Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

Jane, Lisandro, Dev, and Nicky had pinned Seamus. Nicky’s face was bloody. Dev’s left arm hung useless, something very wrong at the shoulder. Jane and Lisandro seemed unharmed.

It took a long time for the flames to die, but when they did we decapitated the corpse and took out the heart, which was mostly blackened, fleshy charcoal. We put the main body in a body bag and separate bags for the head and heart. We’d turn them to ash and then dump them in three separate bodies of running water. Yeah, it was old-school, but we were destroying the last of a very old-school power. But first, there were zombies.

I dropped the circle of power so that I could feel all of them, and it wasn’t just my zombies now, it was his, they were all mine. They waited passively for me to put them back. I turned to Truth and Wicked.

‘I need fresh blood to put them back,’ I said.

Truth dropped to his knees, my hand still in his. ‘If it is my blood you need, my lady, it is yours.’

‘I was thinking my blood,’ I said.

He looked puzzled.

‘Are you inviting us to take blood from you?’ Wicked asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Come on, Truth, you take the right side, I’ll take the left,’ Wicked said.

‘It’s been a long time since we shared like that,’ Truth said.

‘Too long,’ his brother said.

‘Left and right of what?’ I asked.

‘Your lovely neck,’ Wicked said, caressing his fingers down the side closest to him.

The thought of them both feeding at the same time tightened things low in my body and made other things wet. I promised myself we’d try this again, with more privacy and more sex, but tonight I just needed blood and power.

Truth faced front, and Wicked faced back; they kissed and licked my neck gently, teasingly, until I said, ‘Do it, please.’

‘We would like to do this in private some night,’ Truth said.

‘I’d already thought of that, so yes, but tonight, zombies,’ I said.

They both nuzzled my neck and then wrapped their arms around me and each other. I felt them tense and fought not to tense myself, because that could make it hurt without more foreplay, or more sex. I let my breath out in a long shuddering sigh and they struck together as if they’d planned it. The pain was sharp and immediate, but the moment they started to suck, it switched over from pain to pleasure and my spine tried to bow, so that they had to hold me steady or I might have torn their fangs from my throat, spasming with small mini-orgasms. I thought about them doing this with sex added and my knees buckled. They held me in their arms and drank me down.

They had to hold me so I could stand while I whispered, ‘With word, will, and blood, I bind you to your graves. Go back and walk no more.’

The zombies hesitated, and I saw that something that lurks at the edges of things pass through their eyes, and then it was gone like a shadow over the moon, and the zombies walked back to their graves and lay down on them. The graves rose back over them, semiliquid and rolling again to swallow them back. When the earth became solid again, you’d have never known the grave had been disturbed.

When every zombie I could see was tucked back in its grave, I stopped trying to be brave and let my legs collapse. Wicked and Truth lowered me to the ground and cradled me between them. I wasn’t sure if it was the blood loss or that I’d finally found out the limits of my necromancy, but I was suddenly exhausted.

Sergeant Badger came and said, ‘All the zombies have vanished, they’re back in their graves. Good job, Blake.’

I nodded and managed to say, ‘Thanks.’

Edward knelt by us, pulling the silver hood off the fire suit. He grinned at me. ‘Whose the biggest, baddest motherfucking necromancer?’

I smiled at him, and said, ‘This girl.’

‘Damn straight,’ he said.

Micah’s dad’s infection stopped trying to spread as soon as the Lover of Death died. The doctors couldn’t explain it, but it was as if the body and the antibiotics could fight back now. His left arm may never be the same, but they think with surgery and intensive physical therapy he should be okay. There was a minor scandal about his happy threesome lifestyle coming to light, but the actual problem is that he doesn’t live in his own township. They’ll be working that out for a while, but watching Bea, Ty, and all the kids clustering around the bed crying happy tears, I knew they’d be all right. There are other jobs.

Nicky and Dev healed perfectly, which is one of the serious benefits to being a shapeshifter. Seamus seemed to have suffered no ill effects from being possessed, and he and Jane seem to be back to normal, but I remembered what she said about being diminished. Just as everyone close to us has gained power as Jean-Claude and I have gained power, so did the Harlequin from the Mother of All Darkness, so they’re right, they have lost power. It explains why though they are amazingly good, they aren’t the nearly indestructible super-ninja warriors that their reputation promised. It’s like they lost their power source. Jean-Claude and I are the power source now, and the Harlequin just aren’t as hooked up to us as they were to her.

We also discovered that a good portion of the Harlequin vampires are abusing their animals to call. We found a therapist who specializes in couples with abuse issues; she’s one of the few willing to deal with preternatural clients, so we’ve started the Harlequin pairs in therapy. I’m not sure they all really understand the issues, or how hard real therapy is, but they’re going and they’re sitting through sessions. I’m taking that as a win.

Asher came into town the next night. He left his new werehyena lover, Kane, in their hotel room, so he could meet with all of us first. I’d honestly expected him to rub our faces in the fact that he’d found someone who wanted just him, so the fact that he didn’t throw the man up in our faces means both that he thought about it ahead of time and that the man is important to him. He wants us to like Kane and him to like us. That gives us a bargaining position, so Asher has agreed to therapy, too. We told him that he’d been a month away from coming home when he did his best to nearly get himself killed by Dulcia and her werehyenas. We probably owe her a visit, or at least flowers and a bottle of some really good liquor. Jean-Claude suggested jewelry might be appropriate. Apparently, Asher had been a very bad boy in the last few days of his stay in her territory. Jewelry works for me, as a thank-you for not killing our stupid boy.

Micah’s dad told Van Cleef and his people that my panwere powers weren’t duplicable without my vampire marks and maybe my necromancy. I asked Edward for more info on Van Cleef, but he said no, unless he contacts me. I let it go, because no one keeps secrets like Edward. If he said no, he meant it.

Edward and Donna are trying to find a date that works for their wedding; as the best man I’m supposed to talk to their son, Peter, about the bachelor party. Peter is an eighteen-year-old boy; I think his ideas for the party and mine may not be the same, but if it’s what Edward wants, I’m in. It looks like Nathaniel is going to be standing on Donna’s side of the aisle, which still confuses me since she’d never met him before, but something about having one of my guys in the wedding seems to comfort her, so again, who am I to bitch? Besides, Nathaniel is excited about helping her plan the wedding. He’s so much at better at this kind of thing than I am, though he’d probably be better at organizing the bachelor party, too.

We’re still negotiating who is involved in our commitment ceremony. It seemed so simple and so right to say yes to Jean-Claude and yes to Micah and Nathaniel, but beyond that, who gets to put on a ring and say I do ? Asher was totally crushed, and I think the only reason it didn’t turn into one of his spectacular fights was that he’d missed us and knew that his homecoming was too fragile for him to throw fits. Micah and I are adamant that we are not committing to Asher. Nathaniel would, depending on how Asher does in therapy with his jealousy issues. Asher’s new boyfriend, Kane, is totally against any kind of ceremony that ties Asher to us and not him. Dev surprised us all by proposing to Asher. He went down on his knees, took Asher’s hand. It was sweet, and very Dev, and made Asher very happy, but … you knew there was a but somewhere in there, right? New boyfriend Kane was understandably upset that he’d just moved to a new city, given up his old animal group, and his job, and now his lover that he’d done all that for was going to marry someone else? I couldn’t even blame him for it.