Nekropolis

ELEVEN

Thokk was a mixblood, like Honani, but where he’d turned out a hodgepodge mess, whoever engineered her had done the job right. She was primarily lupine, the most common wildform for lykes. After all, as Waldemar once told me, the word lycanthrope comes from the Greek: lykoi for wolf and anthropos for man. But the term, and its abbreviated version, lyke, has become common parlance for any of the shapeshifters under Lord Amon’s rule. Still, Thokk displayed signs of other animals in her mixblood lineage too-her stomach was hairless and scaled, resembling a snake’s, and her gray fur held a greenish tint. Her eyes were reptilian as well, cold and staring, and when she opened her canine jaws, long, curved fangs sprang forward, glistening with venom.

“You killed Honani, zombie.” Her barely intelligible voice was a deep growl with a slight hiss to it.

I was aware of the club-goers around us abandoning their tables, having decided that being in my proximity at the moment wasn’t conducive to their continued good health. I didn’t blame them.

“Technically speaking, he’s not dead,” I pointed out. “His body’s still alive.” I was uncomfortably aware that I still was carrying the soul jar containing Honani’s spirit in one of my jacket pockets.

Thokk pulled her head back and in a single liquid motion, jerked forward and spit a stream of venom into my eyes. If I’d been alive, the venom probably would’ve started me shrieking, perhaps cause me to fall to the floor in agony and Thokk would’ve moved in to finish me off. But I felt nothing and calmly wiped the venom away with my tie. My vision was a trifle blurry, but it was nothing I couldn’t deal with.

“What good is the body if the soul is gone?” She swayed back and forth, her torso undulating bonelessly.

“According to some folks, zombies don’t have souls, and I feel just fine,” I countered. “Besides, Honani’s body does have a soul. It just happens to be a new one.”

For a second I considered offering to give Thokk the soul jar which contained her brother’s spirit, thinking it might placate her. But then I realized she’d probably attempt to return it to its original body, evicting Kyra from her new home. I couldn’t allow that.

“Your littermate was a killer, Thokk, and he got what he deserved,” I said. “End of story. Now why don’t you leave, unless you’d like some of the same?”

She hissed and came at me.

I reached under my jacket and drew the 9mm from my shoulder holster. The gun was loaded with silver bullets, but one would be all I needed to take care of Thokk. I aimed and started to squeeze the trigger.

But I was too slow. Thokk’s arm lashed out and she smacked the gun out of my hand, sending it tumbling through the air toward the suddenly deserted dance floor. The Phantom of the Paradise remained at his station, though, to keep the throbbing dance beat going, either because he was too caught up in his work to flee or because he wanted to provide some appropriate background music for my battle with Thokk. Thoughtful of the bastard, wasn’t it?

I reached into my jacket, but Thokk was on me before I could pull forth anything from my dwindling supply of surprises, slamming into me and coiling her python-supple arms around my midsection, pinning my arms to my sides. She lifted me off the floor and began squeezing.

I felt pressure, but no pain. I couldn’t breathe, but all that meant to me was that I couldn’t pull in any air to make my voice work. Still, I was concerned. If she snapped my spine, I’d survive, but I’d be unable to walk. And after I was immobilized, it would be a simple matter for her to take my head in her hands and crush my skull. Once my brain was destroyed, no amount of preservative spells, no matter how powerful, could restore me.

I was wracking my dead excuse for a brain, trying to get it to come up with a brilliant plan that would, if not defeat Thokk, at least get me out of her clutches, when a gurgling sound came from deep inside me, and I remembered the beer that had been sitting in my dead stomach since I’d dealt with Honani at Skully’s.

You picked the wrong zombie to squeeze tonight, Thokk, I thought, and then a gout of sour-smelling fluid jetted out of my mouth and struck Thokk in the face.

The lyke roared with fury, but she didn’t drop me as I’d hoped. Instead she gripped me tighter and opened her mouth wide. I doubted she was going to try to eat me; most lykes can’t stand the taste of dead meat, unless they have scavenger wildforms. More likely she intended to get a solid grip on my head with her teeth and then rip it off my shoulders.

I watched helplessly as her mouth descended, and then she stopped, stiffened, and shrieked. Her arms uncoiled, dumping me to the floor, and I saw what was happening. Devona had leaped onto the lyke’s back and was tearing into the beast’s neck with her own teeth. Thokk’s arms curled over her shoulder, grabbed Devona, yanked her off, and threw her forward-into me, just as I was starting to rise.

We went down in a tangle of undead and half-undead limbs. Thokk advanced on us, the ragged neck wound Devona had inflicted already healing.

With vampiric grace and speed, Devona disengaged herself from me and stood before Thokk, fingers touching her temples.

“Stop,” she said in an even, measured voice.

Thokk hesitated.

“Leave this place now,” Devona continued. “Go.”

Devona had told me she had a certain amount of magical training, and now it seemed she was attempting to use her abilities to influence Thokk’s mind. At first, it looked like Devona’s plan was going to work. Thokk stopped coming toward us. She lowered her hands to her sides and seemed about to turn away, but then she chuckled-the sound like a snake’s rattle-reared back, and spat venom into Devona’s face. Devona screamed and frantically began wiping at the poison, trying to get it out of her eyes.

Thokk knocked Devona aside easily and came stomping toward me once more. But I’d had enough time to fish a small metal box out of my jacket. I flipped open the lid, stood, and flung the contents at Thokk’s muzzle.

Her eyes teared up instantly and she began wheezing.

“Powdered wolfsbane,” I said. “Never leave the grave without it.”

Her eyes began swelling shut and her wheezing took on a more desperate, labored tone. Her throat was closing. I allowed myself to feel smug. All lykes are allergic to wolfsbane to some degree, some more so than others. But it appeared Thokk-

I stopped my self-congratulating in mid-thought. Thokk’s breathing became easier and the swelling around her eyes lessened. Her mixblood physiology was counteracting the effects of the wolfsbane. Like I said, whoever designed her had done it right.

I had nothing left in my bag-or rather jacket-of tricks that would stop her. I glanced toward the dance floor. I doubted I could reach to my gun before Thokk recovered. But I had to try.

I started toward the dance floor, running as best I could in the slow, stiff-legged way we zombies have and hoped that it would take just a few more seconds for Thokk to fully throw off the effects of the wolfsbane.

My hope was in vain. Claws raked the right side of my head, knocking me to the floor.

“I’m going to shred you to gobbets for that,” Thokk said, her voice hoarse and thick with mucus. “Very, very slowly.”

I rolled over to face her. After all, dead or not, a man should look his fate straight in the eye.

She lifted her clawed hands to strike, disturbing a cloud of smoke hovering over her head. And then the smoke darted toward her mouth and curled down her throat.

Thokk howled in agony, and thrashed about as if her every nerve was on fire. She coughed up a gout of blood and crashed to the floor, rolling back and forth, her limbs flailing spastically. But finally her exertions slowed and then ceased altogether.

A moment later tendrils of smoke wafted from her mouth and coalesced into the form of Shrike, his everpresent cigarette the last thing to solidify.

He took a drag and exhaled. “Did you know you can do a lot of damage by partially solidifying inside someone?”

“Do tell.” I hauled my undead carcass to its feet. “Is she dead?”

“Nah, not even the kind of damage I did to her can kill a lyke. But I bet she’s not going to be moving too fast for a few weeks. Unless, of course, someone does something about her first.” He nodded toward my gun.

It was tempting. Thokk had tried to kill me, and would no doubt try again when she recovered. And it wasn’t like anyone would try to stop me. But that wasn’t the way I operated.

I shook my head. “Why don’t you retrieve the gun while I see to Devona?” Without waiting for Shrike to reply, I turned and headed back toward my client-I mean, the person who I was doing a favor for.

Devona knelt on the floor, her face cradled in her hands.

“Are you okay?”

“Not exactly. I’m blind.”

I helped her stand and kept a hand on her elbow to steady her. She took her hands away from her face, but she kept her eyes shut tight.

She took in a hiss of breath. “Dis, but it hurts!”

I didn’t know what to say. I’d been human for most of my existence, and in that time I’d known my share of pain. You’d think I’d remember what it was like to hurt. And I do, sort of, but the memory’s hazy, indistinct, like a memory of a memory. I suppose a lot of people would’ve been grateful for that. But it made me feel cut off from Devona, distant, as if we were at the moment inhabiting two vastly different worlds, and there was no bridging the gap between them.

Shrike came up, holding my gun gingerly by the butt with two fingers-like shapeshifters, vampires aren’t especially fond of silver. He was carrying a glass in the other hand: a glass filled with thick red liquid-and I doubted it was aqua sanguis. He handed me the gun, then offered the glass to Devona, saying, “Drink; it’ll help.”

Her nostrils flared as she picked up the scent of blood, the real thing. She reached out and Shrike placed the glass in her hand. She brought it to her lips, but then hesitated.

At first I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t drink. And then it hit me. Though being half human was a negative to most Bloodborn, it was important to Devona, maybe even a secret source of pride for her. And humans didn’t drink blood.

“Go on,” I said. “Shrike’s right, it’ll help.”

She hesitated a second more, but then drank, slowly at first, but then with increasing enthusiasm, gulping down the last few swallows.

Devona shuddered as if she’d just downed a glassful of hard liquor and couldn’t stand the taste. A few moments went by, during which a couple lykes came forward. From the way they glared at me and snarled, I thought they were going to cause trouble, and I wasn’t sure I was up to it just then. But the lykes merely took hold of Thokk by the arms and hauled her out of the club, probably to take her back to the Wyldwood so she could convalesce. Soon the noise level in the club returned to normal and people were back on the floor, dancing. No one bothered to wipe up the blood Thokk had vomited. Perhaps they thought it added to the club’s ambience.

Devona gingerly opened her eyes. She blinked a few times, and then smiled. “Much better.”

Like lykes, vampires heal fast, but only if they’ve fed recently. Otherwise their wounds don’t heal any faster than a human’s.

I holstered my gun and then turned to Shrike. “Thanks for taking care of the lyke. I owe you one, kid.”

“Hardly. I’ve got a few hundred more favors to do for you before we’re close to being even.” Shrike grinned. “Besides, it was fun.”

“That kind of fun I can do without, thank you.” I turned back to Devona. “And thank you for jumping into the fray too.”

“What for? All I did was manage to get myself blinded.”

“If you hadn’t attacked when you did, Thokk probably would’ve squeezed me in two. And what was that other thing you tried? It looked like you were casting a spell on her or something.”

“Remember when I told you I can’t assume a travel form but had other talents? Besides my minor skill with magic, I also possess some rudimentary psychic abilities, as half Bloodborn often do. Not that they did anyone much good today. All I did was make Thokk hesitate.”

“When you’re fighting for you life, sometimes that’s enough,” I said.

“That’s nice of you to say, but I still-” She broke off and frowned. “Matt, are you missing an ear?”

Shrike snapped his fingers. “Almost forgot!” He reached into the pocket of his jeans and brought out a grayish-colored ear. “Found this on the floor, not too far from your gun. Thokk must’ve torn it off you sometime during the fight.”

I brushed my hair back and felt the open dry wound where my right ear had been. “Probably happened when she knocked me down the last time.” I took my ear from Shrike and, without any place better to put it, stuck it in one of my jacket’s handy pockets.

“Won’t you lose it if you don’t get it reattached right away?” Devona asked, concerned.

“Maybe not. An ear isn’t all that complicated, not like an arm. It’ll keep longer.” I had no idea if that was true or not, but I didn’t have time to bother with one ear, not when I had the survival of the rest of my body to worry about.

That reminded me of why we’d come to the Broken Cross in the first place.

“Shrike, did you spot Varma?”

“In all the excitement, I forgot you were looking for him. Yeah, I found him. He was sitting alone at a table in the back, looking like he was higher than Umbriel.” He turned and pointed. “Right over-” Pointed to an empty table. “He was there just a minute ago, I swear to Christ! OW!”

I sighed as Shrike’s mouth sizzled. He’d never learn.

Varma had probably cut out when Thokk attacked. I doubt he recognized me, but he surely recognized Devona. He didn’t have much of a head start on us, though.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Devona.

“Well enough; let’s go.”

I thanked Shrike again, but he was too busy frantically slapping his tongue in an attempt to extinguish the flames. Devona and I headed for the table Varma had until only recently occupied-the one next to the door marked EXIT.

The door opened onto a trash-strewn alley.

“Which way?” Devona asked.

I pointed left. “But there’s no need to hurry. Not anymore.”

Lying face down on the ground not twenty feet away, surrounded by a massive pool of blood, was the body of a redheaded male.

Varma.