the corner of a building.
What I saw there was chaos.
While Baalth’s outburst had cleared a good chunk of the people out of Old Town, the majority of its residents were too poor, too stubborn, or too intoxicated in some manner to leave. That left a lot of victims still in the zombies’ path.
The undead covered the streets, milling back and forth smashing windows and knocking down doors, chasing whoever was too slow, or too stupid, to get out of the way. Mangled bodies lay on the street, blood pooling beneath them. Unidentifiable pieces lay scattered everywhere, gory landmines of ravaged flesh and bone.
I watched as several zombies tore a man apart, his limbs ripped from their sockets as he shrieked, unable to escape their grasp. It looked like cheesy spaghetti, the tendons and ligaments stretched tight, pulling away from the sockets until they snapped with a wet pop. His screams ended right after, his head drooping to his chest in death or unconsciousness.
I’m sure we were both grateful it was over.
My mind whirled as it took in the carnage. Something had changed. This was unlike any of the previous zombie attacks. There was no order to it, no purpose. It made no sense. It was pure mayhem for the sake of mayhem, nothing else.
Outnumbered, with nowhere near enough bullets to make a stand, I shimmied up a fire escape and took the high ground. While I waited for backup-unsure of who might even show up, just hoping it wasn’t Baalth-I took out a few zombies, here and there, trying to minimize the human casualties. It was a lost cause, but I had to do something.
Up above it all, the screams of the dying ringing in my ears, unsure of who was telling the truth and who was pulling my strings, I knew only one thing with certainty.
For the horror going on below me, I was gonna put a bullet in Reven’s head.
Chapter Seventeen
Rahim arrived in a mood.
It wasn’t a good one.
Without so much as a hello, he came and stood beside me, staring at the mess the zombies were making.
“What set them off?”
“Not sure. I was chatting up a source when they snuck up on us. They went after my informant, but they didn’t seem interested in me, at all. After she got away, they started terrorizing the place.”
“She?”
Whoops. Rahim knew never to trust my judgment when it came to women, so it didn’t surprise me he’d caught my slip.
“Uh, yeah.”
He shook his head, his eyes narrowing into slits as he met my gaze. “Your informant didn’t have anything to do with Katon’s kidnapping?”
“Not that I know of.” I couldn’t lie and give him a definitive no. I really didn’t know, but I didn’t think so. “We were following Li’s psychic impressions of Chatterbox and ended up at the ranch where we were attacked.” I shrugged, his question telling me he still didn’t know Katon’s whereabouts. That made two of us. At least it kept Rahim from getting killed.
He glared at me, his eyes filled with anger and frustration and a whole bunch of worry. “Did your source give you anything of value?”
“Not about Katon.” He appeared to deflate, looking back to the zombies. “She did give me a possible lead on Reven, though. Once I catch that bastard, I’ll be hanging him out for bait, you can be sure of that.”
He nodded and left it at that. “Let’s clean this mess up.”
“Mind some help?” a quiet, feminine voice asked.
Rahim and I spun around in surprised unison. Near the stairwell, a respectable distance away, stood Veronica. She’d gotten sneaky. Her empty hands were held out before her to show she meant no harm.
I could sense the added tension in Rahim at her arrival, see it in his stance, but there wasn’t any in his deep voice. “Certainly.”
He knew about our relationship, saw some of it first hand, and had never approved. He did understand though.
There’s not a man alive, especially one with all his parts working, who couldn’t find a reason to fall in love with Veronica, and the wizard was no different.
He just knew better.
Lithe yet curvy, intelligent and fiery, she was a prize few could resist. However, underneath the flawless beauty and fuck-me-eyes, there was a ravaged battlefield of conflicting personalities. The part of Veronica who was compassionate and caring warred with what her mother made her: selfish and cruel, cold. Far too often, her mother’s creation won out. That was who Rahim saw when he looked at her.
Sadly, that was all I could see now, as well.
I waved her over. “Baalth?”
“He thought it best to let you handle things.” She smiled oddly, but there didn’t seem to be any rancor in her voice.
Before I could say anything else, Rahim called for our attention with an impatient grunt. “Hold on.”
There was a slight tension, which settled over us, as Rahim summoned his energies, the air thick with power. A moment later a breeze built up, swirling around our feet and picking up speed. Within seconds, gale-force winds whirled around us and lifted us off the roof. Surprisingly gentle, we were carried over the edge of the building and deposited on the street, floors below. The winds died the moment we touched down.
Not bothering to wait on us, Rahim strode toward the shambling zombies, loosing red bolts of magical energy. One after another, zombies were burned to ash, searing black, then crumbling into gray puffs of dust.
Veronica and I followed on opposite sides, taking down what few undead he’d missed. There weren’t many.
After about twenty minutes, the streets were cleared of animated corpses. Rahim turned to me. He was out of breath, shaking, though he tried to hide it.
“I must return to my search.” He looked like he needed to return to bed. “Contact me if your informant’s lead pans out. I could stomach a good fishing trip.” He grinned at me, and for an instant, he looked like the big, badass wizard I remembered.
It didn’t last long, though. As he summoned his energies to teleport, the weariness crept back onto his face, his eyes nearly closed. He gave a curt wave of thanks to Veronica and disappeared in wash of energy.
“He doesn’t look so good,” she stated the obvious once he’d gone.
“He’s just a little overworked, is all.” I started to answer honestly, but the cynic in me talked me out of it. Veronica worked for Baalth. It didn’t matter that old grumpy and I had a tentative peace accord. In the end, Baalth was all about himself. His people could only be trusted to do what was best for Baalth. As such, I didn’t see any point in letting the demon know more than he could figure out on his own.
Veronica sighed, no doubt realizing what I was thinking. “I heard you tell the wizard you had a lead on our guys.”
I nodded.
“I’d like to come along.” She stared at me like she expected me to say no.
I thought about it, but I knew I could use the help. Without a doubt, I’d exhausted my ‘get out of death’ cards with Karra. If I screwed up her master’s plans again, she wouldn’t have a choice but to kill me. Shit, I wouldn’t even blame her. Given how fast she was, I might not have a chance to summon Daartan to interrupt my dying. Veronica being there might give me the needed few seconds to pull something good out of my ass, as opposed to what comes out of it normally.
Then there was that whole mess. I had no clue what Daartan was getting out of any of this. No longer bound
