Zombies Sold Separately

THIRTY



Thursday, December 30


“NYPD has been flooded with calls.” I frowned at my computer monitor while Desmond ate his bagel.

It was only a few hours after finally leaving the mess at the theater and heading to my office.

“Almost four hundred people were reported missing from the concert at Town Hall last night,” I added before I frowned. “Including Angel.” My stomach twisted. “Did the Sorcerer get her?”

“I hope for her sake that he did not,” Desmond said. He sat in one of the chairs in front of my desk, eating a bagel with lox and cream cheese with chives. He looked even more rumpled than he had last night. A sexy sort of rumpled in a good-looking, mad-scientist kind of way.

Desmond nodded, but his eyes had the look of a man mulling things over in his mind and barely registering the comments of those around him.

“Town Hall’s box office reported ticket sales of over eight hundred for that concert.” I looked at my cinnamon raisin bagel, but with Angel missing, I didn’t feel like eating anything. I hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday and Desmond had gone out and bought us fresh bagels for breakfast from a place on Amsterdam Avenue.

I turned my thoughts to the larger part of the problem. “What happened to the other four hundred not reported missing?”

“Amory.” Desmond wiped his fingers clean with a paper napkin and rubbed a spot of cream cheese off his mouth. “I believe this was a botched attempt at something done on a greater scale than he’s done before. Whatever it is that he’s done, Amory hadn’t planned to take four hundred Hosts and four hundred Shells back to Doran.”

“You think that the Sorcerer had that many Sentients there at the concert to trade essences?” I asked.

He rested his elbow on the chair’s arm and rubbed his stubbly chin with his fingers “On Doran I never saw or heard of Amory doing such a large exchange of essences at one time.” He moved his hand away from his face and rested his elbows on the chair’s arms. “If he is able to perfect it, he could exchange essences with thousands. Millions even. Theoretically it is entirely possible.”

I pushed at my bagel on its napkin before I rubbed my arms with my palms trying to suppress a chill. “If he can do this with a mass number of people…” I trailed off while shaking my head. “I can’t begin to imagine what that would mean to this world.”

“Quick, complete, and total takeover,” Desmond said. “This world would eventually no longer be your own. And there is nothing the humans can do about it.”

“It’s up to us.” I looked at Olivia’s empty desk and swallowed down an ache that developed in my throat. Not only was my friend missing, but her body was Host to a Kerran now and I was going to have to interview her.

I blew out a sharp breath. “Where do we start?”

Desmond got to his feet. “First we need to get to the infirmary and interrogate the Host Candace Moreno.”

I was relieved he didn’t pick interviewing Olivia’s Host first. It was not going to be easy.

Rather than driving, we decided to take the C train because it would take us to the 168th Street station. The paranorm infirmary was deep below Columbia University Medical Center.

On our way out of the office to the subway station at 103rd Street, I called Rodán to tell him what Desmond and I had just discussed, and what we were doing now.

I’d already filled Rodán in on everything that had happened yesterday and so far today, with the exception of my lunch with Adam. That, I left out.

When I told Rodán about Desmond transferring me into a Host body he was concerned, but I reminded him that the Magi had said I must do whatever the Sorcerer Desmond asked of me. There really wasn’t a choice anyway.

After everything that had happened since then, it was hard to believe my lunch with Adam was only yesterday.

There were six secret paranorm entrances into the infirmary. The C train sped us to the 168th Street station where we clambered off in a crowd of people. From there we slipped away to the glamour-hidden elevator in the subway’s darkness. The elevator carried us down below the medical center to the paranorm infirmary.

In the Earth Otherworld, I’d been in norm hospitals as well as medical and scientific facilities that I really wanted to forget, and one thing had held true in all of those cases. Sterile white prisons.

After my last two cases involving a mad scientist, Werewolves, and Vampires, I’d had more than enough of anything to do with medical or scientific research. And despite being Drow, after a horrific chain of events, in this Earth Otherworld I didn’t like being deep below the ground.

Yet here I was.

Of course in a paranorm infirmary there were a lot of differences, including the fact that magic replaced any other form of healthcare. Our Healers used their gifts for all paranorm needs. It didn’t mean the paranorm would be instantly well, it just meant that they would heal without the use of knives, lasers, medication, or whatever else they were using in the medical center above our heads.

“Let me go,” came a shout from the room we had been directed to. “I swear you’ll all be killed if you don’t let me out of here. I’ll make sure of it myself.”

Desmond and I looked at each other then picked up our pace to reach the room. After I showed my PI and Tracker credentials to the guards, Desmond and I went through the door.

The moment we entered the room I almost dropped my purse from the sudden heaviness of the stones within. At least one of the stones recognized the being within the Host body. I had no doubt it was the stone whose essence the real Candace was in.

We approached the female who was manacled to a hospital bed and strapped down tightly from ankles to chest. A cloth strap harness held her head secured tight. She had a snarl on her face and she was yanking against her restraints.

The Healer Sara stood at the foot of the bed and smiled at us as we walked in.

“What the hell are you smiling about?” Candace shouted at the Healer. Then she caught sight of me and her eyes narrowed. “You. Tracker.” She made a sound like a growl. “That idiotic Una should have taken your Host.”

I smiled. “But she didn’t.”

Candace narrowed her eyes. “You have it. I can feel it. Give it to me.”

“Give you what?” I said, even though I knew perfectly well what she wanted.

The draw of the stone from my purse made me lightheaded. The feeling crept up my arm and slowly made its way throughout my body like a virus. I shuddered. The sensation wasn’t a pleasant one.

Desmond stepped beside me. “What’s your Kerran name?”

The female looked from me to Desmond. “You’re supposed to be dead.” Her lips parted in obvious shock. “He killed you. I saw my uncle kill you.”

“Bryna.” Desmond gripped the handrail of her hospital bed and studied her, his jaws tight. “Worthless bitch.”

“You’re the one who ended up without a world, Sorcerer.” Bryna laughed, a mirthless laugh.

The muscles in Desmond’s arms and forearms were well-defined as he strained to gain control of himself. At least that’s what it looked like.

“Perfect.” He fixed his gaze on me. “We have Amory’s niece. She’s an advisor in his Inner Circle and he’ll be happy to see her.”

“You’re letting me go?” Bryna stopped straining against her manacles. “Give me my stone.”

Desmond’s smile was cold, ruthless. “You will never see your uncle again as an independent being.”

“What are you talking about?” Bryna jerked against her restraints. “Lord Amory will never stop searching for me.”

“Let him.” Desmond shrugged then looked at me. “I obtained the information I need out of this one. We can go.”

“That’s it?” I asked as Bryna started thrashing her head and arms in the hospital bed, her attempts futile.

“Just knowing she’s Amory’s niece is good enough for me.” Desmond patted the bars of Bryna’s bed. “You be a good little bitch. We’ll be back for you later.”

“Bastard!” Bryna shrieked. “This time I’ll make sure you’re dead.”

Desmond smiled. “No, honey. This time you’ll be helping me bring down your uncle.”

As Bryna screamed, I looked at the Healer and gave a single nod.

“Delighted.” Sara closed her eyes as she placed her hands on Bryna’s strapped-down ankles.

Bryna’s screams ended abruptly and her Host body went limp.

“Sweet, blessed silence,” the Healer said, and I agreed.

When Desmond and I walked out of the room I frowned at him. “All we learned is that Candace is the Host body for Amory’s niece. Why didn’t you question her more?”

“No point in it.” Desmond shoved his hands into his front jeans pockets while we headed down the hallway toward the exit at the subway. “Anything else we need to know from her you’ll absorb once you’re in her body. This just gave us an excellent heads-up.” He grinned as he turned and walked backward in front of me. “Amory’s niece. Perfect. She is a confidant of Amory’s and in his elite Inner Circle. She is a treacherous woman and very loyal to Amory.”

“So I’ll know exactly what to do when I’m in that Doran Otherworld?” I said as he turned and started walking at my side again.

“Everything.” Desmond and I stepped into the elevator that would take us way up, back to the subway. “And in theory, you should know everything the Host Candace knows, too.”

“In theory.” I raised one eyebrow. “Have you ever done this before? Put two essences into one stone and then another essence into a Host with two imprints?”

But the time I finished saying it, I’d just confused myself. The whole of it wasn’t easy to follow.

Desmond shrugged as the elevator shot up. “Never had the chance to do it, but I don’t think it will be a problem.”

“You don’t think?” I shook my head. “What about my body? What if it starts acting Zombie-ish? Attacking people and eating them?” That last part made me shudder.

The elevator paused for a moment, waiting to open its doors until certain there were no norms close enough to see us exit.

“We’ll strap your body down in place of Candace’s,” he said. “Your body won’t be able to hurt anyone, or get hurt for that matter.”

“Guards aren’t good enough.” The doors opened and we exited the elevator. “I’d like a couple of Trackers on watch, too.”

“You might want to settle for some PTF agents,” Desmond said. “We’re going to need all of the Tracker help we can get, sooner rather than later.”

I groaned. This was not going to be my all-time favorite assignment, I knew that right now. “So I won’t be able to use any of my abilities when I’m in Candace’s body … What about fighting skills?”

“Magic, no.” Desmond looked apologetic. “But fighting skills, yes you’ll still have those. The body might not be yours, but your will replaces the experience and will of the Host. It’s rare for the Host body’s remaining essence to have any ability to act on its own.”

“Rare … meaning it has happened.” The nervousness in my belly threatened to climb up my throat, making me want to puke.

“Rare.” Desmond repeated in a tone meant to reassure me, although I wondered if he really believed what he was telling me. “Very rare. Your will is much too strong to be overridden anyway.”

“I sure hope so.” I glanced over my shoulder in the direction of the elevator doors to the hospital. “I’d say that one has a pretty strong will of her own.”

The A train arrived and we stepped into the almost empty car before it took off again. Desmond and I sat near the doors, side by side.

I studied him. “I get the impression you’re a lot older than you look.”

He shrugged one shoulder. “I am.”

“How old?” I asked as the train came to a stop to let on more passengers.

Desmond ran his hand over his stubbled cheeks. “Doran time versus Earth time. Two very different things.”

I shifted in the uncomfortable orange plastic seat. “How about a guess?”

“Hmmm…” Desmond tipped his head. “Somewhere over a century, I think.”

“Eh, still a baby, as my father would say.” I grinned and flopped back in my seat. “Although no matter how old I get, I’ll always be a baby as far as my father is concerned.”

“My father died during Amory’s first wave of attacks.” Desmond turned his gaze for a moment, looking outside the train at the concrete and metal and lights that went flashing by.

“Your father was a Sorcerer, too?” I asked.

Desmond looked back at me. “He was a blacksmith.”

“We’ll take care of Amory.” I laid my hand on Desmond’s. “I promise.”

“As do I,” Desmond said. “He won’t take over this world. I won’t allow it.”

“So big Sorcerers don’t have baby Sorcerers?” I said with a teasing smile.

He gave a little smile in return. “Those of us showing talents of any kind are put into apprenticeship as soon as the gift is recognized.”

I rested my arms on my purse in my lap. “What did you do that gave them a clue you were Sorcerer material?”

“I blew up the stables when I was quite young, just a few years old.” Desmond shook his head. “Fortunately all of the livestock was out when I did it.”

The train jerked and I saw that we had reached our stop at Seventy-Second Street and Central Park West. It was the station closest to the Paranorm Center beneath the Alice in Wonderland unbirthday party sculpture.

“How did you blow up the stables?” I stood and Desmond followed me out of the subway car.

He held up his hands as he walked beside me. Currents of green ran up and down and between his fingers. “One day I was angry with the owner of the stables. I wanted to play there and the owner told me to get out.

“My anger simply manifested itself,” he continued, “and I was too young to control it. To even know what was happening. I had no intention of doing damage to him or his possessions. I had to learn to control and contain my emotions and my newfound power.”

We jogged up the subway steps and made our way to the snowy wonderland of Central Park.

“So you were whisked away to live with a Sorcerer who taught you all you know?” I said.

“Something like that.” Snow crunched beneath his shoes. Being Elvin I couldn’t have made a sound when I walked if I tried. “Sorceress, and she was already ancient when she took me in. I was the first Sorcerer to be born in decades.”

I pushed the strap of my purse up on my shoulder. “It’s not a hereditary thing?”

“No.” He shook his head. “Completely random.”

“Interesting.” I looked ahead of us and saw the unbirthday party sculpture as we walked on the northern end of Conservatory Water. “So when the Sorceress passed away, Doran rule was turned over to you.”

Desmond seemed a little more subdued and I wondered if the subject bothered him. I really couldn’t tell, though. “I was trained to rule from the moment I was taken in as the Sorceress’s apprentice.”

Of course, Desmond had never been in the Paranorm Center. Very few were allowed there, so it took me a bit to convince the Dryads to let Desmond go to the detention center with me.

When they finally let us pass, Desmond seemed impressed by the Dryad and Shadow Shifter security as well as the immensity of the place. We walked past the closed doors of the Paranorm Council where Leticia and the other council members were likely making rulings on things that really didn’t matter. I wondered if Rodán had filled them in on anything regarding the Sorcerer Amory yet.

The Sentients locked up in the paranorm detention center gave me the creeps, just like the first Sentient I had seen in Starbucks just a little over a week ago. It seemed so much longer.

Thinking about that day made me think about Adam again. I didn’t want to think about him and the pain it caused in my chest.

“Nine Sentients captured and arrested,” I said as I looked down at a sheet of paper. “And one Host.” I felt like I’d been punched in the belly. “Olivia.”

Desmond took the sheet from my hands and there was understanding in his tone when he said, “Let’s start with the Sentients.”

The PTF was used to magical things that caused all kinds of good and bad to happen. Per Rodán’s instructions, the PTF had used warded leather pouches to save the stones and had them put into a vault.

The first Sentient was a female. The Kerrans looked human but they had a few differences, all subtle enough that it didn’t really seem to matter. All of the Kerrans had small ears, small noses, and long, delicate fingers.

But their bodies were also starting to rot.

“It’s why they’re looking for Host bodies,” Desmond said close to my ear while we waited in front of the cages. “The Doran Otherworld is rejecting them just as Kerran did. They need to put their essences into new Hosts or they will die.”

“So that’s why most of the Zombies are so disgusting?” I asked. “They’re discarded, rotting bodies?”

“More or less. When the essence leaves the body, the deterioration of the body is then accelerated,” Desmond said, then followed the PTF agent through the gate into the first cell.

A female Kerran sat passively on the low cot in the cell. She was almost bald, barely a few long wisps of hair remaining, and her eyes were almost milky white.

No matter what we asked her or how we asked her, she refused to talk. She didn’t even give a sign that she’d heard us speaking. Short of being aggressive, I didn’t know how to get information out of the female.

“Your stone.” Desmond knelt in front of her. “If you don’t tell us what we need to know, then your stone will be destroyed.”

The female startled and looked at Desmond. “No. You can’t.”

He gave a slow nod. “I can, and I will if you don’t start cooperating.”

“He will kill me.” She reduced her voice to a whisper. “Lord Amory will kill me if I tell you anything.”

I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back against the bars of her cell. “Lord Amory isn’t here right now.”

“It doesn’t matter.” The female looked from me to Desmond. The wisps of her hair floated over her head. “He will question me because he knows I have been captured. He will know the truth of it because I cannot lie to him.”

“So you’re in a pretty bad place, aren’t you?” I said. “We destroy the stone and you have no way of getting into a Host. You tell us what we need to know and you go back to Amory and he’ll discover what you did.”

A sad look was on her once pretty face that was now pocked with whatever disease was eating these people alive. I would have felt sorry for the Kerrans if they didn’t steal bodies and murder beings just so that they could live.

“What’s your name?” I asked her for the tenth time.

“It doesn’t matter.” She looked away from us. “Do whatever you will. I’m already dead.”

Desmond and I moved away from the female, cattycorner from her. “She’s right,” I said in a low voice. “She’s a female with nothing to live for if she can’t have a Host body, and we won’t let her have one. So why should she talk? She has no incentive.”

“Let me try,” Desmond said.

I extended my arm, my palm up in a “do whatever you want with her” gesture.

Desmond squatted in front of her again. This time he took her head between his palms. She looked surprised yet didn’t move as green sparks moved from Desmond’s fingers, across her forehead and over the top of her head.

He closed his eyes and she did the same. His eyes moved beneath his eyelids as if he were watching a movie.

When he finished he removed his hands from her head. She sucked in a breath and gasped as they both opened their eyes.

“Thank you,” he said to the female.

“What?” She looked confused. “I didn’t tell you anything.”

Desmond just smiled and rose to his feet. We left the cell and it closed with a hard clang behind us.

“I saw bits and pieces of what might be Amory’s plan,” Desmond said. “And a lot about Doran and how it’s changed that is good information to have.”

“Why didn’t you just do that sooner?” I asked.

“I wanted to see how they react to questioning,” he said.

“Okay,” I said. “Think we can skip all of the other steps and go straight to the one where you’re doing the mind-thing and getting answers that way?”

“Yes.” Desmond smiled. “I’ll do the same with the other Kerran prisoners. I can put together more pieces that will help us get you safely to Doran and back.”

“Do it,” I said as I looked in the direction of Olivia’s cell, at the far end of the corridor. And no rush, I thought, dreading seeing Olivia—seeing her body that was now a Host for a Sentient, a Kerran.

After about five minutes alone with each remaining Sentient, I asked Desmond what he had learned.

He looked up at the low stone ceiling of the corridor between cells. “A lot.”

I rolled my eyes. “That tells me so much.”

His expression was distracted. “I need to work it all out and then I’ll be able to tell you more.”

“Let’s see her then.” My voice was low and rough with emotion as we went to the cell.

“What the hell is going on, Nyx?” Her tone and the expression on her face were so classic Olivia that it just wouldn’t register that it wasn’t my friend in that cell.

She came up to the bars and gripped them with her hands. Hands that were still lethal weapons if what Desmond said was true about keeping one’s skills as long as it wasn’t magic.

“Where’s Olivia?” I asked. “Her stone, wherever you put her.”

“What are you talking about?” Olivia—her Host body—was looking seriously pissed. “I’m right here, and I am so damn tired of this. Someone is going to get hurt when I break out of here.”

“We’re not going to get anywhere with her,” I said to Desmond who was standing beside me, observing the Olivia/Host in front of us. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“I can go in with her,” Desmond said and a fire sparked in the dark eyes of the Host in front of us.

Because that’s what I needed to think of her as right now. A Host. Not Olivia, but a Host.

We’d find Olivia’s stone and make things right. That’s all we could do.

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m making the call on this one and I think we have enough.”

Desmond looked like he was going to say something but stopped himself and nodded.

“Get me out of here, Nyx,” the Host was saying. “Get me out of here.”

I felt sick as we walked away and I heard Olivia’s voice screaming at me. That was the body of my best friend and partner, but it wasn’t her.

Where was Olivia’s essence now? The stone she was locked inside of?

We didn’t speak until we were out of the Paranorm Center and walking back toward the subway so that he could take the train back to Greenwich Village.

“At my place I can get to work preparing for tomorrow.” He looked at me.

I held my hand to my belly as I said, “When I become Bryna and go to Doran to meet the Sorcerer Amory himself.”