Carter eyed her warily. “Are you sure he didn’t bite you? Not even a little?”
“Yes, I’m fucking sure. He didn’t bite me!”
Carter stayed quiet for too long, and Ryder started to feel uncomfortable.
“So, am I good or what?” she finally asked.
“Well, there are many definitions of good,” he snickered.
“Don’t be a—” she stopped, biting back the litany of vile insults that formed in her head. The children didn’t need to hear any of them.
“Don’t be a fartface,” she teased. It was the best she could do on short notice, although the children’s giggling told her she hadn’t gone tame enough. Next time. “I’m not going to turn into the living dead, am I?”
“I am not a fartface,” Carter huffed, sounding deeply offended. “And if you’re telling the truth, you should be fine. So far, it seems like it can only pass to you from a bite, except for the first people that turned. No one bit them—not that we know of, at least.”
“Why don’t you just kill the affected people?”
Some of the kids’ eyes widened with fear. I didn’t swear, so what did I say now?
Carter shook his head. “Because the affected people are their parents.”
Chapter Twenty
Massimo left the side room of the church, slammed the door closed behind him, and entered the sanctuary. Andrew still sat in the pew, and he turned jerkily to face Massimo.
Except he was no longer the Andrew Massimo knew. His eyes glowed red and ugly sores oozed fluid down his face, blending with the blood which stained his mouth.
Andrew rushed Massimo with his arms raised out in front of him, reminding Massimo of a zombie. At that moment, Massimo’s reaction was disappointment, not fear. He had a stack of classic zombie movies that he loved back home. Now that he was facing the real thing, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy those movies because they would just seem fake.
He sighed. Rest in peace, my movie collection. Yet another tragic victim of this zombie outbreak.
Andrew swiped his clawed hand at Massimo, but the vampire was too crestfallen to fight. His fist darted out lightning quick and snapped Andrew’s neck. His lifeless body slumped into the wooden pew, and Massimo took a seat beside him.
Killing sure took a lot more out of him than it used to. If he was going to protect his town, he was going to have to be stronger than this, and there was only one way to do that. Massimo’s nose wrinkled in displeasure.
He would have to drink human blood.
Ryder and the others got closer to the growls of the kids’ living-dead parents. Carter was by her side. He hadn’t stopped talking since they’d first met. It didn’t matter to him that Ryder wasn’t responding. He seemed to like the sound of his own voice.
She did like how he chatted with the kids. In that way, he reminded her of Terrier. As the undead noises got louder, Carter spoke to the kids even more. Ryder knew he was doing it to distract them, and it worked until they were in front of the cages and the sound got too loud to block out.
The wolf growled at the cages of people, and Ryder understood why. She wasn’t a fan of what she was seeing, either. “Holy shish-kabob!”
Carter didn’t laugh at Ryder’s choice of words. His focus was the kids.
“Come on, no dilly-dallying,” Carter said as he urged the kids to move forward. Jessica, the Braid Queen, walked toward a woman with her arms out between the wooden slats of the cage. The cages rocked from side to side, and the people in them started to go crazy as Jessica got closer to them.
“Are you sure they can’t get out?” Ryder asked in a whisper.
“No, they can’t escape. The cages were the best we could do on short notice, but they’re sturdy enough.” Carter headed toward Jessica and placed his arm around her little shoulder. She jumped. “Jessica, one of the bows fell out of my beard. I need a new one.”
Jessica didn’t answer. Instead, her eyes were locked on the woman—her mom. The woman’s eyes were glowing red, and she had bite wounds on her arm.
The other kids paused for a moment to look into the cages and then moved on, not wanting to see what had happened to their parents.
“Hey, Jessica, could you braid my hair?” Ryder felt stupid for asking it, but she didn’t really know what else to say.
At least it caught the girl’s attention. Jessica turned and looked up at Ryder. “But you don’t have any hair.”
Ryder brushed her hand over her buzzed head. “What? Where’d my hair go?” Ryder pretended to be surprised and put on the best bewildered face she could manage.
“Oh, my gods!” Carter said, playing along. “Where has it gone? I’m sure it was there a minute ago. This is magic. Let me rub it and see if it grows back.” Carter went to rub the top of Ryder’s head, and she let him since it was making Jessica smile. “It’s growing back! I’m the greatest wizard in the world!” He scooped Jessica up in his arms and put her on his shoulders for a ride. “You are the queen of braids, and I’m the king of wizards. We’re an unstoppable force. Ryder, what’s your special power?”
“Putting up with you,” she told him with a crooked grin.
Carter laughed. “Oh, that is a rare power. You are truly an uncommon one, especially with your Fluffy sidekick.”
This time, the wolf didn’t growl at Carter. The whole time he’d spent with him, he’d wanted to rip Carter’s throat out, but he decided to give him a pass this time.
Mama Lou pulled her shoulders back and stood up straight. She was staring into the face of the devil, but she didn’t flinch. This was her level. She was here to protect the girls, and
