Loved (House of Night Other World #1)(52)

Stark and I left then. We had to, and not just because of the stupid zombie apocalypse we had to prevent. We had to leave because that Jack had touched a raw place in my heart that still belonged to our Jack. It was either leave or dissolve into snot and tears and bittersweet memories …





16


Zoey


Stark and I hurried into the administrative offices. Shaylin, Nicole, and Grandma Redbird were looking grim.

“Please tell me Kramisha’s okay,” was all I could make my mouth say.

“She is safe,” Grandma said.

I plopped into a chair and tried to prepare myself. “What’s the rest of it?”

Shaylin and Nicole stared mutely at Grandma. She came to me and took my hand. “All of the fledglings who were working tonight at the Depot Restaurant were killed.”

My hand started to tremble, and Grandma squeezed it tightly.

“One of them managed to get to the trapdoor in the kitchen and close it, bolting it behind her and warning the others before she died of her wounds,” Grandma continued.

“Did they get into the tunnels?” I asked.

“No. Thanks to the heroism of that young fledgling,” Grandma said.

“Humans?” I held my breath.

Grandma shook her head. “They are all gone, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya.”

“Oh, Goddess,” I breathed the word as a prayer. “How many?”

“Seventy-eight humans.”

“Holy crap, that’s a lot of people.” Stark looked as sick as I felt.

“The restaurant was almost filled with people celebrating the holidays,” Shaylin said.

“How many fledglings and vampyres?”

“All of the waitstaff. There were seven of them. They were all fledglings,” Grandma said sadly. “So, young. They were all so young.”

“There was also a bartender. He was a blue vampyre,” Shaylin said.

“Derek,” Stark’s voice was thick with sorrow. “I knew him. He was a better bartender than archer, but a good guy.”

“The chef, a sous chef, a line chef, and two dishwashers. All of them dead,” Nicole said. Her voice shook like my hands.

“Chef Zachary? He’s dead?” I kept shaking my head back and forth, back and forth. And then a terrible knowing skittered across my skin. “I have to talk to Darius. And Marx. They have to behead or burn the human bodies.”

“Zoey, what is this about?” Grandma asked.

“The red vampyres from the other world are contagious. It’s something in their bite. When they bite humans, they infect them. If they aren’t beheaded or burned they rise in three days.”

“Oh, Great Earth Mother!” Grandma gasped.

“Are they vampyres when they rise?” Shaylin asked. She and Nicole were sitting with their chairs pressed together as if to share the shock.

“No. It’s bad. They’re mindless things that have to feed. And their bites are contagious, too. Then they die, for good, in another week,” I explained.

“But not before they infect a bunch more people,” Stark said.

“It’s the zombie apocalypse. In Tulsa. Unfuckingbelievable.”

We turned to see Aphrodite standing in the doorway. She looked at me. “Don’t worry. Stevie Rae and I clued all the professors in on what’s going on. Well, we didn’t know about this latest horribleness, but still. Stevie Rae went to say, ‘Bye, bye, Birdie,’ before Rephaim flies away … Holy shit, this sounds bad. How’s Other Jack?”

“Fine. Except for his hunger and the fact that he’s going to turn into a contagious, zombie-plague-spreading, nearly mindless red vampyre eventually. Fine,” I said.

“Seriously?” Shaunee said, peeking her head into the office. “Other Jack’s a zombie?”

I sighed. “No. But the bite of an adult red vampyre from his world turns humans into something like zombies. Speaking of Other Jack, could you please grab a bunch more blood and take it down to him? He needs enough to drink now, and a bunch for his minifridge for when he wakes up after sunset. Oh, and don’t go down there alone.” I let my gaze take in the whole room. “No one goes down there to see him alone. Do not trust him. He looks like our Jack. Sometimes he even sounds like our Jack.”

“But he’s not,” Stark said firmly. “He has a hunger that only Stevie Rae and I fully understand. Believe us. He can’t control it.”

“I’ll get Erik to go with me. He’s FaceTiming Joss about the new Fantasyworld episode.”

“Take this.” Aphrodite handed her the Taser. “But I want it back.”

“Okay, no problem.” Shaunee left, calling over her shoulder, “Hey, a bunch of SUVs just pulled up out front. I think the Warriors are back.”

We didn’t even have time to get out of the office when Warriors rushed into the building, bringing frigid air, snow, and a terrible sense of bleakness with them.

“Get the men fed. We have a job left to do.” Darius spoke somberly to the Warriors with Detective Marx standing beside him looking equally as grim and unnaturally pale.

Aphrodite got to Darius first. She flew into his arms and then stepped back quickly. “Is any of that blood yours?”

“No.”