Dead and Kicking (11 page)

I never would have thought that
hearing there had been another zombie attack would be welcome news, but I could
have kissed Nash when he barged in moments later saying just that. For the first time since meeting him, I
wasn’t going to complain about him showing up uninvited.

“There have been two more separate
attacks,” Nash spoke to Salvador, but his eyes found mine. He took a step towards me, a look of concern
briefly passing over his face, but then he seemed to catch himself and stopped,
turning away to face Salvador. “We’re
going to need to do some containment.
There have been civilian casualties.”

Civilian casualties
. I assumed he must mean
norms. We had to figure out who was
doing this before even more people were hurt or killed. Salvador and Nash began making plans to
handle the situation. I used the
distraction to step away into the shadows to check my phone. There were six missed calls from Tess and a
text message. A little excessive, but I
guess I can’t blame her for being worried about me. I quickly texted her back that I was okay but
couldn’t talk.

“Of course you will take Miss Russo
with you,” Salvador said, pulling me back to the conversation.

“Me?”
I squeaked in surprise. “What do
you need me for?” Both men turned to
look at me. Nash looked grim but
Salvador looked calculating.

“I only thought, Miss Russo, that
perhaps your special…” Salvador paused, gesturing with
his hands like he was trying to find the right words, “
talents
may prove useful.” I
started to protest but Salvador continued on. “Perhaps a lingering spirit you
might interrogate? Provide our dear
Detective Nash with some leads?”

Nash frowned but remained
silent. Salvador looked at me
expectantly. I rolled my eyes. “Fine, fine.” I’d do almost anything just to get out of
there. I looked down at my dress. “But I’m not going anywhere dressed like
this.”

***

I should have kept my big, fat mouth
shut.

I stood outside the club dressed like
that chick from Underworld, waiting for Nash, and while I was totally keeping
the cool, full-length black leather duster, I could have done without the
leather hot pants and bustier. When I
complained and asked why there wasn’t a single T-shirt or blouse available, the
response was that my current get-up would be better for blending in with the
others. Unfortunately, it was
true. They all looked like roadies for
Motley Crue or something as they piled into the black
van waiting behind Nash’s SUV. All
except one that is, who stepped away from the van and came to stand beside me. He was elegantly dressed in a suit that
looked more Tom Ford than Nikki Sixx. His dark, shoulder length hair had that
freshly washed and brushed gleam, his beard neatly trimmed. He turned to look at me with familiar blue
eyes.

I did a double take when I realized
it was Isaac. While his eyes were still
a bit sunken and his complexion sallow, he looked remarkably better, especially
with his formerly scraggly beard neat and trim.
He certainly looked nothing like the starved, dishevelled creature I had
encountered earlier.

“Hey! Ride in the van with the rest,”
Nash jerked a thumb at the van as he opened the passenger door of the SUV for
me.

“I must ride with Miss Russo,” Isaac
replied, unaffected by Nash’s gruff orders.

I placed my hand on Nash’s chest telling
him to back off. “It’s okay. He’s with me.” At Nash’s frown, I added, “Long story.”

To say the trip from Dante’s to the
scene of the second attack was a little chilly, would
be an understatement. Nash alternated
between glaring at me and glaring at Isaac in the rear-view mirror. Isaac was unfazed by Nash’s behaviour.
I was getting close to smacking him. Luckily, we arrived at Bacchus, another of
Salvador’s clubs, although this one was a little more upscale - less Goth, more
bling - before any violence ensued.

The attack had taken place in an
alley at the side of the club. The area
was now cordoned off with yellow police tape.
A black coroner’s van had pulled up near the entrance to the alley, the
attendants cooling their heels at the side of the van, obviously waiting for
the go-ahead to clear the scene.

The clean-up crew pulled up behind us
in the van and spilled out, immediately getting to work. Several of the vamps insinuated themselves
into the crowd. I assumed they were on
glamour patrol, tasked with adjusting the memories of any norms to jibe with
whatever cover story had been concocted.
I had never really thought about it before, but I wondered how many of
these types of cover-ups had there been over the years? Vampire attacks made to look like muggings
and that sort of thing.

I didn’t have time to worry about
past cover ups, as Nash strode to the mouth of the alley and held the crime
scene tape up expectantly, waiting for me to duck under. I noticed he didn’t extend the same courtesy
to Isaac. With a little smirk, Isaac
lifted the tape and ducked under as well.

The first thing I noticed was the
overwhelming sense of wrong I felt. It
was almost overpowering and I staggered to lean against the side of the
building. There was a scuffle of boots
as both Nash and Isaac rushed to my side.
Upon seeing each other they stopped short, Nash glaring and Isaac
looking aloof but determined. Great, now
I had two alpha males dogging my heels.
I frowned at both of them and stepped further into the alley.

Like the aftermath of the attack at
The Lodge, the scene was something out of a nightmare, body parts strewn
everywhere. Unlike the scene from the
night before, there was also a lot of blood and what looked like intestines
puddled near one of the victims. I turned
away, trying to block out the images while a wave of nausea washed over me.

“Are you alright, Miss Russo?”
Isaac’s voice was quiet, almost calming.

“Harry, just call me Harry. I’m okay.
I just need a minute.”

“I shouldn’t have brought you
here.” Nash’s voice was rough with anger
and concern. He reached for me, taking
me by the arm. “You should wait in the
truck.”

I pulled my arm from his grasp, angry
that he was treating me like a child again.
“I’m fine. I don’t need to be
coddled. Let’s just get this over
with.” The anger helped me to focus, the
nausea gone.

The second victim was in much the
same condition as the first, huge ribbons of flesh torn off his arms and back,
and a gaping hole in his abdomen. He was
farther down the alley from the first and from the position of his body, it looked like he had been trying to flee when he was
taken down from behind. It was
puzzling. The zombies we had encountered
the night before wouldn’t have been fast enough to catch a
man intent on running for his life.
They had merely overwhelmed us with sheer numbers. I looked at the carnage again, trying to
piece the bodies back together.

“Do you have any witnesses to the
attack? Anyone that can describe the
zombies or knows how many there were?” I
turned to look at Nash.

“A couple of
the vamp bouncers that came running when they heard the screams. They’re the ones that tore
the zombies apart.”

“It doesn’t look like there were that
many this time, and they must have been quicker?”

Nash looked at the mutilated body,
nodding his head in agreement. “I’ll
have to check their statements, but I agree.
That’s what it looks like.”

“But why are the zombies still
here? Why didn’t they turn to dust and
return to their graves?” I shivered.

“What is it Miss, uh Harry?” Isaac, silent as ever, had approached
me. “Do you feel something?”

“It just feels wrong. I don’t know how to describe it,” I replied,
shrugging. “It just feels like it needs
to be undone, set right.”

“Yes, that’s it.” Isaac looked pleased. “You must set it right. Only you can.”

“Me?
How can I?” I stared at Isaac incredulously.

“Surely you aren’t going to continue
to deny the truth, even after what happened earlier tonight?” Isaac took me by the shoulders and stared
down at me. “You can do this. I am proof
of that.”

“No! I don’t know what you’re talking
about.” I pushed Isaac away.

“Hey!” Nash stepped up to Isaac. “Just leave her alone.”

“Come now Detective, you know as well
as I why Salvador insisted she come here.”

“Look, both of you, just give me a minute.” I
stalked a short distance away from them, my mind reeling. I had been in denial a long time; I really
didn’t want to face reality, but it was hard to ignore what was staring me
right in the face. I knew I had done
something, even if it was unintentional, that made the zombies disappear the
other night and tonight I had compelled Isaac to prevent him from harming
me. There were also the other vamps I
had ‘Obi-wan’d’, getting them to let me into the club. Not to mention my ability to see and command
ghosts. What I could do went beyond the
realm of a simple medium’s powers.
Everything I read about what I was capable of doing led back to one
thing, a necromancer. No wonder Salvador
was so interested in me and why Tomas hated me.
There hadn’t been a reported necromancer in generations. Of course, maybe they were just better at
staying under the radar than I had been.
Although, since the first thing I did with my burgeoning power was
flaunt it in the faces of a bunch of vampires and the Magister, it wouldn’t
take much for them to be better at staying hidden than me.

“Harry, I don’t mean to rush you, but
it will be dawn soon.” Isaac had moved
closer to me. “You must release the
remains before the sun rises.”

“I know, I know. I just don’t know how.” I really didn’t have a clue. So far, everything I had done,
had mostly been a fluke.

“You must focus your will. Think of the outcome you want then release
your power and it will be so.”

“Oh, is that all?” I huffed out a breath. “I’m sorry.
I know you’re trying to help.” I
moved to stand in the centre of the alley, surrounded by the torn off limbs and
shredded torsos of the zombies. The
vampires had done a number on them trying to stop them. I let my shields down a little and the sense
of wrongness intensified. I closed my
eyes and tried to relax. I could feel a
tingle of residual power. Something
about it just felt out of place. I
decided to focus on it, to see if there was something I could do. Maybe if I could release that lingering
power, things would be set right. Taking
Isaac’s advice, I focused on the bodies and returning the zombies
to their graves. I took several deep
cleansing breaths then released my will.
I felt the power slip from me in an ever growing wave. It was like I was a pebble dropped into still
water, the power radiating out from me in a ripple. As the wave passed over the zombies, they
disintegrated into dust and blew away with the breeze.

The release of power staggered
me. My knees buckled and I started to
fall only to be supported by Nash who wrapped an arm around me, propping me
up. I hadn’t even realized he had been
hovering there behind me, so intent I was on my purpose.

“What the hell?” Nash’s voice was full of concern.

Isaac chuckled. “We’ll have to work on your control. I don’t think it was necessary to use quite as
much power as you did.” His face became
concerned as he looked closer at me.
“You are practically drained and you haven’t fed at all today. You’re dangerously close to running yourself
empty, especially after what happened earlier this evening.”

“That’s the second time you mentioned
something that happened earlier this evening.
What the hell happened? What is
it between you two?” Nash sounded angry
again.

Isaac remained unaffected by Nash’s
outburst. “Does it really matter right
now? Harry needs to recharge. She needs to feed.”

Nash scooped me up in his arms but I
protested. “Put me down. You’re not carrying me out of here. It will attract too much attention. I can walk.”
Unfortunately, the world decided to spin right at that moment. I closed my eyes for a second until the
feeling passed. “I mean it. Put me down.”

Nash placed me gently on my
feet. I swayed, but remained upright,
thankfully.

“You’ll never make it two steps like
that.” Nash frowned then huffed out a
breath as if resigned to doing something unpleasant. I blinked in surprise as he grasped my face
in both hands and kissed me. At first it
was tentative, but then I felt the glorious, pure energy of his aura begin to
pour into mine. I deepened the kiss,
soaking it in hungrily. Nash groaned,
but from pleasure, not pain, enjoying the kiss as much as me. He returned everything I gave him, his tongue
finding mine. His warm hands slid
underneath my coat to find the strip of bare skin at the small of my back. His touch electrified me.

“Damn it!” Nash swore as he broke off the kiss to answer
his ringing phone. I took a steady step
away from him. What the hell was I doing
kissing him?