[Anita Blake Collection] - Strange Candy Read Free Page B

grave. By blood, magic, and steel, I call you. Arise, Arthur, come to us, come to me, Arthur Fiske.” Carla joined me as she was supposed to. “Come to us, Arthur, come to us, Arthur. Arthur, arise.” We called his name in ever-rising voices.
    The flowers shuddered. The mound heaved upward, and the chicken slid to the side. A hand clawed free, ghostly pale. A second hand and Carla’s voice failed her. She began moving round the gravestone to kneel to the left of the heaving mound. There was such wonder, even awe, in her face, as I called Arthur Fiske from the grave.
    The arms were free. The top of a dark-haired head was in sight, but the top was almost all there was. The mortician had done his best, but Arthur’s had been a closed-casket funeral.
    The right side of his face was gone, blasted away. Clean white bone shone at jaw and skull, and silver bits of wire where the bone had beenstrung together. It still wasn’t a face. The nose was empty holes, bare and white. The skin was shredded and snipped short to look neater. The left eye rolled wildly in the bare socket. I could see the tongue moving between the broken teeth. Arthur Fiske struggled from the grave.
    I tried to remain calm. It could be a mistake. “Is that Arthur?”
    Her hoarse whisper came to me. “Yes.”
    â€œThat is not a heart attack.”
    â€œNo.” Her voice was calm now, incredibly normal. “No, I shot him at close range.”
    â€œYou killed him, and had me bring him back.”
    Arthur was having some trouble freeing his legs, and I ran to Carla. I tried to help her to her feet but she wouldn’t move.
    â€œGet up, get up, damn it, he’ll kill you!”
    Her next words were very quiet. “If that’s what he wants.”
    â€œGod help me, a suicide.”
    I forced her to look at me instead of the thing in the grave. “Carla, a murdered zombie always kills his murderer first, always. No forgiveness, that is a rule. I can’t control him until after he has killed you. You have to run, now.”
    She saw me, understood, I think, but said, “This is the only way to be free of guilt. If he forgives me, I’ll be free.”
    â€œYou’ll be dead!”
    Arthur freed himself and was sitting on the crushed, earth-strewn flowers. It would take him a little while to organize, but not too long.
    â€œCarla, he will kill you. There will be no forgiveness.” Her eyes had wandered back to the zombie, and I slapped her twice, very hard. “Carla, you will die out here, and for what? Arthur is dead, really dead. You don’t want to die.”
    Arthur slid off the flowers and stood uncertainly. His eye rolling around in its socket finally spotted us. Though he didn’t have much to show expression with, I could see joy on his shattered face. There was a twitch of a smile as he shambled toward us, and I began dragging heraway. She didn’t fight me, but she was a dead, awkward weight. It is very hard to drag someone away if they don’t want to go.
    I let her sink back to the ground. I looked at the clumsy but determined zombie and decided to try. I stood in front of him, blocking him from Carla. I called upon whatever power I possessed and talked to him. “Arthur Fiske, hear me, listen only to me.”
    He stopped moving and stared down at me. It was working, against all the rules, it was working.
    It was Carla who spoiled it. Her voice saying, “Arthur, Arthur, forgive me.”
    He was distracted and tried to move toward her voice. I stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Arthur, I command you, do not move. I who raised you command you.”
    She called one more time. That was all he needed. He flung me away absentmindedly. My head hit the tombstone. It wasn’t much of a blow, no blood like on television, but it took everything out of me for a minute. I lay in the flowers, and it seemed very important to hear myself breathe.
    Arthur