Zombie Rising: The Fourth Kelly Chan Novel Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  interruption ... I mean newsletter with free book

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Dedication and Afterword

  One-Way Ticket to Midnight

  About the Authors

  Zombie Rising

  By Gary Jonas and Rebecca Hodgkins

  To keep up with new releases, sign up for the Gary Jonas Preferred Readers List and get a FREE ebook copy of Gary’s first novel, One-Way Ticket to Midnight.

  Chapter 1

  Arms outstretched, the merciless horde rushed me all at once.

  Kicking and punching, I took them down one by one until the last opponent towered over me.

  Brand.

  He lunged and I grabbed his forearms. I pulled myself up and braced my feet against his chest. I pushed him backward as I let go of his arms. Brand hit the floor and then I was on him. I sent my elbow into his sternum and heard a satisfying little crack when his xiphoid process broke. I jumped back up and out of his reach. I raised my arms in anticipation of blocking his next attack. My boyfriend was far from dead. He’d been practicing for the day he could surprise me with a new move. Today was not that day if I could help it.

  Bodies littered the dojo floor – my students lay all around me with their mouths open, moaning. Brand groaned out a single word.

  “Watermelon.”

  The moans turned to laughter.

  “Is that y’all’s safe word?”

  “Told you, ladies.” Brand got to his feet. “Kelly’s an unstoppable force.”

  “We know that, dumbass.” Monique said as I pulled her up from one of the thick mats lining the floor. “But it sure was fun to test her.”

  “Speak for yourself.” A brand new student lay on her back while she caught her breath. “I don’t see how this is supposed to help us learn to defend ourselves.”

  “You gotta learn to fall without hurting yourself.” Monique offered the woman her hand and got her to her feet.

  “I’d rather learn how not to fall at all.” She brushed herself off and headed for the bleachers where she’d left her purse. My other students gathered their things while I asked if everyone was all right. I’d gone easy on my students when they attacked, pulling punches and moving slow. Not that an attacker would show mercy, but it doesn’t pay to maim your customers.

  Speaking of maiming, that reminded me… “Everyone! Bring your metal combs next time.”

  “Oh boy, improv weapons time!” Monique pumped her fist in the air.

  Brand high-fived her as she walked past him. “You okay, big guy? Kelly really whumped you. I thought I heard something crack.”

  Brand stretched and grinned at me, his sternum long since healed. “That was just the sound of my pride.”

  Monique knew there was more to the world than meets the eye. Her aunt was one of Denver’s topmost magical healers. But she didn’t accept the ways of magic, so Brand and I stayed off her radar. The only student who knew about our magically-engineered strength and healing abilities was Jessica, my receptionist and right-hand woman.

  “I’ll be back at eight, pretty lady.” Brand kissed my cheek on his way to the door.

  “Hey! You aren’t going to stay and help pick up?”

  He pretended not to hear me as he stepped out the door onto Colfax.

  I rolled my eyes and went for the broom I kept behind the front desk. I overheard my newest student tell another that she probably wouldn’t be back, that the class was way too hard. She slung her purse over her shoulder and walked out. I considered chasing her down, but what good would it do? She’d made her decision. I heard it in her voice. I just hoped I wouldn’t recognize her face on a crime news feed anytime soon.

  “Kelly, no offense, but sometimes you forget that we’re beginners.” Jessica sat behind the desk, watching me. She’d obviously heard the woman speak, too.

  “You’ve been with me for two years.” I thought about the way Jessica had fought for her life against supernatural opponents just a couple months before, opponents who could have easily killed bigger men than her. And did. “You’re not a beginner.”

  “Yeah, but, that’s nothing compared to your experience, am I right?”

  I leaned on the broom. “True. So what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying it’s sometimes intimidating for a new woman to come in here and see you going at it with Brand right off the bat. You need to soften the approach.”

  “I’m not softening anything. This is serious. An attacker isn’t going to soften—”

  “No, no, you don’t get it. Here.” Jessica picked up a stack of papers from the desk. “I’ve come up with a welcome package. There’s an introduction to what you do here at the dojo, a printed course curriculum and a list of YouTube videos to watch, with a link to your website.”

  I almost dropped my broom. “I have a website?”

  Jessica blushed. “Oh. Yeah. I, um, built you one. Surprise!”

  I took the stack from her and thumbed through it. It was thorough, with a glossary, suggested reading, and illustrations of basic exercises. “So how do I know they’re even going to read this?”

  “Because they’ll read it right in the dojo, at the first class.”

  “That’s it? No demo, no sparring, just…reading?”

  “Yup.” Jessica looked proud of herself. Which is why I hated saying what I said next.

  “This’ll bore them right out of the dojo.”

  Instead of crumpling up, Jessica grinned as she bit her lower lip. “Not if you let me teach the class.”

  I studied her for a moment, then lowered my voice. “You can’t tell them about the Kin. About what happened to you underground.”

  She waved me off. “I know. I’m not dumb. But, I can tell them how it feels to save your own life. I can give the overall details. I can weave my story through the basics. Please, Kelly, let me do this. I promise your students will improve right off the bat. They’ll feel more empowered when they see someone like me can save herself.”

  I sighed. The last time I’d let someone else lead my classes, she’d tried to kill an old friend of mine.

  “It’s not how I do things.”

  “I know, but.” Jessica exhaled in a huff. “Look, nobody has to be convinced a tank can storm its way through a battlefield. You’re a tank, Kel. I’m more like a…military Jeep. Nobody suspects the Jeep.”

  I grinned, just a little. Jessica earned my trust a hundred times over every day. “Add in some basic anatomy to the introduction. We’ll see how it goes.”

  “Yes!” She jumped up, but knew better than to hug me. “You won’t be disappointed.”

  “Of c
ourse I won’t be. But like I said, we’ll see how it goes.”

  “That’s all I ever ask for. A chance.” Jessica sat back down and started typing on the computer, presumably looking up sites about anatomy. I started back into the dojo with the broom.

  A chance. That’s all any of us wanted. That’s why women came to the dojo, to stand a chance against an attacker who would have them outweighed and outmaneuvered. Unless they did something. Unless they prepared. I had faith that Jessica could do a great introduction. She knew how ordinary people worked inside. That was something I was still working on. Jessica didn’t know it, but as I taught her, I was also learning from her.

  Or maybe she did know. She was Jessica, after all.

  “I’ll phone Lydia,” she called after me.

  “Who?” I turned around in time to see Jessica shake her head.

  “Lydia. The woman who just walked out. I’ll see if I can talk her into coming back. Tell her that there’s a special beginner’s introduction. Something less intimidating. Something free.”

  “Make sure you let her know you’re the one giving the class, not me.”

  Jessica just smiled and picked up the phone. I had no doubt we’d be seeing Lydia again.

  In the meantime, I had to get ready for a date.

  ***

  My apartment was right above the dojo, so I didn’t have far to go to get ready. I had extra time to stand under a hot shower and rinse off the day. The water cascaded over my body, plastering my hair across my back. I could have stayed there all night, but Brand was eager to go out. He wanted to take me dancing, which sounded so painfully romantic I wanted to gag, until Brand told me it was a punk rave and that I should be ready to body slam.

  Which made the thought of going dancing tolerable again.

  I turned off the water. I grabbed a towel from the rack and dried off in the shower where the wet heat steamed my skin. Brand and I usually finished a class by doing a demo – different scenarios women might find themselves in and how to get out of them. This time, Brand had suggested the ‘dogpile on Kelly’ at the end of class. More like bellowed it. And my feral little wolf pack happily obliged him. They actually trusted Brand, even liked him. That was a big step for some of my students, and for me.

  Brand and I had been dating only a few months, almost since the day we tried to kill each other and found we couldn’t. Something tells me the Hallmark Channel won’t be calling for our love story anytime soon, but hey, it worked for us.

  It worked enough that I’d hired him to help out at the dojo. And given him the key to my apartment. I shook my head. Getting this close to someone was unthinkable for me a year ago. But Brand had seen me at my worst, at my weakest, and still respected me. A man like that’s worth keeping, despite his other failings.

  From the bedroom, I heard the front door open. I looked at the clock. Seven-thirty. My guy was eager, all right. The TV went on and the fridge opened and closed. Brand made himself at home while I got dressed. I wouldn’t let him see me until I was good and ready, anticipation being the best aphrodisiac.

  Dressed, I walked out of the bedroom to the living room. Brand turned around and looked me over. He smiled as he walked toward me.

  “I meet with your approval?”

  He made a sort of low growl in his throat and ran his hands up and down my arms. “Show me.”

  “Show you?” I felt my lips curve into a smile. “Show you what?”

  “You know what I want to see.” That familiar wicked grin appeared.

  “We don’t have time.”

  Brand laughed. “Nobody goes to a rave on time. Getting there on time means you don’t have anyone to fool around with to make you late.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “I don’t care. So show me.” Then he did that thing I love to my neck.

  “Okay. But I’m making it quick.”

  Brand’s face lit up. “You really want to get there, don’t you?”

  “What I really want is to get this night over with.” I did that thing he loves to his ear. “And get you back here.”

  “Thanks for humoring me.” He looked me up and down again. “Let’s start with the shoes.”

  So starting with my stilettos and working my way up, I showed him fifteen places where I’d stashed weapons.

  “And I’m weapon number sixteen, of course.”

  “God damn, you are sexy.”

  Of course I didn’t show him where I’d hidden weapon number seventeen. A woman has to have her secrets.

  “Okay.” I kissed Brand. “Now that I’ve shown you mine, time for you to show me yours.”

  We arrived fashionably late.

  Chapter 2

  We pushed our way through the crowded venue to a small table skirting the packed dance floor. Ophelia’s served food up until show time, so we flagged down a server right away. The waiter’s eyes grew bigger as Brand ordered.

  “Should I bring out both burgers and the steak all at once, or do you want a box for those…?”

  “All at once, dude. ASAP. A man’s gotta eat.”

  Brand’s magically-enhanced physiology worked a little differently from mine. We both relied on a steady stream of magic to power up, but he also had to take in massive amounts of food between fights.

  The waiter disappeared back into the crowd. “So are we dancing tonight or taking on an army of trolls?”

  “You’re hoping for trolls, aren’t you?”

  “Duh.”

  Brand drummed his fingers on the table. “Just dancing.” He looked around the room and glanced at his watch. When our appetizers came, he inhaled his and went back to people-watching. His fidgeting knee bumped the table and nearly sent half my hummus into my lap.

  “What is up with you tonight?” On previous dates, the man could barely look away from me. Brand wasn’t one to lose his cool like this, either. “You expecting trouble?”

  “Told you, just dancing. I’m watching for the DJs. There’s one I really like.”

  “She’s a hottie, huh?”

  “It’s a dude.”

  “Didn’t know you swung that way.” I gave his leg a playful kick under the table.

  “Kelly, please.” He spared me a glance and I saw anger flash in those hazel eyes. Whoa.

  “Think I’ll just go on home now.” I threw my napkin down and stood up.

  That got his attention. “Wait, babe, wait.” He grabbed my arm.

  One look, and he let go again.

  “You’re right. I’m being an asshole. Please stay.”

  “Too late.”

  “I’m sorry.” Sweat actually popped out on Brand’s forehead. That plus the blunt apology stopped me in my tracks.

  “What’s going on with you?” If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was jonesing hard.

  Brand pressed his lips together and exhaled hard through his nose. “I need to dance. That’s all.”

  “So now I’m dating John Travolta?”

  People around us quieted as they listened in to the hot couple arguing. One woman pretended to check her phone but it was pretty obvious we’d become her latest snap. Brand and I sat back down simultaneously.

  “Dancing takes the edge off, that’s all. I mean, what do you do between kills? Is the dojo really enough for you?”

  “I don’t live to kill anymore.”

  Brand looked down at his hands folded on the table. “Guess I’m not there yet.”

  Brand and I were both Sekutar – magically-engineered warriors courtesy of a company called Dragon Gate Industries. I’m a first-gen Sekutar while Brand is a 2.0 model. Quality-control had dropped between his time and mine. Also, I’d been sold to DGI as a child, so they had a chance to tinker with me as I matured – perfecting their craft, if I may say so myself. Brand had come to them as an adult, a medic fresh from the horrors of Afghanistan. He wouldn’t tell me much about his time there, and I didn’t ask. But it didn’t take a mind reader to know that he was a little bit broken from what he�
�d seen and done.

  I took a deep breath. “I wasn’t trying to insult you.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Brand unfolded his hands, gripped the edge of the table and looked at me. “I just wanted to share something that I love doing with you.”

  Before I could answer, the room darkened and a cheer went up through the crowd. We’d missed the DJs coming in, and now they were on stage. Brand looked up at them, then back at me. He smiled, every trace of anger gone as a low, thrumming filled the air. It vibrated against my sternum.

  Brand stood and grabbed my hand, then led me into the middle of the crowd. The music grew louder, faster, like the beating heart of prey on the run. All around us, people lifted their arms in the air and jumped up and down. Brand closed his eyes and joined them. I felt a little silly, but then the music had me moving in no time.

  We danced together with a hundred sweaty bodies writhing around us, and I understood why Brand needed this. You could drown your thoughts, your feelings, you fears in the crowd, forget you existed separately, forget the life waiting outside and just surrender to the beat. As an experiment, I opened my Sekutar senses wide until I could feel every person in the room, hear their words, taste their breath. Smell their sweat and cologne and perfume, and then deeper – the desires and fears in their pheromones. I even caught a few scents and sounds that were definitely non-human – a couple of ghouls, several witches, and a vampire who was probably out for an easy snack. I felt my own edges dissolving into the mix.

  I pulled back into myself. As exhilarating as a fight, the intimacy was a little too much for this introvert.

  “So glad you’re here with me,” Brand leaned in close to my ear to speak as he stood behind me, his arms wrapped around my abs. Now this was the sort of intimacy I could handle.

  “Which DJ’s your favorite?” Two stood on opposite ends of the stage.

  “Neither one. I guess he’s not showing tonight, which sucks.” I felt Brand tense up. Then he let me go. I turned around to find him talking to a tall blond chick in a short white dress. Glowing neon stripes painted her face. Whatever she said made him smile in a way I thought only I could do. She said something else and he shook his head no. She gave him a coy smile. Then she kissed his cheek, rubbed against him and slithered off into the crowd