Magic and Decay (8 page)

His bloodied, ripped-apart appendages and torso drew
the attention of some of the Zombies standing by and they threw themselves on
him, immediately devouring whatever parts of him they could sink their teeth
into.

My stomach turned and I tried not to watch, but I was
morbidly fascinated.
Kiran
took my hand and tugged me
toward the door. Just a few more feet and we would be clear of the building.

And then to the car.

Ivy’s ride would have to show up sooner or later, no
matter how crazy it sounded to me. And then
Kiran
and
I would take care of Reagan and Hendrix. We would find their friends, too and
help them all get to safety. Maybe they would want to come back to the Citadel
with us and trade in their
Evil Dead
lifestyle for a mountain-view and Zombie-less existence.

We pushed through the door as a group with elbows
ramming into ribs and feet on top of feet. The Zombies were at our backs in
seconds, but
Kiran
and I pushed back with our Magic.

Now we just had to make it to the safe haven of the
car.

I took a step forward and came face-to-face with a
nasty beast of a man. His face had been completely disfigured by Zombie rot.
His crimson eyes bugged out from eaten-away flesh. The muscles of his face
flashed burgundy and gory. His nose had been smashed flat to his face and his
blackened teeth chomped and chattered behind bloodied lips. His smell permeated
the air with a noxious toxicity. My stomach flipped and roiled, but I did my
best to hold it together.

He towered over me. Mucous dripped from his bony chin
and pooled on tattered overalls. His club-like hands swiped at the air in front
of him, trying to push past the Magic that he could not comprehend. His focus
stayed firmly on Ivy.

I stepped closer to her and prayed my Magic would be
enough to keep her safe.

It should have been enough. It should have been enough
to keep all of us safe.
Except I forgot one small detail.

I’d built the Magic up around us, making a tall
force-field that kept the Zombies at bay. But I’d forgotten overhead.

And apparently
Kiran
had
too. It never occurred to us to make a roof of Magic. Or maybe we didn’t have
time to think through all the finer details of the moment.

Zombies had scaled the building to reach us on the
roof, but we’d evaded them through the rooftop door. Now that we were out in the
open again, they jumped without warning.

I heard their screeching cries as they leapt from the
building. I didn’t realize what was happening until my body slammed to the hard
ground and the wind rushed from my lungs.

I wheezed and sent
Magic
rushing through me while the heaviness on my back pierced through my confusion.

Someone kicked out a foot and connected with my
forehead. My head snapped back and bright white dots danced behind my closed
eyes.

The smell of the Zombie lying on top of me hit me like
a ton of bricks, and I felt slime and sickening ooze seep over my exposed arms
and soak through my t-shirt.

I gagged and tried to flip over before I realized the
Zombie that landed on me had hit his head on impact and killed
himself
. My face was pressed into the ground and I suddenly
registered the wet stickiness trickling over my cheek and tangling in my hair.

Oh. No.

Not okay.

This time I used Magic to shove the asshole off me. I
jumped to my feet and did my best not to freak the hell out.

I quickly focused again when I saw my husband beneath
a kicking, screaming Zombie that had survived the fall. I became aware that our
entire group had been attacked, but
Kiran
would
always be my first priority.

I couldn’t just slice the Zombie’s head off though since
his snapping teeth were so close to
Kiran’s
face.

I had no doubt
Kiran
could
survive almost anything on this earth.
Almost anything.

Except his head getting cut off with
my Magic.

That one probably wasn’t on the list of things he
could come back from.

Kiran
used his superhuman
strength to push the Feeder back by his shoulders, but his hand lost grip when
the Feeder’s bones crushed beneath his pressure. His left arm flailed and the
Feeder’s face dropped right at
Kiran
.

I thrust out my hand and my Magic snuck between them
just in time. The Feeder snapped and hissed like a rabid, starving animal.
Thick puss dripped from his mouth and ran down his chin. His eyes flashed with
frenzied bloodlust, but my Magic stopped him from sinking his disgusting teeth
into my husband’s body.

Then I used that same Magical field to break his head
off.

That’s right. Off.
All the way off.

The head dropped to the side and blood gushed out of
his headless body.

Kiran
wasted no time in shoving
the dead creature off him and jumped to his feet.

He stood and faced me, hitting me with a look that
said everything he didn’t need to say out loud. His turquoise eyes practically
glowed with intense gratitude and deep love. I felt my heart stutter in my
chest as I absorbed all the feelings this man had for me.

I thought it was a little silly that he needed to feel
gratitude, but it energized me in ways only my husband could. Of course, I
would save him though. Of course, I would do everything in my
Immortal
power to keep him safe and us together.
Forever.
If we truly had forever to live then I wouldn’t go
a single second without him near me.

We turned in unison to the rest of our group. I lost
the ability to think or move as I stared at them in horror.

They all fought to survive beneath a small horde.

Apparently the Feeder that landed on me was the only
one that died on impact. The rest had managed to survive and it was only by a
miracle that the rest of our group had also managed to survive thus far.

Kiran
and I dove in
immediately.

He jumped at one of the Zombies that had Ivy pinned,
propelling both of them to the side.

Another Zombie went for Ivy’s beaten body and his
claws sliced into her back. I winced at the site of those jagged fingernails
coming away with blood.

Ivy threw her head back and let out a scream of agony.
The Zombie’s nails slashed at her head and tangled in her pretty red hair.

That was enough for me. I lunged forward and used my
Magic again to rip off his head.
More blood.
More
guts.

Ivy collapsed onto the Zombie when his grip loosened
on her hair. She fought to untangle herself while keeping her composure. She
did all right except for all the screaming and freaking out.

Eventually, she got free of one Zombie while two more
took his place.

Kiran
had his guy finally
under control, and by under control, I meant dead, and helped me knock out the
other two Zombies before we turned to Ryder, Reagan and Hendrix.

Ryder lay on his back with his feet shoved into a
Zombie’s mouth. His thick boots gave the Zombie something to chew on, but the
Zombie was getting frustrated and violent. Ryder’s jeans were shredded from the
Zombie’s claws. His blood dripped through the tears in his pants and sent the
Zombie into a blind fury.

Sweat beaded on Ryder’s forehead and his legs shook
with the effort to hold the creature at a distance. Ivy cried out words that I
couldn’t make out between the Zombie screeching and the gunshots coming from
Reagan and Hendrix’s direction.

“Help him,” I begged my husband.

He nodded once and then attacked the Zombie.
Kiran’s
hands gripped his head and twisted. His Magical
energy surged with power; I felt it all over me before the weak bone structure
cracked and the rotted skin ripped.
Kiran
took the
Zombie’s head and tossed it into the crowd pounding at the now-complete
force-field surrounding us.

Ryder kicked the lifeless body to the side and
scrambled to his feet. He didn’t bother saying thank you or acknowledging us at
all. He only had eyes for Ivy.

He moved to her with feral grace. His long legs ate up
the space between them and then his arms crushed her in a heavy embrace.

They were covered with slime and goo and blood, but
they didn’t seem to care about any of that. They had each other. That was all
that mattered.

I could relate.

Kiran
and I moved on to help
Reagan.

She was at least on her feet, but just as I moved in
her direction the gun she held in her hand clicked empty.

I watched her face blanch with panic at the same time
the Zombie she hadn’t managed to take out leaped at her.

I made a move to stop the Zombie with my Magic and
caught him with a blast of energy straight to his chest. The Zombie stumbled
back before righting itself.

A lone shot rang through the air as Hendrix wasted the
creature with one of his last bullets. With his attention diverted to Reagan’s
battle, though, the Zombie he had been trying to take out took the opportunity
to tackle him.

Hendrix went down with a smack against the pavement
and his gun clattered away.
Kiran
and I sprinted
forward sending our Magic at the Zombie trying to eat through Hendrix’s
backpack.

I heard fabric tear and shred in the sharpened teeth
and prayed that he hadn’t nicked Hendrix in some way.

I held my breath and used Magic to punch the Zombie in
the side, hoping to lift him off Hendrix so
Kiran
and
I could finish the job the Zombie-plague had started in his rotting body.

This Zombie was stronger than usual, though, and held
onto Hendrix with fierce determination.

I upped my energy, but there was no way to spare
Hendrix completely. I heard his grunt of pain as I finally dislodged the Zombie
from his back.

Kiran
was on the creature as
soon as he was free, and in the next second, its head was gone and its body
bleeding into the coagulated, sticky swamp of blood we’d created in the last
ten minutes.

Reagan lunged forward and shot at the headless body
with Hendrix’s gun. She’d apparently retrieved it and decided to use it
pointlessly.

“Reagan,” Hendrix wheezed. “I’m all right.”

I was surprised she heard him through the cacophony of
raging Zombies, but her hand fell to her side and her head hung.

Hendrix lay on the ground and looked up at her with a
mixture of confusion and agony. When her shoulders started to tremble, he shook
off both of those feelings and jumped to his feet. Immediately he flinched and
grabbed his side where I’d accidentally hit him with Magic. I opened my mouth
to offer him some healing blue smoke when his arms went around Reagan’s middle
and he yanked her back into him. He buried his face in her neck and started
speaking in a low, reassuring voice.

I didn’t know what he said. I didn’t need to know what
he said. It was obvious that he was reassuring her that he was alive and
unharmed.

His backpack hung off his shoulders, spilling the
contents out of the hole the Zombie chewed, but he was alive and unbitten.

I looked for
Kiran
, but he
had turned his attention behind me. The force-field was firmly in place, even
over our heads, but the Zombies were more infuriated than ever. They beat
against the Magic they couldn’t see and didn’t understand. They growled and
screamed and hissed, but nothing would get them past this Magic.

Nothing.

I thought
Kiran
might be
checking out the Zombie situation but when I turned around to see for myself, I
found something more disturbing than the hundreds of Zombies surrounding us.

Something so much worse.

Ryder and Ivy stood two feet apart, staring at each
other with an expression that made me feel sick and helpless.

Ivy’s hand pressed to her neck and shook violently.
She pulled her hand away and it dripped with blood. She wiped it on her shirt
frantically and then pressed it to her skin again.

I took in her action and somewhere in my head I knew
what was happening, but my mind refused to understand the details of the
moment.

Ivy’s hand came away again and more blood covered her
perfect skin. This time when she wiped it against her shirt, I could see the
wound where the blood originated.

The wound.

The bite.

The Zombie bite.

Ivy started crying as realization set in with her,
too. Her big green eyes reflected misery and fear and each of those sentiments
was mirrored in Ryder times one thousand.

Ivy had been bitten.

I hadn’t managed to keep her safe after all.

Chapter Five

Ivy

I froze.

Froze.

I couldn’t think. I couldn’t act. I couldn’t do
anything.

I just stood there trying to wipe the blood from my
neck onto my clothes.
The dirty, contaminated, infected
blood.

My blood.

Fear snaked through my stomach and wrapped around my
heart. It squeezed and squeezed and choked the life out of me.

I felt the change immediately. I felt my blood die in
my veins. There was life and then there wasn’t. I was a living, breathing,
thinking person and then… I wasn’t.

My skin turned chalky with sweat. Saliva pooled in the
back of my throat and I nearly choked on it. I struggled to make my throat
move, to force the slimy spit down my deadening muscles.

Oh, god.

I was a Zombie!

What now? Was this it? Is this where I died?

Not at Nix’s brutal hands or in the middle of some
ancient Greek war? But like this?

This is what I got for hating my beauty all my
freaking life. Was this the Universe’s way of proving a point?

Fine.
I’m vain. There. I said it. I’m incredibly
vain. I hate my beauty, but I like it too!

I didn’t want to lose my looks this way. I didn’t want
to start rotting like a corpse before I ever died. I didn’t want to smell bad
and not be able to think.

And I really, really, really didn’t want to change my
diet from whatever it was before to brains.

My limbs locked tight and my heart slowed to nearly
stopped
. I shot Ryder a pleading look and felt the tears
slip from the corners of my eyes.

He looked horrified. He reached for me, but Reagan
grabbed him before he could get too close.

“You can’t,” she told him in a broken voice. “She’s
already changing.”

A sob hiccupped in my throat and more tears slipped
from my eyes. No.
No!
This couldn’t
be happening!

The bite on my neck burned like hot coals. The Zombie
had gone right for my neck. He’d pinned me to the ground and savagely attacked
my body. He’d cut gashes into my skin all over and I hadn’t known he’d actually
bitten me until I stood up and realized the wound on my neck hurt more than any
of the others.

But now I couldn’t feel anything else. I wanted to
scream in agony, but my lungs wouldn’t cooperate. I felt the life drain out of
me. Whatever made me human, whatever pieced together my soul seemed to seep out
of me through my feet. My thoughts started to rush around and crash into each
other.

And then the worst of it.

The first hunger pain for flesh.

My new friends stood around me and they looked…
delicious.

I locked eyes with Ryder and pleaded with him to
anchor me, to keep me grounded. My mind was on the verge of floating away and my
body already betrayed me.

I felt a trickle of drool fall from the corner of my
mouth, but I couldn’t do anything about it! I couldn’t even wipe it away.

More tears leaked out of my eyes, the only sign that I
could still feel.

And all the while my neck screamed with pain. Would I
feel this forever? If I lived beyond the next few minutes would I always suffer
from this pain?

Only there would be more of it.

Eventually, my skin would begin to decay. My bones and
muscles would become exposed. Every part of me would rot and slowly peel away
and I would feel every moment of it.

“Ryder,” I croaked.

He shoved Reagan and Hendrix off and rushed to me. He
pulled me into his arms and pressed a kiss to my pasty forehead.

I tried to shake my head, to warn him off, but he just
held me tighter.

“I’m not letting you do this alone, Red. This is my
choice not yours. You left me once before. I won’t let you leave me again.”

“Ryder, move out of the way!” Hendrix shouted at us.
“I’m going to shoot her, Man. Let me put her out of her misery before it really
begins.”

“You’re going to have to shoot me too!” Ryder turned
me into him and shielded me entirely with his body. I would have wept if I
could have, but the tears had dried up now and I couldn’t even blink.

I needed to blink!

The not-blinking was really starting to freak me out!

“We’re not going to shoot you! Move out of the way!”
Reagan sounded panicked and I didn’t blame her. Ryder needed to move and he
needed to move now.

I wasn’t going to bite him. I couldn’t.

I couldn’t hurt him again.

I wouldn’t do this.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know if I would be able to
stop myself. Excess saliva gathered at the back of my tongue and I felt the
hunger sear through my veins hot and demanding.

A whimper pushed out of my chest and the sickening
feeling that I wouldn’t be able to stop this, myself or this disease settled
like lead in the bottom of my stomach.

Oh, god. I was
going to eat someone!

Ryder’s entire chest vibrated with fury when he
shouted, “Shoot me too, then! I’m not going to let her die like this! I won’t
let you do this!”

“Think of what she’ll become! Do you honestly think
Ivy would have wanted this? Don’t you think she’d rather die? Let us put her
out of her misery.” Hendrix begged Ryder, his voice hit a low pleading that
punctured my Zombie haze and forced me to feel for possibly the last time.

They should shoot me. They should end this before it
begins.

I don’t want to
hurt someone.

I don’t want to
taste blood and flesh and bone.

I looked out at the sea of Zombies that pounded
against some kind of invisible wall of Magic. They were desperate to get to us.
And I would be one of them soon.

Please shoot me.

Please.

“What’s that?” Reagan asked sounding slightly
hysterical.

“What the hell?” Ryder held me at a distance just as
the urge to snap my teeth at him hit me hard. I held it back, but just barely.

Something
cool
misted around
my ankles. I felt it through my stiff jeans. The sensation brought relief, the
first of it in several minutes. I let out a slow exhale and my lungs moved with
the effort.

I perked up when I realized that my lungs had all but
stopped because of the infection, but could now move with some freedom.

What was happening now?

Was this a good sign?
Or a sign that
the disease had gotten worse?

The tingles of relief moved up my body. A gentle
breeze washed over my thighs and waist. My heart started beating with purpose
when it reached my chest. My neck stopped burning like the sun. The heat pulled
back and the agonizing pain eased.

“Ivy,” Ryder whispered.

He let go of me and I stood on my own. My mouth
stopped watering and my blood rushed through my veins with purpose and life
again.

Just as I felt the life slowly drain out of me, I now
felt it return with vigor.

I wiggled my fingers and after that, I wiggled my toes
in my shoes. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

I felt the infection dissipate inside of me.

I felt my thoughts organize and my consciousness piece
itself back together.

I felt my body heal.

By this time, I couldn’t make out much through a
thick, wispy navy blue smoke that covered me completely. It looked like someone
had let off a few smoke bombs right at my feet.

I expected to start choking on it, but I breathed
through it easily.

I couldn’t really see though. I stepped forward,
hoping to find Ryder.

Three or four steps later I left the smoke behind me.
Ryder stood on the outside of it with his hands grasping at his wild hair and
his gray eyes brimming with unshed tears.

I threw myself at him. I was too happy to care about
our history and the bad feelings between us. I didn’t care that we weren’t
supposed to care about each other and that our world was falling apart. I
didn’t care that there were hundreds of Zombies trying to get to us, trying to
kill me.

All I cared about was Ryder.

His arms wrapped around my waist, and he squeezed me
so tightly that he lifted my feet off the ground.

“You’re okay?” he whispered into my hair.

“I’m okay,” I swore to him.

His lips pressed into the curve of my neck where he
kissed me. His chin scratched my skin, but I relished the sensation, drowned in
it.

His heat wrapped around me and my heart swelled at our
closeness. Tears fell again, wetting my cheeks and soaking his filthy t-shirt,
but I didn’t care
.

We had each other again.

“
Eden, that
was you?”
Reagan’s question cut through our happy reunion.

I lifted my head but didn’t pull away from Ryder.

Eden sat on the ground with her legs curled to the
side and one arm propping her up.
Kiran
crouched at
her side with a protective hand on her shoulder.

She looked exhausted.

The blue smoke I’d walked through pooled around her
body and seemed to play against her skin.

More Magic?

Eden nodded at Reagan’s question. “That was me,” she
rasped.

Kiran
stood up and swept his
wife into his arms. “It took everything out of her,” he explained. Her head
dropped to his shoulder, and her eyes drifted shut. “She isn’t used to healing
other species,
er
, humans. Even when she heals our
people she tires easily. But this was… that was an extraordinary circumstance.”

I met his uniquely blue eyes and hoped my authenticity
could be seen in my expression. “Thank you,” I told them both, although I
thought Eden might be asleep by now.

Her breathing had evened out and she didn’t twitch or
move at all in his hands.

“You’re alive. That’s what matters.”
Kiran’s
grave voice held a truth I didn’t want to argue
with right now.
Or ever.

Ryder squeezed me against his chest again and
whispered something I didn’t understand into my ear. I pulled back just
slightly so I could look him in the eye and ask him what he said, but
Kiran
started speaking again before I could form the words.

“We have to move,”
Kiran
commanded.
“Now.
With Eden so weak, I won’t be able to
hold the force-field for long. If we don’t make a run for it this second, we
won’t be able to. And this time, Eden won’t be able to save any of us.”

Well, damn. That was not good.

We turned at once to move through the Zombie horde.
Ryder took my hand and held it tight, refusing to let go no matter how tight
the space became.

Before, when Eden and
Kiran
were both working the Magic, they could push apart the Zombies to make a path
for us to move on. The most
Kiran
was able to create
was a bubble of Magic that encompassed all of us. He had to push it into the
pressing Zombies until they were forced out of the way.

We moved much more slowly this way, and I started to
feel the sharp pinpricks of fear as they stabbed at my spine.

I didn’t want to go through that again. Especially if
there wouldn’t be a cure this time. That had been the worst feeling of my life.
I would do
anything
to avoid
suffering through the horrible effects of the infection.

Like making sure the Zombie finished the job and
didn’t leave me to rot into a monster.

The least a guy could do was
finish
the job.
Even if that meant a very slow, painful, agonizing
death.

“I’m completely out of ammo,” Reagan told us.

“And I don’t have much left,” Hendrix confirmed.

Well, great.

“What about the car?” I asked. “If you don’t have much
Magic left, will you be able to get it running? Or keep it running?”

Kiran
walked behind me, but
close enough that I felt how chilled Eden’s body was whenever he bumped her
into me accidently. I knew she was an Immortal, no matter how weird that was.
And I promised myself she would be okay if we could just get out of this dumb
situation I’d caused, but I didn’t really know.

“Did Eden know she would be out of commission after
she used the, uh, smoke?” Hendrix asked as we pushed forward.

“She did,”
Kiran
confirmed
with that crisp accent of his.

Hendrix made a disagreeable sound in the back of his
throat. “Did she have to use so much of it?”

Kiran
didn’t say anything
for a long time, and I wondered if he planned to ignore Hendrix completely. But
then he finally said, “Eden has always been comfortable with taking big risks.
They usually pay off for her.”

I watched Hendrix shoot a look at Reagan. “Are all
women like that?”

I wanted to protest, but Ryder beat me to it.
“Apparently.
It must be a female thing to act first, think
later.”

“I resent that,” Reagan bit out.

“Me too!”

Ryder ignored me. “I guess it doesn’t matter what
species they are, they all have the same tendencies.”

“What about men?” Reagan scoffed. “Are you all overbearing
cavemen?”

The three men had shared a look before they nodded in
unison.

I would have laughed if our circumstances weren’t so
dismal.

“You’re supposed to find that sexy,” Ryder put in with
the slightest hint of teasing in his voice.

“And you’re supposed to respect our independence and
ability to save ourselves,” I told him.

The guys shared another look. “It would be a lot
easier to respect your independence if it didn’t keep getting
us
into trouble.” I didn’t think I liked
Kiran’s
tone.

“You too?”
Ryder asked over
his shoulder.