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“Why the hell did you do that?” I shout. “I had her.”
All the zombies disintegrate back to black fog.
Demetria peers back over her shoulder at me. “I desired to ruin her scheme, not destroy her. It’s no fun if she’s dead. I appreciate your assistance, Samantha Moon. You have performed admirably. Now, your work here is finished.”
If the growling coming from Tammy and Kingsley is any indication, we’re still one dead vampire shy of being done here.
“Not quite,” I say past a clenched jaw. My whole body is on fire from all the slices.
“Indeed, dear. Sorry to deprive you of one last bit of satisfaction.” Demetria reaches for a golden amulet on a chain around Nesanth’s neck. “Unfortunately, we must be going now.”
With that, she yanks the amulet, breaking the chain. Both Demetria and Nesanth burst apart into a dissipating cloud of black smoke. A small lump of fire drops to the floor from where they’d been. In seconds, the flames die down to reveal the burnt remains of a tarnished amulet. It’s no longer gold, more like half-molten pewter.
Meanwhile, Kingsley’s back in human form—naked as can be—and gazing up at me. I must look like some sort of bloody angelic warrior from a gothic painting at the moment… one of those paintings where the angel figure has a halter top and loincloth on only because the artist would get burned at the stake for depicting nudity.
Still high on adrenaline, I flare my wings out and parachute to my feet beside Kingsley. Him standing there completely naked while I’m not far from it would be rather interesting a moment if not for both of my kids and Allison being right here with us. Their presence keeps the mood as unromantic as possible.
Being in a lot of pain helps cool down those fires, too.
Tammy-Bear faces away from Kingsley. Allison… not so much.
Can’t blame my daughter. No girl wants to see their ‘father’ in his birthday suit. And yeah, I know Kingsley isn’t her father, but he’s kinda stepped into the role these days.
Anthony shrinks back to himself. And yeah, he’s in dire need of clothing, too. The Fire Warrior form is even more destructive to apparel than being a werewolf. Lindsey got away with the least amount of wardrobe damage. Her dress is ripped up no worse than if she’d taken a flying leap off a racing stagecoach into some nasty thorn bushes. Allison’s dress is pretty much now only a sleeveless vest. Her bare legs are so scratched up it looks like she got attacked by an army of rabid wolverines or honey badgers.
Tammy shapeshifts back to human form, seeming regal (compared to us) in her leaf-vine-moss dress. While trying her best not to look at Kingsley, she summons the faerie healing magic on Allison and Lindsey. She’d do the same for me, except I’m mostly healed already by the time she finishes closing everyone else’s scratches.
Lindsey casts a spell on herself, repairing her dress, which hadn’t been nearly as destroyed as mine or Allie’s. She cringes at the rest of us. “There’s not enough left of your stuff for my spell to fix.”
Once she’s no longer in too much pain to think straight, Allison saves the day with a rapid bit of magic, conjuring replacement outfits right onto us. Of course, she didn’t make fancy dresses. Nope. We’re all wearing tunics, breeches, and leather armor like we walked off the set of yet another remake of Robin Hood. Kingsley totally looks like he could be playing Little John. Not going to complain. Much easier to move and fight in this outfit than a dress… and zombies will have a harder time slicing hardened leather armor off me.
Hope we’re done with zombies, though.
“I knew she couldn’t be trusted,” grumbles Kingsley.
“Yeah.” I go to fold my arms. The ice sword gets in the way, and I’m not ready to unsummon it yet, so I just let my arms hang at my sides. “At least she didn’t totally betray us and try to kill us.”
“Small favors,” mutters Allison.
“What now?” asks Anthony.
“Not sure.” I purse my lips in thought. “Did those two leave this reality? Or just teleport somewhere else here?”
Tammy gazes around at nothing, acting as if she’s hearing some distant sound no one else can pick up on. “I think so, yeah. They’re both gone from this reality. But I feel something big building up.”
“Yeah, me too.” Allison gazes around.
Kingsley raises a bushy eyebrow at them. “Good big or bad big?”
“Umm.” Tammy makes faces like a television psychic trying to ‘get a reading’ on a room. “Not good or bad. Still, I don’t think we should get caught in it.”
“What about this mess?” asks Allison.
“Nielf has servants who can clean this place up.” Anthony lifts a toppled bookshelf near him upright and pushes it back where it belongs against the wall.
Lindsey gawks at his feat of superhuman strength.
“No, not this mess.” Allison gestures at the room. “I mean the big mess. The political stuff, the assassinations, and everything. The whole mess Nesanth caused here.”
