The Sunlight Slayings Read Online Free

mystery, but at least Dean didn’t think Oliver did it, like Emalie did. And Oliver didn’t plan on changing that. “You were killed by a vampire,” Oliver said carefully. “My brother, or maybe one of his friends, I’m pretty sure.… I got knocked out in the craziness. I— I don’t know exactly how it happened, either,” Oliver finished. Nice job , he thought darkly. I managed not to lie, sort of .
    â€œHuh,” said Dean.
    Oliver hoped he wouldn’t ask why he’d been killed. That would be a longer trip around the truth, or would Oliver just say: You were killed because of me?
    Luckily, Dean didn’t ask. “I had to dig my way out,” he muttered, looking at his hands again. “I can’t get the dirt off.”
    Oliver wondered at this. Vampire children didn’t have to dig out of graves since they were born in labs. Sired vampires did, but Phlox and Sebastian had probably just buried Oliver lightly somewhere, maybe even in the house, since he had been so small. Still, a vampire would never sound upset about this kind of thing, like Dean did, but zombies didn’t have the awareness that vampires had.
    Most vampires, once they felt the power of the forces around them, thought of being undead as an improvement. Though zombies could use the forces, too, they didn’t have that higher sense of the universe, of the many parallel worlds that mingled with this one. And zombies weren’t inhabited by demons. Vampires used these reasons, and zombies’ typically awful smell, as excuses to look down on them. They weren’t allowed into vampire establishments unless as servants, and even then, as Oliver had seen in the Underground, it was frowned upon. Usually they were used at home, or in war. Some particularly powerful vampires had raised entire armies of zombies, or housekeeping staffs and gardeners and such. They made excellent help because they were mystically bonded to the will of their master—
    Wait a minute. “Dean,” Oliver began, “who raised you?”
    â€œWhat?” Dean looked up quizzically.
    â€œDo you know who your master is?”
    Dean just stared at him. “You mean somebody brought me back like this on purpose?”
    â€œWell, yeah.”
    Dean looked down at his hands again and chuckled darkly. “I don’t know.”
    Oliver felt a tremor of worry. He was pretty sure that, normally, a master would have immediately identified himself to his zombie servant. There would be no reason to let a zombie just wander around when he could be getting to work. Unless , Oliver thought, the master didn’t want the zombie, or anybody else, to know his identity . Could a master control a zombie from afar? Oliver would need to find out. Was Dean being controlled right now? Oliver glanced at Dean warily. It didn’t seem like it.…
    â€œWho,” said Dean, “would do this?”
    â€œWell, it’s probably one of your relatives or something.” Oliver tried to sound upbeat. He wasn’t feeling that way inside, but until he could find out more about the master-zombie relationship, it seemed like he should try to help Dean adjust, rather than freak him out more. “I mean, maybe they’re waiting for the right time to tell you, so you’re not overwhelmed.”
    â€œ Mmm ,” Dean grunted.
    Oliver decided to leave the topic. Dean seemed unhappy enough. Telling him that he was likely somebody’s servant probably hadn’t helped. “You have some supernatural powers now,” Oliver offered, trying to cheer him up. “You can probably jump farther and stuff.” In the brief time Oliver had known the living Dean, he had seemed like a hard-luck kid. Not so coordinated, kind of scared of things—maybe being a zombie would be better for him.
    â€œGuess,” Dean muttered.
    â€œThere’s other cool zombie stuff, too,” Oliver added. “Um