finally becoming who I was always meant to be. Even if it means a life on the run.
“We need to find the necromancer,” Khalid snarls as he kills a zombie that’s eating the partially decimated corpse of a human male. “And fast. They’re getting stronger the more they feed.”
“Where do we find them?” I ask, looking around.
“We follow the magic,” he replies and looks over at me. “We need to work together. I need your hunting skills. If you were a necromancer, where would you hide where you could see everything but be untouched?”
I debate it, pursing my lips as I fling a knife and it embeds in a charging zombie, dropping it to the ground. “The hill above the city, but it’s too open. Maybe an apartment. No, too much open space. I would want to be inside it, watching, but far enough apart so no one would ask questions or disturb—” I suck in a breath, and he steps closer.
“You have thought of something?” he queries as we hear gun fire close by and the screams of humans. Our best way to save them is to stop the necromancer, but the cries make me want to help, make my creature lick its lips.
“There’s a place.” I look over at him. “It used to be a council meeting place before they moved their headquarters. Now it’s deserted. It’s on the hill to the right of the city, overlooking it all. An old manor with the royal crest. It also has its own graveyard of supes.”
“Shit,” he mutters. “That’s a good place to start.”
I nod, and we turn to head back to the car where we parked it down the street. “Why do you think they are doing this?”
“I don’t know. It feels organised, too purposeful to be an accident or their powers just bursting, out of control,” he mutters as we stop to kill a few zombies before we carry on walking.
“You think they planned this?”
He nods, and I look around.
“But why? Surely it draws attention to them, which they wouldn’t want…unless it’s exactly what they want—to draw attention. But why?”
“I guess we ask when we find them.”
It takes us around ten minutes to get out of the city. We drive past burning cars and infested buildings. Humans are flooding the streets and running, trying to escape, and we stop and help as many as we can before we gun it to the mansion. When we get there, we find the forgotten iron gates warped in the middle, as if they were blown open. We climb through carefully, and there, across the two large double doors, is a message written in fresh, dripping red blood.
I smell magic, death, darkness, and evil. There was evil here, but something else as well. Something old, something fresher than the blood, and whoever it was, they were here recently.
Think to stop me, my love? This city is my present for you, a warning of what is to come. Stop searching, or the world will burn next.
The radio of the car behind us crackles to life then. “I repeat, the undead are disappearing. The city is being taken back, please stay inside. Stay safe, but know the streets are once again ours. What is not known is where these creatures came from or why they are suddenly leaving, but celebrations have begun—” I hurry to the car, leaning in to flick it off, and meet Khalid’s eyes.
“Whoever the necromancer is, they wanted someone’s attention badly enough to rip through an entire city, and I think they were here, which is why they have stopped,” I surmise, and he nods his agreement.
“I think you’re right. We need to find them,” he frowns, “before the council finds us. Let’s start with the supe side of town to see if they know anything, now that it’s not overrun.”
“At least the city is safe for now,” I offer.
“True, but now the world knows creatures like us exist. Amore, they won’t stop until they eradicate us all. We have just been outed, and now, even the council can’t save us. Before this gets better, it’s about to get a whole lot worse, and that necromancer is to blame. We need to hunt them and find out why. We need the truth. It’s clear whoever it is wants to watch the world burn, and we have to stop that. Are you with me?” he asks, his black eyes meeting mine. Despite our rocky…erm, friendship, I would say I have no