Earth's Daughter, page 11
“Do you think the necromancer will leave town given what happened?”
He shook his head. “There’s no way of knowing. It all depends on if she still needs something here.”
“How do we find out?”
“By waiting for the necromancer to make the next move.”
“Waiting?” I grimaced. “Doesn’t sound like the best plan.”
“No shit, but there’s nothing else we can do for the moment unless you know where she’s lairing.”
“There must be a way of figuring that out,” I muttered.
“Which will probably take as long as waiting, and I can think of better things to do during that time.”
“Like what?” I asked, noticing he’d moved close enough I had to tilt to meet his gaze.
“Given we were interrupted yesterday, we could finish what we started.”
He spoke of the kiss. My brain froze. “Um.” My brilliant reply before I remembered my promise to myself. “You had your chance to kiss me. No do-overs.”
His lips wore a hint of a smile. “You’re still angry.”
“You basically said I don’t matter.”
“I say it, and yet apparently don’t mean it, or I wouldn’t be here.”
That snapped my mouth shut. “No one’s making you stay. You can leave at any time.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“You think I’ll be attacked?”
“Maybe.” He neared me, enough I could smell soap, my soap, the kind made with a blend of plants that, mixed with his skin, made my mouth water.
“So you’re sticking around in case you get to fight.”
“No.” His hand cupped the back of my head and drew me near. “I’m here because of this.” His mouth slanted over mine.
Instant electric shock as our lips connected. The passion of before resurfaced in a way that had me instantly aflame. Needy. Wanting.
His hands grabbed hold of me and lifted me enough he could wrap my leg around his hips and grind against me. His mouth possessed mine in a way that stole my breath and ignited all of my erotic senses.
We might have gone at it hard if I’d not retained the sense to move things somewhere a little more discreet. Not my room—I wasn’t sure if my lily pad could handle the pair of us going at it—but I did have a lovely day bed in the tiny third bedroom.
He carried me up the stairs, his lips locked to mine the entire time. The passion between us was explosive. I couldn’t have said how or who started the tearing off of clothes, only that we were both naked and falling on the daybed, skin to skin.
My fingers dug into his back when he thrust into me, and I urged him deeper. Harder. Our panting breaths matched as our rhythm found us rocking together, racing for climax.
He grunted when I came, my sex clenching tight and drawing a groan from him as I rode that tidal wave of bliss. I was still coasting on that high when he pulled out, choosing to come on my belly.
Probably should have mentioned I was on the pill beforehand. I appreciated his quick thinking, but that didn’t stop me from reaching for his shirt to mop up.
His brows rose. “Really?”
I handed the gooey shirt to him with a curve of my lips and said, “It is yours after all.”
His laughter, the first I’d ever actually heard, warmed me but not as much as his touch as he fell on me and rocked my world for a second time.
The third he spent between my legs after a nice hot shower. When I recovered my wits, I was glad to see I’d not torn out all his hair.
Satisfied sexually, I was ready to feed my tummy. “I could use some food.”
The suggestion led to him sporting a worried crease on his forehead.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s getting late. Annie should have returned by now.”
The comment had me forgetting my tummy and scrounging for clothes. “How long ago did she leave?”
“Coming up on four hours. That seems excessive.”
Considering the store was less than ten minutes away, even if she did a full grocery shop and hit the liquor store for wine, she should have been done by now. Unless she’d returned and heard us going at it. Knowing Annie, she might have left to give us privacy.
“Give me a second to see if she’s replying to texts.” I fired off a message. You okay?
By the time I finished dressing, there was still no reply. I glanced at Reiver to see him grimacing at his gooey shirt. He wore his jeans hanging off his hips and a strange amulet featuring some kind of horned skull.
I held in a smirk. “I’ve got something you can borrow.” I’ll admit I got great pleasure out of seeing him wear a “Save the Planet. Eat me, not meat shirt,” given to me as a joke by Annie.
He arched a brow. “You can’t be serious.”
“It’s the only thing I’ve got big enough to fit.” I usually used it as a night dress.
He put it on with a scowl, which I softened by getting close and nipping his chin to whisper, “If it makes you feel better, I totally want to eat you.”
He dragged me close. “Hold that thought for when I get back.”
“Back? Where are you going?”
“To look for Annie and Mungo.”
“I’m coming, too.”
He shook his head. “I can see you’re still depleted. You need to commune with your goddess to complete the regeneration process.”
It killed me that he had a point. The glow of sex would do nothing for me if trouble came knocking. I needed to spend some time with Mother Earth to truly juice my inner battery.
“What happened to not leaving me alone?” Maybe I was a little miffed he seemed eager to escape me. Did he regret what we’d done? Wait, did I suck at it? I mean, yes, he appeared to come, but what if it was just a mediocre come and not epic?
“Your home has protection. But just in case, take this.” He lifted the amulet he wore and placed it around my neck.
I rubbed my fingers over it, noting the sharp horns on the demonic skull. “Is it magic?”
“Of sorts. It will allow me to find you if you get lost.”
“I wouldn’t get lost if I went with you.” I sounded rather sulky even by my own standards.
He leaned close and murmured, “Trust me when I say I’d rather stay here with you, but you’ll never forgive me or yourself if something happens to your friend. Now that you’re conscious and surrounded by a source of power”—he gestured to my plants—“you can defend yourself. I’m not planning to be gone long.”
“How will you even find her?”
“I have my ways.”
With that mysterious reply, he left.
Twenty-minutes later, while I was stress baking cookies, Annie walked in the front door.
Chapter
Twenty
“Holy crap, remind me to never shop with a goblin again! She was constantly running off, putting weird random shit in my cart, and—because of an incident in the toilet paper aisle—might be banned from Walmart,” Annie exclaimed as dumped her many packages on my counter while a green-skinned Mungo balanced on her shoulder.
I waved a batter-covered spoon at her. “Where have you been? We’ve been worried about you.”
“Yeah, it took me longer than expected to find everything I wanted. Apparently, there’s a meat shortage in town. Becky over at the butcher’s says they haven’t received any fresh stuff in days because it keeps getting hijacked en route.”
I blinked. “Someone’s stealing meat?”
“Yup. Had to go to the next town over to find me some bacon.” She slapped the package onto the counter, along with a few steaks. But bless her heart, she’d grabbed me meatless chicken nuggets.
“Next town? I thought we were blocked in.”
“I know ways of getting out.” Annie smirked.
“How come you didn’t answer your phone? I tried texting.”
“Dead because someone ate the charging cord.” Her accusing glare at Mungo did nothing. The goblin ignored her to turn big eyes on me and my batter-covered spoon. I handed it over for a lick.
“Well, because you took so long and didn’t reply, Reiver went out looking for you.”
“What a sweetheart that man is. To look at him, you’d expect some big, gruff a-hole, but he’s got the heart of a hero. And he is totally into you,” Annie confided.
“Maybe.” Triple sex should have eased my anxiety on that score. Only he’d left, and as I stared at Annie, I realized, “I have no way of contacting him to let him know you’re back.”
“He’s a smart dude. I’m sure he’ll figure it out. Now, is that cookies I smell?”
I tried to lose myself in my friend’s chatter and the baked goods I couldn’t help but make, each one imbued with a hex. After yesterday’s zombie encounter, I didn’t want to be caught empty-handed.
Zombie-repelling cookies were joined by some pure luck scones and a few reviving nut bars, just in case we wanted to stay awake tonight. We’d crash hard once they wore off, but I wasn’t about to sleep knowing the necromancer—and Reiver— remained at large.
Afternoon waned into evening, and still he didn’t return. By the time the clock in my living room ticked nine o’clock, I had no doubt something bad happened.
Like he really regretted having sex with me and ghosted. Oops, I said it out loud.
Annie slapped me. Literally, not figuratively. “Don’t you start with that shit. The man is besotted with you. Why on earth would you think he’d run off like a jerk?”
“Wasn’t it your grandma always saying once a man gets the milk, he has no need for the cow?”
“She also said God invented the G-spot and put it in a stupid place knowing full well men can’t find their own ass without help. Reiver didn’t abandon you. No way in hell. That man lost his shit when he realized you were in that quarry all alone. And then, when you emerged, covered in blood, I ain’t never seen anyone run so fast. Carried you all the way out.”
“So what do you think happened?”
“Way I see it, one of two possible scenarios. First, he came across a clue and his dumb ass went looking into it.”
“That totally sounds like him.” His heroic tendencies wouldn’t want to put me in danger.
“Two”—Annie ticked off a second finger—“which might be related to one, the necromancer got her claws into him.”
“Don’t you mean her manicured nails?” My lips turned down. “That’s actually really plausible, too. She did mention wanting him as part of her evil plot.”
Annie planted her hands on her hips. “Are you just going to let her have him?”
“No, but what am I supposed to do? I have no idea where to even start looking.”
“Would you rather sit around waiting or actually do something?”
Usually, I had no issue with patience. Cooking required timing and precision. Waiting for certain chemical reactions, internal temp, cooling. But Reiver wasn’t a cake. He could be in danger. The longer I hesitated, the less likely we could help if he were in trouble. I shouldn’t forget what the zombie puppet mistress said. She wanted to use Reiver, make him her zombie minion. To do so, she’d have to kill him first. I couldn’t let that happen.
“There has to be a way of figuring out where he’s gone.” I paced my living room.
“Do you think they went back to the quarry?” Even Annie sounded skeptical of her suggestion.
I shook my head. “Doesn’t seem likely.” It occurred to me that while many previous missing residents of the town and farm had been smushed in the excavated canyon, we’d not come across all of them. Including Annie’s two horses. Where could they be, and what purpose did the necromancer have for them?
“For some reason my brain keeps circling back to, why here? Why choose our boring town to start her world domination? What do we have that makes us special?” Annie asked, and I opened my mouth to say “I don’t know,” only to halt.
We did have one company propping up my birthplace. “Crypto Backo.”
Annie snorted. “What about them? They’re just some tech company offering backup servers for those who worry their hard drives will crash.”
“Which means lots of computers. Tons. Processing power galore. Not to mention, all that information.”
“Which is encrypted.”
“You really think the company storing it can’t read it? Information rules the world.”
“Why would a necromancer bother going after the world electronically when she can just scare everyone into obeying with a massive zombie army?” Annie’s said sarcastically.
This time, I almost gave myself whiplash shaking my head. “That’s just it. You could never control the world with fear alone. The necromancer needs actual bodies, decent ones, to act as her soldiers. But we have the weaponry to decimate their ranks. Ruling over a small town is one thing, the whole country? Almost impossible. She can’t take over by fighting us physically.”
“Then how?” Annie asked.
“Money and secrets make the world go round. Once she takes over Crypto Backo, she’ll have the computing power to disrupt not just our nation but the entire world. She can shut down businesses. Drain finances. Pauper entire countries.”
“Will she? You’re assuming she can get a signal out.” Annie argued against my wild theory. Oh, how the cream churned with me now throwing out the crazy ideas. “To foil her plan, they just need to stop the computers, which is easy. They’ll shut down the electrical grid to the town.”
“Have you forgotten all those new solar roofs Crypto Backo paid to have installed as part of their green initiative? Enough for the whole town plus some.” At the time, we’d thought them nuts to do such an expensive thing. Now, it made sense.
Her jaw dropped. “That’s so fucking brilliant of them.”
“Less admiring, more figuring out how to stop it.”
Annie nodded. “Right. I guess since we can’t turn off a power switch, we need to block all outgoing signals. What if we cut the fiber for the internet in town?”
“Chances are they’re hooked to a few satellites.”
Lips turned down as Annie frowned. “Damn.”
Damn was right. “Let’s start by seeing what we can find out about Crypto Backo.”
We immediately jumped online and did a search on the company.
The main website had its propaganda page showing pretty computer sentinels, big black towering cases with flashing lights and the promise of a secure backup of all life’s important things. Yet nowhere did I find an actual location of their services other than a vague mention of offices around the world.
Further digging—with Annie accessing public tax rolls—showed that Crypto Backo owned most of the town. So many buildings, some of them still boarded over from the recession left by the defunct quarry. They bought up a bunch of houses, some of them rented to employees. Even the quarry was under their corporate umbrella.
“They own pretty much everything.” I couldn’t help my surprise.
“Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We were dead in the water before they stimulated the local economy. Not their fault a zombie queen chose to target them for her plans of world domination.” Annie defended them.
“This sounds so crazy.”
“Yet it’s all true.” Annie couldn’t hide her glee.
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
“What bothers me is we’re sitting here while Queen Zombie Bitch is out there making a new army of darkness.”
“Let’s say she is. Where is she storing them?” She’d need somewhere discreet. “Can you map all the places they bought?”
“Give me a second. I need to batch import a list. Then I assume you’ll want it color-coded by type.” She mumbled and typed and did things with a computer like I did with my cakes that involved much swearing and swigging of caffeinated cola.
Soon we had a map of the area, with blocks in different colors.
She pointed. “Orange for residential. Blue is for commercial. Green is for uninhabited.”
I eyed the various splotches as an idea churned in my head. A nagging sensation had me musing aloud. “What about the horses?” Their disappearance still bugged me “Where could she hide them and not be noticed?”
“Wait, what?” Annie whirled to eye me. “Are you talking about Jeeble and Jumble?”
“I didn’t see them in the ravine. Plus, now that I think of it, there weren’t enough chickens, either. And where are the other cows? I only saw one.”
“Maybe she sent them to her chef?” Annie joked, biting her lower lip.
The answer hit me hard, and I jabbed my finger at the map. “She took them to the train station.” The blue blob had railroad tracks running through it.
“You think she’s shipping them?” Annie’s lips pursed. “Why?”
“Imagine the hysteria that would erupt if zombie farm animals got mixed among actual livestock. People will panic about a zombie outbreak and slaughter anything that comes in contact.”
“Why would anyone do that? Zombies aren’t contagious.”
“I know that. You know that. But think about the media. They’ll have everyone believing we’re all about to become the walking dead.”
Annie grumbled, “What a waste of good meat. But not sure what it will accomplish. Reducing a portion of our meat stock isn’t exactly the be-all and end-all. No one will starve.”
“The destruction of livestock is obfuscation. While the world worries about the tainting of our food supply, the necromancer swoops in to Crypto Backo, unleashes the power of the servers, and becomes the most powerful person in the world.”
“Pretty sure it’s not as easy as you make it sound.”
When did my friend become the skeptic? “Don’t be so sure. I saw it in a movie.” Yeah, it sounded dumb even as I said it.
“Speaking of movies, I can get my hands on some explosives,” Annie casually tossed out.
“Um, what?”
She grinned. “From when I was blowing up the rock in that new field I prepped last summer.”
“How does dynamite help us?”
“Since each building has its own solar panel, we can’t shut off power, but we can blow up the locations with computers.”
