Servicing the Undead

by Isabelle Drake

  What about next time?

  He couldn’t do that again. He had to get rid of Mattie. He rolled over, trying not to think about what she’d done to him in the bathroom—lifting him up and setting him on the edge of the sink. Owning him with her emotionless caress. His cock responding to her touch—even when he didn’t want it to. A shiver worked up from the soles of his feet, the electric tremor, a mixture of fear and sexual need. It wasn’t right to feel this way. It wasn’t human, and there wasn’t anyone alive who could help him.

  Unless someone else had been where he’d been and knew what he needed to know.

  He wasn’t Mattie’s first. He did his best to quell the roll in his stomach as he accepted what he’d become. A toy. A necessary pet. A sexual servant.

  What had become of the others who filled the role before him?

  Killed? Or worse, did they become like her, a creature that preyed on others?

  If she hadn’t come in through the library window when she had, interrupting the research he’d been doing for the newspaper, maybe he’d have the answers. He’d know what to do to protect himself or at least how to keep Rachelle safe. Hayden tossed again, turning away from the storm and the thing that lurked in it.

  No, not thing.

  Things.

  Chapter Four

  “You’ve had enough when I say you’ve had enough.”

  “It’s fantastic stuff. We have to use it. We’re going to use it. And you’re going to get more of it, kid.”

  Hayden cringed. He hatred it when Bob Keeler called him kid. Holding the phone to his ear, he hopped off the curb and leapt over a snowbank. He offered his reply as he stomped across the nearly empty street. “This whole zombie thing is going to blow over in a day or two. The snow will melt, the comic convention will end, and everyone will get back to their life and forget about zombie tribes and life-or-death sex.”

  “Life-or-death sex. I love it! Write that down, use it for the next headline.”

  Hayden reached the corner and jumped over another pile of snow. “There doesn’t have to be another headline.”

  “What’s your problem, college boy? You too good for zombies?”

  Hayden did plan to do more research, but not for Bob. For himself, and without Mattie knowing. Knowing she could be listening in on the conversation, he replied, “That’s not it and you know it.”

  “What’s the problem then? This is the best angle we’ve had in months and you know it. Get your ass back over to the library right now, or wherever you dug that stuff up, and write me something hot about that life-or-death sex. And more pictures. I want more of those.”

  Hayden wasn’t about to say anything about the pictures.

  Bob, his usual determined self, wasn’t about to give up. “Hayden, you do this for me, and I’ll do something for you.”

  Hayden stopped walking and held the phone close to his ear. He’d never heard that sort of thing come out of Keeler’s mouth. The guy never offered to do anything for anyone. There was more to this zombie thing than selling papers. “It’s getting late. How about I look into it tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow! Tomorrow?”

  Even though the man was barking into the phone, Hayden could tell he was backing off because he thought he was going to get what he wanted, so he spoke up with a lie. “Yeah, I’m all the way over in Cambridge. I spent six hours with that widow you set me up with. I got some scandalous stuff. Some papers that prove she’s the long-lost daughter of Punchy McLaughlin. You’ll love it.”

  “All right. Fine. That does sound choice. But I want you back on the zombie sex stuff first thing in the morning. Don’t even come in to the office. Just get your ass out of bed and then go get me something hot. And fresh. You know I want it fresh.”

  “Yeah. I know.” After Bob grunted a goodbye, Hayden ended the call but didn’t slide his phone into his pocket. One more call.

  Hayden started walking again, making a mental list of the things he wanted from Keeler. Money. A better desk. And access to the man’s connections. Even though he ran a tabloid, Keeler knew all the top editors at the Globe and a few at the New York Times. An introduction to a couple of them, now that was something Hayden was willing to take risks for.

  The streets were amazingly clear and the snow had stopped that morning, but the going was slow because the plows had left uneven heaps capped with chunks of ice at odd intervals. Once he was a block from his apartment, he stopped and leaned on a low wall sheltering some steps. He hit Rachelle’s number.

  She answered on the first ring.

  He mumbled through a greeting and asked her how her day was. Her reply was the usual, but her voice was off. Wrong. Maybe he was being paranoid.

  “Are you okay? Is something going on?”

  “Going on?” She laughed, and then added, “What would be going on?”

  Standing there on Commonwealth, with the sun slicing through the clouds and shining across the snowbanks, it was hard to believe that anything could be wrong. But it could. He tried again. “You just sound…different.”

  Her laugh lowered, the husky sound nearly made his phone vibrate. “I have you to thank for that.”

  “So everything’s okay?”

  “Stop with that already. When will you be home?”

  “Pretty soon actually.” He watched a delivery van from Cindy’s Market drive past, another lie forming in his mind as he started to speak. “I’m expecting a package. You didn’t happen to see anyone hanging around out front or knocking on the door or anything like that, did you?”

  Her reply came quickly. “No. Hurry up and get home.”

  Hayden kicked a clump of snow. It rolled a few inches then hit another. There was so much snow. It was everywhere, piled high and stacked in corners. There was no escaping it. “Okay, I will, but I have to write up an interview and do some other stuff.”

  “Other stuff, huh?” she said, laughing. “That sounds really important.”

  He couldn’t tell her the truth.

  Rachelle ignored his silence. “Come over to my place as soon as you get home.”

  Hayden clicked off and slipped his phone into his pocket. Overheard, the sun slid behind a cloud and the street dimmed. Off to the west, a new bank of clouds hung in the sky, the edges an ashy gray, the centers dark. More snow. A lot more snow. A blue pickup passed, its tires making a hushed rumble as it turned away and headed toward the river. A yellow Brookline Cab Company van sat at the corner, its light on, a stream of exhaust chugging out from the back. The thin trail of the cabbie’s cigarette dangling out the open driver’s side window spiraled up toward the darkening sky. The cabbie turned, catching Hayden’s gaze as he took a long draw on the cigarette. The man didn’t look away as he flicked the butt out onto the street. The window went up and the van rumbled off.

  Hayden pushed away from the wall and started walking. He reached his place, jogged up the steps, and swung open the door. Still no sign of Mattie. But Hayden wasn’t dumb enough to think she wasn’t around. He could sense her, feel her deep inside his body, thrumming through his veins. She would show up, and there was nothing he could do to avoid it. The best he could hope for was to be ready, brace himself for her effect on him and keep Rachelle away from her.

  The hallway was quiet and empty.

  Once he reached the top landing, he paused to slide his feet out of his snow-covered boots and set them by the wall. He dug out his keys and reached forward to put the key in the lock, but Rachelle pulled the door open just enough for him to see the outline of her body. No fur coat this time, instead she was wearing a ratty Boston College sweatshirt, jeans and red wool socks.

  “Surprise! I couldn’t stand waiting for you, so I came over!”

  That look in her eyes. Glittering. Excited. Curious. It was so much like last night, he shivered.

  She swung the door open and then grabbed his arm and pulled him in. He stumbled in, his stocking feet sliding on the wood floors.

  “Hey there, Hayden.” Mattie. S
itting on his couch and acting as if being there in the middle of his life was the most normal thing in the world. “Wipe that look off your face. I didn’t break in or anything like that. Your girlfriend found me sitting on the steps, waiting for you. She’s a sweetie, so she let me in.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were still working on the zombie stuff?” Rachelle swept around the room to stand next to the couch, two feet away from Mattie. “It sounds awesome.”

  “I—I—” He didn’t what to stay next.

  Mattie leaned back, arching her back as she crossed her long legs. Her red-wrapped breasts were visible beneath a smooth black leather jacket. “Did Bob tell you to keep it a secret?” she asked.

  Hayden turned away from them both, using the time it took to set down his book bag and take off his coat to get his face together.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell Rachelle about our research,” Mattie said, her voice sounding strangely normal.

  “Our research?” he said, words coming before he had a chance to consider the safest way to respond.

  Rachelle came around to Hayden’s side. “Mattie told me a bit about it, it’s, it’s—”

  “Sexy,” Mattie cut in, stretching out the word with a low husky growl.

  Rachelle laughed, but it was a nervous laugh, unsure. “That too. I was going to say, kind of creepy.” She glanced at Mattie. “But in a fun way.”

  Hayden dropped into the chair across from the couch. “Creepy but fun?”

  Rachelle pulled on the hem of her sweatshirt.

  Rachelle and Mattie exchanged smiles. Hayden’s stomach clenched.

  Hayden’s patience snapped. Or maybe it was his fear fighting its way to the surface. “Mattie, what are you doing here anyway?”

  She pointed at Hayden. “I came to tell you something you really want to know and show you something you really want to see.”

  “What?”

  “I was just about to tell Rachelle, so now I can tell you both at the same time.” Mattie grabbed one of the belt loops of Rachelle’s jeans and tugged her down onto the couch. Rachelle landed right next to Mattie. That same nervous laugh drifted up from her throat and the tension in Hayden’s gut reached a new level. And the guilt. It was so heavy on him now there was no avoiding it. He’d done this to Rachelle.

  Mattie turned so only he could see the green glimmer in her eyes. “Don’t ruin this, Hayden. Rachelle is going to love it. I just met her and already I know she’s just going to love it.” Mattie snuggled into Rachelle. “I found one of those zombie tribes you were telling me about. Well, actually I didn’t find it, so I haven’t seen it yet, but someone I know—and trust—told me about it. He saw it.”

  Hayden lifted an eyebrow.

  Mattie dug into her coat pocket and pulled out a wadded-up sheet of brown paper that looked like a piece of a brown grocery bag. She flattened it with her palm. “This is a map a guy named Matthew gave me.”

  Hayden looked over at the scribbled lines. The thing could have been drawn by a middle-school kid.

  “Let me guess. You actually believe there’s something there and you think we should go look at it.”

  Mattie ignored Hayden and turned to Rachelle instead. “I know there’s something there.” She put the map in Rachelle’s hands. “Could it actually be a tribe? Who knows? But how could we not go take a look?”

  Rachelle lifted the map, her eyebrows twisting as she looked it over.

  “Rachelle? Do you actually think there’s a tribe of zombies camped out around here?” Hayden tried to inflect as much disbelief into his voice as he could. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “It sounds fun, Hayden. Let’s go check it out.” She ran her fingertips along the paper’s edge.

  “You want to go look for zombies? Seriously?”

  “I know there’s no such thing as zombies, but the map looks cool, let’s go see where it takes us.” She handed the map to Mattie. “Maybe it’s a bunch of people pretending to be zombies, that’d be great for you. You could take more pictures. Bob would love that, right?”

  Yes, he would.

  Hayden scrambled for a reason not to go. “What about the roads?”

  Mattie waved her hands. “They’re fine. I got here, didn’t I?”

  “We’ll take your car, Hayden. That’s why you have four-wheel drive, to do this sort of important investigative journalism. Right?” Rachelle’s phone chirped and she took it from her purse as she added, “It’ll be part of the adventure.”

  Hayden stood up. “I need something to drink.”

  “Put a kettle on,” Mattie called after him. “We can take some tea on the drive.”

  Hayden didn’t respond. Instead he kept walking to the small kitchen and headed straight for his bourbon. He didn’t bother with a glass. Three swallows later, Mattie came up beside him and whispered into his ear.

  “You know we’re going.” She slipped over to the stove, picked up the kettle, shook it, and then moved to the sink.

  Hayden took another swig and then put the bottle away.

  She was leaning on the counter and staring at him. Hayden stared back, trying to remember how he’d gotten her to leave the bathroom. She pushed her coat open, and Hayden’s gaze went straight to her breasts, partially exposed by the strips of red wool. When he looked up, her gaze was on his crotch. Rachelle’s voice carried from the other room.

  “Like I said before,” she said softly, “we’re done when I say we’re done.”

  “What happens when we’re done? To me?”

  “If I were you, I guess I’d want to know that too.”

  “So tell me.”

  She leaned forward and whispered, “Well, you see, it kind of depends.”

  “On what?”

  A flash of green glimmered in her eyes. Hayden winced.

  “You know I’m not wearing any panties, right?” She smirked, then leaned back and crossed her arms right underneath her breasts and shoved them up.

  Of course she wasn’t going to answer his question. Bitch.

  Hayden did his best to ignore her comment, but the image of her bare pussy wouldn’t leave his mind. “Fine. Let’s go.” Hayden pulled his gaze away from Mattie’s body and turned to call out to Rachelle. “You sure you want to do this?” he asked, even though he already knew her answer.

  The thud of her stocking feet was immediate. She held her hand over her phone. “What, are you kidding? Of course.”

  Mattie had dropped her arms and was standing casually with her coat pulled closed. “Do you have some boots? A heavy coat? It’s going to be really cold and I think we have to walk through some woods.”

  Rachelle nodded as she spun, the sound of her feet her response.

  As soon as the door slammed shut, Mattie’s coat was on the floor, and she was on him, grabbing at his belt. Hayden tried to push her away, but even as he did, his dick was getting hard and his blood was starting to burn through his veins. She shoved his pants and briefs down. Once her hand curved around his shaft, she leaned against him and murmured, “If you hurry, she won’t have to walk in on us.”

  Hayden took the kettle off. “Turn around.”

  She smiled, speaking over her shoulder, “That’s more like it.”

  He lifted her skirt and positioned his stiff cock between her bare ass cheeks. “You might want to hold on to the counter.”

  Without worrying about whether or not he hurt her, he impaled her with a single sharp drive. She was tight, but her body accepted his full length. He plunged in again. She bucked back, encouraging him to pound into her, and he did. Flickers of the sexual fire that had started the night before flamed inside him and tore through his limbs in a fierce and angry blaze. Their bodies became one and he pumped his cock into her pussy using quick, remorseless thrusts. The blaze exploded and stole his control. His orgasm was upon him in seconds. His cock got bigger, seeming to expand beyond its possible size, and she let out a long, heavy breath. Tremors rolled over her body, the walls of her vagina s
queezed, sucking the cum from his dick. He shuddered, slowly at first, but more quickly as the waves of their explosion rolled together. The last three thrusts were vicious and fierce, almost to the point of pain, but he couldn’t control himself, didn’t really want to, and he fell into the dark bliss of the mind-numbing physical release.

  He withdrew, pulled down her skirt and adjusted his clothes.

  Mattie looked him up and down as she straightened out her clothes. “Well done, researcher.”

  “Why do you keep calling me that?” he asked, stepping past her.

  She followed him into the living room. “That’s what you do, isn’t it? Research.”

  “I write for a ridiculous tabloid newspaper. That’s not research.”

  She kicked the back of his calf, and he stumbled until he grabbed the edge of the couch.

  “You’re so smart, Hayden,” she said after a husky laugh. “I can’t believe you haven’t figured it out yet.”

  He looked over his shoulder.

  “What I want from you, I mean.”

  He pointed to his dick then moved to the picture window that looked out on the street. The rows of white lights blinked back at him. Snow lay heaped in corners, heavy and dense, turning into shadows as the sun set on the slow-moving city. Long minutes stretched past as he watched the dusk, him trying to guess what Mattie wanted from him and her poised behind him, a solid wall of stealth.

  Rachelle swung into the room, her giant fur wrapped around her body. Despite having just fucked Mattie, a slow thrill of arousal ran through his body.

  She smiled, looking as if she was remembering too. “You guys ready?”

  Mattie shoved Hayden toward the hall. “You go get ready, Hayden. I’ll make us some tea to take on the trip.” She wrapped her arm around Rachelle’s shoulders and kissed the other girl on top of the head. “I’ll make sure we take care of everything.”

  Chapter Five

  “Well done, researcher.”

  Fingers of wind brushed Hayden’s hair, ruffling it and tossing the front strands into his eyes. He shoved them back and squinted. The air in his car was cool and his breath came out in puffs. Beyond the windshield the moonlight shone across a row of snow-covered trees that stretched across the horizon. The line of trees was thin, narrow, as though it ran alongside of stream or river.