The Alchemist's Flame (11 page)

Chapter
11

I
gripped Livie’s arm and pulled her down the hall, away from the zombies. “Is there an exit?”

“Into the house? It’s at the end of the hall.”

We backed in that direction and the three zombies followed. Body Bag was now a mindless husk, but Hospital Gown moved along with more coordination that the other two, his amused gaze focused on us. I was going to have nightmares after this.

Doors no longer lined the hall in this section, and I realized the corridor served as a connector between the house and the business. The zombies continued their slow stalk, their focus riveted on us, yet they made no move to overtake us. Definitely not normal zombie behavior—at least, in my limited experience it wasn’t.

We reached the door at the end, and I gripped the knob. I didn’t stop to wonder why it was warm before I pushed the door open. Smoke rolled in from the other side, and flames crackled along what was left of the wall to our right, and the ceiling.

“Oh no,” Livie whispered. I suspected her alarm was for the realization that her home was burning rather than the fact that the zombies had herded us to this point. They were shuffling faster now, moving closer.

“Livie, the zombies. Is there anything you can do?”

She gasped when she turned to face them, then coughed on the smoke-scented air.

I had nothing. The only potions on my person were a vial of Rowan’s remedy in my bra and a straw of Knockout Powder in my sock. Neither would do anything against the dead. I had once commanded a single corpse via a potion, but I had applied it before the corpse was animated. No way something like that would work here.

With a crash, something fell in the flames behind us. I jumped, looking back as a large beam landed mere feet from where we stood. A shower of sparks followed by a plume of smoke billowed in our direction. I gripped the warm knob and pulled it closed once more. The house was not an escape option.

“The zombies?” I repeated.

“I keep trying. Mrs. Holsinger isn’t as resistive.”

The female zombie had stopped moving toward us. I hoped that meant the animation was wearing off. “Can you sic her on the others?” I whispered. Then maybe we could slip past them and back down the hall to the garage. And where was James? Shouldn’t he be back by now?

Livie pressed her palms to her temples. “Al…most.”

Abruptly, the female zombie grabbed Body Bag and shoved him against the wall with enough force to dent the plasterboard.

“Go!” I shouted.

We ran past the pair, Livie leaping forward just as the female zombie dropped to the floor. Unable to avoid her, I tripped over her leg and rammed my shoulder into the wall. The misstep cost me. Hospital Gown caught my upper arm in his crushing grip and slung me into the wall. My head hit first and in the next moment, I found myself staring at the baseboard. It was moving, sliding past me from left to right.

No, wait. I was moving. My right leg was up off the ground, held in an unbreakable grip, as I was dragged down the hall—toward the door to the house… and the fire. Whoever controlled the zombies didn’t want to leave any evidence as to what really happened here. With regular zombies, I would have been bitten many times over by now.

I reached out, trying to grab something—anything to stop our progress, but there was only wall, baseboard, and cement floor. Hospital Gown stopped, and I heard the rattle of the doorknob. A wash of heat rushed back into the hall as he pushed the door open.

“Get him!” Livie shouted.

I lifted my head and blinked, trying to focus on the two women in dark blue slacks charging toward us. I blinked again and the women coalesced into one. Great. I was seeing double.

My leg was released and fell to the floor before I could react.

Mrs. Holsinger tackled Hospital Gown, knocking him to the ground. But he was up in an instant. He grabbed her by the throat and, lifting her bodily, slammed her through the wall.

I pushed myself to my feet, but almost didn’t make it. A hand gripped my biceps. I tried to jerk away.

“Easy. It’s me.” Livie pulled me closer. “Help me. I can’t control her and lift you. If—” A hand settled on Livie’s shoulder and she screamed. Body Bag had caught her. With no apparent effort, he slung her aside and she tumbled down the hallway. I didn’t see where she landed; I was left staring into Body Bag’s blue eyes.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

He gave me a demented grin, then grabbed me. The world swung around me, and I realized that he had thrown me over his shoulder. The body bag material crackled between us, and he headed toward the open door and the fire beyond.

“Be gone,” a male voice demanded. The faint accent in those two words was familiar, but I didn’t get to sort it out as I smacked the floor again. Body Bag had collapsed. Had the animation worn off or—

A familiar face swam into view, the golden hair catching the light of the flickering flames beyond the open door.

“How do you repeatedly get yourself into these situations?” Ian asked me.

“You sound like Rowan,” I muttered.

“I begin to see why the man is so short-tempered.” He helped me to sit up.

“I feel nauseated. I think I have another concussion.”

“No doubt.”

He slipped his arms beneath me and lifted me from the floor.

“Where’s Livie?”

“Livie?”

“The girl, Elysia’s cousin.”

“I’ve got her,” James’s voice echoed in the hall.

I slumped against Ian’s shoulder. Everyone was accounted for. Good. I was too dizzy to focus on the world around me, so I let my eyes slide closed.

The sounds around us echoed less and cool air brushed my face. We were outside. A beeping sound intruded. The sound of a large vehicle backing up? The fire department? Ian set me on a soft surface. A stretcher. Great, the backing vehicle had been an ambulance.

“Yes, I’ll ride along,” Ian said.

There was something I needed to tell him, but I couldn’t remember what. Oh well, it would come to me.

“Ian!” I sat up, then dropped my head to my hands with a groan.

The bed creaked as someone sat down beside me, warm hands overlaid my own. “Addie?” Rowan sounded worried.

“Give me a minute to figure out which way is up.”

“Did you need something?” Ian asked from close by.

“Lie down.” Rowan’s hands moved to my shoulders, encouraging me to return my head to the pillow.

I didn’t resist, taking in my surroundings as I slumped against the elevated head of my bed. It was a hospital, but I still wore my own clothes and my bed was within a curtained off partition. “Emergency room?” I asked.

“Yes,” Rowan said.

“Awesome. I’m getting better at this. I woke up
before
I ended up in a private room.”

“You didn’t sustain a cranial fracture this time.” Ian stepped into my line of sight. Oddly, he looked angrier than Rowan did.

“How are Elysia’s grandmother and cousin?”

“They admitted the grandmother,” Rowan said. “Smoke inhalation, mainly. Your salve cured her burns. The cousin is fine. Just banged up, like you.”

“What were those things?” I asked Ian.

“Just the dead, animated by blood.”

“No, there was something more. Some…one was controlling them, jumping from body to body. Livie thought it might be a ghoul master.”

Ian scowled. “She’s a child, barely aware of her power. I’m sure she is mistaken.” He turned away.

I wanted to demand he tell me more, but the curtain rattled open. A man in a white lab coat stopped in the opening, speaking to someone beyond the curtain.

“I’ll return to the lab.” Ian left the curtained enclosure as the man walked in.

“Ms. Daulton. Good, you’re awake.” He gave me a smile. “Your friends said you wouldn’t be out long.”

“Doctor.” Rowan said in greeting and rose to his feet. “The wound has sealed.”

Wound?

“Seriously?” the doctor asked before I could voice my question. He moved to my bedside and began to pull on a pair of gloves. A moment later, he asked me to sit up, then began to poke and prod my pounding head. He pulled my hair away from the tender spot and leaned in for a closer look.

“Amazing,” he whispered.

I gritted my teeth and tried not to reveal how it hurt. I didn’t want to spend the night in the hospital.

The doctor straightened and gave me a smile. “Magical healing. That’s some ability.”

“It is magical, but it’s not an ability. It just happens.”

He tipped his head to the side, considering. “Even so, it would be handy.”

“Yes, and make your job obsolete.” I smiled.

He chuckled. “I’m sure I could find something else to do.”

“But not yet. First you need to sign my release forms.”

“I’m releasing you?”

“No need to keep me for observation. Anything observable will be gone in a few hours.”

“Hmm.” He rubbed his chin, seeming to consider this.

I glanced at Rowan and his eyes met mine. A faint smile curled his lips. Good, maybe he wasn’t mad that I had ended up in the hospital. Again.

“All right,” the doctor said. He turned to include Rowan. “Make sure she stays quiet for the next…twenty-four hours.” The end of his statement sounded more like a question than a command.

“Of course.” Rowan offered the doctor his hand. “Thanks for your help.”

The doctor shook his hand, then gave me a nod. “Take care, Ms. Daulton.”

“I’ll drive you home,” Rowan said to me. “Unlike the doctor, I know the toll the healing takes. You need to rest. I expect you to take the doctor’s advice.”

“But twenty-four hours? How about four?”

Rowan shook his head.

It was after midnight when we made it back to my apartment. I had dozed off in the car, but woke up enough to take a quick shower and wash the blood out of my hair. I pulled on my warm flannel pajamas and collapsed in my bed.

A light knock on my open door and Rowan walked in, carrying a glass of water and a small white pill bottle. “How about a couple of Ibuprofen tablets?”

“That’ll have to do,” I mumbled, pushing myself into a seated position. “I’ll brew something tomorrow.”

He sat down on the side of my bed and shook out a couple of tablets. I took them, then slumped against the pillow. “Thanks.”

“You’ve helped me through a few headaches.” He brushed the hair back from my face. “Honestly, how you manage to hurt yourself so frequently is beyond me.”

“I figured you’d be mad.” I studied his face. He didn’t look angry.

He sighed. “You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Will there be an investigation into what caused the fire?”

“Insurance companies usually demand it.”

“Elysia thinks Xander did it, in retaliation for confronting him.”

“I don’t see him going to those lengths over that.”

“Will you help me find out?”

“I prefer to stay out of Old Magic squabbles.”

“Squabbles?” I frowned up at him. “Elysia’s grandmother nearly burned to death, and her cousin was attacked by zombies. Zombies animated with necro blood. Necromancers give the term
blood feud
a whole new meaning.”

“I’m not as well-versed in the nuances of Old Magic as I would like to be.”

“Ian is handy for that, though his opinions are 200 years out of date. Still, he adapts quickly.”

“His fashion sense hasn’t.”

I smiled. “True. He also got on James about the impropriety of visiting while wearing just an afghan.”

“In my experience, that’s an improvement. I see way too much of that boy.”

I snorted and quit fighting my heavy eyelids.

“In answer to your earlier question, I’m not angry, but I am disappointed that I didn’t get to spend the evening with you.”

“You’re with me now.”

“And you’re just this side of unconscious.”

I summoned the last of my energy and scooted over. “I’ll share my pillow.”

He said nothing, and I considered opening my eyes to check his expression. Then the bed creaked, and a soft thump against the floor indicated the removal of his shoes. A pause, and he stretched out beside me.

I rolled toward him and rested my head on his shoulder. “Is this more like what you had in mind?”

“It’s closer, but we’re both sadly overdressed.”

My cheeks warmed. “I should probably be offended that you thought me so easy.”

“Perhaps it was simply my confidence in my ability to seduce you.”

“Not sure that’s any better,” I mumbled.

“Maybe not.” His warm lips brushed my forehead. “Sleep, Addie.”

“Don’t give me commands, Your Grace.”

The sound of his chuckle followed me into my dreams.

I was awake. Wide awake, though I knew without looking at the clock that it was too early to get up. My heart beat a little faster than it should, though I wasn’t certain why. Was it the remnant of a bad dream or had something awakened me?

Movement against my back reminded me that I wasn’t alone. Rowan’s arm tightened around my waist and his warm breath brushed my temple.

“Are you awake?” he whispered.

“Yes.”

“Something woke me.”

Unease tingled along my spine. “Me, too.”

He sat up and I did the same, glancing around the room. Light from the street leaked around the blind in the single window, making my surroundings little more than shadows in the darkness, but nothing seemed out of place.

Rowan pushed back the covers and reached for something at the end of the bed. I realized it was his pants. He had stripped down to his underwear and crawled beneath the covers with me. And I had missed it. Damn.

A muffled crash, and we were both on our feet, Rowan hurrying to tug up his pants.

“Intruder?” I whispered.

“Stay here.” He stepped out into the hall.

No way was I going to sit here and wait. I slipped out after him.

The blind over the kitchen sink was half open, letting in a fair amount of light that illuminated the open kitchen and living room area, and filtered down the hall toward us. Again, I didn’t see anything out of place, but deep shadows clung to the corners and pooled behind the furniture.

Rowan walked forward, his tread careful, but confident. If a thief had broken into my apartment, he had picked the wrong night.

We stopped a few strides within the living room and listened.

“The lab?” Rowan whispered.

“Ian should be down there.”

“Maybe it was him.”