Death Weeps Part 42

Stupidly, he tried to use the gun like a fly swatter.

But these weren't flies, they were instruments of death, wielded by my deadly accuracy and fueled by my fear of possible harm to Jade.

Two landed simultaneously on his gun hand, and reflexively he depressed the trigger as Brett came into range of grabbing Jade.

He should have stayed back like I'd said.

A spray of bullets, their noise unmasked, plugged Brett in the chest and he went flying backward as if pulled by an invisible hand. As his body flung backward Jade slumped in a dead faint and my eyes met Joe Zondorae.

The suits that weren't buried underneath my rats dragged Parker into the chopper. The blades began to rotate again, the remainder trained their guns on my friends, even the ones that tried to go to Brett.

Who almost certainly lay dying. Bleeding out on the ground of the dump.

Unnoticed.

The suit dropped Jade on the ground where she smacked her head.

I actually growled at that and two rats ran to his pant leg, latching on with zeal. He howled, trying to shake them off, finally blowing them away.

His aim was better than that of his lame friend. His feet stayed attached to his legs.

I watched as the brothers stole Parker, Clyde following their progress as two of the suits finally caught a clue and got the flaming guns. Those would do some real harm to my rats. I allowed my flock of dead rodents to retreat.

It was a stalemate.

I just wanted Jade over here and safe. My eyes flicked to Brett and I saw his breathing coming in ragged gasps. If I was normal, I wouldn't have known for sure what his prognosis was.

But I wasn't.

I had Affinity for the Dead. It told me surer than anything could have.

He would be dead soon.

The Zondorae brothers unceremoniously hauled Parker inside the chopper, dumping him in a pile on the floorboards. All the while the Graysheets' guns were trained on my friends. The girls silently crying, the guys with frustrated expressions on their face.

Clyde said it best, "They have not the right," his hair lifting off his forehead, the artificial push of the blade's momentum forcing a windstorm.

"We do, my friend," Zondorae said, pointing his gun at my zombie.

I knew a second before he shot Clyde what would happen.

Gale leaped in front of Clyde.

He could have taken twenty bullets. But it would only take one to kill her.

The bullet hit Gale in the chest and the thick sound of it entering her body made Clyde and I groan with its impact.

The chopper started to pull away.

"s.h.i.+t!" Alex roared.

"The d.i.c.k holes!" Jonesy ranted, running to step in beside where Brett lay.

Jade began to wake in the arms of Sophie and she and Mia lifted her to a standing position.

I went to Clyde and knew what I needed to do.

"Master," Clyde breathed. My relation, my zombie.

My friend.

He turned his head to the side and a very human emotion stood there.

Fear and grief, mingled in a bitter pill of stark realization.

"Save her," he begged.

I grabbed Bobbi Gale's small hand and felt death on the edges of her, I could taste it.

I wrapped my hand around Clyde's hand and hers, taking what I'd given.

I took some of the life I'd given Clyde and siphoned it off of him for Gale. As she bloomed like a flower, his spark faded.

"Oh no," Randi moaned, seeing the transformation in Clyde. His hair dulling, his eyes losing their lively spark, the muscles and build of his youth, his life, shriveling into the sh.e.l.l of his body.

His zombie nature reared its head even as Gale opened her eyes. She pegged him and told me, "Stop."

"Not yet," I said, never wanting to stop something more than I did in that moment.

Had they stood in front of me right then I could have killed the Zondorae brothers.

Twice.

Finally, it was done, the bullet had popped out of her chest as if purged and she sat up, taking Clyde's bony hand in hers. She was utterly unaffected by Clyde's new appearance.

Who knew how long it would last?

But right now, he was all-zombie, his life-like appearance stolen for the gift of her life.

"I know that I am not the handsome man you have come to love, Dear Heart," he said from a mouth that could not speak in dulcet notes any longer.

She pressed her hand to his softened face and said, "I loved you when you were rotting."

He pressed his forehead to hers and sighed, wrapping his arms around her, mindful of his zombie strength.

"Caleb!" Lewis Archer yelled.

I whipped my head around to where he was yelling and saw Brett seizing.

Holy h.e.l.l.

I sprinted to Brett and Jade sat next to him, holding his hands.

Her tears dropped on him like warm rain and I felt pity well inside me. He'd been my enemy for so long I hadn't really ever seen him as anything else. But I knew what Brett Mason really was. What he'd been.

Brave.

In trying to save Jade, he'd gotten shot for his trouble.

Dead.

His body gave one last lurch and he flung his hand out, capturing my s.h.i.+rt. Jerking me down next to his face with the last of his strength he said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, "Take care of her."

Our gazes locked for the last time, mine absent of the rancor of our past. I nodded. "I will."

I felt his life slip away, his eyes glazing over with the fog of the recently dead.

The new dead.

I felt him inside the count of the dead that still lingered within the scope of my call.

Brett now waited with the others.

Jade let Brett's limp hand drop beside his body. Tilting her head to the sky she wailed into the still twilight, her despair like crystal shards in the air.

Breathing it left me bleeding.

I went to Jade and when she didn't resist me I pulled her in against my body, my eyes meeting the rest of the group. Mia looked all around us and then she said in a quiet voice full of fear, "Where's Howie?"

"Eff, that G.o.dd.a.m.ned Manipulative is prancing around somewhere?" Jonesy said, his eyes roving to Brett's still form.

We looked around us, finding nothing but a pile of zip ties, the plastic shredded in loose piles.

He had escaped his bindings. The directive to the Zondorae brothers fulfilled, still high on adrenaline and loose amongst the populace.

I pressed Jade's head under my chin and said, "John..."

"Yes?" John asked, straightening after putting the only blanket we had over Brett.

I glanced at the lump that used to be Brett and swallowed.

"Pulse 911."

"Caleb... are you sure?" Tiff asked, gumless. Her mouth lay silent, her eyes serious.

"They may throw your a.s.s in the local holding tank, Hart," Bry said.

I nodded, maybe. But Brett deserved to be handled with dignity.

"I don't like it," Jonesy said in a contemplative tone. We all turned to him. Jonesy wasn't introspective.

"I mean, that place is corn cob central..." he trailed off.

Archer sighed. "Would you stop with that? Not everything has to have a h.o.m.os.e.xual reference, Mark."

"Yeah, exit only, pal... ya feel me?"

"Jonesy, this is like a solemn moment here. Brett's dead, the cops are going to come and maybe Caleb's going to be in even worse trouble?" Sophie said, trying to appeal to Jonesy's decorum.

Right.

Jonesy shrugged. "I'm just sayin', preparin' Hart for stuff."

"Well, don't, okay?" I said over Jade's head as the first of the cruisers pulled up in a loose vee outside the gates of the dump.

Game over.

CHAPTER 24.

The ghost t.u.r.ds traveled along the cheap vinyl flooring of what used to be the Frazier house, swirling around in big fuzzy dirt clumps with the breeze that came through the door.

But no more.

Jade and I stood in the open doorway.

The place had been stripped. Jade didn't have anything left.

Well, that wasn't exactly true.

We'd found her broken dreamcatcher behind some loose lumber that lay underneath the bas.e.m.e.nt steps.

The same sc.r.a.p lumber that Howie had used to beat me but two weeks ago.

The Graysheets had come and cleaned house. All of us knew who the Fraziers had really been. Just a plant. Their sole purpose had been to set up my unraveling.

The unravel that never happened.

They'd have to bite the bullet and just off my a.s.s if they wanted to get rid of me that bad.