Demons in My Driveway (24 page)

I glanced toward the front yard and remembered that Tashi and everyone else who lived in those woods was lined up inside the bubble, waiting for the zombies to break through. Whoever was in the woods didn’t belong there.

“I think we’ve found our bad guy, Marcus.” I gripped my pipe tighter and took off toward the woods, my jaw tight. Marcus ran behind without a word.

The djinn saw me before her master did. Her blue eyes grew wide and she stepped backward into the shadows as if to give me room. Apparently, she wasn’t going to help him unless he gave her a direct order. Good to know.

The man was turned away from us. Both hands rested against the trunk of a tree while he peered around it to watch. The fairy ring had a definite bend to it, now, buckling under the weight of so many zombies. They’d break through in a matter of minutes.

I gripped my rusty pipe in both hands, stepped into the woods and swung as hard as I could.

To my surprise, the pipe connected and hit him flat across the back. The impact ran up my arms, and I nearly dropped the pipe.

The man grunted in pain and swung around to face me. “What the hell are you doing?” He made a grab for my pipe, but missed.

To my absolute, utter shock, my mailman, Rick, stood before me, his normally pleasant face in an ugly grimace.

I stepped to the side and swung at him again, connecting this time with his right arm. “Get back, asshole, or I swear I’ll aim for your head next.”

He stepped back and held his hands up in the age-old symbol of surrender. It took him a moment to pull himself together, but he replaced the ghastly snarl with his regular, mild-mannered mailman face. His charm, however, had faded.

“Hello, Miss Donovan. You folks are having a heck of a day, aren’t you!” His gaze flicked back and forth, casting around for something—I assumed for his enslaved djinn.

“Heck of a day, yeah.” I tightened my grip on the pipe in case he decided to take a run at me. “How about you call this off now, Rick? Send the zombies back home and close the portal? Nobody gets hurt. Everything back to normal. What do you say?”

His smile slipped a little. “I can offer you a place in the new world, you know. He likes me. I am his favorite. If I put in a good word, he might let you live after all.”

I knew his offer was bullshit to distract me. They couldn’t have their bright new world unless Mom and I were dead first. My heart thumped hard. “You’re his favorite? What, does that make you a
high priest
in all this craziness?”

Pride leaked from his pores and formed a hazy, smelly halo around his head. “Join me. He has no love of Aegises, but you could become his high priestess and stand by my side. All would be forgiven, I’m sure. If you switched sides, that’s a kind of death, isn’t it? I’m sure it would count.” He licked his lips and eyed me like a piece of cheesecake dripping with extra strawberry sauce.

No wonder I’d stopped getting my Victoria’s Secret catalogs. This whackjob was probably stealing them. Maybe he wasn’t trying to distract me. Maybe he just wanted to sleep with me. Ew.

“Are you insane?” Judging by the glazed look in his eyes, yes, he was very much insane. “Who
is
this guy? What’s your boss’s end game?”

Rick gave me a puzzled look. “He has no name. Not yet. Soon he will step out of the ether and choose one. And he will lead us to a new land where all will begin again, fresh and new.” He held out his hand. “You can be a part of that. Don’t you want to live forever in perfection?”

Everything happened at once. Gris must have finally gotten word through because Riley and Kam appeared on either side of me. At the same time the fairy ring let out an earsplitting crack from the weight of all those zombies. Several more portals appeared as the zombies stumbled over each other and dragged themselves onto my property.

Each of the new portals spit out people.

One group was covered head to toe in overcoats, gloves and wide-brimmed hats. As they spun and kicked at the zombies in their paths, steam rose from any delicate flesh that became exposed.

Papa Dino had brought his people to save us, even though the sun had risen hours ago.

Regular-looking people tumbled out of the second portal. They had no animal features that I could see, but their beads and flowers gave them away. Breezy and Mac had also come to our aid, though the lack of full moon made them human and likely more vulnerable.

And then, there was Sara.

Talia stood behind her, a sword drawn and at the ready, but my Sara shone like golden fire in the sunlight, and she led the demons into the fray herself.

We were not a small group waiting for the end of the world. We were a freaking army.

Rick’s open hands turned to fists. “No! Stop this!” He glared at the four of us, then swung around. “Dahlia! Dahlia come here, quickly!”

The blonde djinn stepped out of the shadows, her eyes sad. “Yes, master?”

“You have enough magic left for a wish, yes?”

She hesitated, and she and Kam shared a look. “No, master.”

He grabbed her arm and jerked it toward him. “You most certainly do. I gave you the magic myself. You have the last of it...” He examined her outstretched arm—the jewels embedded there were all dark. “How can they be empty? I hold your name. You can’t use the magic.”

“No,” Kam said. She strode forward dressed entirely in black leather. “But she can transfer it to me across a short distance.” Kam grabbed him by the back of the head and shoved him face first against a tree with his hands behind his back. With a flick of her wrist, a length of rope appeared in her hand. She handed it to Riley. “Tie him tight. I need to keep him away from Dahlia.” She tipped her head toward the djinn. “Sorry. We’ll get you freed later. Until then, we’ll get you out of here so he can’t control you.”

Even empty of magic, Dahlia would be compelled to do as she was commanded if we didn’t keep them apart.

“Marcus.” My tone must’ve been sharp, because he jerked, as if I’d startled him. “Take Dahlia in the house and keep an eye on her and Mom. If we can’t get this stopped, be prepared to get them both out the back door and running for the beach.”

He nodded, his face sober. “I’ll take care of it. It’s the least I can do.” He took Dahlia by the elbow and led her toward the house.

Rick smiled his pleasant smile. “Now, Dahlia.” His tone was mild. He didn’t shout. He didn’t have to.

They made it maybe five steps before Marcus froze and turned toward me. His mouth opened and closed as if he were trying to speak, and he held his arm out.

Blood seeped from a fresh hole above his heart. So much blood it obscured the knife handle embedded there—it took me a few seconds to spot the cause.

Marcus took a step forward, then fell to the grass, dead.

Dahlia covered her face with her hands, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. He made me do it.” She choked on a sob, and her words became whispers. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She sank to the ground and curled into a ball, rocking and whispering her apologies.

Riley and Kam looked to me for orders, as if I were the general and had some sort of plan.

I had no plan. My boss’s boss lay murdered at my feet at the hand of a djinn who clearly needed more help than I could give at the moment.

A full-on battle had commenced in my front yard with everyone I knew risking their lives.

And my mailman had been responsible for the zombie apocalypse.

I had no idea what to do. I took a deep breath.

Think
,
Zoey.
Do something.

I poked Rick in the chest. “We’ll deal with you later. Kam’s going to tie you to a tree, aren’t you, Kam?”

She nodded. “Yes, ma’am. That’s right.” She tugged his rope and made him walk backward to the nearest tree.

Rick grinned at me. “He’s coming, Miss Donovan. You can’t stop him!”

I tried to ignore him. “Riley, can you check Marcus?”

Riley had been watching me closely, as if he were worried that I might drop to the grass and start rocking and whispering too.

I’m just freakin’ dandy
,
folks.
I’m the Aegis.
I
get shit done.

But I was going to need a good stiff drink when it was over.

Riley did a quick check of Marcus. He was neither alive, nor a soul stuck in his own body. Apparently, Marcus hadn’t been quite as surprised by his own death as he might have been. He’d moved on without the help of a reaper.

Kam came back after securing Rick to a tree. It might put him in danger to be there, but we didn’t have a lot of choices. We couldn’t let him walk free, and he sure as hell couldn’t go in the house. And we were now separated from the garage by every kind of monster imaginable doing battle against an astonishing number of zombies.

Rick was no longer my immediate concern. Kam took Dahlia in the house so she could keep an eye on her and be there to grab Mom if we all had to run for the beach.

I turned my full attention to the battle on the other side of my house. I followed around the side of the house and climbed the steps to watch from the porch. With demons, vampires and were-humans fighting, I and my rusty pipe were puny in comparison. They were fighting to keep me alive. The least I could do to help them was stay the hell out of their way. Riley grabbed my hand and I held it like a lifeline.

Chaos. Swords and fangs and shovels and rakes flew everywhere. The zombies were slow, but with single-minded purpose—eat whatever they came in contact with.

Daniel and Andrew stood back-to-back with push brooms, shoving away any zombies that came close to them. Even in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, they didn’t want to hurt anyone. I hated that they were out there, vulnerable and very human. They should be next to me, safe. My chest hurt at the idea of losing them.

Maurice had transmonstrified, though the zombies didn’t appear to care that he wore the illusion of a snarling, ten-foot beast with acid for spit. They came at him anyway, and he hacked at them with his kitchen knife. Not far from where he stood, a gigantic Stacy twirled and spun, punching zombies with her bare hands, kicking them backward when they gained too much ground.

Sara let out a war cry and her demon horde flowed over the crowd of business-zombies, shoving them away. The vampires and were-hippies fought to push the crowd too.

Darius stood at the portal, grabbing businessmen and women as they emerged and tossing them through to their own world before they could turn.

But for all our numbers, we couldn’t keep at it forever. The zombies still poured out, initially normal, then disoriented. Then hungry.

The zombies barely fought back, which was a mercy. But they had numbers on their side, numbers that kept increasing. The only weapons they had were their teeth, which didn’t seem too bad until the virus or magic that made them zombies kicked in and started taking down my people.

The front lines were mostly Tahlia’s demons and Papa Dino’s vampires. Behind them Breezy and Mac’s werefolk fought.

Not all demons were big, scary and dangerous. A delicate demon that looked more like an antelope than a human was the first to fall. Several more followed. Vamps and weres followed within seconds.

The earth shook when a transmonstrified Stacy fell to the ground. I choked on a scream of protest and Riley put his arms around me.

She didn’t get back up.

My skin felt like ice. Everything had happened so quickly. Riley spun me to face him. “I need to get you back in the house. We can hide you in the attic.”

I shook my head. “No. I’m staying right here.”

Tears formed in his beautiful gray eyes. “I have to save you. It’s my job.”

I kissed him softly and held my palms against his face. “It’s my job to save everyone.” In the end, it always was. And now I’d figured out how.

I glanced over my shoulder at the window. Mom was gone from her lookout post. The door opened, and she descended the steps, dragging the rod from my living room curtains. Her face was rigid with determination.

I kissed Riley again. “I love you. No matter what happens, you need to know that.”

He smiled, though the expression was sad—as if we were saying goodbye. “I love you more than you can ever know, Zoey Donovan.”

I closed my eyes and went inside myself. My mental barriers were strong and sturdy, keeping me from the overwhelming emotions of the world around me. I tore down the carefully built walls, brick by metaphysical brick, exposing me to everyone fighting in my yard.

Fear.

Anger.

Exhilaration.

Sorrow.

I pushed past the people fighting on our side and reached for the endless line of zombies staggering toward us with single-minded determination.

Hunger.

Hunger.

Hunger.

That was all there was. It consumed them with a pain so deep they couldn’t think any clear thoughts or function in any way other than to stumble forward trying to sate the hunger driving them.

The most basic of my abilities was to feel what others were feeling. I’d found it was possible to project my emotions onto someone else, though I hated doing it.

What I needed was to go one step further than I’d ever tried to go before. And I had to do it without practice and to an unfathomable number of people.

I inhaled deeply, my eyes closed so tightly I saw stars. I reached for the gut-wrenching, soul-eclipsing hunger and took it into myself. I didn’t merely feel what they were feeling, I took it away from them and absorbed it as my own.

I moaned and dropped to my knees. My stomach hurt, and I felt lightheaded. Riley knelt next to me and tried to brush my hair from my face. I snapped at him like an animal, my teeth nearly connecting with his hand.

“Get back.” My voice was husky. “You smell so good.” Another pang hit me like lightning shooting through my gut. I panted through it. “Please. Get them out of here. I can’t do this for long.” At the center of all that hunger, a tiny spark of myself sat quietly waiting. I focused as much as I could on that small bit of Zoey-ness, reaching for it with everything I had to keep from losing myself entirely. It seemed so far away.