Skeleton Crew. Cameron Haley
you out for a changeling, killed a lot of my guys, tried to kill me and planned to take down your father.”
Adan grinned. “Light and dark, not necessarily good and evil. The distinction is more about personality than morals. The Seelie fey are usually in a better mood.”
I didn’t know the Seelie king well, but I had to admit even when he was conspiring to kill me he’d been pretty cheerful about it. “So you think the Unseelie fey might be raising zombies?”
“I don’t really know, Domino. I was raised by the fey but I was never one of them. Everyone knew who I was, what I was and why I was there. I wasn’t trusted. If I had to guess, I’d say no. The Unseelie are still fey. If there were Unseelie glamour on the zombies you’d have seen it.”
“Should we be expecting the Unseelie to move on us, just like the Seelie did?”
“Another thing I don’t know. There wasn’t much contact between the courts, except for the occasional war. I do know King Oberon has an army of spies whose only job is to keep tabs on them. You could ask him.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll stay in touch.” I stood up and left. Adan might have called after me but I was already out the office door and heading down the stairs to the club.
I’d like to say I was thinking about Terrence, about the Jamaicans, about zombies and the possible involvement of the Unseelie Court. But I wasn’t. I was thinking about Adan. I was thinking about how badly I’d wanted him—or at least, the creature that had taken his place—just a few short months ago. At least I’d thought I wanted him. Looking back, it was hard to remember why. But then Adan would smile and those fucking dimples would soften his chiseled face, or he’d tilt his head to the side as he listened to what I was saying. Just like the changeling. I’d catch the scent of apples and cinnamon and I’d feel that familiar pull. It was just like waking from a pleasant dream and wishing for a moment you could go back to sleep.
This Adan wasn’t a changeling. He wasn’t a monster. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.
I’d averted a war with the Seelie Court by giving them Hollywood. King Oberon had taken over a club on Sunset Boulevard that had belonged to one of the conspirators, a vampire I’d gotten to kill. It had been called the Cannibal Club under the vampire’s management, but Oberon had since changed the name to the Carnival Club. He’d done some remodeling and redecorating, too. The Mardi Gras theme was a lot less played out than the Goth thing, and I had to admit the purple, gold and green decor was a lot more festive—gaudier, too, but what do you want from fairies? All in all, Oberon could have done worse. It wasn’t like the world needed another Irish pub or anything.
I spun my parking spell and left my Lincoln out front, then went inside the club. I found Oberon behind the main bar polishing glasses with a white cloth. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and faded jeans and looked more like the drummer in a garage band than a fairy king. The Carnival Club wouldn’t open for hours but a few sidhe were hanging around, lounging at the tables and booths or drinking at the bar. The fairy queen, Titania, was there, and she didn’t look old enough to be in the club.
“Domino, welcome,” Oberon said. “Tequila? I’ll join you.”
“Too early for me, King. How about some of that apple cider you make?”
Oberon reached below the bar and brought out a carafe of the amber liquid. The cider wasn’t too sweet, a little spicy, and I was pretty sure it had some narcotic qualities. I didn’t care—it was one of the best things I’d ever tasted and it reminded me of better times.
“With ice,” I said as he filled a glass.
“You’re a barbarian, Domino,” the king said, but he dropped a few cubes in my glass. He pushed it across the bar to me as I sat down. “What brings you in?”
“The Unseelie Court.”
Oberon frowned. “What about it?”
“I maybe got a problem with zombies. Adan thought the Unseelie fey might be involved. He said they were more closely aligned with the realms of the dead, and all that.”
“Queen Mab has, at times, made the mortal dead a part of her court. Mostly to torment them, from what I’ve seen.”
“Queen Mab? Is she your sister or something?”
“They were lovers,” said Titania.
Oberon glanced over at her. He looked worried. “That was a long time ago, my dear. We’ve been enemies far longer than we were lovers.”
“She doesn’t do zombies, though,” Titania continued. “Very few mortals can cross physically into Avalon, so you’re not likely to find any animated corpses there.”
“Many of the Unseelie sidhe can raise the dead, though,” Oberon said. “When they cross into Arcadia.”
“She hasn’t crossed, husband. None of them have. I’d know.”
“She will.”
“But not yet. And Domino doesn’t care about that. She’s asking about zombies.”
“Yeah,” I said. “One thing at a time.” Arcadia was the sidhe name for the mortal world. The idea that a grouchier sidhe nation would eventually cross over—that was a problem for another day.
“Tell me about your zombies,” Oberon said. I gave him the whole story, and I have to say, neither he nor his queen seemed all that interested.
Oberon kept polishing his glasses. “I know of the kephn. Human souls are its food of choice, but it’s been known to hunt the fey and other spirits in lean times. It feeds on juice and so it can be quite dangerous to the lesser fey. Graveyards, as you might guess, are its primary hunting ground.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s my problem. It’s dead, and any way, it seemed to have a hankering for ghosts, not zombies.”
“Yes, the kephn is incapable of manifesting in the mortal world. It would have no use for zombies so I doubt it was responsible for their creation.”
“So what’s creating them?”
“What makes you think there will be others? Perhaps it was just something that happened to those two and you’ll never know what caused it.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to waste time hoping there won’t be more. I’m not that lucky.”
“Maybe it’s a plague—a viral outbreak or something.”
“Everyone watches way too many movies.”
Oberon shrugged. “This is Hollywood.”
“So you’ve got nothing for me?”
“I’m no expert on zombies, Domino.”
I sighed. “All right, thanks anyway. How’s everything else going? You settling in okay?”
Oberon grinned. “It’s perfect. Hollywood may not be much to look at, but there’s so much juice here. We’re all quite content, I assure you.”
“That’s good.”
“Are you coming to the Bacchanal Ball?”
“What’s that?”
“I’m throwing a party. Here at the club. You should have received an invitation.”
“Sometimes I forget to check my mail. When is it?”
“Tomorrow night. You must attend, Domino. It will be a celebration quite unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.”
“What are we celebrating?”
“Him,” said Titania. “What else?”
Oberon frowned at her. “Our return to Arcadia. The ceremony with which you celebrated our arrival was simple and elegant, but a little understated. That’s not really how