I couldn't avoid cleaning up the zombie mess. Wilson went out with me. He looked around at the zombies, who were sitting right where I left them, moaning and wiggling their arms. Some were singed, others were in pieces, and we found a number of spots that were just ash.
Being away from Gabriel was making me sick again.
"Jeez, Mom!" Wilson was holding his nose. The stench was powerful. After all, the bodies had been sitting in the sun all day. Roasting. Yuck.
Luckily, we had a few volunteers who didn't mind picking up body parts or guiding mindless zombies around obstacles. It took half the night to get the dead into their graves (and quite honestly, I had no idea which body went where) and reburied.
I don't think I'll be calling up a zombie army again any time soon.
Wilson and I returned to the compound. We chatted the whole way. I told him about Nonna reanimating her own body, which freaked him out. I also listened to him tell me about why he smoked pot and we discussed how to get him the help he needed.
We entered the shelter (the blood lock worked for him). He looked at me, his nose wrinkling. "You smell like zombie."
I laughed. "So do you!"
He went off for a shower, and I did, too. I got dressed in more borrowed clothes. I hadn't even begun to think about where I was going to live or what I was going to do now that my home and shop were gone.
I wasn't sure how Gabriel fit into the mix. Or what would be expected of me as the new queen of the two nations. Prophecy or not, vampires and lycanthropes weren't exactly thrilled with the idea.
My nausea subsided as I went to my room, which was how I knew Gabriel was inside even before I opened the door.
He sat on the bed looking pensive. He stood up and offered me a crystal bottle. I took it and looked at the sparkling gold liquid inside.
"What is it?"
"Something very rare. A fairy wish."
"You can bottle wishes?"
Gabriel nodded. "I kept it for a long time. Fairies that grant wishes are rare. I caught one once and saved my wish in that bottle."
"Why are you giving it to me?"
"I'm keeping my promise," he said. "It's your wish now, Patricia. You can use it to break our binding."
My heart sank to my toes. "You want to porce me?"
"Never." Gabriel stepped close to me. "I want you to be happy."
"Gabriel," I said, making my decision. Impulsive, my ass. Sometimes, you just had to go for it and hope for the best. "You know what? I don't give a shit about the prophecy or the Ancients or anything else. I love you. I want you. Enough said. You are mine."
"And you," he said, his smile wide, "are very much mine."
I wiggled the bottle. "Are you still giving me this wish?" I asked. "Free and clear? No backsies? "
"No backsies." He looked at me. "What do you want to do with it?"
Gabriel and I walked to the field where Johnny and Nefertiti played out their gruesome deaths.
"Johnny."
He broke free of the scene and turned his haunted eyes on me. "Patsy. Why are you here?"
"Eva looked up some information for me. Well, for you." I tugged the paper out of my pocket. "Your daughter's name is Rebecca. She's married with two grown children, one in college, the other in the army. She lives in Sacramento. She's a writer. She just finished a book called The Life and Death of Johnny Angelo: Memoirs of My Father."
"She wrote a book about me?"
"Yes," I said, smiling. "Your daughter grew up knowing who you were. I think that your fiancee always loved you. One of the reasons your daughter could write that memoir is because her mother kept so much of your stuff."
He was smiling now, too. "Thank you, Patsy. Thank you."
"There's more." I looked behind him at the frozen murder scene. Nefertiti was about to spew her pretty lies. "Your fiancee died a number of years ago. On her gravestone, one epitaph reads: 'My heart belongs to Johnny.' "
He closed his eyes, tears sliding down his cheeks. "She took it away from me." He turned back as hatred reclaimed his heart.
"Stop."
He returned to me and waited.
"If you want to be free, if you want see Elizabeth - and believe me, she's waiting for you - then you have to let go of Nefertiti. Let go of your pain."
He absorbed my words. I don't know if I got through to him or if he'd already been thinking about the horror of his own afterlife. "I'll stop. I won't let my rage keep us trapped anymore." He looked sad now. "But I still have fifty more years with her."
"Let her go. And have a little faith."
He nodded. Then he returned to the scene. He took the knife from behind his back, but instead of severing her head, he tossed it to the ground. "No more," he said. "I'm done."
Nefertiti blinked as if waking. Then she looked around. Her gaze swung to Johnny. "You bastard! You've killed us both!"
I stepped very close to the couple. Nefertiti screamed and wailed, but I ignored her. Johnny said nothing. He'd made his choice and he was sticking by it.
I unstoppered the crystal vial. "I wish to break the binding between Johnny Angelo and Nefertiti. "
A gold mist weaved out of the bottle and surrounded them. "Wish granted," said a tiny, musical voice. Then the mist was gone.
"I see Elizabeth," said Johnny. He turned to me, his expression one of happiness and gratitude. "Thank you."
"Where are you going?" cried Nefertiti. "We are bound!"
But Johnny was rising and as he did so, he faded away. She turned to me. "What have you done, witch?"
"Duh. I just broke your binding. You can thank me later."
I took Gabriel's hand and walked away.
"What now?" he said.
"Well, my sister will show up soon with her fiance," I said. "So, we'll be planning a wedding. " I raised my hand and ticked off my fingers. "We have to start a drug rehabilitation program. I have to figure out all this 'ruling two nations' stuff. And we need to find a new place to live."
"As long as I'm with you," said Gabriel, "I'm happy."
I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him.
You know what?
Being a prophecied queen ain't half bad.