Blood Forever (21 page)

With vampire speed, Jareth reaches the door, attempting to slam it shut. Unfortunately, one of the zombies manages to wedge his arm in the doorway, seconds before he can lock it down. Jareth tries to bang the door against his arm, with great force, but no sense, no feeling, I guess, and the zombie keeps trying to claw his way through.

Jareth throws his full weight against the door, his face whitening with the effort it takes to keep the zombies at bay.

“I have a gun,” I tell him. “But it’s back in the main cabin.” I glance at the door, noticing a small crack slowly snaking its way down the center. How long will it hold against the force of a dozen zombies?

“Doesn’t matter,” Jareth says. “We can’t be using guns on an airplane anyway. If we were to shoot out a window, we’d lose cabin pressure. Then we’d all end up dead.”

“No offense, dude, but that’ll probably happen regardless,” I remind him as I search the cabin for some kind of alternative weapon. I can hear the wood splintering behind me. We’ve probably got ten seconds to come up with a decent plan before they’re able to bust it in.

“Um, do you guys mind if I come out now?” Spider calls from behind the door. In all the chaos, I’d totally forgotten she was in there. “I mean, I want you to have your privacy and all, but at the same time, my toes are falling asleep.” She pokes her head out from the bathroom, her eyes widening as her gaze falls on the zombie arm sticking out of the main cabin door. “Uh,” she says, “what did I miss?”

“Give us a hand over here,” I call out, trying to drag a heavy armchair against the door.

“Looks like you already have one to spare.”

“Har har. Now less banter, more battering!” I scold, pushing the chair into place. Not that it’s going to do much good.

“Okay, okay.” Spider reaches into her pocket and pulls out her fire stick.

“Wait!” I cry. “That’s not a good—”

But I’m too late. Spider aims and fires at the zombie’s arm. I squeeze my eyes shut, imaging the plane going up in a ball of flames. And us with it.

“Spider!” I cry, opening my eyes again. “Why did you…?” I trail off, staring at the zombie arm. It’s whitish blue and frozen in place. In fact, not just frozen in place, but literally frozen. “What the…?”

Spider looks at me. “What?” she says. “You thought I was going to use fire mode?” She snorts, as if that were the most ridiculous thing in the world. “Oh ye of little faith.”

“Oh
ye
of little track record.”

Jareth smashes the door on the frozen arm. It shatters into a million pieces and the door slams shut. All three of us breathe a sigh of relief.

“So that thing shoots ice as well as fire?” I ask, staring at the stick in my friend’s hands. It is so not fair that she scored such a powerful toy when becoming a slayer and all I got was a lousy chunk of unfinished wood. Not that I’m complaining. With her kick-ass weapon at our disposal, maybe we’ll actually have a chance.

Spider frowns at the stick, banging it against her thigh. “Crap,” she says. “I knew I should have charged it before we left…”

Or maybe not.

At that moment, three zombies crash through the door like an undead battering ram and burst into the room. There’s the dapper old gent who drooled on Spider, now looking red-eyed and rabid. There’s Charlie, who’s growling and baring his
rotten teeth in my direction. And then there’s Meredith, who, well, just walked into a wall. Poor thing—it’s tough to effectively maim and murder with only one eye.

I grab a bottle off the bar and slam it down on the granite countertop like I’ve seen people do in movies, to create a sharp weapon. It takes two tries, but I finally get it to break. Just in time for Charlie to lunge at me. I whirl around, thrusting the jagged glass at his throat. Bright green blood geysers from the wound and I leap back to avoid being sprayed. It looks pretty bad, but I guess for Charlie it’s only a flesh wound, because he keeps coming, seemingly unfazed by the fact that he’s hemorrhaging from his trachea.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see Spider kick her own zombie hard in the gut, grimacing at the gooshy sound her foot makes, caving into his rotting flesh. The zombie now has a combat boot–shaped hole in his abdomen, but just like Charlie, it’s not slowing him down in the slightest.

“It’s no use,” Jareth cries over the din as he takes on Meredith. “These are no ordinary zombies!”

“Um, there’s such a thing as ordinary zombies?” I ask, ducking to avoid Charlie’s attack. He slams into the bar instead, shrieking in anger as he’s thrown off balance.

“What I mean is these zombies aren’t created by a plague or nuclear waste or some other man-made disaster like you see in the movies,” Jareth explains, grabbing Meredith by the shoulders and pointing her in the direction of the bathroom. The senile old zombie stumbles inside and he closes the door behind her. Well, at least that’s one down. “They’ve been brought back
to life by Glenda—meaning she’s the only one who can put them back in the ground. That’s what made them so attractive to Lucifent in the first place,” he adds. “They literally can’t be killed.”

“Oh, that’s just wonderful,” I mutter as Charlie finally manages to right himself and starts following me around the cabin again. I flip over a table and yank off the leg. Then I whack him as hard as I can in the head, somehow managing to spin it about 360 degrees. He stumbles and falls again. “What a great plan you guys had getting these things in the first place. Real A-plus.” I suddenly notice Spider sprinting toward the main cabin door, where the rest of the undead are waiting.

“Where are you going?” I demand. “Are you crazy?”

“Are
you
a complete noob?” she asks. “I’m off to take out Glenda, of course.” She turns to Jareth. “Are you cool keeping these ones out of the action?”

He nods and I realize exactly what her plan must be. And yes, I do admittedly feel like kind of a noob not to have thought of it first. I mean, hello, video game 101. Take out the boss monster and all the little creatures under her control will die, too, unable to survive without her.

Charlie grabs at my ankle, desperate for a bite. I slam my foot down on his head, crushing his skull. That ought to give me a minute or two. I jump over his writhing frame and follow Spider out to the main cabin to assess the scene.

While several zombies do appear to be milling about, others are still sitting in their seats, evidently not quite with it enough
to figure out how to undo their seatbelts. Which is something, I suppose. But we’ve still got plenty to contend with.

Glenda stands at the far end of the plane, her face in her hands. Wait—is she crying? I feel an involuntary twinge of pity as I realize that though this woman did send an army of brain-eating zombies after me, I kind of started it by kissing her boyfriend. Or the man she thought was her boyfriend, but had been using her to gain access to her menagerie. I tried to imagine how I’d feel in the same situation. If I found Jareth kissing her and learned that he’d never loved me. I think if I had a gaggle of zombies at my disposal, I might unleash them on the guy as well.

But my feelings of pity are short-lived as a female zombie dressed in ragged Armani charges down the aisle at me. Thinking fast, I grab an overhead compartment and flip it open.

“Objects may have shifted during flight, bitch!” I cry as a heavy suitcase flies from the compartment and smacks her on the head. She falls into the row of seats to her left, colliding into another zombie. Two for one, baby. I’m on fire.

“Rayne, behind you!” Spider shouts. I whirl around to find the now one-armed door zombie stumbling down the aisle toward me, single arm outstretched and a pissed-off look on his face. I grab a seat cushion and use it as a shield as I charge in his direction, succeeding in knocking him backward into the galley kitchenette. A pot of hot coffee comes crashing down, scalding his remaining arm. He bellows in rage.

I kick him in the gut for good measure, then rejoin Spider,
who’s fighting her way to the front of the plane. I watch, admiringly, as she takes out zombie after zombie, knocking each back into their rows, with only a tray table. Maybe Slayer Inc. wasn’t wrong to choose her after all.

I try to follow, but it’s like a game of Whac-A-Mole. She knocks them down, they get up behind her. Realizing she’s now in the best position to reach the queen, I decide for the first time in my life to play sidekick instead of hero.

“Hey, uglies! Over here!” I cry, waving my arms. “Fresh brain. No waiting!”

The zombies turn in my direction and abandon Spider to start stumbling toward me instead. I back up slowly, keeping their attention. From the front of the plane I can see that Spider has reached Glenda.

“Call your creatures off,” she demands, sounding fiercer than I’ve ever heard her sound before. “Or I won’t be held responsible for what I’m about to do.”

To my surprise, Glenda bursts into a fresh set of tears. “Do your worst,” she sobs. “It doesn’t matter anymore. My Jareth has betrayed me. What else is there to live for?”

Even from back here, I can see my friend soften. She had a bad break up with her boyfriend after he cheated on her with some chick he met during a WoW raid and is extra sensitive to the notion of guys doing their women wrong.

But we don’t have time for female bonding now. The first zombie has reached me, pawing at me with filthy, clawlike hands. Behind me, One Arm has recovered and is also on the move. And I’m trapped between them. I wait for the last
second, and then, as they both lunge together, I dive sideways into an empty row, forcing them to bang into one another instead, knocking heads and falling down. I’m saved for the short term but also trapped as two more zombies approach.

“Guys can be total jerks,” I can hear Spider assuring our arch enemy over the din. “But you have so much going for you! I mean, you’re a zombie queen—how cool is that? That alone should be worth living for.”

My eyes fall upon the discarded brain on the seat in front of me. I realize, dimly, that I’m in my row. The one with my bag under the seat. I know Jareth said we shouldn’t be using firearms on the plane, but at this point I’m thinking we might want to risk it. I drop to my knees, shuffling under the seat in front of me for my gun. Above me, three zombies loom, ready to pounce.

“I know,” Glenda says mournfully. “It’s just that I’ve been so lonely…”

Got it! I rip the weapon from my bag and dive between one zombie’s legs, trying not to be grossed out by the slime. By the time he realizes where I’ve gone, I’m halfway down the aisle again.

“Spider!” I cry, waving the gun. “Stand back!” I stop in my tracks to aim. I can hear the zombies shuffling behind me. I don’t have much time to make this shot.

“Wait!” Spider cries. To my surprise she leaps in front of Glenda.

“What are you doing?” I scream.

My friend’s face takes on a determined look. One I’ve seen
way too many times before. When she’s on a rampage, fighting for some kind of cause. “She doesn’t deserve to die!” she tells me in a clear, strong voice. “The poor woman’s been played. Just like everyone else.”

A zombie grabs my ponytail, yanking me backward. I can feel its hot, stinky breath on my neck. Oh God.

“Spider!” I beg. The zombie opens his mouth, dragging me closer to get a good bite.

My friend turns to Glenda, giving her a beseeching look. The zombie queen sighs loudly.

“Fine, fine,” she says. “But for the record, this is for you, not her.” She raises her hands and claps twice, chanting something in a language I don’t recognize. The zombie freezes, midchomp, then falls lifelessly to my feet. All around him the other zombies do the same. As if they’ve been deflated. I let out a breath of relief and collapse myself, onto a nearby seat.

“That was way too close,” I mutter. I lean into the aisle to catch Glenda staring at Spider with a look of amazement on her (still tacky, I’m sorry!) face. “You saved my life,” she whispers. “No one has ever done that for me before.”

Spider puts an arm around the zombie queen and leads her to a nearby seat. “We girls got to stick together,” she assures her. “Not let the bastards get us down.”

Glenda smiles at her. “You are a good person,” she says. “I would love to repay you for your kindness.”

“Nah, you don’t have to,” Spider says modestly. “It’s, like, my destiny and stuff.”

“No. Your destiny would have had you kill me,” Glenda reminds
her. “But you showed compassion. That’s a rare thing.” She purses her lips. “And so I will grant you one wish. Whatever is in my power to give, you shall have it. No matter what it may be.”

Spider thinks for a moment, then glances back to me, her eyes full of mischief. I give her a bewildered shrug, having zero clue what she’s trying to convey. Knowing her, it could be anything. Spider grins, then turns back to the zombie queen.

“I’ve got the perfect thing,” she says. Leaning in close, she whispers something into Glenda’s ear. I strain to catch what she’s saying but can’t quite get it.

But Glenda does. And she bursts out laughing. She slaps Spider on the back and rises from her seat. “Absolutely,” she says, smiling at my friend. “That can absolutely be arranged.”

A
t first I think Pyrus is going to grab me and bite me—transform me into his blood mate right here, right now, no waiting. But it turns out, he’s a bit more bridezilla than that, preferring Will and Kate–size nuptials rather than a down-and-dirty Vegas elopement. And all the vampire masters in town for the symposium have been invited. After all, he’s got to milk this whole fairy-vampire alliance thing he’s out to create for all it’s worth.

Not that I should worry my pretty little head over any of it, he tells me. He’ll take care of the invitations and the location, and even find me a gorgeous dress.

But that doesn’t mean I get to hang out and play the slots while waiting for my big moment. After announcing his intentions, Pyrus dismisses me almost immediately, ordering his guards
to lock me in a palatial-looking prison of a penthouse right on the strip. All done up in honeymoon whites and pinks and silvers, it’s got a luxurious king-size canopy bed with five-hundred-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets and gauzy, sparkling curtains. There’s a pool table in one room and a massive Jacuzzi tub in another. And the full kitchen is stocked with every food I can possibly think of and some I’ve never even heard of. Which is nice, I suppose, seeing as after the ceremony I’ll be on a blood-only diet for eternity.