Zombies Sold Separately (12 page)

All my life I’d had someone make the decisions for me before I left Otherworld. My father wouldn’t allow me to participate in actual operations because not only am I a princess and his daughter, but Drow males will never work side by side with Drow females.

Here in the Earth Otherworld I’d never been held back like Rodán was trying to do to me now.

And I wasn’t about to let it start.

“What about Angel?” I put my palms on his chest and pushed away from him. He let his hands fall to his sides. “Aren’t you concerned about her?”

“Of course—”

“And the next op—are you going to decide it’s too dangerous, too?” I had to hold back to keep from shouting at him. “Are you going to decide that I’m
compromised
in some way that will affect my ability to be a Night Tracker?”

“This is different.” Rodán took a step toward me, decreasing the distance I’d just put between us. “You saw Zombies devastate your people.” His tone was almost fierce with concern. “You lost your brother to them.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t do my job.” My voice was nearly hoarse with anger.

“I told you that you’re the best I have,” he said. “I just don’t think you belong on this op.”

“I don’t need this.” I raised my hands. “You say I’m the best you have, yet you don’t respect me enough to keep me as team leader.”

“Of course I respect—”

I cut across his words. “When have I ever let you down? When have I ever not come through for you? We lost one of my best friends, Caprice, during the Demon op. Did it compromise my performance?
No.
If anything it crystallized my resolve to defeat the Demons.”

“Listen to me,” Rodán said in a way meant to calm me down.

“You listen to me.” I don’t think I’d ever been so angry as I was at that moment. “As I see it, Rodán, you have two choices.”

“Nyx—”

I put my palm up, facing him, telling him to shut up with the movement. “First choice is that things stay the way they are and I lead this operation as a Night Tracker.”

My hands shook and I clenched them again. “Second choice is I walk away and I’ll never track again.” My words sounded cold, hard, and that was exactly how I’d meant them. “I’ll work on the Zombie case on my own as a PI. Either way I will work on it.”

“Wait—”

“I’ve loved working for you,” I said. “I’ve loved being a Tracker. But I don’t need this. I’ve never been more shocked by one of your decisions. I don’t need to work for someone who doesn’t have confidence in me.” I put my hands on my hips above my weapons belt. “Whatever decision you make right this instant will determine exactly what it is I’m going to do.”

I clamped my mouth shut to keep myself from saying anything else while I waited for him to speak. My heart thundered and my skin prickled.

“That is no choice.” He looked resigned. “I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you.”

I raised my chin but some of my anger started to slide away, and my tone calmed a bit. “Rodán, you know I’m the best Tracker to lead this case. You know that. But you’re removing me for your personal reasons. A fear for my well being.”

Before he could say anything, I continued. “This isn’t right. None of this. You’re replacing me with Angel, who is a good Tracker but doesn’t have the record I do. I’m not the one who’s compromised by emotions and personal feelings.

“I understand you care and at some level I appreciate that,” I continued, “but it’s you who must make decisions for the good of all. You can’t make a choice to put someone in charge who’s not the very best.”

“Perhaps my decision is driven in part by my concern for you,” Rodán said. “But Nyx, you did lose a family member to the Zombies and it resulted in your freezing up tonight.” Rodán paused. “But I also know that you’re right. You have never let me down. You have always come through in the end, have always gotten the job done.”

I took a deep breath. “Then what is your answer? Am I a Tracker or not?”

Rodán’s eyes met and held mine for a long moment. “Everything will remain as it was,” he said, his tone quiet. “You will continue to lead this operation.”

I didn’t look away or show how his statement affected me. The relief that poured through me.

“As it should be,” Rodán said, “it’s up to you and your team to solve this case.”

ELEVEN

Thursday, December 23

The following morning I was still furious. It didn’t matter that Rodán had relented and I was the team leader for the op. What mattered was that he had tried to take me off the case entirely … that he actually doubted me.

The fact that we now knew Zombies were in the Earth Otherworld didn’t help my mood at all.

Fae bells jingled as Olivia pushed the door open then let it close behind her. At once I wondered if we might need to steer clear of one another—if her scowl and her T-shirt were indicative of her mood today.

I HAVE PMS AND A HANDGUN
.
ANY QUESTIONS
?

Nah. I couldn’t let it go. I raised my hand as she tugged off her Mets jacket, then tossed it onto the credenza. “Ma’am,” I said. “I have a question.”

Olivia saw me glance at her chest. “The shirt speaks for itself.”

“But it asks if I have a question,” I said in a tone of complete innocence. “And I do.”

“Shoot.” Olivia touched the grip of the Sig in her side holster. “Or I will.” It was obvious to me she was struggling to maintain her irritated facade and not laugh.

“Do you have another one of those shirts I can borrow?” I asked. “Except make it one about a boss and a handgun.”

Olivia’s expression grew serious as she approached me. “What’s up? Something between you and Rodán?”

I tried not to scowl. Didn’t work. “After our team met with Rodán and went over the Zombie attack last night, Rodán and I had a little talk.”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “He said he wanted to speak with you alone in his office. So what happened?”

I ground my teeth before I said, “He wanted to take me off this op.”

“What?” Her eyes narrowed. “Why the hell would Rodán do that?”

Without going into complete detail, I told Olivia what Rodán had said and my own threat to quit if he didn’t change his mind.

“Stupid.” Olivia shook her head. “I can’t believe he’d let his emotions get in the way of his job.” She paused and cocked her head. “Come to think of it, I didn’t realize Rodán even has emotions.”

I rolled my eyes at that statement. “It’s because of our personal history and because of what happened during the Vampire op.”

“I know.” She leaned her hip against her desk. “But it’s not like him to be so unprofessional.”

“Agreed.” Just talking about it with Olivia released some of the pressure that had been building inside of me. “This isn’t something I’d tell any of the other Trackers.”

“Of course not.” Olivia folded her arms across her chest. “That’s what close friends and partners are for.”

I gave a sigh that was still filled with frustration. “Now that I got that off my chest, where are we going to start today?”

Olivia pushed away from the desk. “Zombies, huh?”

Again the word “Zombies” made me shudder. After last night I had fresh images to go along with it. “Unfortunately.”

“You’ve never mentioned having a brother. Why?” Instead of going behind her own desk and sitting in her office chair, she settled in one of the chairs in front of my desk. “Start there, then tell me what happened to you both in Otherworld.”

I should have expected that request from her. But thanks to my anger at Rodán, I wasn’t prepared for it or the sick feeling in my stomach that I now felt.

With my thumb and forefinger I rubbed my temples. “I don’t really want to talk about it.” The moment I let that out of my mouth I knew I was in trouble.

Olivia leaned forward and the message on her T-shirt stretched across her generous breasts. “Excuse me?”

“Sorry.” I flopped back in my chair and stared at the ceiling before I looked at her again. “I just don’t know if I can talk about it.”

“No excuses.” Her dark eyes had fire in them. “Give me the facts.”

“Facts.” I sighed and rubbed my temples again. “Facts.”

“You’re stalling.”

I folded my hands on my desk. Took a deep breath. “My brother, Tristan, was twenty-two years older than me. His mother was Drow and she died during childbirth.”

Olivia waited for me to continue.

“My father met my mother a year before I was born.” I smiled as I remembered what my brother was like when I was a little girl, a youngling.

“Tristan could have been resentful of a human stepmother,” I said. “He could have been resentful of me—especially because our father spoiled me so much.” I paused. “But he wasn’t. Tristan was special.”

With a nod from Olivia I went on.

“My brother spoiled me almost as much as my father did.” I felt a harsh prickling sensation behind my eyes as I spoke. “He wasn’t a warrior like our father, but an artist. He was gentle, thoughtful. But he was also fiercely loyal, which is what ultimately led to his … loss.”

If I had tear ducts like humans, I would have cried right then, the pain was so great. Memory after memory of all the things Tristan had done for me and with me kept coming to me in waves. Things I hadn’t thought of in so long.

“Why haven’t you told me anything about this before?” Olivia asked, her voice low, quiet.

“When we lost him I was only five.” I swallowed down the huge lump gathered in my throat. “When the Zombies started attacking my people and taking some away.”

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t tell me,” she said.

“Everything that happened during that time traumatized me and I repressed all of these memories.” I shook my head. “I loved Tristan so much that I didn’t want to remember what happened. Thinking about him hurt.” I met Olivia’s eyes. “It hurt so badly that I didn’t want to think about him or what happened anymore.”

“So you forgot about him?” Olivia gave me an almost incredulous look. “Forgot you ever had a brother?”

I know she didn’t mean it the way it sounded, but her words still had a sting to them. “No, I didn’t forget.” I was whispering now, my throat hoarse with tears I couldn’t shed. “I could never forget Tristan. It just hurt too much to think about him. To talk about him. So I haven’t.”

“That’s no way to honor the dead.” Olivia’s statement surprised me. “You should celebrate what time you did have with your brother.”

I stared at her like she’d grown horns. I could almost swear I saw points peeking out of her dark hair. “Since when did you get philosophical?”

Her expression didn’t change. “Tell me about the Zombies in Otherworld.”

Emotions wound so tight inside me that my stomach hurt. Pain, anger, even fear.

“Honestly, I don’t remember a lot.” I pushed my hand through my hair. “I’ve been trying to connect a few dots, but it’s so hard. I’m going to have to talk with my father about it when I go to Otherworld over Christmas.”

“What
do
you remember, Nyx?” Olivia’s tone was forceful, her expression intense. “You need to separate your emotions long enough for us to try to piece some of this together and figure out how to stop what’s happening.”

I nodded. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am.” She said it with a straight face. “I’m always right.”

With a slight smile, I said, “In some deluded way you probably believe that, too.”

She took on an even more serious expression. Her cop face. “You were five. I get that. But you might remember more than you think you do.”

Despite my father trying to shelter me from it, being the daughter of a king meant I’d heard about and had been around things that related to what had happened during that time. No doubt more than most younglings my age.

“Father and his closest advisors were having meetings,” I said. “More than normal.” My brow wrinkled as I thought about it. “My father wouldn’t let me watch the warriors train and I was so upset. He said it was different now. His men were preparing to fight an enemy, not just sharpening their skills.”

While she listened, Olivia leaned back in her chair and rested her right ankle on her opposite knee. Today she wore her black Keds that matched her black T-shirt and probably matched both of our moods this morning.

“I didn’t understand what was going on and that bothered me.” I could remember my five-year-old frustration at being left out. “Father wouldn’t talk about it with me but I heard him speak in a low voice to Mother. Sometimes I followed him and overheard him talking to his men. But I still didn’t understand.”

My father had always allowed me to learn everything he felt I was old enough to learn. Tristan had little interest in anything but art, so I think Father enjoyed teaching me what my brother didn’t care for.

“Tell me what you did learn.” Olivia’s impatience was starting to show.

“Right.” I gave a nod. Yes, I was stalling. “At night when our people went out, some would disappear, never come back.