Page 78 of Nearly Dead

“I feel like we’re being watched,” I murmur.

“We probably are.Focus all your senses,” Costin replies, his voice carrying a predatory edge that reminds me he’s not just my lover but a centuries-old master vampire.“Nothing is insignificant.Attacks can come in the most unexpected of forms.”

My nerves prickle.Invisible eyes track our every step.The magic is heavy here, exerting a gravity that pulls us under.

We move deeper into the graveyard, following a winding path between the tombstones.Magic crackles around my brother’s hand, casting a blue light.The glow shimmers off headstones and bones left behind in the churned earth.Wet stone and broken marble carve out grotesque shadows.They’re thicker and move against the light.

Giant statues loom among the gravestones.An angel with outstretched wings and a missing finger lords over robed figures with faces worn smooth by time.I point at the hand.“I think that thing grabbed Paul.”

“When we were kids, we used to dare each other to spend the night in places like this,” Anthony tells Costin.“We brought Conrad here and scared the shit out of him.He would have been, oh, eleven or twelve?Anyway, he broke the hand off that angel, and we convinced him he was cursed.”

“I never…” I look around, shaking my head.“I don’t remember any of that.”

“You were never invited.Sorry, Tam-tam,” Anthony says.

“Though, to tell you the truth, if we had known what really lurked in the dark,” he continues, “we would have never slept with the lights off.”

“You still don’t sleep with the lights off,” I tease, trying to keep my voice light despite the tension coiling in my stomach.

A twig snaps to our left.We freeze, all senses alert.

Nothing moves.

Then, a low sound rumbles the dirt at our feet.The vibration hums up my legs, a slow-building chill that climbs my spine.The ground begins to crack and bulge, as something beneath the surface struggles to break free.The wolf snarls.The vampire tenses.

“Move!”Costin orders, grabbing my arm and pulling me back just as a bony hand erupts from the soil near where I was standing.

All around us, the earth pulses and heaves.Rotting hands claw their way up from disturbed graves.Corpses in various states of decay begin to emerge, their hollow eye sockets somehow fixing on us with hungry intent.

“Come on, seriously?More fucking zombies?This seems excessive,” I mutter, backing up until I’m standing between Costin and Anthony.I didn’t think the smell could get any worse, but I was wrong.Thankfully I don’t have to breathe.I can’t say the same for my brother.Anthony clears his throat and presses a hand to his face.

Dirt rains down from the reanimated bodies as the dead drag themselves free.They lock onto us with predatory need.

“Next time I get to pick the activity,” Anthony grumbles.“Beheading zombies is not my idea of a good time.”

The first zombie lurches toward us, its movements jerky but surprisingly agile.I don’t wait for it to reach us.I launch myself forward, my hybrid speed turning the world into a momentary blur.My claws extend and I tear through the corpse with a violent blow, separating its torso from its legs.The top half keeps coming, pulling itself forward with determined arms.

“Head!”Anthony shouts, sending a blast of magic that obliterates the zombie’s skull.The body finally collapses, lifeless.

More rise, forming a shambling wall between us and the church.I bare my fangs.The wolf and vampire are in perfect agreement for once.These walking stink bombs need to die… again.

Costin moves like air, flowing between the undead with deadly grace.He tears through rotting flesh and brittle bone with ease.He doesn’t waste energy or motion, each strike precise and fatal.

I find myself trying to follow his lead, but I lack his elegance.I move more like a beast trampling a field than air.I sense a zombie before I see it, and spin to remove its head.The hybrid strength flows through me.

Anthony provides support, his magic blasting paths through the thickest clusters of undead.But for every zombie we destroy, two more seem to rise from the earth.

“How many people could they possibly bury here?”Anthony yells.

As if answering him in the most horrific way possible, a large mound begins to rise under the angel.The stone creature tips over and crashes down as a mass grave is unearthed.A tangle of bodies fights to the surface, climbing over each other.Anthony tries to contain it with magic, but it doesn’t seem to have an effect.The sound of their fury is deafening.

“We need to get to the church,” I shout, ducking under a swinging arm and retaliating with an upward slash that splits a zombie from groin to crown.

“This way,” Costin calls, clearing a path toward a narrow gap in the growing horde.

We make a break for it, fighting our way through.The stench is overwhelming when I breathe out of old habit, but I push through, focusing on the church.Paul is in there.I have to reach him.

A skeletal hand catches my ankle, its bony fingers digging into my flesh hard enough to draw blood.I stumble, nearly going down amid the grasping dead.But before I fall, Costin is there, ripping the skeleton apart and hauling me back to my feet without breaking stride.

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