Love in the Time of Zombies (31 page)

“I
know.”  Brewer agreed.  “I told Joseff that pink shit came from outer space,
but then those human dicks started taking credit…”

Scotlyn
cut him off.  “He means that movie he made me watch fifty-seven times.  Right
now, we’re as screwed as the characters in
Aliens
were when they were watching
the nuclear reactor core meltdown, while monsters hunted them, and they had to
find that stupid kid.”

Zeke
nodded.  “The kid got lost later on in the film, but yeah pretty much.”

“Nerd.” 
Caleb intoned.  He casually lit a cigarette, his feet hanging over the edge of
the building.

Scotlyn
leaned over to grab it from him.  “No smoking, Cale.  It’s bad for you.”

Zeke
smirked at his brother’s mystified expression.  When Scotlyn cared about you,
she took it upon herself to control your life.  Zeke had always relished her
bossy displays of affection, because they showed he mattered to her.  He found
her micromanagement adorable.

Caleb
must have felt the same way, because he surrendered the cigarette with nothing
more than a blink.  “You want me to quit smoking?”  He seemed confused by the
idea.  Shifters weren’t used to other people being concerned about their
wellbeing.

“You
just
did
quit smoking.”  She informed him.  “I don’t care how long your
kind lives, there’s no reason to risk lung cancer.”  She held out her palm for
the rest of the pack.  “Hand them over.”  She snapped her fingers to hurry him
along.

Cale
handed them over.

“Good
job.”  Scotlyn gave him ‘atta boy’ smile.

Caleb’s
mouth curved at her praise.  “Say, I’ve been meaning to ask you… is that dress
a Valentino?”

Scotlyn
beamed at him.  “Yes, it is.”

“I
thought so.  Thank God there’s someone else here with some style.  Do me a
favor and teach my brother how to dress, will you?  I get sick of looking at hula
shirts and superhero logos.”

Zeke
flipped him off.

Brewer
finished his sixth candy bar and opened another.  “Point is, we gotta find us a
plane pretty soon and beat the rush outta town.”  He continued like the others
hadn’t spoken.  Odds were good that he’d just ignored them.  He only paid
attention when he was talking.

“We
can’t leave until we find that map.”  Zeke insisted.  Without it, they would
literally be flying blind.

“Topless
Golf is surrounded by zombies, remember?”  Caleb scoffed, refocusing on the
problem at hand.  “It’s
still
impossible.  Only now it’s
more
impossible, because there’s a big ass fire.”

“I
know.”  Zeke ran a hand through his hair.  “We still have to get there, though.” 
He wrapped his arms around Scotlyn, his chin resting on the top of her head.  Impossible
or not, Zeke wasn’t giving up.  So long as he could hold his mate, he had
absolutely everything to live for.  “Gimme a minute to figure this out.”

Scotlyn
turned her face to look up at him.  “Are you sure this map is legitimate? 
Where did you even get it?”

“Poker
game.”  He kissed her temple.  “I win all my best stuff in poker games.”

Caleb
snorted.  “It’s probably going to lead us to a shoe outlet in Akron.”

“You
have no sense of adventure.”

“You
have no sense, at all.  It’s a full moon tonight, Z.”

Scotlyn
frowned.  “What?”  She looked up at the sky.  “Jesus, we’re not all going to
turn into werewolves, are we?”

Brewer
choked on his candy.

“No,
we’re not going to Change into werewolves.”  Zeke assured her.  “First of all,
we
aren’t
werewolves.  We’re shape shifters.  And secondly, shifters
always
have a choice when they Change.  A full moon just means we can Change without
passing out.”

“We’re
also stronger today.”  Caleb told her.  “It’s much easier to Change, because
all our instincts are sharper.  It actually might help us, Z.  If we can get
close enough…”

“Hey,
morons, the city’s on fire!”  Darcy called from down below, cutting him off.

“No
shit.”  Brewer shouted back.  “Snag me a beer, will ya?”

Scotlyn
shook her head, clearly not wanting to dwell on her non-humanness.  She watched
the casinos burning in the distance.  The Luxor was engulfed in flames and the
Eiffel Tower in front of Paris Las Vegas had disappeared completely.  “It’s
spreading fast.”  She whispered.  “I think my apartment is probably gone
already.”

“We
should have a moment of silence for all your underwear.”  Zeke said gravely,
wanting to cheer her up.

She
flashed him a smile and his heart flipped over with love.

“Don’t
worry.”  He dipped his head to nuzzle her hair.  “I will help you adjust to
being a shifter.  It’s not so different than being a human… It’s just
more
. 
Your senses are heightened and you can heal faster.  You can do more.  And you
live longer, so you’ll have a lot of time to figure it all out.”  He gave her a
squeeze.  “Don’t try to process it all today.  We’ll take our time and we’ll do
this together, okay?”

She
gave a jerky nod.

“So,
the plan is to sit here and roast like marshmallows, then?”  Darcy demanded,
climbing up the ladder to join them.  She tossed Brewer a warm beer from the
mini-fridge.  “Christ, I leave you guys alone for a little bit and you just freeze
like deer in traffic.”

“Zombies
to the left of us.  Fires to the right.”  Brewer sing-songed, lifting his
bottle in a toast.  “Stuck in the middle with you, Darce.

Darcy
rolled her eyes.  “Seriously, people, we have to get out Vegas. 
Now
.”

Joseff
came up behind her, his black gaze sweeping around the horizon.  The vampire
was always good at sizing up the odds.  It was all part of being unconquered.  “We
need a tank.”  He decided.

Zeke
grunted.  Finally, someone was talking his language.  “That’s what
I
said.  You know where we can steal one?”

“Military
base?”  Scotlyn guessed.

“We
don’t have time to get to Nellis.”  Darcy pointed to the conflagration on the strip,
unhappy that they weren’t already evacuating.  “Not with
that
headed
this way.”

Brewer
frowned.  “Do Air Force bases
have
tanks?”  He asked in a considering
tone.  “Seems like those probably belong to the Army.”

“It
doesn’t matter, because
we can’t get to Nellis
.”  Darcy repeated, stalking
back and forth in frustration.  “Seriously, I just want to go to the airport
and fly to someplace that isn’t burning.  Vampires and fires don’t mix.”

“I
don’t think fires and werewolves mix, either.”  Scotlyn concurred.

“We’re
shape shifters, baby.”  Zeke corrected for the millionth time.

“Jesus,
why does she keep saying we’re werewolves?”  Brewer sounded appalled.  “Is that
what you’ve been telling her, Zeke?  Huh?  That we’re frigging
werewolves?
”

“No…” 
Zeke began, but of course Brewer talked right over him.

“Werewolves
are just
animals
, girl.”  He gave Scotlyn a wise nod.  “Big, dumb, killers
for hire, who hate us.  Nobody wants to be around those bastards.”

“
So
different than the shape shifters.”  Joseff deadpanned.  “
Amazing
that
the woman would get the two species confused.”  He absently touched Darcy’s
hair as she paced passed him, smiling as the dark strands glided across his
fingers.

Darcy
sent him an arch look.  “You promised to be nicer to my family.”

“If
I did, it was under duress.”

“Being
naked and happy
isn’t
duress, Joseff.”

Caleb
and Zeke cringed in unison at that mental image.

Brewer
didn’t appreciate being compared to the pack’s oldest enemies.  “Fuck you, vampire! 
You’re lucky we’re on the same team now or I’d be beating your ass.”

“Darcy’s
right.”  Caleb put in, ignoring Joseff’s taunts and Brew’s outrage.  “We should
just forget about that map.  We can go to Peru without it.”

“We
can’t find
Iasia
without it, though.”  Zeke insisted.  “That’s the whole
point of it being a
lost city
.”

Caleb
rolled his eyes.

Brew
wasn’t done complaining about werewolves.  “And, you know, it’s not just
shifters.  Werewolves hate
everyone
.  That’s why we have to hate them
back.  It’s only fair.”

Joseff
sighed like a martyr.  “Fine, Brewer, you’re not as God-awful as the
werewolves.  Happy?”

“Damn
straight, I’m not.”  Brewer agreed righteously.

“And
I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but Zeke is right.”  Joseff continued.  “We
have to get to that golf course.  It’s our best chance.”

“Look
at the streets!”  Darcy gestured in the direction of TGW.  “It’s wall-to-wall
zombies out there.  How are we going to wade through them without being ripped
apart?”

“Or
burning to death.”  Caleb interjected.

Zeke’s
eyes narrowed as inspiration struck.  His attention snapped back to smoldering
skyline and his mouth slowly curved.  “We’re going to use a tank.”  He told
them.

***

“This
is a still bad idea.”  Caleb said.

Zeke
snorted.  “Now you’re starting to sound like my mate.  She always hates my ideas
when she first hears them, but then she always comes around at the end.”  He
winked over at Scotlyn.  “Right baby?”

She
made a face at him.  “Your brother’s right.  This plan is all about you having
the maturity level of a preteen boy, Ezekiel.”

Caleb
nodded over at her, the two of them a united force in their “Anti-Zeke” crusade.
 Given their new alliance over designer clothing, he foresaw centuries of his
mate and brother ganging up on him.  Overall, he was pretty sure he’d liked it
better when they were bickering.

Zeke
rose above their negativity.  “We needed a tank.  I got us a tank.”  He patted
the dashboard of what was now the
second
great love of his life.  “God,
I always wanted to be a fireman.”

The
gigantic red truck was a miracle of modern engineering.  It was a tanker model,
which had to weigh two tons, had eight massive zombie-flattening tires, and had
no problem plowing right through the monsters and assorted debris in their path
in like battering ram.  Stealing it had been the most fun he’d had since the
zompocalypse began.

Well,
with his clothes on.

Zeke
chortled in satisfaction as a zombie in a chef’s coat tried to grab hold of the
fire truck’s door and ended up smashed under the wheels.  “Fuck stealing a
plane.  After this, I say we just
drive
to Peru.”

“You
can’t, dumbass.  Not without a boat.”  Brewer didn’t look up from an issue of
Penthouse
that some fireman had left behind.  “There’s no road between Panama and
Columbia.”

Everyone
turned to stare at him.

“What? 
I can’t know geography, now?”

Joseff
flipped through the truck’s operating manual.  “You know this machine is rated
to go eighty miles per hour and you’re
still
driving too fast?”  He told
Darcy.

“Try
not to be such an old geezer, honey.”  Darcy was behind the wheel, because
she’d won the drawing with Zeke.  She was the only other person enamored with
their shiny new toy.  Big machines, fast engines, and high speeds were all
right up her alley.

Darcy
might have been against the trip to TGW
before
, but once she realized she
got to drive a fire truck she became a vocal supporter of Zeke’s scheme.  Taking
the corner like a stock car racer, she crushed a sidewalk newspaper dispenser
as if it was an aluminum can.  She laughed gleefully as a hurricane of pages
went sailing into the air.

“Darce,
slow down
.”  Caleb ordered in his best older brother tone.

Zeke
and Darcy exchanged a long suffering look at their sibling’s tight assery.  In
the tradition of control freaks everywhere, Cale was a notorious backseat
driver.  “Fine.”  She muttered and eased off the gas.  “You guys seriously need
to lighten up.  We’re running down zombies in a freaking fire truck.  How is
this not the most awesome road trip ever?”

“Seconded.” 
Zeke lifted a hand.

“I
was once on a road trip with Johnny Cash.”  Brewer said.  “That was
way
more awesome than this, even with the zombies.”  He started humming
God’s
Gonna Cut You Down
, while he turned the magazine to look at the
centerfold.  “Hey, you think this chick’s been airbrushed?”

Caleb
tilted his head to survey the model.  “Absolutely.”

“Shit.” 
Brew tossed the issue aside with a disappointed frown.  “I hate that.  It’s
like cheating.”  He consoled himself by make cooing noises at Pucci, who stared
at him worshipfully from her pet carrier.  For some reason known only to cats,
Brewer turned out to be the fuzzy demon’s favorite person in the world.  “It’s
like getting a guy all worked up to fuck a cartoon character, isn’t it, kitty-kitty?” 
He started baby-talking at his one and only fan.  “Yes, it is.  Wes it wis.”