Undead No More by Rachel Ford

Author:Rachel Ford [Ford, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

We’d stayed on the first floor for a good forty-five minutes, just in case the police showed up. We wanted to have a chance to run for it, rather than being trapped upstairs.

During that time, we figured out where we’d conceal ourselves when Vik got home. So when the mutilated classic Mustang he drove pulled in, we knew exactly what to do.

Vik had spent a lot of money adding bells and whistles to the old muscle car. So many bells and whistles, that it hardly resembled the original, inside or out.

Most of the bodywork was custom, with parts fabricated and painted to resemble either a fighter jet or spaceship in flight. It was hard to tell which. The seats had been replaced, the originals deemed too uncomfortable, and the dials and gauges had made way for digital screens. Everything was emblazoned with crimson Vs, from the seatbacks to the dash to the doors.

As Vik told it, it was the perfect melding of new and old. A classic with a space-age feel. Which really should have been a tipoff as to what kind of knob I was dealing with, but when you’re desperate, well, it’s easy to ignore the red flags.

I stayed at the window long enough to ascertain that he’d come alone. Then, leaving him to park the monstrosity, I took up my position.

The plan was to get him in the house, let him settle, hopefully put down his keys and phone, and move away from any points of easy escape.

To that end, Tasha hid in one of the bedrooms upstairs, near the landing. I’d ducked into the library downstairs, behind the door. I could track his progress without being visible, and pounce if he headed for the living room. By the same token, she would be ready if he went upstairs.

I heard the lock rattle, and then the front door open. Vik stepped inside and sighed. The door closed and keys clattered onto a hard surface. The little stand by the door, I figured, the one with the giant money tiki statue.

A light tread announced that he had started to move, and I strained to make out the direction. The stairs, maybe, or – no. The kitchen.

The tap started, and I decided the moment had come. Time to make a move, while he was filling a glass with water, or whatever he was doing.

I opened the door and started to creep forward when his voice froze me in my tracks. “There you are,” Vik said.

For a moment, my heart hammered so hard in my chest, I worried that it might be possible for a zombie to die of a heart attack. I’d never heard of such a thing, but then, maybe no one had ever been in this situation before.

“About time you pick up,” he went on, and I released the breath I was still holding.

He hadn’t found me out. He wasn’t confronting me. He was on the phone to someone else. I stood rooted to the spot, trying to overcome the sudden urge to shake in my shoes.

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