Electric Heat (23 page)

The lights flickered, then went out.

Raven dropped her tray with a clatter, then grabbed the
nearest girl and shook her. “Run. Get help.”

She didn’t need to be told twice.

“Fools.” Paige watched three of her friends run and scoffed.
“Only the weak run.”

She turned and called up her magic.

“Don’t!” Raven and Luca shouted at the same time, but Paige
didn’t pay any attention.

The walking corpses picked up speed, their greedy eyes
focused on Paige with a single-mindedness that indicated the rest of them
didn’t exist. Their dulled expressions sharpened into a ravenous hunger as they
charged out of the darkness.

Instead of retreating, the girl amped up her voltage and
cast a spell at the two lumbering corpses. At the scent of magic, their
movements became more frantic, their disjointed walk picking up speed, eager to
reach their target. They snapped their teeth at the magic as if gobbling down
the spells. A dark, putrefied liquid leaked from their mouth. Rotting blood. It
stained their chins and oozed down their throats. 

“They should be dead.” The girl backed up a step, her face
showing the first signs of panic. “Why aren’t they stopping?”

“Because they’re already dead. They’re feeding off your
magic.” Luca tugged at the girl’s arm, dragging her away when she stumbled. “They’re
zombies.”

Paige turned with a wild look and shoved Luca into the path
of the walking dead before fleeing into the shadowy tunnels after her friends.
Luca landed hard on his hands and knees with a nasty thwack. He scrambled
backwards, his eyes wide as he saw the creatures advance on him.

“Get rid of anything magical.” Raven reached for his arm and
hauled him to his feet, jerking him out of the way of the first creature with
only seconds to spare. As the corpses continued to advance, Raven and Luca
danced out of range.

Flesh sagged off the bodies. Instead of the dry husks she’d
seen in the morgue, these people were moist. A sheen of fluid seeped from the
skin, as if the corpses had lost any ability to hold it inside. Their lips were
torn almost completely off from the way they snapped their teeth, while their
eyeballs were shrunken, covered by a foggy-white film.

“They’re blind, drawn by the magic.”

Their movements were disjointed, the bones creaking, and she
realized rigor mortis had taken hold of their bodies. Their muscles slowly
began to snap as they broke death’s hold, the sound like cracking ice.

They weren’t created to last long.

They had one mission…infect as many people as possible.

Luca jammed his hands in his jeans, tossing the contents on
the floor until his pockets were inside out, backing up as he did so. Three
small stones fell to the floor with a clink.

“And the amulet.”

The kid ripped off his necklace and stared at the large gem
clutched in his hand. Before she could yank it from him, he brought it to his
mouth, whispered some incantation, and then threw it at the corpses.

It hit the first man in the chest, bounced off, and landed
with a clank. A bright flash of magic burst in the tunnel. Raven lifted her arm
to protect her eyes and saw the zombies moaning in hunger, clawing at the walls
to grab the fading magic.

Raven grabbed Luca’s arm, spun him around to face the other
way, and shoved him. “Run. Tell the others.”

He looked over his shoulder at her and hesitated. “What
about you?”

“They can’t be allowed to roam free.” She gave him another
shove. “Go!”

Luca scowled, then jogged a few feet away. “I’ll get help,
but you better stay alive until I get back.” With that threat, he turned and
pelted down the tunnel at full speed, the darkness swallowing him in seconds.

As the source of the magic faded, the zombies wheeled around
and focused on Raven. She backed up a step, and they mimicked the movement,
advancing toward her the same distance. They were animated by something. If she
could drain the power source, she could put them out of commission.

Raven reached for the energy that powered them, and
immediately found herself surrounded by a surge of wild magic. It bit and
snapped at her intrusion, seeking to protect its hosts. The threat of losing
their power must have changed the zombie’s programming. They transformed from
seekers of magic to destroyers and charged. Their slow gait morphed to freaky
fast, all their awkwardness gone.

Raven snatched up the food tray and wacked the first one
across the skull. Instead of knocking him out cold, she ended up ripping off
half his face. White bones of his skull gleamed in the dim light. Without any
flesh to cover him, the left side of his face was locked in a permanent,
ghastly grin. His eye dangled from his socket, and liquid dribbled down his
face. Raven shuddered when she realized part of his brain had gone all squishy
and begun to leak.

The meaty part of his face oozed off the tray and hit the
ground with a juicy splat.

Shouting erupted from the auditorium. She scooted closer to
the door, only to have the zombie do the same.

Because he was following her magic.

She cut off her power, locked every ounce of it down until
it felt like half her senses had died.

They sniffed the tunnel then walked right past her as if she
didn’t exist.

They couldn’t be allowed into the main area.

She waited until they passed her before exchanging the tray
for the precious stones Luca had dropped. She pulled the magic from the rocks,
and it blossomed in the air. Before she could even blink, they whirled at the
scent, their jaws snapping in a frenzy.

She stepped back, and they followed the trail of Luca’s
magic.

Each stone only lasted seconds.

The damaged one moved faster than she’d expected, as if it had
already gotten a taste of magic and wanted more. Raven was scrambling backward
when her foot landed on the tray, and it skidded right out from under her. She flailed
and watched in horror as her hand latched onto the zombie’s sleeve when she
tried to catch her balance.

They tumbled together. Her back smacked the stone floor with
a jarring thud that knocked the air out of her…which might have been a
blessing. The zombie snapped his teeth at her with a sharp click, and she
shoved her forearm against his throat to hold him at bay. His rotten breath hit
her square in the face, the putrid air making her gag.

Without magic to lure him, the other zombie shuffled past
and continued down the hall.

Then there was no more time to worry about the one that got
away. With the magic gone, the one on top of her lifted his head to sniff the
air for the lost scent.

Slime dripped off his damaged skull to splat against her
face and neck. It slid down her collar, the liquid bitter cold and the
consistency of gelatin. All sorts of goo soaked through her clothes from the
full body contact, cementing her to the stone floor so she couldn’t even wiggle.
She pushed harder to increase the distance between them, but his skin was like
a water balloon, his muscles sloughing off his bones, until they squished in
her grip.

Her fingers poked through skin, and the flesh slid off in
her hands like fish slime. Without her to brace him, he fell toward her in slow
motion.

 Chapter Nineteen

I
nstead
of finding herself trapped beneath a crushing weight and buried under a pile of
slime, the body jerked, and Raven watched the head land with a thud and roll
off into the darkness. Black blood oozed from the neck to plop down on her
chest and stomach.

Rylan stood over her with the metal lunch tray in both his
hands.

“You can’t stay out of trouble for even twenty-four hours,
can you?”

Raven let her head thump to the ground, then rolled her
hips, using her legs until the now-decapitated body slid off her to land with a
juicy splat. “Give me a hand.”

When she lifted her arm, everything from the elbow up remained
stuck to the stone floor. Rylan grabbed her wrist and yanked. There was a loud sucking
noise, a painful tug on her clothes when the slime refused to release its hold,
then she was on her feet.

Her clothes felt cold and clammy, stank to high heavens, and
she grimaced. She held her arms out from her side, shook her hands and sludge
flew off in large chunks. “Thanks. I think.”

The barrage against the mountain was so constant it had
faded to white noise. She could almost forget, until a particularly nasty hit shook
the walls.

“I see you’re making friends.” He nudged the corpse with his
foot. “Where’d they come from?”

Raven kept herself busy by removing a pile of gunk as it
slowly slid down her back like a slug wiggling over her body. “They’re the
reanimated corpses of the bodies I wanted to burn.”

“Zombies.” His voice was flat. Rylan crossed his arms, a
silent guard, watching her with those eyes of his that saw everything yet kept
so many secrets. He scanned her from head to foot. “You don’t look injured.”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t bitten. I guess I’m not human
enough for their taste.”

He cocked his head, easily sensing her disquiet. “More like
not magical enough to satisfy their appetite.”

She gave him a small smile, appreciating the lie even if he
didn’t mean it. “How did you know I was in trouble?”

“I was waiting for you to return before I went to sleep. I
heard a commotion and figured I’d find you in the middle of it.”

Raven rolled her eyes and headed down the tunnel, tracking
the other zombie.

Rylan’s hunger might be gone, but there was an edginess to
him that didn’t bode well for the survival of those around him. “You need to
rest.”

Rylan shook his head, his steps carefully measured as he
kept pace. “I’ll be fine. The shifter blood helped.”

It was well past morning. He should be sleeping. He was
slower, weaker, more vulnerable and trying to hide it. “It’s this place.”

He stiffened but didn’t look at her. “What?”

“It’s too much like the labs.”

He sucked in a startled breath, a telling sign, since his
body didn’t need air.

“You noticed it, too.”

He gave a nearly imperceptible nod. “I’m afraid if I fall
asleep, it will be like the last few years never happened, and I’ll wake back
up in that cursed cell.”

They were both barely clinging to their sanity. She couldn’t
tell Rylan to leave, not when his presence eased the memories for both of them.
If she was a vampire, she’d go insane trapped inside her body when it shut down
for the day. “Come, let’s find us a zombie.”

Rylan sniffed the air and pointed down a narrow alley she
hadn’t even noticed. There was a spot of blood on the stone.

Bright.

Just spilled.

“Dammit! He found someone.” Little drops of blood dotted the
path where the person had staggered off. “The amount of blood could indicate
they’re still alive.”

Rylan touched the blood, then brought his fingers to his
lips when she caught his arm. 

“Don’t.”

“I can track him better this way. A taste won’t hurt me.”

Meaning he wouldn’t be affected by memories with such a
small dose. Raven didn’t care. “We can’t risk you being infected as well. We
don’t know how it will affect you. We can track him without putting you in
danger.”

“Like how you never throw yourself in danger?” He stood and
raised his brow at her.

“That’s different.” She muttered it under her breath, but
she knew he heard her anyway. “I don’t go looking for it.”

“Oh, wait, I’d forgotten, it finds you.”

Raven narrowed her eyes at his sarcasm and stalked down the
hall to search for the missing zombie. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You love taking risks.”

Raven snorted at the absurdity. “No, I like helping people.
I can’t help that it usually leads to danger.”

“Can’t you?” He easily kept pace, not allowing her to run away
from the conversation. “I think you throw yourself at the most hazardous cases,
so you don’t have to think or feel. You’re terrified of what might happen if
you allow yourself to claim your pack completely and rule the way you should.”

“Leave it be.” She didn’t want to talk about this.

Not now.

Not ever.

He paused a beat. “Isn’t that why you called me? Because
you’re afraid of what you’re capable of becoming once your animal crests?”

“You know what happened last time. I killed people. Lots of
them.” Her heart gave a painful lurch.

Rylan grabbed her arm and shook her. “Bad people. People who
kept you prisoner for eighteen years. They tortured you day after day.” His
voice hardened, his eyes flashing black. “They deserved what they got.”

“And I don’t remember doing any of it. I had no control.
What if next time I hurt someone innocent?”

“You did what you had to do to survive.” He released her,
looked at his hands, and grimaced at the black goo that had transferred to him.
He removed a handkerchief from his pocket, shook it out and dabbed at the
stains. “You underestimate yourself and your animal. I have complete faith in
you. I’d be more worried if you had no fear.”

“And what if you’re wrong?” He gave her hope, and that was
dangerous. If she allowed herself to believe she could have her pack, it would
destroy her to lose them.

“Then we’ll face it together.”

His offer blindsided her. “You’d do that for me?”

He began walking down the tunnel, following the blood trail.
“Maybe it’s time we both face our fears.”

His answer poleaxed her, and she had to scramble to catch up
to him, so grateful she wanted to hug him. “Thank you.”

He grunted and concentrated on the trail.

When they rounded the corner, they came face to face with a
group of five witches. Both parties froze and eyed the others. Paige was in the
group and avoided meeting her eyes. After the way she’d behaved, Raven didn’t
blame her.

“One down. The other got away.” Raven pointed to the bloody
trail. “It looks like the second one found a victim.”

Heloise’s lips tightened at the evidence. “Which way did it
go?”

Raven shrugged. “We lost him and decided to follow the blood
trail instead.”

“How the hell could this happen?” Heloise sounded more
defeated than angry.

“I suspect the Prime knew you would retreat to this fortress
and set a trap for you. Once they sensed magic, they woke.”

“Which is why no one was able to find the missing bodies
back on campus.”

“You were fighting the Prime and keeping your people alive.
A few missing corpses was not a priority.”

“They’re not zombies.” Paige scoffed, having found her tongue
again, the little snot.

Raven wanted to drag her down the tunnel and shove her face
into the corpse they left behind. “Not in the conventional sense, but they are
dead, and they are hunting those who have magic. They’ve already bitten one
person. Probably infected them.”

“Why weren’t you bitten?” Paige elbowed her way forward.
“How do we know she isn’t working with them?”

Raven was taken aback by her accusation, but maybe she
shouldn’t have been. “You mean after you left Luca and me to face down two
zombies when you riled them up and then ran?” Raven prowled forward until she
was right in the girl’s face. “I wasn’t bitten because we removed his head from
his body before he could. We need to find the rest of the corpses and find out
how many people have been infected.”

The girl colored at the accusation, but backed away in
disgust when she noticed Raven’s tattered appearance.

Raven couldn’t blame her for that, since she knew she looked
like she’d bathed in rotten blood and smelled as disgusting.

“I’ll have two groups put together to hunt them down.”
Heloise turned to the wizards who hung in the back. “Search this level. There
are five zombies left. We need to find them.”

“No magic, unless you want to become bait. They’re drawn to it.
The more you use, the faster and stronger they get.” Raven turned toward
Heloise. “Where do you want us?”

She didn’t answer at first, then heaved a sigh. “I want you
to inspect all the witches and find those who were bitten.”

Raven resisted the urge to curse, sure that if the witches
hadn’t hated her before, they would now. “We need a place where we can isolate
them from the rest of the community.”

“You don’t get to tell us what to do.” Paige apparently
wasn’t done with her yet.

Raven shrugged, picking at the goo around her fingernails. “Fine,
don’t listen to me. It appears only witches are affected. Let them run free,
I’m sure everything will be fine. It’s your life you’re gambling with.”

Paige crossed her arms and glared, but didn’t say anything
more.

Heloise stared at Paige, her face impassive. “I have given
you a lot of latitude, hoping you’d show promise, but you obviously think your
powers make you special. You’re just one of hundreds of students. Let me tell
you, darling, being a leader is about more than power. It’s knowing when to use
it, and when to stand down and protect your people.”

Raven wanted to cheer, but she knew the lesson wouldn’t
last. If they managed to leave the fortress and survive, she had no doubt Heloise
would go right back to seeing Raven as the enemy.

Heloise pinned her with her spooky dark eyes, clearly still
wishing she could blame this mess on Raven. “We’ll place them in holding.”

“You’re putting them in jail?” One of the older witches
seemed shocked at the choice.

“It’s the only secured place, unless you feel comfortable having
them walk around infected with wild magic?”

The woman closed her mouth without another protest.

Raven gave a nod. “Show me where to set up.”

Heloise turned and led them down a short corridor. They
hadn’t gone two steps when a familiar sound caught her ear…scuffling feet.

Raven halted, motioning for Heloise to hand over an amulet.
The moment she activated the spell, the zombie shot out of the tunnel toward
her. It clipped Rylan on the shoulder so hard he barely managed to remain on
his feet.

Raven twisted and grab one of the arms reaching for her.
Using his momentum, she swung him around and slammed him into the wall. His
skull hit with a nauseating crack. Raven pinned him with a knee to his lower
back, but it still wasn’t enough to hold him. She used her shoulder against his
back to keep him from escaping, her whole body plastered against the revolting
creature.

Bones snapped from the pressure she used to keep it still, but
the zombie didn’t feel a thing. His teeth clicked together over and over with a
sickening frequency, while he tried to lunge for her. Ravenous for magic, he
clawed at the wall, breaking first nails and then fingers in his hunger. Blood smeared
the stones as he tore his hands apart to get at her. “Some help here would be
great.”

Her hold was slipping.

If he got loose, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to grab him before
someone was bitten. Rylan came into view with a rock that had to weigh at least
thirty pounds. He lifted it over his head and nodded.

Raven leapt back just as the rock descended.

The first blow caved the skull.