Curse of Dawn: The Complete Series
Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Two zombies ruined my evening.
Curse their rotting faces.
There I was, enjoying sunset on the rooftop of an empty apartment building overlooking Stockwell Skate Park, my feet finally finding some reprieve after a long day of walking.
Resting in a sun lounger, hidden from view as I sipped on a flat bottle of lemonade, I prayed to the stars to grant me at least six hours sleep.
Pretty please…
I should’ve known better.
The first zombie crashed through the roof access door, stumbling to his knees with a heavy smack.
Ugh.
I rolled off the lounger, dropping my lemonade. “Don’t you ever take a night off?”
He groaned, stinking to the highest heavens, skin covered in puce bruising, tattered clothes smothered in grime and dried blood.
The watery pink eyes of the dead found mine, his open mouth full of decaying teeth and gums. But there were still enough teeth in there to tear my flesh if he got too close.
Crap. I’d checked every doorway, every apartment thoroughly before I settled on the roof—my usual inspection routine of potential shelters. No soul in sight, no flesh-eaters, just me and Wendy—my virtual pet.
A second zombie shuffled through the doorway as the first got to his feet. She bumped into him, groaning, the left side of her face devoid of skin, her left eye hanging out of its socket, bumping against her cheekbone.
Yuck.
Her exposed jaw grinned at me, what was left of her teeth chattering as her eyes locked onto me.
Curse this sunset, no matter how pretty the sky.
They shuffled together, arms outstretched, collectively reeking of death. The air constantly carried the scent of decay, but whenever a zombie showed up the stench intensified to gut-churning levels.
My kingdom for a scented candle to pretty up the world’s air!
I drew my red-and-black axe from its sheath strapped to my back, ready to fight. Again. As irritating as this might be, I was lucky to be faced with the slower variety of zombie, not the faster ones—named, by me, as slowies and speedies respectively.
By the stars, I hated speedies.
Swinging my weapon, I easily took off their heads. Their bodies collapsed into heaps, the heads rolling off in opposite directions.
“And now for the finale,” I muttered grumpily.
The woman’s eyes blinked up at me, black liquid oozing out of her opening and closing mouth. I brought the axe down, destroying her brain.
Zombies might be dead, but their brains still fired off commands to eat and move and be scary. Only by destroying the brain would a zombie truly die.
I seriously loathed this world.
After dealing with the man’s head, I gathered up my rucksack, checking over the side of the roof. Four more zombies shuffled around the main entrance, another five stumbling into the skate park.
Okay, there was only one route out of here.
Moving around the rooftop, checking for a zombie-free descent, I settled on the side of the building facing the main road. I took a moment to scan the plethora of abandoned vehicles choking it, watching for movement.
Nothing, as far as my eyes could see.
A moan came from behind me, preceding another dead man staggering through the doorway.
Stepping up onto the roof’s low wall, I closed my eyes, inching toward the edge.
Focused on the cool late September air, I turned the face of my yellow wind-watch clockwise, opening its inner mechanism to the air.
Pressing the gold button on the side of the face, I activated my ability to float to the ground.
A soft vibration passed through the unbreakable leather strap in recognition of activation. Only a monarch of Faery could remove the watch, so I couldn’t ever lose it. However, it could stop working if damaged by iron.
Every fae was required to wear an elemental watch based on their magical affinity to the four elements—earth, wind, fire, water—and to keep track of time for thanksgiving prayers to the stars from which we came.
At eight in the evening, the words must be spoken.
I was a few hours from my thanksgiving prayer, something I tried not to miss despite the horrors encumbering in this world.
“Okay wind,” I whispered, feet twitching.
Some fae were more skilled in their elements than others. I floated, no surfing the skies for me. Which suited me perfectly. I liked to keep my feet mostly on the ground. Especially on the sand outside my little beach shack by the sea.
Stars, I missed my shack. I missed my world, homesickness raking its toxic claws across my soul.
The wind filtered through my watch, the mechanism twinkling like little bells, cool tendrils curling around my body, assuring me it was now safe to step off the ledge.
I took the step.
As always, my stomach lurched, the fear of nothing between me and the ground but temperamental air dizzying in the extreme. Gravity demanded my fall. But the elemental power around my body resisted, allowing me to float to the pavement, my landing soft.
“Thank the stars,” I whispered.
After all, the stars granted us the gift to use the elements.
And I thanked them for my new skills I’d learned here on Earth.
Better strength, speed, agility, and command of my trusty axe were tools I came to rely on.
After two years here, I’d honed my already decent athletic skills into something better.
Something more kick-ass. Because it was either fight or die, and I wasn’t one for giving up on living easily.
Nothing like enduring a zombie apocalypse to forge you in the fires of survival.
I hurried to the left, away from the skate park, weaving around overturned vehicles, stepping over truly dead corpses—both human and other.
To my right was another apartment building, many of the homes ruined by fire, charred bones piled up at the main entrance, a blanket of death and chaos everywhere.
Weeds and vines were taking over. In certain parts of the city, nature had reclaimed the concrete, taking over the urban sprawl.
I kept going, the graveyard of vehicles testing my nerves. They created too many nooks and crannies for jump scares, and by the stars had I suffered many of those—enough for several lifetimes.
Slipping through a gap between two red double-decker buses blocking the road, my blood turned to ice, forcing my boots to take a pause along with the rest of me.
Oh, pixie balls!
A silent zombie horde blocked the rest of the road ahead, innumerable dead, pink eyes on me.