Grave Creatures Read online

  “Where is she?” I said resignedly.

  “Standing by the zip line on Freemont, lover bunny,” Lydia replied.

  Rachel snorted and said, “Ugh.”

  “Thanks, Lydia.” I turned to the others. “I don’t suppose the rest of you want anything to do with this?” They were intently studying their shoes. “Right. Rachel and Serena, you’re on the hook, but the rest of you can head back to the office.”

  “Why me?” said Serena.

  “Because you intimidate Paula.”

  “Then why me?” Rachel asked quickly.

  “Because you’re my partner,” I replied with a glare that meant I wasn’t in the mood to play games.

  She took in my serious attitude and, in standard Rachel fashion, mocked me by saying, “Phmecause phmour phmy phmartner.”

  I sighed.

  Everyone else had swiftly retreated to their cars and had engines running. I was envious.

  “Do some research or whatever the hell you can to figure out what’s going on,” I called out to them. “I’m getting tired of playing with this damn necromancer!”

  Chapter 27

  I was surprised to find Paula smiling as we approached. This put me on edge because she tended to wear a permanent scowl whenever I was around.

  She looked as great as always, dressed to the nines with her standard business outfit, high heels, and body that no normal should possess. Her hair was down, too. That was different. Usually she kept it up librarian-style, which I kind of dug. Now and then she’d braid it, which was great for pulling during naughty time, but that was a subject I couldn’t allow my brain to entertain at the moment.

  Yes, she looked amazing. Too bad that smile had to be there.

  “Hello, Ian,” she said with a level of pleasantness that I only recalled from the days when we had started dating. “It looks like you’ve managed to make a horrible situation for me. Thanks.”

  That’s the sarcasm I was used to.

  Rachel stepped up to one side of me and Serena to the other. At least I had a combined front with them having my back. That would undoubtedly put Paula back on her heels.

  “I’m gonna look for clues,” said Rachel an instant later.

  “I’ll help you,” replied Serena.

  I grimaced knowing full well that neither of them were afraid of Paula. They just left me hanging because they knew it made me uncomfortable.

  “Thanks,” I whispered through the connector. There was no reply, but I could see the upturned lips on their faces. “Just remember that payback is hell, ladies.”

  I then gave my best disarming smile to Paula and looked her over.

  “You look ravishing, Paula.”

  “I know.” And she did know it. She was borderline narcissistic, but she carried it well. “Were you ever planning to tell me about the entire zombie thing or were you just hoping it’d blow by without impacting anyone?”

  “Lydia called you down here, right?”

  Her eyes went dead. “I know all about the earlier incidents, Ian. Don’t try and play coy with me.”

  I looked around. “Who told you?”

  “Me,” said Portman, stepping up beside me. “Was I supposed to keep it a secret, Dex?”

  “Well, no,” I replied, wincing while hoping that Paula wasn’t going to go on a rampage. I tried to cover with, “I just didn’t see a point in bringing Paula into this seeing that she’s been very busy with the…”

  “Oh, can your shit,” Paula interrupted, her smile fading. I knew it was a fake! “If you had told me about this before, I could have spent a little time preparing. Now I have to figure out a way to put a spin on a bunch of dead people exploding all over the place.”

  “Only two of them,” I reminded her. “The rest of them were all wiped out down the street in a parking lot. We were careful about that.”

  “Was that before or after you allowed one of them to get smacked by a van, which caused the normal cops to show up?”

  “Uh…”

  “That’s what I thought.” What was it with me making women do the hand-on-hip-foot-tap thing? I mean, I think it’s kinda hot, but a genuine smile would be nice every now and then. “The cops are having a field day with the college kid who got bit, too.”

  “Bit?” I said seriously. “Someone got bit?”

  Portman tapped my shoulder and pointed over at where a couple of college kids were standing around a buddy. There were paramedics with him.

  “Son of a bitch.” I pushed past Paula and connected to Rachel and Serena. “We’ve got a problem.”

  “No,” Rachel replied, “you’ve got a problem.”

  “Cut the attitude, Rachel,” I hissed. “A kid has been bitten by one of the zombies.” I was feeling grim about what I needed to do next. “Get over here and help me.”

  I approached the kid as I thought of how best to delicately handle this. I pulled open my jacket, concealing the fact that I was taking out Boomy.

  “What are you doing?” said Serena, eyeing me.

  “The kid got bit, remember?”

  “And you’re going to shoot him?”

  The memory of Griff’s explanation regarding how a zombie bite didn’t cause a person to become a zombie flowed back to my forebrain. I really needed to stop watching so many movies.

  “No,” I said as if shocked. “I was just thinking that there may be more of the damn things around and I wanted to be ready.”

  It was a lie. She knew it. So did Rachel.

  My partner walked over to the nearest cop. “Who is in charge here?” The guy pointed to a lady officer across the way. Rachel thanked him and turned to me. “I’ll handle this and you handle that.”

  “Handle what?”

  I spun to see that Paula was standing there, microphone in hand, cameraman at the ready, and a look on her face that said I’d better cooperate.

  Chapter 28

  “I’m standing here with Ian Dex, Chief of the Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department,” Paula said in her smooth way. “There has been an incident on Freemont Street on the old strip.” She turned my way. “Chief Dex, what can you tell us of the situation?”

  Aside from seeing Dr. Vernon and spilling my guts about my feelings, being interviewed for the supernatural news was the worst part of being a cop. I’d rather be shot, and I’ve been shot, so I know what I’m talking about.

  The primary reason I despised this part of the job—besides staring into that judging eye of a camera—was that I had to be careful about what I said. Opening up and telling the world about a necromancer being on the loose and corpses crawling out of their graves is not something that tended to go over well with people, supernatural or not. They were used to hearing about vampires biting normals and werewolves defacing suburban lawns, but when you got to the heavier items that impacted everyone, things got real. When things got real, our jobs became harder.

  “We’re still investigating the situation,” I replied evenly. “There’s not much to share at this time.”

  “Cut,” Paula said, dropping her head into her hands. “You know you have to give me more than that.”

  “What am I supposed to say, Paula?”

  I knew she was frustrated with her job, but that honestly wasn’t my problem. She was talented, smart, and very hardworking. There were easily fifty companies within Vegas alone that would pay her top dollar for her skills.

  “The truth would be nice.”

  “Do you really think it’s a great idea to broadcast that we’ve got a zombie invasion on our hands?” I asked with a near shriek, regretting it almost immediately.

  I heard one of the cops behind me say, “Did he just say that there’s a zombie invasion going on?”

  “I believe he did,” the other replied.

  “That’s it,” said cop number one. “I’m leaving this fucking town. Maybe I’ll move to Iowa or something. Nothing ever happens there. I’ll be a goddamn meter maid in a quiet little town and forget about all this crap.”

>   “Yeah, because quiet little towns in the middle of nowhere never have any issues,” replied cop number two.

  “Exactly.”

  “Have you ever seen any horror movies?”

  I sniffed at that and turned my attention back to Paula. She wasn’t happy and that was just too bad.

  “Look,” I said, lowering my voice, “you have a job to do and so do I. If you get me to announce zombies on the news right now, you’ll be squashing our ability to stop the necromancer who is causing all of this. We don’t have the manpower to answer phones, go to every false call that’ll come in, and take down the bad guys.” I let that sink in before adding, “And remember that you’ll be making your own life harder in the process, too, because now everyone is going to be looking for zombies. Do you really want to have to spin that?”

  She scoffed at that argument. “Only supers hear my broadcast.”

  “You know better than that,” I replied evenly. “There are plenty of normals who know about us.”

  “Name one.”

  “You.”

  “Name two.”

  “No.”

  She crossed her arms.

  “Fine.” I threw up my hands. “Cops, bellhops, concierge, dealers, damn near every business owner from the mom and pop level all the way to the top floor of the biggest casinos, the…”

  “Okay, okay,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I get it. And, yes, I do know about all of them. But that’s not the point. They don’t all watch the supernatural stations, and even if they did they’re sworn to secrecy.”

  I actually laughed out loud at that comment.

  The notion of people being able to contain a secret was asinine. Yes, there were a select few who were capable of taking even the darkest knowledge to their grave, but most people couldn’t hold a juicy tidbit to themselves if their lives depended on it. The fact was there were already far too many normals in-the-know. Revealing the fact that zombies were riding zip lines and exploding on contact, and apparently biting people, was like opening Pandora’s Box.

  “Paula,” I said as gently as I could, recognizing that she wanted something out of this, “I can’t let you tell anyone about this yet. It’s too dangerous.” I held up a hand before she could argue. “But we’re getting closer to catching this guy. Once we do, I’ll get you an exclusive with him.”

  Her eyes opened wide at that prospect.

  “Seriously?”

  “You have my word.”

  That seemed to appease her. In fact, I believe the smile she was wearing now was actually genuine.

  And that look in her eye was familiar, too.

  “I miss arguing with you,” she said mischievously. “You rarely ever win, but when you do it’s kind of hot.”

  I gulped.

  She leaned in and added, “I could always braid my hair, if you’re game?” She then looked up. “No strings.”

  “No strings?”

  “Rope, certainly,” she noted with a wink, “but no strings.”

  “I, uh… well…”

  “I’ll be at your place in the morning.”

  She turned and started walking seductively away. It was one of those walks that made me whimper. Apparently it made cops one and two feel the same way because they were both coughing all of the sudden.

  “Okay,” I said as Paula departed, “I’ll see you in a few hours. But be careful. There was a succubus there this morning and I don’t know if she’s left yet.”

  Paula stopped.

  “Way to kill the moment, Ian,” she said, looking disgustedly over her shoulder.

  Then she continued walking without the swaying hips. It was back to that business like strut that said she’d lost interest. I used to see that walk a lot.

  “Does that mean you’re not coming over?” I called out.

  She replied with a single finger held high in the air.

  “So…no?”

  Chapter 29

  We’d wrapped up everything on Freemont. Serena had healed the kid under the guise of being a doctor from the other side of town. She had the paramedics put on bandages and such, but she magically cleaned the wound and set it to healing. She then explained to the kid that he wasn’t to remove the bandage for a couple of days. It’d heal within the hour, but Serena didn’t want him to know that. It’d raise too many questions. The paramedic crew knew the real situation, of course, so they played along nicely.

  Portman and his crew would be cleaning up goop for a couple of hours still. I was starting to feel worse for them than I was for myself. Yeah, I was getting coated with zombie juice a lot, but the morgue team had to deal with all these decomposing bodies, grave placements, refilling mounds of dirt, soaping down sidewalks and parking lots, and making sure that the dead were all placed back in their proper burial spots.

  That thought gave me pause.

  “Portman?” I said just before my two officers and I left the area, “you are putting the bodies back in their proper graves, right?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, let’s say that Bessie Maybell Cahill was one of the corpses and…”

  “Who?”

  “It’s just a name I made up as an example.”

  He pursed his lips. “Why not just use Jane Doe?”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m just saying there’s no point going deep into a backstory for something like this. We don’t know any of these people.” He looked up thoughtfully for a moment. “I don’t think so, anyway.”

  “Fine,” I said, giving up. Creativity just wasn’t allowed these days. “So you made sure that Jane Doe was buried in her own grave, right?”

  “There is no real Jane Doe, Dex,” He replied with a concerned look on his face. Concerned about my intellect, no doubt. Then he chewed his lip for a second. “Actually, I suppose there are plenty of people with that name out there. Kind of rough when you think about it.”

  “Portman,” I said, jolting him from his thoughts, “I’m just asking if you put the people back into the same graves they came out of.”

  “Oh, no,” he replied with a laugh. “That would have been impossible. I mean, I’m sure we got lucky on getting some of them right, but there were way too many bodies, Dex. The logistics would have been an enormous pain in the ass. Just think of what we’d have to do to accomplish that.” He began counting on his fingers. “Dental record research, DNA matching, the…”

  “I get it, I get it.”

  He shrugged. “Besides, who’s gonna know?”

  “Their spirits might,” I replied with a hint of accusation, instantly recognizing that it wasn’t the brightest thing to say aloud.

  “What?”

  “Yeah,” said Rachel, “what?”

  “Are you trying to say that you’re worried about ghosts, Chief?” Serena asked slowly.

  They were all looking at me as if I’d lost my mind. Okay, so I was the one who watched a lot of silly horror movies, and many of them had pissed-off ghosts in them. They tormented people, haunted houses and cemeteries, and were just downright freaky.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” I said.

  “You mean we shouldn’t look at you like we think you’re stupid?” Rachel said. “Sorry, but I was never any good at dramatic acting.”

  “Nice.” I took a deep breath. “I don’t think there are ghosts either, gang.” They clearly didn’t believe me. “But if we were having this conversation last week and I mentioned zombies, you’d all be giving me the same looks you’re giving me now.”

  “Fair enough,” Rachel said finally, nodding her acquiescence. “I doubt that Fred is going to take that angle, though. It’s a totally different tract on necromancy for him. He might be good enough to have mastered both, but I kind of doubt it.”

  “Still…”

  “And even if he was going that route, Chief,” Serena added, “he wouldn’t need an excuse for the ghosts to come out.”

  “True, but…”

  “Dex,” Portman interrupte
d, “I’ll make a deal with you. If we suddenly get an influx of ghosts terrorizing the town, we’ll dig up the bodies again and stick them in their correct spots. Until then, I’m letting my crew rest up whenever possible.”

  It was hard to argue the point, so I just nodded, said my goodbyes and headed back to the Aston Martin.

  Nobody spoke along the way.

  I knew what they were thinking and that was okay. Like I said, the concept of zombies was ridiculous, too. But I had to admit that our seeing ghosts was asinine.

  Still, Fred had shown himself to be pretty sneaky so far.

  And that was my real concern at the moment.

  What did he have planned for us next?

  So far he’d spent his time toying with us. It was almost like he had no major plan. He just wanted to torment us—me for some reason. But I couldn’t buy that because he was adding facets to his creatures. They started out as simple drones, but he’d added more to them each time. Changed their dynamics. And he also attacked my mages through triggers.

  The vision I had was the clincher though.

  Shitfaced Fred was an apprentice to a necromancer who had once raised a zombie army. He seemed to be heading down that same path. Why he was choosing the methods he did in order to accomplish it, I couldn’t say, but there was just too much evidence to think his intentions were anything but dubious.

  “Puddin’?” Lydia said as I climbed into the car.

  I put my head on the steering wheel, wondering what could possibly be going on now.

  Just a few weeks ago Rachel and I were complaining about being in a rut. Careful what you wish for, I suppose.

  “Hey, Lydia,” I replied tiredly through the connector. “What’s up?”

  “Are you sitting down?”

  I tilted my head to the side and glanced at Rachel.

  She shrugged.

  “Yes,” I said at length.

  “I just received a message from The Spin,” she replied. “The van was stopped on their way back to the office and everyone inside was knocked out.”