Thirteen Roses Book One: Before: An Apocalyptic Zombie Saga (31 page)
Read Thirteen Roses Book One: Before: An Apocalyptic Zombie Saga Online
Authors: Michael Cairns
Tags: #Paranormal, #Zombies
'I think you're the damned one.' He pulled her away from the cross and threw her to the floor. She came straight back up, mouth snapping as her nails scratched on the stone floor.
'Who sent you? Who sent you to watch me and who framed me in the first place?'
'That's a lot of questions, which would you like answered first?'
'It doesn't matter, you're going to answer all of them anyway.'
The laugh that emerged was thin and rough and scraped across Alex's brain. He was already struggling to stay something resembling sane, and the voice didn't make it any easier.
Kali, assuming she was still called Kali when she was a giant lizard thing, hissed again. 'The Father sent me.'
Luke grabbed her around the throat and shoved her against the cross. The acrid smoke billowed up and she screamed. The sound faded and rattled in her throat as her struggles weakened. He held her there until her legs hung limp at her sides, then tossed her to the floor.
'My patience is at an end. You will tell me what I wish to know now.'
She laughed weakly and ran a scaled forearm over her lips. 'Trust me, Luke, the person who sent me here is far scarier than you.'
'Do you know who I am?' As he roared, golden light spat from his eyes and the shadow he cast from the flickering candles moved independently, creeping forwards to crouch above her.
'I know who you were. But that was a long time ago. You've been neutered by your time as a Guardian. Everyone knows it except you.'
Luke took a step back, head shaking back and forth. Kali clambered to her feet, mocking smile on her face. 'I mean, come on, would you have let the Father send you here before he let you back in? You're a shadow of who you were. Why do you think Sara let you in? She felt sorry for you, Luke, and she knew you were going. It was time for you to go.'
Alex cringed. Luke was going to hit her. He could see the tension in his shoulders as he wound up to it. Then the tension drained and his head dropped onto his chest. His voice was soft, defeated. 'So you will tell me nothing?'
Kali sighed and rolled her shoulders. 'I'm sorry, I can't. Worse will happen to me if I do. Had it not been my master, it would have been someone else. There are a lot of people with a grudge against you.'
Luke nodded and turned to Alex. 'We better get going. We need that cure.'
Alex let out a long breath and nodded. This was a better ending than he'd expected. Luke met his gaze and he saw another flash of gold and stiffened as Luke turned back to Kali.
'Oh, something you might want to pass onto your master. I may be weaker than I was, but I'm far from defeated. Tell me, Kali, what are you most afraid of?'
The succubus stared at him in horror for a brief moment, before a figure appeared in front of her. It was huge, twelve feet tall and covered in thick red hair. It could have been a bear, only it was human shaped, long-legged and narrow-waisted.
Luke said only one word as he watched the thing grab Kali around the throat and lift her off the floor.
'Az.'
Steph - Thursday: Plague Day
She pushed open the door and peered out into the corridor. There was no one there, just as she'd expected. She'd been listening at the door for a good half hour and she'd heard nothing, but it had still taken her that long to summon up the courage. She slipped out and rushed toward the lift at the end of the hallway.
She hammered the button and waited, skipping from foot to foot. The door opened and she stepped in, hitting the ground floor button repeatedly until the doors slid closed. She sighed and rested back against the lift. She had maybe ten seconds until she reached the ground. Her eyes felt scratchy from her sleep and she shook her head, trying to clear it. How had she slept for so long?
The doors slid open and she froze. Mr Moore stood across the lobby by the front door. Was he one of them? He couldn't be, he was way too nice a guy. But she'd seen Sandra out the window on the lawn and she'd been one, lurching about like some crazy person. What was happening? She wished David was here, he'd explain it all. He always knew what was going on.
'Mr Moore?'
She said it quiet enough that he didn't notice, and she stepped closer. He growled and spun and she screamed at the change in his face. He looked ninety and his eyes were sunk deep in his skull, and he reached for her with hands twisted and bent into claws. She shouted for help and took a step back but her heel caught on the rug and she tripped.
She landed hard on her tail bone and howled, tears filling her eyes. Mr Moore launched himself and landed on top of her. He was clumsy but his hands were sharp and strong and pinned her to the carpet. When he opened his mouth the smell that emerged made her cough. Bile filled her throat. What was happening?
His head went down, out of view of her eyes and the next thing she knew was a sharp, piercing sensation in her left breast. Then the pain kicked in and she screamed and screamed until everything went black.
Thirteen Roses continues in Book Two: After
Luke and Alex have only days to stop the plague…
But for the rest of the crew, it's already here. The fog filled London's streets and everywhere it went, people started dying. Now those the flower seller saved from themselves have a far larger, far hungrier foe.
Can Bayleigh and Layla survive the horror that has beset them? Will Jackson prove himself worthy of God's love? Will Krystal and Ed make it across town alive? Will Dave ever stop running?
As Luke and Alex make one last ditch attempt to stop the plague, they meet someone who changes Alex's life forever, and makes Luke question everything he thought he knew.
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Find all of Michael's books at:
The Spirit Room, (The Planets, book one) Superhero/Sci-Fi.
'The Avengers meets Magician, The Assembly trilogy is superhero conflict on a global scale…'
An ancient cadre of magicians
A select team of extraordinary warriors
An unseen foe
As two ancient forces battle for control, reality as we know it is being torn apart. Caught somewhere in the middle, and tasked with ridding the world of the insidious alien intelligence are The Planets. Neptune hails from Rio, the gay daughter of strict catholic parents. Mars, from Ireland, still missing the sister he lost years ago. Uri grew up on the streets of New York, and Venus… well, no one knows and she isn't telling. Imbued with extraordinary powers, these highly trained individuals take the fight across the globe. With startling and unnerving revelations at every turn, the depth of deception is only now becoming clear…'
Chapter One: Mars
He was called Connor, before they named him Mars. He felt odd about the titles and wondered what was wrong with choosing your own. Apparently it was all about balance. Ten planets, ten agents, all with their own place, their own expertise. No prizes for guessing what his was. Of course, he could have ended up as Pluto, or Uranus, so he should be grateful.
His thoughts scattered as the wind buffeted him against the chopper's open door. Below, the lights of London beckoned as the adrenaline began to pump. He grinned, nodding as the dulcet tones of Slayer blasted through the suit comms. The helicopter slowed as it flew out over the Thames, dropping lower until he could make out the people walking down Embankment.
He glanced back at the cockpit, where Luna gave him the thumbs up and a smile. He nodded, then turned back to the open door, facemask sliding up and sealing. The water waited, dark and choppy and he swallowed. It was a long way down; time to go. He cranked the volume until the music roared and grinned again, the vertigo fading as his anticipation of the night ahead grew. He unwrapped his hand from the strap and jumped.
Connor was confused and sick when they found him. Sick with fear of the world around him. Sick with the belief that something else was going on and he didn't know what it was. He didn't share it with anyone, or talk about it. He was too scared the doctors would look at him the way they looked at his sister Sarah when she'd shaved her head and begun talking about sub-programming of the reality field. But he couldn't deny what was happening.
He watched his mother grow old, again and again. He'd catch sight of her out the corner of his eye and her face would look like a crumpled, yellowing map, like she'd aged decades in seconds. He shared his wild brown hair with her and seeing it turn grey and fall out made his stomach turn.
It happened more than once, enough that he kept his slate-brown eyes closed around the people he loved. That's why he had run away. That and Sarah. They'd called her mad when she ranted about 'parallel events across alternate realities' and they'd locked her up. He'd believed them. He didn't now, of course. Sarah had been entirely sane, there just hadn't been anyone to tell her that before the pills and blank walls and knowledge made death the only option.
He'd been close to that when they found him, his strong features gaunt and lined. He was living in a squat, reality crumbling around him as he saw what people were going to do before they did it. When he was a teenager, he found he knew what a girl was going to say before he asked her out. It saved on the heartbreak, but he'd been lonely. As he grew older, so the power got stronger. By the time The Assembly appeared he could see a person's entire life stretched flat like a sheet. Making friends with someone whose death you could predict was a difficult thing to do. As was falling in love.