Chapter 8 #3
“You aren’t a great liar. You’ll have to practice. He isn’t going to become a zombie because he has a resistance to zombies due to the serum that he stole from me.” He flashed his fangs at me, and I cringed away from him.
“Could you not do that?”
“Do you want me to not call you as well? You are afraid of everything.”
“You weren’t there with the zombies all chanting, ‘we are here for you,’ I mean, anyone would be jumpy after that. And I’m worried about Gloria and her boyfriend.”
“You should be. I’d have already killed them, except that would please the zombie queen, and I hate pleasing her.”
“Whose rank is higher, queen or master?”
He flashed those fangs again. “Mine, as long as you are in my power. If you were in hers, I suppose you would reconsider. Except that I don’t allow her to steal any of mine.”
“I’m not yours. I didn’t sign the contract.”
“But you did drink my serum.” He gave me that creepy Cheshire grin again. “Believe me, Lucy Darnell, you are mine.”
I scowled at him. “No, I’m not. First of all, I’m married and if anything, I belong to my husband. Second of all, I’m a citizen of the United States of America. I’m free to choose. That serum of yours won’t last forever. Eventually, I’ll be free of your blood too.”
He cocked his head and studied me for a long moment.
“Very well, Lucy the Free. What do you choose? Will you work for me to eradicate the zombies that have marked you and made your life so very unpleasant, threatening your precious home and husband, or will you leave this hotel and your friends, never to see any of us again?”
His black onyx eyes glittered. I started sorting the dishes, because I hadn’t done a very good job.
“How long will the mark last?”
“Longer than you’ll live without my protection.
You met sweet Agrippa and dearest Duke. They would both love draining you of the blood that carries my power.
You should stop pretending that you want to do anything else.
You can’t until the zombies are wiped out of this country. It should only take a century or two.”
“I’m human. I’m not going to live for hundreds of years. I want to be with my husband now.”
“Then be with him. You are too weak to be constantly executing zombies, which is why it will take such a long time. I don’t imagine that you’ll spent more than a regular eight-hour work-day slaughtering zombies, then you can go home to your precious love.
I’m assuming you love him. You wear his scent like a blanket.
I can tell you where he is without moving, the scent and trail between the two of you is so strong. ”
I clenched my hands between my knees. “Was that a threat?”
He flashed his fangs at me. “I am being patient with you because you are a weak human who needs care, or you’ll shatter. I am far too adept at shattering minds, hearts, and souls. This is the world that you live in now. You are marked. It isn’t going to disappear, not until you die or turn.”
“Turn?”
“Become other than human. You are closest to turning zombie or vampire, the zombie because of the mark, and the vampire because of my blood, which you stole and drank of your own free will.” His eyes glittered terrifyingly.
I put my hand on my stomach while it gurgled attractively. “Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten all that steak.”
“You are securely caught. To survive, you must adapt. For others to survive, you must sacrifice.”
I closed my eyes and put my head down on the contract, my pulse pounding in my ears. “I liked being a normal housewife.”
“I highly doubt that you were ever a normal anything. You are weird.”
I raised my head and scowled at him. “Look who’s calling other people weird.”
“I am aware of my own peculiarities. So should you be of yours. Most people couldn’t adapt so easily to slaying or have put in your meticulous efforts which kept the zombies from tracking you to your house.
I’ve never met anyone who was marked and wasn’t turned for as long as you have been, all because you are so precise and dedicated. ”
I stared at him. It’s almost like he was complimenting me. That was so creepy. “Thanks?”
“You’re welcome. You need to accept your situation as a marked human, and make choices that determine your future.”
“You’re talking about turning zombie or vampire? How is that a choice?”
“There are several differences between the two. You’ve only met the disintegrating zombies that are extremely past their prime. The zombie queen is as well-preserved as I am.”
“You should marry her.”
“Looks aren’t everything. Perhaps you could turn and then take her place. Wonderland. You’ve read the stories, haven’t you? Her court is Wonderland. Those who are kicked out of her court and wander the earth are the mindless grunting zombies that have lost the Queen’s favor and power.”
“How are there so many of them?”
“Her appetite is insatiable. Turning humans is very easy, and for some time, she worked at it, building an army to conquer the world, and me. For some reason, I didn’t find the idea very palatable, so for now, we are at an impasse.”
“Zombie armies? Wonderland?” I tried, but I couldn’t process that. I just—Nope. I wasn’t going the tweedle-dee undead route. “Huh. Do you think that Delores was in cahoots with the zombie queen, and that’s why she wasn’t doing her job, or do you think that she was just lazy?”
“You killed her, so we’ll never know.”
“Unless we capture the zombie queen and get Duke to ask her a few questions.”
“I wonder why I’ve never thought of that before. Ah yes, because it’s impossible.”
“That’s why you can’t catch her, because she does six impossible things before breakfast and you get blocked.
” I smiled at him brightly. Was I becoming unhinged?
Maybe. Probably. I couldn’t turn into a vampire or a zombie.
What would happen to Lock and Wat? I’d probably murder them or worse, turn them.
That left me spending the rest of my life in paranoid seclusion, slaying zombies until I died.
He matched my smile in brightness, but far exceeded it in fangs. “Thank you for explaining it to me. What would I do without you?”
“Find a real exterminator?”
“Then what would I do with you?” He leered at me blatantly.
I rolled my eyes. “Did you have someone to explain the contract to me?”
“I did, but I got hungry and ate him.”
I studied him. “I’m not great with paperwork.”
“You could ask your husband to look at it for you.”
I really, really hated him talking about Hazen. I hated him knowing about him, smelling him on me, threatening him if I wasn’t his exterminator. “Is it really true that the marking won’t ever fade?”
“Not your marking. It was set deep and permanent by the zombie. She was an upper level breed before she was cast out of the Queen’s domain. I probably knew her, but since you burned all the remains, it would be hard even for me to recognize her.”
“Next time I’m marked by an upper tier zombie, I’ll be sure to wait until you identify it before I burn it. Why would I care who it was? I’m not turning. As far as I’m concerned, the only good zombie is a dead one.”
“And vampires?”
“I’m not going to work hard to kill something unless it tries to kill me first, but I’d rather die than be undead. Tom’s my partner. I want it in the contract, that I work with him, and that he’s paid, or I can be paid double, and transfer the money to him.”
He moved rapidly, fingers flipping through pages until it landed on one listing the payment of my slaying companions, and their autonomy guaranteed by the Grand Master. He had it all ready for me.
“And Gloria. I don’t know what to do with her, but after being possessed by the Zombie Queen, she’ll probably have to know about the paranormal world and do some slaying, or just go about life as always. I want freedom for her.”
He flipped another page that outlined her freedom. It was very thorough, like he knew what I wanted before I said anything. Was it possible for him to read my mind? I looked into those dark, terrifyingly empty eyes before I looked back down at the contract.
“My husband, Hazen. I don’t want you to interfere with him in any way.”
“You don’t want me to protect him?”
I hesitated. I really wanted Hazen safe, not just uninvolved, but protecting him would be asking for too much from the Grand Master. It would take effort, and what were the odds that whoever was supposed to protect him wouldn’t eat him instead?
“What about your children?”
I stiffened up and all my extremities went cold. I caught his soulless gaze and held it while I gripped the steak knife. I would end him if he threatened my children, no matter what it took. I would end him and all of his kind.
He leaned back and nodded at the contract. “It’s in the contract. As long as you work as my exterminator, they’re completely off the table.”
“And otherwise, you’ll eat them?”
“If it comes up. Even if they somehow find out about your work and get aggressive towards me, I won’t harm them as long as you’re my exterminator. Passive protection. Pacifism?” He shrugged large shoulders and then sipped from a glass of red wine that I hadn’t noticed him pouring.
I touched my neck where he’d bitten me, but it was just a bruise, not leaking. He’d never broken the skin. “I don’t think that you understand the definition of that word.”
He smiled again. “I understand very well, Lucy.”
“Don’t call me that. It sounds so sensible. There is nothing sensible about any of this. The most sensible thing would be to walk over to the edge of the building and jump off.”
“I disagree. That is the least sensible thing you could do, because it would irritate me, and damage you, but it wouldn’t kill you.
You have my blood. You will be very difficult to kill.
” He smiled and took another sip of wine while the wind ruffled his black hair.
It shone almost blue in the evening light.
If you didn’t consider the fangs or the creepy black eyes that had no whites, he was probably handsome in a brooding Heathcliff or a barbarian emo kind of way.
“If anything happens to my husband or children, I’ll offer my services to the zombie queen and do my best to destroy you.”
“Fair enough.” He leaned over, moving so quickly, catching my chin in his claws which may or may not be venomous. “What do you wish me to call you? Exterminator is a little long, and Pet has a different flavor than I think is appropriate.”
I grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand off my skin. “Lucky. Don’t touch me. I’m married.”
I went over the contract again, stopping at the quarter million a year I would get for my starting salary, plus a weapons budget and then signed at the end.
“You probably aren’t really bound by something as flimsy as paper,” I muttered feeling exhausted, much more tired than after I’d slain zombies. I’d just signed my life away to the devil.
“I’m probably not. But still, it’s nice to have things written down so we don’t accidentally forget. You should rest, Lucky. When you wake up, so will your friends, and then you’ll have to get to work.”
I stood up and headed towards the elevator. I was so tired, but this day wouldn’t end until it was really over. All over. For good.