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“She comes, the moon’s mistress comes…she will not harm, she can help. She can make our home safe again as we tend the spirits in the garden…”
“But will she help us? And who is the human-not-so-human? He is frightened. The wayward ones seek him.”
Taking a deep breath, I slowly broke through the undergrowth. “Who are you? I can hear you.”
There was a shift, and a blur raced by, then—hesitating—turned back. “Priestess?” The voice was wary.
“I am a priestess, yes. Of the Moon Mother.” I glanced around, looking for Chase, but could not see him. He was near, though. My senses told me that much. And he needed my help. “I’m looking for my friend—the human-not-so-human. Can you tell me where he is?” I wasn’t even sure if we were speaking aloud, but the words were there, hanging in the air.
“Priestess…you are from the other side?”
At first, I thought that the creature—whom I still could not see—was asking if I was a spirit, but then I realized what it meant. “Yes, I’m from Otherworld. Who are you? Show yourself to me.”
Slowly, as if shedding layers of an invisible cloak, a being appeared before me, emerging from the shadows. About four feet tall, he was formed of leaves and branches, vines and twigs. He reminded me of the walking sticks that inhabited the insect world, only his face was long and his chin pointed, and his eyes were slanted ovals, and on his face, a mere hint of nostrils. A crown of ivy wove around his forehead, and he wore a cape of moss and lichen.
“Are you Elder Fae?” I had never seen a creature like him, not even back in Otherworld, and he fascinated me. The closest I could think of would be Wisteria, the floraed who’d joined forces with the demons, caught in a frenzy of hatred toward humans.
He cocked his head to the right. “No, I be not Elder Fae.”
And then I knew what he was. “You’re an Earth Elemental!”
Slowly, he nodded. “I am. I am a part of the land itself. I am the guardian of this boneyard. And now, the bones are walking, where they should not be walking. Unnatural magic is afoot and has evil intent.” He glanced around and motioned, and another of his kind appeared from the shadows. They moved like leaves on the wind, like walking trees.
Honored—Elementals didn’t appear to just anybody, especially since a number of witches tried to summon them up in order to control their movements—I curtsied.
“I know. My friends and I are here to help put the bone-walkers and the wayward dead back in their graves. But I must find my friend—the not-so-human—before they harm him. Can you take me to him?”
I waited, forcing myself to be patient, so not one of my virtues. But when dealing with Elementals, patience was key. Especially Earth Elementals, who moved cautiously until they were certain of their course, at which point they could surge forth like an earthquake or landslide.
After a moment, during which they exchanged chattering noises that sounded like sticks rattling, he turned toward me again. “Your friend is in the clearing directly beyond this thicket. He is hurt. If you will clear the wayward ones, we will not forget your help. We guard the bones of this space, and they should not be abroad. Bones are for memories. Bones are to feed the earth and the worms. Bones are not meant to be walking above the ground without flesh and soul attached.”
“You’re right about that,” I whispered, as I started past them.
As I passed by, the Earth Elemental caught my wrist in his hand. A heavy, laden sense of gravity sank me to my knees. “You are young in the world, still. There are ancient powers waking from their slumber. Some are beneficial. Others hunger from the depths. Be wary, Priestess: Not everything that answers to the moon will understand the changes wrought in this world. The Mother is ancient, and some of her children nearly as old.”
And with that, he let go and I stumbled forward. I tried to get his warning out of my head, but the words rang in my ears as I pushed my way through the cedars to yet another clearing—the graveyard itself.
And there was Chase, propped up on a tombstone, looking petrified as a bone-walker made its way toward him. Unlike zombies, who moved slowly, bone-walkers could shuffle along at a pretty good clip. And once they reached you, if you couldn’t get out of their way, you were toast unless you could totally demolish them. Given an open space and no obligation to destroy them, running away was usually the safest option.
Ghouls were different from both bone-walkers and zombies. They were faster than zombies, even though they were also animated corpses. And far worse, they absorbed life energy as well as eating flesh, and so were doubly dangerous.
A glance at Chase told me he wasn’t going anywhere soon. He was leaning against the tombstone, one foot raised. In one hand, he held his Glock 40, even though bullets were no real use against the undead, especially skeletons. Chase was good with a gun—deadly accurate—but the bullets wouldn’t stop what was coming our way, and he knew it.
He glanced at me as I headed toward him. Six two, with dark hair cut in a slight shag, he was swarthy with olive skin, brown eyes, and a suave manner. He was muscled and lean, but right now, he mostly looked like he was in pain.
I hurried over to him, eyeing the bone-walkers as I crossed the open swath of grass, past dilapidated headstones that were so old and weathered they were breaking apart. The bone-walker was near enough to worry about, but we still had a few minutes before it reached us.
We didn’t have time for small talk. “Can you walk?”
“I stepped in a pothole and twisted my ankle. I managed to hobble over here, but I think I’ll seriously fuck my foot up if I put my weight on it.” He winced but pushed the pain aside and nodded to the oncoming undead. “What about them? You can’t carry me, woman.”
“You’d be surprised what I can do. I’m half-Fae, remember?” But the truth was, I didn’t think I could manage to carry him. I could outrun him, outwalk him, and probably fight him down to the ground, but I wasn’t Delilah with her athletic frame, and I wasn’t Menolly with her vampiric strength. “Put away the gun; that’s not going to do any good, and one of us will end up getting shot.”
He tucked it back in the holster. “I didn’t think it would help, but I was feeling vulnerable, you know? From now on, I’m carrying an armory, like Roz.”
“Wouldn’t fit in your suit jacket, babe.” I began to edge away from the gravestone. The bone-walker was getting too close for comfort, and still no sign of Morio or the others.
I had to do something. “Hide behind the tombstone. I don’t want you getting hit by any backfire if this goes wrong.”
