Later, after Baxter had time to clean up and change into some clothes Ambrose had taken from Eternity Road, we held a meeting at the Dead House.
“What are we going to do?” Talbot asked.
“Baxter, is there a cure?” I asked.
His stare made me realize how stupid the question was.
“I was a toddler when my mother was killed by a mob,” he said. “But if there’s a cure, I haven’t been able to find one.”
“So the only solution is to kill them?” I asked.
“It’s the only one I know of,” he replied. “Not one I’m particularly fond of, though.”
“Me, neither.”
We both knew that was the only solution, unless we could find something in the Book of Fates.
The confab broke up without finding a solution. I took a flashlight and a book on zombies to bed and poured over it, but didn’t find anything that would help us stop Hecate from creating an army of flesh eaters.
The next morning I reached into the pocket of my leather jacket and found a piece of paper I didn’t recognize. I unfolded it and saw Alex’s handwriting. He’d given it to me before he and Elizabeth had left Minneapolis. At the time, I’d thought it was a thank-you note and then I’d forgotten about it.
I stared down at a formula. The formula for making ambrosia. Without volition, a thought popped into my mind. I had in my hands the formula that could make me immortal again.
A phone number was written at the bottom, along with a message to call him if I ever needed anything.
I tucked it back into my pocket. My aunts would kill to get their hands on the formula. Gaston had killed Sawyer to get it. Or at least I thought that’s why he’d killed him. Gaston had been a psychopath, so it was hard to understand his motivation.
The formula did give me an idea, though. Alex was a scientific genius. As much as I wanted Alex and Elizabeth to be as far away from Minneapolis as possible, I needed him. I made the call. “Alex, I need a favor.” He wasn’t a medical researcher, but he was the closest thing I knew to one. And Doc could help.
Alex was ready to hop on a plane, but I tried to talk him out of it. “Can’t you work on the formula to reverse the flesh-eating disease long-distance?”
“I have to come to Minneapolis,” he replied. “I need to get blood and other samples from patient zero.”
“Baxter,” I said. “But it’s smarter to do this long-distance.” Safer, too.
“Nyx, I would do anything to help you,” he said. My ex’s brother sounded strong, but I knew that strength was a fragile thing. “I’ll be there within twenty-four hours. Can you start by getting the lake house ready for me?”
I wanted to tell him to forget it, to stay wherever he was, safe and happy, but I couldn’t. Instead I told him I’d meet him there.
The lake house was shuttered and dark, but I slipped in through an unlocked window. The wards I’d placed after Elizabeth and Alex had fled Minneapolis had held. Besides an ungodly smell coming from the kitchen and a layer of dust everywhere, the house was untouched. Only a family of mice had dared to take up residence.
Doc helped me set up a makeshift lab in the living room where Elizabeth and I had shared our first kiss.
“If there’s no solution in magic,” I asked, “what makes you so sure science will work?”
My father was the king of the underworld. If he didn’t know how to stop a zombie invasion, I didn’t have much hope that Alex would crack it.
“Magic and science go together,” Doc replied. “Many of the old gods had trouble accepting that.”
While we waited for Alex to show, I occupied my time by cleaning out the refrigerator. Alex and Elizabeth had left Minneapolis unexpectedly in the middle of the night, and there was a science experiment growing in the kitchen. I threw everything into a garbage bag and took it out to the curb, then scrubbed everything I could reach.
Afterward, I took a shower in the guest room where I’d stayed when I first met Elizabeth, and padded down the stairs barefoot and bare-chested.
A woman sat at the kitchen counter. She had dark frizzy hair and glasses, and wore a load of makeup, but I recognized her immediately. Elizabeth. My stomach lurched as I recognized my former girlfriend.
“What is she doing here?” I asked Alex, who was at the stove cooking. Doc had disappeared, which didn’t surprise me.
“It’s nice to see you, too,” Elizabeth replied. “I thought you’d be glad to see me. I’m better now, you know.”
“I want you to stay that way,” I told her. Underneath the disguise, she did look better. Some of the scarring from the fire had faded and her eyes were clear and bright.
“Why did you come?” I asked her softly. “It’s not safe.”
“We want to help,” she said. “You saved Alex and now we want to help you save everyone else.”
She gave me a hug, then touched the charms I always wore on a silver chain. “I see you found your mother’s charms.”
A shiver ran through me at her touch. Our eyes met and she looked away.
Alex cleared his throat. “Want some eggs, Nyx? We’ve been traveling all night and I’m starving.”
“Sure, Alex,” I said. I took a seat as far away from Elizabeth as I could. “Where’d the food come from?”
“Doc brought it,” Alex said happily. He slid a plate of eggs and toast over to his sister and then served me. “He even remembered orange juice.”
“Speaking of Doc,” I said. “Where is he?”
“In the basement,” Alex replied. I glanced at Elizabeth, who was pushing around her food without eating it.
“Why the basement?”
He shrugged. “Dunno, but I think I’ll check on him.”
After Alex left, Elizabeth and I avoided looking at each other.
I shifted in my seat. “You’re looking well.”
She bit back a laugh. “Hardly.”
“No, I mean it. You look… happy.”
“I am happy,” she said. “I wish you were.”
“You do? You don’t blame me for the fire? For what happened to you?”
“The Fates were entangled in my life long before I met you,” she said.
“Dating me didn’t help.”
She put her hand on my arm. “It didn’t hurt, either, Nyx. I don’t regret it.”
I covered her hand with my own. I didn’t know what to say, but she didn’t seem to expect me to say anything.
“Doc’s rigging up space for the test patients,” Alex said from the doorway. “Come check it out.”
I’d never been in the basement at the lake house. We followed Alex down the stairs. Their basement was nicer than my apartment.
In a few hours, Doc had fashioned a makeshift prison.
We smuggled Baxter into the house a few hours later. Doc and Alex took turns drawing blood while Elizabeth and I watched from a safe distance.
“You’re not hungry, are you?” I asked Baxter. I didn’t want him taking a bite out of someone while we worked on the cure.
“I could eat,” he said.
I held up the bags Ambrose had provided. “Lunch is served.”
While Baxter ate, I cornered Doc. “Do you think we really have a shot at this?”
“I do,” he said.
“But usually cures take years, decades even,” I said.
“Don’t worry, Nyx,” he said. “We have magic on our side.”
“I’ll leave it to you, then,” I said. I gave Elizabeth a hug. “Be careful, Elizabeth,” I added. “Hecate is still out there.”
“I’ll be careful,” she replied. “But don’t worry so much. She doesn’t know anything about me.”
Doc looked up from the paper he was writing on. “Not strictly true,” he commented. “I’m sure Wren told her all she knows of Elizabeth.”
“Wren? What happened to Willow?” Elizabeth asked.
Baxter snickered. I shot him a dirty look.
“Long story,” I said.
She waved a hand dismissively. “Never mind. Forget I asked.”
“No, you should know,” I said. “You’ll be more prepared. Alex, too.”
I settled in and related everything that had happened after they left Minneapolis, leaving out the more intimate details.
Elizabeth got the gist, though. “Nyx, I don’t know what gets you into more trouble,” she said. “Your penis or your kind heart.”
“His penis,” Alex and Doc replied at the same time. Baxter bellowed with laughter.
I grinned sheepishly. “I am a guy.” I sobered quickly, though. “Elizabeth, I’m not kidding. You and Alex need to be extremely careful while you’re here.”
I was torn. I didn’t want to leave them, but I needed to get back to the Dead House and check in.
“Go ahead, Nyx,” Doc said. “I’ll make sure no harm comes to your friends.”
If a god couldn’t keep them safe, I didn’t have a shot in hell. I nodded and headed back to camp.