Chapter 12

MY ZOMBIE ATE YOUR

HONOR STUDENT

The sea of people parted again, revealing a round chain-link fence with a dome overtop. Curiosity and dread competed for dominance as I trudged forward, Cole at my side. We stopped at the edge of the circle, looking down...down...into a pit.

There was no one inside it. But there was blood on the walls.

I frowned. “Do you make your crew members fight each other?”

River claimed the spot at my other side. “Every so often. For punishment. Mostly, though, slayers fight zombies.”

Then some of those slayer-versus-zombie battles were physical rather than spiritual. Which was totally possible. For Anima.

“You’re working with the enemy.” They were the only ones who’d found a way to make the zombies solid to flesh, using collars that emitted those electrical pulses.

Hisses all around me.

“No,” River said, and for the first time there was a dangerous bite to his tone. “We’d like to burn the company and all of its employees to the ground. So work with them? I’d rather let crows eat my internal organs.”

Nice. “You hate Anima that fiercely, but you don’t mind using their technology?”

He patted me on the head. “Using their technology is smart, angel cakes. It helps us understand what they’re doing and how we can better defeat them.”

Okay. That, I understood.

“She isn’t your angel cake, or your Pop-Tart,” Cole snapped. “She’s mine.”

Don’t laugh. Or snicker.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m his.” And okay, I snickered. But only a little!

Cole flicked me an irritated glance. I batted my lashes at him, all what did I do now?

“I could have her if I wanted her,” River said, his ego bared for everyone to see, “but I don’t, so this argument is pointless.”

Could he, perhaps, be related to Gavin?

And, seriously. He could suck it.

“Only an idiot wouldn’t want her.” Uh-oh. Cole was getting worked into another rage. “Are you saying you’re an idiot?”

River’s brow wrinkled. “Now you’re trying to talk me into making a move?”

Boys!

I clapped my hands to gain their attention. “All right, everyone. Get-to-know-you time is over. What’s next?”

River put two fingers in his mouth and whistled; in the pit, doorways I hadn’t noticed opened up. Ten collared zombies spilled into the center, the crowd sneering and catcalling.

“Hey, baby. You wanna have me for dinner?”

“You’re a cute little maggot bag. Yes, you are. Oh, yes, you are.”

“You need a hand? Huh? Huh? How about I give you a finger?”

Noticing the humans above them, the zombies reached up. Black stained lips pulled back from even blacker teeth, saliva dripping down dislocated jaws.

Fighting this many zombies for the entertainment of others wouldn’t be the most awful thing in the world. I genuinely enjoyed making a Z-kill. But I wasn’t at my best right now. Since I’d realized we were safe, my strength had crashed and burned, taking the rest of my anticipation with it. All I had left was dread and fatigue.

Made sense. I’d been on the go for forty-eight hours plus. My only sleep had come courtesy of drugs. My last meal had been the pastry I’d freelance-valeted. I’d lost four friends, used enough adrenaline to kill a rhino (probably) and had just been chased through the streets.

Even still, I said, “I’ll do it. I’ll fight.” I didn’t see any way around it. Cole and I could battle our way through the slayers instead and leave, but we wouldn’t get the answers we wanted.

“Aw, how sweet.” Everything about River mocked me. “Thing is, sweetness, I don’t remember asking. You’re going in that cage whether you want to or not.”

Anger stiffened my spine. Oh, no, he didn’t.

“You’re right,” Cole said, the ease of his acceptance astonishing me. “But we’re not doing it because you ordered it. We’re doing it because I want you to watch and know the beast you’re provoking.”

Voices rose. Bets were placed.

River’s smile was slow and cool. “I like you more with every second that passes, Holland, I really do.” He nodded at two of his crew members, and the boys opened a section of the dome.

Pep-Talk Ali raced in with a vengeance. Buck up, girl. This one’s in the bag.

An-n-nd... Downer Ali arrived with a rebuttal. There’s so much at stake. You could ruin everything.

One day I was going to find a way to strangle Downer Ali with my bare hands.

I squared my shoulders and met Cole’s anticipatory gaze. Anticipatory. Good. He hadn’t lost his desire to fight. He could take care of this even if he had both hands tied behind his back. I could observe.

“Remember reason number seven?” he asked.

Good glory. Not reason seven! Not now. “Yes,” I said and tried not to whimper.

“That,” he said.

No way. Just no way he was going to stand back and let me do all the work—please!

He wound a lock of my hair around his finger. “This is going to be fun.”

Oh, crap. He was, wasn’t he? But...but...why? I knew it wasn’t because of his injury. As he’d proved, he could be dying and still want to act as my shield. So, that had to mean...what? That he didn’t want River to know what he was capable of, allowing him to launch a surprise attack later? Perhaps. Or maybe he was tired of the snide remarks directed my way and wanted me to show these people I was a force to be reckoned with.