"Since you're only part time, we'll start you out at a thousand a week."

Nick about choked on the amount. A thousand what? Lira? Yen? Rubles? "Excuse me?"

"That's before taxes, of course. And we do have work performance bonuses so you can increase that if you need more. I believe in rewarding hard work and—"

Nick held his hand up to stop him right there. "Go back to make sure I heard what you said. A thousand a week?"

"Yes."

"A thousand American dollars a week?" "Yes."

"Not Monopoly money or anything?"

Kyrian gave him an irritated glare. "No, Nick. Real, hard cash, and you'll have your own credit card too."

Nick couldn't believe it. He was still aghast over the amount, never mind the other stuff. "And I don't have to do nothing illegal or perverted?"

"You just have to watch your tone, especially to Rosa."

Well, dang. That made him wonder one thing.... "How much you paying her if she's full time?"

Kyrian laughed. "A lot more than I'm paying you, but it's not enough to put up with your smart mouth. So if you want to keep this job, you'll have to show her respect."

"Don't worry. I don't mouth off to women." But that rule didn't apply to men or really to anyone who tried to push him around.

However, Nick did have one major concern. "Urn, how much will you be deducting out of that for the hospital bills?"

"You keep your grades up, your attitude in check, and show up for work on time for six months and we'll forget about it."

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And though he was young, he hadn't been born yesterday. "I don't know about that. My mama says we don't take charity from people. We pay our own way."

"Nick ..." Kyrian's voice was strained. "Look around. I'm not going to miss it. You were headed the wrong way down the street, when, for whatever reason, you made a right turn. No one made you do it. You did it by yourself. My goal is to keep you on the right path. And I know that desperate people do desperate things, so this job will help eliminate some of that temptation. You're a good kid and you deserve a break, which I'm sure life hasn't given you much of."

It was true. Life had pretty much battered him and his mom from the moment he'd been born. "Yeah, but that's a lot of money to be paying a kid fordoing basically nothing."

"You won't be doing nothing. You'll be part of a vital support staff I rely on to do my job. Not to mention, you keep your grades up and that's nothing compared to what you can make working for me when you're grown."

Still, Nick was skeptical. "And I don't have to strip naked?"

"Oh God, no. Please keep your clothes on. Neither Rosa nor I need to go blind. There's a pool in back though, that you're free to use whenever you like. However, I would encourage you to always have trunks on when you swim. Last thing I need is for my neighbors to start complaining or George to quit." Kyrian moved over to a small box on Nick's desk and picked it up to hand it to him. "By the way, this is for you." "What is it?"

"Cell phone so that I can contact you when I need you."

Nick couldn't believe it. "No friggin' way."

"Part of the perks of the job. But don't abuse your minutes or texts. I get a ten-thousand-dollar bill in one month and I will choke you for it." Kyrian turned it on and handed it to him. "It's already hooked up and the number for it is on the card. Make sure your mom has it too. I programmed my number into the auto dial under two. Just press and hold it."

Nick was overwhelmed by the generosity. He didn't know what to say. "This is just so cool. Thanks."

"You're welcome." Kyrian's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the ID before he answered it.

"No, I've been up for a while. Why?" He frowned as he listened.

Nick played with his own phone. Man, this thing was really awesome.

"What do you mean there were more attacks?" That got Nick's attention. Was Kyrian talking about the zombie stuff?

"Yeah. I'll head out as soon as I can and I'll keep my eyes peeled for, and I cringe as I say this, things out of the ordinary for us." He listened a few more minutes before he hung up the phone.

"Is something wrong?" Nick asked.

Kyrian didn't exactly respond to the question. "Is there someone at your school with an ax to grind against football players?"

Had the man never gone to high school? "Depends on the football player. Why?" "There's been two more attacks." Nick was stunned.

"All of them were against football players. How many guys are on the team, anyway?"

Nick had to stop and think. "I'm not exactly sure since I don't play anymore. Probably around fifty total, counting JV and V."

"JV and V?"

He was surprised Kyrian didn't know what he was talking about. "Junior varsity and varsity."

"Ah ... Why don't you play anymore?"

Nick shrugged, as that brought up a memory he didn't like thinking about. He'd been really good at the game, but that hadn't saved him. "Got thrown off the first week I made the team for fighting when Stone mocked my shoes. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly a people person."

Kyrian laughed. "I noticed. Look, I need to make a few more calls. Wander around the downstairs here and get acquainted with it. Don't get too tired. If you need anything to eat or drink, it's in the kitchen. Make yourself at home."

Nick waited until Kyrian left before he tried to call Madaug again on his new phone.

Still no answer.

Sighing, he had a bad feeling about this. If what Kyrian had said was right, they were down about a quarter of the team.

There wont be any state finals for us this year.

Stupid concern given everything going on, but it was the first thing that popped into his mind.

What he couldn't figure out was what had started it. Yeah, the jocks picked on certain people and now that they were becoming zombified, it would only get worse. Now they'd pick on everyone.

How could they stop this?

Aggravated with the lack of details, he made his way back to the kitchen, where Rosa was making something that smelled unbelievably good.

Licking his lips, he went to investigate the pot while Rosa chopped shrimp and onions on the cutting board. "What are you making?"

"Gumbo."

Nick's brows shot up at a dish that he'd eaten most of his life, but this didn't look anything like his mom's. "Huh ... so this is what rich man's gumbo looks like."

"How do you mean?"

"It ain't got leftovers in it and you're putting real meat into it and not bacon bits or roadkill."

Rosa laughed. "I'm sure you've never eaten roadkill."

He wouldn't bet on it. His mom might have denied it, but some of the meat she brought home ... he was sure it'd been scraped off the street. Maybe even plucked out of the tread on tires.

Rosa handed him a spoon. "Feel free to sample it."

"Really? Thanks." He dipped the spoon in and stepped away for it to cool before he took a bite. Man, it tasted even better than it smelled. His stomach growled so loud, it sounded like a monster was about to pop out.

Rosa turned to stare at him.

"Sorry. I didn't have lunch." Bubba hadn't given him permission to take money out of the till for it, and since school lunches came with his tuition, he didn't have money to buy lunch somewhere else.

Rosa's jaw went slack. "Why didn't you say something about being hungry?" She pulled him over to the island where two tall stools were set. "You have a seat and I'll make you a sandwich."

"I can wait for dinner. I'm used to it."

"No one goes hungry in this house, m'ijo. You just sit there while I make it."

This was seriously creeping him out. No one was ever this nice to him. Had he fallen into the Twilight Zone or something?

I'm going to die. It had to be an omen of doom. Yeah, I'm going to turn into a flesh-rotting, flesh-eating, no-dating-'cause-l-stink demon. His body parts, especially the really important one, were going to fall off like in that movie he'd seen....

And all because he'd helped an old couple escape his friends. Stop being stupid.

But it wasn't stupid. It was a fact. Something was wrong with the world. It'd skittered sideways and nothing was like it should be.

He was doomed. No if, ands, or buts about it. He was going to die.

And no sooner had that thought finished than he heard something scratching around the back door. There was a low growl and the rattle of a pretty large creature. Vicious and guttural, the sound reminded him of a dog cornering a cat. It must be a Rottweiler or something.

He frowned at Rosa, who'd frozen to stare at the door too. "What kind of dog does Kyrian have?"

She shook her head. "No dog."

"Then what—" His words ended as the back door flew open and two members of his team rushed in to tackle him.

CHAPTER 7

In a move he hadn't used since he was a running back, Nick went to the left, turned sharp, and sidestepped them, leaving them to slam into the wall. He grabbed Rosa and pushed her toward safety as he looked around for a weapon.

Rosa grabbed the cleaver in her right hand before he could. His jaw went slack as she took the carving knife into her left and held the two of them like a pro as she faced their intruders.

Nick was aghast. "Rosa?"

"Stand back, Nick. I wasn't always a housekeeper and any hijo de puta dumb enough to come in here to attack us deserves to die on the floor, butchered like a pig."

The zombies charged.

Rosa caught the first one with a slash to his arm. He didn't so much as grunt. Instead, he shoved her back and went for Nick, who grabbed one of the pans from the stove.

So much for dinner.

He slung the piping hot food into the football player's face. This time, the jock zombie screamed and stumbled back. Nick whacked him with the pan, then turned to help Rosa battle the other one. He barely reached them before the one he'd bashed grabbed him from behind. Zombie number one locked a hold on him that was like steel.

Nick let out a snarl as his injured shoulder was jostled. "No you din't!" Head-butting the zombie, he broke free.

Two seconds later, something so bright it blinded him ripped through the kitchen.

Nick shielded his eyes as he heard the zombies screaming in agony. When he lowered his hand and could finally see again, he staggered back in shock.

The zombies were gone and in their place was what had to be the tallest man he'd ever seen.

His mouth fell open in stone-cold shock.

"Are you all right, Rosa?" the man asked in flawless Spanish.

"Si, Acheron. Gracias."

The door behind Acheron slammed shut without anyone or anything touching it. Acheron moved toward him with the deadly gait of a ferocious predator. With long black hair streaked with green, he wore a pair of opaque sunglasses that kept Nick from seeing his eyes. Dressed all in black with a glow-in-the-dark vampire skull on his T-shirt, he had a black backpack slung over one shoulder. A backpack that had an anarchy symbol painted on it.

"Nice meeting you, Nick."

He tensed atAcheron's strange lilting accent. He'd never heard anything like it in his life. "How do you know my name?" "I know lots of things."

Yeah ... and that thought seriously creeped him out. Was the dude a stalker?

Nick looked around the room. There was no trace left of their attackers. "What happened to the jocks?"

"My demon ate them." Acheron said that with such a deadpan tone that Nick could almost believe him.

"Riiiight." Nick nodded his head in an act of brazen sarcasm. "And I suppose the Big Bad Wolf will be coming in right behind you to finish up? Or is it the Gingerbread Man I need to fear?"

Acheron gave him a lopsided grin. "Kyrian was right, you are a smart—" He glanced to Rosa before he amended what he'd started to say. "Aleck." He pulled his cell phone out, which looked freakishly tiny in his huge hand, and called someone.

Nick frowned at Rosa, who'd gone over to the sink to wash the blood from her cleaver and knife like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Why was he suddenly hearing the Addams Family song playing in his head?

What kind of bizarre crack-house lunacy was this?

"Am I the only one weirded out by what just went down? You two are acting too ... too ... normal about it all. I mean this ... is definitely not your typical day."