Restless (17 page)

3
0. A DECISION

RESTING ON A FALLEN LOG
with Rave close beside her
,
Leesa gazed absently out toward the river. The water flowed slowly by, reflecting the blue sky above and untroubled by any events unfolding just downstream. Leesa wished she could be as placid.

Out of nowhere,
an otter poked its nose up over the edge of the riverbank. A moment later, the rest of the sleek brown form climbed up onto the grassy bank. Glistening drops of water dripped from its whiskers and snout, shining like tiny jewels in the sun.

“How cute!” Leesa exclaimed, happy for the unexpected break in
a day that was beginning to grow just a bit monotonous. She had already practiced her magic under Dominic’s tutelage for almost two hours and was now taking a break. “Look, Rave. An otter.”

Rave followed her gaze toward the river.
His volkaane affinity to animals told him there was something special about this otter, and he was pretty sure he knew what it was. He didn’t say anything to Leesa, though. He was pretty sure she would enjoy the coming surprise.

A
soft silver glow, barely visible in the bright sunlight, engulfed the otter’s tail and worked its way up the animal’s body. When the glow covered the otter’s head, there was a bright silver flash. Instead of the otter, Jenna now stood at the edge of the river. Her clothes were dry, but water still dripped from the ends of her long hair. Even Jenna did not understand why her hair always stayed wet while her clothes remained dry. She was always glad for the dry clothes, though.

“Jenna!” Leesa exclaimed, standing up and hurrying forward. “I forgot that an otter was your second favorite animal
form.” She gave Jenna a quick hug, glad that the witch had returned safely.

Jenna smiled. “
As much as I love flying, I think I’ve done more than enough in the past twenty-four hours,” she said, squeezing the water from the ends of her hair with her hands. “I thought a refreshing swim would be a nice way to wrap up my little jaunt.”

Rave and Dominic joined Leesa in front of Jenna. Dral and Bain held back, keeping their volkaane senses aimed outward into the woods, just in case.

“Welcome back, Jenna,” Dominic said. “Did you have any luck?”

“Yes and no,”
the witch replied. “I talked to the colonel and the doctor Rave told me about, as well as a few other people. I used my compulsion spell to force them to tell me everything they knew, but like us, they all have a lot more questions than answers.”

“
That does not surprise me,” Dominic said. “I am sure zombies are pretty far outside of their normal range of experience and knowledge, unless the government is doing some experiments we do not know about. Even so, tell me everything they said.”

Jenna recounted her conversations and the little bit she had overheard while perched on the hospital roof.
Dominic, Leesa and Rave listened closely, Dominic most of all. When Jenna finished, the wizard’s face was somber.

“So the creatures
have
become contagious, as I feared,” he said, more to himself than to anyone else. “And in a maximum of thirty minutes—maybe less. This is ill news indeed.”

“What does it mean?
” Leesa asked, not at all happy with the seriousness of Dominic’s tone.

“It means the Necromancer is closer to his ultimate goal than I imagined. The seal between our world and the world of the dead
is still intact, but it is sorely damaged. If he succeeds in breaking the seal, which seems likely, transformation will occur in only five to ten minutes after a bite, leaving precious little time to destroy the bodies properly before they reanimate and join his army of walking dead.”

“Do the bodies need to be burned to prevent reanimation?” Leesa asked, recalling the many zombie movies she had seen.
Flame throwers and fire bombs seemed to be the preferred method for destroying infected bodies in those stories.

“That is one way,
yes. It is probably the most efficient method when large numbers are involved. Another way to prevent it is to destroy the brain, just like is done with reanimated bodies. A third way is to use our magic, but that can be draining. We will need all our energy to battle our foes. We cannot afford to waste too much of it destroying zombies.”

“So what do we do now?” Leesa asked.

Dominic stroked his beard, lost in thought for several long minutes. Leesa watched him anxiously.

“I think we need to head back to Connecticut,” he said finally.

Leesa was surprised to hear that. She had expected him to say that it was time to pursue the Necromancer and the black waziri. Part of her was glad to be heading home instead, but another part of her was very worried. If she had to battle the Necromancer and his followers, she would rather do it far from home.

“Why?” she asked. “What can we do there?”

“We can wait. I believe the Necromancer will attempt at least one more trial run before he unleashes his full power. I do not think we need to reveal ourselves to stop that one. We will let the army handle it.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “I also believe he may be making for Connecticut, because he thinks I must be somewhere in the area. Twice I have defeated his lieutenants there—it is the only thing he has to go on. He knows I am the biggest threat to his plans. He will want to destroy me early on.”

“Do you think you can stop him?” Leesa asked.

“I do not know.” Dominic placed his hand on Leesa’s shoulder. “Perhaps with help from my secret weapon, I can.”

Leesa drew in a deep breath. The moment she had been dreading was drawing rapidly nearer—and she didn’t feel
like a very powerful secret weapon.

3
1. PIZZA AND A TALE

LEESA WAS GLAD TO BE BACK
in Middletown. Though she had been gone only forty-eight hours, so much had happened up in Maine that it felt a lot longer. To be sure, other than blasting the three zombies with her magic and practicing with Dominic,
she
had not done much more than wait while Rave and then Jenna scouted the town, and then listen to their reports when they returned. All that waiting was one of the reasons the trip seemed longer than it was.

Dominic had dropped her off at home late in the afternoon
with orders for her to be ready to practice bright and early tomorrow morning. For tonight, though, she was free. Rave was going to come by later and keep watch outside her apartment after she went to bed, but he wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours yet.

After living on sandwiches and snacks from a cooler for two days,
Leesa was in the mood for something hot and tasty for dinner. Since Cali wanted to hear all about the events in Maine, they had agreed to meet at Giovanni’s so they could dive into one of their delicious pizzas while they talked.

Leesa enjoyed the mile long walk to the restaurant
. The early evening air felt pleasantly warm on her skin, and a soft breeze from the east carried the faint scent of the river to her nostrils. As she approached Giovanni’s, she spotted Cali waiting outside the entrance. In truth, it would have been hard to miss her.

Cali was dressed fairly conservatively—for Cali.
She had on a florescent orange tank top and plain white shorts. Three bright orange streaks adorned the left side of her dark hair and her sandals had orange straps. Naturally, she had painted her toenails to match the straps.

The two girls greeted each other with a quick hug.

“I’m glad to see you made it back in one piece,” Cali said. “I can’t wait to hear all about that zombie stuff. Did you see any of them for real?”

“Yeah, I did,” Leesa replied. “I’ll tell you all about it
after we get a table and order. I’m starving.”

Inside, the restaurant was only about half full, a far cry from the boisterous crowds that usually filled the place when the nearby college was in session.
Leesa asked the hostess for a booth, and the girl led them to one along the back wall. The booths on either side were unoccupied, so for now, at least, they would have some privacy for their talk.

The two girls
slid into opposite sides of the booth. The benches were cushioned with dark red vinyl pads. A candle in a red glass jar flickered atop the wooden table.

“Can you send our waitress right over, please?” Leesa asked. “We already know what we want.”

“Sure.” The hostess waved to a waitress dressed in a red top and short white skirt—Weston College colors—who was standing by the bar. Leesa thought she recognized the girl from school, but wasn’t sure. The waitress came right over.

“Welcome to Giovanni’s,” she said, smiling. “I’m Holly.”

“We’ll have a medium Hawaiian pizza and two Diet Cokes,” Leesa said. She didn’t know any Holly’s, but that didn’t mean the girl hadn’t been in one of her bigger classes. She decided not to waste any time asking about it.

“You got it,”
Holly replied. “I’ll bring your sodas right back; the pizza will be about fifteen minutes. Would you like any breadsticks or anything in the meantime?”

Leesa was tempted, but she didn’t want to spoil her appetite for the pizza. She glanced at Cali, who
shook her head.

“No
thanks. We’ll wait.”

“Okay, I’ll get them right on it,
” Holly said before scurrying away toward the kitchen.

As soon as they were alone, Cali spoke. “All right—hit me with everything that happened up in Maine. I’ve been trying to follow
the whole thing on the internet, but there’s not much information getting out.”

“Yeah, the
government is keeping a tight lid on things,” Leesa replied. “The whole town is surrounded by soldiers and a fence. It’s sealed pretty tight.”

“So how did you learn anything? Did Dominic turn you guys into snakes so you could slither in through the fence?”

“Ha! Not hardly. I’m pretty sure Dominic can’t do that. But even if he could, he can’t use his magic, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s right.
”

They broke off their conversation when Holly returned with two big glasses of soda. She placed one in front of each of the girls.

“Pizza shouldn’t be too long now,” she said. “Do you need anything?”

“No, we’re good,” Cali said. She waited for Holly to leave before continuing her questioning. “So
, what did you guys do to get into the town?”

“The fir
st night, Rave and Bain snuck in though spots where the fences hadn’t been finished yet. Volkaanes are very stealthy when they want to be.”

“I bet.”

“They didn’t learn much, though. No one was talking. So we called Jenna. She flew in over the barriers and then used a compulsion spell to get some guys to talk to her. Even the scientists studying the zombies and don’t know very much yet, but Jenna did learn that the zombies were contagious, which was the main thing Dominic wanted to know.”

“Heck, I could have told
him that,” Cali said. “Everyone knows if you get bit by a zombie you turn into one of them.”

Leesa shook her head, smiling.
Cali seldom failed to amuse, even when she wasn’t trying.

“That’s
the movies, Cali. This is real life. We needed to know for sure. And to know how long it took for the transformation.”

“So, how long
does
it take to turn into a zombie in real life?” She emphasized the final two words.

“Around half an hour, we think.” Leesa
explained about the sedatives the doctors had pumped into the victims and the other problems with knowing exactly how long. “Dominic says if the Necromancer breaks the seal, it’ll only take five or ten minutes. That’s when we’ll really be in trouble.”

“Does
he think the Necromancer is close to breaking it?”

“Unfortunately, yeah, he does.”

Holly arrived with a steaming pizza on a round metal tray. She placed the pie on the table between the two girls.

Leesa breathed in the spicy aroma of the pizza. Now she was really hungry. She and Cali each grabbed a slice and put it on their plates. Leesa cut off the end of her piece and
picked it up with her fork. She blew on it for a few seconds before carefully lifting it to her mouth. She generally preferred eating pizza with her hands, but not when it was this hot.

The pizza
tasted delicious. She and Cali each downed several bites before returning to their conversation.

“So, did anything else interesting or exciting happen?” Cali asked finally.

Leesa swallowed a bite of pizza and smiled. “Well, I did kill three zombies with my magic.”

Cali nearly choked on the piece of pizza she had just put into her mouth.
She chewed it quickly and swallowed.

“What? For real? No way. Tell me. I thought you didn’t go into the town?”

“Rave found three zombies on the bottom of the river. They were just lying there, he said. The things can’t swim a lick, but they can’t drown, either. He brought one back with him, and then he and Dral went back for the other two. Dominic examined them. When he was done, he decided I might as well use them to practice zombie destruction.”

“Wow!
Totally awesome. How did you do it?”

“Magic energy beams to the head,” Leesa replied. “I got nervous the first time with the thing coming toward me and
I drilled a hole through its chest instead. The zombie staggered for a moment, but then kept coming. My second shot was better.” She reached across the table and touched Cali’s forehead with her index finger. “Got it right there. That was all she wrote for the thing.”

Cali grinned. “My friend
, the Terminator,” she said. “I’ll be baaaaack.”

Leesa chuckled. “I thought I might feel bad about doing it, but then I r
emembered those things aren’t really alive. If they could think, I bet they’d rather be completely dead. I know I would.”

“Me, too,” Cali said. “Being a vampire I could handle, but not a freaking zombie.
They’re gross.”

The two girls returned to their eating.
All the talk of killing zombies did not affect their appetites in the least, not with the pizza so tasty.

“Oh, one more thing,” Leesa said after a few more bites. “Dominic asked if you could be there when I practice
my magic tomorrow.”

“Really? Totally cool.”
Cali started to take another bite, but stopped with the pizza part way to her mouth. “Did he say why?”

“No. And I have no idea why.” Leesa smiled. “Maybe he wants me to
practice my healing on you some more.”

Cali shook her head.
“Oh, great. Just what I need—to take another one for the team.”

“Can you get off work?”

“Heck, yeah. What’s more important…selling a few cute outfits or getting ready for the zombie apocalypse?”