“Oh God,” I groaned, catching it by the throat. I cringed as my fingers sank into tissue and muscle. Swinging my other arm around, I slammed the dagger into the side of its head. Liquid sprayed my face and chest as the reanimated pain in my ass slumped.

“I hate zombies,” I muttered, shoving the corpse off me.

“Are you okay?” Zayne shouted.

“Yeah.” I sat up, squinting as I twisted toward the shallow end. I saw Zayne, but there were four zombies still on their feet between us. Three of them were coming straight for me.

Groaning, I popped up and got down to business. The zombies weren’t hard to take down. They weren’t born fighters, and coordination was definitely not something that reanimated along with them, but they sure were messy. By the time I was done, I was standing among a whole lot of gore and funk.

“You done up there?” I called out, eyes searching the beams of moonlight.

Zayne appeared where the pool began to dip. “You okay?” he repeated.

I assumed that meant there were no more zombies. “I’m fine. Not a scratch or a bite.”

He turned sideways. “There had to be at least two dozen.”

“That’s bizarre, isn’t it? There’s no way that many zombies just moseyed on over here. People would be freaking so badly, we’d hear them in here.”

“Yeah,” Zayne agreed, wings lifting and then lowering. “I got twelve. How many did you get?”

I frowned. “I wasn’t counting.”

He scoffed. “Amateur.”

I flipped him off.

“No need to be hateful.” The humor had faded from his voice when he spoke again. “I need to call this in.”

That made sense. This many zombies gathered in some random abandoned building was highly abnormal and created a whole lot of questions that needed answers.

I stared down at what was left of the zombies, and for the first time in probably my entire life, I wasn’t hungry. Lifting my gaze as Zayne pulled his cell from his pocket, I thought of something. “What do I say when the rest of the clan gets here? They’re going to have questions. Hell, they probably already have questions.”

“I’m calling Dez,” he answered, referencing the only other Warden besides Nicolai who knew what I was. He’d accompanied Zayne and the clan leader to the Community. “Get him to take you back to my place before the rest get here.”

“What if more zombies show up while you wait for the others to arrive?” I asked.

“I can handle them.” He put the phone to his ear. “And the others will be here fast.”

I nodded, even though I hated having to cut and run. Sheathing my daggers while he talked to Dez, I looked around the pool. It looked like a butcher shop.

“Dez is on his way,” Zayne said, sliding the phone into his pocket. “Something’s up, though.”