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The zombie’s head whipped to the side, the sound of bones cracking. Taking advantage of Delilah’s attack, I plunged the dagger into it, shoving forward with all my weight. The zombie went down with me on top of it.
“Hurry, while I’m on its back, carve it up!” I tried a choke hold while Delilah got to work. Apparently, I was better at clutching than fighting, because I managed to hold the zombie steady while Delilah started sawing through the arm joint with her dagger.
Surprised, I noticed there was no blood splatter. Whoever this had been, he’d been embalmed. The question of how zombies ate—or if they even digested their food—ran through my mind, and I made a mental note to follow up. Disgusting, yes, but maybe the answer would help us in the future.
Delilah glanced at me as I perched on the back of the zombie. “This was an older body—it was falling apart when the necromancer raised it. In fact, I think the only thing holding it together is the magic.”
She whipped through the arm, then cut the hand and fingers from the limb, then tackled the other side. It was kind of like cutting up a side of beef. Except we weren’t about to fry up steaks for dinner.
Smoky joined us. “I dispatched the other two,” he said, watching as we finished detaching the arms and legs. “Here, I can make quick work of the rest of it. Get back.”
“Gladly.” I gingerly got up off its back, feeling grubby and hoping there were no parasites clinging to me from the corpse. In a blur of motion, Smoky ripped the thing to shreds.
Meanwhile, Delilah and I returned to the bodies of the fallen officers. “Tom and Markus. Both were fairly new.” She hung her head. “I didn’t know them all that well, but they seemed nice. I think Markus has a family.”
I leaned closer. It was hard to tell what race they’d been, after the zombies had gotten through with them. “Fae? FBH? Elf?”
“Tom was an FBH. Markus was an elf.” She pressed her lips together as Smoky returned. The bodies were a mess and it would be hard to get them out of there without making things worse.
“Should we call in a forensics team?”
Delilah shrugged. “Chase has to follow certain procedures but we know what killed these men. We do need the FH-CSI coroner so they can gather…everything that’s left.”
I gazed at the dead men. So much damage. But then, again, even in the FBH community, there were a lot of murders that made just as little sense. I shook my head. “Tomorrow, we pay a visit to Ivana, though I doubt this is her doing. The Elder Fae have no keep with zombies. They aren’t buddy-buddy with any of the undead, really, except for a few like the Black Annis, and Kelpie-Woman.”
Not wanting to leave the bodies alone, I put through a call to Yugi, Chase’s right-hand man at headquarters. “Yugi, get a recovery team out here. We’ve got two dead officers. We know what killed them—zombies. Don’t know who is responsible yet, but we’ll find out. Chase is hurt; he sprained his ankle pretty bad, it looks like, but he’ll be okay otherwise. Don’t think we need forensics, unless you bring out a magical team. We put the zombies back in the grave.”
“Right. Where are you?”
“Wyvers Point Cemetery. We’re in…” I glanced around, but there was no telltale sign of what part of the graveyard we were in. Then I caught sight of a faded sign that read Belmont Lane. “We’re on Belmont Lane, one of the paths that runs through the cemetery.”
“Hold on…calling up a schematic right now.” Yugi paused. He was Swedish by birth, a naturalized citizen, and he was an empath. We’d never seen a good demonstration of his abilities, but he’d been with Chase since the formation of the Faerie-Human Crime Scene Investigation unit, since the portals first opened. Now, he was second in charge of the FH-CSI.
“Got it. Okay, sending a team out right now. Can you wait till we get there?”
“Will do. Delilah and I will be in the parking lot.” I hung up, then glanced over at Smoky. “Love, can you wait with the bodies? I can’t stand the thought of anything else coming along to destroy them.”
“Of course, my sweet.” He leaned down, his ankle-length silver hair lifting to coil around me. Smoky could do wondrous and sensuous things with his hair in the bedroom. He was six four, pale as cream, and young as dragons went, though he had seen centuries come and go.
He pressed his lips to my forehead, then nodded to Delilah and me. “Be careful on your way back to the parking lot.”
We followed the sidewalk, not veering off into the grass or the undergrowth just in case we’d missed any of the goblins or the zombies. The goblins…wait a minute.
“Goblins. Delilah, the goblins wouldn’t be in league with Ivana. Do you think Gulakah, the Lord of Ghosts, is utilizing them now? Maybe Telazhar is sending them over from Otherworld via one of the portals. He would have access to them now, and sending us groups of the buggers is a great way to wreak havoc.”
Telazhar, an ancient necromancer from Otherworld, had long ago been banished to the Sub-Realms. He’d led the Scorching Wars, laying waste to a vast region of land now known as the Southern Wastes. Rogue magic rode the sand dunes there, waiting for unwary travelers. And there, sorcerers and necromancers gathered, biding their time and practicing their dark arts.
While Shadow Wing couldn’t use the portals yet to send demons through from the Sub-Realms, Telazhar could easily use the portals to send goblins through to Earthside.
“Ten to one you’re right. Which means we need to find out which portal he’s using and close it down. If we can. Or at least post guards on it.” She brushed her hand across her eyes as we jogged along the trail. “Sometimes I wish the freaking war would just build to a head so we could get it over with.”
“Unfortunately, if that happened now, we’d lose. We still aren’t organized enough, and the gods only know what kind of force we need in order to go up against Shadow Wing’s armies. Hell, we have enough trouble dealing with just one demon general, let alone a brigade of demons.” I shook my head. “I’m as tired as you are, but don’t invite hell to rain down on us yet. We aren’t ready. So. Not. Ready. Remember: Shadow Wing is the Big Bad Wolf. And we’re holding Red’s basket of goodies, as far as he’s concerned.”
We reached the parking lot to find Chase on a bench, his leg propped up. Morio and Shade were keeping watch.
Chase looked up expectantly. I hung my head, not wanting to tell him the bad news. Delilah must have sensed my reluctance because she sat down beside him and gave him a sad smile.
He read her expression loud and clear. “They didn’t make it, did they?”
