Fashionably Dead and Loving It: Hot Damned Book 14 Read online

  “We can save them,” I said, hoping the words would make it come true. “We have to.”

  “Your compassion could bite you in the ass,” Anastasia pointed out, looking worried.

  “True,” I agreed. “But it can’t kill me.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The interior of the warehouse was dank and dark. It didn’t matter since Demons and Vampyres could see as clearly in the darkness as they could in the light. My chest tightened in pain and anger as I stared at the horror in front of me.

  “Who would do this?” I asked.

  “A monster,” Levi said emotionlessly. “Someone with as little humanity as our father.”

  “Harsh but true,” Lizard said, smacking his bat on the palm of his hand.

  Ten half-dead, bloody beings with green-tinted skin writhed and screamed in agony. Their limbs were mangled and their flesh was rotting. Just like my dream. Slimy foam poured from their mouths and their eyes rolled in their partial skulls. Some of them appeared to be missing appendages as they moaned and gnashed their teeth.

  The fastest creature had no lips—as if they’d been bitten off by a deadly kiss. His arm was mangled and chewed away so that the bones showed. And he looked hungry.

  My nightmare had come to life.

  As he approached, I shot up into the air and said a little prayer to my Uncle God in hopes that Zombies couldn’t fly. Lizard and Levi followed my lead and we floated about thirty feet above the tragedy below. The Zombies hadn’t flown in my dream, but reality was turning out to be far worse than any nightmare. There had been no child Zombie in my dream. My brother was correct in his assessment that only a monster could have done something so inhumane.

  “I will find you, whoever you are, and you will pay dearly,” I whispered.

  A screeching woman with her eyes gouged from her head threw herself on the ground below me and reached out with desperation. Her intestines dragged on the filthy floor beside her and I gagged. The stench was awful.

  “I’m here to help you,” I called out over their cries and moans. “I’m not here to hurt you. You’ve already been hurt enough.”

  There seemed to be little to no understanding of my words… except for the child. She watched my every move and didn’t make a sound. While everything around her was devastating, she was like a tiny Angel trapped in the worst part of Hell.

  “Cover me,” I instructed. “Keep the others away. I’m turning the little girl first.”

  “Roger that, boss,” Lizard said, swooping down and taunting the Zombies into following him to the far side of the large warehouse.

  “I’ll hold her,” Levi said. “You do your bitey thing.”

  “My bitey thing?” I asked, giving him a sideways glance.

  He shrugged and grinned. “Is there a technical term for it?”

  “Umm… no,” I said. “Bitey thing is descriptive and clear. I’ll go with it.”

  “Need to move fast,” he said, diving down and grabbing the child from behind to stop her from following the others.

  She didn’t fight him. She didn’t try to bite him. As he flew her to the opposite corner of the cavernous building, I poofed over. Had the little girl been able to hold on to some of her humanity since she was so young?

  “Do it,” Levi insisted. “Lizard is good, but not that good. Have to move fast.”

  Her arms were trapped at her sides in Levi’s strong embrace. She hadn’t bared her teeth. I wasn’t sure how much she could understand, but I was going to tell her something to waylay her fears in case she could comprehend words.

  “I’m Astrid. I’m a Vampyre,” I said softly. Her curly dark hair was matted with crusted blood and covered her face. Her leg hung from the socket and there were open wounds all over her small frame. “What was done to you is wrong. I’m going to try to fix it. Right now, you’re the living dead. I’m going to make you undead. Do you understand me, sweetheart?”

  I was a mother. She was a child. The situation was almost more than I could stand.

  Gently pushing her hair out of her face, I froze in shock.

  The sound that left my lips came from the darkest and most tortured part of my soul. A blast of something painful and electrifying shot through my body. White-hot rage warred with euphoria. The need to scream with joy was mixed with terror I’d never known. I shook like a leaf and clenched my fists at my sides to keep from doing damage. I needed to get a handle on myself.

  “No, no, no, no,” I ground out, staring at a face I knew so well. Granted, I hadn’t known this exact version of the face except through photographs, but I knew who she was and what her face would become.

  “Astrid,” Levi snapped in alarm. “Talk to me. NOW.”

  “I know her,” I whispered, cupping her cheek in my hand. “She’s mine.”

  “Explain,” Levi ground out, obviously thinking I’d lost my shit.

  If what I was about to do didn’t work, I would lose my shit in a big way. “No time,” I said. “Tell me it will work.”

  “I can’t,” he replied raggedly.

  “Lie to me, Levi,” I begged. “Tell me I can turn her. Tell me I won’t kill her. Please.”

  “Who is she?”

  “She’s my Nana—Sarah. She’s been reincarnated. She’s come back to me.”

  The words sounded like fiction. My life seemed like fiction. My normal wasn’t even remotely normal. I was undead. I was staring at my beloved Nana, who had been human and died right before I was turned. I’d visited her grave, and I’d visited her in Heaven. She promised me she would come back when the time was right. This could not be happening.

  The timing was all wrong. A monster had destroyed her.

  “You can turn her. You won’t kill her,” Levi told me. “You can do this. I believe in you.”

  “Are you lying?” I asked.

  “I sure as fuck hope not,” Levi said. “Do it, Astrid. The others are coming back.”

  He was right. Lizard was doing his best, but it wasn’t going great.

  Gently, tilting her head so her neck was exposed, I kissed her awful-smelling cheek. I didn’t even gag. “I love you, Nana. More than anything. It’s all going to be fine. You have my word.”

  Extending my fangs, I bit into the soft skin of her neck with as much gentleness as I could. Her small frame went rigid in my brother’s arms. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she didn’t fight me. A tiny hand reached out and cupped my cheek. The sweetness and trust made me forget about the rancid taste of her blood in my mouth. I closed my eyes and waited for the click in my mind that would happen when the change had taken.

  Dislodging my fangs, I took the priceless cargo from Levi’s arms and cuddled her filthy body close. Slicing my wrist with my fangs, I put it to her mouth. When enough blood had slid down her throat for me to feel confident that she’d had enough, I continued to hold her close. Placing my ear on her chest, I listened as her heartbeat slowed… and then stopped. If I had breath to hold, I would have been blue in the face. Waiting for the child version of my Nana to open her eyes felt like eternity.

  “Did it work?” Levi asked, peering at the small pale girl in my arms.

  “I don’t know.”

  Minutes passed. It felt like years.

  And then a miracle happened.

  Like a big-budget movie produced by my Uncle God, rays of sunlight streamed into the building from the holes in the ramshackle roof of the warehouse. As the light bathed the dead child in my arms, her big blue eyes popped open and she stared at me with intense curiosity. Her broken and bloody body slowly mended. She trembled and convulsed with the effort it took to heal.

  The stench was gone and in its place was the gorgeous scent I remembered so well—freesia and lilies with a hint of brown sugar. “Sarah,” I whispered as she lay exhausted in my arms. “Do you know me?”

  She touched my nose and smiled. “I’m not sure. Maybe,” she said softly. “Should I?”

  I didn’t know how to answer. I didn’t know the rul
es. Upsetting her after what she’d been through was the last thing I wanted to do. She was only five years old. I needed to call Uncle God and figure out how to handle the wondrous situation.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I told her, kissing her forehead. “Do you have a family?”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m an orphan.”

  “Not anymore,” I told her. “Would you mind if I took you home with me?”

  “Do you have any puppies?” she inquired.

  “Umm… no, but we can fix that very easily,” I promised, then glanced up at Levi, who was watching me closely.

  “Can you take her out to the parking lot?” I asked. “Nothing can happen to her. Guard her with your life and keep her out of the sun.”

  Levi nodded and held his arms out to Sarah. “As you wish.”

  They disappeared in a flash of jet-back glittering mist. I stared at my hands for a brief moment. The hands that had just held one of the most beloved people in my life.

  “Boss,” Lizard shouted as he danced like a crazy man, entertaining the remaining Zombies and staying out of biting range. “You got a plan?”

  “Grab one from behind and fly them high. Keep the arms pinned to the sides,” I instructed, shooting into the air. “We’re gonna do floating surgery.”

  “You’re as batshit crazy as I am,” Lizard said with a whoop of laughter as he grabbed a Zombie from behind and flew her up.

  “Crazier,” I replied. “Let’s do this shit.”

  Lizard had been incorrect about the genders of the Zombies. There were five females including Sarah and five males. Several of the men had longer hair, so the mistake was understandable, since they’d been such a hot mess an hour earlier.

  I was covered in blood and guts from the tip of my combat boots to the top of my crown. Lizard was too. Not to mention, we stunk something awful. But I was thrilled. Everyone had made it through the change. And while they were extremely confused, they were alive—in a relative definition of the word.

  * * *

  “So, you’re saying we’re Vampyres?” a woman asked with doubt written all over her rapidly healing face.

  “Umm… yes,” I replied, answering the same question for the fifth time.

  I knew it was difficult to believe, but I needed them to get with the program fast. Sarah was sound asleep in Anastasia’s arms and Levi stood guard right next to them. When Lizard and I had completed the mission and it was safe, the rest had joined us in the warehouse.

  An older gentleman around seventy raised his hand politely.

  “Yes?” I asked. “You have a question?”

  “I do,” he replied. “Can I shift into a bat? I think that would be rather delightful.”

  “No,” I told him, trying not to laugh. “Sorry. Vampyres don’t shift into bats.”

  “That’s quite sad,” he replied. “I was hoping to scare the living daylights out of my no-good, cheating ex-wife. She’s terrified of flying rodents.”

  I nodded. He was going to be a trip. From here on out, his nickname would be Bat Man.

  “Do we have to sleep in coffins?” another man with an enormous mustache asked.

  “Not unless that’s your thing,” I explained.

  “So, you’re saying it’s not a requirement?” Mustache Man pressed.

  “Not a requirement,” I assured him with the smallest eye roll possible.

  Mustache Man played with his fangs for a moment, cut his finger and then asked another question. “And if we’d like to sleep in a coffin, will those be provided by management?”

  I didn’t know how to answer that one. Martha chimed in while I was still trying to figure out how to field the bizarre request.

  “Listen here, hot pants,” Martha said. “Management is very open to weird shit. You wanna be a freak and sleep in a coffin, you do that. However, you’re gonna have a hard time getting laid. I’ll make this shit as plain as I can. Being undead is fucking great. You live forever unless you get decapitated. I’d suggest avoiding that. It would hurt like a mother humper. While you can’t eat food anymore, you do get to drink blood.”

  The crowd of newly made Vampyres wrinkled their noses in distaste.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Martha continued. “I was gacked out in the beginning too, but just wait till you taste it. Delicious!”

  “The jackass is telling the truth,” Jane said. “And if you like to fornicate, you can do it twenty-four-seven now. For you males out there sporting a salami, you can direct all your blood to your pecker and bang until you forget your name.”

  The crowd was impressed by that fact. I was really glad Sarah was sleeping. This was not a chat for children’s ears.

  “Darn tootin,” Martha added. “You don’t have a reflection and your anal sphincter is now totally unnecessary.”

  “Why?” one of the gals called out.

  “Your poop shoot doesn’t work anymore,” she explained. “No more poopin’, peein’ and no more time of the month for the ladies.”

  “That’s right,” Jane said. “Think of all the moolah you’re gonna save on toilet paper since you don’t have to make a stinky offering to the porcelain throne anymore. But heed this shit, do not—I repeat, do not—go out in the sun just yet unless you want to look like a raw piece of hamburger meat for a week.”

  “Amen to that,” Martha agreed. “Took me a couple years to remember that one.”

  “Okay,” I said, cutting them off. “Hold the rest of your questions, please. What I need to know now is if any of you remember anything about being turned into Zombies?”

  Two of the women started to cry and were shocked when they realized their tears consisted of blood. Martha and Jane waddled over to the women and comforted them. As idiotic and horribly dressed as the old gals were, the wrinkled dummies were kind.

  The gentleman who wanted to be a bat raised his hand again. “I remember a little,” he said with a shudder.

  “Can you tell me?” I asked, walking over to where he sat, squatting down and taking his hand in mine. “It’s very important for me to know so I can stop this from happening to others.”

  He nodded and paled. “It was a woman. I was blindfolded. I saw her so briefly, I can’t tell you much other than she was short in stature. She promised money to my charity—unheard-of money. I run a nonprofit for hunger. It was such a welcome and intriguing offer. Could have made a real difference to a lot of people in need.”

  “How much?” I asked.

  “One million,” he replied, horribly embarrassed. “I should have known it was too good to be true.”

  “Lizard, can you take notes for me, please?”

  “Sure thing,” he replied, producing a pen and notebook out of thin air.

  “What’s your name?” I asked Bat Man.

  “It’s Adam. Adam Fest,” he replied.

  I giggled. I couldn’t help it.

  “Is that funny?” he inquired, perplexed.

  “A little,” I admitted. “In my head, I’ve been calling you Bat Man and your name is Adam Fest—kind of similar to the original actor, Adam West.”

  He chuckled and patted my hand. “I rather like Bat Man. I shall go with it.”

  I could tell I was going to like Bat Man a lot. “Lizard, mark down a million dollars owed to Bat Man’s charity.”

  “Done,” he replied, grinning and smacking on his gum.

  The others had been promised money for their charities as well. It was truly horrifying. They’d been called to a meeting, attacked, blindfolded, tied up and brutally turned into Zombies. The false pretenses made the crime even uglier.

  “What’s the damage?” I asked Lizard after I’d worked my way through the entire group.

  “Fifteen million total,” Lizard said. “Who’s gonna pay for this?”

  “I am,” I replied. “It’s the very least I can do.”

  Anastasia handed a still sleeping Sarah to Levi and walked to my side. Taking my hand in hers, she squeezed it. “You are gorgeous inside and out�
�� even covered in guts,” she said with a smile, then turned to the new Vamps. “I understand how you were lured into the trap, but Sarah is a five-year-old child. Does anyone know how she got caught up in this?”

  “The woman said that the child was in honor of the Choosy One. Said it would destroy her,” Bat Man shared, confused by what he’d overheard.

  “You mean the Chosen One?” I ground out, trying my best not to scare Bat Man.

  “Possibly,” Bat Man said. “Actually, yes. It was Chosen not Choosy.”

  My blood chilled and my fingers began to spark. Sarah had been harmed to hurt me. Who in their right mind would do this?

  “Can anyone tell me what the woman looked like? Was she alone? A name perhaps?” Anastasia asked as I paced off my need to detonate the state of California.

  “No name,” a gal named Sharon said. “She was alone, and it all happened so fast this morning, I didn’t get a look at her. I’m so sorry.”

  “No,” I said forcefully, still pacing. “Do not be sorry. None of this is your fault.”

  “I know,” a small voice from behind me said. “I saw her.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to my brother, who held the reincarnated child version of my Nana in his arms. It was surreal.

  “Tell me, Sarah,” Levi said, rocking her gently. “Tell me what the woman looked like.”

  “Brown hair,” she said, touching her head just in case Levi didn’t know where hair was supposed to go.

  He grinned and continued to rock her. “And her eyes?”

  “These?” Sarah asked, pointing to her own.

  “Yep, those,” Levi confirmed.

  “Green. Green eyes.”

  Anastasia began to growl. I grabbed her arm so she didn’t scare the newbies. And we still needed a little more info from Sarah. “Calm down,” I told my sister-in-law, which was ironic, considering my fingers were still sparking and my arms were covered in black magical glitter. “That description could be anyone. You think you know who she’s talking about?”

  “I might,” she ground out and pulled herself together. Walking over to Levi and Sarah, Anastasia gently stroked the child’s hair. The three of them made a beautiful picture. “Sarah, did this woman have any marks on her face? Like a pink line someone might have drawn?”