Damian's Assassin

The lights in every house were on, the doors boarded up, and people somewhere were screaming. It smelled like the sewer system was overflowing. Darian felt like he was walking through a dream. His footsteps made no sounds, and the infected humans staggering through the streets walked through him. He held up a hand, fascinated to see through it to the car parked in front of him.

Zombie vampires! He almost chortled at the ridiculous thought, wishing someone was there with him to tell. He'd felt funky for a while, since Bianca fixed his face. He touched it with some trepidation, fearing it'd changed back into the scarred maze that was him for so long.

He was normal, aside from the weird buzz at the base of his skull that'd kept him awake every night since Bianca touched his face. It'd gotten worse after she touched him in the car. Her healing magic zapped him hard enough almost to right his head. He didn't understand it, except that Bianca's touch finished what Sofi started.

At least he was in much better shape than the zombie-vamps around him.

He willed himself solid, surprised when it worked. The zombie-vamps didn't rush him as they would in a real horror flick; no, they ran away. He felt compelled towards them, as if whatever it was he was supposed to do had to be done with one in front of him.

Fix them like Bianca fixed you! Sofi had told him when he dumped her in the divine world.

"I'm not a healer, Sofi," he complained again.

The back of his skull buzzed harder until he wondered if his scalp was about to spin off and fly away. He rubbed it, vexed, and spotted one zombie-vamp moving slower than the rest. Uncertain but determined, he strode to the teenage girl and snatched her arm. She stared at him through listless eyes, the gaze of a human awaiting only the final step in the transformation process.

"Ready, set, heal," he said.

The zombie-vamp blinked and leaned away. He let her go, perplexed.

"Sofi?" he called, wondering if her mind-talking would work from the divine world. "This isn't cool, Sofi."

He felt panic bubble within him as he looked around. Dusty was going to kill all these people if he didn't figure out how to fix them. And then Dusty would kill him. He deserved it, after all the trouble he'd been, but these people didn't!

Darian grabbed another zombie-vamp and tried to heal him. Then another and another and another. When he was too pissed to think straight, he slammed his hands into the boards covering a store's front door.