Dead and Kicking Read online

  I focused on the zombies and pictured them returning to dust. Taking a deep breath, I tried to slowly release my will but my body was supercharged after all the magic I had absorbed during DiCastro’s ritual, so rather than the focused stream I had intended, it burst from me and roared across the entire space. The zombies exploded into dust and the cavernous room fell eerily silent.

  An aftershock of power rocked the stage and the altar shook like it was an earthquake, tossing DiCastro off me to the floor. One of the pillars toppled over nearly landing on the altar and in that moment I felt the power resurging through me like a shot of adrenaline. I pulled against my restraints, the magic coursing through me as first one, then the other, tore free from the altar, the shackles still bound to my wrists, the eye-ring bolts they had been attached to dangling uselessly.

  “Noooooo! No! You can’t stop me!” DiCastro sprang to his feet, his eyes glazed like a mad man’s. “You bitch! This is all your fault.” He pulled the dagger from his kilt and lunged at me.

  I put my arms up to ward off the blow and the dagger connected with one of the shackles on my wrist and then bounced off, slicing a shallow line down my forearm. He lunged again and I caught his wrist, the dagger inches from my chest, but my legs were still spread-eagled on the altar and I couldn’t get any leverage. There was a loud growl and a huge, furry black wolf streaked between DiCastro and me, taking him down to the floor. I watched in shock as the giant wolf tore DiCastro’s throat out. The wolf shook his head and sneezed like he had tasted something unpleasant, then turned and looked at me, his muzzle dripping with DiCastro’s blood.

  “Uh, nice wolf. Good wolf.” I gestured for the wolf to keep down. “Nash?”

  The wolf sniffed at me then tilted his head back and howled. Across the warehouse, the other wolves responded. Nash, or at least the wolf I was pretty sure was Nash, jumped up on the altar and I fell back in surprise. His big nose sniffed at my face and then he started licking my cheek.

  “Hey! Stop that.” I made a face, pushing his big, shaggy head away and wiped the wolf slobber off my cheek. The big brute plunked himself down between my legs and sat, and I swear he smiled at me, his big wolfy tongue lolling from his bloodied muzzle. That’s when I noticed that the front of my dress was still wide open and my breasts were on full display. I grabbed the remnants of the dress and clutched them to my chest. The wolf huffed at me, the equivalent of a wolfy laugh.

  “You big, hairy pervert,” I replied.

  “Harry!” I turned to see Tess making her way across the floor. She was battered and bruised but okay.

  “Tess! Thank god you’re all right.”

  As Tess drew near, the wolf jumped to his feet and started to growl. Tess stopped in her tracks and dipped her head low in submission.

  “Hey, stop that.” I rested my hand on the wolf’s shoulder.

  “I don’t think your wolf protector is going to let anyone else get close to you for a while,” Isaac said as he approached from the other side of the stage. He looked rather worse for wear, his clothes in tatters.

  “What took you so long?” I looked at Isaac and smiled.

  “I had a bit of a disagreement with a jack and several zombies.” Isaac frowned and looked at me critically. “Is any of that blood yours?”

  “Just a scratch on my arm.” Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. “The jacks! There must be two spirit walkers back in the infirmary. We have to get them before they get away.”

  “Already taken care of,” Tess replied. “They wouldn’t let me be part of the main rescue party since I couldn’t go wolf this far from the full moon, but they let me be part of the secondary team. We rounded up the jack pilots and found the rest of the kidnapped homeless. No sign of Holly though.”

  My breath caught in my throat. I had forgotten about Holly and Tess didn’t know what had happened. I felt tears in my eyes. The wolf whined and licked my face. “Oh Tess, Holly’s dead,” I said.

  “Good. Saves me from having to kill the bitch,” Tess all but growled.

  “What? You know?” I looked at her in surprise.

  “That she turned out to be a back-stabbing, traitorous slut? Yeah, I know.”

  “DiCastro killed her. He was just using her to get to me.” I frowned at Tess. “But how did you know?”

  “It was Bryce that figured it out. He found out that Holly had a secret email account and he uncovered months’ worth of emails between her and DiCastro, emails where she gave him all our personal information and bitched about having to pretend to still like us.”

  My heart felt heavy with Holly’s betrayal. I just wanted to go home and put the whole nightmare behind me. “Do you think you can find a key or something and get me out of here?” I shook a shackle at Isaac.

  Isaac reached into his suit jacket’s breast pocket - leave it to a vampire to wear a suit to a fight - and pulled out his lock pick tools. “Allow me.” He moved towards the altar. The wolf turned his head and growled. “That is, if your protector will let me near.”

  “Come on Nash. Let Isaac unlock these damn restraints. I just want to go home.” I ran my hand through his thick, coarse fur. The wolf gave my face another lick then sat down in agreement.

  “Yeah, let’s go home,” said Tess.

  And so we did, leaving the vampires and werewolves to clean up the mess and deal with any of the survivors. Other than the innocent homeless, I really didn’t care what happened to the rest of the people. As far as I was concerned they were all crazy and just as guilty as DiCastro. After all, they willingly and actively participated in the whole shit-show right up until DiCastro turned the zombies on them.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Tess took charge the moment we arrived home. Isaac had dropped us off in his big Escalade and then returned to oversee the cleanup at the warehouse. The wolf had curled up beside me on the bench seat in the back of the SUV and I have to admit, it was rather comforting to have him there, my fingers twined in his fur. Way better than having the human Nash grumbling and growling at me.

  Tess sent me off to take a shower and hose all the blood off while she filled the big soaker tub in the bathroom. The wolf padded up the stairs beside me, but I adamantly insisted that he did not need to sit watching me in the shower, or at least I wasn’t going to let him. I wasn’t sure how long Nash had to stay in his wolf form after shifting. I knew that some shifters couldn’t switch from their animal shape for at least several hours, but I suspected that Nash was a powerful enough alpha that he could have switched back whenever he wanted. He also wasn’t fooling me with the whole ‘I’m just like a big friendly dog’ routine. I knew that Nash was still in there.

  It felt great to clean all the blood and grime off, but I was really looking forward to a long hot soak, so I jumped out of the shower, wrapped myself in a towel and hustled into the bathroom the moment Tess called to say it was ready. The wolf was nowhere to be seen. I figured he had tired of playing guard dog so I was surprised to find him in my tub. That is to say Nash, the man, was in my tub.

  “Hey! That’s supposed to be my bath.” I scowled at him. He was reclined at one end of the huge tub, his arms spread wide, resting on the marble edge, the water, complete with bubbles, lapped at his chest. Unlike his canine counterpart, the man-Nash had only a light dusting of hair on his chest, the water giving it a darker, curlier appearance. He had several long, angry, red scars across his left shoulder and chest. They were healing and looked weeks old rather than just mere hours. Chalk one up for werewolf metabolism.

  “There’s plenty of room,” he replied with a smirk.

  “Uh, no thanks.” I turned to leave, my cheeks burning.

  “Chicken.”

  For some reason, after everything that had happened, I just couldn’t bring myself to ignore the challenge in his tone. I turned and faced the tub, letting the towel drop
, then climbed in at the opposite end. The water was borderline too hot, just the way I liked it, and I couldn’t help but sigh in relief as I slid down until the water was at my chin. Nash’s hands skimmed over my legs as he guided them to either side of his, sending a shiver up my spine.

  “Keep your hands to yourself, buster,” I said.

  Nash laughed and held his hands up in surrender, but any comment he may have made was interrupted when Tess barged through the door, a plate piled with sandwiches and a container of chocolate milk in her hands. She was freshly showered and wearing a kimono-type robe, her wet hair wrapped in a towel.

  She did a little double take at the sight of Nash sharing my tub, hiding a smile while she busied herself with delivering the food.

  “Here, peanut butter and jelly. Eat up. I’m sure you need to refuel.” She set the plate down on the marble tub surround between Nash and me.

  Nash immediately grabbed a sandwich. “What kind of jelly?”

  “Hey! Those are my sandwiches!” I flicked the water at him with my fingers.

  “Strawberry,” replied Tess.

  “Good. That’s the only way to go.” Nash took a big bite and smiled a wolfish smile.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that somewhere before,” I grumbled, grabbing a sandwich of my own. “Thanks, Tess.”

  “No problem, Harry,” she replied, her face taking on a sad expression. “I was so worried about you. Don’t ever do that to me again!” She reached over and hugged my head to her chest.

  “Mmmph!” I replied, my mouth full of peanut butter; plus, it was very had to talk when being suffocated against someone’s chest. I sort of let out a little yelp and Tess released her grip.

  “Sorry.” She smiled sheepishly. “Oh! I almost forgot.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. “You’ve got a call.”

  “On your phone?” I guess it made sense since I had no clue where my phone ended up. Hopefully it was back at Dante’s with the rest of my clothes. I grabbed the phone from Tess. “Hello?”

  “Ah, my dear Angharad, so good to hear your voice.”

  “Salvador.”

  “Isaac tells me that you are well, is this so?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Wonderful. I am so relieved to hear it. Your assistance in dealing with our little zombie problem was much appreciated.” Little zombie problem? Seriously? Who was he kidding? “I look forward to hearing of your adventure when next we see each other.”

  “Uh, sure.” I really had no interest in reliving the whole adventure for Salvador’s entertainment, but I doubted I would have much choice.

  “In the meantime,” Salvador continued on, “I have taken the liberty of sending a small token of my appreciation for your assistance.”

  “That really wasn’t necessary,” I cringed thinking about the McQueen dress, “and, well, I’m sorry, but the dress is totally ruined.”

  “Not to worry my dear, there are more where that came from.” That’s what I was afraid he was going to say.

  “Okay. Well, thanks.”

  “Good night, or should I say, good morning, Harry.”

  “Good night, Salvador.”

  It wasn’t until I hung up the phone and handed it back to Tess that I realized he had called me Harry. Was it a good thing or a bad thing that I was now on a first name basis with the scariest vampire in town?

  “Well, I guess you don’t need any more help from me,” Tess said. She eyed Nash who was helping himself to my chocolate milk and grinned.

  “Uh, no. I think I can manage. That is, if wolfman over there doesn’t hog all the milk.”

  Tess left and I finished off my sandwiches, washing them down with the last of the milk. I lay back and closed my eyes with a sigh.

  “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Nash’s voice was quiet.

  “Not really.”

  “Okay.”

  I heard the water slosh as he stood and climbed out of the tub. I was too tired to even take a peek. Honest.

  He puttered around a few minutes drying himself - I kept my eyes closed the whole time - and then he padded out of the bathroom. I waited a few more minutes then sighed, before opening the drain and climbing out of the tub.

  Back in my bedroom I intended on just falling into bed, but it was already taken.

  “You can’t sleep here,” I said to Nash, who was occupying the far side, my side, of the bed.

  Nash just looked at me and pulled back the covers enough to let me in. “Get in,” he ordered.

  “Look, I don’t want to have sex with you.” I felt awkward standing there in just a towel.

  “I don’t want to have sex with you either,” he replied, his tone implying mild exasperation.

  “Then what are you doing in my bed? I don’t need to f-feed.” It was true, but I hated that expression. I had taken on so much power during the ritual that even with my massive expenditure to banish the zombies, I still felt fully charged. “You don’t even like me,” I muttered somewhat petulantly.

  Nash huffed out a little breath, running his hand through his hair. “Look, the wolf is still upset about what happened. He needs to be close.”

  “Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Just stay on your side of the bed.”

  ***

  The next morning, or maybe it was already afternoon, I awoke to find myself alone in bed. Sighing with relief that an awkward moment was avoided, I got dressed and followed the smell of bacon downstairs.

  When I walked around the corner and into the kitchen, two things hit me. First, out of habit, I had expected to see Holly in her usual place cooking breakfast. The pain of her betrayal felt like a knife in my stomach all over again. Second, Nash was wearing a frilly apron and cooking bacon and eggs.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  “Morning, just barely,” he replied, expertly cracking an egg onto the griddle. “How do you like your eggs?”

  “Over easy I guess.”

  Nash grunted and pushed a glass of orange juice at me. “Sit down and drink up. Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.”

  I guess the wolf wanted to see me fed as well. I could work with that. The aroma of bacon was making my stomach growl.

  “Have you seen Tess?” I asked, the house suddenly feeling empty.

  “She had to go into work.” Nash turned and put some bread in the toaster. “She left you a note.” He pointed to a slip of paper hanging on the fridge.

  I grabbed the note and gave it a quick read. All it said was ‘Back at 5. We need a movie night. I’ll pick up pizza. Make lots of popcorn. WTF the truck?’

  I starred at Tess’s note in confusion. I had no clue what that last bit was about. Nash looked at me and shrugged.

  “You better look out back,” he said and then turned back to the grill. He plated up some hashbrowns, bacon and two eggs and set the plate in front of me. “But don’t take too long or your breakfast will get cold.”

  I slid off the stool and hurried over and threw open the door. There beside my old beater of a truck was a brand new Ford F-150. It was metallic green and had a great big bow on top of the hood.

  “A truck? A new truck is a small token of appreciation?” Well, I guess it was better than another expensive dress.

  ***

  Later that night, after we all but demolished two large pizzas, a case of beer and a bowl of popcorn, and binged on the entire original Star Wars trilogy (I’m talking episodes IV to VI), Tess excused herself for bed, leaving me alone with Isaac. Nash had taken off right after breakfast and the awkward moment I thought I had avoided earlier made an appearance. I hadn’t heard from him since. Not that I expected to.

  “So do you think what DiCastro was trying to do would have worked?” I asked Isaac. I really didn’t know whether I believed if a god, any god, existed.

  “No.”
He steepled his fingers in front of his chin. For movie night he had gone all casual and he wore black dress pants and a silky dark, almost black, purple, button front shirt. This was completely different than my definition of casual which was why I was wearing a one piece pair of flannel pajamas. With feet.

  “You don’t believe the gods exist?” I asked.

  “No, it’s not that. It’s just he would never have succeeded because he would not have been able to kill you.”

  “Uh, hello? He was going to shove a six inch dagger through my heart. I’m pretty sure he would have killed me.”

  “He may have facilitated your first death, but not your true death.”

  I looked at Isaac blankly. Say what?

  “Tell me what happened when you tasted the blood last night,” Isaac asked, appearing to change the subject.

  “I don’t know. I was getting high on all the magical energy in the room. The blood tasted so good and I…” I frowned, not really sure of what happened next. “Something happened and my whole mouth felt like it was cracking open or something. It was some sort of hallucination.”

  “A hallucination? You’re sure that’s all it was?”

  “I thought for a minute I had fangs, Isaac. I’m pretty sure it was just my mind playing tricks.” I bared my teeth to him. “Thsee? No fangths.”

  Isaac raised his eyebrows at me, a smirk on his face. “No fangs now, but what about then?”

  “No, it was just a weird hallucination. Why would I suddenly sprout fangs?”

  “You can’t think of anyone you know, anyone with a beating heart mind you, that has fangs?”

  “Well there’s Tomas, but he’s…” I trailed off thinking about what Isaac was getting at. I had learned that Tomas was a dhamphir, the living offspring of a vampire and a human. “You can’t mean?”

  Isaac shrugged again. “If the tooth fits.”

  I shook my head trying to deny the truth that had been staring me in the face for a while. My father, whoever he was, was a vampire.