Chapter 26

Chapter 26
I looked away from the still-clenched fist just in time to see the giant zombie shove two of his remaining hand’s fingers into Erik’s mouth, yanking his head to the side. Erik groaned, and then bit, then spat, and started flailing.

“Jenga! You have to do something! If he hurts Erik or... or kills him, while he’s under your control, that’s...”

“Not good,” the old man finished for me, scratching his beard. “But I don’t know how, I mean, I’ve never had to worry about something like this before.”

“You don’t want this to happen,” I said. My voice was low and slow. “You never meant to hurt anyone. You just wanted money, right? Stop this before you end up in even worse trouble than you’ve already got.”

Erik rolled left and then right, finally getting up to his knees and taking the pressure off his jaw. Atlas let out a hissing groan when Erik got a good punch in his ribs, and then just as quickly as Erik had been ambushed, he was back on top.

The first punch sent another tooth flying and the second made Atlas’s jaw go funny, and that was all it took.

Jenga, bless his crooked heart, went running across the distance and hurled himself on Erik.

“Please!” he shouted. “Please don’t hurt him anymore! Or not hurt him so much as dismantle him! He didn’t do anything!”

Erik drew his arm back for another blow that I was sure would dislocate Atlas’s head.

“Erik!” I shouted. “Listen to him!”

His fist started to descend, but Jenga grabbed Erik’s muscled, silver arm, and dug in his heels, making the blow go left and slam into the ground instead of Atlas’s nose. Erik turned his head to the side, his yellow eyes and wide nostrils flaring.

“I give up!” Jenga announced, dramatically flinging himself to the ground. “I can’t watch you do this to my old friend. I just...” “What?” Erik snarled.

The panther police, along with Duggan and Jamie, finally made their way through the dense, smelly swamp to where we were.

“What happened? Erik? Are you okay?” Duggan ran to Erik’s side, shaking him until he responded.

“Atlas,” Erik said, breathing hard. “He came through the forest and we had a hell of a fight. God that felt good!” He was shaking the same way he did after we made love, like his entire soul was relieved of a weight.

Jamie sighed with a grin and helped me to my feet. How she was walking around the muck-pit in stilettoes I’ll never know.

“You okay kid?” She asked as I steadied myself.

I nodded. “I’m more worried about him though,” I said tilting my head in Jenga’s direction. “I’m pretty sure that zombie’s his only friend.” Jamie blinked.

“I know it sounds weird,” I said. “As soon as Erik got the upper hand, he punched Atlas’s arm off and Jenga got all upset.”

“Wait, really? He punched Atlas’s arm off?”

I pointed with my toe. Jamie turned her head and snorted a laugh, then walked over and picked it up by the wrist. “This is incredible,” she said.

“He managed to make an arm. This is synthetic. Here, touch it.”

Before I knew it, she whopped me on the arm with the, er, arm. It was spongy and gave a little, like normal flesh. Actually, it was exactly like normal flesh, except there was no blood, and it was still moving a little bit.

“We’re going to have to take you in, Jenga,” one of the police officers was saying. “Conspiracy to commit grand theft, beating up the alpha with use of a zombie, and unlicensed corpse assembly. Seems like we’ve been down this road before.”

Jenga nodded, then vehemently shook his head. “No! The theft, fine, yes that was me. But this wasn’t unlicensed. Atlas and I were good friends, you remember that.”

“That’s true,” Duggan added. “I remember you two being close.”

“And,” Jenga continued, “I have it in his handwriting that I was allowed to reanimate him. And anyway, that’s his brain in that skull of his. He can answer for you.”

“He... can?” Erik was standing with his hands on his hips shaking his head. “Come to think of it, he did groan something before.”

“Hnnnng,” Atlas said. He pointed in Jamie’s direction and when she delivered his arm, he held it and smiled a little.

“See? He likes it. He likes the fancy limbs I’ve made. Would you like to see?” Jenga tugged on the arm, but Atlas wasn’t letting go. “Well at any rate, it’s a synthetic! Sort of anyway. It’s made from ballistics gel, cow muscles and—”

“That’s enough, I think,” Duggan said before turning to Atlas. Duggan’s face was slightly green. “Is all this true? You’re conscious in there? If so, that’s... well this is just crazy is what it is.”

“...Yes.”

Everyone took a breath at once.

Erik rubbed his sore nose.

Jamie sneezed.

“Jenga... friend.” His voice was deep and powerful but very shaky.

Jenga, sensing something was wrong, reached up and popped Atlas’s jaw back into place with a satisfied grin.

“Much... better.” Atlas patted Jenga on the shoulder, almost knocking him down.

While I was watching Jenga try to explain himself to the police while his giant friend kept interjecting two word responses, Erik pulled away from the crowd and grabbed my hand.

“Well,” he said, turning to me and bending down close to my ear. “What say we leave them to it? If they have to take a statement from a zombie, this could be a pretty lengthy process.” He flashed that disarming, heartstopping grin of his as he pulled me close.

Say one thing about shifters, they never get embarrassed about showing their emotions.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean you’re kind of in charge.” He shook his head, tossing his brown locks from side to side just a little. “Alphas are just figureheads. These guys are the ones who do the real work.” He laughed. “Anyway, I’ve done what I’m good at. Leave the subtle stuff to those guys.”

Slowly, we started to back away, toward Erik’s bike, which was somehow still upright, despite all the excitement. As Erik handed me a helmet, Duggan turned. Instead of saying anything, he just smiled and gave Erik a short nod.

I swear, nothing in the world felt as good as throwing my leg over that motorcycle and feeling it roar to life.

But then I put my arms around Erik’s waist, squeezed him tight, and suddenly, the motorcycle thing took a distant second place.