Merlin stared at us both with wide green eyes, flicking his tail back and forth unhappily. He didn’t speak again, though, so I guess that meant he agreed to keep mum for a bit.
“I have no idea where I’m going,” I admitted in a whisper, crouching low again. “Can one of you take the lead?”
Luna meowed and trotted ahead, turning back only for a second to make sure we followed.
Merlin emitted a low rumble, but otherwise fell in line. He hated when he wasn’t the one in charge, not that such a thing happened very often.
Luna set a pace much faster than my normal gait, and after a few more blocks I found myself breathing heavy as sweat beaded at my hairline.
“This isn’t working,” I complained. “Nobody is paying any attention to us.”
Merlin opened his mouth, ready to come at me with either an“I told you so,” or “serves you right for trying to silence my voice.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say nobody,” a smooth voice responded from a nearby azalea shrub before Merlin could speak. All the words ran together with no breaths in between, creating a creepy, snake-like sound. Still, even though I couldn’t immediately place it, I knew I’d heard this voice before. Imean, how could I forget something so eerily distinct?
Luna charged straight into the bush while Merlin hung back on the sidewalk with me. Soft feline voices whispered back and forth, and a few moments later Luna peeped her little white face out and motioned for Merlin and me to come closer.
Oh, I really hoped the owner of this azalea didn’t make an appearance anytime soon, because I had no idea how I’d explain my way out of this one. Merlin entered the bush easily, but I had to drop to my hands and knees and bring my face close to the earth to see through the tangle of leaves and branches.
Three glowing pairs of eyes met mine—blue, green, and yellow. When it came to the new arrival, I couldn’t see anything more than those bright, sun-like eyes, but that was enough for me to place him.
Mr. Fluffikins had arrived.
Which meant we definitely had trouble on our hands.
6
“I was called to investigate a disturbance in the area,” the black cat explained.
We first met Fluffikins after Merlin had summoned lightning in the house and blasted a hole straight through the roof. I didn’t have the money to fix it, and Merlin didn’t have the correct type of magic, so he and Luna phased in and out of various neighborhoods around Southern Georgia until they found Mr. Fluffikins.
His magic was different than what Merlin’s was or what Luna’s had been. Instead of being tied to a particular element in nature, Fluffikins wielded a special kind of magic generated from the earth’s core, and with it, he could do almost anything.
He used his elite skills to manage a team of mixed paranormals in the nearby town of Beech Grove. While small, Beech Grove served as the magical hub for this region of the state, which made the little black cat crouched before us the single most powerful magical being for miles. If he’d been called in to investigate a disturbance himself, then that definitely meant it was something big.
I bit my lower lip, trying to keep all the questions I wanted to ask from tumbling out one after the other.
As I’d learned at Merlin and Luna’s wedding, Fluffikins was all about ceremony and precedent. He wanted things done a certain way—nay,demanded they be done a certain way. And when it came to magical hierarchy, my cat outranked me mightily.
Sure enough, Merlin took the lead for our side of the conversation, holding his nose high to show that the other cat didn’t intimidate him, even though that may not have been true. “Might that disturbance be related to zombies?”
Fluffikins tilted his head to the side; his eyes appeared to float in the darkness.“Zombies, no. Nothing so terrible as that.”
“Well…” Merlin shifted his weight from paw to paw before continued. “I’ll have you know that we got attacked by a zombie robin this morning and have reason to believe more will be on the way.”
“More? Are you sure it wasn’t just a one-off? A new magic user practicing the life-share spell that accidentally transferred it to the wrong entity?”
“We’re sure,” Luna answered with a grave expression.
“Well, since I’m already here, do you need my help?” Fluffikins offered. “It’s the least I can do while I search for my mark.”
“Who’s your mark?” I asked, unable to hold back my curiosity.
Fluffikins let out a weary sigh.“It’s an unfortunate thing. A young vampire is running rampant in your town. He risks exposing all of magical kind to the humans due to his recklessness.”
“I haven’t noticed anything unusual,” I said with a shrug. “Maybe it’s not as bad as you think.”
“We’ve been lucky so far, but if he isn’t reined in soon, we’ll have quite the situation on our hands.” He paused and turned away from me, redirecting his attention on the highest-ranking individual here. “Merlin, do you need my help handling your zombies?”
My cat sniffed the air and shook his head.“Thanks, but no. We are fully capable of dealing with this on our—”
“CHEE TEE TEEE YAAAAAH!” A loud cry rent the air unlike anything I’d ever heard before. Shortly after, a small projectile shot through the bush and landed before us.
It rose on two legs, expertly shaking off the force of the impact, then turned toward Merlin with murder in its dark, glistening eyes.
“CHYAHHHHHH!” It belted out again, throwing itself at the Maine Coon’s face.
Merlin staggered backward, but his tiny attacker grabbed onto his whiskers and clung tight, refusing to be shaken away.
Luna and Fluffikins both jumped into action. Luna hurled herself at the invader, slashing out with sharp claws in an urgent desire to defend her mate.
Mr. Fluffikins summoned a swirling pink tendril of magic and used it to lasso the creature and pry it away from Merlin. Once captured, he held it up for a closer inspection.
The little thing hissed and snarled, trying desperately to break free. When Fluffikins didn’t let it go, the creature began to gnaw at his shoulder.
That’s when I recognized the creature for what it was—a squirrel. No sooner had I figured that out than the attack squirrel broke his arm clear off and slipped from a surprised Fluffikins’s magical grasp.
He bounded out of the bush and screamed again.“TCHI-TCHI-TCHIIIIIYA!”
Mr. Fluffikins spun in a circle, then sent a burst of magic straight into the air. It exploded around us, and I threw my hands over my head defensively.
“No one in a one-block radius will see or hear us, but we must dispose of this vile creature quickly!” he shouted. And just like that, all three cats bounded from the bush, ready for one heck of a fight.
7
Squirrels rained down from above, a veritable army descending from the sky—or at least from a nearby tree branch. Being that I was stuck on my hands and knees with my head pushed into a bush, I found myself completely at their mercy.
Tiny, clawed hands scraped at my back, and—oh—how it hurt! I backed out of that azalea as quickly as I could and scrabbled to my feet, but the tiny fiends hung on tight.
Merlin, Luna, and Mr. Fluffikins charged forth and fell upon the squirrels who’d attached themselves to me.
But more kept coming in a steady wave. Black, gray, brown, even red squirrels, all with crazed looks in their eyes, all determined to tear us to shreds.
And honestly I didn’t know how to fight them. Nor did I want to. I’d always loved watching the playful squirrels who came to snack at the bird feeder in our backyard.
While just as agile, these squirrels were decidedly different. Unhinged. And given the spectacle the first one had treated us to, I was willing to bet they were also undead. It seemed our zombie master had found us, which meant the plan had worked. In hindsight, it was a horrible plan.
Another worry zoomed to mind. Could undead squirrels still spread rabies? I’d have to add visiting the hospital for a screening to my long list of things to do later that day, providing we even survived this heckin’ crazy battle.