“Run,” he growled.
He wasn’t sure they understood him, but terror was a decent motivator. The three stumbled into a run, and Jono hoped they made it to safety somewhere.
Sage yanked on his arm, dragging Jono forward with bruising strength. “Come on.”
They kept running, faster than most others on the street. They passed police trying to protect mundane humans against encroaching zombies amidst stalled cars. Nothing electronic was working, and Jono had a sinking feeling the entire city was affected. It would make communication between groups impossible and provide no easy way to work together and fight the walking dead.
Finally, they turned down the street Nadine’s apartment was on. It was empty, with only a handful of cars abandoned and their drivers nowhere to be seen. Jono was thankful no one was around for the few seconds it took them to reach the door. It was unlocked due to the security panel being disabled.
“That’s going to be a problem,” Jono muttered as he shoved open the door.
“We’ll bring something down to barricade it later.”
They slipped inside the public foyer, and Jono made sure the door closed firmly behind them. They took the stairs rather than the elevator, because that was a kill box situation if zombies made it past the gate.
Jono pulled out the extra set of keys Nadine had given him once they reached her floor. Even before he opened the door, he knew Wade and Spencer weren’t inside, unable to hear any heartbeats or scent them.
“We told him not to leave,” Sage said.
“He’s grounded when we get back to the States.”
Jono locked the door behind them, setting the keys on the small table flush against the wall to his right. He sniffed the air, scenting for any lingering threats, and came up with nothing.
“No way to contact Wade or Spencer. We’ll have to wait for them to return,” Jono said.
“Here’s hoping they’re actually together. I wouldn’t put it past Wade to have gone out for food with Spencer none the wiser.”
Jono was going to have words with Wade about listening after they survived this whole bloody nightmare.
Sage dumped her purse on the coffee table and kicked off her shoes. Jono tossed his mobile to her, and she dropped it in her purse. No use in carrying it around with all signal towers dead across Paris.
A loud, drawn-out yell reached Jono’s ears. He met Sage’s gaze for a single second before they both lunged toward the windows. Jono opened up the nearest one and looked outside.
Racing around the corner, clutching a bag bulging with bread to his chest, was Wade. Trailing behind him was a horde of drekavacs who screamed louder than Wade.
“Don’t eat me!” Wade shouted. “I just wanted lunch!”
Jono didn’t think and threw himself off the balcony with a grunt, falling four floors to the ground and not caring about the height. He slammed to the pavement hard enough he felt the impact vibrate up his spine, the cement cracking beneath his feet. Sage landed beside him, neither of them harmed from the jump.
Wade scrambled on top of a stalled car, yelling his bloody head off as he jumped from one car to the next. A drekavac rebounded off a parked car, twisting through the air after Wade, who lashed out with one leg while shoving a macaron into his mouth. He kicked the zombie in the side of the head while hopping on his other foot. He managed to dent the drekavac’s skull but lost his hold on his bag of food. It went flying—bread, croissants, and brightly colored macarons spilled through the air before tumbling to the ground.
Wade made a noise that was more pissed-off shriek than frightened scream. “No! My passionfruit macarons!”
“Wade!” Jono yelled, already moving. “Leave the food and get your bloody arse over here!”
“But my macarons! And my bread! That was my after-lunch snack!”
A high-pitched growl cut through the air from behind them. Jono looked over his shoulder in time to see Fatima vaulting from the bonnet of one car to another, eyes grayed-out in her small face. She was a tawny-and-black blur as she raced toward the drekavacs. Behind her came Spencer, a dark green mageglobe orbiting his body in tight circles as he ran.
A coldness cut through the air, reminding Jono of Smithfield Market back in London. Fatima landed on the roof of a car and went still, all four paws braced wide. Spencer thrust one arm forward, sending his mageglobe streaking through the air at the drekavacs. The zombies screamed, the sound making Jono want to dial down his hearing.
Spencer’s magic smelled cleaner than Patrick’s, but it still made Jono’s skin crawl. He watched as the mageglobe exploded like a mini-supernova, magic cutting through the drekavacs. Every last one of the demonic zombies went rigid before collapsing on the street. Ghostly fog drifted up from their bodies, twisting through the air.
Fatima yowled again, tail lashing as each individual spirit flew toward her. She opened her small mouth, jaw dropping wider than an ocelot would be capable of in the wild, and ate the spirits whole.
“Sorry, I took a nap and woke up when that damn spell rolled over Paris and saw that Wade was gone. I went looking for him, but then, you know, zombies,” Spencer said as he lowered his hands.
“That spell seemed a bit quicker than your casting in London,” Sage said.
