Lee walked up to the hand and crushed it under his boots. “Zoey, behind you.”
I swiveled around quickly just as the corpse began to crawl out from under the table. It was missing an arm but it managed to slither along. I kicked out, catching it on the jaw which cracked under the force of my supercute J. Reneé jeweled ladybug sandals. I was really going to have to think about proper footwear the next time I went hunting. Living with Dev had made me soft.
Declan stepped on the corpse’s spine and the weight of his big body stopped all forward motion. The bones still twitched and pulsed with the need to follow orders, but it no longer was capable.
Shuddering, I reached down to pick up my lost gun. I had it in my hand when I heard that horribly now-familiar zombie groan and brought my eyes up just as three more corpses entered the room. They moved slowly, as though every motion was deliberate and required great thought, but these corpses were more flesh than bone. They also had stopped to get weapons. Two held long butcher knives and the third held an axe.
Lee sprang away from the zombies and across the room to join Declan and me. Even Lee shuddered a little when he stared at the creatures facing us. Declan notched an arrow and shot the one closest to him in the eye. It didn’t actually stop the zombie. It just gave the zombie a nice place for birds to perch.
“See, Dec,” I said with a frown at his cute little bow and arrow, “this is why we bring guns.”
Lee smiled and we both took aim. “Take off the head.”
The world was suddenly filled with the sounds of bullets cracking through the air. It took more than a couple of tries because we weren’t carrying the right kind of weapons, but then we hadn’t known we were going to be dealing with freaking zombies in the middle of Dallas. When killing zombies, the movies really do have it right. A shotgun is the only way to go. You have to take off the head, not just leave a neat little hole in it.
Usually.
I say usually because this time was the exception. I suspect it was because these weren’t true zombies. These were reanimated dead being controlled directly by another creature. For whatever reason, even after I had successfully blown my opponent’s head to smithereens, it just kept coming. Lee was having the same trouble and finally cursed and tossed his semi aside. His hands became long claws and despite the knife about to come down on his head, he leapt into the fray and began tearing the body apart.
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.