Chapter 18
DEANDRA
The thunderous crack of our main ward finally giving way was like hearing the last heartbeat of a dying patient in the ICU. One moment, we had barriers. The next, we had a flood of zombie creatures pouring onto Willowberry's grounds like water through a broken dam. We were out of time.
"The wards are down!" Kaitlyn shouted from her position near the windows. Her words were unnecessary, but they cut through the chaos like a scalpel. "They're breaching the perimeter!"
“At least this means we won't have to worry about reunion guests walking into traps later,” Adèle observed grimly as another wave of undead alligators crashed through what remained of our magical barriers.
"That’s a silver lining in this mess," Cyran called out as he conjured a wall of fire to block the stairs to the porch. "Though I'd prefer fewer zombies and more family barbecue at this point."
"We need to get outside, now!" Dre commanded with the authority of someone who'd been making decisions for the rest of us since she was old enough to drive.
"We take the fight to them before they get inside.
Sarah, Margaret, Claude, Thomas—you four stay in the house.
Lock the doors and don't come out until we give the all-clear. "
"But—" Margaret started.
"No buts," Dre cut her off as we all rushed toward the front door. "This is what we do. Let us do it."
My sisters and I burst through the front door with Cyran, Kaveh, Kaitlyn, Cami, Lucas, and Noah right behind us.
The scene that greeted us looked like something from a horror movie.
One that had been directed by someone with serious issues.
Zombified wildlife was pouring across our lawn like a supernatural plague.
Their rotting bodies left the worst trail of breadcrumbs ever.
Fred, our mundie gardener, was going to think we’d completely gone off the rails. Like most native New Orleans residents, he believed in the supernatural, but we’d kept this world from him. It was going to be hard to explain why there were thousands of pieces of rotting flesh littering the lawn.
A massive zombified alligator was halfway up the front porch steps.
It had crazy glowing eyes and oozed malevolent energy.
Before anyone could react, Kota stepped forward and lobbed an energy blast that hit the creature dead center.
The explosion of rotting reptile left the porch covered in swamp mud and gore.
It painted the white columns in shades of decay that wouldn’t come clean without a supercharged cleansing spell.
"Well," Kota said, wiping zombie gator off her face with surprising calm, "that was gross but effective."
"There's more coming," Kaveh warned as his flames wreathed his body. He leaped over the railing, landing in a crouch while he surveyed the writhing mass of undead creatures spreading across our property. "A lot fucking more."
My sisters and I rushed down the porch steps in what could generously be called controlled chaos.
That was typical for us when shit hit the fan.
We would be more effective with more time to think and fewer rotting alligators coming at us.
However, we would still kick ass. It just wouldn’t be pretty.
Lia hit the bottom of the steps first. Her amber witch fire was crackling on her hands.
Tossing balls of the flames to distract the zombies, she threw up barriers all over the place.
A laugh bubbled out of me when creatures slammed into her shields like moths hitting a bug zapper.
She had turned the front lawn into a supernatural obstacle course.
It would've been far more satisfying if there weren't fifty others behind them.
Dre veered left the moment her feet touched grass.
Light pink flames erupted from her hands in waves that turned anything undead into charred fertilizer.
I watched her move with the kind of deadly grace that made me proud to call her sister.
Even when she was currently barbecuing what used to be someone's pet poodle.
Phi took the right flank. Her typical analytical approach was replaced by pure magical mayhem as she lobbed energy blasts with the enthusiasm of a kid at a carnival game.
Kota was right behind her. Together, they were turning our side yard into a graveyard for things that were already supposed to be dead.
I spread out toward the back corner of the house, trying to keep anything from circling around to the families we'd left on the portico. It wasn’t easy to keep one eye on my sisters in case anyone needed backup. I couldn’t tackle this side alone.
"Cami, can you help me with crowd control?" I called to the witch who was currently surveying our uninvited guests with the expression of someone whose day had just gotten significantly worse.
"I'd be happy to," she replied, her usually cheerful demeanor replaced by focused determination.
Her hands began crackling with silver-white electricity that danced between her fingers like miniature lightning storms. She made her way across the portico between the main house and the summer kitchen.
Her magical energy was building around her until the air hummed with power.
"Let's see how these things like a little magical lightning. "
The spell she unleashed was like watching Zeus throw a temper tantrum.
Arcs of silver electricity shot out from her hands in a web pattern that covered the entire yard next to the parking lot.
It connected every zombie creature within fifty feet in a network of supernatural voltage.
The undead things started convulsing like they'd grabbed a live wire.
Their rotting bodies jerked and spasmed as magical current coursed through them.
The smell that followed was absolutely horrific.
Think charred rotting flesh mixed with ozone and burnt hair.
It was the kind of stench that would stick in your nostrils for weeks and make you question your life choices.
The electrical assault gave us precious seconds to figure out our next move without getting eaten.
Though I was pretty sure I'd never be able to smell barbecue the same way again.
"Lucas, Noah, can you join the other shifters and provide more perimeter support?" Lia barked as more creatures poured across the breached ward line. "We need to stem the flow so we can keep anything from getting past us to the house."
“The families are safe for now,” Adèle observed, “but you need to clear this wave quickly. The Collector is using this assault to study your abilities. He will find a way to throw your power back at you.”
"Kaitlyn, we could use some of your witch magic," Kota called out as she and Phi worked together to create kill zones that forced the creatures to come at us in manageable numbers instead of overwhelming waves.
"I'm doing what I can," the High Witch replied as her energy wove through the air in complex patterns. The zombie animals closest to her began moving more slowly and were less coordinated. "But whatever's controlling them is adapting to my interference."
"They're not just zombies," I announced grimly as I ducked under an attack from something that might have been a pelican in another life.
How was the thing even flying? Its wings were practically nothing but bones.
What I found when I reached out with my empathic abilities made my stomach lurch.
They weren't just reanimated corpses. The Collector had stuffed souls into the carcasses.
That was how he was able to direct these creatures so effectively.
I winced as my mind was flooded with screaming. "The Collector is using harvested human souls to power these things!"
"We need to free them," Lia snarled. "No one gets to use innocent people as supernatural batteries on our watch."
"How exactly do we exorcise zombie alligators?" Kota asked as she vaporized something that had too many teeth and not enough skin.
“Target the binding points,” Adèle instructed. “The souls are anchored to the physical forms through specific magical connections. Sever those, and you free both the spirit and destroy the vessel.”
"Aim for the heart or brain," Dani suggested. "The binding anchors have to be located in one of those spots."
“Behind you, Dani!” Adèle's warning went through our connection just in time for me to watch my sister dodge a zombie raccoon that had figured out how to climb. Dani spun and caught it with a magical blast that blew a hole in the thing’s chest. I was the only one who heard the scream cut off abruptly as the trapped soul passed to the other side.
“That worked,” I confirmed. “You freed the soul.”
“Thank the gods for small favors,” Dani replied as Noah appeared at her side like a protective shadow. His fingers were claws, and he was ready to shred anything that went after his mate.
He positioned himself to cover her blind spots. "Stay close," he told her. "I've got your back."
My distraction cost me. A rabid squirrel leaped at my face while I watched Dani and Noah.
Thankfully, my reflexes reacted, and my arms flew up.
Filthy, tiny claws dug into my flesh and cut through the layers of skin.
Igniting my arms in my purple witch fire, the little bugger screeched and tried to fling itself away from me.
"This is like the world's most fucked-up game of whack-a-mole!" Lia shouted as she worked her way through a pack of undead dogs while I stabbed the squirrel through the head.
“Go for the head, Phi!” Adèle shouted. Spinning around, I caught sight of Phi slamming her dagger through the skull of an alligator she was wrestling.
"Thanks for the advice!" Phi called as she jumped to her feet.
A quick scan told me my sisters were holding their own. No one was seriously injured. However, it didn't seem as if we had made much of a dent in the number of zombies.
"How many of these things are there?" Dre shouted over the supernatural chaos.
"More than you can fight traditionally," Adèle informed us. "You need to disrupt their connection. They're operating as a hive mind."
"How the hell do we do that?" Lia blurted.
“With Dea's spiritual powers,” Adèle explained. “You can reach the spiritual network they're using. The Collector is broadcasting control signals through the trapped souls. Think of it like a ghostly radio frequency. You need to create interference by flooding that channel with emotions.”
"You mean flood the network with panic, fear, and terror at the same time?" I clarified.
“That won’t be very effective,” Adèle corrected. “Use positive emotions like love, hope, and joy. The Collector feeds on pain and despair, so you would make it stronger. Positive emotions will burn through its control like acid.
"I can try to overwhelm their frequency," I said, as I reached out with my abilities.
Rather than reach toward the trapped souls, I pushed the emotions toward the malevolent intelligence coordinating them.
I flooded the connection with every happy memory I could dredge up.
Christmas mornings with my sisters. Maleko's laugh.
The first time I held my children. The feeling of buying Willowberry with my sisters. I sent everything I could.
It didn't take long to see it was working. The creatures became erratic. Some began wandering in circles while others attacked each other in confusion.
"Excellent! Now press the advantage," Adèle urged. "Keep channeling those positive emotions. You're burning away the Collector's influence."
"Incoming!" Cyran warned as a fresh wave of creatures poured through our compromised ward line while I worked.
"This isn't sustainable," Phi called out as she incinerated something that looked like it had been a dog before it became an abomination. "Dea is going to exhaust herself while we continue fighting these endless waves."
"You’re right. We need to stop the Collector entirely?" Lia snarled as she stabbed an undead bunny. "He's just going to keep us busy fighting his zombies while his minions finish whatever plan he has to get free."
"The binding ritual," Phi said suddenly. "We don't stay here fighting these things. We do it now. In broad daylight. It will catch the Collector off guard."
"Before the optimal alignment?" Kota asked. "How exactly do we hide a massive magical ritual from every tourist in the French Quarter?"
"Very carefully," Dani replied. "And with a lot of help from the coven."
"We’re doing this in Congo Square, right?" Lia asked, catching Dani's train of thought immediately as she carved through another cluster of undead with righteous fury.
"Congo Square is the original sight and already has the power needed," Adèle advised. "You will need to glamour the area and cast strong aversion spells that will make mundies avoid the area.”
“What do we do about Michel’s bloodline?” Lia asked as she slashed an alligator.
“His blood is in the gris-gris bag. You can bind to it for the ritual. You'll need to get the other families there alive for the binding ritual," Adèle explained.
Dre blasted another wave of creatures back toward the ward line. "If we're doing this ritual in daylight, we'll need every amp of magical power we can get."
“You will have it. The spirits are gathering,” Adèle reported. Her mental voice carried notes of awe. “They know what you're planning and want to help.”
As if summoned by her words, Guardian spirits from every bloodline were converging on Willowberry like supernatural reinforcements answering a call to arms. "Holy shit," I breathed as the spiritual energy surrounded me.
"The cavalry has arrived." Now, we needed to get our asses to Congo Square to end this.