Resurrection

Chapter Sixteen

Thanks to Baalth’s outburst, I had to take the long way around Old Town. While the fires had been put out and the asphalt roads had cooled enough to walk on, the streets were still filled with rubble and marred with giant, steaming potholes. The sidewalks were non-existent, scaled models of the Himalayas. Slabs of concrete rose at ninety degree angles in some places and sunk, close to the same, in others. Not up for a hike, I circled the neighborhood until I found the easiest access point.

Just as I’d crossed the line into ground zero, I heard a quiet voice call out from behind me. I spun around to see the daintily smiling face of Lilith.

“Hi, Frank.”

My heart pounded in my chest and at my groin, a blast-beat of raw lust.

Eschewing the dress she had on the last time I’d seen her, she wore a pair of ultra-tight jeans, which outlined everything as if they weren’t even there. It hurt to lift my eyes, but when I finally did, they got stuck at her chest. A thin, white wife-beater did absolutely nothing to hide her perfect boobs. They stood out in defiance of gravity, daring me to look away.

They knew I wouldn’t.

Caught off guard, my own pants mimicking the tightness of hers, I just stood there and stared, while visions of leather and chains danced in my head.

Lilith understood the way to a man’s heart was through his crotch. She was a sexual sniper: one shot, one kill. If my uncle’s bloodline hadn’t run so fiercely through my veins, I’d have been panting at her feet. As it was, I could have welded steel with the fire burning in my pants.

“Uh, hey.” Smooth, huh?

She stepped in real close, wisps of her black hair tickling my neck and cheek, her breasts a naughty whisper against my fluttering stomach. One of her warm hands settled on the small of my back, the skin prickling at her touch.

“I have something for you.”

And I for you. I only hoped I wouldn’t have to clean it out of my underwear before our conversation was over. “What’s that?” My voice squeaked like a schoolgirl’s.

“I know where Baalth’s pets are being held.” She brushed her lips against my chin. Tiny electric shocks reverberated downward from the touch, curling my toes and straightening everything else in between.

Two thoughts struck me right then. The first was a mental treatise in the moral and ethical dilemma of banging my uncle’s woman and ex-wife’s mother, my once mother-in-law, in the middle of the street, in broad daylight.

The second was a detailed summation of all the groovy things I could do after Baalth granted me a heaping chunk of his magic for rescuing his men.

Surprisingly, the latter won out.

Common sense and self-preservation: 1

Penis: 0

At least for today.

I took a small step back, putting some space between me and Lilith. It was hard.

Moving away was too.

She looked at me like I’d just bought American. “Are you not interested?”

Double entendre aside, I did my best to act cool; ice cubes and arctic wastelands. Given the fact my pants looked like a pup tent, it was pretty clear she had my full attention. “Of course I am.”

She inched forward again, clearly not willing to let me off the hook. “My spies witnessed the necromancer’s attack.”

My thoughts went back to the body I’d found. It was awful convenient, but it could explain why the gaunt was there. “Go on.”

She licked her red lips before she continued, making sure my eyes followed her slow-moving tongue. “Reven’s creatures fled before Baalth arrived, stealing his men away into Limbo.”

While I was grateful to know where Baalth’s goons had been taken, Lilith was far too eager to pass the information on. I played stupid.

It wasn’t that difficult.

“Limbo is a big place.”

“That’s why I prepared a transport crystal for you.” She reached into her shirt, her hand squirming its way between her breasts. I held my breath as her wife beater was pushed down to within a millimeter of baring everything, then she yanked her hand out with an exaggerated twist. She flashed me a small blue gem, her fingers gently rolling it around her palm. I’d been hoping for a different kind of flash.

Disappointed, I peeled my eyes away from her show of manual dexterity. I had to think. Here Lilith was, providing me with the location of Baalth’s captured men and the means to go straight there, all while asking for nothing in return. There had to be a catch.

I had to ask-she’d expect it. “What’s in all this for you?”

Her eyes sparkled. “The hope of good will, mostly.” A serene calmness passed over her face. “Baalth and I have been on opposite sides of the aisle for too long. Were I to take this to him, at best, he’d refuse to see me, ignoring anything I had to say. At worst, the most likely of conditions, he’d…well, let’s just leave that to your imagination.” A tinge of sadness touched her lips. “However, were you to bring his men home, putting in a good word for my part in the rescue, he might open the door to me once more.”

I weighed what she told me. It made sense, especially now that Baalth was the biggest demon on the block, but something still bothered me. I couldn’t figure out how rescuing Baalth’s guys would help to stop Longinus from being resurrected. Why would she sidetrack me“I’m assuming Reven isn’t with them?”

She shook her head. “He knows his undead minions are flawed, that they can be compromised. He keeps a line of separation when it comes to remaining secure.”

Following her line of logic, it was a trap. My only question was, for who? Did Reven know Lilith was involved and had trailed his zombies, or did he realize she was feeding me info? My brain spun in circles. There were too many possibilities.

I suck with choices.

“So, if Reven isn’t there, how does this benefit us regarding Longinus?”

She looked at me as though I were stupid. She might have been right. “He did not kidnap Baalth’s men without cause. They have become an integral part of his plan to raise my dear, Maximus.” Moisture glistened in her eyes on cue.

I wished I had a golden statue to give her. “And their part is?”

She made a show of wiping her tears. “As circumstances have robbed Reven of the means to procure blood in mass quantities, he must find an alternate way to achieve his goal. In necromancy, empowered blood is far more potent than common, human blood.” She gestured toward Old Town. “The wizard and mentalist are to be sacrificed.”

From an entirely selfish point of view, that would blow. “Are you sure they’re still alive?”

She nodded. “Unlike common blood, empowered claret must be culled fresh for it to retain its potency. He will save them until the very last moment, claiming them from Limbo to be about his task before he can be stopped. That gives you time, however little.”

I didn’t bother to ask how she knew all that. After spending years with her daughter, I’d figured out pretty quick that all succubi were fonts of obscure knowledge. They didn’t just suck away the lives of the men they fed on, they delved inside their heads. Under a succubus’s control, their lovers were pumped for information and gave it up willingly. The succubi then used that knowledge to find their next quality mark, the process repeated ad nauseam. The side effect was an insight into most anything you could think of, necromancer’s minds not withstanding, apparently.

All that still didn’t answer who the trap was being set for, but it really didn’t matter when it came down to the brass tacks of it. Lilith had no intention of going after Baalth’s men. She was setting me up to deal with whatever popped up, staying clear of the conflict no matter how it turned out. It wasn’t the best of tactical situations, but it stopped the floundering I’d been doing since being jumped by the revenants.

Speaking of the ghost-toasties, I thought about telling Lilith they’d made an appearance, but decided against it. She was already playing loose and fast with the facts, so I didn’t see the point in cluing her in. If she already knew Daartan was involved, it wouldn’t change what she was planning. If she didn’t, it sure didn’t hurt to have a surprise readily available, should it be needed.

“We have a deal,” I told her, but her eyes were locked on something behind me. I turned and followed her stare, careful not to let her out of my sight.

There in the shadows between the ruined buildings, lurking as though to avoid being be seen, was a zombie. Lilith’s eyes went wide when we heard a scuffling noise to our left. We spun in tandem to see another zombie leering at us from around the corner.

Perhaps realizing it had been seen, the zombie let loose a wailing moan before shambling forward, which was echoed by others out of sight. Lilith rammed the blue gem into my hand and darted toward the open street.

“3000 east, 200 north, from there,” she called out as she ran, pointing to where I stood.

I stuffed the gem in my pocket and drew my gun as I spied a horde of ambling undead, spilling out of the darkness and maneuvering to cut off Lilith’s retreat. Within seconds, hundreds of corpses flooded the streets, their moans filling the air with a raspy dirge.

They also filled it with funk.

With a pop, I put a bullet into the closest zombie’s head and trailed out after Lilith. Despite the tightness of her jeans, she moved like a sprinter. She was glory in motion. Her long, lithe legs stretched and coiled, her-

Grumbling, I tore my eyes off her ass and shot another zombie that stumbled up on me while I was daydreaming. Unable to keep up with Lilith’s pace, and unwilling to try, I pressed my back to a still-standing wall and eased along it to avoid running into the mass of undead gathered in the ruined streets.

I watched as Lilith drew them off one way, then bolted the opposite, slipping through their loose ranks before disappearing from view. A small chunk of zombies followed, the rest wandering slowly toward the less damaged remains of Old Town. Several passed by me, yet they didn’t so much as spare a glance even though they had to have seen me. It was a weird feeling.

For once, I wasn’t on the menu.

It didn’t feel right.

Not willing to look a gift horse in the ass, I waited until the horde wandered off a ways before I did anything. Then, as quietly as I could, I dug Candy’s cell out and put in a call to DRAC. Afterward, I trailed off behind the zombies, making sure there was plenty of space between us.

I caught up to the corpse party just beyond the ruins, the sounds of screams and breaking glass reaching me a few minutes before. Rather than bust out into the middle of something unpleasant, I crept low and peered around the corner of a building.

What I saw there was chaos.

While Baalth’s outburst had cleared a good chunk of the people out of Old Town, the majority of its residents were too poor, too stubborn, or too intoxicated in some manner to leave. That left a lot of victims still in the zombies’ path.

The undead covered the streets, milling back and forth smashing windows and knocking down doors, chasing whoever was too slow, or too stupid, to get out of the way. Mangled bodies lay on the street, blood pooling beneath them. Unidentifiable pieces lay scattered everywhere, gory landmines of ravaged flesh and bone.

I watched as several zombies tore a man apart, his limbs ripped from their sockets as he shrieked, unable to escape their grasp. It looked like cheesy spaghetti, the tendons and ligaments stretched tight, pulling away from the sockets until they snapped with a wet pop. His screams ended right after, his head drooping to his chest in death or unconsciousness.

I’m sure we were both grateful it was over.

My mind whirled as it took in the carnage. Something had changed. This was unlike any of the previous zombie attacks. There was no order to it, no purpose. It made no sense. It was pure mayhem for the sake of mayhem, nothing else.

Outnumbered, with nowhere near enough bullets to make a stand, I shimmied up a fire escape and took the high ground. While I waited for backup-unsure of who might even show up, just hoping it wasn’t Baalth-I took out a few zombies, here and there, trying to minimize the human casualties. It was a lost cause, but I had to do something.

Up above it all, the screams of the dying ringing in my ears, unsure of who was telling the truth and who was pulling my strings, I knew only one thing with certainty.

For the horror going on below me, I was gonna put a bullet in Reven’s head.