Zombies Sold Separately

ELEVEN



Thursday, December 23


The following morning I was still furious. It didn’t matter that Rodán had relented and I was the team leader for the op. What mattered was that he had tried to take me off the case entirely … that he actually doubted me.

The fact that we now knew Zombies were in the Earth Otherworld didn’t help my mood at all.

Fae bells jingled as Olivia pushed the door open then let it close behind her. At once I wondered if we might need to steer clear of one another—if her scowl and her T-shirt were indicative of her mood today.

I HAVE PMS AND A HANDGUN. ANY QUESTIONS?

Nah. I couldn’t let it go. I raised my hand as she tugged off her Mets jacket, then tossed it onto the credenza. “Ma’am,” I said. “I have a question.”

Olivia saw me glance at her chest. “The shirt speaks for itself.”

“But it asks if I have a question,” I said in a tone of complete innocence. “And I do.”

“Shoot.” Olivia touched the grip of the Sig in her side holster. “Or I will.” It was obvious to me she was struggling to maintain her irritated facade and not laugh.

“Do you have another one of those shirts I can borrow?” I asked. “Except make it one about a boss and a handgun.”

Olivia’s expression grew serious as she approached me. “What’s up? Something between you and Rodán?”

I tried not to scowl. Didn’t work. “After our team met with Rodán and went over the Zombie attack last night, Rodán and I had a little talk.”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “He said he wanted to speak with you alone in his office. So what happened?”

I ground my teeth before I said, “He wanted to take me off this op.”

“What?” Her eyes narrowed. “Why the hell would Rodán do that?”

Without going into complete detail, I told Olivia what Rodán had said and my own threat to quit if he didn’t change his mind.

“Stupid.” Olivia shook her head. “I can’t believe he’d let his emotions get in the way of his job.” She paused and cocked her head. “Come to think of it, I didn’t realize Rodán even has emotions.”

I rolled my eyes at that statement. “It’s because of our personal history and because of what happened during the Vampire op.”

“I know.” She leaned her hip against her desk. “But it’s not like him to be so unprofessional.”

“Agreed.” Just talking about it with Olivia released some of the pressure that had been building inside of me. “This isn’t something I’d tell any of the other Trackers.”

“Of course not.” Olivia folded her arms across her chest. “That’s what close friends and partners are for.”

I gave a sigh that was still filled with frustration. “Now that I got that off my chest, where are we going to start today?”

Olivia pushed away from the desk. “Zombies, huh?”

Again the word “Zombies” made me shudder. After last night I had fresh images to go along with it. “Unfortunately.”

“You’ve never mentioned having a brother. Why?” Instead of going behind her own desk and sitting in her office chair, she settled in one of the chairs in front of my desk. “Start there, then tell me what happened to you both in Otherworld.”

I should have expected that request from her. But thanks to my anger at Rodán, I wasn’t prepared for it or the sick feeling in my stomach that I now felt.

With my thumb and forefinger I rubbed my temples. “I don’t really want to talk about it.” The moment I let that out of my mouth I knew I was in trouble.

Olivia leaned forward and the message on her T-shirt stretched across her generous breasts. “Excuse me?”

“Sorry.” I flopped back in my chair and stared at the ceiling before I looked at her again. “I just don’t know if I can talk about it.”

“No excuses.” Her dark eyes had fire in them. “Give me the facts.”

“Facts.” I sighed and rubbed my temples again. “Facts.”

“You’re stalling.”

I folded my hands on my desk. Took a deep breath. “My brother, Tristan, was twenty-two years older than me. His mother was Drow and she died during childbirth.”

Olivia waited for me to continue.

“My father met my mother a year before I was born.” I smiled as I remembered what my brother was like when I was a little girl, a youngling.

“Tristan could have been resentful of a human stepmother,” I said. “He could have been resentful of me—especially because our father spoiled me so much.” I paused. “But he wasn’t. Tristan was special.”

With a nod from Olivia I went on.

“My brother spoiled me almost as much as my father did.” I felt a harsh prickling sensation behind my eyes as I spoke. “He wasn’t a warrior like our father, but an artist. He was gentle, thoughtful. But he was also fiercely loyal, which is what ultimately led to his … loss.”

If I had tear ducts like humans, I would have cried right then, the pain was so great. Memory after memory of all the things Tristan had done for me and with me kept coming to me in waves. Things I hadn’t thought of in so long.

“Why haven’t you told me anything about this before?” Olivia asked, her voice low, quiet.

“When we lost him I was only five.” I swallowed down the huge lump gathered in my throat. “When the Zombies started attacking my people and taking some away.”

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t tell me,” she said.

“Everything that happened during that time traumatized me and I repressed all of these memories.” I shook my head. “I loved Tristan so much that I didn’t want to remember what happened. Thinking about him hurt.” I met Olivia’s eyes. “It hurt so badly that I didn’t want to think about him or what happened anymore.”

“So you forgot about him?” Olivia gave me an almost incredulous look. “Forgot you ever had a brother?”

I know she didn’t mean it the way it sounded, but her words still had a sting to them. “No, I didn’t forget.” I was whispering now, my throat hoarse with tears I couldn’t shed. “I could never forget Tristan. It just hurt too much to think about him. To talk about him. So I haven’t.”

“That’s no way to honor the dead.” Olivia’s statement surprised me. “You should celebrate what time you did have with your brother.”

I stared at her like she’d grown horns. I could almost swear I saw points peeking out of her dark hair. “Since when did you get philosophical?”

Her expression didn’t change. “Tell me about the Zombies in Otherworld.”

Emotions wound so tight inside me that my stomach hurt. Pain, anger, even fear.

“Honestly, I don’t remember a lot.” I pushed my hand through my hair. “I’ve been trying to connect a few dots, but it’s so hard. I’m going to have to talk with my father about it when I go to Otherworld over Christmas.”

“What do you remember, Nyx?” Olivia’s tone was forceful, her expression intense. “You need to separate your emotions long enough for us to try to piece some of this together and figure out how to stop what’s happening.”

I nodded. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am.” She said it with a straight face. “I’m always right.”

With a slight smile, I said, “In some deluded way you probably believe that, too.”

She took on an even more serious expression. Her cop face. “You were five. I get that. But you might remember more than you think you do.”

Despite my father trying to shelter me from it, being the daughter of a king meant I’d heard about and had been around things that related to what had happened during that time. No doubt more than most younglings my age.

“Father and his closest advisors were having meetings,” I said. “More than normal.” My brow wrinkled as I thought about it. “My father wouldn’t let me watch the warriors train and I was so upset. He said it was different now. His men were preparing to fight an enemy, not just sharpening their skills.”

While she listened, Olivia leaned back in her chair and rested her right ankle on her opposite knee. Today she wore her black Keds that matched her black T-shirt and probably matched both of our moods this morning.

“I didn’t understand what was going on and that bothered me.” I could remember my five-year-old frustration at being left out. “Father wouldn’t talk about it with me but I heard him speak in a low voice to Mother. Sometimes I followed him and overheard him talking to his men. But I still didn’t understand.”

My father had always allowed me to learn everything he felt I was old enough to learn. Tristan had little interest in anything but art, so I think Father enjoyed teaching me what my brother didn’t care for.

“Tell me what you did learn.” Olivia’s impatience was starting to show.

“Right.” I gave a nod. Yes, I was stalling. “At night when our people went out, some would disappear, never come back.

“Father and his men left on hunting parties each night to try and find any males and females who had gone missing,” I said. “The warriors would come back from these excursions grim, sometimes battle-worn. And sometimes not every warrior would make it home.”

“What happened on these outings?” she asked.

“The second time they came back from an outing was when I first heard the word Zombie. The Drow equivalent of the word.” My stomach churned. “My father and his advisors had a meeting. They talked about beings that had been stealing both Light and Dark Elves. About Elves being found torn apart.”

I caught my breath then let it out. “Then they talked about the Zombies. Described them as beings with rotting flesh, sightless eyes. Beings that had one mission … and that mission was to kill. Destroy.”

Olivia didn’t say anything, so I went on.

“My father and his warriors also talked about beings who looked like Elves but different. Like humans, yet different.” I felt the same confusion now that I did then.

“So I guess there was more to it than the Zombies like the ones Colin, Penrod, and I fought last night,” I said. “But I’m going to have to ask my father because I really don’t remember anything more about that.”

“Tell me about your brother,” Olivia said. “What happened to him?”

I closed my eyes. Tristan’s image was so faint that I could barely remember what he looked like. When I opened my eyes I said, “Tristan’s best friend was murdered by the Zombies. My brother was so upset that he took up arms to go out with the next hunting party.”

My head was nearly swimming from the memories pressing at me. “I snuck out and followed them. My father didn’t know, but Tristan caught me,” I said. “He made me hide in a bush, made me promise not to follow him.

“When he left me there—that’s when I saw the Zombie.” I swallowed and felt so sick inside I wanted to throw up. “It looked hideous. I had a sword made for me and I can remember wanting to run the Zombie through with my small blade. But I remembered what Tristan said and I stayed hidden.”

Olivia raised her eyebrows. “Until…”

She knew me too well. I never had been good at doing what I was told to do if I thought I could help.

“I saw the Zombie going in the direction my brother was going and I got a really bad feeling.” I held my hand to my belly as that same feeling gripped my insides. “So I followed.”

Olivia’s gaze didn’t leave my face as I spoke.

“The Zombie had a lead on me and my legs were short so I fell behind,” I said. “I was still a youngling and I didn’t have my Drow speed yet.

“I almost stumbled into a clearing, but hid in the bushes the moment I saw light.” The memory of the brightness of the light was clear enough to make me feel like flinching now. “There was a doorway in the air. On our side it was night … but on the other side it was a sunny day in some place I’d never seen.

“I was so confused, especially when I saw my brother standing at that doorway,” I said. “He was a hundred percent Drow with no human in him, unlike me.

“But he was standing in full sunlight and nothing happened to him.” I shook my head, still unable to understand. “He didn’t burn away like Dark Elves do if they are exposed to sunlight.”

Olivia had her head tilted as she listened. “What did you see happen to your brother?”

I pushed my hair out of my face again. “It was all a blur from there. I saw some kind of dancing light between my brother and another male.

“The next thing I knew my brother was kneeling in front of a tall elder, beside the Zombie,” I said. “The elder wasn’t one of the Elves. I don’t know what he was, but he had long red hair that was turning gray.” I tried to focus, tried to remember. “I think my brother called the elder ‘Amory,’ but I’m not certain.

“After the elder touched my brother on his head, my brother stood—then fell.” My chest hurt and I clenched my fists to it. “I was ready to jump out of my hiding place when the Zombie scooped my brother’s body up and carried him through the doorway of light.”

My palms started to sting and I realized I was digging my nails into them. “The elder, and the Zombie carrying my brother’s body, vanished.” I looked at my friend. “They just vanished, Olivia. The door went away. That was it. He was gone.”

“How do you know he was dead?” she asked. “Maybe he just fainted.”

I put my face into my hands and my words were muffled when I said, “Tristan never came back.”

“Hey.” Olivia’s voice was firm and I drew myself back to the present. “We’ll get this figured out, Nyx.” She scooted her chair up to my desk. “You need to get your head engaged now. You kicked Zombie ass last night. You’ll do it again. And we will figure out what’s going on and how to stop it.”

“I know we will.” I took a deep breath. “Starting now.”

“Good.” She got up from the seat in front of my desk and headed to her own desk and office chair. “I’d hate to have to kick your ass just to snap you out of feeling the way you have been.”

I was quiet for a moment. “Do you think Rodán was right? That I’m too close to this?”

“Bullshit.” Olivia plopped down in her chair. “He knows that you can separate emotion from your work.” She braced her forearms on top of bright green sticky notes covering her desktop. “You’re a professional.”

“What about this?” I raised my hands. “I practically fell apart talking to you about it.”

“We talked it out,” she said and I nodded. “You dug out information from your memories.” I nodded again. “And now you’re ready to take care of business.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Well then.” Olivia moved herself in front of her computer and looked away from me as if the conversation was over. “Get on it.”

I smiled.

And started taking care of business.