Zombies Sold Separately

TWENTY-THREE



We started out the exit, past the frozen crime scene. “Too bad the Pit doesn’t have any Belgian beers,” Colin said as we walked down Arthur Avenue. “I have two six-packs of Hoegaarden in my fridge.”

“Never had Belgian beer.” I frowned at the thought of going to the Pit. It still bothered me that Rodán had refused to look at the first stone and sent me straight to the Magi instead. And now I was carrying a second stone. What would he do? Send me to the Magi again?

I still hadn’t quite gotten over him trying to kick me off the case, either. I looked at Colin. “Since you have it and I’d like to try it, why don’t we go have one of your, whatever they’re called, Belgian beers at your place? If that’s okay with you.”

“Sure.” Colin scooped up his shredded jacket. “I’m not much in the mood for socializing and the Pit is still going strong this time of night.”

I smiled. “Maybe you should turn down that Dragon charm of yours.”

“I only use it on stage.” He gave a wicked grin. “It’s part of the fun of the act.”

“What do you call it when you’re off the stage?” I asked.

Colin winked at me. “Natural-born sex appeal.”

I laughed. “And you have it in spades.”

He shrugged, suddenly looking a little embarrassed, which completely surprised me.

“Hey.” I squeezed his arm and he glanced at me. His skin was warm beneath my palm. “Best three out of five.”

“You are persistent,” he said. “I like that.”

“You have no idea,” I said. “Where do you live?”

He gave me the address of a coop on Sixty-sixth Road in Queens. As soon as he finished giving me his address, I was gone.

The door was open when I arrived. Colin already had two bottles of chilled beer out and sitting on the counter.

“I give up.” I raised my hands. “For tonight, anyway.”

Colin handed me my bottle and grinned. “You can never beat a Dragon, Nyx.”

“Ha.” I took a drink of the pale beer. “Not bad,” I said. “Although an elderflower Tom Collins has it beat.”

I grinned at the Dragon’s sheepish expression at the barkeeper having to give all of the women shots of elderflower to counteract the Dragon-thrall.

“I don’t think Hector is going to forgive me for a long time,” Colin said.

“He does tend to hold a grudge,” I said.

“I need to get cleaned up.” Colin looked down at his torn T-shirt and smears of something on his arms. Zombie blood and soot, I thought.

“Allow me.” I gave a little bow and almost laughed as Colin cocked an eyebrow.

“Avanna.” I spoke the Elvin word for “clean.” The tears in his T-shirt vanished and his skin and hair were cleansed of soot and Zombie goo and sweat. I did the same for myself, feeling refreshed at once.

I smiled as I took a look around. “Nice. Did you do the decorating?”

“A little. Haven’t been here long enough to do much.” Still holding his beer, he indicated I should follow him with a crook of his finger of his free hand. “I’ll show you the place.”

It had one bedroom, but all of the rooms were exceptionally large, which included the kitchen and dining room, and the bathroom.

“That has to be the biggest bed I have ever seen,” I said when he showed me the bedroom. “And I’m the daughter of a king.”

Colin took a swig of his beer. “They call this the emperor-sized bed.”

“I guess Dragons need plenty of room to lie around,” I said. “Does it wear you out? Shifting, that is.”

“That’s where the beer comes in,” he said as we walked back into the kitchen. “Great for recovery time.” Colin tossed his empty beer bottle into a wastebasket and grabbed four more Hoegaarden from the huge fridge.

I downed the rest of mine and threw away the bottle, and he handed me two of the ones he was holding. I took them but said, “I don’t know if I should drink that much.”

I thought about the stones in the pouch on my belt, then decided I might have three beers tonight after all. I still needed to talk with Colin about the second stone.

Colin set his bottles on the spacious counter and ducked down so that he was looking into his fridge again. “Are you hungry? I’m ready to eat a cow. Whole.”

I grimaced. “Don’t tell me you really do…”

He brought out what looked like an entire roast. “Never ask questions you don’t want to hear the answers to.”

“You’re right.” I set one of the two full bottles down, opened the other, and started drinking.

Colin grabbed mustard, mayo, thick slices of wheat bread, and three kinds of cheese.

He made us sandwiches and carried the plate to the living room. Instead of sitting on the couch, we sat side-by-side on the floor at the coffee table where we placed our food and beers, and we ate. And talked.

Even though it seemed we had exhausted going over the details of the Zombie attack tonight, we still found ourselves talking about it until my head ached.

One thing about Colin was that he could mix humor in with the bad, and he did it in a way that didn’t negate the horror or severity of what had happened.

After we finished talking about the attack, again, we started in on other subjects.

I had to admit Colin was a lot of fun to be around. He made me laugh as he told me about some of his experiences living in New York so far, and how he’d set his first bed on fire and chewed up his pillow when he’d dreamed he was burning down a village and eating peasants.

He was teasing, of course.

I think.

Colin’s sense of humor and the easy camaraderie we had together made me feel warm inside. Instinctively I knew he’d make a great friend, someone who’d have my back. Always.

He winked at me and I felt a flutter in my belly that caught me off guard. The time I’d spent with him had just been as friendship with a fellow Tracker, even with the teasing in the café.

But that wink, and the feeling in my abdomen had me looking at him differently.

It shouldn’t have. I had Adam and I wasn’t interested in a relationship with anyone but him. Adam was my knight in shining armor.

Thoughts sped through my head, though. Like the fact that Colin was from my world, Otherworld. Despite the fact they’d be Dragons, if I met his parents—if they were still alive—I knew I wouldn’t feel as out of place as I had with Adam’s family. Colin was a paranorm. We understood each other on an entirely different level than Adam could.

I could imagine Colin sitting around with my father and his men, drinking ale and telling stories of battle and women. Adam just didn’t fit the picture in the same way.

Guilt ended the tingling in my belly. I shouldn’t be having thoughts or feelings like this.

Colin pushed his plate away. He’d eaten most of the entire beef roast. I’d put away my share. It had been delicious.

“Thank you.” I shifted on the floor, stretched my legs out under the coffee table, and relaxed my back against the couch, my hand on my stomach. “That was awesome.”

“Something’s bothering you, Nyx.” Colin caught me off guard like he had earlier in the night. “Want to tell me about it?”

The tingling I’d been feeling at my hip where the two stones were seemed stronger now. Kerri’s warning about not showing the stone weighed heavy on my mind.

But she’d been talking about the stone I brought back from Otherworld, not the one I found tonight. I’d been waiting for the right time to tell Colin. Now seemed to be it.

“One of the Sentients was carrying a stone.” I reached for my pouch and grasped the stone on the left which was where I’d put the one I’d found tonight. “He lost it and then that woman dove after it before she was hit by the truck.” My arm prickled as I drew the cloth-wrapped item out and set it on the coffee table. “I picked up the stone.”

I met Colin’s gaze which held a hint of surprise as I spoke. “I think Olivia and I need to take it, along with the other stone, to that Sorcerer whenever we meet with him.”

“May I look at it?” Colin didn’t reach for the stone, simply waited for my permission.

“Whatever you do, don’t touch it.” I leaned forward as he left the stone on the coffee table and pulled an edge of the cloth aside. “When I showed her the other one, the Seer said, ‘Every time you touch the stone it becomes a beacon and will draw the enemy.’” I tapped my chin with my forefinger. “As far as I know, even just having the stone might draw the enemy. I think that’s what happened at the café.”

Colin paused and looked at me. “You didn’t visit a Seer, did you,” he stated. “You had an audience with a Magi.”

Shock made me catch my breath. “How did you know?” Had I given it away somehow?

Colin drew away another edge of the cloth very slowly. “I know Seers, Nyx,” he said. “I also know of Magi.” He paused in moving the cloth. “One of my gifts is being able to read beings and situations and see through what is being said.”

My eyes narrowed. I wasn’t too sure I liked the sound of this. “You can read minds?”

“No.” He pulled aside another section of the cloth. “I can just tell the difference between truths, untruths, and skirting the subject.”

“Okay.” I supposed I could live with that. Our gazes met. “Now for this.”

He nodded and finished unwrapping the stone.

My heart thudded. The dryness in my mouth made me feel like I wouldn’t be able to speak if I had to. Goose bumps prickled my skin and I rubbed my arms to try to chase them away.

The stone looked gray, plain, and unmarked when he unwrapped it. “It seems like a regular rock,” he said as he glanced at me.

I tried to swallow but my throat was too dry now, too. “Move the cloth so that we can see the opposite side of the stone.”

Colin eased it around so that a flat, shiny side faced it. For a moment the glare from his track lighting made it look like a blank TV screen, like the other one had.

A woman’s face appeared and I reeled backward. It was the woman who was hit by the truck tonight.

Colin dropped the cloth and moved his hand away. “What the—”

I held my hand to my chest. It was a stone. Just a stone that was like a mini TV.

So I studied it as if it just hadn’t shocked me senseless.

Looking at the image of the woman on the flat, black side of the stone was like seeing someone on the other side of a TV screen.

“That’s the woman from tonight—the one who was hit by the truck.” I could barely breathe. “This is so lifelike—it’s as if she’s in there. Really in there.”

Colin was quiet and I glanced at him. He was focused so intently on the stone that it was almost like he wasn’t there. Like he was in another world.

“This can’t be right.” Colin shook his head, the movement slight, barely perceptible. He said his next words slow and precise as if trying to make sense of each one. “The woman is in the stone.”

“How can she be inside the stone?” Confusion knocked on the inside of my skull. “Not only is that unbelievable, but we saw the ambulance take her away.”

“Is it unbelievable, Nyx?” Colin moved his gaze from the stone to me. “We live in a paranormal world. Anything and everything is possible.”

“How?” A chill rolled through me as I focused on the stone again. “If what you say is true, how did it happen? And what makes you believe it did?”

“The same senses I was just talking with you about earlier,” he said. “I can sense a lie from truth and the difference between the unbelievable and the believable.”

“Whatever it is,” I said, “I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I.” He reached out as if he was going to pick up the stone. “We need to figure it out.”

I grabbed his hand and kept it from getting any closer to the stone. “Remember what the Magi told Angel and me. We can’t touch it or it will draw the Zombies and the Sentients to us, wherever we are.”

“She was talking about the other stone,” Colin said, but he lightly squeezed my fingers and allowed me to bring his hand away. He didn’t let go of me, though, and he rested both of our hands on his thigh.

I met his burnished gold eyes. “Just the same, Colin, I don’t want to take chances.”

“We won’t.” He held my hand a little tighter. I wasn’t sure why, and I wasn’t sure why I let him. “I think you need to take this to your Sorcerer along with the other one whenever you meet with him.”

“My thoughts, too.” I finally tugged my hand away from Colin’s and he released me.

It had been far too intimate allowing him to hold my hand, even though I was certain he had only been attempting to calm me down in some way.

Had it worked? Was I any calmer?

I didn’t think so.

“The PTF agent said her name is Candace Moreno,” I said as I studied the woman.

“She prefers to be called Candy,” Colin said quietly.

I cut my gaze to him. “You never did meet her, plus she was in a coma. So how could you possibly know that?”

“Sometimes words form in my mind if a being is strong enough to project them.” He let out his breath and leaned his back against the couch again. “She’s human but she has a powerful presence of self that I can sense.”

“I need to call Rodán.” I reached for my phone on my belt. While I did, I couldn’t take my eyes off the woman. Same short dark hair, olive complexion. But she didn’t have a single scrape or cut on her face.

“Nyx.” Rodán answered on the first ring. “I just spoke with Karen and Sara about a fairly large Zombie massacre they assisted with. Apparently both you and Colin were involved?”

“I’m sorry, Rodán.” My heart pounded a little faster. I’d never failed to call in before. “I just—just—”

“Just what?” he said. “Did something happen after you left?”

“No.” I glanced at Colin and my skin burned hot. This wouldn’t sound good, but it was the truth. “I came with Colin to his place to wind down after the battle.”

He spoke in a soft voice. “Why didn’t you come in?” I had no idea what he was thinking from his tone.

I clenched my phone. I didn’t want to get into it right now, especially in front of Colin. “I’ll explain when I see you.”

Rodán sounded more like an employer than a friend. “You have something to tell me,” he stated.

I took a deep breath, then let it out. “I found a second stone at the scene.”

Dead silence.

“I think I should take it to the Sorcerer when Olivia and I meet with him,” I hurried to say. I looked at the stone and the woman. “This one is different, Rodán. Very different.”

“You are correct in that you should take it to the Sorcerer.” Every one of Rodán’s words was short, clipped. I’d never heard him talk this way and it made me feel strange, as if I didn’t know him. “But you were wrong in not coming directly to me.”

“I’m sorry.” I closed my eyes. “You didn’t want to touch the other one and instead sent me to the Magi—”

“Being immediately apprised of a significant situation is mandatory, Nyx,” he said and my face grew hotter. “Regardless of how you believe a problem or situation should be dealt with, if it is something like this, it is for me to be consulted with, and it is for me to judge. I am your Proctor.”

I didn’t want to look at Colin. My amethyst skin did look purple when I flushed.

“Yes, Rodán.” I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. “I understand.”

“Good.” The word was said with such brevity it felt like a slap. “Tell me about this second stone.”

I stared at it and told Rodán about everything that had happened that night. The image of Candace or Candy looked tired.

When I finished telling Rodán everything I could think of regarding the night’s activities, he said, “I want to see you at eight, before you meet with your team tomorrow night.”

“Yes, sir.” I don’t know why I tacked on the “sir.” I’d never called him that before. Ever. But then he’d never been angry with me like this.

“I will see you in my office then,” he said before he clicked off.

“That went well,” I muttered as I tucked the phone in my belt. “I really screwed up by not going immediately to Rodán. I should have gotten that over with—debriefing with him about tonight and about the new stone, regardless of whether or not he’d have wanted to look at it.”

I hadn’t wanted to see Rodán, but the choice that I’d made hadn’t been professional at all.

Colin placed his hand on mine and squeezed before releasing it. “How about another beer—on the house.”

“I think I’m all beered out.” I gave him a little smile. “I’ll just be collecting my woman-rock and get home to bed.”

I had told Colin about the other stone rather than bringing it out to show him. I hadn’t thought I could handle any more than I already had tonight. I let out a breath when both stones were secured in my pocket.

Colin walked me to the door as I left. I paused in the doorway and he reached out to me and brushed my hair over my shoulder. “See you tomorrow night.”

I nodded.

Then turned and ran.