Undead for a Day by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom Nancy Holder Chris Marie Green

planting her combat boots on the floor, leaning forward and resting her arms on her thighs while pointing that revolver at Lilly.
    “Alone at last—the zombie and the vacillator.” She didn’t often use big words like that. It might’ve even been the first time she’d tugged this particular one out of the depths of her vocabulary. Hell, it might’ve even been a remnant from the SATs she’d blown back in the day. “Is zombie even the right term for you?”
    She hadn’t been expecting a response, so when Lilly stopped peering straight in front of her and connected with Dawn’s gaze, Dawn sat up.
    “I knew you wouldn’t play possum for long. You’re too feisty for that.”
    The tips of the girl’s gaped mouth somehow turned up, as if she remembered the fights they’d had in London, when they’d managed not to kill each other. And if Lilly had been re-tuned in the head during some kind of Samhain ritual, she would definitely recall all those fights.
    Was Lilly ready to communicate? It might be a good idea to find out whether the girl had been telling the truth when she’d given those visions to Kiko. After all, Dawn doubted that she’d just strolled to the beach house to surrender to them like she had.
    “You’re no zombie,” Dawn said. “At first, I wasn’t so sure you were anything more than a bozo with zero gray matter in your head. But you can use that noggin of yours, can’t you? I’ll bet you even have memories of all the custodes that came before you, and you remember your life, too.”
    Lilly didn’t respond.
    Dawn took another approach. “Or maybe I’m wrong. I bet you can’t do anything more than your family’s dark magic allows you to do. They’re commanding your every move, aren’t they? Because God knows, you were never this much of a shrinking violet before. Something has to be restraining you.”
    Lilly wrinkled her nose in a snarl, and Dawn wasn’t sure if it was because she was taunting her or if it was because a girl like Lilly didn’t do restraint very well, whether Dawn was doing it or whether her family was.
    The girl widened her eyes and surged forward, straining against her bindings. For a second, Dawn thought the keeper was about to hop out of that chair, popping her ropes like a mini-Hulk and coming in for the kill.
    But then Lilly shuddered and went still, as if something was holding her back.
    Meratoliage ritual magic? Was Dawn right about Lilly being restrained by the family’s powers?
    Hmm.
    When Lilly made a little sound in her throat, it reminded Dawn of a dog who wanted some petting, and there they were—back at square one with the zombie and the vacillator.
    “What’s wrong with you?” Dawn asked.
    Lilly cocked her head to the side. Yikes. But Dawn was starting to catch on.
    “Is there something that you want? Something you can’t put into words?”
    One long whine.
    Should she get Kiko down here to do his psychic thing again? Right. She’d made a promise to Natalia not to pull him into the action anymore.
    But Dawn had the feeling that Lilly needed to tell her something, and Kiko was the man for the job. Some promises had to be broken.
    “Kik!” she called out, pointing the revolver at Lilly as the girl kept cocking her head. “Could you come here for a sec?”
    Moments later, Costin zoomed into the room with such force that the curtains belled away from the windows. Kiko and Natalia came running, and she was looking at Dawn as if she wanted to take a pair of pliers and extract her teeth one by one.
    Before anyone could ask what was wrong, Dawn shoved the nozzle of the revolver in Lilly’s direction. “She’s reacting to things I say when she wasn’t before. Why?”
    Kiko stepped toward Lilly, but Natalia got hold of his long sleeve.
    He whispered to his wife, and Dawn thought she heard him say, “Just one more time.”
    When Natalia let go of him and tightened her jaw, just before leaving the room, a pang of remorse hit Dawn.
    But it didn’t