Revenant by Catrina Burgess Page B

around for weeks? Once
raised, will they still be bound to you? How strong will the bond be?” He looked out at the bodies spread
throughout the room. “So many questions to be answered. The whole operation is
trial and error. It’s the only solution I could come up with on the fly.
Clever, don’t you think?”
    He
is insane. Completely whacked out of his mind .
    He gave me a wide smile. “I can’t wait to see
how the first batch turns out. I have an expert on mummification coming in next
week, but the thought of getting started excited me so much I thought—why
not do a test run?”
    “You killed more people.” It was a statement,
not a question.
    “You’re much more squeamish than I thought
you’d be. For a girl who raised a demon and successfully avenged her family’s
death by murdering the men responsible, I would think that you of all people
would understand. You’re one of us now.”
    I flinched as if he’d struck me. “I’m not like you.”
    He reached out for me. “But you are. I can
feel the darkness inside you.”
    I moved away from him. “I’ll never be like
you!”
    “Why not just accept that you are a part of
this?” He swung his arm out and encompassed the room. “This is a glorious life
we lead.”
    “I will never be like you. ” I said it this time as though making a vow. And I was.
    Gage gave me a knowing look. “You’re
overwrought. I’ll bring you back here when we’re ready to move on to stage two.
I can’t wait for the final stage, when we set them out into the wild. Imagine
the fun.”
    I had thought the darkness had consumed me,
drowned me, but it hadn’t. As I watched Gage surveying his surroundings with
such glee, with such evil shining through his eyes, I realized that I would never be like him.
    I’d been a healer once. I’d been a creature
of the light. And maybe, just maybe, like my mother said in my dream, there was
a small flame of light still burning somewhere inside me.
    If only I could find it.
     
    * * *
     
    Sonja hadn’t lied—the
place was spotless. I studied the house Dean, Wendy, and I now occupied. There
was not a cobweb in sight, and the chandelier was sparkling in the candlelight.
    My head was pounding. I raised a trembling
hand to my temple. The evening’s events had stretched my nerves thin. I’d been
constantly on guard while in Gage’s company. Now that I was alone, I sunk down onto the piano bench. I wondered if I’d
ever be able to find the energy to get up again.
    Gage had a room full of dead bodies that he
was going to stuff and make into mummies. I’d hoped the rotting bodies would make
him give up his zombie army, but instead he’d come up with a new plan. What if it works and he can keep the bodies
from decomposing? How can I stop him?
    Wendy walked into the room. It was just the
two of us for now. Luke was nowhere in sight. They must be keeping him away
from me. She sat down in a nearby chair
and took off her shoes. A sigh came from her mouth. “We survived the night.”
    I nodded my head and tried not to think about
the mummy room. The last thing I needed was Wendy reading my mind. I didn’t
think I could deal with talking about it all right now, not until I could come
up with some way of stopping Gage and his gruesome operation. I focused on the
pressing needs of my body to distract myself. I was hungry.
    My stomach gave a loud rumble.
    Wendy actually smiled. “I can’t believe you’re still hungry.”
    I was starved. I had eaten, but not enough. Hunger
had gnawed at me for days. I wondered if I would ever be able to forget the
loneliness, the despair I’d felt when I’d first been
brought here and imprisoned. I forced myself to push the image of the
cave that had been my cell out of my mind. I’m
here now with Wendy . We were clean, fed, and there was hope that we could
make it out of here. My stomach growled again. “You think Sonja kept her word
and stocked the kitchen?” I asked, kicking off my heels. It felt good to