Zombies Sold Separately (40 page)

Gradually it all fell into place, memories slotted but ready for me to draw on when I needed them.

I opened my eyes. Colin was crouched in front of me, his hands grasping mine tight. “Nyx?” He looked concerned. “Are you all right?”

He looked different, the outline of him not so sharp, the colors of his clothing not as brilliant. His light blue shirt looked grayish-blue, his hair a darker gold than I was used to.

I was seeing him as Candace would, through her eyes. The scents of Desmond, Colin, and even the smells in Desmond’s apartment were dull, muted. My hearing didn’t seem as acute as it always had.

When I looked down at my and Colin’s hands, I saw small hands with smooth light brown skin and long, manicured nails. I wondered vaguely how one would fight with such long nails.

All of the aches and pains that Candace’s body had, I now felt, including the bruise from the IV that had been in her hand while she was at the infirmary.

I felt everything—the scrapes along one side of her face from the asphalt as well as other cuts and bruises, along with her injured backside from being hit by a truck. She really needed a chiropractor.

Other than that, Candace’s body was toned and fit. She obviously worked out, but I felt nothing near the power of my own body.

My own body …

I raised my head—Candace’s head—and saw myself in the seat across from me. My heart thumped harder.

Seeing myself through another person’s eyes sent a shock through my core. The fair-skinned woman across from me with black hair would have been pretty, but her face was slack, her expression blank, her eyes vacant.

My body looked so … Zombie-ish, and a sick feeling churned in my belly. Despite the blank appearance, the shell of a body was pulling against the bonds that held her to the chair. Held me to the chair.

I turned my gaze toward Desmond. “You do know,” I said, startling at the sound of the unfamiliar, sultry voice, “that I’ll have to kill you if you don’t get me back into my own body.”

Desmond and Colin studied me.

“Are you sure it’s Nyx in the driver’s seat now?” Colin asked.

Desmond gestured to the floor and Colin and I looked down to see the stone by my foot where I’d dropped it. On the smooth side two women now shared the stone. Candace, of course, was one of the women. The other I recognized as Bryna when I drew from the memory of her looking at herself in a mirror in Amory’s manor. Words actually came to me in that odd French-sounding language the Sentients had been using the night Candace-Bryna was hit by the truck.

“It’s me in here.” My throat felt different as I spoke, the body I was in strange, feeling somehow fragile compared to my own body.

Desmond moved around me and looked behind my ear. “Two burn marks.” He frowned as he came back around so that I could see him. “I’d thought the first mark would be the one used to transfer Bryna’s essence to the stone, and yours into Candace’s body. Let us hope that Amory doesn’t notice. With your Host body’s short hair, it’s a possibility.”

“Great.” I tried to move but then realized I was strapped to the chair. “Think you can let me up?”

Desmond and Colin unstrapped my loaner body and I rubbed my wrists and arms where the bonds had been the tightest. I did my best to avoid looking at my real body because this whole thing was creeping me out.

I wobbled as I got to my feet, as if the muscles in “my” body were confused as to which memory they should be working from.

Colin caught me by my upper arm and steadied me. His palm felt warm against my skin. The sensations of being touched in this body felt alien.

Candace was gorgeous, her body more rounded than mine. The heaviness of her breasts and the stretch of her slacks around the hips felt so different. I’d never had short hair and hers tickled at the neck and the lack of any length and weight felt naked.

Worst of all was the feeling of impotence. My powers, my magic had all been left behind in my own body. The absence of the elements made me feel alone, as if I’d been abandoned by family and friends.

The remnants of Candace’s essence told me she’d worked out at a gym regularly, including weight training, and that she was strong for a human female. But without my Drow strength I was weak and vulnerable in a paranormal world.

I glanced at my real body again even though I’d told myself I wasn’t going to. It was a mistake. The Zombie-like expression and the drool rolling from one corner of the mouth made me shudder.

“I don’t know if this is going to work.” I brushed my palms along my hips, a nervous movement. “I don’t have any of my magic or paranormal strength. What if something happens when I’m in the Doran Otherworld?”

“That’s why I’ll be with you, along with the rest of the team.” Colin tried to give me a reassuring smile. It didn’t work. I wasn’t reassured.

Then I realized that it was my team he was talking about, and I had every confidence in them that they’d get me in and out safely.

“Most of all, pay close attention to Bryna’s essence.” Desmond took one of the cloths from the Magi, went down on one knee, and wrapped the stone before picking it up and setting it on the coffee table. “You will be fine.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. “What now?”

“Step two.” Desmond remained on one knee as he met my gaze. “What more can you learn from Bryna’s essence?”

With a nod I closed my eyes.
Relax, Nyx.

I let the images start to roll through my mind again. This time I focused on Bryna. Her thoughts, her feelings, her knowledge. I allowed it all to flow through me until I felt as if I was walking side-by-side with her, only I was the one in control.

“Bryna is Amory’s favorite niece,” I said. “She is also his confidante.”

“We couldn’t have been more fortunate than to have found his niece.” Desmond gave a grim smile. “What does he have planned?”

The words came easily to me, as if they were my own thoughts and memories that I was speaking from. “Amory’s planning a lot for this world, but he’s only revealed it on a limited basis.”

“What do you see in regards to Amory sending his people here?” Desmond asked.

“It’s what we suspected,” I said. “Amory is having his people take over positions of power and they did take the entire Paranorm Council, exactly as we thought.

“And they have been taking norms in positions of political power,” I continued. “Bryna doesn’t know the list.”

“What about the theory that he’s working on converting mass numbers of norms and paranorms at one time?” Colin asked.

“Yes.” I gave a slow nod. “Amory has been experimenting and wants to accelerate the process and take this world over sooner. She believes Amory was prepared to reveal a lot more as the next stages of his process gets closer,” I said. “One problem is that because she’s been in this world for a few days, Bryna has limited new information.”

I went on, “She knows he’s probably very worried about her disappearance and she’s sure he won’t stop searching for her.”

“That’s another reason why the sooner the better that we get you to Doran,” Desmond said. “We need to make sure you’re clear on your capture and subsequent escape.”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Anything else?” Colin asked.

“Amory has a new body,” I said. “He’d stayed in that old body—frail and wrinkled with graying red hair—until recently.”

“Even twenty years ago he looked like he might wither and blow away,” Desmond said. “But his magic was so strong that his presence was powerful in a magical way.”

As I continued to read Bryna’s essence, I tilted my head. “Amory’s new Host is a very large, very intelligent human. He’s built like a body builder and was one of the named partners in one of Manhattan’s most prestigious law firms. So not only is he powerful magically, but also physically and mentally.”

I frowned as I turned my focus on Desmond. “How can he keep his magic yet I couldn’t bring mine along with me?”

“It is different for some,” Desmond said. “For Amory it is because of the strong magic he wields as an extremely powerful Sorcerer.”

“Normally whatever power the Host body has, the Sentient will have,” I said. “So if he was a normal Sentient he wouldn’t have kept any of his magic.”

“Yes,” Desmond said. “On the other hand, your friend Angel’s body likely can turn into her Doppler form even with a Sentient having taken it over as a Host. She is a Doppler, is she not?”

“A squirrel.” I bit the inside of my lip as I thought about her and prayed we’d find her essence along with Lawan’s and Olivia’s.

“So…” I said, “The Sentient who took over Angel’s body would have powers because Angel did. But I have none because I’m in a body that has no powers.”

“You’ve got it,” Desmond said.

I sighed. “Bummer.”

“You might need these,” Desmond pulled a few pieces of material from one of his pockets. “I spelled the cloths in case you need to carry any other stones.”

I took them and stuffed them into my own pocket. “Thank you.”

“Nyx, do you have a grasp on what it will take to ‘be’ Bryna?” Desmond asked.

I paused for a moment, then nodded with confidence. “I already feel like I know her inside and out. I can turn that switch on at will.”

“Good.” Desmond brought the other stone to me that rested on its own cloth. “Now you can use the keystone,” he said. “Go ahead, pick it up. As one of Amory’s key people it is yours to command.”

The moment I took the stone from the cloth and wrapped my fingers around it, I felt warmth travel through me. Warmth and confidence and knowledge.

“Where is the portal to the Doran Otherworld?” Desmond asked.

Mentally I asked the question as I stared at the stone. In the shiny, flat side of the stone appeared a local homeless shelter.

“Thirty-second Street between Park and Lexington avenues,” I said as I recognized the area. “It’s right by the location where a higher number than normal of homeless people have been cited.”

“You were right.” I looked up at Desmond. “That’s the connection we’ve been looking for. The number of homeless people in the city is at a tragic high. But the inflated number in that area must have to do with Sentients and Zombies coming through the portal.”

“Let’s get the team together.” Colin drew his cell phone out of his pocket and started pressed a number. “It’s time to go.”

*   *   *

My entire body shook rather than just shivered in the freezing outside air. Despite the muffler wrapped around my face and neck, my cheeks were so cold they felt almost hot and I thought my nose might freeze off. I’d never been so cold in my entire life. How did humans live like this?

Slush on the sidewalk made wet squishing sounds beneath Colin’s and Desmond’s boots and my shoes as they walked to either side of me. I wasn’t used to making sounds when I walked and I felt like the whole world could hear all the noise my human body made.

We’d had a taxi drop us off at Lexington and Thirty-second Street, and I drew the heavy coat I was wearing tighter around me with my gloved hands.

Before we’d left Desmond’s apartment Colin had gone out to buy the coat. Within fifteen minutes of the time he’d left, he’d returned with a Macy’s bag containing a heavy, lined coat, a muffler, a pair of leather gloves, and a wool cap.

At the same time I was cursing the cold, I was thanking Colin for helping put some barrier between me and the icy chill. I was almost too cold to feel all of Candace’s injuries.

“Doing all right, Popsicle?” Colin asked and I gave him a pretend glare.

“Let’s just say in some ways I am very glad my Drow half is dominant when I’m in my own body.” As I spoke the muffler did a very good job of doing just that—muffling me—making it so that it was a wonder the Dragon could hear me.

Colin’s cold-weather clothing was practically summer wear compared to what I was wearing. That despite him shivering in the cold before we’d gone to his apartment that night for Belgian beer.

I looked at the Sorcerer Desmond, who wore a jacket and gloves, along with a muffler, too. But his clothing was light in comparison to mine and he didn’t look cold at all.

“I sure hope it’s not this cold in Doran.” I shivered even more.

“Weather in my home world is pleasant year-round.” Desmond had an almost wistful expression on his face. “We just need to get you to that portal reasonably unfrozen.”

“This is reasonably unfrozen?” I said, my teeth chattering with every word.

The stones were in the pocket of my slacks, beneath the coat, and I felt their weight against my leg as we approached the homeless shelter on Thirty-second Street. We were on the opposite side of the street and I saw that most of the rest of our team was already there, waiting for us.

Meryl perched on a newspaper stand in her preferred oriole form while Ice sat beneath her as a pure white cat. His tail twitched from side to side as he looked up at her like he was ready to pounce on her and eat her whole.

Joshua was in his shadow form on the ground near the cat, and I saw Mandisa through her glamour close by.

“Can you tell if Penrod is there?” I asked Colin, not sure if he could see through Sprite glamours. I wished I could. Of course Penrod wouldn’t be able to walk among norms unless he was in glamour.