AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Now isnotthe time.” Eli lifted me then, half-shoving me over the fence. “Go on, Geneviève. Over. The dead will come as long as you are in reach.”
I couldn’t speak around the voices that crowded my mind, but even in that blur, I knew I trusted Eli. I grabbed the fence and hauled myself the rest of the way over, despite the voices begging me to stay with them. The truly dead called to me in a way that was as close to maternal as I would ever be. I wanted to heal them, save them, swear to them that they would be okay.
I landed in a crouch outside the fence and waited. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t leave Eli to be torn apart by creatures I’d summoned. I straightened and looked at Eli as he shook free of a hand that had grabbed his boots.
“He is mine,” I thought at them, words surging on my magic.You do not touch what is mine.
The hand retracted.
“Yours.”
“Be yours.”
“Mother.”
“Sleep, children. Sleep.” My words were edging into desperation.
If the dead returned to their bodies at my whispers, they were souls caught in some midway point where they were neither alive nor in an afterlife. They had something to share, some task to finish, and I wasn’t sure if that task was making amends to someone else who was dead or avenging their own murder. I could spend an eternity trying to shepherd the souls that lingered—or I could chain them to my will. I opted to do neither.
I had nowhere to house a home full of walking dead. I hadn’t quite mastered taking care of my cat reliably, and somehow, I was fairly sure that taking care of the dead wasn’t going to be as easy as installing a cat door.
I could see hands and heads pushing through the soil nearest the fence as Eli scaled the fence. My magic animated them, and if they stayed near me, their hearts would beat again, their lungs would draw air, and they’d follow my orders and--if possible--they’d settle their own unfinished business.
But if I left, they’d drop back to their graves, as if the soil was reclaiming them. I just needed to get out of range.
Once he was beside me, I took Eli’s gloved hand in mine and began to run. The further we went, the more the voices lowered to whispers.
We stopped two blocks away.
“What just happened?” Eli asked quietly.
“He was stronger than he should have been,” I pointed out. “I needed excess grave magic.”
“And it slipped?”
I nodded. Talking about my inability to harness my own energy wasn’t going to lead to a calmer me. I needed to relax.
“Anydraugrnearby?” Eli asked after a longer than normal pause.
I sighed and listened. Of course there were: The sun had set, and the reawakened were always around in New Orleans. I just didn’t know how many yet, so I sent out a gentle “hello, dead things” message with a surge of my excess magic, directing some of the energy I had summoned into a wave I scattered for an eight-block radius.
“Three? Four?” I waved my hand in the general direction of the corpses. “Two are together. The others are solo.”
“I can take you to safety,” Eli offered.
“Lead the way.” I drew my sword. Walking after dark in New Orleans was always risky. Doing it with my particular allure for the dead was often an adventure. Tonight, though, with grave energy radiating from me, it was dangerous.
“As you command, truffle.”
I rolled my eyes, but followed my sometimes-partner as he led us to whatever safehouse he’d undoubtedly located.
Chapter Six
I watchedfor the dead as we walked. I felt them less and less as I locked my magic in tightly. Corpses ambling after me wasn’t on my to-do list, and as much as I was okay killing moredraugr, I was exhausted already, and everything felt like too much. My magic being off meant that scents were growing harder to ignore. I’d always brewed a few concoctions to keep them muted, but lately, it wasn’t enough. Cigars, pot, or woodsmoke couldn’t be muted. I guess it was a generic fire awareness—which, considering how often witches were put to the flame in history, might not be a bad thing.
Tonight, the scent of smoke from recent cigars mixed with the vaguely wet smell of city streets. No earthy scents of recent dead. Nothing alarming. I exhaled loudly in relief.
On the street, the dead could be recently gnawing, growling shamblers or they could be powerful, elegant, and centuries old. The older they were, the faster and more articulate they were. And while Eli was stronger than humans, and I was capable of feats I’d rather not broadcast, it was still risky to walk around with my impossible-to-silence magic sending out a come-hither-dead-things beacon.
