Page 56 of Siren in Love
Mike pushed the door to the stairs open, and after checking that there was no one there, he started down, Corvin’s hand still in his.
The stairwell was a contrast to the hotel and its sandy white and gold decor.The concrete stairs stood out in sharp, serrated edges, and the echoes of their footfalls as they ran rang like a ship’s bell rung to warn of an approaching storm.
“Those were real fucking zombies, and Peter the Terrible cut off the gardener’s head,” Corvin said.
“I know, honey.Keep running.Focus on the stairs, not the decapitation.”
“Right.Running.Fuck.Can’t you, I don’t know, sing them to sleep?”
They were down the first flight.“No.They’re dead.The nervous system is kept running by magic, and siren song only works on living things.”
“Siren song?That’s what you call it?”Corvin said.His hand squeezed Mike’s.
“Yes.”
Above them, the door to the stairs opened, and a heartbeat later, Peter joined them, gory shears in hand.“I took down three.The remaining two are following.Bless a zombie’s tenacity.”He overtook them.“They were trying to bite me.I loathe zombie bites.They fester.”
“Ugh,” Corvin said as Peter settled in to take the lead.
“Oh, and can I just say that I congratulate you two on working things out?See, Michael, I told you, you should have told Corvin sooner.”With the shears in his right hand, the words sounded like a mild threat, but then a lot of the things Peter said did.
“You move so fast.Fuck, you really are a vampire.Those really were zombies.Okay.This is okay.”Corvin’s voice trembled.“This is fine.But those shears really aren’t.”
“Honey?”Mike looked over his shoulder as they got to the first floor.
“I’m good.Really.It’s just…cognitive readjustment.I’m dealing.”
Corvin looked pale, but that could have been from being woken in the middle of the night.Mike had little time to worry, because Peter pulled open the door to the lobby a crack.
“I think I can hear the night receptionist praying for his bladder control beneath the desk.Two zombies, facing the elevators and dropping worms.Michael, it would appear your necromancer ex raided the local cemetery.”The vampire looked over his shoulder, straight at Corvin.“Now, sweet, dictionary-wielding Corvin, watch as I handle these shears before you judge how okay it is for me to have them.”
Peter pulled the door open a little farther and sped out into the lobby.He caught the waiting corpses from behind, and with a sharp clip, he decapitated one.
The head landed on a small round table, right next to a vase full of tulips.A worm wiggled from the mouth, and Mike made a mental note to leave a generous tip for the cleaning crew.
The other zombie got the shears in the neck as well, but either he had tougher bones or was simply more obstinate.Peter didn’t manage to fully decapitate him, the shears sticking in the zombie’s neck as it turned, grayish fingers grasping like claws.
“Curse all hells and half the heavens!”Peter stepped away from the zombie, evading it.“I was trying to make a point.”
From above them, Mike heard shambling corpses following them down the stairs.
“Come on,” he said, and ran toward the exit with Corvin in tow.
Peter joined them, and they dashed outside.The moon was full and the air smelled of salt and ocean.The sounds of the breeze, of waves rolling in, faded to quaint background music at odds with being hunted by zombies.
Peter looked at Mike.“You said you saw your necromancer here?On the premises?”
“Ex necromancer, but yes.Why?”
“He raised the undead to hunt you and Corvin and to replenish their numbers if someone gets in their way.They’re not looking to eat other humans as far as I can tell.I assume he wanted to watch while the zombies ate your Corvin.”
“I thought it was bad enough when he watched me get dressed through the kitchen window,” Corvin mumbled as they rounded the pool bar.It was boarded up and looked oddly sad without any cheery umbrella cocktails or lights or people.Behind them, undead moans followed.
Peter tsked.“Necromancers.I had one as a client once.Difficult people all around.But as I was saying, he will have wanted a front-row seat to his creations tearing into you and ripping the flesh off your bones before feasting on your—”
“We can all imagine it, Peter, thank you,” Mike said, then stopped dead in his tracks.
There were two more zombies waiting in the shadows that led to the parking lot.One groaned, and then they both shuffled forward.They wore old-timey funeral garb and looked well on their way to total decomposition.Mike was glad they were upwind.
