Dead and Kicking (9 page)

“What are you talking about?” Nash frowned.

“Oh, no. Don’t pretend you don’t
know.” I poked him in the chest with my
finger. “Your little
stunt with the bowl of stew, making me yours. No one would dance with me. You ruined my night out.”

I could see the little light go off
behind his eyes as he thought about what he had done and the consequences. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.
I just wanted to make sure you were safe.”

“Safe? Ha!” I
pushed at him again, hitting my hand against his chest. “Using some secret werewolf code to mark me
like I was a tree.”
I stumbled toward him. “Oh boy.” I grabbed
my head. “Oh, the whole world’s
spinning.”

Nash held me by the arms again,
looking at me with concern on his face.
“What did you take? You’re
high. Did someone give you something?”

“I am not high!”

“Nash,” Holly interrupted, “Harry’s
just had a little too much, you know?” She looked at him, raising her eyebrows
as if he
would
know what she was
talking about. “We need to get her
home.”

Nash frowned and looked at me. “Yeah, of course.” He grabbed me by the elbow again. “Come on.
I’ll take you home.”

I pulled away. “I can walk.”
I took a few steps then stumbled again. Nash took my hand and, dipping his shoulder like a line backer,
proceeded to pull me towards him, scooping me up and throwing me over his shoulder, fireman style.

“Hey!” I tried to lift my head, but didn’t really
succeed. “Whoa, the whole room is spinning.”
Nash shifted me on his shoulder and set off down the long hallway, Tess
and Holly following behind, snickering as they went. I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of this.

We came out a door at the side of the
building. The chilly night air did
wonders to clear my head. I certainly
didn’t need Nash carrying me like a sack of potatoes, even if it was giving me
a great view of his fine ass.

“Hey!
Put me down.”

Nash let out an exasperated
breath. “Suit yourself.” He bent and set me on my feet, holding me
while I got my legs under me. We stood
for a moment, his arms wrapped around me.
My eyes met his and he took a deep breath.

“Ahem.” Holly cleared her throat and then giggled. “The car is this way.
I’m sure we can manage on our own now, Detective.”

The mood broken, I pushed away from
Nash and took an uneasy step. I really
wished I wasn’t wearing my highest pumps at that moment. I managed to take a couple of steps without looking
like a complete drunk when suddenly I was overwhelmed by a sense of dread.

“There’s something wrong.”

“What? Are you going to be sick?” Holly looked at me with concern.

“No, it’s not me. There’s something out there, something very
wrong.” Feeling completely sober now, I
looked around the darkened street.
“Can’t you feel it?”

Nash and Tess both tensed, looking
warily in both directions.

“No.
There’s nothing –”

Tess was interrupted by a shriek of
fear coming from around the corner of the building ahead of us. We ran towards the sound. When we rounded the building, we stopped in
shock. Nash stepped in front of me momentarily blocking my view and growled, “Stay back.”

The alpha male routine was really
pissing me off, but I was too shocked by what I saw to say anything. The street was in chaos. Halfway up the block, there looked to be an
ongoing mob attack. Several bodies were
lying on the ground in what appeared to be pieces, limbs torn off. At the centre of the mob a man fought for his
life. Off to the side, a woman was
swinging at several others with what looked like a piece of rebar. Further along the street, two men were locked
in brutal combat, one was a werewolf judging from his speed and strength, the other looked eerily familiar.

“Are those…?” Tess’s voice trailed off in disbelief.

“Zombies.” I shook my head. It couldn’t be true, but it was. They were in various stages of decomposition,
their skin ashen grey, their clothes torn and
tattered. They moved mindlessly,
following the single imperative of the one who called them from the grave,
scratching and clawing at anything in their way. While the sight of something I had only ever
read about was chilling, it was the man engaged in deadly battle with the
werewolf that shook me to the core.
“That’s the jack, the one from the video.”

The woman was still screaming
incoherently. When she saw us, she
slipped and let down her guard and the zombie closest to her grabbed her,
clawing at her, opening a new wound.

Nash ran forward and pulled out his
gun, taking aim. His shot took the
zombie in the centre of its head, its skull exploding outwards, but to no
effect. “Shit!” he exclaimed, holstering
his gun and running into the fray.

“Hurry, go get reinforcements,” I
yelled to Holly, pushing her back the way we had come. I grabbed Tess’s arm and pulled her
forward. “Come on. We’ve got to help.” There was a pile of construction rubbish at
the mouth of an alley. I grabbed another
piece of rebar and ran towards the fight.

Zombies are mindless, feel no pain, have no heartbeat, magically animated killing machines. They don’t stop unless they can no longer
move. You can’t shoot them or stab them,
well, you can, it just won’t do you much good. The only thing that stops them, is taking
their legs out from under them. So
that’s what I did. I ran towards the
mob, swinging the rebar like a golf club.
The first zombie I came to went down like a bowling pin when I hacked
its legs out from under it. The only
problem was it just got up again. Okay,
so I hadn’t completely thought my game plan through. At least knocking them off their feet was
slowing them down.

The male wolf that was under siege, quickly came up with his own game plan. As soon as Tess or I knocked a zombie down,
he would pounce on them and using his extraordinary strength, tear their arms
off. Gross, but
effective. The armless zombies
were left thrashing on the ground, unable to get back up.

We were making good headway through
the mob, slowly moving towards the woman and Nash. When he saw that we had things under control,
he moved towards the other male werewolf and the jack. Unlike the zombies, the jack moved with
supernatural speed. No shambling,
mindless puppet, instead it was a deadly automaton with super human
strength. The jack felt no pain
and whoever piloted it had total control.
He also seemed to have a fair knowledge of hand-to-hand combat. As Nash approached, the jack pinned the male
wolf in a choke hold. With a horrifying
crack he broke the man’s neck and then tossed his body aside like a rag doll.

Nash moved in on the jack, once again
pulling his gun. He fired again and
again, emptying the entire clip, hitting the jack in its centre mass, but it
did nothing to stop it. The jack closed
in and they began to fight in earnest.
They grappled, seemingly matched in strength and skill. Nash took a heavy blow and went down
momentarily and I caught my breath.

“Harry! Look out!” Tess’s shout brought my attention
back to the fight at hand. More zombies
were closing in.

“Where are they all coming from?”

The woman we had been defending
cowered behind Tess, sobbing hysterically and bleeding from several
wounds. Tess swung her rebar club,
taking out another of the shambling monsters.

“I don’t know. We need those reinforcements.” I hacked at the zombie stumbling towards me.

Suddenly, one of the downed yet still
armed zombies grabbed Tess’s foot and she fell.
Sensing easy prey, the zombies shuffled towards her. “Oh shit!
Harry!” Unable to use the rebar
to her advantage from down on the ground, Tess began punching and kicking.

“Tess! Hold on.”
I tried to battle my way to her, but there were too many zombies in the
way. Tess screamed in pain.

“No!”
My vision went red in anger for a moment and a zombie used the opportunity
to grab my arm, wrenching it backwards, its fingernails scoring marks down my
bare skin. “Enough!” I screamed it at the top of my lungs, putting
every ounce of energy I had and every bit of anger I felt into it.

A wave of power pulsed out from me and
the zombies toppled like dominoes, turning to dust and blowing away as they hit
the ground. The silence that ensued
around us was almost deafening.

Nash stood, bruised and bloodied,
over the now inanimate corpse of the jack.
“What the hell just happened?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head and looked around. I spotted Tess lying on the ground, holding
her stomach. “Tess!” She was bleeding from a deep gash in her
side. “Tess, are you okay?”

I tore the sleeve off the shirt of
the stunned werewolf standing next to me and rushed to Tess’s side. My hands trembled as I pressed the piece of
cloth up against her wound, trying to stem the flow of blood.

“Harry! Tess!”
Holly came running around the corner with several large werewolves and
Dev, Nash’s partner.

“Holly, hurry! Tess is hurt.”

Holly ran to us and knelt down beside
Tess. “Hold on. I can help.”
She pulled my hands away. “It’s
okay Harry, step away. Let me work.”

I moved back, giving Holly room. My whole body began to tremble as the adrenaline
rush subsided. A warm hand rested on my
shoulder and Nash pulled me close, wrapping his jacket around me.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He looked at me with concern.

I looked at my arm. It was scratched and bleeding, but other than
that I was unhurt. “No, I’m okay.” I held up my arm. “Just a scratch.”

Dev approached, shaking his
head. “What the hell happened
here?” He pointed to the dead
werewolf. “We’ve got one man down,
George Wilks, according to his ID.
Another man, hell, he’s dead, but he looks like he’s been dead a
while. Strangest thing, he’s full of bullet
holes but there’s no blood.”

“Cut off his head.” I pushed away from Nash to look at the corpse
of the poor man that had been killed to create the jack. “You have to cut off his head. For all we know, they can still reanimate him
otherwise.”

“She’s right,” replied Nash. “We’re going to need a cleaning crew to take
care of this one.” Nash pulled out his
phone and punched a button. He stepped
away from me but I could still hear what he was saying. “Yeah, it’s Nash. Tell Salvador we’ve got a situation here
behind The Lodge. We’re going to need a
crew.”

I was swaying on my feet now that the
adrenaline had left me. The burst of
energy that pulsed out of me, whatever the hell it was, was also taking its
toll. I turned to see Holly helping Tess
to her feet.

When she noticed my attention, Tess
smiled weakly. “I’m okay Harry. Nothing a little werewolf speed
healing won’t take care of overnight.”

Relieved, I pulled Nash’s jacket
around me. It smelled like him, which
for some reason felt comforting. A
couple of Holly’s reinforcements had joined us and were helping the werewolf
couple that had been under attack. The
woman sobbed quietly as they led them away, back towards The Lodge.

The rest of the night was mostly a
blur. I can remember being led away and
someone driving the three of us home. I
was still wearing Nash’s jacket, but he had stayed behind with Dev to see to
the aftermath.

Back at the firehall, the three of us retreated to our bathrooms to clean off the blood and gore. Yay for on demand hot water!

After I scrubbed myself clean and
disinfected the scratch on my arm, I stood under the blasting hot water,
drifting in and out of consciousness from sheer exhaustion. I don’t know how long I stood there, when I
heard voices.

“Harry? Harry, are you all right?”

I don’t even remember falling, but I
was sitting under the shower spray when Holly found me.

“Harry!” She turned off the water and wrapped me in a
towel. There were sounds of a muted
argument then warm, strong arms lifted me up and carried me to my bed. I could barely keep my eyes open; I felt so
tired and weak. I crawled under my
covers feeling consciousness slip away.
The bed dipped and someone slipped in beside me. I was too far gone to wonder what was going
on, as arms wrapped around me and I was enveloped in a familiar comforting
scent.

I woke the next morning wrapped
around my favourite fluffy pillow, roused by the smell of bacon. Cocooned as I was under the covers, I
contemplated just staying put, but hunger soon won out.

I crawled out of bed with a niggling
feeling that I was forgetting something important that happened last night, but
I drew a blank. Unfortunately, I definitely remembered the horror of our encounter with the zombies.
Whoever that was on Bryce’s video, he was
doing serious dark magic. Although the
zombies were poorly constructed, a sign that the practitioner wasn’t powerful
enough to call a fully formed zombie, the number that he had created and
controlled was surprising. To have
called that many zombies from their graves meant that he must have been
augmenting his power. The only way it
would have been possible that I had ever read about, was through blood
magic. That meant more people had
already died to lend power to his evil plans.
But why?
To what end? The thought was
chilling.

I dressed quickly, pulling on some
yoga pants and a t-shirt and headed downstairs, following the scent of
bacon. Chilling thoughts and solving
mysteries could wait until after breakfast.

Holly was cooking up a storm in the
kitchen. She was just lifting some bacon
out of the pan to drain on a paper towel when I entered the room. I was happy to see Tess sitting up at the
kitchen island, scarfing down breakfast.

“Harry, you’re up, just in time to
get something to eat.” Holly turned and
held up a plate of pancakes. “Can I
offer you some more, Detective?”

Nash shook his head. “No, that was great. Thanks.”

I stopped short in surprise. What was he doing here? Maybe he was checking up on Tess. I tried to wipe the scowl from my face.

“Detective
Nash.”
I nodded at Nash then turned my attention to Tess. “Tess, how are you doing?” I went to my friend and hugged her.

“I’m fine Harry. How are you?”
Tess looked at me curiously.

“I’m fine. Actually, I’m great. I feel fantastic.” And I did.
I must have had a really good sleep because I felt totally
recharged. Surprising, after how I felt
the night before.

Holly and Tess were looking at me
strangely. “What?” I asked. “I feel great. Honestly.”
My stomach growled loudly. “But
not for much longer if you don’t feed me.
I’m starving.”

Holly put a plate heaped with bacon,
pancakes and eggs in front of me. “And
everything is okay after last night?”

I frowned at her. “Well, no, of course not. Last night was awful. Why are you acting so weird?”

“So you don’t remember anything
after
the zombies?” Holly persisted.

“No, not
really.”
I shrugged. “I don’t even
remember getting out of the shower and going to bed. I guess I should thank you for saving me from
drowning.”

Nash pushed his stool out and stood
up. “I should get going.” He grabbed his jacket from the back of the
chair where I had dropped it the night before.
A familiar scent wafted out, tickling my memory again, but still it
eluded me.

I mumbled a goodbye over a mouthful
of pancakes. Holly glared at me and then
came out from around the kitchen island to show Nash to the door.

“Thank you so much for everything,
Detective.” She clasped his hand. “You were a real life saver.”

When the door had closed behind Nash,
I scowled at her. “Thank you so much,
Detective. You were a real life saver,
Detective.” I made a face. “Geez Holly, suck up much?”

Holly snapped at me with a tea
towel. “Don’t be a bitch, Harry. He did more than you know to help out last
night.”

“Was that before or after he marked
me as his property?”

“I’m sure he did what he thought he
had to do.”

I scowled at her again. Why was she suddenly taking his side? I looked closely at her. “Oh.
My. God! Did you? And he?” I gaped at Holly. No wonder Nash was still here this morning. “You slept with Nash?”

Tess laughed out loud, spraying her
juice. Holly scowled at her then turned
and pointed a finger at me. “No, I did
not. And you had better leave it at that
or you may be forced to think about things you have steadfastly tried to
ignore.” She wiped her hands on her
apron then untied it and placed it on the counter. “I have to get ready to go to work. We’re doing outreach with the homeless this
afternoon.”

After Holly stalked off, I turned to
Tess and said, “What’s her problem?”

Tess snorted a little laugh then
replied, “You really don’t remember anything after we got home last night?”

“Just you and
Holly arguing about something and then helping me to bed. Why? What should I remember?”

Tess stood and grabbed her plate,
carrying it to the sink. “Nothing.” She was
clearly evading the question. “Look,
I’ve got to get to work too. It’s your
turn to do the dishes.” She paused on
her way out the door. “Oh, and there is
something wrong with the computer. Do you
know anything about that?”

***

Something was wrong with the
computer? That was an
understatement. Of course, I hadn’t
exactly had time to explain to Tess or Holly where Bryce had decided to take up
residence. That’s if he was even still
there. The monitor, when I tried firing
up the computer, remained black.

“Damn it, Bryce!” I gave the side of the unit a whack. “What have you done to my computer?”

HEY! STOP THAT!

“Bryce! You’re still there!”

OF COURSE I’M HERE. WHERE ELSE WOULD I BE?

“I’m still thinking the whole
go-to-the-light thing should be an option.”

ARE YOU KIDDING? THIS IS WAY BETTER. AT LEAST IT WILL BE SOON.

I didn’t particularly like the sound
of that. “What do you mean, it will be
soon?”

I TOLD YOU. YOUR COMPUTER IS IN SERIOUS NEED OF AN
UPGRADE. BUT DON’T WORRY. I’VE TAKEN
CARE OF IT.

I
really
didn’t like the sound of that. “You’ve
taken care of what?”

RELAX. I HAVE IT ALL UNDER CONTROL. JUST LET THE NERD HERD GUY IN WHEN HE GETS
HERE. HIS GPS IS SHOWING HE’S FIVE MINUTES
AWAY.

“Nerd Herd? You hired a computer
nerd?”

JUST TO DO THE INSTALLATIONS. NO HANDS, REMEMBER?

This was getting crazier by the
minute. “Installations? Of what? What is this going to cost me?”

I TOLD YOU. I HAVE IT ALL UNDER CONTROL. I’M PAYING FOR ALL THE UPGRADES.

“You’re dead Bryce. You don’t have any money anymore.”

THE OFFSHORE BANK ACCOUNT I HAVE BEGS
TO DIFFER.

An offshore bank account, working for
the Cimmerian...Boy, Gran sure knew how to pick’em. Before I could question Bryce further, the
door buzzer rang. As Bryce predicted, it
was a guy dressed in khakis and a polo shirt announcing he was part of the Nerd
Herd, the tech support for a local electronics chain. His name tag said ‘Hi, My Name is Arnold’.

“Yeah, I have a delivery for A. Turing?” A. Turing as in Alan Turing, the genius
mathematician? Very
funny Bryce.

“Sure, I guess that’s me, or uh, my
brother.” I stood back to let Arnold in
the door. He was loaded down with
several bags.

“Okay, sure. Yeah.” The poor guy seemed to be living up to the
whole ‘doesn’t interact well with women’ stereotype. “There’s a bunch more down in the van.”

“More?”

“Uh, yeah.” He nervously pushed his
glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I
should, uh, I should go get them.”

“Okay, you do that.”

As soon as Arnold left, I stomped
over to the computer. “What the hell
Bryce? What do you expect me to do with
all this stuff?”

DON’T WORRY. THE NERD WILL TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING.

The screen flicked from DOS-prompt
black to the standard desktop. Arnold
came clomping in the open door laden down with several more packages.

“I, um, I’ll just leave the
peripherals in the van until we’re ready for them.” He stood nervously.

“Sure Arnold.” The poor guy started like a spooked deer at
the sound of his own name. “Did my
brother
leave any instructions about
what he wanted done with all this stuff?”

“Oh sure, I’ve got it all here on the
work order.” Relieved to be back in
familiar territory, Arnold brandished his tablet phone.

“Okay, good. I’ll leave you to it then.”