Free Love in the Time of Zombies by Cassandra Gannon Page A

gaggle of idiots.  Caleb
was always trying to fish them out of danger, track their asses down, or
mediate their squabbles.
    It
didn’t make any sense for Caleb to be with Zeke when he could be looking
for someone who hadn’t walked away from all the bullshit to live amongst the
humans.  Caleb had never made a secret of the fact that he considered Zeke a
colossal disappointment.  Rather than follow the pack, Zeke had gone his own
way.  He spent his life researching supernatural legends, and buying a golf
course, and trying his damnedest to ignore Caleb’s nagging.
    Why
would Cale come for him first?
    “The
pack is too mean to die.”  Zeke assured him, because it seemed like the only
thing to say.  “Besides you said yourself that the pink stuff wasn’t meant for
us.”  Zeke quickly laced up a pair of sneakers.  “And I seriously doubt it was
a natural phenomenon.  I think someone supernatural released it to attack the
humans.”
    “My
first suspect would be Joseff, but I’m not sure why he’d want the humans dead.”
    Zeke
didn’t even pretend to understand how the vampire’s mind worked, but he wasn’t
so sure Joseff was behind this.  Without human blood, there’d be a lot of
hungry vamps.  Besides, Joseff would never do anything that would endanger
Darcy.
    Who
else had the brains and power to pull it off, though?  Zeke knew more than
anyone about the obscure recesses of the supernatural world and he was drawing
a blank.
    “It
doesn’t matter who did it.”  He decided.  “It matters that it happened and the
humans are the targets.  Scotlyn is a human.  You see the problem
here?”  Zeke had to find her.  “What else did she say to you?”
    “Not
much.  I showed up here about an hour ago and she clearly didn’t like me, so
the conversation wasn’t real stimulating.”
    “She’s
got taste.”  Zeke headed off again.
    “Girl’s
a pain-in-the-ass, Z.  It wasn’t until I showed her we had the same marking
that she let me near you and even then she watched me like a hawk until she was
satisfied I wasn’t going to molest you in your sleep.”  He held up his wrist to
display the pack designation they’d both been born with.  To the humans, it
looked like a tattoo.  For supernatural beings, it was like an ID card
declaring them Macreadys.
    “She
had to have said something else.”
    Caleb
trailed along after him.  “Well, right before she left, she talked real fast
about a dog, and how she had to go, and how I should wait here.  Then, she threatened
to hunt me down if I hurt you and she took off with the shotgun.  So, I gave
you some salt to wake you up and I waited.  That’s it.”
    “She
thinks I’m a dog?”  Wonderful.
    “No,
not you .  Something about a pooch.  I don’t know.  I was kinda annoyed
that the chick kept edging away from me like I had the plague so…”
    Zeke’s
eyes widened as he suddenly put the pieces together.  “Pucci?”
    “Yeah,
that sounds right.”
    “Pucci’s
her cat .”
    Caleb’s
face creased in distaste.  “A cat? ”
    Zeke
ignored that.  He took off towards the emergency exit, grabbing a random shirt
from its hanger as he raced by.  It had a glittery image of the Welcome to Las
Vegas sign on the front.  Zeke didn’t care.  “Scotlyn went back to her
apartment to get that goddamn cat.”
    “Jesus.” 
Caleb lamented.  “It’s bad enough that the world ended.  Worse that the
survivors are going to see me with you wearing that .  But, now we have
to go look for a human and her cat? ”  He sighed like a martyr.  “You are
really pushing it.”
    “ My human and her cat.”  Zeke shoved open the same emergency exit he and Scotlyn
had stood at during the attack.  It was daylight, now.  Somewhere around nine
in the morning.  Nothing was moving in the decimated parking lot.  “Understand
me, Cale.”  He turned to meet his pack-mate’s eyes and carefully spaced the
words.  “ My. Human .”
    “Oh,
I heard