Apocalypse Happens (24 page)

Sure, if we let our vamps free they’d be toast, but considering we were trying to join their club, we weren’t going to do that.

Yet.

“You can take off the chains,” I said. “We come in peace.”

Geek Boy snorted. “Even if you are the daughter of the Phoenix, you aren’t getting any special treatment.”

“So everyone gets bound with golden chains?”

“Chains, yes. Gold, no.”

“But—”

“You think the Phoenix isn’t aware of what Sanducci is, that she doesn’t know what you’ve become? She’s all-powerful. Or soon will be.”

How did she know about us? Did my mother have the same talent as I did? Could she touch people and see their inner thoughts and more? If so, it was going to be damn near impossible to convince her Jimmy and I had changed sides. Not that I’d ever thought it was going to be easy.

The kid had taken a dislike to Sanducci that, from Jimmy’s narrowed eyes and tense stance, he appeared to share. In a minute they’d start fighting, bumping chests and snarling, or perhaps they’d pull out their dicks and compare. Sanducci would win. He had the best jewels.

“We were told to keep you chained until you can be tested.”

Uh-oh
, I thought.

“Tested?” I asked.

Geek Boy smirked, and Sanducci bared his teeth. “You may have passed the first test, but that doesn’t mean you’re free of the next.”

“There was a test?”

“You think we let anyone stroll into town and get close to the Prince who will come?” At last he turned away from Jimmy and came toward me.

“How, exactly, do you keep people out?”

“There’s a spell.” The kid waved his hand. “Magic shit. Not my department.”

Hmm. Was the Phoenix a witch too? Why not? Everyone else was.

“What kind of spell?”

“Only those with an inner darkness get past the borders of this place.”

“Explains the buzz at the edge of town,” Jimmy murmured.

“And what happens to those without an inner darkness?” I asked.

“Bzzzt!” Geek Boy made a zapping noise and a swift motion with both hands, then rolled his eyes up and stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth.

“Dead?” I clarified

He lifted his head and smiled. I guess we knew now why Ruthie had been so insistent that both Jimmy and I released our demons before coming here.

“You’ve killed everyone in town?” I asked.

“They didn’t stay dead for long.” A solid older woman, who, judging from her thick wrists and the muscles in her legs and arms, had been a farmwife, with white hair down to her ass and a weathered face that spoke of decades in the sun, indicated the crowd of revenants. “They’re here with us now. Except for those who possessed an inner darkness.”

“Nephilim,” Jimmy muttered. “They’re everywhere.”

“Where are
they
now?”

I didn’t like not knowing the location of any cursed half demons. Even if we were supposed to be one of them now, Nephilim had no allegiance to their kind. The instant they saw us they’d want to fight just to get the upper hand. Animals behaved like animals even when they were demons.

“They were the first sacrifices,” Farmwife answered.

I blinked. “Say what?”

“You’ll find out,” Geek Boy said.

“I’d rather you told me.”

“We can’t.” Farmwife wrung her big, hard hands. “The Phoenix ordered us not to.”

“You always do what she says?”

“We have no choice. She raised us; we’re slaves. We’ll be the army once the sacrifice is made, and the Prince has come.”

As if that explained everything—and it kinda did—Farmwife turned and rejoined the others.

“Where do you think she is?” I murmured, gaze fixed on the army of the living dead.

Jimmy remained silent for so long I didn’t think he was going to answer. When I finally managed to drag my eyes from the revenants, I saw a reflection of all my fears cross his face.

“I think she’s raising every graveyard between here and Canada.”

“Me too,” I said. “And the sacrifice?”

He lifted a brow.

Yeah, it was us.

“Go up
now
.” Geek Boy pointed to the staircase, then motioned to Farmwife, who sent several of the revenants toward the rear of the house while a few took up guard duty at the front door. “If she comes back and you aren’t where she told us you should be—”

“She’ll kill you?” Jimmy asked, then glanced at me.

Without even touching him, I knew what he was thinking. If we went upstairs we were toast. We were going to have to break away from them and find another plan.

“I’ll stay right here,” Jimmy continued, “and save myself the trouble of dusting you.”

“No.” Geek Boy pulled a long, thin golden stiletto from his pocket. “You’ll do what I say or
I’ll
dust
you
.”

Farmwife gasped. “You mustn’t!”

Geek Boy ignored her, placing the tip of the stiletto against Jimmy’s chest.

I took a step forward; Farmwife grabbed my chain
and yanked me back. The golden links scraped my wrists and agony shot everywhere.

“Twice to the heart,” Geek Boy whispered. Then he tilted his head and slashed the stiletto through the air like d’Artagnan before pointing it at one of Jimmy’s narrowed eyes. “Maybe here, or . . .”

He ran the blade along Jimmy’s cheek, over his chin and down his neck. Wherever the knife touched, it left a long black line that turned quickly to red. The sound of meat sizzling on a grill filled the room, along with the scent of roasting flesh.

“Stop,” I ordered.

The revenant spun toward me. “Shut up. You’re next.”

“Come on,” I urged. “Show me what you got.”

I didn’t care that my hands were bound, that with my collar on and no Sawyer in sight I was basically a slightly stronger and faster human. What mattered was that I wouldn’t die as easily as Jimmy and that the revenant didn’t kill him.

“No,” Jimmy ordered. “Deal with me. Unless you’re chicken.”

The revenant rolled his eyes. “Do I look like I’m twelve? That I’d actually care if you thought I was a coward?” He tightened his grip on the stiletto. I tensed, prepared to drag Farmwife along with me as I plowed into the guy like a middle linebacker.

I needn’t have worried. The instant Geek Boy came close enough, Sanducci head-butted him in the nose.

The resulting
smack
echoed throughout the house. The pudgy kid landed at my feet, blood spraying from his nostrils like a fountain. I kicked him in the head, then bent my knee and pile-drived onto his chest.

Farmwife got her arm around my neck and started to strangle me. She might not want Geek Boy to kill
us, but she wasn’t going to let us kill him either. She was strong—stronger than she should be even after lifting hay bales for forty years—but she wasn’t me.

I flipped her forward, letting her own weight carry her over my head. She landed on her back with a crack, and then she had enough worries trying to breathe. Luckily, she’d let go of my leash when she fell, or I’d have been dragged off Geek Boy completely—probably dislocating my shoulder in the process—and I wasn’t finished with him yet.

My knee did good work, so I stood halfway up, changed my position just a bit, then drove downward again. This time I felt his testicles go crunch. Now who couldn’t breathe?

The revenants that had been guarding the door came forward in a rush. The blood flowing from his forehead and down his face impaired Jimmy’s vision, but he didn’t let that stop him.

He was a dhampir. He could “feel” vampires. But from the way he reacted to the revenants, he could feel them, too. He didn’t need to see them. All he had to do was wait until they were close enough, and then he kicked one unerringly in the knee. The guy fell backward into a second while Jimmy twirled and got the third in the throat with his foot. Snap, thud, pop.

The commotion brought others. Revenants appeared at the top of the stairs; they ran in from the rear of the house. Shouts rose from outside.

Blood from Jimmy’s forehead had spattered across the front of his brightly tie-dyed
Sesame Street
shirt, but the wound was already partly healed.

Our eyes met. As one we moved closer together; shoulder-to-shoulder we faced the staircase.

“I could try and tear your collar off with my teeth,”
he muttered, chains rattling as he attempted to break them again.

My gaze on the revenants pouring down the stairs, I returned, “I bet it would be more fun if I took
yours
off with
my
teeth.”

He choked. “You’re so damn—”

I never found out if I was so damn dumb, so damn funny, so damn wonderful, because the front door banged open, slamming against the wall; bits of plaster skittered everywhere. All the revenants froze, wide-eyed, and then they cowered.

Jimmy cursed. I winced. I didn’t want to turn and see who could make zombies cringe.

A few of them began to beg. “No, please.”

“Wait!”

Then there was a cry, a thunk, then a thunk, thunk, thunk and dust drifted past my nose like confetti. Jimmy looked at me; I looked at him and we turned.

Sawyer was too busy staking revenants to notice either one of us.

CHAPTER 24

My mouth hung open. Dust stuck to my lips, and I snapped them shut, then made spitting sounds, minus the spit, until the particles sailed away.

“Sawyer to the rescue,” I murmured.

“You live a very full fantasy life.”

“Considering my life, can you blame me?”

Sawyer sawed his way through a few dozen revenants. I’d never seen him so worked up. He appeared truly pissed.

“How did he know we were here?”

I no longer wore the turquoise, which, in light of recent events, was just plain stupid. Except . . . there he was.

Jimmy inched behind me. I glanced over my shoulder with a frown. That wasn’t like him. Usually we were shoving each other as the both of us tried to place ourselves in the path of every danger.

Jimmy pressed his crotch to my bound hands. “Take it off,” he murmured. “Quick. Before there’re more minions to ice than he can handle.”

I returned my gaze to Sawyer. His chest covered with dust, his bare feet made tracks in the mess on the floor as, face fierce, he just kept mowing them down.

More minions than he could handle? I didn’t think that was going to happen. However—

“Now, Lizzy.”

We did need to move along before the Phoenix showed up. Sawyer might be crazy powerful, but who knew what she could do? I’d forced Jimmy to bring back his vampire self; the least I could do was let him use it.

“You can’t kill Sawyer,” I cautioned, fingers fumbling with the button on Jimmy’s jeans, then the zipper.

“I’m sure I can.” His voice was low and a bit hoarse.

I paused, zipper halfway down. “I mean it, Jimmy.”

He cleared his throat. “I won’t be me when I’m like that. I’ll kill anything in my way, so keep him out of it.”

“Fine.” I yanked the zipper the rest of the way down, ignoring Jimmy’s sharply indrawn breath. Then I skimmed my fingertips across his belly; the muscles fluttered beneath his skin. His chest was hard and warm against my shoulders; his breath stirred my hair. Memories flickered.

Ruthie’s kitchen in the middle of the night. Jimmy comes up behind me in the dark. His arms go around me; he presses his lips to my neck, and my heart tumbles.

The image was so sweet and nostalgic, the feelings that went with it so raw, I couldn’t help it, I stroked his stomach, tracing the spike of his hipbone, the dip where it casted inward, the well of his navel and the happy trail that drew me ever lower. I remembered my quip about removing his collar with my teeth. Too bad I didn’t have the time.

The clink of my nails when they tapped the metal made me catch my breath. As I wrapped my fingers around it, around him, he leaped, then began to swell.

Too late I understood what a bad idea touching him
had been, because when I tried to remove the cock ring, it was stuck.

“Sanducci,” I said in a low voice. “Get a grip.”

He leaned closer, and his lips brushed my ear, making me shiver. “I think the problem is that you’ve got one.”

I yanked my hand out of his pants. “Think of England or something. Paint chips. Wallpaper swatches.”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

“Turn it off!” I swatted his swelling erection.

“It’s not that simple. This happens whenever you’re around.”

“I thought you hated me.”

“Hate. Love. Doesn’t matter to that part of me. You touch him and he’s lost.”

That we were talking about his dick with a pronoun was almost as weird as why we were talking about it at all.

“Listen, you have to—”

“Too late,” he murmured, and I glanced up.

Sawyer was right in front of me. I jumped so high I nearly knocked Jimmy’s teeth out when my head thumped his chin. Sawyer grabbed me by the arm and started to drag me toward the door.

“Wait.” I tried to dig in, but with revenant dust all over the floor, I only slid along like a water-skier being towed by a powerboat. “Sawyer. Sheesh. Stop.”

I couldn’t leave. I’d come here for the key, and I didn’t have it yet.

I looked back at Jimmy, whose pants were hanging open and his privates peeking out. He hurried after us, sliding along too in the dust strewn across the wooden floor.

Sawyer swung around, fist pulled back to punch Jimmy in the nose, then paused, gaze first lowering to
Jimmy’s crotch, then lifting to my face. “What is wrong with you?” he asked.

“What’s wrong with you?”

He didn’t answer; I hadn’t expected him to.

There was something off about him. He was furious. Furious and Sawyer did not go together. Coldly homicidal maybe. Calmly murderous. Serenely dangerous.

Since he was still touching me, I closed my eyes and opened my mind. He shook me so hard my teeth snapped together, and said, “Stop that!”

“You’re a great black hole anyway,” I muttered.

His gaze narrowed; then he glanced at Jimmy. “Cover yourself, Sanducci.”

“I’d be happy to. If you’d just release me from these chains.”

With an impatient grunt, Sawyer strode forward. Keeping one hand around my biceps, he used the other to put Jimmy back in his pants. Or at least he tried.