An Apocalyptic Need (22 page)

But he was gone. And the portal’s face shimmered from recent use.

Cari gave a little cry and started to pace again, her pulse pounding.

Reborn.

The man she’d begun to love was one of the reborn she’d heard so much about. Like Yeira. Cari wanted to kick herself. She’d assumed Grimm’s friendship with Yeira and Audie was because of Audie…because they’d both been hunters. But she realized in that moment he was one of Yeira’s.

She blinked. Yeira was her sister. The thought made a warm spot in Cari’s chest. It would be nice to have a sister. Then she realized she had no reservations about the influence of death magic on Yeira. Why should she? She’d seen nothing but good from the other woman, heard only positive things about her.

It wasn’t as if Grimm had performed the death magic himself so he could live. She knew enough about the reborn to know that. The witch, Edwige had created them. And though some of the reborn had come back evil…some hadn’t. Cari didn’t nurture the smallest doubt that Grimm was one of the good ones.

She strode back and forth, her mind spinning. Alone in that place, with Grimm’s scent still clinging to her skin and his taste an addictive spice on her lips, Cari realized she’d been stupid. She’d let a moment of indecision rip Grimm away and most likely hurt him beyond repair.

And now he was probably in that horrible prison, fighting those disgusting monsters.

If he still lived.

She swore softly and started to run toward the portal. She had to help him. Because she realized in that moment that, if he were killed, it just might sever her from the living too.

The air between her and the portal tightened, shimmered, and suddenly three people stood in front of her. Cari recognized Audie and Yeira immediately, but the third figure, a tall man with spiky red-blond hair and a neatly trimmed beard, he was a stranger.

She stopped before them, grabbing Yeira’s hand. “We have to help Grimm. He’s gone to the
Stellam
. He’s going to be killed.”

The man she didn’t know stepped forward, fixing an eerie silver gaze on her. “What’s there, Cari? What will we find in the belly of the rebel ship?”

Cari blinked in surprise at his use of her name. But she didn’t have time to ask the questions that sprang to mind. “Zombies. Thousands of them. But these aren’t normal zombies. I think the wizard did something to them. They…” She glanced toward the portal as horror spiked afresh. Grimm was in there all alone. She grabbed Yeira’s hand. “They can’t be killed. I blasted the heads off a few of them and they stood back up.”

Yeira’s lips opened in shock, her gaze sliding to Audie. “Shit!”

Cari moved around them, intending to enter the portal.

The silver-eyed stranger grabbed her wrist. “What power have you manifested?”

She shook her head, trying to drag her arm from his grip. “Let me go, I have to…”

“Cari! You need to trust me. I’ll explain later. “What power have you manifested? The binding I put on you as a babe has been broken, I can feel it, here.” He pounded a long finger into his own chest. “How has it manifested?”

She licked her lips, trying to ignore the nausea swirling in her belly from panic. “Shadows. I can pull…” she took a deep, steadying breath. “I can pull them around me.”

He nodded, glancing at Yeira. “And you, daughter?”

Cari swallowed hard.
Daughter
? But then…

Yeira bit her bottom lip. “I…see…things.”

Audie stepped forward. “She hasn’t had a chance to explore her gift yet,
Grimes. She didn’t know she had it until she started having the visions.”

Grimes frowned. “Describe them.”

She shrugged. “It’s like I’m inside his head.”

“Whose head?”

“Joris’s.”

Grimes sucked in a breath. “Perfect. That’s perfect. Listen to me, girls. When we go through that portal I’ll need you to trust me and do as I ask.” He looked at Cari. “Can you do that, child?”

She glanced at Yeira and her sister nodded. “If Yeira trusts you, I’ll try.”

“Good.” Grimes nodded. “Then let’s go save your boyfriend, Cari. I believe he’s got his hands full.” He looked at Yeira and she nodded.

“We don’t have much time,” Yeira added.

Grimes started toward the portal. “Then we’d best get a move on.”

The room was chaos. As they stepped through the portal they were inundated by the roar of thousands of monsters growling and snapping. Bodies littered the ground, unfortunately, even as Grimm’s magics slashed them down, the ones he’d already hit shuffled back to their feet, some headless, some with massive holes in their chests where their black, dead hearts should have been.

It looked to Cari like Grimm had been experimenting with ways to kill them. Judging by the shuffling, red-eyed hoards missing limbs and worse converging on him from all parts of the room, he hadn’t been successful.

Grimm’s blue energy flashed continually through the room, slicing zombies and scorching the walls around him. Cari was glad to see he was still fighting, but wouldn’t feel better until she saw that he was all right. Her gaze slid frantically around the cavernous room but it was impossible to see him beyond the mass of zombies.

Finally she saw movement across the room, and recognized the swing and twist of a cage like the one she’d been in. She could just make out Grimm’s dark head from within it. “There! He’s put himself into a cage.”

“Smart.” Grimes stepped over a shifting mound of downed zombies, flinging a hand toward them as he walked away. The entire pile swelled, lifting from the floor as one, limbs flailing and trembling. They collapsed back to the ground with the sound of air escaping a balloon and black dust shot skyward, swirling into a funnel before diving toward Grimes and disappearing beneath his skin.

The big hunter shuddered once but kept walking, his big hands flashing in all directions as zombies approached.

He created a path for Audie, Yeira and Cari to follow and slowed the oncoming hordes so they could be dealt with more easily. Still, there were so many of the monsters in that room the three found themselves standing back to back to back in a constant rotation to fight them off.

It was disheartening work because almost as quickly as they took a handful of them down, another handful rose up again.

“We need to find a way to kill these things, Cari shouted, blood running down her arms from numerous cuts. The gangrenous, black fingernails of the zombies had proven knife-like in their sharpness.

Audie sliced his blade through the neck of a huge, black-skinned monster and shoved his big boot into the thing’s gut, sending it flying and knocking several others back with it, like bowling pins. “There doesn’t seem to be an end to the bastards.”

Audie was bloody too, covered in deep, oozing wounds that already showed signs of infection. Cari thought they’d all be lucky if they didn’t die from septic wounds before they figured out how to defeat the things.

A strident, pain-filled cry brought Cari’s gaze up and razed her with terror. The cage Grimm had been sheltering in was covered with the monsters and his magics no longer illuminated the air. “Grimm!” For the briefest moment, she forgot what she was doing and started for him. Claws ripped along her exposed flesh and rended the worn fabric of her clothing.

Cari yelped in pain but jerked her arm away, moving forward without a thought except to save him.

“Use your magics, girl!” Grimes’s voice bellowed across the space, piercing her single-minded haze. Cari didn’t question, didn’t hesitate, she thought about the energy pulsing in her core and released it, unfocused and free.

A wide swath of zombies blasted away from her as her ill-defined magic infused the air around her. She quickly reined it in and used it to summon the shadows. The air around her thickened, numbing and protecting her from the mindless hordes. Growing bolder, Cari shoved her way, unscathed through the stalking zombies until she stood near the bottom of the cage where Grimm had taken refuge. Inundated by monsters, the metal prison swung violently above her head. Panic ribboned through her, making it hard to breathe.

There was a bloody pile of torn flesh in the bottom of the cage. She couldn’t tell if it had been Grimm but it had definitely once been human. Cari’s knees gave out and she slammed to the bloody concrete. Her thoughts scattered as her mind tried to make sense of the carnage in that cage.

Grimm’s handsome face played across her mind’s eye. His voice rumbled through her memory. His scent… Oh god, his scent…

Fists raised in uncontrolled rage, she threw back her head and screamed his name. The sound vibrated against the hard walls of the prison, throbbing back onto the dead creatures within and making them cringe away.

Tears suffused her cheeks, dripping unheeded onto her lap.

Dead. Lost. Forever gone.

“Where is she?!”

Her gaze snapped around at the sound of his voice. “Grimm?” Cari shoved her way clear of the door, but in her excitement she forgot to keep the shadows snugged close. The world slid back around her in all its horrible goriness, battle sounds and butcher shop smell returning on its heels. The zombies turned to her, their feral red gazes brightening as their mouths opened, showing gore-covered teeth that snapped and spit.

Cori panicked, her mind blanking.

She was surrounded.

Blue energy blasted to her left, sending three monsters flying. Silver power showered the zombies to her right, and Audie appeared a moment later, blade slashing as Grimm smashed his energy-infused fists into the faces of those Audie couldn’t reach.

A moment later, Grimm’s big, dark hand was reaching for her, pulling her to safety.

~AN~

Cari’s magic settled over them.

Grimm yanked Cari into his arms without thinking. He’d been terrified to see her surrounded by the monsters, a look of such fear on her face he thought for sure he’d never get to her in time. “Thank god you’re safe,” he murmured into her hair. “I thought I’d lost you.”

To his supreme shock she returned his hug, her soft curves pressing deliciously against him. “Never, Grimm.”

Before he had time to think about her response, Yeira screamed, the sound echoing like razors against glass around the entire space.

Audie swore and spun, ripping free of the fabric of Cari’s web like it was tissue paper. Cari gasped and doubled over, her face paling.

“What’s wrong, captain? Are you all right?”

Her lips moved but all that came out was a high-pitched keening sound. Her eyes rolled up in her head and Grimm caught her before she fell.

The world blasted through the web of magic she’d managed to pull around them and it was beyond chaos. Yeira’s screams had turned more frantic and the sound was having the strangest effect on the monsters. They moved in frenzied circles, their arms outstretched before them in classic zombie style and their eyes even more blank than before. It was as if something had gotten between them and whatever force guided them.

“I’ll flay the very flesh from your rotted bones, Joris!”

Grimm shook himself from his stupor and looked toward the sound of his friend’s voice. Audie was bending over Yeira, his face red and body bent protectively over Yeira’s.

“Stop this, now!”

A chilling cackle, like the sound of a raven chuckling over its meal, filled the space. Grimm followed the sound and saw the wizard, bent and pasty, standing before a large metal door.

Behind him, arrayed in formation and dressed in metal battle gear forged from black steel, no doubt enhanced with mercury, was an army of zombies only slightly less monstrous than the ones shuffling around that room.

Their gazes stared straight ahead as if in a daze and their eyes cast an eerie red glow on the gore-splattered room.

There had to be hundreds of them.

Grimm shook off his stupor and started to run, Cari hanging limply from his arms. His teeth gritted together and his throat throbbed around a rage-filled growl. If Audie was going to kill the wizard he’d have to get in line.

Like her sister, Yeira had fallen silent and slumped to the floor. Grimm didn’t know if that was better or worse.

He only knew that he and Audie were going to have their hands full killing the human monster, whose eyes flared bright with madness and power.

Suddenly the ranks behind the wizard started to sway and twitch and their horrible gazes turned toward a spot beyond Audie and Yeira.

At first, Grimm thought he’d set them into play with his aggressive movements. His mind spun, searching for a way to get control of that many super-zombies.

Then he realized the wizard looked as surprised as he did.

A silver wave of energy spread across the room, heading toward the monster mass like a comet with a wide, spitting tail.

Then Grimm saw him.

Grimes!