Rose of Jericho (Lilith Adams Series Book 2) (30 page)

“Duncan’s journals referenced the book several times, but only in connection to Mary, Ashcroft and his family. Sure, it might hold details…” Lilith paused just in time. She couldn’t blurt out anything about their species in front of Nicci. Not now that they’d just “come clean” about everything, supposedly. “…the council wouldn’t want to hit the general public, but I can’t see it containing anything powerful.”

“It’s very possible that it doesn’t. Several of the council members like Luminita would agree with you. They only want to keep the cipher out of human hands, to secure their secrets. Farren, Helton and a couple others are power zealots. They are always chasing legends, but to openly attack each other and screw over the rest of the council, they have to have something more concrete about that book.”

Lilith rubbed at her temples as her head continued to pound. She was having trouble focusing on Cohen’s words, much less kick-starting her brain to find the answers. “Tell me about Helton.”

“Alexander Helton. At least that’s the name he uses now. He’s a bull dog with a hefty bite to back up his bark. He takes what he wants with brute force and his desires are eclectic. Not to say that he is all brawn. He was fairly infamous during World War 2 as a high ranking soldier and scientist. Wolfram Sievers was his name back then and he was the director of
Ahnenerbe,
a Nazi institution that studied the origins of the Aryan race and the occult.”

Nicci’s brow furrowed instantly. “Wait. The ‘Nazi Bluebeard’ Sievers? That’s impossible. He was tried and executed in Bavaria. Besides, even if it was a cover up, he’d be over a hundred years old by now.”

Lilith just stared at her, completely surprised that she not only recognized the name, but knew where he’d died.

“What?” Nicci definitely hadn’t missed Lilith’s dumbfounded stare. “Italy wasn’t completely immune from the war. A few of my relatives were killed by the SS in concentration camps, but my grandmother was tortured and killed inside
Ahnenerbe
during their genetic experiments. Sievers wasn’t just in charge, he liked to get his hands dirty.”

Nicci turned back to Cohen with a calculated look. She knew he was still holding things back and she wasn’t gonna hide that knowledge behind some benign smile, not after what just happened in Haverty’s apartment.

“My family has a similar longevity to yours so age isn’t a factor and a rope around his neck wasn’t either. He simply went underground with his experiments.”

“How the hell do you know all this? I mean, this Helton guy isn’t directly related right, so why would you know all this?” Nicci was carefully edging her questions in, trying to get the whole truth without being obvious. The slight pull of her lips also said her trust in Cohen was very tenuous. Lilith definitely understood that feeling all too well.

“I’m pretty much at the bottom of the food chain in my world, so it pays to know whose boot to avoid or you just get squashed. Knowledge is my weapon of choice to play the roles I need to in order to stay alive. Helton is one I avoid even more than Farren.”

Lilith sighed heavily and leaned her head back against the brick wall. “Seems like all the bad guys are coming out of the woodwork. First Ashcroft, then Farren now an ex-Nazi right out of an Indiana Jones movie. Seriously?” She leveled Cohen with an impatient look. “You have to be kidding. Please, tell me you’re kidding. Who else is on this damn council? Malificent, Voldemort and Leatherface?”

“It’s not far off, sadly. I need to call Luminita, see if she can tell me anything about the other elders and let her know what’s going on. If Helton wants it this bad, she might be in danger. After all, she is in charge of our little mission. Helton would see her as a threat, and we’ve obviously just put ourselves on top of his most wanted list.”

“Fine. I’ll go grab a cab since I’m the most presentable one of us. Worst case scenario, I’ll just flash my badge and commandeer his damn vehicle. We can head to my apartment. I have supplies there and maybe we can dig up some more info.” Nicci strode purposefully toward the street until she reached the open sidewalk. She hesitantly looked both ways before stepping out of sight, her long, straight ponytail swinging behind her.

That’s when it hit Lilith. She couldn’t “feel” Nicci. As terrified as she was, Lilith should be reeling from the emotion, but it wasn’t even a flicker on her radar. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t felt anything all day, maybe even before that.

“I think the side effects are wearing off. I haven’t been able to sense people’s emotions like before.” The thought just spilled out of her mouth. Her head felt like it was full of razor wire and she was completely incapable of filtering her thoughts.

The immense relief was plain as day on Cohen’s face and mostly it mirrored her own, except for one bit. “That would explain why you aren’t healing the same way.” Yep. She was definitely gonna miss that part. “It also explains why Farren didn’t pick up on anything. It probably just saved all our lives.”

“He’s done it before hasn’t he?” When Cohen just looked up in surprised puzzlement, she decided to clarify. “He killed someone you cared about.”

Andrew stared at her for a long moment and she was just starting to think he wasn’t going to answer when he finally sighed.

“My grandfather thought he could teach me to be strong through loss. If I got close to someone, he either killed them himself or had someone else do it for him. A friend at school, a nanny, a girl I liked, anyone and everyone that I ever counted on for anything. That’s why Luminita was a secret. She saw Farren for what he is, an extreme sadist. She knew I needed a friend, especially after my parents died. We kept our friendship secret and I let Farren continue to think that he’d broken me.”

“Holy hell. How could he do that to his own grandson?” The enormity of Cohen’s confession just blew her mind. All those people, just to teach his grandson to be independent.

“No family’s perfect.” Cohen flashed a cheesy smile and just started laughing. It was definitely a nervous, uncomfortable laughter that didn’t lighten the mood one little bit.

“Well remind me never to attend one of your family reunions. I’ve had my fill of pistol whippings for the month, thanks. How’s your ankle?”

He rotated his foot a few times and then pulled himself up. “Healing. I should be able to walk on it now.”

A scream echoed down the alley seconds before Nicci came tearing around the corner. “Shit! We gotta move! Now!” Nicci’s pint-sized voice boomed down the alley with authority. Her face was completely pale with sheer panic lighting up her muddy brown eyes.

“What’s going on?” Lilith slid up the wall, finding her footing past the pounding headache. The knot of dread was burning a hole in her stomach.

“There’s tons of them!!!” Nicci immediately snatched Cohen’s arm and hauled him to his feet. “We gotta move right damn now!”

That’s when the sound started rattling down the alleyway. Hundreds of running footsteps, a chorus of menacing growls. Lilith’s heart thudded in her chest with sheer, blind panic as the sounds got closer and closer. They were in a dead end alley. The only choice they had was to go toward that sound. Toward the sound of hundreds of undead minions ready to tear them into little bite-sized pieces.

Chapter 23

“R
un
now!” Nicci screamed while they held Cohen between them and sprinted for the street with sheer desperation. If they stayed in the alley, they might as well just lay down and wait to be torn into pieces. Lilith, for one, definitely preferred to keep her limbs exactly where they were. She wasn’t about to be a snack pack for the undead.

The trio came skidding out of the alley and Lilith’s heart plummeted as the world seemed to drop into slow motion. Less than three blocks away was a wall of human, decaying flesh running straight for them. The crowd was so huge that she couldn’t even see the end. Hundreds, maybe even thousands. How was it possible? It was like every cemetery in New York had been raised.

Something was tugging at her arm, but her brain was seized in her own sense of doom. All the bravado and determination she’d had just seconds ago had evaporated like smoke at the sight of the endless zombie mob. After everything she’d survived, this was how she was going to die. She caught herself actually wishing Farren had put a bullet in her brain.

“Lilith!!! God dammit! Move your ass!” Cohen screamed in her ear and tugged so hard on her arm that he nearly pulled it from the socket. The sharp pain worked to cut through her panicked haze. Instantly, the world went from slow-motion terror to full speed desperation as if some higher power just mashed down the fast forward button.

The three of them sprinted down the sidewalk as her muscles screamed with fatigue. Lilith pushed harder, forcing her aching muscles into submission. Still, her gut clenched as the sound of footsteps pounded closer. They were gaining on them. There was no way they could outrun them. Not with Cohen’s ankle.

Suddenly, Lilith’s chest lit up like fire, feeling impossibly tight and leaving her gasping for each shallow breath. Fresh panic lit her nerves up like a damn Christmas tree as the realization hit her. The headache, the shallow breaths, the foggy brain… With the effects of Cohen’s blood dwindling, she needed more blood. Without it, she couldn’t keep running. She needed the replacement hemoglobin to carry oxygen. The alternative was attacking some random stranger or passing the hell out, neither of which would be convenient at the moment. She needed a plan and she needed it right now.

“We have to split up!” Lilith screamed the words between wheezing breaths. “Cohen, get Nicci out of here!” She shoved the two of them forward with everything she had left and ran for the first shop door she came to.

Her body bounced off the locked door, knocking her to the ground in a bone-jarring jolt. Shit. She leapt to her feet, snatched the doorknob and pushed, pulled, yanked, and pounded on the door, all to no avail. Lilith slumped back against the door as she skid to the ground feeling completely overwhelmed. She tucked herself into the doorway and tried to rally her scrambled brain. She’d risked everything on a huge gamble and now she was out of options. The huge group of running dead were only a few feet from her and she couldn’t keep running.

Lilith felt hands wrap around her arms and she threw her fists out with a scream that released every bit of rage she had. There was no way she was gonna go down without a fight. She leapt onto the man and pounded a fist into his abdomen.

“Shit!!!” The blood drenched zombie covered his face and screamed. That was something different. None of the others had even flinched when Farren’s men emptied an entire clip into them. It was enough to stop her cold. She looked up to see the mass of zombies running past her without even a second glance. What the hell?

“Please! I’m sorry! I thought you needed help!”

Lilith stared down at the body beneath her in complete confusion. That’s when she noticed the smears of pale paint and the too-bright red splatter over his clothes. There was no stench of death, just the smell of coffee grounds and sweat.

“What the hell are you doing?” Lilith’s voice was an exasperated snarl that made the man flinch.

The terrified man held his hands up in surrender, his eyes darting about wildly as he swallowed the lump in his throat. “I saw you fall. I thought you might be injured. I was just trying to help.”

“No!” Lilith’s patience was wearing thin with a quickness. She needed to feed or she was liable to just attack someone. Someone like the man conveniently pinned beneath her. In fact, Lilith could feel an unfamiliar ache in the roof of her mouth. She ran her tongue over it and could feel the little cartilage fangs unfolding. Shit. “Why the hell are you dressed like this?”

“Uh… it’s the annual Zombie Run.”

“The what???”

“Can you please get off me? It’s just a Zombie Run. You know, for charity? We dress up and run around the city to raise money.”

Lilith squeezed her eyes shut and slid off the completely terrified, and quite alive, man. “Get out of here.” He wasted no time scrambling to his feet and running off into the writhing mob with only a few shocked glances back at Lilith.

If it hadn’t been so damn horrifying she would have just collapsed into laughter. What the hell were the odds? Attacked by zombies the night before Halloween just minutes before a Zombie Run crosses their path? Usually Lilith got a kick out of the world’s sense of humor but this time she wasn’t laughing.

She was just starting to relax against the shop door when the unmistakable stench of decay hit her. Lilith’s eyes flew open and her head popped up like a damn prairie dog. She scanned the enormous crowd of “zombie” runners and pushed up the door until she was on her tip toes. They were shooting by so fast and there were so many of them. If there were real monsters in that crowd, she’d never spot them until it was too late.

The instant surge of adrenaline forced her fangs to click into place with a sharp pain that made her whole skull ache. Instinctually, Lilith covered her mouth in embarrassment. Like everyone else, her body had limitations and for the first time in her life she’d truly reached them.

Spencer flashed in her mind. His pale complexion with a faint blue tone, red eyes, head pounding, his temper flaring, straddling the dangerous edge until Chance forced a cup of blood down him. His dance with the demon may not have been his downfall, but it was still the first time Lilith had actually seen one of her kind so close to losing control. Now here she was facing her own battle in desperate need of a solution she could live with.

Sure, snacking on someone in the crowd would probably go unnoticed, but she couldn’t make herself do it. She wasn’t willing to take the risk of killing an innocent stranger. The very thought sent chills rattling up her spine strong enough to make her teeth ache.

The smell of rot hit her again while she was mulling over her moral standings. It was definitely closer this time. By standing in the doorway she stuck out like a sore thumb. She needed cover, but her only real option was to slip into the running crowd. There were three problems with that.

Running when oxygen deprived was not a good idea. On top of that, she’d be running right next to hundreds of answers to her first problem. Even more terrifying than that, was the thought of not knowing when a real zombie might actually bump into her.

As the smell became stronger and stronger, she realized she was out of both time and options. She had no choice. It was run or be torn apart.

Lilith took as deep a breath as she could and fought the reluctance in her muscles, pushing her way into the crowd at an easy jog. It didn’t last long. The crowd was moving too fast and they bumped and shoved her all over the place. She rattled around like a pinball losing all sense of direction. She could only fight to maintain her small, even breaths and stay calm. She couldn’t think about the killers hiding in the crowd. She couldn’t think of how hard it was to breathe. Panicking would only make things worse.

The smell suddenly became intense, making her and the joggers around her gag on the rotten air. The faces racing past slowed, turning to look around for the source of the smell. Then they’d give up, sprinting faster to get away from it. If they only knew. Lilith tried to look over her shoulder, but the people whizzing past her just brought on a wave of dizziness. She struggled to hold off the bubble of panic burning in her gut and surged forward.

The stink of decomp faded for a moment, allowing her to draw in ragged breaths that burned like fire. She couldn’t keep this up for much longer, but there was no sight of a single fire escape or hiding spot that would offer her any reprieve.

Then something hit her shoulder hard, sending her stumbling forward, just barely staying on her feet. She looked up to see some asshole dressed as an undead 80’s jogger, complete with tiny running shorts and bulging muscles. He didn’t even look back to apologize.

Lilith was in the middle of mentally labeling the guy a total dick when the stink of decay surrounded her again, more powerful than ever. It was so thick in the air that Lilith’s stomach lurched, sending her into cold sweats. On the plus side, the people were starting to veer around her, avoiding the smell and giving her a wide berth.

Fear started to tickle up her back. She just knew something horrible was right behind her. She could picture its rotting hands reaching for her, grabbing her at any second. Then it would pull her apart like those guys in the morgue. The image made her jaw and chest ache as the panic blossomed, clenching her gut into a tight ball.

Something raked against her back, catching on her top, and Lilith squealed in terror. Without a single thought, she dove to the side as the mystery claw tore through what was left of shirt. Lilith landed hard on the rough concrete. Lilith hissed at the sudden burn from her palms and knees skidding on the concrete. Thankfully she was wearing jeans. Of course now there were ragged holes in the knees, but they protected her skin more than a pencil skirt would have.

She bit back the scream in her throat and scrambled to her feet, running for the edge of the crowd closest to the street. As soon as she reached it, she looked behind her. Sure enough there were two “people” doing the same thing. Crap. Two of them, at least.

She had to do something. She couldn’t fight them and she sure as hell couldn’t outrun them. She had her gun, but in crowd like this she couldn’t risk it. Besides, she only had 2 bullets anyway and if a semi-automatic assault rifle hadn’t stopped them, she doubted her Browning would fare much better.

Why couldn’t they have been
Night of the Living Dead
zombies? If they’d been limited to a listless amble she might have had a chance to outrun them. But no, of course not. Of course they had to be
28 Days Later
zombies with gold medals in freakin’ track.

Up ahead, Lilith spotted a taxi SUV sitting in traffic. If she could jump into it at the last second maybe they wouldn’t see her. She could hide out and hopefully have a ride when the traffic cleared. A ride to where, she didn’t know. Anywhere that wasn’t here.

As Lilith sprinted toward the taxi, she glanced over her shoulder again for the two that had followed her to the edge of the crowd. They were less than twenty feet behind her now and they were gaining. There was no way in hell she’d slip into a vehicle unnoticed.

Despair fell over her like freezing water and her legs gave out from pure exhaustion. She stumbled, her ankle catching the edge of the curb and down she went, right into the street, landing next to the SUV cab.

Straining hard for breath, Lilith whipped around to see the two corpses veering from the crowd just a few feet away. The half caved in head of the first corpse leaned to one side at a sickening angle. The other was a Hispanic man with most of his midsection missing. Small tendrils of his intestines, what was left anyway, hung from his bullet-riddled abdominal cavity.

That explained the overwhelmingly strong, gag-inducing stench. Nothing was worse than perforated bowels, well except for the burn victims and soupy extreme decomps. Thankfully, she hadn’t had to deal with any of those since med school.

The two zombies scrambled closer as Lilith backed up. She grabbed for the car door handle. Locked. No damn way was she just gonna lay there. She glanced around looking for options and quickly rolled under the cab just in time. The two zombies slammed against the SUV with a bone cracking force, rocking it onto two wheels and nearly flipping the whole damn thing.

Lilith curled into a ball, covering her head as the car slammed back to the ground, the hot undercarriage crashing into her left shoulder with a crack. It took a second for the pain to register, but when it did, it hit like a Mack truck. She couldn’t hold back the scream or the tears that suddenly flooded her eyes as her left arm lit up like fire. Lilith felt along her shoulder joint and the Humerus. It was definitely dislocated, possibly with a broken arm. The immense pain made her lungs feel tighter, like she was bound in tightening iron bars, squeezing the air, the life, out of her.

“Hey!!!” A middle-eastern voice yelled irately from inside the car. The two corpses completely ignored the irate cabbie, dropping to their knees, reaching and scratching, trying to grab her. Lilith carefully inched farther away from their hands, gritting her teeth as the exposed bone of their fingers scraped across the asphalt. The sound grated down her tattered nerves worse than Peisinoe’s voice.

“Hey assholes!! Get away from my cab!” The car door opened and Lilith could see a pair of scuffed brown loafers hit the ground. Then she saw the end of a baseball bat dangling. Leave it to a New York cabbie to have a damn baseball bat stashed in his car. For the first time since she’d left that alleyway, Lilith felt a tiny little ray of hope. A bat would be more effective than a pistol, just hit their legs until they can’t move. Then they wouldn’t be able to chase her.