Resurrection (10 page)

Once more Karra surprised me with how fast she was.

In one fluid motion, the assassin ducked under Veronica’s follow up swing and flopped to her back on the ground. As she hit, she whipped her arm upward, loosing a handful of dirt. The spray of small rocks and sand struck Veronica flush in the face, blinding her for just an instant. It was long enough.

Karra kicked and swept one of Veronica’s legs out from beneath her, forcing her to spin away to remain standing. The move opened up her back which the assassin took full advantage of. A quick flick of her remaining sword sunk the tip into my ex-wife’s spine. Veronica twitched violently for a second, then collapsed face first as the poison made its way through her nervous system.

I screamed and pulled the trigger at the same time, wanting nothing more than to put a hole through Karra’s head. But once more, she batted my bullets aside with ease while she rolled to a crouch, retrieving her other sword. Furious, I emptied the clip as she bounded toward me, weaving from side to side, her blades intercepting every bullet that came close. The chamber clicked hollow just as she moved to stand over me. The tip of a sword settled into the hollow of my throat. Her cold brown eyes stared out at me from behind her mask.

“I don’t want to kill you, but I will if you force my hand.” Her voice was soft and quiet, but with an off-setting warble to it. It sounded odd, like she was trying to disguise it.

Her voice the least of my worries, I growled, meeting her gaze. “Like you did her?” I motioned to Veronica who lay still in the dirt. “Or McConnell?”

“Once the paralysis runs its course, she’ll be fine. The
wizard
is another matter.” I caught a hint of venom as she mentioned McConnell. I could relate, but it still didn’t excuse her for what she’d done. Not that my opinion mattered much at this point. She had the upper hand and it held a sharp, pointy thing to my neck.

“Tell me what your boss is up to and maybe I can leave it be.” My brain scrambled to find a way out that got Baalth off my back and didn’t end with me being dead.

Dead is bad.

She shook her head. I wasn’t getting anything, not that I really expected to. “Just stay out of our way and maybe you’ll make it out alive.”

Doubtful. If it wasn’t her killing me it’d be Baalth for letting her get away. I sighed. As usual, I was neck deep in shit and going down fast.

She had to have seen the reluctance on my face, but she pulled her sword away regardless. “Let it go.”

She sheathed her swords, but remained there for a few seconds longer, just staring at me. Her eyes were indecipherable. At last, loosing a deep sigh, she headed back to where the zombies were, ordering them to assemble. Those in line fell out and ambled forward while the ones in the holes climbed up and joined the rest. Once gathered in a smelly, gibbering mass, they collected the filled tubs and the whole group headed out into the darkness of the desert, leaving behind the ruin of their drained victims.

Karra cast one last look back at me before joining them. Moments later they were gone, only the distant muttering of zombies and the howl of dusty winds were left to echo in the chill air. A few minutes after that, even the sound was gone.

I glanced at Veronica and saw her body twitch, her back rising gently as she breathed. Relieved she was alive I dug inside my pockets with my functional arm looking for Candy’s phone. After an aggravating struggle, trying to stick my left hand into the right-side pocket, I came up empty. I groaned, dropping back onto the sand as I remembered I’d left the phone at DRAC. It was sitting on Abraham’s desk.

The cavalry wasn’t coming.

With nothing left to do but wait, I rolled onto my side to keep an eye on Veronica. Face down with her ass slightly elevated by a mound of dirt, the paralysis holding her fast, my mind found its own way to pass the time.

I needed to get me some of that poison.

Chapter Eight

I stared off at the horizon as we walked, the sun climbing into the sky at a snail’s pace. A subtle, growing warmth challenged the chill while dawn arrived to chase away the gloom; the darkness that is.

Our personal gloom was dead set on sticking around. The feeling in my arm and leg had returned, at least enough so I could move a little. There was a lasting stiffness that pricked at my nerves as I got up. It was an uncomfortable pins and needles kind of feeling, but not horribly limiting.

Veronica’s function returned a good while later as we made our way back toward Old Town. I’d carried her for a while as the poison worked its way out of her nervous system, and until she regained movement in her legs.

Lucky for me, her mouth was the first to come unstuck. I had to listen to her rabid complaints the entire way. Trudging through the desert, wooden-legged and slow, it made for a long, unpleasant trip. It didn’t take me long to remember why I’d dropped her off in Hell all those years ago.

Beautiful on the outside, what spewed from the inside would make a sailor blush and a demon pray the rosary. She had a way with words, my Veronica. I kept my sanity by thinking of creative ways to shut her up. If I hadn’t been so afraid to lose a body part in the process, I’d have acted on a few of them.

At last, my ears burning, we kicked the dirt from our feet and stumbled onto the ruin of Fiesta Street. I never thought I’d be so glad to see this place during the day.

Veronica, at home in Old Town, suggested a place we could go to recuperate before heading back out after...

...we’ll just pretend she said Karra.

Not interested in having to answer to Baalth, I waved her on. One ass kicking in a day was more than enough for me. Still steaming, she stormed off without argument. I could hear her muttered curses for several minutes after she’d disappeared.

Just glad it wasn’t me she was pissed at, I wandered down the street to find a phone. For once that was easy. I went into one of the sex shops hit by the zombie raid the night before. Still unlocked and surprisingly un-looted, I headed for the counter, by way of the video racks.

What?

Testosterone is at its peak in the morning, I couldn’t help it.

Anyway, after my perusal, I gave a call to DRAC and waited, checking out the rest of the store. It wasn’t but a few minutes before I heard Abraham’s charming voice inside my head.

“Find anything, Frank?” He still sounded upbeat despite our being in the dark as to what Reven intended. Rachelle must be one hell of a lay.

There were a couple of things on the shelves that had caught my eye, but I knew that wasn’t what he meant. “Turns out our necro-buddy has his zombies kidnapping people so he can drain their blood. He made away with about three tubfuls last night.”

“Last night?” I could hear the surprise in his voice. “I hadn’t heard of any attacks.”

“Yeah. I ran into some of his pets out here in Old Town. Figuring you guys had the cemeteries covered, I went looking elsewhere. Come to find out, he’s got his own little graveyard out in the desert.”

Hole sweet hole.

Abraham paused a moment then piped back up, his voice agitated, “If he’s gathering blood in copious amounts, he’s looking to raise an army, or perhaps even a powerful soul of some sort. We need to figure out what he’s doing.” His concern wafted through the telepathic connection.

He hadn’t thought much of Reven’s power, deemed insignificant compared to what we’ve faced before, but it was clear the necromancer had big plans. We just needed to know what they were before they blew up in our faces. “Perhaps Baalth knows something.”

I whistled a few bars of Chopin’s Funeral March. “I don’t think so. He’s had me and Veronica out hunting zombies. If he knew anything, I’d have heard about it by now, seeing how I’m doing his grunt work. Besides, he seems a bit out of it. He’s got other problems right now and based on how he’s coping, Reven’s antics are probably the last thing on his angry little mind.”

“What kind of problems?”

“No idea, but they’ve got him chomping at the bit pretty hard. He’s on edge. And I do mean
right
on the edge. I know we’ve got enough to deal with already, but I don’t think it’d hurt to keep an eye on him. He’s wound tighter than Paula Abdul.”

Abraham sighed, his disappointment bleeding over. “With Rahim injured and stuck in the office, and Katon doing what he can to make up for both him and our members murdered by Asmoday, we’re falling behind in our intelligence. We need to resolve the Reven issue quickly so we can focus on Baalth. We can’t afford to have him lose control.”

The thought sent a chill rattling down my spine. Given Baalth’s newly acquired powers, any temper tantrum on his part could bring about serious destruction. It wasn’t something any of us wanted to experience. Even if he didn’t blow up and go on a rampage, he needed to stay on top of things.

Though not common knowledge, Baalth’s influence was what kept the majority of the supernatural drama on Earth to a bare minimum. Looking to create his own Hell, he didn’t take kindly to folks muscling in on his territory or spoiling his plans. Only the suicidally brave, or just the plain suicidal, crossed swords with Baalth. But given the opportunity, Baalth’s iron hand slipping, we’d be up to our neck in supernatural shit. Demons are the definition of opportunistic.

“I’ll see what I can do.” I’m sure I didn’t sound confident. I certainly wasn’t feeling confident. “Dig up what you can on all of the local dead baddies,” I told him as I thought back to my encounter in the desert. “Reven still has a gang of minions with him, so I don’t think he’s looking to make more zombies, but you never know. Maybe we should spread our watch out to the closest counties, keep an eye on their morgues and cemeteries.”

“I’m not sure we have the manpower to spare for all that.” He didn’t sound pleased, no doubt once again remembering the blow Asmoday had dealt DRAC. “I’ll let you know what I come up with.” He broke the connection, leaving me alone inside the shop.

At least I had porn to keep me company.

Grumbling, all the bad news dampening the excitement of free whack material, I headed out to get some coffee. I needed some caffeine to help motivate my sluggish brain.

Out on the street, I headed for downtown. Not much better than Old Town, it would at least be open and serving breakfast that wasn’t cooked in a spoon. I’d made it a few blocks when a long, black limousine rolled around the corner and headed my way. Way out of place, dark tinted windows obscuring the interior, my hackles were up. I made a show of pulling out my gun as the limo pulled up alongside me. Ready to go, I waited as the back window rolled down with a quiet whir.

“You won’t need your weapon, Triggaltheron,” a smooth, sensual female voice drifted out through the window.

If it hadn’t been so sexy sounding, I’d have ripped into her for daring to use my given name. I hated when people did that. The worst part was it meant she knew me, likely giving her the upper hand in whatever her purpose was here. I peered inside to see if I recognized her and whether she was half as attractive as her voice. The answer to both questions was yes.

There, sitting in the limo with casual confidence was Lilith; the Devil’s wife.

Well, not exactly wife.

Not fond of commitment, my uncle never made their relationship official, but it’s always been easier to call her his wife. The chick the Devil used to bang just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Though, technically, they’d split up a while back.

Their relationship had been open, in the most unconventional sense of the word, but she’d apparently become too attached to one of her side flings. She’d fallen in love. Satan, a wee bit on the jealous side—and deeply wounded by her betrayal—ended the fling, and the man’s life. After that, he sent Lilith on her way. It’d been a long time since I’d seen her last. She looked exactly the same as she had back then. That was a good thing.

Her long, black hair flowed like waves of water over her narrow, pale shoulders. From her flawless face, her sea green eyes appraised me, a hint of a smile creeping onto her full, red lips. Her low cut dress cut out the middle-man of my imagination, the rounded fullness of her breasts hidden from full view by nothing more than a slip of thin, satiny cloth. Her smile widened as she caught the direction of my lingering gaze. My pants tightened remembering all the times she’d teased me as a young man before my uncle sent her packing. Some things never change.

“Come inside,” she told me. I nearly did. “Can I offer you a ride? We can speak as we go.”

Like a kid being offered candy, I was gonna take that ride even if it meant getting molested. In fact, I insisted upon it.

The door swung open and Lilith slid sensually across the leather seat, making room. I put my gun away and took a second to admire the view of her shapely thighs, her dress ending dangerously close to her hips. With a little effort, my jeans way too tight to allow casual movement, I managed to slip inside the car. She gestured to the seat across from her and I dropped down with abandon, reckless and otherwise.

The driver, who I hadn’t seen get out of the car, closed the door behind me, then returned to his post. A few seconds later, we were pulling away, creeping down the Old Town streets.

“It’s been a long time, Triggaltheron.”