AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I jumped up, looking for his partner, but the other Tregart goon was already dead, and by the looks of the rake marks across his midsection, Smoky’d had a go at him. As I frantically tried to assess the situation, Camille screamed again. I whirled around to see her holding her side, doubled over. Smoke was wafting off her and the ground around her.
As I frantically looked for Jaycee, a body on the ground caught my attention. Jaycee! Camille had managed to drop her—or…Shade stepped out of a shadow cast by the tree and I realized he’d been the one who took Jaycee out. He and Smoky were bearing down on Van, whose sneer quickly vanished.
“Dragons!” He let out one shout and turned to run. As Smoky and Shade gave chase, there was a flash, and Van disappeared. Camille was crawling over to Jaycee, still holding her side. Trillian was trying to keep her still. In three quick strides, I was by Jaycee’s side. She was still alive but stunned. Something had managed to knock her out, but she was coming around and the minute she was conscious, she’d be a danger.
I ripped her shirt off her and tossed it to Trillian. “Tear it into strips! Now!” He caught it, using his dagger to start the tears.
“Wha—who are…Where…?” Jaycee shook her head.
Trillian handed me the strips of cloth and I stuffed one of them in Jaycee’s mouth, tying it around her head to form a tight gag. As she began to push against me, Trillian caught her hands together. I wrapped a strip of cloth around them and tied them tight as she struggled. He used another strip to bind her ankles, and I rolled off her. There wasn’t much she could do while bound and gagged.
Van had effectively left the building. The Tregarts and zombies were dead. Telazhar was still out there. But…we had an ace in the hole now. I looked around. It was easy to see where they’d gotten the bodies for the zombies from…I could count the six open graves from here, and there were broken shards of caskets scattered around.
“Ouch.” Camille struggled to stand up. Smoky was examining her side.
“You’re hurt. Can you stand?” He held her elbow as she forced herself to stand straight. “We need to get you to medical help.”
“No. Hanna can handle it. The bolt only grazed me. Let’s get Jaycee someplace where we can question her. The safe room at the Wayfarer. That way she can’t throw any magic around.” She winced but forced herself to start walking back to the cars.
“I’ll take you—” Smoky reached to pick her up but she waved him away.
“Will you and Trillian rebury the bodies? They don’t have any headstones, not really; they didn’t have any family, and then Van and Jaycee came along and dug them up and we have no clue why. We can at least say a prayer for the dead over their graves.”
I turned to Shade. “Can you carry Jaycee to the Jeep and wait for us?”
While he hoisted Jaycee—she was struggling like a fish on a line all the way—and carried her to the car, Smoky and Trillian began gathering the remains of the zombies and Tregarts and replacing them in the graves.
I took Camille’s arm and helped her back across the lawn. “Tell me what happened.”
“What’s to tell? Van’s damned good with the lightning bolts. He shot one at me at the same time I was aiming for him.” She winced again.
“He hit you with a lighting bolt? How did you survive that? He’s freaking powerful!” I stared at her. Had Van somehow tripped up? If so, then maybe we had a chance.
She glared at me. “Don’t get cocky. He misaimed and it went awry. He didn’t touch me.”
Confused, I cocked my head. “Then how did you get hurt?”
“Oh fuck, you’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?” She blushed. “My spell backfired and blew up before it left my hands. Somehow I managed to keep my fingers from getting blistered, but the force of the bolt hit my side and scorched me. I kind of…hurt myself.”
I stopped, turning to her. “You toasted yourself?”
She grinned, then. “Yeah. Got butter?”
“No, but we can stop for some on the way.” I laughed and, carefully wrapping my arm around her waist, hurried her to the parking lot.
We headed directly to the Wayfarer, with Trillian driving Camille’s car, while Shade kept an eye on Jaycee in the back of the Jeep. I pulled down the alley and hopped out, opening up the back of the bar. All three of us had copies of the keys to everything we owned.
As I slipped into the back entrance, Shade followed, carrying Jaycee. It just wasn’t a good idea to show up on the main city street during daylight carrying a bound and gagged woman. Chase would understand, but he wouldn’t necessarily be the one getting the call.
We got her down to the basement. Kendra jumped up as we came in. An elf, she was one of the guards watching over the portal. She was on on-call duty and today was covering for the usual guard.
“You need any help?”
“Can you get Martin out of the safe room? We’ll have to find another place to put him—a safe place—for now. Jaycee needs to be kept under lock and key. She’s a sorceress and she’s dangerous.” I unlocked the door to the safe room and opened the door. “Oh, gross. It stinks in here.”
Martin was sitting in a chair, staring at the wall. Ghouls didn’t exactly need a lot of entertainment. I glanced around the room. He’d been fed recently, that much was apparent, and he’d gone to the bathroom, not in the toilet, but on the floor.
“Oh, Martin, aren’t you housebroken?” Cringing, I motioned for Shade to wait outside. “Kendra, can you get me some rubber gloves, a bucket of soapy water, a garbage bag, and some paper towels?”
