by Angie Fox
It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think. I had to come up with something quick or I wasn't going to make it.
Spine twitching, Mamma held out her hand as a blood-soaked woman in white stumbled to retrieve her head with one good arm, the other gnarled and chewed away. Together, they placed the head back on Mamma's shoulders. She grimaced as she adjusted it back into place. Tendons slithered up the bone, muscles knit together, and I was left with a very alive, very pissed voodoo queen.
"I should kill you for that," she hissed. She adjusted a crick in her neck. "I will. But don't worry. I'll bring you back. You deserve to be my undead slave."
The ghouls held my arms out to my sides and shoved me toward Mamma.
"Disarm her!" Mamma commanded, more than a little put out.
At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they ripped my arms off.
When the clawing dead bodies tore my switch star belt from my body, I was almost relieved. It disappeared into the churning mass of the departed.
"They should have done that back at the funeral parlor." She took one slow step toward me, then another. "My second son underestimated you. I won't."
She reached again for the hole in my chest, her fingers white and grasping.
I braced myself, knowing this time I might not make it.
"Lizzie!" My dog's voice echoed from above. I looked to the sky and saw Pirate swooping down on the back of his dragon. It was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen. "Duck!" he hollered.
Flappy's talons hit Mamma, taking off her head, sending it screaming backward. The dead reached for the low-flying dragon.
I was loose.
Explosions lit up the night as spell jars broke all around us. The hoarse battle cry of the witches echoed over the city of the dead.
Red smoke rippled up, making my head swim. I stumbled sideways. I touched the wound at my side, horrified to see the blood running freely.
"Lizzie, catch!" Pirate yelled, as Flappy came in for another dive. "It's from Dimitri." A loosely bound leather bag landed at my feet.
What the…? "Where's Dimitri?" I untied it to find a steel long sword.
"Attack!" Mamma ordered and I saw she had her head attached once more. "Kill. Rip her apart!"
The zombie horde surged. I hefted the sword and took off the heads of two of the creatures who came at me. The weapon slammed to the ground, heavier than I'd imagined.
Screams echoed in the night. I quickly climbed the nearest mausoleum, out of their reach. For now. I sliced at the hands grabbing for me. The Red Skulls had invaded from the front gate. They'd made it about twenty feet inside the cemetery and set up a preliminary circle.
A wall of green magic surrounded them, and they hunkered behind it, firing red death spells. Trunks lay open along the edges and in the center of the circle, filled with glistening magic.
I'd seen death spells before. Hell, I was the only person alive who had walked through one and not succumbed. But that brand of magic didn't work now. Not on these creatures.
"Bob!" I hollered, trying to get the nearest Red Skull's attention.
Moans filled the night as the witches were quickly surrounded.
Ant Eater and Grandma barked orders to the coven members passing spells up to the front.
A corpse's jagged teeth lashed at my ankle. I sliced its head off.
"They're already dead!" I hollered as the bloodthirsty corpses slammed into their lines and reached for me on top of the mausoleum. The zombies pressed against the Red Skull's wall, pushing and straining.
An arm reached through, then another, trying to grasp at the witches beyond. The spell powering the wall weakened and sputtered. It wouldn't hold for long.
On the right flank, Dimitri defended his position with a short sword. He'd found a pair of black pants, but that's all he wore. The muscles in his back flexed as he drove back the dead again and again. Creely lay next to him, white-faced, her side bleeding. Edwina frantically applied bandages.
The dead were starting to pile up, to push over the wall. A hand shot through and grabbed Dimitri's shoulder. He sliced it right off the arm. But there would be others. Countless many more.
A snarling corpse seized my leg and I lopped off its head moments before it bit.
With gut wrenching terror, I saw the first of the dead break through the witches' wall and go straight for Dimitri. He stabbed it in the head, then dropped his blade. He had to be nuts.
I watched as he wove his blue protective magic, patching the hole. At least temporarily. Dimitri's arms shook. He focused his entire body, his entire being on that breach in the wall. He was working too hard to keep it closed. It was only a matter of time.
Ant Eater rushed for more weapons, splitting them with Aimee and her man as they went back to the walls. I hoped to God they had more in their arsenal. We had to end this or all of us would die tonight.
I shoved off the tomb, levitating over the bloodthirsty corpses, landing hard inside the witches' barricade. I ran for Grandma as she dragged a teetering zombie over the wall and stabbed it in the brain with a dagger.
Its dull eyes closed forever and she gave a satisfied snort.
Yeah, well there were too many to kill one-on-one. "We have to come up with something bigger," I hollered over the snarls coming from outside the wall. "You can't use death spells on the already dead."
"Right," she said, her eyes widening. She hurried to the stash at the center and began rifling through it. "We've got stuff to stop a heart."
"No."
"Turn blood to dust."
"No." I insisted. "What do you have that can short-circuit a brain?" Maybe the zombie movies had gotten something right.
"I got Mind Wipers," she said, a little desperate.
"No." Not when their ultimate wish was to tear us apart.
The shambling corpses pressed into the wall and I heard it crackle under the pressure.
"What have you got to kill them?" I demanded.
"Everything we've got is designed to kill them!" She hollered back.
It's just that none of it would work on corpses. Think.
I jumped sideways when Frieda pressed a crystal over the bloody gash on my side. "Ow!" I slapped her away.
She pressed it in harder. "Stop being a baby. You won't be any good to us if you bleed to death."
"I'm fine," I grimaced as I felt warm magic seep into my wound. Damn. It stung.
"Hold still," she ordered.
Flappy circled overhead and shot down straight toward me, with a wobbling Pirate on his back. The damned dog was going to fall off one of these days. I didn't know how many times I told him not to ride the dragon.
"Get away!" I yelled, waving him off. He was flying straight over death spells.
He didn't listen. The fricking dog never listened. He skimmed the wall, taking down a mess of zombies as they bit and clawed at Flappy's legs.
The dragon shot out a burst of fire, setting several of the dead ablaze. Fire crackled over their skin and clothes. It streamed from their hair. The stench of burning, rotting flesh invaded my senses and still they came at us, arms outstretched.
Frieda rushed to help Ant Eater, whose boot had caught fire.
Next to her, Aimee staggered back from the wall. For a second I thought she'd been bitten. "We can't fight this," she said, blood flowing from a cut on her forehead. "You have to kill Mamma."
"I tried to kill Mamma," I countered. "I ripped out her soul. I stabbed her in the head. She's immortal."
"No," she grabbed my arm violently, as a wave of red smoke shot up nearby. Way too close. "You have to kill her in her grave!"
I stared at her. "You sure?"
She held my gaze. "Positive."
"Good Lord." I hoped she was right.
I climbed up on top of a trunk near the wall, unsure how I could even pull it off. If this worked, if I could make it there, this could be our salvation.
I'd have to levitate and then make a run for it.
Meanwhile, I sliced
the arms off an old man who was about to take a chunk out of Flappy's leg.
Flappy took off, jolting up into the sky.
"You can do it!" My dog's voice floated down to me.
He was in so much trouble right now.
But first I had to find the immortal voodoo queen. And lead her to her grave. And kill her.
I bashed in the skull of a creature who was more bone than anything, and leapt out of the circle, landing on the roof of a brick grave that crumbled under my feet. The red smoke from the death spells stung my eyes, making them water. My side twinged, but no blood oozed out. Go, Frieda.
"You want me?" I hollered to the voodoo queen. "Come get me."
I saw her advance through the mess of bodies and I did something I'd never done before. I ran away.
Jumping down off the far side of the grave, I took off like a shot, toward the rear left side of the cemetery. My boots pounded against the packed ground as I ran over the seashell paths and through the uneven graves. I found a relatively deserted path and took down a dead bride on the way up to the white stone lane where I hoped and prayed I'd find the Pade family tomb.
A wave of screams erupted behind me. I had to believe Dimitri and the witches were holding their own. That it was a battle cry, not the sound of my friends being ripped apart.
The whispers of the dead followed me. Their spirits tangled in my hair, chilling me to the core. They wound in front of me, misty and white.
I tore straight through them.
And then I saw it, the Pade grave straight ahead, on the dead end. It stood plain and white, topped with a slanted roof, then entrance flanked by vases of crimson roses twined with strands of pearls and feathers. More flowers scattered the ground in front of the entrance, along with offerings of rum and cigarettes.
I stomped them in my haste.
The tomb was cursed. I would be too in a minute. I spread my hands over the freezing cold stone, even as I sweated in the heat of the night. I found the lever, slid it to the side and stood back as the stone rolled away.
Dark energy tore at my skin and I remembered Aimee's warning. It could very well kill me to proceed, but dammit, I was about to make sure it was positively lethal for Mamma Pade.
"Sacrifice yourself." It was one of the three Truths of the demon slayers and I clung to it now.
A dead hand landed heavy on my shoulder and I gasped. I spun and came up hard against a very strong, very angry Mamma.
This time, she stood alone, away from her ghouls and her henchmen.
"I'm not going in there and neither are you," she hissed.
I grabbed her hand and fell back into the tomb.
Icy coldness washed over me and I let out a cry as my head slammed against the floor. I had to stay conscious, keep hold of the sword, even as Mamma's corpse crashed down on top of me.
I'd lost most of the feeling in my arms. I didn't even know if I could swing the heavy sword as Mamma rose up, her fingers closing around my neck.
I stabbed her in the chest, the sword going in hard, catching on bone. It drove her off my neck, but it didn't kill her. If anything, it ticked her off.
She snarled, working her body on the sword until I realized she was impaling herself to get to me.
I braced a foot on her chest and fought her, using every bit of strength I had left to dislodge her body from my weapon. My head swam, the blood trickling from my side felt warm against my cold, cold skin as Mamma's bony fingers found my throat once more.
My fingers weakened their grip. I couldn't feel them anymore. I had to find my strength somehow. Had to fight.
I thought of Dimitri and the witches, surrounded, fighting a losing battle against the horde. I thought of Pirate and what would happen to him if everyone he loved were gone. I thought of what I had with Dimitri and I how I refused to lose that over a crazed voodoo bokor and his damned mother.
So I shoved both my feet against her chest and yanked the sword back and kicked her into the ceiling. She slammed against the stone. I rolled away as she fell back down. And once she landed, I rose to my knees and sliced her sick, smiling skull in half for good.
The black soul burst from her throat, breaking into hundreds of tiny shards that flew straight at me. I shielded my face, closed my eyes, as they seared past me and out into the night.
Free.
Chapter Twenty-One
Mamma's bones rested on the dirt-caked floor of her grave. As it should be.
I watched the light fade from her eyes. The flesh flaked and crumbled from her bones. Her eyeballs sank into her skull and returned to dust. And when I was satisfied that she lay well and truly dead, I stepped out of the grave.
The moans of the dead echoed throughout the darkened cemetery.
A young blond girl stumbled toward me. She couldn't have been more than ten. Blood trailed from her mouth, but at the moment, she appeared more stunned than deadly.
"I've got her," said a gristly voice on my right.
Carpenter stepped out from between the graves, flanked by Frieda and Aimee. A white bandage wrapped his chest. He looked like he'd seen better days, but he was whole and alive.
Thank God.
He stretched a hand out to her and she jolted to attention. "This way, sweetheart," he said, ushering her toward an open mausoleum a few graves down. Her tiny feet scraped the dirt as she shuffled back to her place of rest.
"Now this one," Carpenter said, turning weakly to beckon a pale and confused Osse Pade. Without Mamma, he'd lost his intellect, his awareness. "Go," Carpenter said, pointing to the Grave of the Three Sisters. I stepped aside and let the bokor enter.
"Don't anyone else near this place," I warned, "it's cursed." I sure felt like death warmed over.
The necromancer shook his head. "That curse died with Mamma." He paused. "You did kill her, didn't you?"
Way to take it for granted. "Yes," I said, trying to sound cocky, even as I admitted my failing. "Her soul went free."
Carpenter squinted and looked to the sky, as if he could somehow see it. "It was free before."
I didn't even want to think about it.
"How are you feeling?" I asked.
He shrugged. "About as bad as you look," he said, his attention returning to me.
"He was too busy destroying records to worry about bleeding to death," Aimee said, tears clouding her eyes. "Frieda got to him just in time."
The biker witch shrugged, embarrassed. "We all do what we can."
"We figured out how to stop Mamma," Carpenter said, as if that was all that mattered. "And I made it so the secret to Osse Pade's soul traps died with him."
Dimitri stepped from between the graves. Sweat shone on his body. His hair was a mess and blood marred his cheek, but he was whole and alive.
"Lizzie," he said, scooping me up, kissing me for all I was worth. I ignored the groans of the rest and let him. I only had one love, one person I woke up for in the morning and thought about every night before I went to sleep. And he was here now. Whole and healthy.
Life had never been so sweet.
***
We helped the witches clean up while Carpenter returned the cemetery dead to their graves.
"What do we do about the rest?" Ant Eater asked Grandma.
We'd laid out the church members in neat rows and covered their faces as best we could with the white cloth the witches had used to wrap spells inside the trunks.
Grandma shook her head. "I don't know. It's a shame."
"They should have stayed off the dark path," said the man whom I'd seen with Aimee earlier. He had a Spanish accent, and was quite the looker in an Antonio Banderas sort of way. He held out a hand to me. "Dante Montenegro, Aimee's husband."
"What a way to meet you," I said, taking his hand.
He nodded to Dimitri, who merely smiled. Evidently, I'd missed out on a joke.
"Do you deal with this sort of thing a lot?" I asked Dante, trying to figure out what was going on.
"The dead coming back to li
fe?" He laughed. "Not often," he mused, shooting Dimitri a look. Let them have their little secret. "I must say, though, my brother-in-law does attract trouble."
I didn't doubt it. "He's one of the best I know." He'd sacrificed himself try and stop Osse Pade and to keep the witches and me safe. And even though he'd gotten us into this mess in the first place, he did it for the right reasons. "We all owe him a debt."
"I heard that," Carpenter said behind me.
Dimitri groaned.
"No," I said, "he's not going to hold me to that one."
Carpenter merely smiled.
Before we left the cemetery, we closed up the graves and Aimee sealed the Tomb of the Three Sisters with magic that made my hair sizzle. Even the biker witches broke out into applause, although to be fair, they'd also found a flask of cinnamon schnapps among the spell jars and had laid into it pretty heavy by the time we were ready to go.
We'd all survived the battle, and that was something to celebrate.
Even Creely partook, which I thought was a bit much, given her age and her injury…until Frieda showed me her work. The gash in the engineering witch's side had closed up completely, leaving a pink line of irritated flesh. I lifted my shirt and found nearly the same thing.
"You've got a natural talent for this," I told the blonde witch. We'd lost our healer a few months before, in a battle with a demon. "You ever think you might want to take on the job for good?"
She blushed and shook her head, her hoop earring swinging. "Oh, I don't know."
I did. "Think about it."
Life's too short to try and hide your talents.
Chapter Twenty-Two
News outlets reported the next day about Osse Pade's voodoo church, and how all of the members had committed mass suicide.
Aimee hadn't been happy. It was bad PR for a religion that could be quite beautiful in the right hands. But, frankly, I was just glad to be getting out of town.
I missed our home. The trip to New Orleans had taken longer than we'd expected. My first wedding anniversary was coming up in a few days and I wanted to focus on love and happiness, not curses and death.
