Zombies Sold Separately

NINE



When did I become the clearinghouse for new Trackers?

I watched the others heading off to track their territories or handle other assignments then looked back to my seven-man—or rather seven-paranorm—team, which included our newest players, the Dragon and the Sprite.

Angel, who was a squirrel Doppler, and Joshua, a Shadow Shifter, had been new Trackers when they’d been assigned to the Werewolf case with Ice, Olivia, and me. They turned out to be two of the best I’d ever worked with.

I looked from the Dragon to the Sprite. I hoped I could say the same for the two of them.

Fortunately I was good at thinking on my feet. Or on my butt since I was sitting down.

“We’ll divide up into three teams.” I pointed to Olivia and Joshua—Olivia was less likely to be tempted to kill Joshua than she was likely to shoot Ice. “You two will take section one.”

For situations like this op, Peacekeepers had divided the city into three sections or four quadrants, depending on how many teams were being sent out.

“Angel and Ice.” I gave them each a nod. “You take section two.”

I inhaled and looked from Penrod to Colin. “I’ll take the newbies. Section three is our territory for tonight.”

“What is the plan you wish us to follow, o empowered one?” Ice said as he leaned back in his chair.

I would have loved to have Olivia’s rubber band gun on me. Rodán would have frowned on me using my daggers or buckler.

Fortunately I was getting good at letting comments like Ice’s slide by. “Concentrate on visiting areas where the homeless tend to hang out,” I said. “Those homeless who refuse to go to the shelters at night, no matter how blessed cold it is outside.”

“Do you have any theories about this case, Nyx?” Colin asked in his smooth, rich tone that nearly made me shiver.

I went on to explain in a little more detail why we were focusing on people forced to live on the street. That included the reports of a “homeless man” in two of the cases and those we interviewed who had said they’d seen a higher number of homeless people at night.

“Let’s go see for ourselves and find whatever or whoever is responsible.” I pushed my chair away from the conference table and stood. “And no one goes out alone. Stick with your teammate.”

Any one of my regular team members could have pointed out that I hadn’t listened to my own advice on the last op and that had just about gotten me killed. Thankfully they didn’t feel the need to bring it up.

Angel twisted one long blond corkscrew curl around her finger. “And find out what could possibly be weirder than the paranorm world we already live in.”

I would have smiled but Colin was walking toward me from the other side of the conference table. A strange flutter went through my belly. At first I thought he’d set his mesmerize switch to “stun” but the reality was he hadn’t. I was usually a good judge of character and my gut instinct told me he was actually a down-to-earth guy. For a Dragon, that was.

The belly flutters had to go.

“So,” I said when he reached me. “You used to eat people.”

“Only the bad ones.” Colin had an easygoing smile. “The good peasants I put to work sorting through and polishing all of the treasures and bright and shiny things I stole. The usual things Dragons do.”

I almost giggled. I would have been mortified if I had done so in front of a bunch of tough Trackers. In front of anyone but Adam.

The giggle quickly dissolved—for which I was immensely grateful—and I smiled instead.

Penrod had joined us as Colin was talking. I glanced from one to the other. “Well then … as former thieves, you two should get along great.”

Colin winked at Penrod, which both surprised me and won him a few points on my how-do-I-like-the-new-guy meter. With that conspiratorial wink, it was obvious he was treating the Sprite like a colleague, not a lesser being.

When I started toward the exit, Colin began walking beside me. “Who said I’m a former thief?”

“Okay.” I looked up at him. He was a good eight inches above my five-eight. “Let’s see if you can procure information for us tonight that will help our case, whether you have to beg, borrow, or steal.”

“Steal,” Penrod said from my other side. I turned my head to look at him and saw his spiky-tooth smile-grimace.

“Allrightythen.” I shook my head as we left the relative quiet of the conference room for the pounding blast of music in the nightclub. “Let’s do it.”

I walked ahead of the pair and pushed my way through the Pit’s crowd to the front entrance. There was no sign of Angel, Ice, Joshua, or Olivia when I made it out to the sidewalk. The night was crisp and cold, but in my Drow form the chilly weather and snow really didn’t bother me.

The scene Olivia, Adam, and I had been called to this morning was in section three of the city—which was why I had chosen it.

I told Colin and Penrod the location we were headed to first.

“How fast are you?” I asked the pair.

“Fast enough,” Colin said with a casual smile.

“I will be waiting for you when you arrive,” Penrod said, then vanished.

I didn’t wait for Colin. I started running.

When I need to get somewhere in a hurry I use my air element to push me faster. It’s like gliding on the wind. A really, really fast wind.

There was always the transference … but not really. It was a skill I needed to work on a lot. A whole lot. On the occasion I had tried using the transference during the Vampire op, I’d ended up passing out for thirty minutes, then puking my guts up when I came to. Being unconscious for half an hour kind of ruined the whole point in using that shortcut.

I made it to the park in minutes and figured I’d have to wait for Penrod and Colin.

They were both beneath the bare branches of a tree, waiting.

I put my hands on my hips. “How did you two get here so fast?”

Colin pushed away from the tree he’d been leaning against. “Penrod arrived first.”

“Transference.” The Sprite kicked the snow with one of his huge feet. “It was a gift from an old Sorceress when I acquired something for her that she wanted very much.”

“Acquired equals stealing, I take it,” I said.

The Sprite shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”

Curiosity had me wanting to find out what it was he stole that would make a Sorceress happy enough to bestow that gift upon him, but decided to save that question for another time.

I looked at Colin. “And you?”

Colin came out from under the shadow of the tree and I saw him more clearly beneath a park light. “Me, I just flew.”

My eyes widened. “You flew?”

He stepped closer to me and lowered his voice as if he was telling a secret. “That’s how I always got away from the villagers carrying the pitchforks and the flaming torches.”

I snorted out an unexpected laugh. It wasn’t very ladylike. “And I suppose you also flew away from the white knights who came to carve out your heart in order to win the love of some princess.”

“Nah.” Colin shook his head. “Knights are a waste of time. Ate ’em.”

Penrod licked his lips. “Are they good with ketchup?”

Colin nodded. “Crunchy, too.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt.

“Okay, okay.” I recovered and caught my breath as the Sprite and Dragon looked at me with obvious amusement. “I think I’m going to have to separate you two on future missions.”

This time Colin winked at me and my belly did that fluttering thing again.

That fluttering thing was not good. Not good at all. I was in love with Adam and he was the only male who should have made me feel like Faeries were having a circus in my belly.

I cleared my throat and looked away from Colin. I pointed in the direction of the crime scene. “Over there is where the pile of human bits and pieces was discovered.”

As I spoke I started walking to the location. “The police had it cleaned up, of course, but maybe the two of you can pick up something that Olivia and I, and the police missed.”

Penrod and Colin both started working their way around the scene. Neither of them said a word, both males clearly intent on looking for clues. I stood beneath the tree for a few moments and studied them as they worked to see what their methods of investigation were.

Every so often Penrod would crouch, touch the snow, and tilt his head as if he was listening. His large nostrils flared and he closed his eyes as his chest rose and fell with each deep inhalation. He’d open his eyes, dip one knobbly finger into the snow, bring it to his lips, and taste it. He’d murmur something unintelligible, then move on and repeat the process.

Interesting.

Colin paced the circumference of the site. It was hard to read exactly what he was doing, but by the expression on his face and the way he would pause and concentrate, my guess was he was using whatever sixth sense he might have as a paranorm.

He continued pacing, his face an unreadable mask. Then he headed away from the scene down Cherry Walk.

Just as I opened my mouth to ask Colin where he was going, he vanished.

Just vanished.

Colin was the first Dragon I’d ever worked with. As a matter of fact, even in Otherworld I’d never met a Dragon, I’d only known of them. I hadn’t known they could disappear.

I looked around the scene to see what the Sprite was up to.

Penrod was gone, too. I knew he could be cloaked in a glamour, but why would he do that?

A slow chill rolled through me that was not from the seven inches of snow lying on the grass.

Flashes of memory came to me again of the time I’d been in the park when I’d been tricked then attacked by the Demon. When I’d almost died from the poison in the Demon’s claws.

It was dark and eerie in the park and the memories were so much more powerful than they had been that morning.

I concentrated on relaxing so that my heart would stop its growing thunder in my chest. When it slowed, I let out a sigh of relief. Those were just memories. No Demons were here now. Not ever again.

I tilted my head and caught a hint of something riding on the breath of wind that touched my face. It was like dirty water mixed with a little bit of ammonia. Like whatever it was that Dahlia used to clean the ceramic tile floors in the PI office. But something else, too.

My heart started beating a little faster. The small hairs rose on the back of my neck. The smell was familiar in some way that I couldn’t identify.

Flashes came to me, hard and fast.

A little girl crouched in bushes, hiding.

A young man slipping away into the woods, crossbow in his hands.

A beast, a creature, a thing shuffling the leaves as it passed the hidden girl.

It felt like a hammer blow to my chest as I snapped away from my visions.

I sucked in my breath and inhaled more of that horrible smell.

I knew what it was. I knew it. Yet at the same time I couldn’t put my finger on it. As if my mind was trying to force me away. Trying to keep me from remembering some horrible thing.

Shrieks and screams came from somewhere north of where I stood. I didn’t so much hear them as I felt them. My earth element brought them to me followed by my air magic.

“Colin! Penrod!” I called to them as I started to run in the direction of the invisible, soundless screams that were so far away that likely only I could have heard them.

I had no idea if the Dragon and Sprite heard my yells. I had to get to whoever was being attacked.

At the same time my warrior instincts kicked in, so did fear. A fear so strong that I almost stumbled.

I didn’t remember ever feeling so scared. It was as if I was a child again experiencing a terror so great that I was nearly immobilized from it.

I forced myself to master that fear. At least that’s what I told myself I’d done as I ran, nearly flying with the wind and my air element.

Within seconds I reached a scene that would have made me want to throw up if I wasn’t in warrior mode. Adrenaline throbbed in my veins and my body sang with it.

A quick scan and I saw dead bodies, heads and limbs severed and lying in the snow.

Blood splattered everywhere.

A male that held a terrified female by her throat.

Two females and a male screaming. Trying to get away from males who had tight grips on their arms.

Several strange men wearing ragged clothing.

No, not men.

Some kind of beings.

Milk-white eyes.

Faces and hands in various stages of deterioration.

Confusion clouded my mind. I forced it away.

I drew one of my Dragon-claw daggers.

Grasped my buckler in my other hand.

Took a step forward, about to throw my buckler.

And froze.

A rush of memories assaulted me.

Immobilized me.

Memories I’d repressed from a distant past.

Zombies.

The beings were Zombies.

And six of them were coming straight for me.