Page 32 of Slayer Mom
I stared at him. It’s almost like he was complimenting me. That was so creepy. “Thanks?”
“You’re welcome. You need to accept your situation as a marked human, and make choices that determine your future.”
“You’re talking about turning zombie or vampire? How is that a choice?”
“There are several differences between the two. You’ve only met the disintegrating zombies that are extremely past their prime. The zombie queen is as well-preserved as I am.”
“You should marry her.”
“Looks aren’t everything. Perhaps you could turn and then take her place. Wonderland. You’ve read the stories, haven’t you? Her court is Wonderland. Those who are kicked out of her court and wander the earth are the mindless grunting zombies that have lost the Queen’s favor and power.”
“How are there so many of them?”
“Her appetite is insatiable. Turning humans is very easy, and for some time, she worked at it, building an army to conquer the world, and me. Forsome reason, I didn’t find the idea very palatable, so for now, we are at an impasse.”
“Zombie armies? Wonderland?” I tried, but I couldn’t process that. I just—Nope. I wasn’t going the tweedle-dee undead route. “Huh. Do you think that Delores was in cahoots with the zombie queen, and that’s why she wasn’t doing her job, or do you think that she was just lazy?”
“You killed her, so we’ll never know.”
“Unless we capture the zombie queen and get Duke to ask her a few questions.”
“I wonder why I’ve never thought of that before. Ah yes, because it’s impossible.”
“That’s why you can’t catch her, because she does six impossible things before breakfast and you get blocked.” I smiled at him brightly. Was I becoming unhinged? Maybe. Probably. I couldn’t turn into a vampire or a zombie. What would happen to Lock and Wat? I’d probably murder them or worse, turn them. That left me spending the rest of my life in paranoid seclusion, slaying zombies until I died.
He matched my smile in brightness, but far exceeded it in fangs. “Thank you for explaining it to me. What would I do without you?”
“Find a real exterminator?”
“Then what would I do with you?” He leered at me blatantly.
I rolled my eyes. “Did you have someone to explain the contract to me?”
“I did, but I got hungry and ate him.”
I studied him. “I’m not great with paperwork.”
“You could ask your husband to look at it for you.”
I really, really hated him talking about Hazen. I hated him knowing about him, smelling him on me, threatening him if I wasn’t his exterminator. “Is it really true that the marking won’t ever fade?”
“Not your marking. It was set deep and permanent by the zombie. She was an upper level breed before she was cast out of the Queen’s domain. I probably knew her, but since you burned all the remains, it would be hard even for me to recognize her.”
“Next time I’m marked by an upper tier zombie, I’ll be sure to wait until you identify it before I burn it. Why would I care who it was? I’m not turning. As far as I’m concerned, the only good zombie is a dead one.”
“And vampires?”
“I’m not going to work hard to kill something unless it tries to kill me first, but I’d rather die than be undead. Tom’s my partner. I want it in the contract, that I work with him, and that he’s paid, or I can be paid double, and transfer the money to him.”
He moved rapidly, fingers flipping through pages until it landed on one listing the payment of my slaying companions, and their autonomy guaranteed by the Grand Master. He had it all ready for me.
“And Gloria. I don’t know what to do with her, but after being possessed by the Zombie Queen, she’ll probably have to know about the paranormal world and do some slaying, or just go about life as always. I want freedom for her.”
He flipped another page that outlined her freedom. It was very thorough, like he knew what I wanted before I said anything. Was it possible for him to read my mind? I looked into those dark, terrifyingly empty eyes before I looked back down at the contract.
“My husband, Hazen. I don’t want you to interfere with him in any way.”
“You don’t want me to protect him?”
