Servicing the Undead (9 page)

She grabbed his dick and began stroking, not in her usual
rough, demanding way, but slowly, carefully. “After I fuck you, you need to eat
first and then sleep.”

Hayden closed his eyes and pretended to give in to the
sensation of her cold hand, gliding up and down his shaft, making him hard
despite the icy touch of her fingers.

“Do you like this?” she asked, stroking him gently,
squeezing his shaft lightly.

He nodded, pretending to be thinking about nothing but her,
the careful touch of her hand and how good it was going to feel when she
finally climbed on top of him.

“Don’t try to play me, Hayden. I don’t really care if you
like it or not.”

He opened one eye. She was staring at his cock, her face
soft.

Still stroking him, she continued speaking, softly, the
rhythm of her words seeming to match the even stroke of her hand.

“I could have made you drink the tea. You know that, right?”

He nodded, remembering the cup he’d thrown and the second
one that Rachelle had so willingly drank. Matthew’s words came quickly after
the image of his girlfriend downing the tea.
If you ever wondered what she’s
really like, wonder no more. Here’s the real girl under the mask.

Should he thank Mattie for not forcing him to drink the tea?

Did she not force him to drink it because she wanted him to
remember every repulsive detail of what he’d done? Or was she trying to protect
him from himself, keep him from uncovering whatever ugly secrets lay hidden
deep within the darkness of his mind?

Something inside Hayden stirred. Whatever it was, it wasn’t
anger, hate, or even fear. It was something much scarier than any of those,
something he shouldn’t be feeling for a creature who’d seduced him, manipulated
his girlfriend, drugged them both and forced the two of them to perform as a
source of entertainment. He looked at Mattie, once again unable to believe his
own thoughts.

Mattie caught him looking her. She stared back, the green
glimmer in her gaze glowing bright, and smiled.

“Don’t try to play me.”

Hayden knew he was asleep, that he was dreaming, and
struggled to wake up. The exhaustion of the night was too much, and the dream
held him down, squeezed him tightly in its shadowy arms.

He was back by the huge maple tree outside the longhouse,
but it was a late summer evening and the air was warm and humid. Instead of icy
and dotted by the last snowflakes of a blizzard, the night was the perfect kind
when a person could stay outside until morning, cradled by the lingering heat
of the day.

In front of Hayden was a fire, with logs stacked upright up
in a way that always reminded him of a teepee. The flames roared high, skipping
up into the black air, embers floating up toward the stars. The fire, like the
night, was perfect.

The yellow and orange flames lit up dozens of faces. Seated
in the grass, Hayden was part of a circle. Actually there were two circles. The
circle he was part of was made up of people seated in the grass. Because of the
fire in the center, he couldn’t see them all. But he could see enough of them
to know there was no common trait among these people, just that they were
seated. Young, old, male, female, attractive, ugly, there was nothing about
them that was similar. Except that they were alive.

Those who stood behind them were not.

Each of those standing held the end of a chain, a rope, or a
leash.

Mattie was there, standing behind Hayden, holding the end of
his chain.

He turned around. “Where’s Rachelle?”

“She’s there. Can’t you see her?”

Hayden leaned forward and searched the crowd. Maybe she was
seated behind the fire?

Mattie pointed to a cluster about twenty feet away, but
Hayden still didn’t see his girlfriend.

Again Mattie pointed. Again Hayden looked.

“No, not across from you. Across from me. Look up.”

Hayden lifted his chin, saw Rachelle standing beside another
woman twice her age. The other woman held a brown clay jug and two large brown
mugs.

A thin line of dread worked up Hayden’s spine as he watched
the other woman fill the cups and hand one to the man at the end of her leash
and one to the man at the end of Rachelle’s. The men drank, handed the cups
back.

Rachelle patted the top of her sex servant’s head. He
lowered his shoulders and looked down, letting her stroke him like an obedient
dog.

Mattie leaned down and spoke into Hayden’s ear. “She’s not
the girl you think she is.”

One of the standing women came forward. In the shadows of
the flames, she strolled around the circle, touching some of the seated ones as
she passed.

Hayden knew what was coming next, the ritual, the one he’d
read about in the book.

He didn’t want to see it, but still he couldn’t wake and so
he was forced to watch as the newly turned woman stripped off her clothes as
she walked, twisting and turning, reaching behind her to run her fingers down
the fresh tattoo along the base of her spine.

She neared Hayden, and he recoiled to avoid her touch. The
red polish on her toes visible as she came nearer.

Hayden fought to wake himself, twisting her head and trying
to shake his arms, but sleep wrapped itself tightly around him, holding his
body stiff.

Finally Hayden forced himself awake.

What made a person make the choice to become undead? To live
this way in the shadowy world of sex. How did that happen? And was there any
hope for these creatures? A way to return to their lives and the people they
must’ve left behind?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Judging by the slant of the sun, it was late afternoon. A
pot of cold corned beef hash sat on top of the cabinet next to the bed. It
didn’t smell very good, but he grabbed the plastic spoon beside the pot and
ate. She’d also left a mug with what smelled like water, but he left that
alone.

The hash went down quickly, but the lingering visions of his
dream did not.

The images were too vivid, even clearer than his
recollections of the night before.

The heavy swing of the door made him jump. Mattie rushed in
and then stopped short, staring at him. “What?”

Hayden ran his hand over his face, trying to wipe the fear
and disgust from his expression. He moved his hand away and looked at Mattie,
feeling as if he was seeing her for the first time.

“Have you finally figured it out?” She crossed the room and
sat on the table.

“How does the initiation happen?”

She started swinging her feet. “It all starts with a tea,
one much stronger than the one you and Rachelle drank.”

Mattie went on to explain the initiation process. A person
drinks the tea. The tea slows their heart and the tribe leader—Matthew for
them—does the work by having sex with the initiate. Climax and death must occur
simultaneously.

“He usually strangles them,” she said. “It heightens the
orgasm.”

At death, they are a dormant and are stored until the tribe
leader wishes to revive them. The revival is a simple matter of another elixir
delivered into the skin.

“The spine tattoos.”

Mattie nodded. “See, you are so smart.”

If it could be done intentionally, that revealed a new
possibility. “How is it undone?”

“You see, Hayden, we both want the same thing.
Information.
You, for that job you want to get out of, and me, well, why I want it is my
business. Wanting the same thing is what makes us so perfect together.”

“You want to me figure out how to cure your tribe?”

“You’re getting warmer.” She stopped swinging her feet.
“Everything you find out is for my ears only.”

“What makes you think I’m going to find out anything? And if
I do that I’ll tell you?”

She hopped off the table and collected the empty pot and
plastic spoon. “You go find me what I want, and I’ll leave you alone.”

“You’ll let me walk?”

She nodded and put the pot on the table.

He knew it wasn’t much of a choice. If he didn’t do what she
wanted, he’d be right back where he was, chained to her bed or worse.

“Rachelle?”

“She’ll be free to go.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. You understand what’s at stake now and what
can happen if you don’t deliver. I know you’ll deliver.”

“Why should I trust you?”“

“You don’t have to trust me.” She came over to stand beside
the bed. “You just have to do what I tell you to so that I don’t fuck your life
up and leave your girlfriend locked in that cage.”

The offer was much, much too easy. He tapped the metal ring
around his neck. “Who’s going to service you?”

“I have someone in mind.”

He watched her from the corner of his eyes.

She smirked as she held out her hand. “I realize that for
you to do what I want, I have to let you go. It isn’t like I can follow you
around. Deal?”

He accepted her hand and shook.

“She’s not the girl you think she is.”

Mattie dropped herself onto one of the low steps. She
crossed her legs, dangling one booted foot above the icy step. The streets were
busy with cars, shuttle vans and delivery trucks, but the sidewalks seemed
pretty empty.

“Go ahead. I’ll wait here,” she said.

Hayden made a point of looking over her pale legs and tiny,
short skirt. Her torso was hardly covered by the red strips of wool. If that
wasn’t enough to get her noticed, she also had on a black leather jacket. “You
don’t think you’re going to attract some attention, sitting in the snow in a miniskirt?”

She made a show of zipping up her jacket. She squinted
against the sunshine and make eye contact with at him. “In case you hadn’t
figured it out, Hayden, I’m not the kind of person who can walk into the
library unnoticed. At least here, I can disappear if I need to. That isn’t a
possibility in there.”

Put that way, her staying outside did make more sense.
“Anybody bugs you, you can tell them you’re part of the comic convention.”

She shook her head. “No thanks, pretending to be someone I’m
not isn’t my thing anymore. Just go get those books, bring them to me.”

Delivering the books was the first piece of their agreement,
the easy part. Only after reading those would they know what to do next. It was
the second part—the unknown—that worried him. He had no control over what those
books did or didn’t tell them. Where there the hell was he supposed to go after
that? “I’ll be back in a bit.”

“I know you will.”

At least Rachelle was safe.

Hayden left Mattie on the steps. Get the books and get
out—that was his plan.

Last night the three of them, Mattie, Rachelle and him, had
left the camp. He’d delivered Rachelle to her doorstep and Mattie insisted she
spend the night with her—to make sure she recovered from the effects of the
tea, which they’d been forced to drink. He’d been forced. Rachelle was willing.

Hayden waved at the long-haired guy behind the counter and
headed straight for the stack where he’d found the book.

It wasn’t there. The two others that had been next to it
were gone too.

Shit. Fuck.

What sane, normal person would suddenly want those books?

No, not sane. Not normal. It had to be a certain person, a
crazy person who believed in zombies. The security guard from that night—the
one who’d been carrying a copy of the
Weekly
.

Hayden bolted from the stack and headed to Bates Hall. It
wasn’t empty, the way it had been on that night. Even though the library had
only been open an hour, groups of college students hunched over books and
tapped on laptops. A single girl was already asleep, her long red hair hanging
over her arms. Nobody else. The guy had to be around somewhere, he just had to
be. Hayden crossed the room, weaved between the tables, the vaulted ceiling
making his footsteps echo. He passed through the Government Information room,
cut through the Abbey Room.

Shit.

Hayden was just reaching the stairs to the third floor when
he saw the blur of the blue security uniform about to duck into the Boylston
Room. Hayden called after the guy and the man turned around.

“Remember me? I was here the other night, you know, when we
had the storm?”

The guard smiled and looked Hayden up and down. “Yeah, man,
I remember you. You’re the zombie guy.”

“Right. That’s me.” The zombie guy, shit, was that the way
the whole town was going to be thinking of him?

“You left that book on the table, open. The lady that works
the front desk in the morning found it—God knows what she was doing up here—and
she came after me, telling everyone I left it there, just because I was talking
about the zombies. You know, warning people to be ready and all.” The guy
squinted his eyes and leaned closer. Close enough so the scent of stale coffee
blew across Hayden’s face. “She’s one of those older ladies, you know the kind
who thinks she has the right to tell everyone what to think. Anyway, she waved
that book around and made a huge stink about those pictures.”

“Sorry about that.” Hayden was trying to be patient.

“It sucked pretty bad.” He squinted again, leaned even
closer. This time Hayden could see a gold crown on his top back molar. “Really
bad.”

“I bet it did.”

The guy suddenly seemed to rethink his situation and changed
positions, leaning back and folding his arms across his chest. “You come here
again to look for it?”

Hayden nodded and tried to force his mouth into a friendly
smile.

“I thought so. Seeing as you left in such a hurry.”

“I went to look for the book on the shelf, but it—”

“Wasn’t there.” The guard dropped his arms and started
circling Hayden.

Hayden tried to widen the fake friendly smile. “You know
where it is.”

The guy kept circling, slowing circling his arms. “Yep.”

“Could you get it for me?” he asked, clinging to the
patience.

“The way I see it, you owe me.” He’d come to a stop behind
Hayden.

Hayden turned the fake smile into a frown and looked over
his shoulder. “Sorry about that lady, I bet that sucked.”

“It did. You know what else sucked?”

Hayden’s stomach knotted. Whatever was coming next, he
already knew he wasn’t going to like it. “What’s that?”

“Looking at those pictures of you fucking that hot girl.
Pictures, when I could have seen it in person if I’d been in the right place at
the right time. I know those shots on the
Weekly
’s site didn’t do her
justice. Man, that girl had some big tits.”

“Did you stop to think you might be talking about my
girlfriend?”

The guy laughed, the scent of endless cups of coffee filling
the air. “That girl ain’t nobody’s girlfriend. Even I can see that.”

The conversation was going from bad to horrible in record
time. “What about the book? Do you think you could get it for me?”

The guard started walking again. “You’re forgetting what I
said. You owe me.”

“You took the others too, didn’t you? The ones that were
shelved next to it.”

“I sure did. I know you smart types always come back. And I
was right. Here you are ready to pay up to get what you need.”

Hayden let the fake expression go completely and reached
back to get out his wallet.

The other man shook his head. “No, not like that.”

“What then?”

“I want what I missed. The girl. In person.”

Hayden was speechless.

“Yeah. You and her.” He stopped walking, this time right in
front of Hayden. “That was hot. I can’t do her, ’cause I have a girl myself.
But I can watch, that’s not cheating.”

He couldn’t be understanding the guy right. “You want to
watch me fuck that girl?”

“Yep.”

“You’re serious?”

The man had the nerve to look insulted. “What’s it to you?
You used her to sell papers.”

True. And it was a mistake that never ended. “If I go get
her now, and we do it, you’ll give me all the books.”

“Now?” The guard smoothed his hair and straightened his blue
uniform shirt. Then he rose up on tiptoe to look over the shelves. “She’s with
you?”

Hayden moved toward the stairs. “I can go get her.”

“Meet me in Rabb Lecture Hall in five minutes. It’s in the
basement.” The man pulled out his phone and checked the time. “Don’t make me
wait.”

* * * * *

Mattie was right where he’d left her.

“Come on.” He grabbed the collar of Mattie’s leathe
r jacket and pulled her up. “It’s your turn to perform.”

“I don’t want to go in,” she said, tumbling along behind
him, slipping on a patch of ice by the door before finding her footing and
shoving him off her. He grabbed her hand and pulled. Once they were on the
stairs headed down to the bottom floor, Hayden explained. The situation sounded
even more unbelievable when he said it out loud.

“Whatever, Hayden. Nothing surprises me anymore.” She
shrugged out of her jacket and thrust her shoulders back. “It’s not like I
haven’t done this sort of thing before.”

They reached the basement, found the door and went in. A
stage was on the left and raised, stadium-style seating on the right. The only
light in the large auditorium was a spotlight focused on the center of the
stage.

The security guard’s voice came through the darkness. “On
the stage. In the light.”

Mattie swung up onto the stage and went straight to the
spotlight. She stood there, dangling her leather coat in one hand. She reached
for Hayden with the other.

Hayden climbed up and went to the center of the stage. Light
streamed across her, illuminating her skin, brightening her face.

She dropped her jacket, grabbed the hem of her skirt, and
started to lift it slowly, with none of the urgency he’d come to associate with
her and sex. There was no green glimmer in her gaze. Instead, her eyes were a
warm brown and framed by long lashes he’d never noticed before. Her hair, its
usual mass of tangles, outlined her face and made her skin pale and delicate.

She’d been pretty once, he realized. She’d been more than
walking sex, a creature with unavoidable tits and the kind of long legs a man
dreamed about having wrapped around him. She hadn’t always been the kind of
woman who promised to make a man feel right in all the wrong ways.

Hayden gritted his teeth and grabbed his belt, jerked it
open and let his pants drop to his knees.

“You aren’t hard,” she said, her voice soft as she reached
for his cock.

He meant to push her hand away and take care of it himself,
but he found himself watching her hand wrap around him, slowly curing her
fingers around his soft shaft. Her hand was cold, but his body was hot and
welcomed her touch. He braced himself for the fierce carnal hunger, but it
didn’t wash over him or even drip down his spine. He felt nothing except a
normal, typical rush of lust and need.

“Put your hands on her tits.”

Mattie winced but stuck her breasts out, encouraging Hayden
to grab them. He did. The strips of wool were dry, and he tugged them down,
freeing one breast and then the other. He reached up and let the weight of her
flesh fill his hands. She arched her back and he flicked his thumbs across her
nipples. She sighed and closed her eyes, dropping her head back to reveal the
soft skin of her neck. She let go of his cock and wrapped one leg around his
waist.

She rocked, using the tip of his shaft to caress her clit.
“Fuck me, Hayden.”

Still holding her breasts, he pressed into her, feeling the
wet, cool tightness of her pussy squeezing over his shaft. She moved against
him. He matched her rhythm, rocking into her, sliding in and out, feeling the
inside of her as though it was the first time. She groaned and held on to him,
arching her back. Hayden moved his hands around to her back and then lifted her
skirt and grabbed her ass. He pulled her even closer, grinding his hips into
her pubic bone. Using her leg, she held him to her. He filled her perfectly.

Hayden didn’t find the bleak, lonely darkness of before. He
fell into a different kind of abyss and this time he didn’t fall alone. He fell
with Mattie. They exploded together, their pants and moans becoming one,
building together as one.

Even before the last pulses of cum left his cock, Hayden
jerked up his pants and hooked his belt. He didn’t look over at Mattie as she
readjusted the strips of wool binding her breasts.

“I’ll meet you out front,” she said and then hopped off the
stage, trailing her jacket behind her.

He wanted to feel relief at her quick exit, but felt an
awkward emptiness instead.

The guard was already up front, marching toward the stage
with jerky steps. “It wasn’t hot like before.”

Hayden jumped off the stage. “Fuck you, asshole.”

“No, fuck you.”

Hayden grabbed the man’s arm and twisted it behind his back.
“You got what you asked for. Take me to the books. Right now.”

“What if I don’t?”

Hayden lifted the man’s arm, shoving it up between his
shoulder blades. “Start walking, I’m right behind you.”

Even wonder kids had their limits.

* * * * *

Clutching the straps of his backpack, Hayden rounded the
corner and paused, taking his time to admire the white blink of the tiny lights
hanging from the trees lining Commonwealth Ave. The snow was gone from the
well-trimmed branches of the trees, so the lights glowed more brightly than the
last time he’d bothered to think about them. Also gone was the dread that had
been following him nonstop all weekend.

He was a long way from being done with the undead, but he
would soon have new information that should satisfy Mattie for the immediate
future. Thanks to an all-access press pass Bob had given him for the comic
convention, Hayden would be able to get to every event—and that included a
cocktail party being put on by the publisher of the book that had started the
whole thing. According to the convention website, the author was going to be
there, downing the custom drinks being served to match the party theme. Maybe
the guy would drink enough alcohol to tell Hayden every little thing he knew.
If the drinks didn’t do the trick, Hayden would find another way to get the
information out of him.

Things were looking up, absolutely. Bob Keeler was going to
be thrilled, out-of-his-mind ecstatic. Now that he thought about it, he ought
to get Bob to deliver on that promise to give him something in return. Maybe
he’d make him agree to giving him time to work on his other stuff, his real
projects, and set him up with some of his contacts at the
Globe
.

Who knows, maybe a couple months from now Hayden wouldn’t be
dodging those nosy questions asked at parties. Shit, he’d like to see the looks
on his cohorts’ faces when his feature stories started showing up in the
Globe
.