The Queen of Zombie Hearts

by Gena Showalter

  "Going to be okay," a soft voice whispered.

  Helen?

  My eyelids popped open. I sprawled on the floor of the tunnel, slayers in motion all around me.

  I heard Jaclyn. "--says there's a guy out there, south side of property, and he's not a zombie."

  "Spy?" Bronx and Frosty asked in unison.

  "Let's find out," Cole said, ice-cold with determination.

  He wasn't worried about me anymore, wasn't hovering; must mean I was going to be okay.

  "I'll help." River buzzed past me, practically shoving Frosty out of the way to climb the ladder.

  I managed to lumber upright--and did, in fact, catch sight of Helen. She sat next to me, her color waxen, her image fading.

  "Going to be okay," she repeated. "I took care of the problem."

  She'd sealed the leak in my spirit and given me strength the same way she'd given me her ability, hadn't she? By sacrificing her own.

  She offered me a small smile before vanishing altogether.

  Chapter 17

  I'M STILL DIGESTING

  YOUR FRIENDS

  "Ali. Good. You're up." Bronx motioned me over. "Gavin could use some help."

  Yes, he most certainly could. He'd been bitten, his neck a mess of blood, meat and black ooze.

  I pushed to my feet without any problem and rushed to his side. Along the way, spirit and body separated. The moment I reached him I was able to press both hands inside Gavin's wound. For once, I didn't have to tell myself to light up. The fire came of its own accord. Was this thanks to Helen, too?

  My heart squeezed. I desperately wanted to speak with her.

  Gavin jolted up and would have punched me, I'm sure--he wasn't in his right mind--if Bronx hadn't grabbed him and shoved down. As the flames moved through him, he spewed the darkest curses I'd ever heard. Some were quite inventive, suggesting I have sex with a few of my weapons. In any other situation, I would have laughed.

  Camilla stood back, watching me with wide eyes. "The things you do...I don't understand."

  And I wasn't going to explain.

  I kept my attention on Gavin. The wound began to close right before my eyes. By the time two Alis became one, the skin had already woven back together. That quickly?

  Why such a change?

  Jaclyn held out a hand, intending to help Gavin stand.

  He scowled up at her, even slapped her hand away. "You came out of the tunnel against orders!"

  "Because you needed help."

  "You let yourself be cornered by zombies," he continued, unfazed by her outburst. "I came over to assist you, and you decided to use me as a human shield. What's worse, you would have left me there to die if they hadn't cornered you again. So accept your help now, Bambi? No." He stood on his own.

  Bambi. Cute and insulting at the same time.

  "I didn't mean... It was an accident...and when I realized you were down, I fought my way toward you."

  He dismissed her words as unimportant and stepped into his body.

  "Please," she said, again holding out her hand, intending to clasp his. "You have to believe me."

  His gaze raked over her, somehow more scathing than a rebuke, and she dropped her arm. "I don't have to do anything. I don't even have to like you. Proof--I never fantasize about doing you, and I fantasize about doing everyone. You're too flat-chested for me."

  Okay. Enough. "Gavin," I snapped.

  "What?" he asked, as if he hadn't a clue about what he'd done wrong.

  Had he not realized how fragile Jaclyn was? For months, she'd worn a little-girl-lost air like a second skin.

  "At least my balls are bigger than yours," she sneered, shocking me.

  O-kay. Not so lost anymore.

  "You sure about that?" Gavin sneered right back, and I couldn't be sure, but it kind of looked like he was fighting a...smile? "Take off your pants and show me."

  "The only way I'll ever take off my pants in your presence is to use the material to choke you to death."

  "Children, please." Bronx clapped his hands. "Your verbal foreplay isn't fun for the rest of us."

  Jaclyn flipped him off.

  Gavin shrugged, his gaze remaining on the object of his anger...lust?

  "Maybe we should go back to the house," I said. Tempers were too high to wait patiently for Cole, River and Frosty to return. More important, we needed to be checked out by Mr. Ankh.

  "Good idea. Move it," Bronx commanded.

  As everyone marched down the tunnel, I glanced back at Cole's motionless form. I hated to leave it behind. Get everyone situated, go back.

  Kat launched into my arms the moment I slipped through the door. "You survived! As if there was any doubt. Butterflies don't stand a chance against the Ali-nator. But where's Frosty? He's okay, right?" She pulled back to shake me. "Tell me he's okay."

  "He's better than okay. He's tying up loose ends." Truth, without admitting he was on the hunt for a possible spy.

  She beamed. "That's my boy."

  "Ali. This way." Mr. Ankh escorted me to a gurney and tested my vitals.

  Meanwhile, Reeve stepped into Bronx's open arms, and Juliana pulled Veronica aside to whisper something in her ear.

  "What's this I hear about your spirit not being able to join your body?" Mr. Ankh asked.

  "Could have been due to exhaustion," I said, unwilling to discuss Helen.

  His winged brows seemed to throw a thousand questions at me.

  "But someone lit up and I strengthened," I added, giving him just enough info to pacify.

  It worked, and he moved on to check out the others. Using everyone's distraction to my advantage, I snuck out without another word. Well, almost snuck out.

  "Hold up," Veronica called.

  I wasn't in the mood to deal with her right now. She and her sister thought the world would be a better place without me. Already noted. Didn't need a repeat.

  "Where are you headed?" she asked, coming up beside me.

  "Back to the tunnel." I would stand guard, and woe to anyone who tried to hurt Cole.

  "I'll go with you."

  My new dilemma: hint that I wanted to be alone or flat-out say it?

  I'd never been one for hinting. "Look, I don't want--"

  "Me to go with you? Yeah. I know. But that's too bad. It's happening. There's something we need to discuss."

  "Pass."

  She flicked me an irritated glance. "I'd follow you into hell right now."

  Well, crap. There was no way to fight that kind of determination. "Fine. Whatever. Do what you want."

  "Planned on it."

  "Planned on it," I mocked.

  We reached the end of the tunnel. I sat at Cole's feet, resting my head on the wall behind me. Veronica paced in front of me.

  "Just say it, whatever it is," I prompted. "I can take it." Maybe. Probably. "Then you can go."

  She ran a hand down her ponytail. "Do you remember when I told you I had an ace that would break up you and Cole?"

  No. I'd forgotten. "Veronica, I sincerely hope you take this the way it's intended--an insult. That's one of the dumbest questions I've ever heard."

  "Whatever. My ace was Helen."

  I stiffened, my back going ramrod-straight. "What do you know about her?"

  "I know she's... Look, this is going to be hard to take, but there's no way to drop a bomb like this gently. I just have to blurt it out. Helen is... Ali, she's your birth mother."

  Birth mother. The words echoed in my mind.

  I wanted to laugh at her.

  I couldn't laugh at her.

  I'd entertained the thought myself, yes. But to have Veronica state it so baldly, so confidently...

  A bomb of anger detonated inside me. "You don't know anything."

  Emerald gaze grim, she said, "I know a lot more than you do."

  "Apparently not. Her kid died."

  "Which is exactly what she wanted Anima to think."

  A punch in the gut. "I agree. But I'm not her." I couldn't
be. "The ages don't match."

  I'm grasping.

  "You are." She offered me a sad smile. "And they do. Your birthday is not your birthday. You're Samantha."

  Samantha. Sami. Another punch, this one harder, stealing my breath. "Not me. I would remember."

  "Isn't that what you're doing?"

  Was it? I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

  "After Cole gave me his famous brush-off and got back together with you," she said, "I started digging into your past, looking for something to bury you. The pieces fell into place, and I almost told him. I wanted to, so bad. Helen didn't just betray his mother--she betrayed mine. They worked for Anima, were planning to leave together. Only, Helen turned on Erin, my mom. They fought, and Erin ended up with a concussion and no memory."

  No memory...

  The words taunted me.

  Veronica quickened her pace. "I'm not sure how it happened, but my family ended up on Cole's porch. His family took us in, but my mom was never the same. Never remembered Jules or me. Never again cared about us."

  "Stop talking," I said. This was too much. I needed time to process.

  She ignored me, forging ahead. "For all I knew, you were exactly like Helen, a traitor. I planned to catch you doing something awful. But the more I got to know you, the more I realized you were completely ignorant of her, and you weren't hurting the group. You were helping."

  I stood and swayed as dizziness swept through me. "Stop, Veronica. Please."

  "You don't want to hear the truth?" she asked. "You, who abhor lies, don't want to admit you've been trapped in one all your life?"

  "For all I know, you're saying this simply to break up Cole and me, as planned, thinking there's no way he'd want to date the daughter of his mother's executioner."

  I'm grasping again.

  Her lashes lowered, as if she couldn't force herself to look at me right now--couldn't deal with seeing her reflection in my eyes. "I saw how he was with you tonight. He knows, or at least he suspects, but still he's protective of you. Actually, he's more than that. He's adoring." A beat of surprised silence. "I never really knew him at all, did I? He was never going to leave you. My ace never mattered."

  A tremor nearly rocked me to my butt. "What makes you so sure Helen is...that I could possibly be...?"

  "Erin and Helen didn't just work together. They lived together. Two single women with daughters about the same age. I remember playing trucks with Sami. We'd fill them with dirt and crash them. Sami was blonde, beautiful...with unforgettable eyes. Your eyes. But she was always sad, rarely smiled. Never laughed. We used to make up stories about our dads."

  A lump rose in my throat, and I swallowed hard.

  "Erin and Helen used to talk about them. Erin would tell horror stories about the abusive Todd, while Helen would wax poetic about the one that got away. Phillip."

  Phillip.

  Phillip Bell.

  My father.

  I sank to the ground before I could fall. I shook my head. "I would remember." In more than just my dreams.

  Veronica took no pity on me. "I have pictures of the two of us. Helen thought she destroyed everything we owned, but she didn't."

  No way to prove it's me in those pictures.

  But if Helen really had staged Sami's death and given the girl to her father, bits and pieces of my past would make sense. How my dad had prowled through our house every night, a gun in hand. I'd assumed he was watching for monsters, even though the gun wouldn't have hurt them, but maybe he'd been watching for people. Those who might be coming after his little girl.

  Rebuttal: he hadn't known about Anima, slayers and zombies, and Helen would have told him, would have wanted him informed.

  Of course, she could have told him, and he could have refused to believe.

  And why had she gone back to Anima? Why not leave, as planned? Why turn on Erin?

  Only one answer made any sense, and it was the glue that held the entire sordid story together. To protect the daughter she loved.

  To protect...me?

  Part of me wanted to accept it. To bask in the knowledge that my mother was out there, helping me. The other part still screamed in denial.

  "Show me the pictures," I said.

  Veronica nodded. "While we were out fighting, Jules put them in your room for Cole to find. She wants the two of you broken up for good, so he and I can get back together." Bitterness blended with self-deprecation. "She doesn't realize it's never going to happen, but then, she loves him. He saved her life, you know, after Todd purposely burned her and left her for dead. Because yes, he is our dad, and when Erin decided she didn't want us, he had legal rights to us. He still has them over Jules. He's the reason we're off grid."

  The hatch to the tunnel flew open, and something fell through. Heart racing, I wiped my face.

  The "something" moaned.

  I rushed over...and breathed a sigh of relief when I realized it wasn't Cole, Frosty or River. It was one of Anima's best assassins. The guy who'd once shot and killed an innocent man in front of me.

  The guy who'd tried to kill me.

  Instinctively, I palmed a dagger. He was unconscious, or at least, he was pretending to be. He was wily, this one, and couldn't be trusted.

  River dropped inside, landing and straightening in one fluid motion. He pressed a booted foot into the guy's neck, grinning over at me. "I win."

  Cole came in next and looked me over. "Everything okay?"

  His first concern was for me, always for me. I wanted to cry. No, I wanted to hug him and never let go.

  Could lose him over this... "Everyone survived," I managed to say.

  His narrowed gaze leveled on Veronica. "If you said something to hurt her, Ronnie, I--" A muscle ticked in his jaw. "Veronica. If you said something to hurt her, I will--"

  "It's not what you're thinking," I interrupted, taking hope in the fact that he'd stopped calling her Ronnie, just because I'd once mentioned how much it bothered me. "We'll talk about it when we're alone." Or never. I voted for never.

  He looked from me to Veronica, Veronica to me. Comprehension dawned, and he stiffened. "Helen."

  Sometimes smart boys were a pain.

  I bit the side of my tongue, nodded.

  Cole turned away, and my heartbeat finally slowed, the organ withering in my chest.

  "You should have seen us," River said, unaware--or uncaring--of the sudden tension in the air. "Guy was fast, but not fast enough. We were able to introduce him to our fists."

  "And our elbows," Cole said.

  "And our knees and boots," River added. "He didn't stand a chance."

  "How'd he get past Ankh's security?" Veronica asked.

  Cole massaged the back of his neck. "That's a good question. One I intend to investigate."

  "Well, let's get him locked up." And me to my room, where I could pore over those pictures.

  "After that, let's talk about what you did out there," River said to me. His gaze moved to Veronica, got caught, and his grin returned. "How about you join the chat, honey?"

  The rough-and-tumble Veronica Lane, who seemed to know more about me than I knew about myself, had no defense against a little flirting and freaking blushed. Unreal. "All right. Sure."

  Ugh. This day!

  Cole and River each grabbed one of the assassin's arms and dragged him forward. Veronica and I trailed behind.

  "The real fun starts when he wakes up," River remarked.

  "I told you," Cole said on a sigh. "We're not going to kill him."

  "I didn't say anything about killing him, did I? I just figured we were going to torture him for information."

  "That's not how we do things."

  River looked over his shoulder and winked at Veronica. "You're about to start."

  Chapter 18

  THIS WAY. NO, THAT WAY.

  OOPS, DEAD END.

  Here's what we already knew: the assassin was twenty-year-old Benjamin Ostrander Jr. We'd caught him a few weeks before and let him go. O
ur mistake. Before freeing him, Mr. Ankh and Mr. Holland had run his fingerprints through some kind of database. Apparently, good ole Benji had run away from home at the age of thirteen and had been arrested a few times for breaking and entering, as well as assault and battery. Right after his fifteenth birthday, he'd dropped off the map.

  That must have been when Anima recruited him.

  Now we hoped to find out what else his employers were planning and where Justin was being held. But hours passed and Benjamin never woke up, even when prodded.

  Too tired to wait any longer, among other things, I strode out of the dungeon.

  Cole shadowed me.

  "Can we not do this tonight?" I asked, ready to beg.

  "Sorry, Ali-gator. We can. We will."

  Stubborn boy.

  He stopped me at the top of the stairs, fingers deep in my hair so that I had to meet his fiery gaze. "You're upset, I'm upset, so, let's hash this out. It's not good to go to bed this way. It'll just be worse in the morning."

  I tried to look away. He increased the pressure, keeping my attention on him. I sighed. "Okay. Fine. We'll go to my room. But I want it noted that you're acting like the girl, getting all talky-feely and crap."

  Far from shamed, he said, "Noted." He wound his arm around my shoulders, tucking me against him. A protective stance, an intractable hold.

  I'd have to fight to get free. But honestly, the action was both sexy and...majorly sexy.

  Cole reached for the knob on my door and frowned. Giggles seeped from the crack at the bottom. "Expecting company?"

  "No." I stepped inside to find Kat and Reeve sitting on my bed.

  They spotted me and leaped to their feet.

  "Ali!" Kat ran over and hugged me. Her grip was weaker than it had been the past few days, and I cursed her disease. "Reeve and I are locking horns over a joke. I say it's wonderful, and she says it's lame. We need a final ruling."

  That, I could do. "Let's hear it."

  "What did the zombie say during a wrestling match?"

  Um... "What?"

  "Do you want a piece of me?" she said and burst into laughter.

  Cole snorted.

  "See!" Kat stuck her tongue out at Reeve. "Even the stick-in-the-mud likes it."

  The verdict? "I think it's wonderful and lame."

  "I'll take that as a victory." She wagged a finger in Cole's face. "By the way, this is a girls-only slumber party. Boys are not invited. You've got to go."