Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ORION
Ilanded on my side, sliding across the road. The bandages on my right wrist scraped off, exposing my angry wounds.
“Stars!”
I rolled onto my back, winded. Smoke curled across the dusky sky, my ears ringing.
“M-Miko?”
A hand found my leg, my mate’s face appearing above me. His forehead was cut, blood running down the bridge of his nose.
“Are you alright?” His voice was muffled.
“Y-Yes.”
“You’re bleeding.” We spoke at the same time.
He touched his wound, then checked my wrists.
“I’ll be fine, Miko.”
“I’m good.”
Once again, we spoke together, the words different.
Thump, thump.
Thump, thump.
I sat up. He crouched beside me. The rest of my companions were spread across the road. Shaken up, but fine from what I could see.
The house burned brightly, tall flames licking at the sky, the smoke thick and dark. Debris scattered across the road, pieces of the house smoldering in the surrounding fields.
I rubbed at my ears, trying to make them pop. “Well, that was unexpected.”
Miko touched my back. “I—”
A loud chorus of hissing cut him off.
Oh, no.
“On your feet.”
I was already ahead of him, a burst of adrenaline forcing me up before he finished his sentence.
“They’re coming from the fields,” James said.
Pink eyes twinkled around us.
I got ready to pee myself. “They’re everywhere.”
“Get moving!” Miko barked, turning on the spot.
“Eat! Eat! Eat!”
Blistering terror curdled my strength.
Stars!
Stars!
Stars!
“Come on!” Miko boomed.
His voice galvanized me onward.
We took off along the road away from the house, leaving the bicycles behind.
I pushed every effort into my legs, adrenaline a wild maelstrom forcing me to fight for survival. I kept pace with Miko, the rest of the pack on our heels.
“Eat! Eat! Eat!”
Five speedies cut off our trajectory, spilling into the road. Miko roared, charging into battle. Behind me, I heard the other wolves, Basil, and Trev tackle a second wave.
Soon there would be a flood, zombies coming at us from all angles.
Too many…
Axe hungry for blood, I pushed through the agony in my wrists, determined not to die on this country road.
A speedie hissed at me. She hopped from foot to foot like a boxer, her lips spreading into a malicious grin. A festering wound on her neck oozed nasty ichor, the stench of her decay burning my nostrils.
Stars. The fast, reckless chaos of the speedies was gone in this one. What next? A display of fully restored human intelligence? The building of a zombie democracy?
Stop it!
“Eat,” she said. “Eat.”
“Get a new line.” I rushed her, going for her neck first, planning to follow it up with a blow to the head with my other weapon.
I quite liked that move.
It turned out to be a foolish one.
The speedie dodged me as a boxer would, jabbing me in the stomach. I hunched over, winded again, and dropped my axe. Tried avoiding her next attack.
And failed miserably.
She kicked my legs out from under me. I hit the ground, cracking the back of my head on the road. A flurry of stars burst across my vision, everything spinning into a wicked blur.
“Stars…”
How appropriate…
The speedie came down on me, straddling me, laughing with maniacal glee.
“You… Eat… You…” She bared her teeth.
Well, she’d kind of developed a new line.
I blinked to clear the stars, grabbing her by the shoulders as she lowered her head. Immediately, she grabbed me by the wrists, squeezing as if she knew where to obliterate my resolve.
“Get off me!” I cried out in sheer agony.
“Orion!” I heard Miko bellow.
A speedie ran past my head, almost stepping on me.
“Eat!” he cried.
Gritting my teeth against the torture, I pushed back against the zombie. She was strong, testing my limits. My blood seeped through her dirty fingers still crushing my wrists. Crimson rivulets trickled down my arms, her pink eyes alight with color as if reacting to the smell.
“Eat! You! Eat!”
Another zombie slid to a stop next to me, bumping me with his knee. He grabbed my head, hissing at the woman.
She hissed back. “Mine! Eat!”
New word again.
The man released my head, dragging a nail across my cheek. “Eat!”
“Mine!” She let go of my wrists, launching herself at the man.
“Eat!” he cried.
They rolled off me, the man landing a departing kick on my shin.
Territorial over their food?
Don’t think about that now!
My inner voice joined forces with my adrenaline, getting me back onto my unsteady feet. Touching the back of my head, my fingers came back wet with blood.
Goodness, I was one woozy fae.
I glanced to my right, the two speedies battling it out for my blood. Around me, the others fought on. None of them on the ground, all of them kicking serious backside.
Not like me, all injured and silly, letting down the fae side while Basil jabbed and twirled with perfect grace.
Assbug. Me, not him.
Paige ran over to check on me but was cut off by a different speedie behaving like a boxer. And more were coming, charging across the fields.
Too many.
We had to get away from here.
Spotting my axe on the ground, I picked it up just in time to dodge a zombie’s lurching grab. This man, with a hole in his chest and no nose, wasn’t as sharp as the others. More traditional and chaotic, an old-fashioned speedie.
Good. I grew sick of change.
He came to a messy, staggered stop, then charged at me again. I tripped him up. He hit the road face-first, receiving a vicious axe swing to the brain before he got up again.
At least I’d won that round.
The horde of speedies closed in from all sides. I counted around thirty pairs of eyes, though there were probably more. And that didn’t include any slowies lumbering after their quicker counterparts, ready to pick through the leftovers.
Miko ripped the head off a speedie, tossing it into the field while delivering a high-kick to another.
“Fuck off!”
I jumped back, startled by a voice not belonging to anyone here.
The speedie who’d crushed my wrists had the man she’d been wrestling pinned to the ground face-first, a knee digging into his spine.
“Mine!” she screamed, grabbing him by the head. “Fuck off!”
Two other speedies stopped to watch her smash his head repeatedly into the asphalt, turning his skull into nothing more than a gory, broken pumpkin.
“Fuck. You.” She clapped her hands together, hissing down at the corpse.
Then she turned those eyes to me. “Mine…”
Cate stabbed her in the right eye with a bread knife while Paige punched another man lunging at her.
A wave of dizziness hit me. I staggered backwards, head and guts rolling.
“Stars…”
I hunched forward as a series of aggressive retches struck. I gagged, vomiting on the sixth retch, ready for my face to kiss the ground.
James caught me, taking me into his arms. “I’ve got you.” He started running.
“Eat!”
Miko drew level with him—I barely made out his profile, sliding closer to unconsciousness. “Keep going. We can lose these fuckers.”
A wall of zombies crashed into us, sending me flying out of James’s grip. I landed in a shallow pool of liquid mud in one of the fields.
“Orion!” Miko roared.
This shouldn’t be happening. I shouldn’t be rendered a rag doll like this. I was a fighter, not a delicate blossom. A robust fae who knew how to fight and flee his way out of a sticky situation.
Speaking of sticky, this mud’s texture resembled glue. I crawled out of it, managing to roll onto my back. With zero class, I let out an acidic burp, turning my head to the side in time to vomit again.
“Orion!”
“Eat!”
Hissing.
“James!”
“Miko!”
I tried lifting my head, everything inside me becoming cement-like.
“Miko…” I barely managed to make the sound of his name. “Miko…”
Once again, I tried to move, getting a swarm of black spots across my vision as a reward.
My head injury was clearly worse than I thought.
A speedie landed on me, taking a bite out of my right arm. I managed a weak scream, unable to fight the assbug off.
Pixie balls!
The zombie lifted her head, staring up at the sky, my blood dripping from her lips.
“I recommend those kilogram bags of birdseed, sir. Better… Better…” Her eyes turned green.
“Better… Better… Better value for moment. Great. Two bags? Amazing. That will be ￡15.98. Tap the card when you’re ready.
Many thanks. Have a great… Have a… Have great day.
” Her eyes shifted back to Dawn pink, refocusing on me. “Eat!”
Someone cut her head off.
A man’s face appeared above me. Golden hair streaked with gray, eyes like orange fire, and the biggest beard I’d ever seen in my life. “Alright down there?”
I passed out.