Page 61 of The Vampire King's War

“Yes, well, all the graves opening up and corpses littering the ground… that can’t be explained away. Perhaps it could, but… no, not it won’t work out well that way,” Seeyr stated.

Their attention was drawn back to the battle between Vampires and zombies as the reporter screeched, “Does that guy have a skull? He’s cradling a skull!”

“Oh, Elgar! He looks so--so, well, even though he’s in sweatpants and a hoodie, the skull really brings his look altogether,” Sophia said kindly.

“Not exactly the elegant Vampire look,” Seeyr agreed with a little moue of distaste.

She liked Elgar very much, but Seeyr had managed to immediately go from rags to formal gowns after her imprisonment. She thought that he should make more of an effort.

Elgar’s still emaciated form shuffled in his overly large clothing. He kept Christian and Julian well in sight. But no one would think of him as a threat. He looked like a mad person. He might be mad, but he was incredibly dangerous.

Four of the dead were moving towards Julian and Christian’s backs. The boys were unaware of them. Elgar was not. He shuffled towards the four. Kaly must not have recognized Elgar, because the dead swerved with almost lascivious looks on their faces, thinking that they would take him down easily. A Vampire’s body rended by their sharp fingernails.

“The one with the skull doesn’t look like he’s aware of what’s going on,” the reporter joked, but there was strain in his voice.

Elgar, in fact, wasn’t looking directly at the dead at all. Daemon could hear him murmuring to Eyros’ skull, promising his Master that he would keep Julian and Christian safe from the nasty corpses.

The first of the dead was a foot away from him. It was a man in a suit that was hanging off his mostly skeletonized frame. Elgar didn’t rear away from him. He didn’t make a violent movement towards him either. Elgar reached out, seemingly blindly as he was still staring at the skull, and took the creature almost into an embrace. His lips were even with where the creature’s left ear had been. He whispered something. The hair on Daemon’s arms rose as the magic left Elgar and flowed into the corpse.

“What was that move? They’re supposed to be fighting the zombies, right, Roger? Not saying sweet nothings to them!” The reporter laughed but it was definitely hysterical this time.

The dead man staggered back from Elgar then went very still. Daemon watched, fascinated.

“By the Immortals, can he use the Whisper against Kaly?” Seeyr asked.

“It appears so. There’s only a fraction of Kaly’s mind in that body. It seems he’s able to control that part,” Daemon murmured just as the dead man spun around and went after the other dead.

“Are you getting this? Please tell me you’re getting this, Roger!” the reporter cried. “It’s an all-out brawl. Looks like there are defectors!”

Elgar whispered into another dead woman’s ear then another dead man’s then another and another then another. The dead started attacking each other. It was like watching an infection in action with Elgar “infecting” the dead with his Whisper. The dead were wrenching each other’s limbs off. They tackled each other. They gnawed at throats, ripping off hunks of rotting, dry flesh and stringy tendons.

“How are they doing this? Why are they doing this?” The reporter’s voice was soft, uncertain. He was starting to question what he was seeing. It was all too real. “Who would see this if not for the accident at the museum?”

“It’s the tipping point.” Sophia was clutching Meffy to her chest now, who squeaked his displeasure. She soothed him with more pets.

“Not quite yet, dear, but yes, it is coming,” Seeyr stated

“No one could have known what would happen at the museum tonight if it was an accident,” the reporter continued to think out loud as the death and destruction continued below him.

Julian was decapitating the dead right and left. Christian was spinning the dead towards Julian as his fledgling moved way too fast for a human to do so.

The reporter said, “So why would someone actually put all this money, time, effort and energy into this flash zombie mob-fight-or whatever this? There are hundreds of people down there. The fight moves… the special effects… I’ve never seen anything like this!”

“We are doing well against the dead. Kaly’s numbers are flagging,” Seeyr said. “He needs more corpses.”

The reporter continued to muse, “These things must be connected. Could this be some kind of publicity stunt? Are the people in the museum really dead? I mean the mayor is in there. All the city luminaries. Could they truly all be dead?”

This was not something a reporter would normally say, but the shock of what he was seeing had unlocked the reporter’s mouth and he couldn’t stop himself. Those words also triggered an awareness in Daemon. His head shot towards the museum.

The bodies in the museum… ah, of course… reinforcements.

Daemon heard the footsteps within there. More dead had risen. They were walking towards the exits of the museums. Unlike the corpses that Kaly had to work with before, these were fresh and supple and would cause much more damage than their rotten comrades. Soon they would spill out into the night and attack the humans in the media. Or at least some of them. Kaly would want someone to video the whole thing. It needed to be seen.

“Daemon, the doors,” Seeyr reminded him lightly.

“Yes,” he answered and used the power of Ashyr to bar the doors, trapping the dead inside.

But the doors to the front of the museum were glass. The rooms beyond were well lit. While most of the media was clustered by the side of the museum, trying to see the zombies, some were at the back, still able to see the doors. Of course, it didn’t help when one of the officers let out a startled scream as the dead pressed themselves against the doors, the sheer pressure of their bodies would break the glass eventually, but they were trapped for now.

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