.

  She targeted Lilly with the revolver she’d been grasping this entire time, but when the girl ducked the bullet, panic drove Dawn into a sprint. Even if she was about to fall down because her legs were quaking, she pushed herself, dashing up a small hill and hauling herself up a drainpipe until she reached a balco
ny. She didn’t look down as she crawled to the roof.

  Once again, Lilly was toying with her, already on the top of an adjacent building, straddling the V of it.

  Was she slowing down from the blood loss she’d suffered after taking that first bullet? Just how far could a magically enhanced thing go on that leg?

  Dawn took a running jump toward the next building, landed, feeling the roof slipping under her boots. But she grabbed at the apex with one hand, her revolver in the other, holding on, hauling herself up to it so she could stand.

  In the back of her mind, she thought she heard a voice in the background.

  “Hey! What’s going on?”

  Someone yelling from their window? They needed to get the hell back to their world and ignore what was going on in this one.

  Lilly was already on the next and final roof when Dawn got to where the keeper had been only a few minutes ago and...shit.

  Something caught Dawn’s eye as it rolled down the roof from Lilly and into the rain gutter. It looked like a small communications unit with a red light flashing. Another “shirt button.”

  She didn’t know how much farther she could go, so she desperately sucked in air, gathering herself while, on the last roof, the girl was balanced on the upside down V again, waiting like a gaping crow hoping to tear apart some prey.

  Dawn heard a car driving somewhere behind her—another sign of a totally different world—and she took one last run, flying through the air and landing stomach down on the last roof.

  Knocked loose, her revolver skittered down the roof.

  Lilly had scrambled to the edge of it. She was laughing at Dawn with that weird clicking sound as she lifted her hand in something like a revenant wave and prepared to jump, probably to surf the car that was now driving by down below.

  As the black SUV sped past in the parking lot, Dawn calculated where she would need to jump, then followed Lilly as she arced off the inn’s roof.

  The fall seemed to suspend Dawn in time—a long, drawn-out heartbeat, a push of blood through her veins—and when she hit the SUV’s roof, she grasped its rack.