The Resurrected Compendium Read online

  He had his answer in another minute. Without warning, another volley of spear arrows flew in staggered rows. A few of them spanged off the sides of the truck or flew over without hitting, but enough of them impacted to shake the vehicle. One punctured the hood close enough to his hand to numb his fingers from the vibration.

  Seconds ticked by while Dennis tried to shift without breaking anything. Three rounds of arrows, that was it. Or was it? Who knew what she'd done to the place since he'd left?

  Anyone who hadn't been expecting the volleys would certainly be dead. As it was, Dennis counted himself more than lucky to have escaped with just a few scratches. His entire body ached from being squeezed between the truck and garage door, but he could deal with that.

  He drew in a breath to suck in his gut and wiggle free. Around the side of the truck, he pulled open the door all the way. He'd already psyched himself into finding her torn and bloodied, so for the first few seconds that's what he saw -- Kelsey's arrow-shredded flesh.

  When she uncurled herself from the passenger-side floor and launched herself into his arms, Dennis staggered back. He wasn't sure he'd ever had a woman in his arms this way, all hair and soft skin, arms and legs wrapped around him. She sobbed a breath into his ear. His name. He held her close.

  "Hey, hey," Dennis said. "It's going to be okay."

  Kelsey relaxed her grip on him enough to let her feet touch the ground. She looked into his face, her eyes wide and mouth trembling. "I wish I could believe that."

  He did, too.

  37

  Dennis had pulled a small first aid kit from the truck's glove box, and Kelsey used the antiseptic wipes to clean the number of small scrapes all over him. She didn't have a single one, a fact she found astounding, considering how many of those arrows had ended up inside the truck's cab. She tried to be tender, but it had to hurt him. He took the sting without a grimace.

  "Can't you tell her it's you?" She asked quietly when she'd dabbed away the last bit of trickling blood and wiped her hands clean. "Won't she let you in?"

  The door from the garage into the house looked normal enough, but Dennis had shown her that it was made of metal and required a passcode to open. He knew the code, but they needed to get ready for what waited for them inside. Based on what she'd seen already, Kelsey wasn't at all sure she was ready for it.

  "It won't matter. Besides, she has to know it's me."

  "She has cameras?" Kelsey packed up the first aid kit carefully, thinking they'd probably need it again, and that was if they were lucky enough that a few bandages and some antiseptic cream could take care of whatever happened to them.

  "Yes." Dennis ran a finger over the scrape on his neck.

  "But she won't let you in?"

  He laughed and shook his head. "Mom and I had a falling out, you could say. She told me when I walked out the door, not to come back."

  "But...this is different, isn't it?" Kelsey was no stranger to the weird ways families could "love," that was true. But if she hadn't killed the bitch who'd been her grandmother, she was sure the old woman would've let her back in the house when it looked like the world was ending. She never would’ve gone, of course. But if she had, Grandma would’ve taken her in.

  "This is what she's been waiting her whole life for. Something like this. If I'd been in there with her, that would've been one thing. But since she's in there and I'm out here..." he shook his head again. "She'll assume I'm part of it."

  "Even if she sees that you're okay? You're not sick or anything."

  "Especially if she thinks I look okay." Dennis stood. "Ready?"

  "Not really."

  Dennis frowned. "You could stay here. The garage should be safe now --“

  She stopped him with a look. Dennis sighed and scrubbed at his hair again. He looked toward the door to the house, then back at her. He nodded, just slightly.

  "You need to stick close. You won't have to run much. But you have to be ready to duck or swerve. You have to agree to do what I say, whenever I say it, how I say it. Immediately, no questions." His voice got hard. "If I say get down, you get down, you hear me?"

  Kelsey smiled. "Sounds kinky."

  Dennis looked surprised. He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple shifting up and down. She took pity on him and patted his shoulder to keep him from thinking too hard on what she'd said -- it hadn't been a come-on. Well. Not mostly.

  "C'mon," she told him. "Let's get inside."

  At the door, she stood behind him with her weight on her good foot. The gash in the bad one throbbed, though less than it used to. She could stand on it, if she had to. She'd suffered worse than this.

  Dennis climbed the two wooden steps to the door and tapped a few numbers into the keypad. Then a few more. Nothing happened, but he didn't seem surprised. He added another set of numbers. Then he took one step down.

  "Duck," he said mildly.

  Kelsey ducked. The metal door creaked open, revealing a shadowy hallway beyond -- and a burst of flame that shot out from the doorframe. Hot enough to singe her hair, it barely missed her. The next time Dennis told her to duck, she thought with a strange clarity, she'd make sure she ducked all the way down.

  "Good?" Dennis asked from his position to the side of the door. He reached up to fiddle with the metal tube attached to the top of the doorframe. That's where the fire had come from.

  The stink of gasoline made her cough, but she nodded. She patted her hair. Knowing it didn't matter how she looked didn't make a difference. She'd spent the last few years of her life making sure she looked good. It was habit, maybe a bad one.

  Dennis studied her for a moment. "I'm not sure what we'll find inside. But if something happens to me..."

  "What will happen to you?" So far he'd managed to avoid everything this house and his mother had thrown at them.

  Dennis shrugged. "I don't know. But if it does, and you meet up with Mom, you need to know the code word."

  "Why would she believe it from me if she won't even believe in you?"

  "It's 'abattoir.'" Dennis ignored her question. "Tell her that."

  "And she won't kill me?" Kelsey gave him a grim smile.

  "Well...she might still try."

  "How reassuring." Kelsey looked past him into the hallway. "You grew up in this house?"

  Dennis followed her gaze. "Yes."

  "Like this?"

  "It got worse as she got older," he told her. "But...mostly. Sort of. Yes."

  Impulsively, Kelsey got up on the step next to him. She kissed his mouth, soft and swift, not with passion so much as compassion. His hands went to her hips as though on their own -- at least he seemed surprised by his own actions. He didn't kiss her back, and when she pulled away, he wouldn't meet her gaze.

  "You turned out all right, Dennis. You're going to get us through this. I trust you."

  He coughed lightly, fingers squeezing her hips before he let her go. "Stay close."

  Inside, the hall looked like any normal corridor in any normal house. Several overhead fixtures, dusty but bright enough, showed off pictures in frames. Portraits, mostly. She spotted a few of Dennis with a gap-toothed grin. One of him holding up a gun. Several of him with a slight woman who must be his mom.

  They took three slow steps before they reached the first door, on their left. Just beyond it was another door to the right, and at the end of the hall, a room with a jog in it that looked like it led to a kitchen. Dennis centered himself in front of the door to the left. He kicked, hard, and the door splintered in the frame before it opened.

  Kelsey yelped, then clapped a hand over her mouth. Dennis didn't even look. He stepped inside the room, out of sight, then back out.

  "Clear," he told her. "Laundry room."

  "She didn't rig the laundry room 'cuz it's a terrible enough place," Kelsey murmured. A joke seemed entirely inappropriate right now, which was of course why it came out.

  Dennis snorted softly. "Yeah. Powder room up to the right. Do you need to use it?"

  "Um