defeat Thokk, at least get me out of her clutches, when a gurgling sound came from deep inside me, and I remembered the beer that had been sitting in my dead stomach since I’d dealt with Honani at Skully’s.
You picked the wrong zombie to squeeze tonight, Thokk, I thought, and then a gout of sour-smelling fluid jetted out of my mouth and struck Thokk in the face.
The lyke roared with fury, but she didn’t drop me as I’d hoped. Instead she gripped me tighter and opened her mouth wide. I doubted she was going to try to eat me; most lykes can’t stand the taste of dead meat, unless they have scavenger wildforms. More likely she intended to get a solid grip on my head with her teeth and then rip it off my shoulders.
I watched helplessly as her mouth descended, and then she stopped, stiffened, and shrieked. Her arms uncoiled, dumping me to the floor, and I saw what was happening. Devona had leaped onto the lyke’s back and was tearing into the beast’s neck with her own teeth. Thokk’s arms curled over her shoulder, grabbed Devona, yanked her off, and threw her forward-into me, just as I was starting to rise.
We went down in a tangle of undead and half-undead limbs. Thokk advanced on us, the ragged neck wound Devona had inflicted already healing.
With vampiric grace and speed, Devona disengaged herself from me and stood before Thokk, fingers touching her temples.
“Stop,” she said in an even, measured voice.
Thokk hesitated.
“Leave this place now,” Devona continued. “Go.”
Devona had told me she had a certain amount of magical training, and now it seemed she was attempting to use her abilities to influence Thokk’s mind. At first, it looked like Devona’s plan was going to work. Thokk stopped coming toward us. She lowered her hands to her sides and seemed about to turn away, but then she chuckled-the sound like a snake’s rattle-reared back, and spat venom into Devona’s face. Devona screamed and frantically began wiping at the poison, trying to get it out of her eyes.
Thokk knocked Devona aside easily and came stomping toward me once more. But I’d had enough time to fish a small metal box out of my jacket. I flipped open the lid, stood, and flung the contents at Thokk’s muzzle.
Her eyes teared up instantly and she began wheezing.
“Powdered wolfsbane,” I said. “Never leave the grave without it.”
Her eyes began swelling shut and her wheezing took on a more desperate, labored tone. Her throat was closing. I allowed myself to feel smug. All lykes are allergic to wolfsbane to some degree, some more so than others. But it appeared Thokk-
I stopped my self-congratulating in mid-thought. Thokk’s breathing became easier and the swelling around her eyes lessened. Her mixblood physiology was counteracting the effects of the wolfsbane. Like I said, whoever designed her had done it right.
I had nothing left in my bag-or rather jacket-of tricks that would stop her. I glanced toward the dance floor. I doubted I could reach to my gun before Thokk recovered. But I had to try.
I started toward the dance floor, running as best I could in the slow, stiff-legged way we zombies have and hoped that it would take just a few more seconds for Thokk to fully throw off the effects of the wolfsbane.
My hope was in vain. Claws raked the right side of my head, knocking me to the floor.
“I’m going to shred you to gobbets for that,” Thokk said, her voice hoarse and thick with mucus. “Very, very slowly.”
I rolled over to face her. After all, dead or not, a man should look his fate straight in the eye.
She lifted her clawed hands to strike, disturbing a cloud of smoke hovering over her head. And then the smoke darted toward her mouth and curled down her throat.
Thokk howled in agony, and thrashed about as if her every nerve was on fire. She coughed up a gout of blood and crashed to the floor, rolling back and forth, her limbs flailing spastically. But finally her exertions slowed and then ceased altogether.
A moment later tendrils of smoke wafted from her mouth and coalesced into the form of Shrike, his everpresent cigarette the last thing to solidify.
He took a drag and exhaled. “Did you know you can do a lot of damage by partially solidifying inside someone?”
“Do tell.” I hauled my undead carcass to its feet. “Is she dead?”
“Nah, not even the kind of damage I did to her can kill a lyke. But I bet she’s not going to be moving too fast for a few weeks. Unless, of course, someone does something about her first.” He nodded toward my gun.
It was tempting. Thokk had tried to kill me, and would no doubt try again when she recovered. And it wasn’t like anyone would try to stop me. But that wasn’t the way I operated.
I shook my head. “Why don’t you retrieve the gun while I see to Devona?” Without waiting for Shrike to reply, I turned and headed back toward my client-I mean, the person who I was doing a favor for.
Devona knelt on the floor, her face cradled in her hands.
“Are you okay?”
“Not exactly. I’m blind.”
I helped her stand and kept a hand on her elbow to steady her. She took her hands away from her face, but she kept her eyes shut tight.
She took in a hiss of breath. “Dis, but it hurts!”
I didn’t know what to say. I’d been human for most of my existence, and in that time I’d known my share of pain. You’d think I’d remember what it was like to hurt. And I do, sort of, but the memory’s hazy, indistinct, like a memory of a memory. I suppose a lot of people would’ve been grateful for that. But it made me feel cut off from Devona, distant, as if we were at the moment inhabiting two vastly different worlds, and there was no bridging the gap between them.
Shrike came up, holding my gun gingerly by the butt with two fingers-like shapeshifters, vampires aren’t especially fond of silver. He was carrying a glass in the other hand: a glass filled with thick red liquid-and I doubted it was aqua sanguis. He handed me the gun, then offered the glass to Devona, saying, “Drink; it’ll help.”
Her nostrils flared as she picked up the scent of blood, the real thing. She reached out and Shrike placed the glass in her hand. She brought it to her lips, but then hesitated.
At first I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t drink. And then it hit me. Though being half human was a negative to most Bloodborn, it was important to Devona, maybe even a secret source of pride for her. And humans didn’t drink blood.
“Go on,” I said. “Shrike’s right, it’ll help.”
She hesitated a second more, but then drank, slowly at first, but then with increasing enthusiasm, gulping down the last few swallows.
Devona shuddered as if she’d just downed a glassful of hard liquor and couldn’t stand the taste. A few moments went by, during which a couple lykes came forward. From the way they glared at me and snarled, I thought they were going to cause trouble, and I wasn’t sure I was up to it just then. But the lykes merely took hold of Thokk by the arms and hauled her out of the club, probably to take her back to the Wyldwood so she could convalesce. Soon the noise level in the club returned to normal and people were back on the floor, dancing. No one bothered to wipe up the blood Thokk had vomited. Perhaps they thought it added to the club’s ambience.
Devona gingerly opened her eyes. She blinked a few times, and then smiled. “Much better.”
Like lykes, vampires heal fast, but only if they’ve fed recently. Otherwise their wounds don’t heal any faster than a human’s.
I holstered my gun and then turned to Shrike. “Thanks for taking care of the lyke. I owe you one, kid.”
“Hardly. I’ve got a few hundred more favors to do for you before we’re close to being even.” Shrike grinned. “Besides, it was fun.”
“That kind of fun I can do without, thank you.” I turned back to Devona. “And thank you for jumping into the fray too.”
“What for? All I did was manage to get myself blinded.”
“If you hadn’t attacked when you did, Thokk probably would’ve squeezed me in two. And what was that other thing you tried? It looked like you were casting a spell on her or something.”
“Remember when I told you I can’t assume a travel form but had other talents? Besides my minor skill with magic, I also possess some rudimentary psychic abilities, as half Bloodborn often do. Not that they did anyone much
