Steal the Moon (14 page)

Declan sent me a regal frown even as the other two zombies shuffled our way. “Yes, Zoey, your guns have been entirely effective at splattering brain tissue across the room. Now, if you will allow me?” He snapped a finger and Padric showed up as though twisting reality around him. He emerged from wherever he hid and handed Declan a long silver sword. The prince nodded and Padric was gone again.

“Hey, we could use some backup here.” He had a whole army hidden in some weird pocket world.

Declan hefted the sword easily. “We don’t need Padric for this. I can handle a few undead.”

I pulled the knives out of their sheaths and sighed because I hate wet work. I would way rather shoot something from a distance than have to get up close and personal. It usually gets gory and my clothes get crap on them. Not to mention the fact that I almost always get hurt.

One knife in each hand, I followed Declan into the fray. He wielded the sword with the grace of a master and blocked the knife the zombie held.

I kicked out, trying to get my guy off balance. He went down with a satisfying thud, and I put my weight into breaking his spine.

The truth is zombies, while creepy and nasty, aren’t really all that hard to deal with. They tend to be slow and spend an enormous amount of time groaning. They really will eat your brains but then they’ll pretty much eat whatever part of you they can get their mouths on. As I had blown this bad boy’s mouth off, I just needed to avoid that freaking axe and cut off enough pieces to make it stop moving.

Lee was busy tearing his zombie apart with his bare hands. Declan had split his in half with a single sword stroke, and I brought my knife straight down on the corpse’s shoulder. I chose the one that moved the arm holding the axe because I didn’t want to get anything chopped off. I was pretty sure if I survived this that Danny and Dev would be taking a piece of my hide, so I wanted to keep it intact.

I kicked the arm along with the axe to the other side of the room. The body was convulsing as though whoever was animating it was in definite distress. I let one of the knives drop and held the longer one directly over my head. I leapt over the body, straddling it, and brought the knife down onto the sternum with every bit of strength I had in an attempt to split the body in two. The bones cracked and finally an eerie silence came over the room.

Declan surveyed the battlefield with a satisfied smile. “It was a good exercise. It has my spirits up, along with other things.”

Declan was annoying, but he’d been fairly good in a fight.

“Well, put those other things down for now, boy, because the job isn’t done.” I wiped a chunk of…something off my shoulder. This is where a true hunter reveled in the blood and the kill and I just wanted a freaking shower. I put aside my need to unleash a girlie squeal and picked up my bag, replacing my knives. I switched the rounds from silver to salt in the Ruger and pulled out my secret weapon: a really big-ass jar of minced garlic from Ether’s kitchens. I tossed it to Declan, who looked at me like I was crazy but held it anyway.

“Zoey, I’ll go first,” Lee offered.

“No, this is my gig, Lee.” I took the stairs at a run. I didn’t intend to give her time to wake the local graveyard. The second floor was simple, three doors all on the right side. The first was a bathroom that could have doubled as a horror movie set. I found what I was looking for in the second.

The aswang was in human form, her cadaverous body in the middle of a filthy mattress. Her skin had transformed from white to a sickly yellow and there was an arrow protruding from her belly. A foul stench hit my nose, and I fought not to gag. I probably should have felt some bit of sympathy. I knew what it felt like to get an arrow stuck in my gut, but then I hadn’t eaten any babies lately so I figured the bitch deserved it.

She stared at me, and I saw it in her eyes. She was done. She was completely spent. In her state, it had probably cost her every bit of energy she’d had left to control the corpses the way she had. So she wasn’t going to fight me. I still had questions to ask. “Who hired you?”

“Help me.” The plea came out in a reedy voice. Her eyes were black, but even in the dim light I could see their dullness. Now that I was close, I could see the paper quality to her skin. Though she had no real blood in her body, the wound still puckered and appeared filled with some sort of puss.

“I will help you die after you tell me what I want to know,” I stated firmly and with no sympathy.

“I will tell you if you help me live.” She panted the words out as though the very act of speech was painful.

I shot her in the leg, the dead flesh flying apart like tissue paper. Though the flesh was dead, the creature howled in pain. “I need the garlic, Declan.”

“Over the wound?” he asked and I nodded. He took a handful of the herb and slapped it on the crevasse I’d created. The minute the garlic hit her open flesh, the aswang screamed, her agony a palpable thing in the room.

When she stopped screaming and her wailing ground down to a low sob, I leaned in. “Who hired you? I can do this all night long or I can take your head quickly. It’s up to you.”

Lee was watching the scene before him with a frown on his face. I couldn’t tell if it was merely the seriousness of the situation or if he was disappointed in me. I couldn’t care. If he walked away from this thinking I was a stone-cold bitch, then that was how it was going to have to be. After today, he probably wouldn’t be my bodyguard anyway. If Dev left with Declan because he was sick of me, then I certainly wouldn’t be able to pay him. Despite what Declan thought, I wasn’t about to be bought off. Dev might throw me out, but I wouldn’t be taking anything with me.

When the creature was silent I reached down, took her stick-like arm in my hands and twisted as hard as I could until the arm began to tear off. She was extremely vulnerable without her familiar, without flesh to feed upon, with that arrow poisoning her. I wasn’t about to let go of my advantage. I nodded at Declan, who covered the sinew in sticky garlic.

“Please,” the creature begged after she became too tired to wail further. “It was a demon or what once was a demon.”

Lee cursed. “I told Zack this was about Halfer.”

Lucas Halfer was a never-ending pain in my ass. “What did he want from you?”

She shook, her entire body trembling, and I wondered what death was going to be like for the undead. Was there some other plane they fled to when the body they inhabited was gone?

Finally, she began to talk. “He came to me. He promised me many corpses. He told me he knew a place where there were so many babies, I could feast forever.”

“He lied.” It was kind of what demons did.

She smiled, a ghastly thing. “Oh, but he did not. At least not at first. No one believes here. No one sees me here. They do nothing to protect themselves, and I had many babies. Their blood is so sweet I thought I had found paradise. Then he gave me his price.”

I waited but let her see the gun. She needed to know she was far from anything like paradise now.

“He told me I must kill you,” she whispered. “I did not want trouble with the vampire, but Halfer threatened to out me. He said you had to die before the Strong Arm of Remus got here.”

Lee gasped, his eyes widening. “That’s a legend.”

It wasn’t one I’d heard of. “What’s the Strong Arm of Remus?”

Lee shook his head. “It’s a story wolves tell their pups when they want to scare the crap out of them. It’s nothing, Zoey.”

“The demon does not think so.” The aswang shuddered. “He says it is hidden, and he wants it. He wants to control the wolves. I was to kill you before the fifteenth of July. He said you would get the object if I did not kill you.”

“I don’t even know what the object is,” I admitted.

“He was paranoid. He was sure the vampire was always behind him. He is…not right in his mind.” She moved her attention to Lee. “She is cruel. Will you be kind? Please kill me. I no longer wish to play these games.”

“He won’t help you.” I couldn’t give in now. “Where is Halfer?”

“I do not know,” she replied, and I watched as she tensed for more pain. She truly believed it was coming and yet she held out. “He always sought me. I did not follow him. I just wanted to be left alone to feast.”

I held my hand out to Declan, who tried to pass me the garlic. The aswang’s eyes had closed, her mouth tightening as she waited for more torture. And that’s exactly what it would be if I continued. “No, she’s done. She doesn’t know anything else. I need the sword now.”

“This is the sword of a warrior. This is the sword of a king.” Declan twisted the handle my way. “You wish to use it? What do I get in return?”

“I won’t punch you in the face again,” I offered.

He held the sword out, hilt first. “That is not what I would have chosen, but it will do. You actually have quite a powerful punch. Do not damage it.”

“I’ll try.” I gripped the sword with two hands. This was my job to do.

I turned back to the pitiful thing on the bed and actually managed to feel the slightest stir of something resembling sympathy. I raised the sword and brought it quickly down, separating her head from her neck. I tossed Declan back his precious sword which was quickly and efficiently taken by Padric. “We have to find an incinerator. We can burn the body here, but I’d rather the head was done elsewhere.”

It’s always a good idea to keep the head separate from the body when dealing with the undead. They have a pesky habit of putting themselves back together.

Lee tossed the head my way and wrapped the body up in the dirty sheet. Declan went to make a nice fire in the butchery, and Lee turned his brown eyes to me.

“Did you enjoy that, Your Highness?” His voice was neutral. It was the first time in my memory that he’d used my title. I got the feeling Lee wasn’t really into the whole royalty thing.

I thought about it for a moment and answered him honestly. “I didn’t. I thought I would, but in the end it’s all just death, and there is nothing joyful or fulfilling about it. It was necessary, Lee. It had to be done.”

He considered me for a moment before finally allowing himself to crack a small smile. “I’ll take over the duty of guarding you, Your Highness. Zack isn’t strong enough. Even if Quinn refuses you, and I don’t believe that will be the case, I’ll stay on until the demon is found. I’ll protect you, and other than a situation that I feel completely compromises your safety, I’ll follow your lead.”

“No more itineraries?” I asked with a half-smile because it sounded a little like heaven.

“None beyond the ones you set.”

I sighed with relief. “Thank you, Lee.”

We joined Declan and proceeded to make sure the aswang troubled us no more.

Chapter Nine

The sun was just beginning to set when Lee, Declan, and I sat back in my favorite park and enjoyed tacos from the local street vendor. We’d managed to clean up enough that we didn’t cause comment. The butcher who had shown us where the aswang nested had been kind enough to give us a place to clean up and a fire to roast the aswang’s head. Though she could never replace her precious child, I could see a burden had been lifted off her shoulders.

I was procrastinating. I knew I should head home, but I’d used Lee’s grumbling tummy as an excuse. It was kind of good to be back in my old neighborhood. I’d kept my apartment for a long time even after I bought my little house in the country. It had been important to still have a place in the city, but Dev convinced me to give it up after Danny and I moved in with him.

As I breathed in the early evening air, I wondered if my apartment was still available. There had been no voice mails on my cell when I checked after we burned the aswang. I’d expected Dev to leave a flurry of angry “get your ass home” messages, but there was absolutely nothing.

The silence said a lot.

“You are not enjoying your cat?” Declan asked, his voice not unkind.

“It’s great. I’m just worried about going home. What the hell do you mean cat?” I sat straight up and looked down at my beef soft taco with sour cream and guacamole.

Lee took a big bite of his fourth taco. Werewolves can really pack it away. “It’s definitely cat. You were right about this place. This is some damn fine cat. I’ll have to bring Zack here.”

“It can’t be cat, guys.” They had to be playing a joke on me. “People in the regular world don’t eat cat.”

“Trolls do.” Declan gestured toward the taco stand. I stared back at the perfectly human-looking husband and wife team who’d sold me tacos for the last five years. They bowed when Declan looked their way. I’d been surprised that they refused to allow Declan to pay them. “See, they know their future king.”

Declan got up and excused himself to get another lemonade, which he thought was the greatest invention ever.

I set my taco down. I really hoped Taco Bell wasn’t run by trolls because I was going to have to stop somewhere on my way home. I was still really hungry.

The ground in front of me shook as Daniel landed on the lawn. He was wearing a Superman T-shirt, which I found ironic, and those dimples came out as he smiled down at me.