Zombie Rising: The Fourth Kelly Chan Novel Read online

  “I’m right here.” Another woman carrying a silver tray appeared in the doorway behind Joanna.

  To this day, Amanda, Brand and I disagree on what Gloria looks like. Brand says she’s willowy with ash-blond hair, ice-blue eyes and a tiny scar on her left cheek. Amanda says she’s a redhead with blue-green eyes and lots of curves and freckles. They’re both wrong, because she has clear olive skin, deep-brown eyes and glossy black spiral curls. Even as I watched, her face changed from every angle, like Benedict Cumberbatch’s. Looking one way, her cheeks and nose were sprinkled with freckles, and when her head turned I saw gold in the dark depths of her hair. Of course it was later when Amanda, Brand and I talked that we realized Gloria looked completely different to each of us, or Amanda would have quietly tested her for magic. And she would have come up with nothing.

  We did all agree that Gloria appeared to be in her mid to late twenties, and the word for her was not “beautiful” so much as “striking.”

  I looked at her and thought, And Johanna is jealous of me?

  No one said a word. Even Johanna’s face softened and she dropped her arms to her sides. Then Colin broke the silence. “Ladies and gentleman, I give you, Gloria.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Giving me away after all this time?”

  Colin looked nervous under his perma-grin. “Purely rhetorical, of course.”

  “Of course.” Gloria’s mouth played with the idea of smiling. Her eyes were already there.

  “Yes, yes, of course!” Johanna’s cheese-grater voice went up a notch. “Mind your language, Colin. We don’t want to upset poor Gloria.”

  Joanna took the loaded tray from her and set it on a low table in front of the leather chairs. Empty glasses clinked together and lemonade sloshed in a pitcher beaded with moisture. Little bowls of cashews and dates surrounded a slate board covered with clusters of grapes, wedges and smears of fancy cheeses, and various crackers.

  Brand dove in immediately. Cheese-smeared crackers disappeared into his mouth. “Thanks.”

  Amanda picked up one of the little bowls of cashews. She popped a few into her mouth, and then started lining the armrest with others in sixty-nine patterns. She couldn’t help fidgeting when she wasn’t pulling up magic.

  I sat down and poured myself a glass of lemonade. It was about the best thing I’d ever sipped.

  “I added verbena, just a touch. And white honey.” Gloria smiled at me as if she’d read my mind. My expression probably gave me away.

  “So, what brings you?” Colin sipped his lemonade, a similarly orgasmic look on his face. Joanna and Gloria sat together on a love seat.

  “You’ve seen the news? The rave?”

  “Yes. Those poor souls in hospital. I hear they’re getting worse.”

  “We have reason to believe magic was involved. Brand, show Colin the receipt.”

  Brand stared at the floor, his thoughts a million miles away. Or maybe just across town at the hospital.

  “Brand?”

  “What?” His head shot up.

  “Your phone. Let Colin see the receipt.”

  “Sure.” He scrolled through until he found it, then handed Colin the phone.

  The scholar’s eyes lit up. “Joanna, love, look at this.”

  Both she and Gloria came over to see. “Oh. Well, goodness gracious.” Joanna touched the screen to enlarge the image. “We haven’t seen this language since the old country, have we Colin?”

  I leaned in closer. “Can you read it?”

  “Of course. The question is, where did you obtain it?”

  “A shop called Tally’s. They deal in—”

  Colin and Joanna exchanged looks, then both burst into laughter.

  “Everything, I imagine.” Joanna rolled her eyes.

  “And things I can’t imagine.” Colin said. “Well, they had to cross the pond sometime.”

  “But how? That must have been something to see.”

  “Unless…the Titanic, do you think?”

  Gloria gently took the phone from Colin. Her fingers brushed his. “We can research it later. Our new friends are in a hurry and for good reason.” She fixed her eyes on Brand. “That one especially.”

  His eyes flicked to mine but his face stayed neutral. So did mine.

  “Shall I?” Gloria raised her eyebrows at Colin and Joanna.

  “By all means.”

  “You have a lovely voice for reciting.” Joanna batted her eyes.

  Better her than you, I thought.

  Gloria held the phone out at arm’s length and placed her other hand over her heart like she was about to recite Hamlet. “Be it known unto the bearer that this contract betwixt the bearer and Tally’s Emporium of Wonders shall be lasting unto—”

  “No offense, but can you just get to it?” Brand drummed his fingers on the chair’s armrest.

  “Someone named Pam made a deal with Tally’s to supply a rare strain of tobacco in exchange for magically-enhanced sound equipment.” Gloria ran her finger down the screen. “Tally’s then processed the tobacco into a liquid for…vaping? Which they returned to her to sell for a kickback. Quite a lot of it, too.”

  “Ah.” Amanda pointed at Brand and smiled. “It wasn’t just me! There was vape residue in the warehouse.” Then she turned to me. “Looks like we don’t have to bottle it, because Tally’s already has. And it sounds like there’s a lot more of it out there than what got vaped at the rave. I wonder how many people are spinning cocoons at home.”

  “Who’s Pam?” I asked.

  “DJ Eleventh Hour,” Brand answered. “That’s her real name.”

  Amanda finished chewing a cashew. “Why wouldn’t everyone in the warehouse be hospitalized if you were all breathing magical Spanish fly? And I was obviously affected, too, even after the party.”

  I thought about it. “Proximity? Maybe only the ones directly vaping got enough to make them sick.”

  “I didn’t see Daphne vaping.” Brand clenched his jaw just a fraction.

  “You didn’t have your eyes on her all night.” I paused. “Or did you?” Stop it. This had better be the drug.

  “I told you.” Brand cleared his throat. “I have to make a phone call. If that’s all?” He stood and held his hand out for the phone. Gloria handed it back to him and he stalked out of the room.

  Chapter 14

  Joanna shook her head as her face turned crimson. “Tally’s. Leave it up to that pack of old world gob—”

  “Temper, dear.” Gloria stroked Joanna’s arm. “Not good for your blood pressure.”

  “There’s more,” I eased back into my chair, trying to ignore my own temper and Brand’s pacing in the hall outside the door. I told them about the zombies and how DJ Trixster’s music affected Miranda.

  Colin tilted his head. “Music, you say? What sort?”

  “Techno. It was a rave, Colin.”

  “Of course but, any identifiable instruments? Real ones? Drums, flute maybe?”

  I let the memory of the music play in my head. “A real flute.”

  “And the zombies were Native American?”

  “I’m pretty sure. Hard to tell though on a corpse with half its face missing.”

  “I wish you’d thought to bring us the head.” Joanna popped a date into her mouth, chewed and spit the seed into her hand. “We could have examined the brain and mouth for irregularities.”

  “I don’t think we have to do that, Joanna.” Colin’s lips pressed together in a bloodless, grim line. “We’re getting out of our depth here.”

  Amanda stopped lining up cashews. “I thought you specialized in the North American paranormal scene?”

  “We do. And this…this sounds…” he looked at Gloria and Joanna, who both nodded. “Well, it sounds big. Quite big. Perhaps on the level of a god. We’ll need to call in a specialist.”

  “I know just the person. I’ll go ring her up.” Gloria left the room and Joanna watched her with obvious longing.

  “Wonderful assistant, isn’t
she?” Colin said.

  Joanna wheeled on him. “Our assistant? Is that how you think of her?”

  “Well no, dearest, that’s just how I once described her to Kelly.” Coin laughed nervously. “I mean, how would you have described Gloria?”

  “Well! I would have told her the truth, for starters. We’ve got nothing to hide.” Joanna’s voice squeaked nearly out of hearing range.

  I tried to be polite. “I already know that you and Gloria are lovers. Colin alluded to that.”

  Joanna’s eyes went wide and her skin flushed. “He said that! He had no…that’s none of your business!”

  “I’m confused then. What don’t you care to hide about Gloria?”

  Joanna stood up straighter. “It’s a point of pride that Gloria’s with us. She’s a thrill.”

  “I’m sure she is for you.”

  “I mean a Thrill with a capital ‘T.’ Don’t you know anything besides how to kill things?” Joanna looked pointedly at her husband. “She’s really not your type, Colin.”

  “Precisely, dearest, which is why nothing is going on between Miss Chan and me. But thank you for your continued trust.”

  Their jealous bickering got on my last nerve, not just because of Joanna’s voice, but because I was afraid I sounded like Joanna to Brand. “Would one of you like to tell me what a Thrill is, or should I go ask Gloria?”

  “Rude!” Joanna crossed her arms and looked out at the tennis court.

  “How best to explain?” Colin tapped his lips. “Have you ever written anything for fun, Kelly, or perhaps to get your thoughts out?”

  “I’ve tried journaling.”

  “All right then. When journaling, did you ever have a moment when the perfect word or sentence came to you, and it gave your heart a little pang?”

  I thought about it. I’d had feelings like that, fleeting, never enough of them to keep me excited about writing. But, yes, and they were… “You mean, felt a thrill?”

  Colin raised his glass to toast me. “Exactly. A Thrill is an immature Muse. They’re responsible for that one little detail that makes a character memorable. Or that single perfect line in your poem, or that chord that strikes love into a heart, or that ‘accidental’ brush stroke that becomes the focus of a painting. They can’t sustain you over an entire work or give you the idea for a masterpiece until they’re mature. But in the meantime, a Thrill like Gloria can add bits of richness here and there to anything you wish to accomplish.”

  “And add richness to your life.” Joanna actually smiled.

  I nodded. “Gloria does seem more,” I struggled for the word – obviously I didn’t have a Thrill of my own – “more vibrant than most people.”

  Colin refilled his glass. “She is a goddess, after all. They take up quite a bit of space in one’s perception. Rooms they’re in seem small, then houses. Then entire lives.”

  Joanna looked at her husband. “Oh, darling. Gloria’s a demigoddess, technically. Not a full-fledged Muse yet. She’s still our little Thrill.”

  “She’s a growing Thrill. She’s transforming. There will come a day—”

  “We can handle her. We love her. She loves us. The rest is simple.”

  But I saw tears in Joanna’s eyes. “Excuse me,” she said as she left the room.

  Colin watched his wife go, then shook his head. “Gloria has an aunt. Full Muse, naturally. Quite famous in certain circles. She has a proper name, of course, but they call her Twenty-Seven.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that’s the age when her artists tend to burn themselves out. Completely, you understand.” Colin sipped his drink. “Joanna won’t ever let Gloria go. And Gloria doesn’t want to leave. She loves Joanna. Us. I can’t tear us apart. I couldn’t do that to Joanna.”

  “So when Gloria ‘grows up’ so to speak…?”

  The flat-lined smile reappeared on Colin’s face. “Well. Joanna and I are far from twenty-seven years old, of course. But.” He swirled his drink and looked into its depths. “At least Joanna’s final book or movie or whatever she accomplishes will be spectacular.”

  “You’re staying in this for Joanna’s sake. You’re too nice.”

  “You don’t know her like I do. We have quite a bit of history.”

  “Yeah. Seems everyone does.” Brand paced the hall, still on the phone with whichever friend of Daphne’s he’d managed to reach.

  “And my last work will be spectacular, too. That’s true immortality, my dear.”

  “It doesn’t seem worth the price if you’re dead.”

  “Time will tell.” Colin shrugged. “But, Kelly and Amanda, let this be a warning to you. Gloria is not even a full-fledged goddess, and a benign, even loving one at that. Yet, she’ll still be our end. The god you may be facing is none of these things.”

  “Time will tell, as you’ve said. And I’ve faced and defeated gods before.” I thought of Chronos, Sharon and even that idiot, Thor.

  “Not like this one.” Despite the warm day, Colin Clave shivered.

  Chapter 15

  The specialist, Dr. Ramona Honani, lived in San Francisco and caught the first available plane to Denver. I drove out to DIA to pick her up. I went alone. Amanda had to scamper back to her masters at DGI and make a status report. Brand confirmed that Daphne and the rest were worse, so he went back to the hospital.

  I can’t pretend I was happy with either of them.

  I parked in the covered garage and went in to the baggage claim where I’d agreed to meet the doctor. There’s a statue just to the side of the doors, up on the wall. You’ll miss it if you don’t look for it, so I always do because it amuses me – a gargoyle sitting in an open suitcase keeping watch over all the luggage. But today for some reason it just reminded me of Tally’s, which worsened my mood.

  I wasn’t sure what to expect. Colin told me Dr. Honani was Hopi, and that she was part of an organization that monitored Native American paranormal events. He wouldn’t say much beyond that, except that he and Joanna were friends with, but not members of, the group.

  A short, dark-haired old woman in long flowing skirts and a turquoise shawl came up the escalator from the trains that ran to and from the concourses. I waved at her and held up a sign with her name on it. She glanced at me, frowned and went on to the baggage claim. I followed, thinking, this should be a fun ride back to town when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

  I spun around to see another woman in her late twenties wearing a trim grey business suit, black-rimmed glasses and stiletto heels that made her a little taller than me.

  “Kelly Chan? I think I’m the one you’re looking for.” She extended her hand. “Dr. Ramona Honani. Call me Ramona.”

  I hate shaking hands, especially in public places, because it leaves me with only one hand free in case I’m attacked. But I obliged her, since I felt embarrassed about my earlier assumption.

  “Call me Kelly.” Her light grip was more of a handhold than a handshake. “How many bags do you have?”

  “Just this.” She indicated the black leather bag she carried with her. “I travel light.”

  We walked in silence to my truck. When she saw the damage, she stopped. “Someone did a number on you, didn’t they?”

  “Still drives. Get in.”

  Ramona struggled a bit in her pencil skirt and heels as she climbed up. I noticed a long rawhide cord slip from under her collar. Whatever was strung on it stayed hidden in her blouse. I’d already started the engine before she got all the way in.

  “Impatient, huh?”

  I didn’t answer. I noticed her smiling at me, just the corner of her mouth turned up. She broke into a full smile when we drove past the thirty-foot tall statue of a blue mustang rearing up as if to destroy oncoming traffic.

  “Looks like Blucifer is happy to see me. That pecker is amazing, don’t you think?”

  I damn near snorted.

  “It’s okay to laugh. Very bad to keep laughter in.” Ramona tried to catch my eye. “Oh, wait. You’re t
ough, not supposed to laugh.”

  “I just haven’t had much to laugh about the past few days.”

  “God forbid you start now, huh?”

  I smiled. Couldn’t help it.

  “That’s better. My last laugh was watching you chase down that frou-frou woman at the airport thinking it was me.”

  “I apologize. I thought. Well.”

  “You were expecting some medicine woman, right? Some old Indian with feathers and her hair and a dreamcatcher around her neck, spewing some shit about the Great Spirit, huh?”

  “I didn’t really know what to expect.”

  “Even my Grandma’s not like that. She’s a retired doctor, graduated from U-Dub in Seattle. She taught me about science alongside our traditional stories. Told me I could be anything and I believed her, so I did.”

  “I apologize.”

  “You’re Japanese, right? That would be like me expecting you to show up with like a katana or something.”

  “Chinese. And look in the back.”

  Ramona saw my katana, then burst out laughing. “Okay, okay, we’re even.”

  “So you’re a medical doctor?”

  “No way. I practically faint at the sight of blood. I’m a physicist. One of the spooky ones who studies quantum physics.”

  “What’s spooky about that?”

  Ramona took off her glasses and polished them on her jacket. “Stick around and I’ll show you.” She held her glasses up and looked through them before putting them back on. “But let’s hope I don’t have to.”

  ***

  Do you know what a luxury is? Taking the mundane for granted. I drove us to my dojo, where Jessica got me up to speed with that day’s classes. I returned a call from my insurance agent about the truck, fed my fish, paid a couple of bills. I like killing people as much as the next magically-engineered assassin, but it’s hard to keep a business running smoothly when things are constantly popping up and trying to murder you. See? Luxury.

  Ramona wandered barefooted around the dojo watching students, fingering weapons, smiling to herself. Not at all what I’d expect from someone about to face down a god. Maybe she was enjoying a little luxury, too.