Hybrid Zone Revelation, page 47
Sorry, he apologized. After stumbling over a few more equally bad pieces of advice, he finally chose to remain silent, the best decision he could have made.
“We need her alive,” I warned Olivia as she started edging toward the suspect swirls.
“We tried that once already. And technically, we don’t. As we well know now, Langston’s nanobots will stay alive regardless of bodily death. Lindsey’s too. Her programming wasn’t updated. What was the point when she was going to be cremated in a few hours.” She took a few more surprisingly catlike steps towards the backwards swirls, then pausing, fixed her gaze on me. “You have to tackle her.”
“Why me?” I protested.
“Because I want to hit her too much. I mean really hit her.” Grinding her fist into her hand, she ground her teeth together as she said, “Pound her face into mush. Hit. Her.”
Alrighty then, scary, slightly demented Olivia. This was a side of her I’d never seen. Wait, mush? “What if it’s Langston?” I moaned, involuntarily shuddering at the thought.
“Hopefully her nanobots are up to the task.”
She didn’t take it any further, but I knew what she meant. Even though the nanobots had managed to restore some measure of blood flow, at the very least, the tissues in the extremities would have suffered damage. I didn’t know if we were talking full on zombie, but I did not want to find out. And I certainly didn’t want to touch it.
Grimacing, I started forward again and then froze. “Olivia, it’s Lindsey.” I was certain of it. “It’s not projection. Not exactly. It’s some sort of projected camouflage, like a shield. She got the swirl pattern wrong. Her original nanobots wouldn’t have made that mistake.”
“Only Lindsey had the ability to camouflage,” Olivia said, understanding the conclusion I’d drawn. “It’s projection, but not projection.”
“Their nanobots must have worked together to come up with this modified ability,” I said warily. “And we are not protected against this one.”
“Where exactly did they get the code for this, I’d like to know,” Olivia growled in frustration.
“They’re creating it as they need it, or think of it.” Boy did that sound familiar. “Did the prime directive forbid that kind of thing?”
“I don’t know,” she whined. “This isn’t Star Trek. I don’t even know if there is a prime directive.” Gripping the sides of her face between her hands, she stared intently at the supposed hiding spot. “This is a nightmare,” she moaned softly.
“Yep. Complete with a real live zombie.” Heck, I was just waiting for the fairies and elves to show up. Maybe sprinkle in a few trolls. Centaurs! I’ve always wanted to see one in person. I did not understand how they were anatomically correct.
“Macy!” Olivia hissed.
“What?” I asked, startled by the fervency in her voice.
“What are you doing?” she accused.
“Uh…nothing.” No sense in getting her any more riled up than she already was.
“I can see that,” she said through clenched teeth while stabbing me with those crazy fire and brimstone eyes. Pointing at the swirls, she repeatedly jabbed her finger at them. “Go!” she shouted, but before I could take one step, she hollered, “Wait! I don’t like this setup.”
“Make up your dang mind, woman,” I snapped angrily. “Am I coming or going?” When she suddenly straightened from the stalking crouch she’d adopted, I braced for trouble.
“We need to see her.” Darting to the cabinet where the canisters were located, she pointed to the word “flour” written on the side of one. “It works in the movies.”
In that moment, she was so like Miranda.
“You’ll need to move fast,” I cautioned her. “Once she sees you, you’ll be susceptible to the new projection.”
She rolled her shoulders back and arched her eyebrows. “Have you seen me work?”
And that was so like me, except for the face. With the brows and the crazy eyes, she looked like that Bellatrix character from Harry Potter. “For the record, I would like to state that you are a bit of a nutcase right now.”
“Says the woman about to join in my delusion.”
She had me there. All aboard for Crazy Town. With hands stretched over the island posed to grab the platter holding the fruit, I waited for Olivia to make her move. When she did, I missed it, even though I was watching her the entire time. But I knew she’d done it by the flour suddenly billowing through the air and all the coughing and gagging that Lindsey was doing. Dumping the fruit from the platter, I turned towards her just as a very long butcher knife clattered to the floor. I waited until Olivia scooped up the knife, and then I nailed Lindsey. She collapsed at my feet, the swirls slowly fading until she was plain old Lindsey wearing a flour coat.
“I ain’t gonna lie. That felt pretty good.” Placing the flour dusted platter in the sink, I brushed my hands off. “Good thing it is made of pewter.”
“One down,” Olivia sighed in relief.
As I turned my back to the sink, everything in me began screaming something was wrong. Immediately I recalled that Juarez had said they were in here. Plural. Closing my eyes, I inhaled. The barest hint of decomposition now tinged the air.
“One to go,” I corrected.
“Langston?” Olivia asked worriedly. “I don’t smell anything.”
The shift raced through me as I turned in circles, straining to determine where the threat was coming from. “Stop moving,” I barked at Olivia, who was prancing around like a terrier. Her aura was a bright orange with different colors shooting through it like fireworks. It was making me dizzy just to look at it. Once she stilled, I inhaled again. There was a definite rottenness hanging in the air. The hunt led me back to the island and up.
“You don’t smell that?” I gulped, jerking my nose down in revulsion.
Moving to stand next to me, she lifted her nose and sniffed. “A little. Is it coming from up there?” Her words were accentuated by the fearful raising of her eyes to stare at the air vent above the island.
“No, let me. I insist,” I said dully. I knew from the stricken look on her face that she wasn’t about to check it out. What happened to the crazy Olivia that wanted to hit things? She didn’t even blink when I climbed onto the countertop.
“It’s getting stronger.”
“You ain’t teasing,” I choked. Bringing my hand to my face, I covered my nose while tears brimmed in my eyes. Really wishing I hadn’t eaten that soup now.
“Shouldn’t Langston have collapsed when Lindsey did,” she said nervously. “Why is she still moving towards us? I mean, I assume that’s what the increase in stench means. That she’s getting closer.”
“Hand me that stool.” Using my free hand, I pointed to the one nearest her. “She’s probably following the last directive Lindsey gave her.”
“To come here,” she squeaked and hugged the stool protectively to her chest. “This is some messed up necromancy.”
Dropping my head in exasperation, I placed both hands on my hips. “Yes, Olivia. Lindsey the powerful necromancer has sent for the zombie to eat us. Now give me the dad gum stool.”
Her eyes widened in fear right before they narrowed in anger. “Here,” she spat, and roughly shoved the stool at me. “You don’t have to be so calm about it. Zombies are something you should be afraid of.”
“What would make me calm is to know if there’s a zombie lurking on the other side of this vent.”
“Why?” she whined.
“So I can kill it.”
“But Adam and Cedars will be here any second.”
The images I’d gathered from Adam had told me as much, but the smell was getting stronger. I didn’t think Langston was going to give us the option of waiting. And really, I’d rather handle this than have Adam tear into her and risk the leopard taking over again.
Standing on top of the stool, I turned and gave Olivia a halfhearted smile. “How much trouble can one zombie be?” The smile left as soon as my back was to her. God almighty, but how did I reach a place in my life where I was going to learn the answer to that question?
“Wait!” Olivia yelled, nearly succeeding in startling me off the stool.
“What,” I snarled as I snatched back the hand that was reaching for the vent.
“What if she’s really there? I think we should wait for the guys.”
Was she trying to tick me off? “As far as I can tell, you aren’t doing anything.” Turning from her, I reached up to undo the first of four clips securing the vent in place. “Wait for the guys,” I mumbled under my breath. I didn’t need to wait for the guys. I could do things for myself. Things like kill a zombie. It couldn’t be that hard. She was already dead.
As soon as my hand made contact with the second clip, the cover exploded outward. I barely heard Olivia’s shriek over my own, though, to be clear, mine was in surprise, not horror.
“Macy!” Olivia screamed. “She’s right on top of you!”
“You think,” I barked at her. The only thing separating me from Langston was the vent grate I held above my head. And the way the metal was starting to bend, I didn’t know how much longer that would be. “A little help,” I ground at Olivia who was cowering on the other side of the kitchen.
“Watch out!” she yelled right before Langston took a swipe at my face.
“Thanks,” I muttered. “That’s just the help I needed.”
The sudden shift in weight created by me jerking away from Langston’s hand presented too much of a counter balance. At the same moment the metal gave way and folded in half, the stool shot out from under me. I had a split second to hurl Langston in the opposite direction of my fall. From the sound of Olivia’s howl, it wasn’t a direction she appreciated. I would have laughed, but the air was ripped out of my lungs the moment my back made contact with the granite countertop.
“She’s coming back,” Olivia called in warning.
The next moment the counter shook with the impact of Langston’s landing.
“Did she gain some weight or something?” I gasped awkwardly. And how was she moving so fast? I barely managed to grasp her wrists before her talons cut a path across my face. Talons? Seriously? Bad nanobots. I let her momentum carry her over me and added a shove to gain some clearance. Flipping onto my stomach, I had to duck Olivia, who finally decided to join the party. With a bar stool grasped firmly in her hands, she intercepted Langston’s rebound, hitting her squarely in the upper torso. It was enough to bowl Langston over, but not stop her entirely. The island rattled again as Langston leapt back on.
“Watch out for the—” Too late. Olivia’s foot planted directly on the banana. “And my…soda.”
Have you ever seen an already slick surface like granite smeared with banana and soda? Neither had I. I was practically retching in laughter when Olivia’s next swing of the stool saw her follow it into a direct collision with the zombie. There were no words to describe the horror contained in Olivia’s scream.
Using the time and space Olivia gained for me by generously throwing herself on the zombie, I rolled off the island and onto the floor. On all fours, I focused on trying to restore my breathing. It was from this perspective that I saw Olivia rise. Now covered in the fruity soda concoction and a little bit of zombie, she struck at Langston with new vigor.
What was that in her hair? Orange peel, I noted when Olivia spun, and it flew from her and landed on the floor in front of me. “Oh, no,” I breathed, my stomach beginning to convulse in laughter again. My flattened soda can was stuck to Olivia’s butt. I laughed harder when the stream of paper towels rolled off the counter and hit me in the head.
“Macy!” Olivia said sharply. “Stop laughing and help.”
Help? I was just trying to breathe, a feat made more difficult by her comedy act. Grasping the island with both hands, I hauled myself up in time to see Olivia’s next swing careen wildly out of control. It sent her lunging down to one knee and my soup bowl flying. It missed my head by mere inches, but I didn’t have the air to gasp.
“Any time you’re ready,” Olivia chafed.
I hoisted one leg on the counter just as Olivia slipped on my spoon and went down again. When Langston charged forward, Olivia planted both feet smack dab in Langston’s stomach. As a result of forward momentum, Langston lifted off the ground, like they were playing airplane.
“Oh my god, you’re killing me, Olivia,” I wheezed as my leg slipped off the counter. Laughter and having the air knocked out of you so did not mix.
“Get off me!” Olivia screeched, trying to dodge the bits of stuff falling off of Langston. Drawing her legs in, Olivia wound up and launched Langston backwards through the air. When she sat up, she had bits of orange and maybe smushed grapes all up and down her back.
“There’s an easier way to make fruit salad,” I panted. “Ones that don’t involve zombies.”
She turned to look at me, the aggravation of the situation molded into every line of her frown. “There is something wrong with her,” she said. “All she wants to do is get to you. She doesn’t even register that I’m here.” Picking up the stool as Langston regained the island, she held it like a battering ram and drove it against Langston. “Something is definitely wrong with her,” she grunted.
Yeah, that’s what was wrong. Not the fact that she was dead.
Adam’s footsteps signaled his arrival seconds before he entered the room. He paused at the scene presented to him, then hurried over to me. Hooking me under the arms, he pulled me away from the island to lean against his chest.
“I’m okay,” I assured him, patting his arms wrapped around me.
“What is that?” he asked, staring straight at Langston.
Except for the color the rotting flesh added to her, she was pale. Black drool oozed from her mouth and ears. And her eyes…they were the creepiest of all. It looked like someone had scrambled them into some weird black and gray abstract.
“That is Langston. Or what used to be.”
“Why doesn’t she give up,” Olivia cried, swinging the stool like a bat when Langston once again righted herself.
Adam let go of me and approached Olivia. “May I?” he asked, holding his hand out for the stool. When she gave it to him, he slammed it against the island and tore off one of the loosened legs. Using it as a stake, he drove it through Langston’s chest all the way into the granite. Now pinned to the counter, Langston’s movements were reduced to random twitching of her arms and legs. It reminded me of a cockroach on its back.
I was never eating on that counter again.
Turning from Langston, Adam rounded the island to stand in front of Lindsey’s crumpled form. My breath caught at the intensity of the emotions rolling through him. I took an involuntary step towards him, but something in the rigidness of his shoulders stopped me.
Adam?
His response was to shut me out entirely. Before I could deal with that, Cedars slid through the doorway. Sensing the tension in the room, his gaze shifted warily between us as he took a minute to ascertain the situation. Finally, he settled on Langston.
“Take her to cremation,” he ordered.
“Me?” Olivia said in horror when she realized Cedars was talking to her.
“And Macy. The two of you can handle it.”
“What?” I protested. Why was I being punished?
“Do your magical transport thing and take care of it,” he said sharply.
Adam growled in warning.
“Sorry,” Cedars apologized. “The nanobots and the body have to be destroyed.”
That didn’t mean I had to go. Unless he was trying to get rid of me. One glance at Adam and I knew why. Fine, I moaned inwardly. “You’ll have to move us,” I said to Olivia. “I didn’t even know we had a crematorium.”
Cedars crossed the room to stand next to Adam. “You up for this?” he asked calmly.
For an answer, Adam reached down and gripped Lindsey by the back of the head and pulled her upright. “Send for Scout,” he said. “Juarez is going to trace the origin of the signal, and then we are going to dispose of her as well.”
“The president’s not going to like it,” Cedars advised him.
“Don’t care,” Adam answered. Tucking Lindsey under his arm like a football, he whirled around and came face to face with me.
“She has an adjusted camouflage slash projection ability,” I said cautiously, trying to keep any judgment out of my voice.
“I saw.”
“Through my eyes?”
He jerked his head forward in confirmation.
I so wanted to ask him if he was okay, or more importantly, who was in control right now. But if he’d wanted to communicate, he would have answered the many internal requests I’d aimed at him already.
“Macy, she’s not getting any fresher over here,” Olivia called in an effort to deflate the situation.
“Right.” I stepped aside and let Adam pass. My shoes felt like they were packed with iron as I walked towards Langston.
“He’ll be alright,” Olivia whispered. “He’s angry, but not like before. I don’t think it was his leopard DNA motivating him this time. I know he’s struggling for control,” she admitted when I flicked my eyes to her. “But this had more of the flavor of a man protecting his woman from an imminent threat. Did you notice how he didn’t order you to move when you confronted him? The leopard wouldn’t have ignored that challenge.”
That was probably true. Her words made me feel a little better about Adam’s state of mind, but having to hear it from her didn’t.
