Bad Blood (Battle of the Undead Book 1) (17 page)

Josh asked me one more time who Langdon had been. I carefully looked into his eyes and smiled.
“No one of importance,” I had replied.

He took that answer, but I was sure the question would be aired again. Maybe by then I would have a better explanation, one less embarrassing and girly.

Chapter Sixteen

We had agreed to meet Tate and his people at the Liverpool docks where Lyle would join us with a ferry to transport us all across to Ireland. We had already been heading north, so the change of plan was seemingly insignificant to our wards. I dared not tell them the reasoning behind the change. They would have lost all trust in me. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I trusted myself. Why hadn’t I even thought about Argyle and its battery farms? Was I so addicted to fantasy that I’d ignored the obvious on purpose, or was I really that dense? Right then, I decided to keep this information from Jack too, who so far had been an incredibly impressive newbie. He was fast, strong, and skillful—it was like he was born for it. I watched him fighting with Josh and Green as they taught him their army moves. He learned it all so quickly, and within only a few hours, he had surpassed their human abilities. I caught myself smiling at them.

We moved as swiftly as we could
. Main roads were sometimes blocked, so we had to veer off and travel down side streets and country roads. Each one we went down, we killed zombies and found the odd survivor. With each stop I said silent goodbyes to England as it sank deeper into the undead mire.

Josh wasn’t Langdon. I had to keep reminding myself of that when I looked at him, when he made me laugh, or when he touched my arm to stop my stares into the middle distance. Good. Langdon had turned out to be a man who had forgotten me. He’d left me to my vampire captor without even taking a step in my direction. When I thought of all the time I’d wasted mooning over his memory, thinking he’d died for me
… Why had Nicholas not showed me his obituary sooner?

Life is problems—it takes a special kind of person to not only accept this but to then take each one on as a challenge, as a thing to be overcome rather than be buried by. Strangely, the zombies themselves seemed to be the least of my problems
, until I heard a familiar laugh echo across the Liverpool city center.

We were less than a mile from the docks, where Tate and his people were waiting, where we were all to meet Lyle and his stolen ferry. Zombie stragglers were hanging about the shops, but where were the rest? Liverpool had over a million citizens, and so far, I had only counted five zombie heads as I had cleaved them off.  Everything felt wrong
. It was like having a sleeping coiled snake in your stomach suddenly spring to life. I knew Philippe was here. I just didn’t know where or worse, where he was hiding the inevitable zombie army he’d mustered along the way.

“What are you thinking?” Nicholas asked me as we walked together in front of our slow
-moving, full Double-Decker bus.

“Mouse trap,” I mumbled.

“Yet still we move toward the cheese?”

“Cheese is all we have right now.”

“So your plan is to play into the zombie king’s scabby hands?”

“It’s part of the plan, just not the whole plan.”

We continued moving, but we kept it slow and steady. Right now, panic was a luxury, along with fear, doubt, and of course, blood. Not one of us had fed since we’d killed John. I’d heard the wards’ whispers and knew that to keep their trust, we needed to at least deliver them to safety before sinking a set of fangs into them. We’d managed no sleep for fear of Philippe catching up to us, and even the human food was dwindling. Tate had radioed to confirm that they were now at the docks and that Lyle was also already en-route. Everything was falling into place. I just wasn’t the only one with a plan.

“Why, what a wonderful present
, Britannia, a tasty mobile buffet!” Philippe appeared between us and the road to the docks. He was alone.

“Oh, King of the Zombies,” I said with a bow.

Philippe snorted.

A honk from the bus caught our attention. Behind the bus
, a horde of over three hundred Liverpool zombies suddenly stood like statues, staring at us all with a mixture of dead, glassy eyes and dark, empty sockets.

“My subjects are hungry,” Philippe said with a grin.

Both Nicholas and I leapt up and onto the roof of the bus. I leaned down to Josh and Jack, who were both standing by the bus door.

“Drive fast, and get to Tate. Get everyone on the ferry!” I yelled.

“What about you?” Jack asked. His hand darted out and caught hold of mine.

“I’m right behind you.”
I tried to smile, but my fangs got caught on my top lip.

“We’ll get everyone out safe. How will we know Tate?” Josh asked.

“He’ll be the only other vampire on the docks.”

“Vampire, eh?”

Josh finally knew for sure, but he leaned forward and kissed me anyway. It was soft and chaste, and his fingers entwined in the long blue curls that framed my face.

Philippe waited with the patience of a villain who knew he had the better plan. Our lingering goodbyes would make his victory that much sweeter.

I pushed my hand through the bus window and ruffled Satan’s fur, then nodded at all my wards as their faces began to drain of color.

I jumped from the side of the bus to find Nicholas at my side.

“You’re a good fighter, but you can’t take both sides, now can you?”

“I forgive you, Nicholas.” It popped out before I’d even really thought the gesture through.

He stared at me for a moment. We were both wearing black skinny jeans and T-shirts. Mine was another vintage Sex Pistols tour shirt—my new favorite. His T-shirt was something he’d picked up along the way, a cheap tight white one that read, “For hire. Go on, girls, treat yourselves.” I hadn’t even noticed that before.

“Lady’s choice, front or back?”

I wanted to take Philippe, so I nodded in his direction.

The bus behind us revved, and we both jumped out of its way. I propelled myself forward and grabbed at Philippe who deftly avoided my awkward embrace. The bus then accelerated forward toward the docks. I spun round and kicked Philippe square in the chest. He staggered and shook his head with shock.

“You’re faster than I remembered. How would you feel about switching allegiances?”

“What and become Queen of the Zombies?” I flipped my hair out of my face and wished for a hair clip.

“We got on so well before, my darling.”

I dropped to the floor and swiped his legs from under him then flipped upright and stomped on his chest. His hands grabbed at my foot and caught me long enough to pull me over. We both rolled out of the way of the oncoming speeding bus. He continued his momentum until he was on top of me, pinning me to the asphalt beneath us that smel
led faintly of petrol and blood.

He snapped his jaws at me. I caught his shoulders just in time to push him at arm’s length. His smelly breath and greenish saliva invaded my senses, making me gag. He laughed and tried to lean into me.

I encircled my legs around his waist and rolled to the side, taking him with me so he ended up beneath me. A wave of annoyance crashed over his jagged smile as he struggled against the grip my thighs had on him. He might be able to beat me with upper body strength, but I had him defeated hands down with the lower.

“Britannia!”

I looked up to see Nicholas being swamped by zombies.

“Oh my, two birds with one stone. You can let him die and then kill me. Have all those tasty humans for yourself,” Philippe cackled.

“Shit,” I said.

Not sure if I’d ever get another chance to kill Philippe again
, I got up off him and sped toward the zombie horde. I slashed and cleaved a path to where Nicholas was fighting. He’d been bitten, but only once or twice.

I stood back to back with him and handed him one of my scythes. As our hands touched, he caressed my palm.

I kicked out at the nearest zombie and cut the head off its neighbor. Nicholas had killed at least a hundred, which left another two hundred slathering, wild creatures to bear down on us. Their previous docile appearance was now replaced by toothy snapping and sharp-nailed grabbing. They were so close that I had no room to move. We weren’t going to make it out without being torn apart. There were still just too many. My only hope became that we’d stall them long enough for Tate to take charge of our wards and get them safely across the sea to their symbiotic sanctuary.

“I need to tell you something,” said Nicholas.

“I really can’t take any more drama right now, Nicholas. Can it wait?”

“Sure.”
I almost felt his eye roll.

Just then a zombie’s head exploded to my side, then another, and another. I had enough room, so I twirled and tumbled
, taking out at least another ten in my line of sight. The bullets were coming from Josh and Green—it was their last ammo, but it had given me the room I needed.

A sudden memory of my first night in the land of the zombies flashed before my eyes
. The zombies had stood at the banks of the Thames watching their meals thrash and sink. They hadn’t gone in after them.

“We need to get everyone into the water
. Zombies can’t swim!” I yelled at Nicholas. He nodded, and we started running toward the docks. We ran straight into Josh and Green. I threw Josh over my shoulder and Nicholas grabbed Green. We bowled forward toward the docks. As we got there, I could see the bus, now driven by Jack, had reached a pier. Another seventy people stood on it. In front of them was Tate, his beautifully smooth black skin illuminated by the lights of the dock. He waved at me then pointed to the distance to where a ferry was steaming toward us.

“Jump!” I yelled at them. Everyone looked stunned.

“Get in the water!” Nicholas shouted.

The zombies were now in sight. It was a mass of animal-like snarls and extended hungry fingers bearing down on us

Satan began to channel his inner collie and was now herding everyone toward the edge. Most of the humans started to dive into the water to swim out to meet Lyle’s ferry. Satan jumped in after them. Tate and Jack regarded each other for a moment. He’d smell like me. Hopefully, Tate would sense Jack was one of us, not some rogue sent in by the Elders.

We dropped Josh and Green over the sides of the docks—even though Josh yelled to stay and said something that I didn’t quite catch. I felt his hand slide down my arm as he tried to grip onto me.

“What’s the plan?” Tate yelled across the docks to us. The only humans left with him and Jack were Tracy and Henri, who’d just finishing helping the children into the sea.

“You need to swim out with them.” I waved over at the ferry. I could see the first people reaching it and being pulled aboard by Lyle.

“What about you?” Jack shouted back at me.

“He won’t stop hunting us.” I wasn’t sure what else I could say. It was the only truth I could push out.

Tate looked crestfallen, his dark, glassy eyes overshadowed with grief, but he wasn’t looking at me. I followed his eye line and saw Philippe standing in front of the zombies, a king who would lead his troops from the front.

The movement was sudden, and even I didn’t see him run past me. Philippe was aiming, not at me, but at Tate. Jack grabbed hold of Tate’s arm and yanked him out of the way of his creator. Philippe settled for grabbing the nearest human. Tracy! I ran as fast as I could, Nicholas behind me, but I was too late. The smell of blood hit me first, and I saw Philippe rip into her throat. I got there just as he let her body limply drop to the floor, the silver cross I’d given her disappearing into the gaping red wound of her neck.

“One of yours?” Philippe wiped his mouth with his dirty lace sleeve.

Red started to creep into the sides of my vision. I could feel anger, my old friend, writhing in my heart and flowing strength through my tired, malnourished body. I threw myself at him and knocked him over. Nicholas skidded to a halt at Tracy’s body then pushed Henri into the water. The zombies that had turned spectator now wanted to participate
, so were shuffling toward us at the end of the pier. I looked at them for too long and lost sight of Philippe, who’d used his vampire speed to mingle amongst his undead soldiers.

“We should jump too.” Nicholas motioned toward the sea behind us.

“He won’t stop,” I said.

“How do you know that?” Tate asked.

“The look in his eye. I’ve seen it before.”

I wrinkled my nose. Yeah, I’d seen it before, every time I’d looked in a mirror these past centuries. My pursuit of Nicholas’ ruination had given me that same insane stare.

“You should go.” I looked back at the other three vampires.

“No, we can kill him together,” Tate said.

But I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. He’d be more of a liability than a help.

I grabbed Tate’s shoulders. “Get on that ferry and help Lyle and the others. There are children on there who have just lost their mother.”
I spared a glance at Tracy’s achingly still corpse.