Ghost Light

Melusine shot toward me, fangs fully extended.  As she rushed me, she lifted a sword and aimed it at my head.  I adjusted for the change in distance and threw my knife with lightning speed, faster than I’d ever thrown a blade while practicing with Jenna.  I smiled.  I was drawing strength from the wisps now hovering around my head.

My knife buried itself deep in Melusine’s shoulder, putting her sword arm out of commission.  The sword fell from her hand, arm hanging limply at her side.  Without hesitation, Melusine dipped her body and retrieved the sword with her left hand.  Great, the bitch was ambidextrous—just my luck.  I readied my second knife to take out her left shoulder when Ceff stepped in front of me.

“I will not let you do this,” Ceff said, facing Melusine.  He risked a glance at me and shouted.  “Go!  I’ll take care of Melusine.  You and Jinx rescue the children.”

Ceff turned to face Melusine and widened his stance.  The telescoping handle of his trident shot outward as he flicked his wrist hard, the move an open threat.  If it came down to a choice between Melusine and the children, he’d pick the children, just as he’d always done.  The knowledge made the tension bleed from my neck and shoulders.

I nodded and lowered my blade.  I’d wounded Melusine which should slow her down.  If Kaye’s information was correct, lamias can only regenerate the serpent portions of their bodies.  Even with the rapid healing common to full blooded fae, she wouldn’t be using her right arm in this fight.

I had to trust that Ceff could handle his ex.  I sent up a silent prayer and turned my attention to the children who were indeed in need of rescuing.  Tiny feet stomped atop graves and gravel paths as the children’s bodies lurched to The Piper’s music.

The Danse Macabre had begun.

Chapter 23

I watched in horror as Jinx struggled to rescue children from the circle.  She pulled and cajoled, but their tiny hands held firm.  No matter how hard Jinx tried, the spell was too strong.

As she tugged at the hands of a young wood nymph, a bony hand burst from the ground and batted her away.  Jinx stumbled, the earth roiling at her feet.

The dead were rising from their graves.

We needed to free the children from the dance.  I searched recent memory and began to recite the prayer that Father Michael had given me.  It was worth a shot.

“Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.  May God rebuke him, we humbly pray.  And do thou, oh prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God thrust into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world for the ruin of souls,” I roared.  Nothing happened.  I choked back my frustration and pulled my phone from a zippered pocket.  Maybe the prayer had to be read in Latin.  “Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio, contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.  Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur, tuque, Princeps militiae coelestis, satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute, in infernum detrude.  Amen.”

But the dead continued to rise.  I grunted in frustration.  I was too far away from The Piper and his demonic flute.  I shifted the phone to my left hand, gripping a throwing knife in my right.

All around the circle, the earth burst upward in clumps of soil and sod.  The dead clawed up through caskets and dirt, climbing out of their graves to scuttle like cockroaches toward the children.  I kicked at the hands and heads of zombies as I made my way around the circle.

The fight between Ceff and Melusine blocked my approach on the left, so I skirted to the right.  The rising dead and the horde of swarming rats slowed my progress.  I kept an eye on Jinx, who was positioned between us, as she fought to free the children.

Jinx tried again to pull a small child from the circle, but it was no use.  The children only parted long enough to clasp the hands of the dead, their feet never missing a beat as the zombies were welcomed into the circle.

The newly risen dead were in varying states of decay.  Bony skeletons wearing nothing but shreds of rotting cloth hurried alongside the bloated corpses of the newly deceased to find their place in the dance.

Blinking away sweat and tears of frustration, Jinx grabbed the crossbow slung over her shoulder.  She couldn’t fire at the dead that had joined the dance, since they were positioned so close to the children.  So Jinx turned away from the circle and aimed at a female zombie crawling out of her grave.

The face of the corpse had decomposed so badly that exposed teeth flashed where her cheek had been and hair hung from her scalp in stringy clumps.  The woman had been dead for months, but she moved with breakneck speed.  The zombie pulled herself to her feet and rushed Jinx.