Tall, Dark & Apocalyptic (18 page)

The gnome walked over and handed Grimm a clear vial filled with amber colored liquid. The vial had a pale cork stopper in it. “This is the infusion you need.”

Grimm took it, looking down at the gnome. “You followed the protocols exactly as we directed?”

The little gnome crossed his stubby arms over his tiny chest and lowered bushy white brows. “I did what was best for Glowbug. Nothing less, nothing more.”

Grimm sighed, slipping the vial into his pocket. “I’ll take this to Joris, for whatever good it will do.”

Yeira’s head snapped up. “There might be a way…”

“What are you thinking?” Dread slipped icy fingers down his spine when Yeira avoided his gaze. “I’m not going to like it am I?”

“It’s not your decision to make, Kord.”

Audie ground his teeth.

Grimm stepped closer, putting himself on her side without words. “What’s your idea, Yeira?”

Audie wanted to strangle the other man.

“I can bring Ebon to her.”

Audie’s bowels twisted with dread. “Not a chance, Yeira!”

She paced the floor, her expression intense. “She’ll listen to me, I can explain…”

“Explain what?” Audie bellowed. “That we’re trying to weaken her through her damn bird?”

Grimm threw him a look. “Calm down, Kord. Let her finish.”

He swiped a hand over his mouth to keep himself from screaming. Her scent clung to him, teasing him so that his cock couldn’t fully deflate. He could still taste her sweet breath on his lips…feel her body writhing beneath his. It was just too much. The thought of losing her. “She’ll be killed, Grimm.”

“I don’t think so.”

Audie’s gaze snapped to Yeira’s.

She scalded him with a look, her eyes snapping with temper. “I’ll tell her I caught Joris trying to transfer Ebon’s connection and killed him. That would explain why she temporarily lost her link to the bird and why he’s still alive.”

“That makes sense,” Grimm offered helpfully. Audie glowered at him.

Yeira nodded, going on. “I’ll explain to her that I killed Joris because he was going to use the bird against Edwige and I just couldn’t stomach it.”

“She’ll never buy it,” Grimm frowned.

“She will!” Yeira’s hands clenched into fists. “It’s our only chance and I’m going to do it.”

“The girl is right,” the gnome interjected in his rough voice. “The dark one has always had a soft spot for her. If anyone can convince Edwige to accept the return of her familiar, Glowbug can.”

“Healer…” She flushed prettily, clearly embarrassed by the gnome’s use of her pet name in front of the hunters.

The little creature grinned. “’Tis truth.”

Grimm glanced at Audie, his golden-brown eyes filled with sympathy. Audie couldn’t stand being the object of pity. He straightened, squaring his shoulders for battle. “If we do this I’m going with you, Beauty.”

“That’s not possible, Audie. She’ll never let you near.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Then you’re not doing it. I’ll tie you to the bed if I need to.”

She made a soft noise of outrage, her hands fisting on her hips. “Bring it, Hunter. You’ll regret trying.”

“Shall I smack him down with a potion, Glowbug?”

Audie reached for his knives.

“That won’t be necessary.” Three sets of eyes turned to Grimm. The hunter pulled a bluestone from his pocket. “I have an idea.”

~
TD&A
~

Yeira stood in the passage and looked into the cavern, her heart pounding hard in her chest. The bird perched on her shoulder was suspiciously still, its beady black gaze fixed on the spot, too far away, where a set of wide stone steps climbed toward a heavy wooden door.

Grimm’s spies had assured Yeira that Edwige was inside her lair and, given the seemingly endless barrier between Yeira and that door, she hoped it was true. It was a measure of the bird’s foggy state that he didn’t rise into the air and fly to one of his favorite perches high above the heads of the moldy sentinels arrayed before them.

“I don’t like the looks of that,” Audie’s voice said into her ear.

She jumped at the husky whisper. He was standing much closer than she’d expected. “I don’t either,” she agreed softly. “But I’m going to have to pass through anyway.”

“I’ve got your back, Beauty.”

A ghostly touch slipped down her arm and she closed her eyes, shivering under his caress. Despite the sea of zombies staring at her from the deep, mountain cavern beyond the door, her body tightened in response. “Remind me to pursue that thought if we survive this.”

A husky chuckle met her tease and she smiled. “You ready, Kord?”

“No. How about you come into this wrinkle with me and pass through that way?”

She started to shake her head before she remembered where she was. Edwige would be watching her, waiting to see what she was about. “You know I can’t.”

“I’m not comfortable that I’ll be able to get to you in time this way.”

Her lips curved upward. “You managed to fondle me just fine a second ago.”

The air rippled and Yeira sucked in a soft breath as a ghostly kiss touched her brow. “Stay safe, Beauty.”

Swallowing hard, she lifted her head and squared her shoulders.

A sea of black eyes stared in her direction. An expanse of slack faces in varying degrees of decay focused on her, perfectly still as they waited for her first move.

The stench of rot lay thick on the air, making it hard to breathe. “Here goes.”

She stepped forward and Ebon lifted his wings, his head dipping as he let out a warning squawk.

The zombies, conditioned to obeying Ebon as they obeyed the witch, swayed and jerked into motion, their thick, torn and bloody bodies shambling sideways to create a path to the door. Yeira looked at the impossibly narrow pathway and took a step forward.

They towered over her on either side, their flesh spongy and wet, gloppy with decay. She barely suppressed a shiver when her shoulders touched first one and then, as she shifted sideways with repulsion, another of the living dead.

Their eyes followed her every movement, jaws slack and eyes seemingly empty. But someone watched her from behind those dead eyes. Someone who was sizing up her intentions and judging her every look, her every move.

Yeira clamped down on the urge to run. Her pulse pounded in her ears and her palms were damp with fear. The stench was a living thing, clogging her lungs. The disgusting creatures crowding around her, closing in behind her as she passed, were enough to put her nerves on a razor’s edge. Even Ebon seemed anxious, though he stayed glued to her shoulder, his sleek, black head swiveling and his wings fluttering as the zombies grew restless and crowded closer.

A low murmur had started up when she stepped into the cavern…a grumble of unease that had the whole mass of what had to be hundreds of the monsters shifting and twitching unhappily as Yeira passed through. By the time she reached the center of the cavern the grumble had become a growl that was like talons down her spine.

Yeira finally gave up trying to remain cool and started walking faster.

Big mistake.

The hordes of monsters became immediately agitated by her movements and jerked forward, shuffling heavily in her direction.

Yeira yelped as a big, spongy hand slammed down on her shoulder and Ebon took to the air, his beady black eyes wild with alarm. He flew toward the chiseled rock of the ceiling but he didn’t perch. Instead he soared in frantic circles above her head, squawking as several more of the monsters started to attack.

Yeira flipped on her ionic sword and sliced the arm of the zombie clutching her shoulder. But even as she removed that threat, another monster grabbed her arm and yanked her sideways.

She barely managed to keep her feet, shoving away from a gooey, spongy chest to regain her balance. A scream throbbed in her throat and she fought full out panic, swinging her blade in a circle to gain herself some space.

“Mother!”

The zombies surged. Bloody teeth flashed and agony ripped up her arm as the monster worried her flesh, trying to pull a chunk loose.

She finally gave up trying to keep from screaming, and turned the compulsion into a rage-filled bellow instead. Yeira spun wildly, swinging the laser at anything that moved.

“Mother, dammit! I need to talk to you.”

Her voice was lost beneath the groans and growls of the surging masses and Yeira quickly found herself overwhelmed. She shrieked as she went down, her blade flying away, and resorted to kicking and punching to gain her freedom.

One zombie flew sideways. Then another. A green, pus-covered hand shot forward and was neatly severed by a long knife appearing from thin air.

Audie!

With the zombies distracted by the new threat, Yeira got to her hands and knees and scrambled for her weapon. A big foot with three of its toes rotted off landed on her hand and she swore, unable to wrench the thick, disgusting thing away. She looked frantically around and saw the soft green glow of her blade, diving for it.

Her hand came up just short and she had to stretch herself flat, groaning in pain as the zombies trampled her.

More zombies started to tumble backward. The monster standing on her hand suddenly flew sideways, its head separating from its body in a gush of cold, slimy liquid as Yeira grabbed her blade and started hacking legs off at the knees.

“I got this, Kord,” she whispered harshly, praying he could hear her over the din. Though she’d love his continued help with the monsters, Yeira couldn’t afford for Edwige to guess the hunter’s presence there.

Ebon screeched and the masses jerked to a stop. They shuffled away and straightened, stilling. Silence fell over the cavern.

Yeira climbed to her feet, her blade still sizzling in her hand, and swiped her arm over her face. She was covered in Zombie goo and smelled like six-week-old rotted meat.

“Have you come to plead for your life, Yeira?”

Her gaze shot to the doorway and fell on Edwige.

Her mother looked like she’d had a couple of rough days. Her black hair, usually styled in a sleek bob to the bottom of her chin, stood away from her round face in tangles and spikes. Her face was pale, with dark smudges under eyes that were no longer black since the tie to her familiar was broken. She looked frail in her heavy black robes, as if she’d lost some weight.

“I brought Ebon back to you.”

Edwige sent a cool glance toward the perch high in the cavern, where Ebon waited, his wings lifting nervously under Edwige’s cold gaze. “That is not my Ebon. I don’t feel him. I can’t see through his eyes.”

“It is Ebon. I took him from Joris. But I’m afraid I didn’t find him in time to keep Joris from transferring the connection.”

Edwige’s lips tightened into a thin line. “I’ll deal with Joris.”

Yeira took a careful step, then another, until she was sure the zombies would let her pass. Then she moved quickly to the bottom of the steps, unwilling to climb closer to the irate witch. “You don’t have to, Mother. I killed Joris.”

Edwige’s cool façade faltered and she blinked, looking surprised. “You killed my apprentice?”

Yeira’s pulse picked up at the question but she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. She would not show weakness in front of Edwige. “I did, yes.”

Edwige cocked her head, looking very much like the raven she’d been psychically joined with for a century. “Why would you do that?”

“You and I have had our problems. I won’t deny I’ve tried to make my own way. You’ve been a domineering parent…” Tears burned in Yeira’s eyes. “But you’ve loved me in your way. I just couldn’t bear to let Joris do what he planned.”

Edwige’s gray eyes narrowed. “What exactly did he plan, daughter?”

Yeira didn’t miss the warning tone in her mother’s voice, but she had no options, nowhere to go but forward. “He forged a connection with Ebon, took your familiar from you, and planned to use the bird to defeat you.”

Edwige stood perfectly still, her expression giving nothing away. Finally she turned to the raven quivering near the ceiling and slowly raised her arm. Ebon lifted off his perch with a squawk and flew toward the witch.

Yeira’s stomach churned, her pulse pounded. She didn’t trust Edwige’s quick capitulation. Something was wrong. She stepped forward, whistling.

Ebon flew over Edwige’s head and circled around, landing on Yeira’s shoulder. “I won’t let you kill him.”

Edwige’s face tightened with rage. Two, bright spots of color stained her pale cheeks. “How dare you!”

Yeira strode forward, climbing the steps toward her irate mother. “I dare because I am your daughter. I dare because your blood runs in my veins. I dare because I want to join you. I want to take my place beside you and help you build your armies.”

Yeira!

She ignored Audie’s harsh whisper in her ear.

Stopping in front of Edwige, she locked gazes with her mother, a test of wills between two strong and dangerous women. “I dare because you’re my mother and if you destroy this bird you will destroy a bit of yourself. And you’ll be weakened beyond repair. By coming here, by killing Joris, I’ve cut my ties with the rebel reborns. I’m committed to this course now and I won’t let you ruin it.”