Unsympathetic Magic - Laura Resnick [117]
“He died before any of the others.”
“He was the first one to die?” I said. “So maybe that’s it! Was he the first one to go missing, too?”
“We’re not sure yet.” Lopez took me by the shoulders and said firmly, “What’s going on?”
“If he was the first one, then maybe it didn’t work out,” I said. “Maybe the bokor hadn’t really figured out how to do it yet!” It made sense that there might be experiments—and failures. No one was born knowing how to raise a zombie from the grave, after all. It was a learned skill.
“Do what?” Lopez said impatiently. “And what’s the bokor?”
I met his gaze and realized we still did have to talk.
“You’re not going to like this,” I said.
“I really, really believe that,” he said. “Go on.”
“Okay. Here goes. And just remember, you asked me to tell you this.” I took a breath. “I did see Darius Phelps that night. He was raised from the grave by the bokor—that’s a dark sorcerer—who’s menacing Harlem. Darius is a zombie now.”
There was a long pause.
“A zombie,” Lopez said at last. “Now why didn’t I think of that?”
Ignoring his tone, I explained, “That’s why there was no blood when his hand was torn off. Zombies don’t bleed.”
“Ah.” He shrugged. “That explains it, then.”
I decided just to keep going. “Somehow or other, Darius broke away from the bokor’s control and was wandering the streets that night. The creatures that attacked him are baka. They’re deadly little monsters who do the bokor’s bidding. They killed Biko Garland’s dog, and they’ve been terrorizing Harlem by night.”
“I see.”
“The night I saw them, they’d been sent to retrieve Darius. We’re not sure—”
“We?”
“Max and I.”
“Of course.”
“We’re not sure what happened to Darius after I was arrested, but no one has seen him since. And zombies aren’t exactly stealthy, if left to their own devices. So I think the bokor probably regained control of him while I was in jail.”
“Tough break.”
“He’s probably under wraps somewhere, at least most of the time, with the other zombies.”
“Yes, probably.”
“Anyhow, we’re not sure why yet, but the bokor is raising an army of zombies. Well, a small team of them, anyhow. I guess five zombies—four, now that you’ve found a discarded body—doesn’t really count as an army. But there may be more that we don’t know about. You haven’t had time to investigate every cemetery in the tristate area, after all.”
I fell silent, unable to keep going in the face of his carefully blank expression.
After a long moment, he asked very calmly, “Is that all?”
“No, there’s more.” I added, “I was just waiting for, um, your reaction.”
“Reaction? I see.” He nodded. “You want a reaction.”
“Or I could just tell you the rest,” I said in a rush, sensing the storm was about to break.
“No, no. You want me to react? Okay,” he said. “How’s this for a reaction? You know why I had to give you up? This! Right here! THIS! This is exactly why I had to stop seeing you! This lunatic, crazy, nutbag garbage of Max’s that you swallow hook, line, and sinker!”
“I haven’t swallowed—”
“A little eccentricity is one thing—in fact, I like that you’re different. I liked it the night we first met, when you were covered in green body paint and had just destroyed an expensive stage prop with a hammer because you were trying to help someone. I liked it the night I had to get you out of jail because you’d tried to assist an assault victim while you were dressed like a hooker.”
“I—”
“But you always go too far, Esther! Way too far. You’re going to get yourself killed!” Lopez said. “Or Max is going to get you killed! And other people will get hurt—or worse—because of both of you!”
The unfairness of that last comment made me angry. “Other people’s lives have been saved because—”
“I’m not doing this, Esther!” He looked like his head hurt again. “What man in his right mind would fall for a woman who actually believes the things that you say to me?”
I tried to calm down. “Okay, this is more of a reaction that I was really looking for. Maybe we should both—”
“Has Max got you out there hunting zombies by night? Are you running