Page 80 of Perfectly Perplexing Zombie

Lucroy roared again, his crimson-filled eyes now focused on Aurelia as she moved steadily closer.

“Keep Trinket close,” I whispered in Wendall’s ear before I moved away.

Heat filled the room as I finally released my inner fire. When I glanced back at Wendall, his eyes were wide, and his mouth had slipped open. I didn’t know if anyone had previously informed Wendall what my true form looked like. It wasn’t a secret. Peaches, Lucroy, Sedrick, and Phil had seen it up close and personal a few months ago. Those stories would pale in comparison to seeing it with one’s own eyes, of feeling the warmth of my unleashed heat.

I’d been told my fiery form was beautiful—in the scariest way possible. Fire licked along my back, coalescing into wings. Deep red leather armor covered my body, and a flaming sword filled my hand. My eyes were equally filled with fire, and my crimson hair floated around my body on heated air currents.

Wendall hugged Trinket tighter. Instead of taking a step back like he should have, Wendall took a step forward. Hamish was there to stop him. Placing a hand on Wendall’s shoulder, Hamish calmly said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. This is Hellfire Rayburn at his most lethal. He would be devastated if he inadvertently harmed you. Stay by my side and watch what a true fairy can do.”

Thankfully, Wendall did as Hamish asked. Only, it didn’t go the way Hamish said it would. It didn’t go the wayanyof us thought it would.

ChapterThirty

Hellfire Rayburn

Hamish was by Wendall’s side. I would need to thank him later. Assuming there was a later. I’d hoped the witch and warlock would have been able to dismantle the ties binding Aurelia to her object of attachment by now. They’d said it could take hours, and that was time we didn’t have. Each passing second proved just how limited our time truly was.

I didn’t want to harm Aurelia, but it looked like that choice was swiftly being taken from my hands. Throwing up a wall of fire between the djinn and her prey, I moved closer. “I will not allow you to harm anyone within this building.”

Stover laughed. “As if you can stop her.”

I desperately wanted to prove Stover wrong, but the distant look in Aurelia’s gaze was enough to make me believe he was more right than I wanted to believe.

“There is nothing you can do,” Aurelia said, her voice devoid of emotion. “There has never been anything anyone could do.”

She started to raise her hand. Centuries of instinct guided my hand and plunged my flaming sword forward. The blade might have been made of fire, but its edge was as sharp as the finest human steel. Within an inch of Aurelia’s body, my sword bent, and its fire flared outward and harmlessly away.

I funneled more energy into the flame, and yet it did nothing but deplete me. Dropping my arm, I pulled my sword back, staring at the reformed flame, useless for the first time in my long life. I caught Lucroy’s stoic glance and knew he understood the enormity of the situation.

Aurelia’s object of attachment lay against the wall. It appeared deceivingly harmless. It wasn’t. That amphora was the bane of our current existence, and I wanted it gone. In a hail of fire, I threw every ounce of heat at the hated thing. Aurelia simply stood there, that same mask of indifference plastered across her face.

As predicted, my fire did nothing. The amphora was charmed to resist destruction, and not even fairy fire could prove otherwise. When the brightness of my fire dissipated, the amphora remained where it was, not a single scorch mark along its surface.

“Aurelia,” Stover impatiently said his djinn’s name.

“You did not wish for a specific time frame for their destruction,” Aurelia tried.

“Now,” Stover gritted. “I want them killed right now. Not in two minutes, not in two days, and certainly not in two years. Now, djinn.”

Straight-up murder was one of Aurelia’s restrictions, but as always, there were ways around it. She’d proved that when she’d murdered Wendall. Technically, the car had been responsible for his injuries.

Without raising her arms or doing anything that even appeared to be enacting magic, Aurelia’s Caribbean blue eyes lit from within, along with half a dozen visible tattoos. Only the regretful cast of her eyes showed she despised her actions.

“Ray,” Wendall gasped, immediately drawing my attention and gaze.

Knives of all different sizes and shapes filled the air behind the bar, their business end aimed at Lucroy and Peaches. Two of them looked large enough to sever Lucroy’s head from his body. Beyond the sun, it was the surest way to kill any vampire. In Lucroy’s case, it might be the only way.

I could do nothing as the knives sailed by. I’d never felt this useless in my life. Thankfully, my colleagues were more useful than me. Roots shot up through the floor, throwing cement and flooring to the side as they formed a barricaded wall around Peaches and Lucroy. When I looked at Hamish, he’d transformed into his true fairy self. Wings made of enormous leaves stretched from his back, and his skin was a green sheen of veined foliage.

“Peaches could have done the same.” Hamish shrugged, as if what he’d just done wasn’t that impressive. “He’s been away from his orchard too long. Otherwise, my intervention wouldn’t have been necessary.”

The knives landed in the wood with a thud. They quivered and tried to dig deeper, but Hamish’s roots were too thick and strong. It wouldn’t hold forever, and we both knew that. Stover did too.

The human appeared wild or maybe manic. Fragments of sanity shifted through his glazed eyes, but they were too few and not nearly enough to gather into anything useful.

A devious smile lifted his lips. “I wondered if my djinn would be enough to take on a fairy. You’re giving me an excellent opportunity to test that theory. Thank you, Hamish. Meeting you tonight truly will prove informative. Aurelia, I wish for you to kill the fairies, Hamish McIntyre and Hellfire Rayburn. Now.”

Stover’s wishes were becoming more specific, leaving Aurelia little wiggle room. Still, she tried. “You wish me to do this before or after dispatching the vampire and pixie?”

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