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“Usually I would say yes.”
“Not to mention you could get back into a bed, because honestly, girl, you look like shit.”
Since I also felt like shit I didn’t take offense to the comment. “Be that as it may, we won’t be safe here for long. It’s time to go.”
“And you think some off-brand Seth temple is going to provide better protection for us than this place?”
“I don’t think we’re going to be safe anywhere until you’re at the main temple in Seattle. But first we need to get you there. And the best way to do that is to find a place where you can’t be touched. Rules are rules, and once we’re inside a temple, even an off-brand one, you’ll be okay.”
The car pulled up out front, and I steeled myself.
We just needed to get from the hospital to the outlet. At most it was going to be a fifteen-minute drive.
So why did I have the feeling we weren’t going to make it?
Chapter Twenty-Six
You might as well call me psychic and give me my own 1-900 number.
If Murphy’s Law were the only law, I abided it by the letter. Having Cade with us couldn’t have helped things, but I had a feeling shit would have gone south even without him around.
Want to know how many cemeteries there are between the New Orleans General Hospital and Ursulines Street?
Seven.
Do you want to know how long it takes a death goddess to raise the corpses from seven cemeteries?
Minute one, we pulled out of the hospital parking lot.
Minute five, we passed a cemetery, and I saw the first sign something was terribly wrong. Though the small lot was fortified with high walls, several iron gates showed us glimpses inside. The aboveground crypts were all broken open, and bodies in a variety of decomposing states were crawling across the grass.
“Guys?” I braced my hand on Cade’s arm, leaning across him from the backseat. Leo had been too large to fit in the back, meaning I had to take the bitch seat. Now I was glad for it because it meant I’d been able to see the world whizzing by us. “Guys.” I pointed out the window, practically punching Cade in the face trying to make them follow my gaze.
Cade stopped, shifting the car into park. He rolled the driver’s window down, and we watched in rapt silence as the bodies crawled and clamored, mostly too disassembled and old to move very far.
The three of us stared through the dying light of day. Straggling pedestrians passed by without so much as a second glance.
“Keep going,” I urged.
Minute ten found us at a red light, perfectly positioned outside a newer cemetery, this one with lower walls but still continuing the tradition of aboveground burial units thanks to Louisiana’s dodgy water table. The situation was the same as the previous cemetery, with bodies ambling about, these ones more upwardly mobile than the last. They were slow but still retained most of their parts. Some even had flesh attached to their bony frames. One at the head of the pack trailed a long chain of intestines behind it. I worried I might throw up in my mouth, but my stomach was empty.
At minute fifteen we turned onto Ursulines and a corpse hit the hood of my car, rolling up on the window and over the roof. Cade slammed on the brakes, and we all lurched forward. Without a seat belt, I hit the back of Cade’s seat with a hard smack.
“Fuck.” I held my side and rested my head against the driver’s seat until I could breathe without wanting to pass out.
Every passing moment I was starting to think I should have stayed put at the hospital and hoped for the best. I wasn’t in any shape to be walking around, let alone taking on Manea.
She’d have no problem at all killing me in my current condition. One stern look and I’d keel over.
“Sh-should we see if he’s okay?” Leo asked, craning to glance out the back window.
“He’s dead.” I touched my ribs gingerly, then took a deep, exploratory breath. I didn’t lapse into a bout of coughing, so clearly whatever magic tar was holding my lung together was still working.
Hurray!
“But maybe he’s not?”
Leo was, it seemed, blessedly unfamiliar with the undead. How lucky for him. “No, I mean he was dead before we hit him. They’re all dead. Manea is using them to slow us down.”
