“Stay back,” I warned the daemon again, since I still couldn’t see her hands. “She might be armed.”
Reanimated corpses had no agency of their own, but they followed simple instruction well.
Point and shoot was easy, too easy, and I couldn’t let her get close enough to the daemon to try her aim.
“No.” He nudged me aside. “Protect Rue.”
“I’m sorry about this.” I let him get a smidge ahead of me then tapped his shoulder with my wand. He hit the ground like a ton of bricks, and his eyes promised vengeance. “It’ll wear off in five minutes.” I leapt a clumsy swipe of his arm. “Okay, so probably more like two.”
With Clay and Colby on the scene, the daemon was safe as houses, freeing me up to focus on the threat.
“You’re a bibliophile, huh?” I blocked her punch, grunting, but grateful she had no magic. “Me too.”
Any power left in her body, and she hadn’t much to start, was spent keeping her upright and in motion.
“Book,” she growled. “Give me the book.”
“What book?” I let her get close then spun out and kicked her knee. “Hit me with a blurb or something.”
Whoever was up here, sewing together zombies for funsies, I wasn’t sharing my card catalog with them.
A prickle coasted over my skin, raising gooseflesh into stinging bumps that ached with irritation.
“The ward,” I breathed in recognition. “We need to get to the cabin.”
This zombie was a limited conversationalist, a distraction, and a darn good one.
Murmuring a spell under my breath, I ramped up the power I funneled into my wand until its tip shone. I grunted when Colby joined her magic with mine, lighting me up inside, burning me like a shot of tequila.
The zombie tripped over a limb and face-planted, too dumb to do more than wiggle its arms and legs.
“Next time,” I said, easing closer to get in range, “come at me with an ISBN or something.”
Light encased her when I touched the wand to her skin, and she burned to ash in a blink.
We didn’t need the body, since we had already identified her and logged that intel with the Kellies.
Hot breath hit the back of my neck when I stood, and my short hairs stood on end.
Slowly, I turned to face this new threat, but it was too late.