The rictus gape of horror didn’t move in the slightest. No sound came forth. No motion was made on the part of the corpse.
It was somewhat surprising. Sawyer, being a necromancer with walking skeletons handling his laundry out in the other room, could easily make something like this move.
“No, no. The Elysium Order has quit. They decided that operating in North America is just too costly these days.”
Sawyer moved into the room and took a seat on a small stool. It was the perfect height so that when he sat, his head was level with the corpse’s upside-down face. They could stare at each other without having to crane their necks. Which was good for them. ‘Amelia’ might find turning its neck to be a little difficult given the fragile-looking state of its body.
That state didn’t stop Sawyer from nodding his head as if he were agreeing with something the corpse had said.
“It could be bounty hunters. But I doubt it. It is far more likely that my pet vampire was found out and now the rest of the coven is upset.”
Sawyer started to shake his head. “No. Just vampires. But do let them get a ways in before you do anything. We wouldn’t want any to escape, would we? Besides, their bodies may prove useful to me.”
With two pats against the corpse’s cheek, Sawyer said, “thank you, my dear.”
Eva started to get a bad feeling as he leaned forwards.
Her bad feeling was temporarily placed on hold as Sawyer jerked back.
“I come talk to you all the time,” he said, affronted at whatever he imagined the corpse had said. “It’s pure coincidence that I need your help every time we talk.”
“She’s doing well, as you well know,” Sawyer said after a brief pause. “I might expect a bit much of her from time to time.”
Sawyer was always insane. Eva knew that. Normal people didn’t unleash zombies on unsuspecting townsfolk or turn little girls into monsters. But this was taking it to a whole new level.
“No, the stitches aren’t necessary. She ruined one of my plans for petty revenge. It’s been a few months, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to give her another chance.”
He sighed, shaking his head back and forth. “Des’ abilities continue to improve, albeit slowly. Too slowly. I almost wonder if some of the modifications damaged her. She acts younger than she should. Her infantilism was possibly the main reason why she tried attacking–”
Taken aback, he paused for just a moment. “What? Never. I’m not blaming her for my–No! Don’t you worry. Our little honey will be better at this than me one of these days.”
Again, Sawyer patted the corpse on the shoulder. Given that ‘Amelia’ was upside down, it was somewhat awkward. He managed all the same. “No, but I do need to get going. People to kill and all that. You just keep a watch out for those vampires.”
The bad feeling that Eva had felt earlier resurfaced in full force as Sawyer leaned in again.
Sure enough, Sawyer’s lips pressed against the corpse’s teeth. His tongue traced the backs of the teeth and a good portion of the inside of its mouth.
Sawyer was kissing a corpse. Passionately at that.
Eva felt like screaming.
So she did.
“Nel! Is frankincense edible?”
The augur, who had still been staring out of the room’s peephole, jumped at Eva’s outburst. “W-What?”
“I need something, anything, that might help get the taste of corpses out of my mouth.”
“Wha–”
“This ritual is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. And I did it to myself. I’d rather have my eyes torn out again and again and again and again than spend another minute in Sawyer’s life. I swear, I’m going to burn the entire book just to spare anyone else this horror.”
Serena had woken up again, still looking like death warmed over. Both she and Nel were staring at Eva.
“Your necromancer is eating bodies?”
“Kissing,” Eva snapped. “He’s kissing a corpse! A husk of a mummy!”
The two continued staring.
“Affectionately,” Eva added before slamming her face back into the pillow.
“Well,” Serena said, “it ends tonight, right? Only about twelve hours to go.”
Eva just snorted. As if that would make everything better. All she knew was that Sawyer was going to pay for putting her through two days in his life.
Nel shifted, her fingers touching as she spoke in a soft tone of voice. “How does him finding out that we’re attacking lead to him kissing corpses?”
“He doesn’t know that we are the ones attacking. He thinks it is the vampires. And he thought that this corpse that he’s kissing could help defend against them.” Eva shook her head. “He’s crazier than I thought. The mummy didn’t even respond to him. It was just a hanging corpse. A really dead one.”
“H-hanging?” Nel squeaked out. “H-hanging how?”
“By a rope around its feet, head down,” Eva mumbled into her pillow as she watched through her blood sight. Nel was scared. That much was clear. She was trembling. Eva was almost worried that she was having a seizure.
“What is it, Nel? You know something. Quit shaking and spit it out.”
“A haugbui. Norse origins. It cannot move but it will defend the place it calls a tomb. Violently. W-we can’t fight it. If we get near, it will kill us.”
Eva sat up to stare at the trembling woman with her own eyes. “It can’t move but it will kill us? How?”
“I don’t know. I’m an augur. I just watch. You can always tell when a haugbui is in the area. A sister’s head will just fall from her shoulders. Or all their limbs will fall off. Or their stomachs will fail to hold in their insides. People just die around them.”
“Cutting attacks then? I wonder–”
“No. Armor doesn’t stop it. Nothing stops it.”
Eva crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at the augur. “The Elysium Order must have plans and guidelines on how to deal with them.”
“Annihilation. They can’t defend too large of an area, so sisters will typically form a circle around the haugbui. Then, fire. Lots of fire. Everything within turns to ash including the haugbui.”
“Doesn’t really sound like an option for us.”
“It isn’t,” Nel said. She reached for a water bottle and tried to take a drink. Her hands were shaking enough that she ended up spilling part of it down her front. “We need to call in help.”
“There’s no one to call in.” Eva sighed, lying back down on her bed.
At least Sawyer wasn’t in the same room as that mummy anymore. He had wandered off. Shoring up defenses with orders for the skeletons and enigmas that patrolled the warehouse. Eva paid attention to them as they could help. But if that mummy was as dangerous as Nel’s shivers, none of them would be going anywhere near the skeletons and enigmas.
“You said that these things have a small area that they affect? How small?”
“I don’t know. A hundred feet?”
Eva sat up. Smile on her face. “Then it is simple. We don’t go to the warehouse. At all. We target the field and the ritual. Preferably while Sawyer is there.”
“We won’t know once your ritual runs out.”
“No,” Eva agreed. “But he has gone to the graveyard and then the field every night. He might take a break just in case the vampires attack, but I doubt it. That might delay his ritual.”
“What if he has another one? They’re hard to make, but he has one. He clearly knows how to make them.”
“I doubt it. This one feels personal. Like, an old lover or something.”
“Just send the vampires in first,” Serena said with a groan. “If they fall to pieces, who cares. Now try not to wake me again unless you want to do this all without my help,” she said as she flopped back down underneath her covers.
Eva looked to Nel and gave the augur a half-hearted shrug.
“Sacrificing vampires? Works for me,” the augur said. Her voice was a few notches chillier than normal. “As long as I get to stay here.”