“Carmen, you can’t stop my magic now. It’s time to give up.”
Carmen looked around with wide eyes, assessing the situation. Olivia darted back into the room, stopping right in front of Carmen. Carmen wrapped her arms around Olivia’s throat and squeezed.
“No,” I screamed, but it was drowned in everyone else’s screams.
My magic exploded out of me like a bomb. I sent it all out, all the power I could muster. My necromancer power opened up and I welcomed the flow of dark magic in my veins. If there were any dead bodies in this morgue, I wanted their help.
Betty sat up with a squelch, scaring Carmen and causing her to drop Olivia. Sam rushed forward and grabbed her arms, pulling her out of danger. I kept up the flow of magic, somehow, I’d managed to press Carmen into the wall and hold her there, so I didn’t stop.
As Sam pulled Olivia into the back room, the body we’d seen earlier in the day lurched through the doorway and into the room. “Get her!” I yelled. “Sam, stay in there with Olivia! Owen, get Drew out.”
Carmen held out her hand, and that damn knife materialized in it. Having it in the room was like a punch to the gut of my magic, but it didn’t stop, thankfully. It did weaken, though. As Carmen fought against it, she swung the knife out and sliced Betty.
Betty’s body shuddered, then erupted into a shower of dust, all the liquid and squelching, swollen mass disappearing.
The corpse from the back room shuffled forward, faster than I would’ve expected.
As the corpse fought Carmen, I noticed something out the window on the door to the hallway. Blinking, I split my focus between keeping my magic going, and scooting over to see who was walking down the hall.
When I saw them more clearly, I gasped and nearly let my magic go. Carmen waving that knife around made it harder for me to keep hold, but I managed it, barely, and backed up.
Skeletons streamed through the door, all of them totally decomposed. There was no flesh left on any of them, though several had hair.
Carmen screamed and lunged at the corpse from the back part of the morgue and managed to cut him with the knife. But the skeletons kept coming. They rushed toward her. Every time she touched one with that knife it disintegrated, but more kept coming through the door.
And more. “Where are they coming from?” I whispered.
“There’s an old graveyard across the street,” Drew said. “It’s got to be there.”
I thought I told Owen to get him out of there. I studied Drew and shook my head. No, the stubborn man wouldn’t leave. It wasn’t worth arguing over right then.
A cemetery. Great. Just my luck. The skeletons swarmed and through the mass of bones, I saw them get the knife away. They picked her up, screaming, and walked her through the doors. I let my magic go then, but it was done. They weren’t stopping.
A new kind of fear rose up inside me.
“Can you stop them?” Owen asked.
I breathed deep and pulled on my energy, but it was no good. “No.”
Sam and Olivia came out of the back room, Olivia conscious again. “Are you good to follow them?” I asked.
Olivia nodded with one hand on her head. “Hell, yes. I’ve got to see this.”
“Try again to stop them,” Drew said. “Don’t let them kill her. I can put her in jail, put her away for the rest of her life.”
“I’m trying,” I said. Lifting my hands, I let my magic flow from my palms. “I command you to stop.”
It didn’t work. What was I doing wrong?
Thank goodness for the darkness. We followed them across the street. They walked through the wrought iron gates of the old graveyard and several of them stopped. They faced us at the gates and wouldn’t move. I tried to stop them, to inanimate them, but they stood firm.
Carmen’s screams intensified, over the hill and out of sight and then suddenly, they stopped. Silence filled the air.
The skeletons in front of us stepped to the side, allowing us to enter.
Drew, Owen, Sam, Olivia, and I rushed into the graveyard. “Split up,” I cried. “Find her.”
We pulled out our phones and flashlights, searching all around the headstones, but after an hour, we gave up. The skeletons milled about, some of them standing around, some following us. A few sat on headstones and looked around.
“She’s gone,” I whispered. “They took her.”
Chapter Nineteen
“We have to send these skeletons back to their graves,” Owen said, turning to me. “They can’t stay here.”
I shrugged and looked at the closest one, leaning against a headstone. He was missing his left arm. Gathering my energy and magic, I focused on him. “Go,” I whispered.
He stood and stumbled forward, then without warning, exploded. I cried out and fell back against Owen.
“Maybe a bit too much,” he said.
Drew took my hand and helped me upright. “You okay?”
I stared into his teal eyes that had specks of blue in them. Something passed between us that I couldn't explain. A sensation or energy flowed between us, teasing each of our auras. The urge to reach out and touch him was strong.
“Okay.” Owen pointed to another skeleton. His voice breaking whatever trance I fell into. “Try again, this time not so hard.”
I focused on another bony dude. I wasn’t sure how I knew it was a guy, but it was. “Go back,” I whispered, letting a trickle of power go toward it.
My magic hit him in the leg, and his left leg bones disappeared entirely. He fell over against a headstone and the rest of him broke apart. Bones went everywhere and a cat screeched and hauled ass out from behind one of the headstones, making Olivia and I jump.
Owen snorted. I turned to see Sam and Olivia bent over with silent giggles as Olivia clutched her head.
“Thanks a lot, my friends,” I said sarcastically. “Even though you’re super mean, come here. I’ll heal your head.”
Sam helped Olivia limp forward so I could put my hand on her head. Healing her was easy and in a few seconds, she sighed in relief. “Much better.”
“Why was that so easy?” I asked. “Why can’t I do that with the skeletons?”
Owen cocked his head. “Why don’t you?”
He took my hand and walked me to the cemetery gates. “Look at the whole graveyard. And heal the skeletons. Not fully. Just heal their state. Their proper state is in the ground, at rest. Heal them to that state.”
I shrugged. Worth a try.
Usually I placed my hands on people when I healed them, so this would be tricky. The skeletons didn’t need actual healing. The last thing we needed was a bunch of undead beings roaming the town. What they needed was to go back to the resting places. To sleep once more.
A thought formed in my mind and I closed my eyes while lifting my hands in the air. My power flowed out in all directions and I could feel it touch each skeleton as it went. I felt their confusion and their need to obey me. “Time to go back to sleep. You served me well tonight.”
One by one, I sensed the skeletons moved to their graves. When everything was nice and quiet, with no signs of bones, we walked back to Olivia’s car, exhausted. “Back to my place?”
Olivia nodded. “Yeah. But I’m not driving. I’m too tired.”