Piper’s spell. Depending on their states of decay the dead either collapsed where they stood or returned to the earth, clawing their way into nearby graves.
The children stopped dancing, halting mid-step. Jinx was immediately there to offer comfort and pull each child away from the dead and back toward the cemetery gates. I smiled. I could trust my friend to get the children safely home.
I nodded and turned back to The Piper. I had to find a way to keep the faerie incapacitated and secure the demon flute, but a long-lived murderer and a Hell-forged instrument were two things I really didn’t want to come into contact with. I pocketed my phone and raked a hand through my hair. The angry pixies that continued to swarm over The Piper’s body added to my unease.
I was still trying to find a solution when a corpse lumbered over to the faerie’s immobile form. The zombie turned to face me and let out a hissing moan. I took a step back and bent low, retrieving the dagger from my boot. When facing an angry zombie, two knives are better than one. I held the dagger in my left hand and the throwing knife in my right.
I relaxed my stance and shifted my weight to the balls of my feet, ready to spring forward. The Piper may not be my favorite guy at the moment, but I wasn’t about to let him become zombie food. If the corpse looked like he was in the mood for brains, I’d have to send him back to his grave with an empty stomach. I wasn’t about to let the monster feed on someone with a bloodstream full of pixie toxin. That just wasn’t a fair fight.
The zombie lunged forward, grabbing at The Piper and the pixies flew up into the air. I sighed, so much for playing nice. I sprung forward, trying to reach The Piper, but lost my footing.
The ground beneath my feet shook and I went down to my knees. I winced as rocks dug into my jeans. The ground rolled and heaved like it was in the throes of an earthquake. I dug my gloved fingers into grass and soil and held on for the ride.
I kept my eyes on the zombie, ready to launch myself forward as soon as I could stand without falling on my butt. He continued to hold The Piper by his shirt like a rag doll. With a great crack, a chasm opened between us.
My stomach twisted. I had a bad feeling about where that chasm led.
The zombie slung The Piper into a fireman’s carry and jumped into the fissure. A red glow lit the faerie’s face. The Piper looked at me in supplication, but in a flash of light he was gone. I crawled forward, but in a puff of brimstone the chasm closed, the earth swallowing the two men whole.
I coughed and sat back on my heels. Well, that was one problem solved. I was pretty sure The Piper wouldn’t be stealing any more children. It seemed poetic that the man who made a deal with a demon to collect and condemn the souls of children to an eternity in Hell should now join those souls.
But The Piper’s trip to Hell didn’t mean the end of the devilry. I had to make sure the demon flute didn’t fall into the wrong hands. I crawled back and forth searching the ground for the demon flute, but to no avail. It was gone. All that was left was a patch of scorched earth where I’d last seen The Piper and his flute. Perhaps the instrument had also been carried to Hell, returned to the forge where it had been wrought.
I pulled myself to my feet, brushing clumps of grave dirt off my jeans, and gave myself a moment to catch my breath. I let my head fall back to look at the night sky, a slow smile forming on my lips. We’d done it. The Piper and his evil Danse Macabre had been stopped. The children were safe.
I turned an ecstatic smile to Marvin. His sudden appearance and ingenious use of a pixie nest had made The Piper’s defeat possible. If the kid was standing closer, I’d give him a high-five. Coming from me, that was high praise.
Marvin began to smile and wave, but his large hand halted in mid-motion. His eyes widened and the skin at my neck prickled.
“Ivy, look out!” Marvin screamed.
I spun in time to see the fight between Melusine and Ceff steamrollering toward me. I dove aside, out of their path. I continued rolling to my right, narrowly avoiding the lamia’s lashing tail. The two were locked in heated battle, and Ceff was losing.
I gasped and came up into a fighting crouch. Heart racing, I looked for an opportunity to join the fight. But Melusine and Ceff’s bodies were pressed close together and moving fast. If I threw my knife, I’d risk hitting Ceff.
Melusine lunged toward Ceff’s head and he struggled to take a step back and duck out of reach. Melusine didn’t even appear winded, but even over the earplugs I could hear Ceff’s breath coming hard and ragged. His clothes were torn and bloodied, the shirt he wore mere tattered scraps of fabric. Ceff was obviously still suffering from the effects of iron poisoning, which put him at a disadvantage. At the last moment it became apparent that the lunge toward Ceff’s head was just a feint, but it was too late.
Ceff’s reflexes were fast, but Melusine was faster. Melusine halted the forward motion of her lunge with a jerk and swung her tail out in a foot sweep. The move took Ceff off his feet, using his momentum against him. Ceff tumbled painfully onto his back, hitting his head and knocking the air from his lungs. I tensed, still looking for an opening.
Melusine slithered atop Ceff, arms astride his shoulders. She sniffed along his body, venomous fangs inches from his skin. Her lips formed a cruel smile and she lifted one of her arms to retrieve a knife from behind her head. Her hair tumbled down to brush Ceff’s face and neck. The bitch had kept the knife hidden in her hair.
Ceff’s trident had fallen from his hand and he didn’t move a muscle to defend himself. I studied Ceff’s face, but his eyelids remained shut. His chest rose and fell slightly—he was alive—but the blow to his head must have knocked him unconscious.
“If you will not love me, then you shall pay,” she said. “Goodbye, husband.”
Melusine held the blade above Ceff’s chest and licked her lips. Carving her ex-husband’s still-beating heart from his chest was evidently Melusine’s twisted version of justice—a heart for a heart. No way was I going to let that happen.
I sprinted forward, dagger in one hand, throwing knife in the other, and launched myself onto Melusine’s back. She reared up, arching her back, trying to reach me with her blade. I wrapped an arm around her neck and slipped my throwing knife back into its forearm sheath in an effort to keep my hold on the thrashing lamia. I dug my left hand into her hair and held on tight.
I maintained my grip on the dagger, but it wasn’t easy. Something cold and scaly brushed against my skin where the sleeve of my jacket had pulled away from my glove, leaving my wrist exposed. A vision of a mouse being dangled from Melusine’s fingertips as a tasty treat intruded into my mind, but I kept my arm bent in a choke hold and held onto the dagger at her throat.
Melusine’s pet snake had joined my arm around her neck. The good news was that snake brains don’t make for very intense visions. I’d managed to maintain my choke hold through the minor vision. The bad news? Melusine’s pet was a venomous pit viper.
“You are nothing but a half-breed, a rodent to crush and bleed,” Melusine shrieked. “I will kill you and my unfaithful husband both!”
Melusine swung forward, throwing me off balance. I was slung over her shoulder to come face to face with her pet. The pit viper glared at me with slit eyes and sunk its fangs into my wrist. Indescribable pain burst through my arm as venom shot into my bloodstream. I lost my grip on my dagger and my arm fell from Melusine’s neck.
I swung further forward, barely managing to hold onto Melusine’s hair with one hand. I tried a spinning kick to her ribs, but didn’t have enough leverage. Instead, I left my flank open to attack. Melusine struck, whipping her head down as I swung in a lazy arc. Flesh and leather tore as the lamia’s fangs punctured my side.
Now I could add lamia venom to the killing cocktail in my veins.
Melusine shook her head, tearing her fangs free. Bloody spittle sprayed across my jeans with the movement. Sparks of light flashed in my peripheral vision; a likely precursor to blacking out. I noticed all of this as I fell in slow motion to hit the ground.
Strangely, I didn’t feel the impact as I hit. Cold crept through my limbs as life poured from my body to soak the grass where Ceff still lay unconscious. I clamped my hand onto the wound in my side and tried to staunch the bleeding with fingers gone stiff and clumsy. I dug my boot into the turf and tried to push myself up, but something wet tore inside my gut and I gagged.
I was so weak I could barely lift my head—and Melusine damn well knew it. With a mad gleam in her eye,
