Grave Creatures Read online

  My blood ran cold.

  “Stopped by whom?” asked Rachel.

  “The necromancer,” she replied. “He’s taken Paula Rose.”

  Chapter 30

  Shitfaced Fred was making it personal now.

  I didn’t know what his game was, but he’d moved from zombies you could kill by shooting them in the head, to requiring that they be shot in the heart, to pointless skeletons, back to exploding zombies, and now kidnapping.

  But he didn’t just kidnap anyone. He kidnapped my ex, meaning he was targeting me.

  Then again, maybe I was being too self-involved here. Paula was a TV personality, her disappearance would make for a hell of a story, bringing Fred into the spotlight pretty heavily. Plus, my crew had been targeted too. The mages anyway. But even that could have been in an attempt to weaken me.

  Why would he want that, though? Wouldn’t it be better for him to stay in the shadows until he had his final attack in place? The thought of him building out some grandiose plan that involved zombies and the city of Vegas made me groan.

  Why couldn’t he have picked a place like New York or London? They had much larger Paranormal Police Departments there that could more readily handle this type of situation.

  But they didn’t have me.

  Self-involved or not, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was his target.

  “There has to be more to this,” Serena said calmly as I sped down the street and back to base. “It’s obvious he doesn’t like you, Ian, but why?”

  Rachel turned in her seat and looked at me. “Did you bone his wife?”

  “What?” I shot her an irritated glance. “No!” Then I chewed my lip. “I don’t think so anyway.” The memory of the vision came back. “No, I couldn’t have. He’s old and while I don’t mind a silver fox now and then, I always check them out first to make sure they’re single.”

  “Ew,” said Rachel.

  Serena laughed. “I’d love to be a fly on the wall at your psych evals.”

  “Anyway, I’m pretty sure I didn’t bone this guy’s wife. I’m careful about stuff like that. Adultery isn’t my bag.” I gripped the wheel tighter. “I even broke up with Paula because I didn’t want to cheat on her, as you both may recall.”

  That quieted them. I may have been many things, but cheater wasn’t on the list. And these two knew that about me. Yeah, I’m a player, but I don’t hurt people…unless we have a safe word established, of course.

  “Hey, Chief,” came the voice of Turbo to interrupt our silence, “I took the liberty of connecting our cams and a few satellites to the code that I made for spotting the zombies.”

  “Great, Turbo,” I replied without much enthusiasm. “What’s that buy us, exactly?”

  “I can spot instantly if any dead bodies are walking around. Anywhere we have visual, and with satellites, I can see the entire city and the outlying areas.”

  “Oh, well that’s cool.”

  I hung a left on to Convention Center Drive and slammed the pedal toward Paradise Road.

  “It’s really cool,” Turbo said with so much enthusiasm that it lifted my mood one percentage point. “But there’s a problem.”

  There went that percentage point.

  A quick left and a right toward the back of the convention center took us to a major null zone where a hidden tunnel took us underground.

  “Isn’t there always a problem?”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay, so what is it?”

  “Well, I used the satellite tracking system and started scanning the main areas,” he was speaking rapidly. “I didn’t want to just look everywhere because that wouldn’t be very efficient, so I started targeting different cemeteries and I also scanned the major areas of the strip.”

  Turbo had a knack for dragging things out for an eternity. Where you may say, “I finally got my oil changed,” Turbo would say, “The day started with a dark cloud hovering over my rumbling vehicle. The check engine light flickered multiple times, but it never stayed on full. I knew something was amiss so I drove to town, only to get caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Time felt like it stopped. People were honking their horns and two men had stepped out of their cars to settle a dispute regarding the right to merge at the last second. The small guy won. The cops showed up and I got to the shop thirty minutes later. They checked every aspect of my car until finally determining that I needed an oil change.”

  I took a deep breath.

  “And what did you find, Turbo?”

  “Zombies.”

  I got out of the car and handed my keys to a tech. He took one whiff of the air and groaned, obviously catching that lovely scent of zombie. I shrugged in response and then cracked open the door to the main building.

  “Meet us in the conference room, Turbo,” I commanded, preparing myself to wring his neck for wasting my time. “Lydia, please get everyone else there as well.”

  “They’re already in there, honey.”

  “Great.”

  We walked in the building and headed directly for the conference room. Turbo was already running around on the table, obviously finding it difficult to contain his excitement. Pixies got excited whether news was good or bad.

  Fortunately for him, he wasn’t close enough for me to grab him.

  The magic users were going through documents that had funny drawings all over them, while Felicia and Chuck looked to be taking inventory of their weapons.

  I’d get to all of them in a second. Right now I needed to know what Turbo was all hyped up about.

  “All right, Turbo,” I said as I took my seat at the head of the table, “enough babbling about. Tell us precisely what you found please.”

  “Zombies,” he said again. “I told you that before.”

  “We already know about the zombies,” I replied, blinking. “You built us glasses to spot them, remember? We’ve found more of the damn things than I can count!”

  “Seventy-seven in all,” Griff chimed in. “That does not include the skeletons, but it does take into account the ones that exploded.”

  “I was being rhetorical, Griff, but thanks.”

  “Ah.”

  I leveled my stare at Turbo. He quit pacing.

  “Can you please tell me exactly what you’ve seen?” I asked. He went to speak, but I creased my eyes menacingly. “And do it clearly and succinctly.”

  He swallowed hard and looked from face to face. Everyone wore the same grim expression that I was holding. This was not excited-pixie time.

  “Right,” he said in a hoarse voice. “There is a massive army of zombies heading toward the city.”

  Chapter 31

  Not a word was said after I dropped the zombie army bomb on the Directors. They were either shocked, surprised, freaked out, or beside themselves trying to come up with a way to respond…or, in the case of EQK, watching cartoons on the net.

  “Sirs?” I ventured finally.

  “Has Turbo determined precisely how many of them there are?” asked Zack.

  “Just over five hundred.”

  “You’re not going to be able to handle that many,” O noted.

  “Your powers of deduction never fail to amaze, O,” Silver stated.

  Here we go again. Whatever these two had against each other must have gone back a ways. My guess was that they were at odds in some war or something.

  “I’m growing weary of your remarks, Director Silver.”

  “Oooh,” EQK piped up, “you used his full title. Are you guys going to fight? If so, I’ll get some popcorn.”

  “They’re not going to fight,” Zack replied before either Silver or O could say a word. “First off, they’re too far away from each other, and secondly we’re all in this together. Let’s act like it.”

  I hadn’t expected that from the werewolf, to be honest. He was usually bouncing off the rest of the Directors while avoiding taking sides. It was nice to see him step up.

  “The fact is that you’re right about the zombies,” I
said as the tension mellowed. “We can’t handle this. We can’t even handle one fifth of it, and that’s because there’s more to this incoming army than meets the eye.”

  “Such as?” asked Silver.

  “They’ve kidnapped Paula Rose, for one.”

  I thought O was going to fall off his chair at that. “What?”

  “He stopped The Spin’s van on their way back from Freemont, knocked everyone out, and took Paula.”

  “But why?”

  “My guess is because he knows that she and I used to date.” I shrugged because I wasn’t certain if that was the reason, or if Fred really even knew about my past with Paula. “I could be wrong about that, but it doesn’t matter anyway. The fact is that he’s got her and that makes this even tougher to deal with.”

  “Why?” said EQK. “It’s just a wacky normal chick who you’re not even banging anymore. She’s just fodder now. What’s the problem?”

  “Don’t even bother answering that,” Zack said before I could respond. “EQK obviously has issues with understanding the intricacies of human relationships.”

  “No, I don’t,” EQK argued. “I watch a lot of nighttime TV about you weirdos. The shows make your handling of relationships very clear. It always goes something like this: A chick sizes up a dude. If she digs him, he gets in her pants; if not, he doesn’t. About a year goes by and they get married. He no longer gets in her pants and she keeps his balls in her purse.” He paused. “Did I miss anything?”

  Silver actually chuckled at this.

  “Right,” I said while squinting toward the pixie. This was one of those rare times that I just wasn’t in the mood. “Anyway, on top of the fact that her life is in jeopardy, our fun little necromancer has also given the zombies the ability to speak.”

  “So?” said Zack.

  “So they can be instilled with power words,” O stated. “It’s a means of allowing them to do magic, to a point. Nothing major, but they could conceivably heal each other, launch minor pain spells, add strength and agility, and numerous other annoyances.”

  Silver grunted. “There’s no way a single necromancer could instill all of that power into that many zombies while also playing the size-up game with the Las Vegas PPD.”

  Something told me to keep my mouth shut about the vision I’d had. Normally I’m pretty open with the Directors, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had to keep this little tidbit from them. The details, anyway. My gut said that the Directors had to be kept in the dark on this one.

  “Maybe he’s not alone, sir,” I said cryptically, thinking that he may have multiple magic users working with him. I was basing that deduction on my vision. And Silver was right, there was a lot of magic being spent here and one person being responsible for all of it was unlikely. “He could have apprentices or accomplices helping him out.”

  “Yes,” O mused. “That does seem reasonable.”

  “Sounds to me like we’re going to need to step in here,” said Silver.

  “We can’t make it all the way there in time.”

  “No, Zack, we can’t,” agreed Silver. “But we can call on the supernaturals of Las Vegas to get off their butts and help out.”

  “Now you’re talkin’,” EQK said with a high level of excitement. “I can get the pixies out there to kick some ass, for sure!”

  Silver’s shadow turned. “Good. I think. Anyway, unless other members of the council disagree, we’ll get you help.”

  “It’s the only thing to do,” O stated. “I don’t like it, and Mr. Dex will have to be in charge so that things don’t get too far out-of-hand…”

  “You mean like, say, a zombie-invasion level of out-of-hand?”

  “What I mean, Silver, is that whenever we’ve had to use the people in the past, there have been repercussions.” O cleared his throat. “The fact is that we’ll be awakening the fighter in a lot of people who should not have it brought to life. Once that happens, it’ll make for difficulty in controlling them for a while.”

  “Okay, that’s fair,” Silver replied, sighing. “You’re right, O.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Based on that fact,” Silver continued, “I think vampires and werewolves should stay out of this. Fae can manage. Pixies can manage. Mages and wizards can manage. But I would assume Zack would agree that our two people should not taste blood and flesh, regardless if its dead or not.”

  “I definitely agree.”

  EQK started doing a slow clap. It was one of those mocking claps that you heard whenever someone said something really dumb, offensive, or just downright douchey. It was a clap that was often implemented whenever EQK spoke.

  “Nice, nice, nice,” the pixie said in a grandiose voice. “Why is it that whenever we point out that vampires and werewolves are huge pains in the ass you get all up in arms? But whenever we need you to stand by us and fight, you turn around and state that you can’t because you’ll end up being huge pains in the ass?”

  As if sensing another round of verbal lashing was about to ensue, O quickly said, “There are many things that the vampires and werewolves bring to the table that we cannot, EQK. They would be exceedingly powerful at aiding us in crushing this foe, but they are also wise enough to know their limitations.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

  “Actually, sirs,” I said, not believing I was about to suggest what I was about to suggest, “I have a better idea.”

  Chapter 32

  The fact was that we didn’t need or want a ton of supernaturals pouring out of the woodworks to destroy zombies. We needed a select set who could be trusted to handle themselves properly, stand up to the tide that was rolling in, and be able to get back to being who they were in the first place.

  Unfortunately, they didn’t exist en mass, and we didn’t have time to handpick the ones that could handle things.

  And so I decided on a different angle entirely.

  “Post-apocalyptic zombie festival goers?” Rachel said, leaving her mouth agape after finishing her question.

  “Yep,” I replied without delay. “The Directors had suggested that we use vampires and werewolves and pixies and…. Well, you get the idea.”

  “That would be bad.”

  “Exactly what I thought.” I took out Boomy and sat it on my desk. “But then I had the idea of getting Turbo to enhance a bunch of these Eagles to make it seem like they’re nothing but glorified paint guns…”

  “You realize this is insane, right?” she interrupted. “What if they shoot at each other?”

  Turbo, who was also in the room said, “They couldn’t. Well, I mean, they could, but the bullets are full of paint.”

  “Paint?” Rachel’s forehead creased severely. “You’ve both lost your minds.”

  “Probably, but tell her why it’ll work, Turbo.”

  “Because the paint contains nanites,” he said as if that had explained everything. He clearly recognized it did not because he added, “You know, microscopic machines?”

  “I know what a nanite is, Turbo,” she said.

  “Oh, sorry. It’s just that you were looking at me funny and so I thought…”

  She snapped her fingers, shutting him up. “What I don’t understand is why putting nanites in the paint matters. Can you explain?”

  “Ah, right!” His wings started buzzing, which signaled he was rather pleased to be in lecture-mode. “When the paint hits the uniform or whatever, it will immediately seek out flesh. It will then determine if the host is living or not. If it turns out to be alive, it’ll leave it alone; if not, it’ll shred all the cells, completely eradicating the creature.”

  I laughed and slapped the desk. “Rachel, it’ll turn the damn things to dust!”

  The gears in her head appeared to be spinning at full tilt. That meant she wasn’t buying the plan. This was worrisome because I’d learned to trust her gut instinct over the years.

  “What’s the matter?”

  She pursed her lips and spoke slowly. “What you�
�re describing would need to go deeper than a simple flesh check. People have cells dying all the time, but that doesn’t mean the person is dead.”

  “Very impressive,” said Turbo while clapping his hands so rapidly that it sounded like maracas being shaken at full speed. “Unfortunately, I can’t use the same technology I’m using with the zombie-detector glasses, either. So, even though I’m loathe to do it, I had to bring in Warren on this one.”

  She sat back and nodded. “You’re infusing the pellets with magic.”

  “Griff and Serena are helping him get everything underway,” I pointed out. “Between the three of them, and you, of course, we can build an arsenal of weapons to hand out before dark tomorrow.”

  One of the many benefits of having a diverse team was found in times like this. Everyone had their role. There was overlap in many areas, certainly, but each of us had a particular skill or skills that the others couldn’t quite match. Magic, though, could be funneled, allowing any of the mages to act as a conduit for Warren’s spells. It wasn’t quite the demon-battery notion that had been employed by Reese, but Warren had explained that it was similar to the concept of power words that we feared Fred would employ.

  “I’d better get back to it,” Turbo announced. “Is there anything else?”

  There wasn’t.

  Rachel sniffed and a thin smile appeared as Turbo zipped from my office. Her eyes were half-closed while she shook her head.

  “Only you could think of something like this,” she said.

  “I have my moments.”

  “Oh, that’s definitely true.”

  It was either a slight or a compliment. Probably both.

  “Chief?” Jasmine said, knocking at my door.

  “Come on in.”

  Felicia joined her and they just stood there staring at me. They didn’t have to say anything. The looks on their faces said it all.

  “Yes,” I answered their unasked question, “Lydia has put out a ‘Zombie Party’ blast to every post-apocalyptic zombie festival goer within the area. Turbo’s outfitting them with…”