Page 52 of Demon Queen
He gave me a tired smile. “Good. Lots of energy. Lots of fires both real and hallucinatory. Lucy feels terrible about what happened. I realize that what she did to you could be incredibly frightening, scar you for life, but if you can find it in you to forgive her, it would make me and my wife very happy. She’s moping, doesn’t drink as much blood as she should, is questioning the validity of her existence…” He sighed heavilyas he opened the black case and started taking out hypodermic needles and vials of various neon shades. Blue, green, toxic purple.
“What’s with the radioactive goo?” I asked, pulling away.
Hazen smiled. “Anti-zombie serum. Well, would you please forgive my wife? I would consider it a great favor.”
A great favor, as in, he wouldn’t try to kill me like all the other originals? I swallowed hard and shook my head. “There’s nothing to forgive. She was just having a bad day. That happens.”
He cocked his head and studied me, eyes softening slightly. “Thank you. She’s lonely. Let’s call her now.” He pulled out his phone and dialed, putting it on speaker so it rang while I sat there feeling weird. It’s like he wasn’t very good at social interactions. At all.
“Hello?” Lucy answered at the same time Hazen shoved a needle in my arm. Not one needle. Three. Three giant needles stuck out of my arm around the zombie bite while I froze, mouth open on my hello, frozen in my throat.
“Hello?” she said again, a frown entering her voice. “Hazen, did you pocket dial me?”
“No! It’s me, Sandra. Candy. You know, the person you almost killed the other day.” Oops. I hadn’t meant to make it sound like the only thing I thought about.
It went very quiet. “Why is Hazen with you?”
Dorian growled and then said, “She was bitten by a zombie. He agreed to help make sure it doesn’t cause problems.”
“Oh!” She sounded relieved. “If Drigo’s there, I guess you guys aren’t having an affair.”
I gave Hazen a horrified look while he bared his teeth in a smile.
His eyes burned a creepy red. “You don’t have to guess, my dark moth of grace and perfection. That is less likely thanliterally any other scenario I can imagine. Aliens could invade and I could leave vampiring for tango dancing, but I would still want only you.”
Lucy let out a strangled laugh. “You’re so weird. That’s why I love you so much. Anyway, alien tango aside, why are you calling me? Do you need me to help with zombies? I amveryskilled at executing them.”
“No, I just wanted to say that it’s not a big deal. You almost killing me.”
Dorien rumbled a growl but didn’t say anything.
“No, it’s not okay,” Lucy said, sounding frustrated. “I can’t believe I went there with you. I’ve been fine for months and months, and then you smelled so nice, like baby powder, and I just… No. It’s not okay. From now on, if I’m around you, I’m having a bodyguard, not for me, for you.”
“Oh, I already have bodyguards. Strigo, Regis, and Mixl. But that’s good for you to bring bodyguards, too. Those zombies are sick.”
“Right. You were bitten by a zombie. Where were you? Northside? Out in the docks?” She sounded like she kept track of places zombies usually hung out.
“Downtown, just a few blocks from the baseball stadium. We went to a game.”
She was quiet for a second. “That’s not usually where they go. Why were they in that area? How many? How deteriorated were they?”
Hazen tutted. “Darling love, we’re in the middle of torture. Don’t trouble her with nonessentials.”
Lucy sputtered. “Nonessentials? Zombies attack my little sister in my city, and it’s nonessential?”
Aw. It made my demonic angel heart all soft and squishy to hear her call me her little sister. “I don’t know why,” I answered. “but there were hundreds. They seemed pretty solidly puttogether. Don’t you think so, Dorian? Like it took effort when you ripped off their heads.”
“So you were intentionally targeted,” Lucy said. “Who knew where you’d be?”
I blinked at Dorian. His eyes flickered. The White Rabbit said that the Zombie Queen let Wilkie go so he could report to her. He knew that we’d be at the game. And he’d acted really paranoid, and maybe repeating the calls had been something about hiding his guilt. I used to do that when I was little.
My stomach twisted and I looked up at Dorian. His eyes flickered bright before he banked the flames.
“Gotta go. Torture’s going on. Can’t miss it.” I pushed the phone over to Hazen and then waited for the pain to begin.
He shook his head, taking the phone back. “Love you forever, my perfection.”
She grumbled and then hung up, leaving me with three giant needles sticking out of my arm. And a likely culprit. Wilkie’s betrayal hurt far more than the needles. My heart ached so terribly. It was my fault for not telling him that I was his mother in the first place. But the White Rabbit had said…And everyone said not to trust the White Rabbit.
