"How's that vacation, Hart?" His eyes raked over my body and I knew he was assessing me as a guy. Could he take me? Were all the rumors true? Would the dead come and kick his ass for me, or was I tough enough to do it without them?

I was sure willing to give it the old college try. My anger simmered underneath the surface like one of my mom's pots coming to a boil.

Frazier blew it when he touched Jade's arm, wrapping his big hand around it entirely, jerking her backward, he hissed, "You're not going with him, he's a menace, not allowed on school property either." He winked at me and Jade's green eyes got big as she stumbled backward, completely unprepared for his advance. There was something on her face as she saw me come for him.

Then Brett was there. He yelled, "Hart!"

I turned and Howie belted me with a cheap shot and Jade screamed. He caught me just right on the edge of my chin. I spun backward as Brett grabbed Jade.

Every guy's jaw is made of glass if you hit him right.

Mine felt shattered.

I don't know what hurt worse, seeing Jade in Brett's arms or the sucker punch I'd just taken.

Howie tried to land on me to start the whaling he had planned but I fell backward and let my hands bite the ground as I simultaneously jabbed out with my foot, catching him in the middle of his bread basket. My head spun and I felt puke rising but now was not the time to get squeamish 'cuz I took a hit. And there was a new and exciting development:

I felt him before I saw him.

Clyde was there before I'd thought of anything.

Damn, the manure was rolling downhill to collect at my feet.

The fear crawled into my belly and Howie smiled. He'd planned it.

The fucker was trying to get me locked up.

He knew when Jade would leave, he knew when my probation was up.

And most importantly, he had some kind of bead on me and my boy Clyde.

Brett took Jade behind him and launched himself at Howie. It was bizarre, one minute Jade had been glued to him (hated it), the next he was landing on an unprepared but smug Howie.

They rolled around on the weedy grass of his family's outlawed lawn and Clyde hauled me up by my arm.

I swayed.

He stared at me.

"Go," I said roughly and he ignored me, looking at the teens that were almost men beating the tar out of each other not two meters away from where we stood.

"Caleb..." Clyde started, his thick dark blond hair lifting in the morning breeze that'd come up.

I shook my head, hoping for clarity and getting nothing but bile for my trouble, it rose unbidden in my throat and I planted my hands on my knees, stabilizing myself. I was trying to ride out getting my bell rung.

I could hear the sirens in the distance.

I craned my head to the side and looked up at Clyde's face, his suit that he always wore mended to perfection, always clean, always perfect. "They're coming, ya gotta go!"

Clyde curled his mighty hands into fists and strode to the dueling teens. He tore Brett off of Howie and knelt beside Howie.

Howie, every bit of six foot of solid muscle cringed from the nearness of my zombie. And man, did he not look dead. But that didn't matter, he was. Howie knew it. Somewhere deep inside, his humanity had been shaken by something so unnatural, so foreign in its essence, his very being withdrew from it.

Like now.

"Get back, fucker!" Howie screamed, trying to scuttle backwards out of range.

Not happening.

Clyde wasn't a fan of foul language. He grabbed him by the lapel of his shirt and dragged him close to his face. He ran a strong tapered finger down his jaw and I watched Howie shiver at his touch.

With flagrant revulsion.

Clyde shook Howie casually in his unbreakable hold and I heard his teeth rattle. "I am well-versed in human anatomy, varmint. I can make much look accidental. I have been told that my DNA," it was comical, Clyde looked at me for confirmation and I nodded dully, "and fingerprints will not be identified. I am far too old for the technology of this era to apply to my deeds. Nefarious or otherwise."

Howie looked at him with a stunned expression.

"Clyde go!" I yelled, knowing what would happen if they found him here with me. They wouldn't need an excuse to kill him, incarcerate me. It'd be over. And Howie would have won. And every other person that didn't like the cauldron of the dead I'd stirred up.

"Is he daft?" Clyde asked no one in particular as the siren wail came nearer.

Definitely.

He bore down on Howie. "Let me speak plainly then. Know this: I will kill you. Stop your efforts now, or suffer the consequences."

"Clyde," Jade said softly and he dropped Howie in a heap on the grass where he cracked his head on the sidewalk and made a girl-like yelp.

Lovin' that.

Clyde came to Jade and he collected her tiny hands in his large ones. Farmer's hands, he'd told me once.

And fighting hands.

She searched his eyes, his dead flesh encapsulating her living. "You have to go, they'll burn you... and take... Caleb." She flicked her eyes to mine and I gave a terse nod, walking over to where they stood. He nodded once and turned on Brett.

Clyde stared at him thoughtfully then hissed.

I breathed easier when his mouth looked normal.

Brett stood his ground, his eyes very wide.

Couldn't say I blamed him.

"It's okay, Clyde. He gets a free pass, he beat the crap out of Howie."

Clyde frowned and cocked his head. "They come." He turned and sprinted for the fence which separated one dismal yard from another. It was like watching a champion hurdler.

He swiveled his head to look at me just as he cleared the top of the fence and his glittering gaze held mine for a second then he was gone.

It wasn't until that night that I realized Gale hadn't been with him.

CHAPTER 14

Garcia had his nightstick jammed up underneath my chin before I could even say hello.

Not that he would've allowed that, no way, not now. We were way beyond exchanging small change pleasantries.

He blamed me for Gale. For everything. Little lines that hadn't been there a year ago framed his dark eyes, his jaw was harder, his body, leaner.

His face right now was hella pissed off.

At me.

Jade screamed when he propped my wounded chin on the tip of the blunt instrument of beatings and she ran for us. Brett jerked her back against him and spoke quietly to her.

"No!" she sobbed as his dark eyes met mine, I nodded at him, happy he hadn't let her get closer. "Don't you hurt him, Garcia!"

His eyes sought hers and his expression hardened. "I'm doing my job here, Jade. You'd do well to remember that."

Howie walked over to where we stood, our eyes locked.

"Hart had his pet zombie here, all droolin' and threatening me, right here," Howie, the braniac, pointed to where we stood and expounded on his supreme intelligence, "He threatened me. Can you believe this shit? He threatened me with death!" he snorted. Howie thought he was so funny, what with his supposed pun and all?

No.

But Garcia wasn't caring about the intellectual quotient that was Howie, that accusing stare landed on me like a ton of bricks.

He pressed the tip of the police-grade baton into the tender spot in my throat.

"Nah, Garcia. Do ya see any dead people?" I said out of my half-closed mouth.

Garcia gave a tight smile. "Why would this guy lie?" he asked, jerking his chin in Howie's direction.

Seriously? Damn... why wouldn't he? Had Garcia taken a look around the digs here? Hell, it was Planet Dysfunction.

"He was here! I swear!" Howie said, throwing out his hands, trying his best to look sincere.

He wasn't doing half-bad considering he was telling the truth. I'm sure it wasn't normal for him but whatever.

Garcia straightened, removing the hardness of the piece from under my chin. I fought not to rub it. His stare turned to Brett and Jade. "I'm going to ask this question once: was Clyde the zombie here today, threatening the victim?"

"Who Howie?" Brett asked with surprise. "He's the victim?"

Garcia nodded slowly. "He looks like the victim," his gaze took in Jade. "Did you see the zombie?"

Jade gulped when he pointed the nightstick at her.

I didn't like that one little bit.

She shook her head.

Garcia stepped toward her and I did the dumbass again and grabbed his forearm. He whipped that stick around and caught me under my knee.

"Damn man!" Brett yelled. "You're a cop! You can't whale on him like that!"

I folded where I stood. I hadn't liked him going toward my girl like he meant harm.

I noticed he wasn't responding to things neutrally anymore, the back of my leg was one big throbbing inferno of pain.

"Raul!"

I knew that voice. I went ahead and puked on the overgrown and weedy Frazier lawn. I guess the hit to my jaw along with the bludgeon to the back of the knee had done me in.

A concussion was looking probable about now.

Gale ran to me, jerking me up to my feet. I turned away from her, puking some more. With any luck I'd get some on that tard, Howie.

I swayed and she said quietly, "Clyde sent me."

Well damn, that was fast.

Garcia pivoted in his shiny cop shoes and strode to her. It cleared my head immediately.

Nothing like a Chick In Danger to set a dude on point. Even a chick that was a cop.

Former cop.

Jade came jogging after him with Brett on her heels.

He moved to stab a finger in Gale's chest and I swung her behind me, my leg screaming in protest at the pivot.

"Hey Caleb!" she said loudly, "I've got this!"

His manic gaze swung to mine and he said quietly, "Get out of my way. As it is, you're in a boatload of trouble young man."

"You deck your former partner in front of four witnesses and you'll be on the same boat." I looked over at Howie who scowled at me. "Three witnesses," I corrected.

That clown couldn't tell something straight if he had a gun barrel pressed to his forehead.

His expression darkened and he opened his mouth to say something.

"Shut up, Frazier," I said preemptively.

Gale had weaseled her way around me and stood shouting at Garcia. Jade and Brett slid to a stop at the edge of the ragged brown grass. I couldn't believe the entire neighborhood hadn't gotten out of their houses to see what the noise was about.

Guess it was pretty typical.

I spit a mess of puke and spittle out on the grass where no one stood and met Garcia's eyes.

He moved to go around Gale to get to me and she grabbed his forearm to restrain him and he swung the nightstick around, lifting the club above his head, I had a second to react and it wasn't enough.

Gale was trained in hand to hand but not hand to baton. She lifted her forearm to defend her face when the wrist that held it was clamped like a vise.

Clyde was back and things went from bad to worse in a hurry, landslide style.

*

Garcia, who had lost all sense of justice, his badge winking in the early morning light swept his free arm into Clyde's temple. The knuckles of his index and middle fingers jabbing the tender side of Clyde's head. Clyde stumbled and loosened his hold suddenly.

Garcia tightened his grip on the baton, turning on Gale again in a rage. The face that I'd known before, changed irretrievably into a mask of hate.

Clyde shook his head and charged Garcia. He took him in the gut and they flew, landing onto the patch of grass that was alarmingly close to my puke.

Jade ran to me and buried her face against my chest. Brett followed her and I left her with him and ran to Garcia and Clyde.

Clyde had started the head banging.

"You will not touch my intended!" Bang, thwack, bang.

"Clyde," I bellowed.

He paused in his assault, gazed at Gale and began again.

Garcia began choking from the hold on his throat by Clyde. I roared over there, sliding in like it was home base and screamed at Clyde, "Release him!" I gave the command everything I had, something like tectonic plates slipping inside my brain, the strength of my command making me ill.

I though I was gonna toss my cookies again.

Clyde let go instantly, staggering to his feet. He backed up, clutching his head with both hands.

Garcia held his throat, gasping and choking.

Gale held up her pulse like a bright red talisman.

She'd pulsed for back up. We all stared at Garcia on the grass, coughing up a lung, glaring at us. Even Howie gazed at him.

He'd well and truly lost it.

Two cop cars showed up and four patrolman poured out, weapons naked in their heads.

Ready.

They pointed the guns at Clyde.

I moved in to protect my zombie.

I never noticed Brett take Jade in his arms and her shoulders slump in relief.