Author Note: I do not own the work of Simon R. Green but I do own The Voodoo Childe and the Zombie Queen. This started out as an oneshot but I couldn't figure out where it was going so when I ended it I decided that I would turn it into a chapter story. This is my first time uploading to the site.
Dead Boy and the Zombie Queen.
Now I throw bottles out to sea
I whisper the secret in the ground
No one's gonna take you away from me
I fell in love with a dead boy
Oh, such a beautiful boy
I fell in love with a dead boy
Oh, such a beautiful boy
(Lyrics from I Fell In Love with a Dead Boy by Antony and the Johnsons)
Dead Boy strolled down the sidewalk in one of the Nightside's seedier streets in the club district. He had his hands in the pockets of his long dark purple jacket and was whistling the tune to the Twilight Zone. His big black boots made a loud clunking sound as he walked and everywhere he went the crowds parted for him. No one wanted to be on his bad side. It was All Hallows' Eve and he was on the prowl so to speak for a new watering hole. The last one had not so politely asked him to leave via the wrong end of a nuke. It wouldn't have done the bloke any good but the Nightside was still recovering from the angel wars and having the town become a crater wasn't in Dead Boy's agenda. It was too bad that the place burned down after they were robbed. That was Karma for you.
He was beginning to give up and just veer off into the first bar in his path when a flyer flipped right into his face. Disgruntled he peeled the offending paper off and looked down at it. Just so he knew who he had to lodge his complaint with later;
All Hallows' Eve at The Voodoo Childe.
"For one night only the un-findable bar will make an appearance to the general public. Don't miss the night's entertainment. The legendary Zombie Queen herself will take the stage and dance the Death Dance."
"Un-findable bar, eh? Sounds Interesting." He looked the paper over front and back. There was no mention on where this damn place was supposed to surface.
Then the creaking flap of a gently swinging sign overhead caught his eye, and he realized that he had no idea where his feet had taken him while he was reading the flyer. He looked at the sign although he already had an idea what it'd say. It was a carved wooden sign in the shape of a skull with The Voodoo Childe painted across its surface. Pulsing primal music spilled through the doorway and wrapped itself around him like a lover's embrace. The place didn't seem like anything from the outside but then not much in the Nightside did. It looked a little shabbier than most with peeling paint and boards over the windows. There were posters on the outside of acts he wasn't familiar with and some were even written in a language that disturbed him on a level he didn't even know he had. He grinned. This place was brilliant already. He whipped out a flask and took a long pull of it before heading through the heavy black wooden doors. Inside the place was extremely dark with the only lighting being various candles set here and there with the majority grouped around the stage on the far side of the room. The place was packed to the brim but Dead Boy didn't recognize any of the faces which was unusual and a little disturbing.
He headed to the front of the room and was surprised and even a little weirded out to find a single table reserved in his name right up front. He had the feeling his arrival was anticipated from the start.
As if on cue the hush died down and she took the stage.
Dead Boy found himself sinking into his chair without a second thought. The woman on the stage was beautiful and awful at the same time. She had the feel of death about her and she made him feel like he would do anything just to have her attention focused on him and him alone. Her face was calm and her lush painted lips smiled a small Mona Lisa smile. Her eyes were gray like ghosts and spider webs and felt so very ancient, like they had seen everything in the universe and were unimpressed. Her skin was flawless and the color of cafe au lait and it was stretched over a lush and toned body. Her dark hair was pulled up into a complicated up do that consisted of braids and dreads and small bits of things that could have been bone. Her dress what little of it that was there consisted of a black corset type top and scraps of black gauze that was masquerading as a skirt. There were several beaded necklaces at her throat that might also have been bone and they matched the piece of beaded jewelry at her wrist and petite ankle.
A deep and heavily accented voice flowed over the crowd from nowhere and everywhere and it quite frankly creeped Dead Boy the fuck out. It felt like nails scratched across his very being.
"Welcome Dead Boy, to the Voodoo Childe. The Zombie Queen herself will dance for you the Death Dance."
'…The Fuck?' Dead Boy thought, eyes glued to the woman before him. He couldn't seem to move or even look away. A pounding rhythmic beat started out of the dead silence and slowly the Zombie Queen's hips began to undulate in front of him. Her eyes locked on to his and he had the feeling she could see into his very soul. Her movements were fluid and sexy and disturbing all at once and they hypnotized him. Her bare feet slid on the smooth wood of the stage and her arms and hands sketched symbols with gestures on the smoky air. He felt like he was being pulled into her and it felt like velvet on his insides. He hadn't felt this wonderful since before he died.
The beat pulsed faster and faster and the inside of the club was getting darker until the world narrowed to just her and him, alone in two spaces of candlelight. Time seemed to stop.
"You belong to me Dead Boy." He heard her voice whisper in the dark although he never saw her lips move. "I have commanded your soul back from those who owned it, and what the Zombie Queen takes she never loses."
"Why?" I was surprised to hear himself whisper back. "I don't even know you."
"You know me my love, feel it with your very being." And suddenly she was right before him, or he was right before her. He couldn't be certain since he was losing touch with reality. Her arms lifted around his neck and her lips stretched into a smile. "Your very soul called to me, your very existence a compliment to mine. You are my consort and the Death Dance sealed the compact between us."
And then she kissed him and her lips felt like they were searing his flesh. He felt all the blood in his body rush to his head and it made him dizzy. He grabbed her hips for support and she laughed against his mouth. The sound was husky and made him think of whisky. The sound seemed to echo and grow distant like it was from far away and he realized he was no longer holding on to her.
"Dead Boy…" He heard her calling his name.
"Dead Boy!"
"Hey Dead Boy! Wake the fuck up and get the hell out of my bar!" Dead Boy awoke with a start.
That voice had definitely belonged to one Alex Morrissey the owner of the oldest bar in the world; Strangefellows and not the sultry tones of the Zombie Queen. He looked up at Alex's scowling face and the confused/amused face of John Taylor. They were standing over him and at this angle he realized he must be on the floor. How messed up had he gotten last night? That was one fucked up dream. He groaned as he lifted his hand to rub it across his own face when something wacked him in the nose. He lifted his hand to see it better and realized there was something around his wrist. He recognized the beaded bracelet of bone around his wrist as the one the Zombie Queen had been wearing.
"How the fuck did you get into my bar?" Alex wanted to know.
"Why are you sleeping on that floor? I mean really, the substance on that surface is probably eating through your clothes." John drawled out.
"I think I married the Zombie Queen last night." He mumbled to his incredulous audience, ignoring both their questions.
"You poor bastard." Alex grumbled eying Dead Boy in a new light. "I wouldn't wish marriage on my worst enemy."
"I don't think that's the point Alex." John said with a touch of amusement in his voice. "I suppose this means you aren't available to help me out on something?" he turned his eyes to the corpse on the floor who was still eyeing the bracelet around his wrist.
"I think I need to go home and drink until I can't feel feelings anymore." Dead Boy said instead putting his hands to the ground at his sides to push himself up.
"I still want to know how the fuck you got in here." Alex wanted to know. He turned to glare at John. "You didn't give him your Member's card did you?"
"Why would I give him that? That's my ace in the hole." John replied.
Dead Boy hauled himself to his feet and dusted himself off. He pulled his pocket watch out and glanced at the time. It appeared to be around 9 o'clock in the morning. That meant there were a lot of time unaccounted for. Cracking the bones in his back and neck he stretched his stiff muscles before turning around and heading for the metal staircase heading up and out of the bar. He could still hear Alex and John talking behind him but he had bigger fish to fry at the moment.
It was time to go find his 'wife'.
