who can orgasm after animating one corpse.”
Her cheeks heated. “That is not true.”
“Oh really?” His tone was far too knowing, and she was far too aware of how silent James had become.
“Just concentrate on your zombies,” she said. “Unlike some people, it was never my life’s ambition to end up here.”
That seemed to silence him, and they worked without speaking after that. In the quiet, the sound of movement behind the wall grew louder, interspersed with the groans of the dead. She could feel that these bodies had been dead a long time. She needed to channel more of herself into each, to keep them…together.
“Finally,” James said, and she opened her eyes.
The first stone, about halfway up the wall, wiggled free and fell inward exposing a black rectangle of darkness beyond the wall. A skeletal hand reached through the opening and pulled the next stone inward, increasing the gap.
James stepped up to the wall and began to pull stones free from this side. Collared in iron, he lacked his usual strength, but the old mortar didn’t put up much resistance now that the opening had been made.
In a surprisingly short time, there was an opening big enough to step through, and James did just that. Not seeming to care that the zombies continued to widen the hole around him, he disappeared into the darkness.
“Right at home with the dark and the dead, isn’t he?” Doug asked.
Elysia released the dead she still held, and they slumped to the floor. Some were so old that the impact broke them apart.
“Would you quit?” She rounded on Doug. “I know what you’re doing.”
He released his own zombies, his eyes instantly reverting to blue. “And what am I doing?”
She lowered her voice. “You’re trying to make me doubt my decision to be with James.”
“I’m attempting to make you question it, yes. You were never truly comfortable with your magic. On some level, you always feared it. So when you took up with the—with him, I figured you had fallen for him. But the more I watch the two of you together, the more I wonder.”
“Wonder what?”
“Are you with him because you love him, or because you can use your magic when you’re with him. No need to sneak off to some mausoleum.”
Her cheeks warmed. “That’s not—”
“What? It’s a legitimate question.”
“I haven’t even slept with him,” she whispered. “So your concerns are groundless.”
“But you plan to.”
“I don’t see where that’s any of your business.”
“Despite what you think, I care about you, Ely. I want you to be happy, even if it’s not with me.” He moved closer. “I know you. You can’t separate your magical self from the physical. You never could. A relationship with the dead is the last thing you need.”
“Or maybe it’s exactly what I need.” She turned and headed for the dark opening in the wall. “James?”
A rattle of stone sounded from the darkness. “Ow,” James complained. “I forgot how crappy my night vision is like this.”
She wondered if his hearing was affected similarly. He hadn’t been that far away.
“Bring me a couple of those oil lamps,” he called.
She and Doug wordlessly did as told, taking two of the four oil lamps from the hooks on the walls. They were more convenient than candles, but with the glass reservoir on the bottom, she wouldn’t want to drop it.
Doug let her go first, and she stepped carefully among the stones and bodies lining the new opening into their room. The zombies had needed to do little more than tear down a couple of walls. A corridor had once led to their room, but it had been sealed on either end a long time ago.
Her foot nudged a fleshless skull, and it rolled free. “We won’t be reanimating that one,” she muttered.
“Impressive that you could animate it at all,” Doug said.
She wanted to glance back and check his expression, but she didn’t want to take her eyes from the obstacle course she was navigating. At least he