Read Online Zombies vs. Unicorns by Holly & Larbalestier Black - Free Book Online Page B

shocked,” Alison said, and then she started scrambling up, braced against the wall, because Otto was coming over with a bowl and a very sharp knife.
    “Don’t worry,” Otto said cheerily. “I only need a little bit at this stage. The actual sacrifice will be painful, of course,”he added apologetically. “But that won’t be for a few hours yet.”
    The chains were pulling tight, dragging her wrists up over her head. “That had better be a clean knife,” Alison managed, her throat dry, as Otto reached up to cut a thin shallow slice across her upper arm and held the bowl underneath.
    “Oh, completely sterile,” Otto assured her, seriously, and carried the bowl of blood over to the cauldron. The chains relaxed and came loose again.
    “You really aren’t?” Belcazar whispered to her anxiously. “Because this would be a bad time to find out you—”
    “I’m really not!” Alison spat back.
    “Good, then you should probably—,” Belcazar began, and then Otto tipped the blood into the cauldron and the whole thing went up into a giant mushrooming cloud of black smoke that billowed out and filled the entire room.
    Otto yowled as whatever had been boiling in the cauldron went pouring over his alligator-skin shoes and steaming over the floor. He whirled and came at them with the wand. “What did you do? How did you do that? I’m going to flay the skin off your bones—” Then he got close enough that Alison could pull the Princess Leia maneuver and throw the chains around his neck.
    She jerked them tight and dragged him in close as his face went purple and red, and she snatched the wand out of his hand.
    “What do I do with this?” she yelled at Belcazar.
    “Touch my chains!” Belcazar yelled back, while Otto made choked strangling noises. The wand popped open Belcazar’sshackles, white light blooming through the whole room as he began to glow again.
    In the light the wand seemed to writhe and squirm like a snake, shining greasily. Alison ughed and flipped it out of her hand onto the floor, and Belcazar pounced on it, touching the twisting, gnarled stick with his horn. It glowed red and smelled like rotten eggs for a moment, and then it went up in a whole bunch of colorful flames.
    “No-o-o,” Otto said, the
O
dragging out of him like the whine of a deflating balloon. It wasn’t just the sound, either; he was sinking in on himself, skin going greenish-white, and bones toppling slowly inward as a horrible rotting smell exploded outward. Alison covered her mouth with one hand and then the other as she did a little frantic dance trying to shake the chains loose of disgusting bits of Otto as he started falling apart.
    “Hold still, do you want me to poke an eye out?” Belcazar demanded irritably, and then he tapped the shackles on her wrists with his horn. They popped open and clattered to the floor, along with the gaping remains of Otto’s skull, his teeth scattering away loose over the ground.
    “That was so unbelievably gross,” Alison said, trying not to heave, or for that matter to look too close, “and I am saying that after I slept in a bus shelter yesterday.”
    “You can throw up after we get out of here,” Belcazar said, whacking the lock off the baby unicorns’ cage. “Yes, yes, you’re all very grateful and happy to be rescued, I know,” he added to them.
    “I’m hungry,” one of the baby unicorns said, popping out of thecage and shaking itself head to toe. The mats all fluffed out, leaving it looking a bit tufty, and then smoothed back down into place, neat and glowing.
    “I want to roll in the grass,” another one said.
    “I want some chocolate milk,” another one said.
    “Chocolate milk, chocolate milk!” all the baby unicorns said, clamoring.
    “Do not even look at me, I am cleaned out,” Alison said when Belcazar looked over at her in desperation.
    “Okay, nobody back at the herd hears about this, you understand?” Belcazar said to the baby unicorns as they nudged