The Isis Collar

entrances at the back of the building and worked my way through the maze of hallways until I was just outside the isolation ward.

The first person I spotted was Bruno, sitting in a chair in the main hall with a magazine open on his lap. I raised a hand to catch his attention, and something in my face must have told him something was wrong, because he stood up and opened his arms. I walked to him and let myself be enveloped with warmth and caring. “Hey, you okay?” His voice was concerned, warm.

I nodded against his chest, but it was a lie. “Julie’s worse. Molly asked if I could come. Why are you here?”

“Follow-up saliva test. I’m just waiting for the lab to call me. They’ve been backed up. Did you get the message from Dr. Gaetano?” I shook my head and he gave an extra squeeze. “I overheard him leaving it. Your results came back clear. So you shouldn’t have any other problems.”

It was a relief and muscles I didn’t know were clenched loosened a bit. But that didn’t solve the bigger problem. “That’s good. But how many others aren’t, Bruno? How many kids are going to wind up here, just like Julie?”

He paused for long enough that I pulled my cheek away from his shoulder to look at him. His eyes were both sad and angry. “A half dozen people more showed up overnight, Celie. All students and teachers from Third Street. The quarantine and isolation wards are filling up fast. Nobody’s said anything. Not a word. But I can feel the tension in the hallways. They’re getting worried, and especially since Julie’s not improving. Have you heard from Creede?”

I shook my head and didn’t want to ask the next question because part of me didn’t want to know. I wasn’t sure I could deal with the combination of emotions that would result. “Any word on my mom?”

He shook his head, just a fraction, and put a hand on the back of my head to pull me against him again. “They haven’t said anything except they’re still waiting on tests. The first batch was inconclusive.”

I knew I should go to visit her, but what would it really accomplish? She was angry and scared and I was angry and scared and we would just feed off each other’s emotions like we always did. But I had to ask, to see if I was being unreasonable. “Should I visit her?”

Bruno let out the sound that he always made when confronted with a seemingly insurmountable problem, part growl and part thoughtful hum. “She’s headed back to jail from here?” I nodded and closed my eyes before shaking my head slightly in frustration. He sighed and I felt his forehead rest against my temple. “It won’t do anything but get you both upset. But it’ll be a sore point if you don’t, too.”

That’s what I was afraid of. I just needed to hear it out loud. “Then you think I should, huh?”

He pulled back slightly and touched me under my chin with his fingers. “Well, your gran is here. In fact, she’s already pissed that you haven’t been here doing vigil with her. So, while it won’t do any good with your mom, you probably need to do it anyway.”

Oh, crap. Gran. Here. I should’ve known. And she would be pissed. Damn it.

Bruno pulled me close again, letting me rest my head on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay … eventually.”

That made me laugh. It was a little hysterical, but it was better than crying. And it was exactly the reaction he’d planned. Nobody knows me better than Bruno. He “gets” me. We have the same sense of humor, share most of the same attitudes. When it works with us it’s so very good. I took the moment of solace he offered and let my mind and body be whisked away to a better place.

Until the screaming started.

We both reacted as if cattle prods had been shoved into our spines. We sprang away from each other and turned, searching for the danger. It was interesting seeing which people ran toward the danger and which ran away. The doctors and nurses, by and large, went toward. The clerks and orderlies, away. I would have thought at least the orderlies would stay. They’re usually stuck with the strong-arm stuff when it came to violent patients. But the looks on their faces as they passed by the waiting room said they wanted no part of whatever was down the hall.

There are laws about what you can bring into a hospital, so all I had were charm disks. I came on such short notice to comfort Molly that I didn’t even think about bringing my knives. Well, I wasn’t totally unarmed. I had a level-nine mage by my side.

And who needed more than that?

We rounded the corner and got our first look at the future of the city, and possibly the world, if we didn’t stop this disease. The man was big, tall, and bulky like a construction worker or pro boxer. He filled the hallway, standing still but sensing around him, searching for something to attack. His skin was black—and I don’t mean like an African-American’s, but black like something from the back of the refrigerator, where you would rather throw away the bowl rather than risk taking off the plastic wrap. What remained of his clothing was stuck to the goo oozing out of the lesions that covered his skin. Doctors and nurses surrounded him, completely baffled about what to do.

Bruno skidded to a stop beside me. I wondered what our options were. “Jesus. Is that the endgame of M. Necrose? I’ve never seen it.”

“Yeah. But he’s way worse than Principal Sanchez was. This guy’s eyeballs are missing. That is, except for what’s left dangling on his cheek. And for the record, eww. But he’s tracking the people around him.” One arm made a grab for a nearby nurse and managed to catch the fabric of her scrub top. She was quick, I’d give her that. She stripped out of that thing so fast you’d think it was burning. Her bra was snow-white, matching her widened eyes.

I could smell the death on him, but he sure was active for a corpse.

Bruno said, “I might not be able to pack the body-binding spell into a charm like Creede, but I sure can cast it directly.” I felt the hairs all over my body rise in unison as he raised power without half-trying. He whispered the words and I felt the energy leave his outstretched hands and fly toward the zombie in the hallway. “Corpus bidim.”

The spell should have frozen the man’s muscles, causing him to fall straight over and hit his nose on the linoleum.

Note I say, should. Because that’s not what happened. The power struck him all right, but, like a movie said when a nuclear bomb exploded uselessly against an alien ship, the target remains. Bruno got a shocked look on his face. One of the doctors looked at him and said, “Whatever spell you tried to cast … do it again. He’s still moving.”

Bruno cast a second time and the power he used not only raised my hair but also brought on a sudden bout of my hypervision. I really should have had a nutrition shake before leaving home. While I enjoyed drinking fruit or vegetable juice, they didn’t satisfy my hunger. I had to have either broth or a shake to keep the vampire down.

But the second spell likewise had no effect. I tapped his arm and he noticed my glowing skin and reddened eyes. Nobody else did because everyone was too busy watching the zombie, who was baring sharp-looking teeth and clawlike fingernails, all the better to spread the infection with.

“What the hell?” Bruno’s voice held equal parts disbelief and anger. He’d probably never failed at casting before, but I knew why as I stared at the zombie with different sight.

I tapped Bruno’s arm a second time. “I know what’s wrong—why the spell isn’t working.”

A doctor looked at me and his eyes widened. He reached for the cross around his neck as Bruno said, “Why? What can you see that I can’t?”

I pointed toward the zombie. “You’re casting one spell, against a single individual. But that is a million billion individuals, working together. He’s glowing with tiny dots of energy.” It was bizarre, unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Each dot seemed to have the same bands of energy I’d see in a living person. “What else can you try?”

“Freeze, cut him apart … a thousand things. What do you think will work?”

I had an idea. It was on the theory of divide and conquer. “Crowd control during a riot. What works best?”

He shrugged. “Scatter, disorient the group. Make them…” A smile lit his face. “Make them disperse.” He walked forward, toward the doctors and nurses. “Folks, I’m an A and C cardholder and I’m declaring this an emergency. You need to find somewhere else to be. My lady friend and I can take care of this, but you need to be out of our way.”

Most of those present were happy to obey. Only two doctors remained behind. One of them, a middle-aged man with silvered temples, shook his head. “We can’t leave this man if he’s still treatable. Can you guarantee he’s