Zombie King

by J. C. Diem

  A wide, two story concrete building appeared through a break in the trees. While I could see it quite clearly, only the single light shining near the garage enabled my dad to view it. Plain and austere, at first glance it looked like the lair of an evil genius. Even at a second glance, it was still imposing.

  The same device opened the garage door and I turned the SUV around so I could reverse it inside. Apart from a black van to our left, the spacious garage was empty. There was enough room for ten cars and our two vehicles looked almost lonely sitting side by side.

  Before I climbed out, I snagged my gun from beneath the seat and slid it back into its holster. My dad followed me to the reinforced metal door that required a palm scan to open it. Mounted on the wall next to the door, the device came to life when my hand touched it. Green light shone brightly as my prints were examined and accepted.

  We stepped into a hallway that stretched out to the right with intermittent doorways on each side. There was only one door to the left and another scanner waited. The compound had scanners on all but the bedroom doors.

  Before opening the door, I assessed my father’s mood. His lips were pinched into a thin line, but he seemed stable enough. “Promise me you won’t kill anyone,” I said with my hand hovering over the scanner.

  He looked down at me without saying anything. I could be just as stubborn as him and I cocked my eyebrow to indicate that I could stand there all night if I had to.

  Scowling slightly, he finally gave in and nodded. “You have my word that I won’t kill anyone.” I heard the unspoken ‘yet’ behind his pledge and knew it was as good as I was going to get. If he’d been armed, I wouldn’t have opened the door at all. Since his weapons were presumably back in whatever country he’d just left, I figured the team would have a small chance of fleeing before he could take my gun away from me and use it on them.

  The door unlocked when my prints were accepted again and I pushed it open. My dad flicked a quick look around, cataloging everything in sight. To the right was a boxing ring and gym. A spiral staircase sat in the middle of the room and led to the coms area and bedrooms upstairs. To the left were the living area, dining room and kitchen at the back.

  The rest of the team was seated on the three U-shaped black leather couches in the living room. Trepidation was apparent in their posture. All four agents stood when we stepped inside.

  “Dad, this is Agent Kala Walker,” I pointed at the pretty and vivacious blonde with short, spiky tawny golden hair. Kala was of medium height and build and had a solid frame rather than a waifish one like mine. She gave my father a quick nod and the once over. He cut an impressive figure and her interest reminded me that women found him to be attractive. After losing my mother, he’d dedicated his life to his job and to raising me. He hadn’t had the time or inclination to date anyone else. If he’d had any encounters of the carnal nature, he’d kept them well hidden from me.

  “Next to her is Agent Flynn Bailey.” Flynn was only a couple of inches shorter than my dad, but more slender. He was from a mixed heritage with mocha colored skin and green eyes. He kept his black hair cut very short. He also offered my father a nod of greeting and respect.

  “This is Agent Reece Garrett,” I said and nodded to the third young agent. He was just under six feet tall, had wide shoulders, a ripped body, a gorgeous face, light brown hair and brown eyes that were a few shades lighter than my own. Not that I’d spent much time drooling over him.

  Keeping his expression blank, my father turned his attention to the man who had changed my life so drastically. Reece wasn’t as practiced at hiding his emotions and he swallowed nervously. It couldn’t have been easy facing the father of the girl you’d turned into a monster.

  Before the silence could become even more uncomfortable, I finished the introductions. “You already know Agent Steel, of course,” I finished up. Mark was in his mid-forties and had receding brown hair and gray eyes. Exactly how they knew each other was still a mystery to me. I hoped I’d learn the answer to that question eventually. It would probably be a very interesting story.

  Mark quailed when he saw murder in my father’s now chilly eyes. Reece, Kala and Flynn instinctively moved to shield our boss from the approaching soldier. “It’s okay,” he said and stepped out from concealment. “I’ll take whatever punishment the Major deems fit.” He rounded the couches and came to a stop in front of us.

  My dad didn’t hesitate to deal out said punishment. His fist rammed into Agent Steel’s face and sent him crashing to the floor.

  Reece was the first to react. With a snarl of rage, he leaped over the couch and landed lightly in front of us. I moved even faster and pushed my father out of the way. With blinding speed, my hand dipped beneath my jacket and I drew my gun.

  Staring down the barrel of my weapon, he showed grudging admiration. I’d been fast before my change, but now I was lightning. “You have a bad habit of pointing your gun at my face,” he said evenly.

  “You have a bad habit of making me want to shoot you,” I countered. I sensed no fright from him at all. He knew that I wasn’t going to shoot him. I might have killed two of the psychics in the course of our mission, but I hadn’t become a trigger happy psychopath. I’d only shoot if my father’s life was in danger.

  Climbing to his feet, my dad rubbed his arm where I’d shoved him. My strength was a little frightening now and he was trying hard not to back away from me. I’d never seen him so spooked before and it saddened me that I was the cause of his fear.

  Kala and Flynn helped Mark to his feet and he held a handkerchief to his bleeding nose. “Reece, Alexis,” he warned us in a low, calm voice. “Stand down.”

  I waited for the tension to seep out of Reece’s shoulders before I even contemplated putting my gun away. As always, Mark wore a dark suit that identified him as being a federal agent. All three of his agents wore a white t-shirt and camouflage cargo pants. When I’d first arrived at the compound, Reece had usually been shirtless. Since two nights ago, he’d begun wearing a t-shirt. I didn’t know why, but I suspected it had something to do with me. Maybe he’d grown tired of me ogling his half naked body. I was working on toning down my need to stare at him, but he was handsome enough to turn most female’s heads.

  My dad’s hand came to rest on my shoulder. “Put the gun away, Lexi. If anyone is going to do the shooting around here, it’ll be me.”

  I slipped my weapon back into its holster, but I kept a wary eye on the other three shape shifters. They didn’t like their guardian being attacked and all were now hostile towards my dad.

  “Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system,” Mark said wryly, “do you think we can talk without causing each other any further physical damage?” He checked the handkerchief to see if the bleeding had stopped. It had, so he tucked the stained fabric into his pocket.

  My father gave a single, short nod and pointed at Kala and Flynn. “You two can leave.” Reece shifted his weight and drew my father’s attention to him. “You can stay put,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument.

  Looking to our boss for guidance, Kala and Flynn waited for his nod before they headed for the kitchen door that led to the front of the compound. Neither were happy about leaving, but little would be resolved if they stayed.

  “I trusted you with my daughter’s welfare,” my father said tightly to Mark once the two shifters were gone. “You gave me your word that Alexis would be safe.”

  His tone was one step short of being vicious and Mark put a calming hand on Reece’s shoulder to stop him from reacting to the perceived threat. My father was coiled violence waiting to happen and he was even more deadly than us non-humans. “I know,” Mark said softly. “I’m deeply sorry for what happened to Lexi.” His apology was sincere, but my dad would see it as being too little, too late.

  “Lexi’s condition is my fault, Major Levine,” Reece confessed. He unconsciously straightened his spine when my father turned his attention to him again. “I got too close to th
e target and fell under her compulsion. This would never have happened to your daughter if I’d been more careful.”

  Beneath my own pain and embarrassment, I could see his misery. He cast an anguished look at me and I had to look away before my eyes filled with tears. His unhappiness and self-loathing were palpable. “I take full responsibility and I’m willing to step up and do the right thing,” he said. A surge of astonishment and alarm in the back of my head told me he hadn’t planned on saying this. He was almost as astounded as the rest of us by his pronouncement.

  “What do you think would be the right thing to do in this situation?” my father asked. His tone was difficult to interpret. If I had to guess, I’d say he was torn between fury and exasperation.

  “Marriage,” Reece forced out and his normally tanned face went white. He ran a hand through his short Mohawk, giving away his nervousness.

  Outraged by his stupidity, I was about to deliver a furious tirade, but my father held up his hand to stop me. “Exactly, which century do you think we’re living in, son?” he asked with a hint of incredulity. “Just because you had intercourse with my daughter does not mean that she should be forced to tie herself to you for the rest of her life.” He had strong views about marriage and believed it should only be undertaken if the couple were sure that they were compatible.

  He glanced at me to judge my reaction and I gave him a nod of approval. I was more than capable of standing up for myself, but he wasn’t going to let this kind of idiocy slide. “What about the second man she had relations with?” he asked and I suddenly wished I hadn’t given him my consent to continue. “Should she marry him, too? Maybe you two can fight it out and Lexi can marry the victor.” His sarcasm was cutting enough for both agents to wince. While amused that my dad couldn’t bring himself to use the word ‘sex’ in relation to me, I cringed at him bringing up the second, unknown man that I’d been forced to satisfy sexually.

  “What second man?” Mark asked, thoroughly confused by the turn of conversation.

  “Lexi has reason to believe that the psychic ordered her to be intimate with someone when she went after her on her own,” my father ground out. He sent a stern glance at me for putting myself in unnecessary danger. “She advised me that she’d have died if she didn’t obey the command. Since she’s still alive, we can only assume that she had intercourse with someone.”

  “There was no second man,” Reece said into the awkward silence that followed that revelation.

  He stared down at his feet rather than meeting my eyes and I knew he felt my shock. My mind went blank in surprise for a moment. “There had to have been. My brain would have melted otherwise.” It wouldn’t have literally melted, but it would have felt like it. A complete neural collapse wasn’t pleasant and I’d seen the brain scans and video footage of several victims to prove it.

  “I thought you said you found Lexi before the psychic could give her any commands,” Mark accused his agent. He didn’t like being lied to and expected better from his team.

  “I lied to protect her,” Reece confessed and withered a little at the betrayal on my face and in my heart. “I didn’t want anyone to know what she’d been forced to do. Again,” he added unhappily.

  “How do we know you’re telling us the truth now?” my dad asked. “How do we know she didn’t find someone else to fulfill the compulsion with?”

  Reece pulled his shirt away from his neck to reveal a still healing bite mark on his right shoulder. “If a human had bitten me, this would have healed straight away,” he said. “This scar is going to be permanent and it could only have been made by another shifter.”

  I touched the bite mark on my left shoulder and I couldn’t stop my eyes from filling with tears this time. We’d both always carry the marks as a reminder that we’d been forced to sleep together. Now I knew why he’d taken to wearing a shirt again. He’d been too ashamed to let anyone see if and discover what I’d done to him.

  “You said that Lust commanded you to have sex with me,” he said. “I couldn’t let you die.” He reached out a hand towards me, but I shook my head then turned and fled. I’d reached my breaking point and nothing was going to stop me from falling into an emotional abyss.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Three

  Mortification flooded through me as I slapped my hand on the scanner. The door slid open and I sprinted down the hall to the exit at the far end. Kala and Flynn were somewhere out the front of the compound and I needed to be alone.

  The outdoor gun range beckoned and I didn’t stop running until I’d reached the field. Dropping to my knees, I sobbed out my heartache. It had been bad enough when I thought I’d had intercourse with a total stranger, but this was somehow worse. Even if Reece didn’t remember our first time, it was forever burned into my memory. The revelation that we’d had sex twice now was humiliating and my self-esteem plummeted even further. I’d never even know what our second time had been like.

  When I’d finally sobbed myself out, footsteps alerted me that someone was approaching. I didn’t need to turn around to know it was my father. I could smell his cologne from three hundred yards away.

  There was enough moonlight shining on the path to guide him to me safely. He hunkered down and put a hand on my back. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “No,” I replied. My voice was thick with tears. “I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again.” It came out sounding more melodramatic than I’d intended, but it was too late to take the words back now. I was supposed to be an adult, but I sounded like a wounded little girl.

  My misery was no doubt hurting my dad as well, but he couldn’t fix this for me. As far as I knew, there was no cure for lycanthropy. “Do you want me to shoot him?” he offered hopefully.

  I was pretty sure he was kidding and uttered a pained laugh. “If I wanted him dead, I’d kill him myself.”

  “That’s my girl.” He patted me on the back then helped me to stand. “What did you think of Agent Garrett’s proposal?”

  My laugh was more genuine this time, and a trifle horrified as well. “Where did that even come from? No one gets married just because they’ve had sex anymore.”

  “Mark has a theory about why the kid made the offer,” my father said.

  Something told me this could only be more bad news. “I can’t wait to hear this,” I muttered wearily.

  “He thinks the two of you have bonded.” My expression reflected my puzzlement, so he explained further. “Apparently, biting during intercourse between werewolves can sometimes lead to them becoming mated.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that at all. It seemed far too permanent. Mark had better have a good explanation for this, or someone really was going to end up full of bullets.

  Kala and Flynn had returned to the building by the time we entered the living room again. Mark had filled them in on everything that they’d missed while I’d been falling apart at the gun range.

  Kala gave me an assessing glance then stepped over and put her arm around my shoulder. “Being mated to Garrett won’t be so bad,” she whispered. “You’ll get to have sex with the eye candy as often as you like.” Flynn doubled over with laughter and Reece went bright red. Mark and my father hadn’t heard the exchange and they stared at us strangely, unaware of the joke.

  “There will be no bonding and no more sex,” I said loudly enough for everyone to be able to hear me, including the humans.

  “I’m afraid the bond has already happened and it can’t be reversed,” Mark said apologetically. “Agent Garrett can already sense you.” He watched my pale face become whiter as all of the color drained away. “Have you felt him in your head yet?”

  “No!” I said more forcefully than I’d meant to. “I haven’t felt anything at all,” I lied. I was so embarrassed by this whole thing that I couldn’t even bring myself to look at Reece.

  “How much do you know about bonding?” my dad asked Mark.

  He shook his head. “Not much, I’m afraid. There is very
little information about shape shifters in the PIA records. I’ve heard rumors, but I can’t substantiate them. I’ve read that this kind of bonding is rare and usually only happens between alpha couples.”

  All eyes swung from Reece, to me and back to Mark again. “You think Alexis is an alpha?” Kala said incredulously. I couldn’t help but share her doubt. While I was far from meek, I’d never shown leadership tendencies before.

  “She’s young,” Mark replied with a shrug. “Lexi only turned eighteen a little over a month ago and she’s very new to being a shifter. Time will tell whether she turns out to be an alpha or not.”

  “What happens if I do turn into an alpha?” I asked.

  Kala was the one to answer me. “Then we’d better go shopping for a wedding dress.” Her grin was playful, yet I didn’t find anything funny about this situation. I went lightheaded at the mental picture of walking down the aisle in a frilly white dress.

  My father steadied me with a hand on my elbow. I was immensely grateful for his presence and I wasn’t sure that I could have gotten through this without him. “My offer still stands,” he leaned down to whisper to me.

  He’d probably feel no guilt at all at shooting the man who had deflowered me and had turned me into a werewolf. “I’ll keep it in mind,” I muttered. Reece had changed my life forever, but I didn’t want to see him hurt. It hadn’t been his choice to bond with me, it had just been an accident and he clearly regretted it. I wasn’t the only one who was going to suffer. He shared my misery.

  “I’m beat,” my father said. “I haven’t had much sleep for the past couple of nights and I could use a few hours of rest.”

  “You can take the first bedroom on the left upstairs,” Mark said. It was a spare room and wasn’t currently in use.

  I escorted my dad up to the second floor and he gave me a hard hug that made my ribs creak in protest. “I love you, honey,” he said before stepping inside.

  “I love you, too, Dad,” I whispered to the closed door and trudged back downstairs, passing Mark in the coms room on the way.