The Night Beat

making us angry.
    I smiled slowly. “Where’s Tomio, Jerry?”
    “You wanna try me doggie-style?”
    “What plane of existence is Tomio on, Jerry?”
    “What’s it like, to get it from a real bitch?”
    “I’m going to dust you, Jerry.”
    That got him. Alive he might not have known what that meant. Dead, he knew. His eyes widened again. “No way.”
    “Yes way. I have two powerful liches with me. They’ll dust you and spread you. No hope then for a rescue, is there, Jerry?”
    Hard as it was to believe, him being dead and all, he got even more pale. “You wouldn’t.”
    “Why not?” I let my smile go wide and feral. “Because we’re the good guys? Yeah, we are. But we’re the scary good guys. And you’re dead and you weren’t good enough to join us. So you know what that makes you?”
    I waited. I could see the other resurrected looking confused and frightened, Bobby included. So, they didn’t know. They’d been left behind because they weren’t useful right now. Left to be resurrected when the time came, to serve as foot soldiers in the Army of the Damned.
    “What does that make you, Jerry?” Jack asked. “You answer the lady, like a good boy.”
    “I’m not a good boy!”
    “True enough.” Jack grinned. “Not good enough to live up to your parents’ hopes, not good enough to live anywhere but on the streets, not good enough for the Prince to take with him. Good enough to use. But not good enough to save.”
    “He’ll come for me!” Jerry started to shake. I wasn’t sure if it was him or if Miriam’s resurrection was about to end. “He’s coming and he’ll put me where I belong!”
    “No, Jerry,” I said softly. “He already did that. He put you where you belong -- in the ground.”
    Jerry started to cry. “No. He promised. He promised.”
    “Jerry.” I waited until he looked at me. “Jerry…he lied.”
    Jerry closed his eyes, threw his head back, and howled. Pity he’d been too close to the Prince -- with a howl like that, he was real werewolf material.
    Magdalena moved up next to Miriam and put her hands out. I could tell she was taking over the resurrection, to keep them going longer.
    Bobby looked shaken. “The Prince, he didn’t say anything about our families.”
    “What did he say?” Jack asked.
    Bobby was shaking now, too, just like Jerry. The others weren’t. I got a bad feeling at the base of my tail. “Ask fast,” I murmured to Jack.
    “The Prince, he said it was what we had to do.” Bobby started to cry. “Just let the monster in. That was all.”
    “You and Jerry created the portal?” I found that almost impossible to believe. They had no psychic talent, Ken would have spotted it. Heck, I would have spotted it.
    Edgar whispered in my ear. “It’s possible. If they were given the right incantations. As I told you, it was human-created.”
    “Who gave you the words?” They didn’t answer. I tried again. “Did Tomio give you the words?” The junkies didn’t answer, but one of the bums raised his hand. “Yes?”
    “Tony, he give us all words. Everyone had some words to say. He said it was like…like a prayer.”
    “A prayer for the dying,” one of the hookers said.
    Sexy Cindy gasped. “He did. Freddy used to be a professor, ‘way back when. I saw what Tony gave us and made Freddy take a look. And you said those words were wrong, didn’t you, Freddy?”
    “Yeah.” Freddy sounded angry. “The words were evil. I told ‘em not to do it, but Tony said we needed to, to help him out.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t make the connection. Tony gave us those words to read months ago.”
    “Months?” This was asked by every living and undead being, other than Black Angel Two, who were concentrating.
    Freddy nodded. “Months easy.”
    I did some fast math. “Nine dead, seven hurt. That’s sixteen.”
    “Doesn’t add up,” Jack said quietly.
    “It does if you subtract,” H.P. offered. “Of the nine dead, two were able to become undead, and of the seven hurt, one walked away healthy. That leaves thirteen.”
    “Evil number?” Jack asked.
    “The Prince likes to ensure humanity continues to think so,” H.P. replied. “So, it’s always a good bet.”
    “There’s another option.” I looked at Freddy and Sexy Cindy. “Who made it out of the alley alive and on their own steam?”
    Freddy shook his head. “No one. We nine, like you said. And then the others at the hospital. All accounted for.”
    Sexy