From Darkness Comes: The Horror Box Set (4 page)

“In a manner of speaking,” Belinda agreed. “But I actually wanted to find you first.”

My warning bells went off. There was no universe where Belinda and I could be friends. She was rude and overbearing and thought she was God’s gift. Plus, her body was frozen in the form of a girl in her late teens which was so damn unfair. I mean, if I’d been transformed into a ghoul when I was her age and could walk around without
my
bra…then maybe…

“Focus, Ava,” Belinda snapped her fingers in front of my face.

“Sorry, just considering the likelihood of anything you say being anything that I want to hear.”

“Actually, I wanted to let you know that one of my Kiss saw what he was certain had to be a zombie, but if you are going to be your typical—”

“Wait,” I cut her off. “So one of your vampire minions saw an actual zombie?”

“That is the thing…he wasn’t sure what it was until Morgan paid a visit and issued a warning that we should stay clear of the area.”

“Can zombies hurt vampires?” I asked. Honestly…I didn’t know and needed as much information as possible.

“Doubtful,” Belinda said.

That is when it dawned on me…she didn’t know! She was not here to pass on any information, she was here because there was something going on and she didn’t know anything about it! I only had a moment to wonder if this was that OCD-level curiosity that vampires supposedly possessed.

“Well then
, what is it that you want?”

Belinda was silent. That was perhaps the most peculiar thing. She was never at a loss for words. I was getting nervous. There were a lot of differences between her and me, so help was the last thing that I would expect.

“If I tell you this,” Belinda started, her lips curled up into what I was almost sure had to be an equivalent of a smile, “then you and I are even. I owe you nothing.”

Okay? Now I was really at a loss. What was she talking about? The only real interaction we’d had was when that va
mpire had come in to her territory and I’d been tasked to kill him. But I’d been paid. A lot.

“I know that you are clueless, but you would eventually find out and then it would be even worse.”

Nope. Still not getting it. I wish she didn’t have Lisa all tranced out. I bet she would be pretty helpful right now. She knows all this crap. However, she was still standing there with her mouth open and a single strand of drool starting to trickle out of one side.

“You performed a favor for me,” Belinda stated. She said this like it was a complete explanation that made everything clear.

When I just stood there, she made a low growl in her throat and her eyes did this flashing thing. It was weirder because her face did not change. Not a wrinkle of the brow, not a turning down of the lips. Nothing.

“By the laws of the Kiss, any who do a service that are not a part of the Kiss must either be offered a place amongst us or be the recipient of a favor. Since there is absolutely no way that you can become one of us in your…
condition
(she said that word like it tasted bad coming out of her mouth), then I offer you some information that may be of great service to you.”

“And when you give me this information that is so i
mportant, but that Morgan just happened to leave out, then we are even?” That seemed like a risky proposition. What if the information was bogus, or what if it provided me with absolutely nothing useful?

“This information will be of great assistance, and I can promise you that Morgan was not aware,” Belinda said as if she could read my thoughts. “If she knew this then she might not have e
nlisted
you
. She might have gone outside her district for a professional.”

I wanted to be offended, but the reality was that I was abs
olutely an amateur. Heck, the only knowledge that I was armed with up to this point had come from Google. I seriously doubted that they were the authority when it comes to the
real
supernatural world.

“And if I agree, then you tell me and…what?”

“Nothing,” Belinda said. This was not the first time that I cursed her visible lack of emotion. If that girl ever took an interest in poker, the card sharks of the world were in for a mess of trouble.

“Can you be just a bit more clear?” I finally asked when it was obvious that she was done with her explanation.

“
Nothing
is fairly self-explanatory. However, since I am aware of your intellectual short-comings, I will provide some clarity. What I am going to tell you is vital to your ability to handle this situation. As far as providing you with anything concrete? I doubt it, considering that what I am about to tell you has never been more than simple speculation for hundreds of years.”

“Okay.” Now don’t mistake my one word response for si
mple approval. That word probably took at least five seconds to say. If I wrote it out the way it came from my mouth, it would have taken at least two lines. I just think that looks silly whenever I have read a book and the writer uses six O’s, five H’s, a single K, a dozen A’s and three Y’s. There was a lot of mixed emotion behind my response. Unfortunately, vampires do not have the market cornered when it comes to curiosity. Avas hold their own in that department.

“You may be dealing with The
Queen of the Zombies.”

I have no idea how long that sentence hung in the air, but I do know that I stood there with my mouth open like my friend Lisa for quite a while.

Then I started laughing.

“I am glad you find that amusing, but I doubt that you rea
lize just how serious this situation could be if that is a fact instead of just a rumor,” Belinda said. Now, once again, there was very little change in her expression, but she was definitely scolding me. However, there was something else there, and if I was right…this was no laughing matter.

“Okay, so let’s say that this
queen of the zombies (I had not yet learned to respect or fear her enough to speak with capital letters) is here. What’s the big deal?”

“Since I am pressed for time, I will dispense with asking you what you know about world history between around 1340 and 1350. I know you have to at least have heard about The Black Death.”

“That plague thingy that wiped everybody out?”
Ha! I’m not so dumb.

“If it had ‘wiped everybody out’ as you so eloquently put it, we would not be having this conversation,” Belinda said. I really hated how much she enjoyed putting me in what she considered to be my place.

“Fine, but didn’t it kill over half the people in Europe or something?”

“Very close,” Belinda said, surprising me with a confirm
ation that my SWAG (Silly-Wild-Ass-Guess) was on target…or at least in the general area. “However, it was the Augustines and the Templars who created that version of history to be passed on.”

“Huh?” Back to being the stupid girl.

“I’m sure that you have at least heard about the Templars. Plenty of movies have used them in some manner or another as bad guys.”

I just gave a nod. I didn’t think that another really long ‘okay’ was appropriate. Belinda looked around almost like she was concerned that somebody could sneak up on us. Trust me, if something could…I didn’t want to meet it.

“The Queen of the Zombies came to power and tried to take the world,” Belinda said. “It took the combined efforts of the Templars and the Augustines to ensure that the history books said otherwise. In fact, it was the Augustines that convinced Giovanni Boccaccio to write
The Decameron
.”

When I just stared blankly, she went on with her explan
ation. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe her; I was actually trying to figure out what the hell
The Decameron
might be.

“Supposedly she was imprisoned in the same secret lair where Arthur’s sword
, the Arc of the Covenant, and the Christ’s drinking goblet are secured.”

Now it was just starting to sound like a bad
Indiana Jones
rip off. Still, as smart as she
might
be, I didn’t credit Belinda with the ability to make all of this up in the fly.

“So how do I kill her?” That seemed like a pretty logical question. And considering all of the stuff that she seemed to know about this so-called
queen of zombies (notice how I left of the word ‘the’?), it did not seem a stretch that she might know.

“I don’t think you can.”

Well that was not at all the answer I had hoped for. Besides, every monster has a way to kill it. Right? I mean, if you go by the movies—which supposedly have some basis in fact according Morgan—then it would stand to reason that every monster has an Achilles Heel.

“I believe that those who managed to lock her away would have killed her if given the chance. After all, she was trying to subjugate the entire world and managed something
almost single-handedly that even nations marching under their silly little banners have not accomplished—the death of over half the population of the civilized world.” Belinda flashed her fangs in what I thought was a yawn…until she snarled. “My thrall!”

And just that quick, she was gone.

“…standing right over there,” Lisa said. She sounded like a record getting up to speed.

I gave her a curious look. I had no idea how Belinda did it, but I know I didn’t li
ke it. The way she could just pop in and put Lisa into what was basically a coma for an indeterminate time, and then pop out and let her return with absolutely zero knowledge as to what had happened.

“Who was?” And that was the other problem. I couldn’t r
ecall what the heck she was talking about.

“This lady…” Lisa drifted off for a second. I looked around expecting Belinda to be back, but then she snapped out of it and continued. “It was weird because I almost thought she wasn’t real. Nobody stands that still. Plus, it was like there was not even a hint of this soft evening breeze causing anything to ruffle. And she has dark hair that should have been waving at least a little bit.”

My mind seemed to fizzle for a second. There was something else that had been happening right around that moment. Now I couldn’t remember. I know I’m not the brightest girl, but I’m not stupid. I focused my attention on trying to remember exactly what had been happening when Belinda so rudely interrupted. I could remember getting out of the car…walking up to the coin-op laundry, and then thinking that maybe we should look in the pizza place. I was sure I was missing something.

Nobody’s Fool

“You
sure are acting weird,” Lisa said with what sounded like genuine concern.

Of course
, a lot of that had to do with the way that I had literally scooped her up in my arms and dumped her in the Corvette. I had jumped over my car—I didn’t actually know I could do such a thing until that very minute—climbed in, and took off like I’d stolen something. Oh yeah…and I couldn’t get my finger-or toenails to retract or my sharkmouth to pull back.

“Mrgll shrmf.”

What was the use? There would be no way for her to understand me until I could dial my feelings back a little. I had plenty of things to be concerned about, but at the moment, I couldn’t whittle my list down.

I briefly wondered if there would ever be a time when I would not be having some massive revelation dumped in my lap. As if being a ghoul wasn’t bad enough…as if knowing that vampires were real weren’t enough. Now I had Templars, Augustine
s (whatever those were), and a zombie queen (nope, still no caps) dropped on my head.

Then there was this whole memory blank thing. My first suspicion was Belinda. However, I could recall every single thing that she had
told me. I doubted that she could use her powers on yours truly. Was it a possibility? Sure. I didn’t trust that little vamp any further than I could spit…and I don’t spit; it’s a nasty habit.

By the time the glow on the horizon grew into the night sk
yline of Portland, my teeth had gone back to normal and my fingers and toes were almost there. They come out like a switchblade, but they retract over time, and always at their own pace. I have considered starting a stopwatch, but the situation never seems to be one that my mind pipes up and shouts, “Hey, hit that timer!” So I have no idea if they retract with any sort of consistency.

“And that is all you can remember seeing?” I asked—for probably the hundredth time in the past ten minutes.

“I wouldn’t have seen it at all if you hadn’t staggered like you were just learning to walk on heels.”

“Wait…what do you mean?” She hadn’t said a word about me staggering before.

“You took a step and then your knees buckled and I thought you were going to fall. My immediate thought was that somebody had shot you with a sniper rifle.”

I zoomed along down the highway in silence for a few minutes. I didn’t have any idea what she was talking about. My knees buckled? The only time that I ever had any trouble co
ntrolling what my legs did was during—

“There was a smell,” I whispered. A little snippet of memory broke loose. When it all came, it was like a light being flicked on in a dark room. At first there was nothing, then there was everything all at once. It took my mind a moment to clean everything up and put it where it belonged, but once I had bas
ically reorganized my mind, it was all there…I think.

It sorta reminded me of my ten-year high school reunion. I had s
hown up at the ritzy little golf club that had been selected to host that first mixer where we are all supposed to see who got fat, who got bald, and compare divorces.

High school was a funny time for me. My freshman year I went into summer break barely discernable from the boys. The boob fairy had skipped my house once again. Couple that with braces which came with the oh-so-sexy headgear, and I was a crazy mother and a bad girls’ locker room incident away from being about as popular as
Carrie
.

When I showed up on the first day of school my sophomore year after a summer at my cousins’ place in Florida, I was tan, down to just my retainer, and was sprinting towards my eventual 38DD finish line
. All of a sudden, I was being asked out, I even joined the cheerleading squad. By the time that I graduated, I was the homecoming queen and had my pick of boys for the prom.

So when I showed up at the reunion (two hours after a lunch shift at The Olive Garden) more than one person was probably snickering. I hadn’t done anything or gone anyplace. I was still listening to the same music and had held on to my big hair and Spandex. I actually pulled in to the parking lot cranking
18 and Life
by Skid Row. After getting the evil glare from all the fuddy-duddies hitting yellow balls at the driving range thingy, I strutted in to the big open bar area and froze. Nobody had bothered to tell me it was semi-formal. Maybe they did in really small letters at the bottom of the invitation and I missed it. In any case, I was beyond underdressed for this little soiree.

Since I didn’t have Lisa Kudrow as my wingman, I felt like an absolute idiot. There was no happy ending that night. I slipped out as soon as I could and skipped the rest of the wee
kend’s festivities. That night, with a bottle of Southern Comfort, I started replaying a bunch of my high school memories. I dug out my yearbook and started browsing at all the entries.

“…never forget that night at the drive-in…”

“…that time in the pool…”

“…under the bleachers during the assembly…”

I had gone through three years of an illusion. I had thought that I was popular and funny. The only thing I was…was easy. And then I started remembering it all. But I was remembering it how it actually was versus this shiny, perfect thing that I had created in my mind.

Somebody…or better yet…some
thing
had messed with my mind! Well Ava Birch is nobody’s fool. And now that I was aware, I would figure out what happened and make sure that it never happened again. I just hope it didn’t involve wearing a tin foil hat.

***

“Ava!” Lisa called from the kitchen.

“What?” I was getting dressed and preparing for another trip to Estacada. I had given Lisa strict orders to get my attention the moment that she saw anything strange. A woman unaffected by the wind definitely fell into that category.
If I was bringing her along on this little venture, then I needed her eyes peeled for stuff.

“You have a phone call!”
Hmm. Now that might just fall in the “anything strange” category.

I became a ghoul after allowing my weak mind to win out in the argument that life would be better off without me i
nvolved. Who knew that suicide is the last step to ghoulishness? Anyways, I must have been dead on my bathroom floor for a few days before I came to and entered this new life. The problem I had initially was getting over the idea that my place of employment hadn’t so much as called when I didn’t show up for work. You can totally throw out the thing that I wasn’t even that good of an employee.

Turn on the news any night and you see stories about some girl or another coming up missing. I hadn’t even ra
ted that kind of response. Here we are almost a year later and nobody from my past ever came looking for me. So a phone call? Yeah, that falls in the “strange” category for sure. Heck, the only reason I still even had a phone was…damn…I have no idea!

I went downstairs where Lisa was holding the thing like it was poisonous. Seriously, is it that strange?

“Hello?” I used my most pleasant voice. After all, I could be some sort of sweepstakes winner or something. They still have those…right?

“Am I speaking to Miss
Ava Birch?” an equally pleasant-sounding voice said from the other end.

“Yes you are. And who might this be?”

“This
might
be a lot of things,” the voice answered with a laugh. You know the type. It is the kind where you are absolutely sure that they are laughing
at
you and not
with
you. “However, for now you can just call me Adrianna.”

“I can think of a few other things that I
could
call you.” Yes, two can play at this game. I had no idea who this was, but I was certain that she was already on my last nerve. Maybe she was a friend of Belinda’s.

“
My name is…Adrianna Montevicci.”

The way she said those five words (did you just go back and count? Sheesh!), it was like she expected them to mean som
ething to me. Too bad for her.

“You were in Estacada last night, correct.” That was a statement, not a question. Okay, big whoop-di-doo, so she knew where I was last night. Anybody could have known. It wasn’t like I was keeping it a secret. “You had a young girl with you.” Still no big deal. “And you stood outside the Suds Shack and had a lengthy conversation with a blonde vampire.” Okay, just got interesting.

“So, Adrianna, I can call you that…right? I mean you don’t sound old or nothing, so I probably don’t have to call you Ms. Montevicci or ma’am, right?”

There was a brief pause. I believe I felt a slight chill come through the receiver.

“Perhaps this conversation would be better if we met in person,” Adrianna said. The only thing being that I wasn’t too thrilled with how she said it. Imagine if spiders suddenly had the ability to speak. Now, picture them calling up all the flies and little flying bugs in the neighborhood and inviting them over.

“Maybe I should pick the place and time?” It was the best I could think of on the fly
(no pun intended). I have had a few friends who dipped into the online dating thing the past few years. Well, ‘friends’ is probably overstating it, but you get the picture. So the number one thing I always heard them talking about was that you always met in a very public place that first time just in case they were total creeps.

“Okay,”
Adrianna agreed. Did she sound amused? Hmm.

“Meet me at the Voodoo Doughnut
on Davis,” I said.

“How cute.” The way she said those two very simple words made me want to slap her. If I didn’t know better, I would swear that she was toying with me. That image of the spider kept co
ming to mind.

“You gonna be there or not?”

“I will, and may I suggest that you not bring your little human friend with you when you come.”

Before I could say a thing, she hung up. Now I was more than just a little concerned. Not only did she know about what Belinda was, but she also referred to Lisa
as ‘my’ human. That screamed supernatural. The problem I had was that I just did not know enough about what might be out there. I guess the only thing to do was to go and meet this spider…er, I mean, woman.

I went back up to my room and grabbed my larger carry bag. I’m sorry, girls. I just can’t call that thing a purse. You could fit a small child in
it.

I went into my closet and found a few necessities: silver cross, holy water,
all three
kinds of salt, a decorative wooden stake and mallet that Lisa had purchased online. It was supposed to be a novelty item…if they only knew. I had no clue if any of this stuff would be helpful, but I wasn’t going to just walk in and meet whoever this was and not be at least a little prepared.