A Mad Zombie Party

Satisfaction cools my rage. River just darted her the way she once darted Milla. Only he used a tranq.
As her knees give out, he rushes over to catch her before she falls. He eases her into the booth and slides in to sit beside her. Her head rests against his shoulder as he casually eats the rest of her burrito.
“I’m so happy to see you again, sugar.” He kisses her temple. “Hungry?” he asks me.
Why not? I take a seat across from the pair and select an unwrapped taco. “You came prepared.”
“Always do. Now we need to figure out how to get her to the car without looking like we’re planning a gang bang or date-rape.”
“Please. That’ll be easy.” I finish the taco, drain what’s left of her soda. “Watch and learn.” I reach out and rip out a row of Tiffany’s stitches. Her wound opens, blood pouring down her chin. “She’s bleeding,” I announce. Too gleeful? I try for a more concerned tone. “We have to rush her to the emergency room, like, now.”
I stand. River is fighting a grin as he follows suit and gathers Tiffany in his arms.
“Poor girl,” someone says.
“I hope she’s okay,” another whispers.
River climbs in back of the car, keeping Tiffany in his arms. As I settle in the driver’s seat, he tosses me the keys.
“Way to keep us under the radar,” he says.
“Hey. We’re not potential date-rapers right now. We’re heroes.”
“Yeah, but what you did was pretty cold.”
“You complaining?”
“Hell, no. I’m impressed.”
I snort.
At the first red light, I whip out my phone to text Cole and let him know we’re on our way. I expect to see a message from Milla. Earlier, she told me she would break my face if I showed her my wrath and for some dumb reason, I thought it would be a good idea to tell her she needs my face intact more than I do, that she’s the lucky one who gets to stare at it. In other words, I flirted. But she hasn’t responded, and I’m glad. Really.
Caught Tiff. On way. Need room 4 interrogation.
His response arrives after the light turns green, so I have to wait until I hit the next red to read it. Yeah, I’m responsible like that.
Room ready. But U should know—we had prob w/Milla. Get here ASAP.
The light turns green. I don’t care. I type, What kind of prob?? Is she hurt?
I press Send and stomp the pedal to the metal, breaking speed records.
“Slow down,” River snaps. “We get pulled over, we’ll lose our prize. Not to mention the stint we’ll do behind bars.”
“Something happened to Milla. A problem.”
He sucks in a ragged breath. “Hell. Why are you driving like my grandmother? Go faster.”
I take the next few corners so fast, I leave rubber and smoke in my wake. Eight minutes and thirty-three seconds later, we’re parked in front of the mansion and running inside. When we pass the door, I notice Gavin coming down the stairs.
“Milla,” I say.
“Back in her room. But I don’t recommend going inside.”
River tosses Tiffany at him. “Do me a solid. Tie her down and lock her up. Put a guard at her door.”
Gavin doesn’t catch her, but then, he doesn’t really try. “Oops.” He picks her up none too gently. “Consider her restrained,” he says, relish in his tone.
I take the stairs two at a time and rush around the corner. Ali and Cole are standing in front of Milla’s door, arguing about what to do.
“—need to put another tranq in her,” Cole says. “She shouldn’t have recovered so quickly from the first one.”
“I’m telling you, she didn’t hurt us on purpose. Trust me on this. We all just need to sit down and talk about what happened. Okay? While we do, Reeve and Weber can run some tests.”
“Talking isn’t going to solve this, Ali-gator. And how many tests has Reeve already run? And how the hell do you know Camilla didn’t hurt you on purpose? For all we know, she and Tiffany are working together.”
“But why would she allow her throat to be slit?”
“Because she knew we would use dynamis on her, sharing our abilities with her. Because she plans to wipe us out by using our strengths against us.”
“She can hear you,” Milla screams through the door. “FYI, she thinks you’re an idiot!”
My hands fist. “You are an idiot,” I say to Cole. “She couldn’t have known we’d reach her in time to save her. And there were better, far less painful ways to hurt herself and gain our sympathy.”
“And,” Ali says, “none of us knew how she’d react to our fire and our abilities.”
“How did she react?” River demands. “Is that the problem?”
“She hurt slayers rather than zombies. Me, Gavin and Bronx.” Ali chews on her bottom lip. “She somehow tossed us in the air and held us there while squeezing us as if we were inside a trash compactor. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
And now, knowing Milla, she fears she’ll hurt others and become an outcast all over again.
“Milla...we have to know. When you worked for Anima,” Ali calls, “did they do anything to you? Experiment on you?”
“No. Never.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes! That’s something I’d remember. This is Tiffany’s fault. Her toxin somehow screwed me up and now I can’t be fixed. If I could, your fire would have done it already.”
River knocks on the door. “Let me in.”
“No. Stay out. Stay the hell out. Don’t you dare come into this room. You do, and I will shove my dagger so far down your throat you’ll be shitting metal for days.”
Creative.
He hesitates and I push him out of the way. “I’m coming in, Milla. Just remember you’re supposed to save me, not kill me.”
“No! Don’t you dare come in.” She’s even more frantic now. “Stay out, Frosty. I mean it. Stay away from me.”
I pick the lock and twist the dooknob.
  
  
I’m cramming my weapons into a black duffel bag when Frosty enters the room. “You’re brave, I’ll give you that much,” I snap. I don’t turn to look at him. The thought of harming him or my brother—or anyone!—scares the pee out of me. Staying in the mansion is no longer an option.
“Well, you are a coward,” he says. “You had a bad experience with your new abilities—your first time, no less—and you’re throwing in the towel?”
“Yes! You weren’t there. You didn’t see the damage I did to your friends.” Humiliating tears leak from my eyes.
He’s in front of me a second later, cupping my face in his big, rough hands. His thumbs tenderly brush the tears away. “You’re crying,” he says, and he sounds amazed. Something changes in his expression, a lingering hardness finally going soft. “You care about us.”
“Of course I do.” I wrench free of him, his kindness more than I can bear. “You guys are great.”
Gently, so gently, he says, “You’ll practice. You’ll get better. I’ll help you.”
“You don’t get it. If I practice, I hurt people.” There’s a minicrossbow in the pile I’ve created, but it’s not mine. It’s something Cole favors, which means it’s most likely his. Whatever. I pack it anyway. I’m going to be on my own. I’ll need all the help I can get.
“What about Ali’s vision?” Frosty asks.
Argh! Why isn’t he yelling at me for harming his friends? Why isn’t he grabbing my arm and dragging me to the front entrance, giving my ass a kick for good measure before slamming the door in my face?
“Maybe Ali got things wrong. I mean, I’ve been with you for a month and nothing’s happened. Maybe the vision is merely symbolic. Maybe I save you by not being near you.”
“Symbolic? Really?”
“What? I’m dangerous now.”
“You’ve always been dangerous.”
“To zombies, yes, but not to other slayers.”
He barks out a laugh.
Yeah. Okay. I was dangerous to other slayers before this. And not just because of my ties to Anima.