Heart of the Dead: Vampire Superheroes (Perpetual Creatures Book 1) (16 page)

Taos roared in maddening fury. Jerusa tried to stay standing, but the world spun about her, blinking in and out of existence. She pitched forward, her legs wilting beneath her. Powerful arms constricted around her, pinning her arms at her sides.

Jerusa fought with the remains of her waning strength, but couldn’t break free. Her vision was improving fast, but continued to be blurry. She expected any moment for Taos to crush her chest or to tear out her throat with his fangs. The arms pulled tight, but never inflicted any pain. A voice soft and deep spoke into her ear.

“Calm, young one,” Shufah whispered. “Shhh, easy now.” She repeated this over and over, and each time, the soothing ointment of her voice seeped deeper into Jerusa until she lay back against Shufah’s chest, panting and on the verge of sobbing.

Jerusa had never experienced such power and fierce, blinding anger. It was both intoxicating and terrifying. Her body trembled as the remains of the supercharged adrenaline flushed from her system. Shufah loosened her grip and brought one hand up to brush the hair from Jerusa’s face.

Her vision returned and she looked around in awe at the devastation she and Taos had brought to the kitchen. The wall at the top of the stairs was buckled, the wooden studs exposed like the ribs of a massive rotten carcass. A large dragging wound ripped through the wood-paneled ceiling from the kitchen to the living room.

Taos stood at the end of the path of destruction, a pile of shattered ceiling boards at his feet, his shirt ripped to tatters, exposing his well-muscled abs. His eyes burned with blue hatred and he looked to be ready for round two, and may have attempted if Suhail had not been holding him back.

A burning tingle overtook Jerusa’s body as her injuries rapidly healed. Shufah seemed to sense when Jerusa’s legs were strong enough to support her and released her without a word.

Shufah moved in front of Jerusa, pressing her back as if she feared Jerusa might initiate another attack on Taos. She placed a gentle hand upon Jerusa’s shoulder, unintentionally pulling the collar of her shirt down as she pushed her away. Her gaze lingered for a moment on Jerusa’s scar. Jerusa backed up a step and crossed her arms over his chest. Shufah snapped her eyes upward and flashed a tiny smile that Jerusa didn’t quite believe.

“No more of this,” Shufah announced. “No more fighting. There are greater issues to consider than our petty hatred for one another. Is that understood?” She nodded to Jerusa and Jerusa nodded back. She looked to Taos, who, after a moment, relinquished his scowl and bowed in mock obedience. “Good. Foster, please check on Thad.”

Thad lay on his side near the top of the basement stairs where Jerusa and Taos had first collided. Jerusa knew that he was still alive, she could hear his rushing heart and heavy breathing. Never had she heard a more beautiful sound. Foster helped Thad into a sitting position. His eyes were glassy, but he recovered from his shock with impressive speed. Before long, he stood leaning against the countertop, shifting his uncertain and fearful gaze between each of the vampires.

“You came back,” Jerusa said. She tried to move closer to Thad, but Shufah halted her. “What’s wrong?” she asked Shufah.

“Go easy, young one,” she replied, her voice thoughtful and wise. “You don’t understand the limits of your strength, which I must say is quite impressive for a fledgling. But more importantly, you don’t grasp the voracity of the blood-thirst. Remember your mother.”

Jerusa didn’t feel any thirst for blood or any other kind of hunger to speak of, but the memory of the instant and overpowering aggression that had overtaken her earlier in the basement with her mother resided fresh in her mind. She didn’t believe herself capable of harming Thad or craving his blood like the ravening undead infesting today’s books and movies. Nevertheless, she kept her distance.

“Why did you come back?” Jerusa asked.

Thad reached up and touched his neck. “The bite is gone. I guess I’m part of this whether I want to be or not. Besides, I figured there’s nowhere I could go where he wouldn’t find me.” He looked toward Taos, but quickly glanced to Shufah.

Shufah considered this. “True. He would have hunted you to the ends of the Earth. But I don’t think you have to worry about that now. Right, Taos?” His face was drawn tight, and he answered with a scowl. “Where did you go?” she asked Thad.

“I needed to go home and see my parents. If they hadn’t heard from me, eventually they would have come looking. I didn’t want anyone else disturbing you during the day.”

“Very noble,” Taos said, almost growling. “But I’d say you were afraid I’d feed on your family after I had finished with you.”

“That crossed my mind, too,” Thad said, keeping his eyes on anything but Taos. “But there is something else you should know about. Someone was attacked late last night or early this morning.”

“Who?” Jerusa asked. “Where?”

Thad shook his head. “The body was found over by Superior Limestone Mill, but no one knows who it is yet. The news is reporting that a man was mauled by something, possibly a pack of feral dogs, and that the body is beyond recognition.” Thad swallowed hard. “But there is a rumor going around that the police can’t identify him because his head was peeled open and his brain was removed. Some people are saying the man looks like something chewed through his chest to get to his heart.”

Taos cursed and kicked at the debris around his feet.

Suhail began to pace in a tight circle. “We should leave right now, Shufah.”

“What’s wrong?” Jerusa asked, but no one answered her.

Shufah drew closer to her brother. “And where shall we go?”

“I don’t know,” he said, running his fingers though his thick black hair. “Maybe we can go to the Stewards. Plead our case. If we turn over the fledgling and the mortal — ” He stopped as if suddenly aware that Jerusa and Thad were still in the room.

“Give their lives in exchange for our own?” she asked with a hint of reproach.

“What choice do we have? By now, the Watchtower will know. And if they know, the Stewards know. The Hunters could arrive tomorrow night, the night after that at the latest. And you know, as well as I, what measure of mercy the Hunters will show us.”

“Watchtower? What is that?” Again no one answered Jerusa.

“I say we kill them now,” Taos said.

Foster stepped forward. “No. It’s foolishness to think the Stewards will grant you leniency just because you lay Jerusa and Thad at their feet.”

“Perhaps if we add you to the offering,” Taos fired back.

“We could run,” Suhail suggested. “We could seek shelter in one of the covens.”

“No,” Shufah countered. “The smaller covens can grant us no safety and the larger covens owe allegiance to the Stewards.”

Suhail threw his hands in the air. “What about the Zealots?”

“Those insane mortals,” Taos said, his face twisting as though he had tasted something bitter. “Their collective mind has degenerated beyond collaboration. They would confine us, starve us. Worship at our feet until the gray sleep overtook us.”

Jerusa’s mind was spinning as she tried to keep track of the conversation. Too many names and titles and vampire colloquialisms were firing back and forth. It was worse than trying to decipher a foreign language. They were speaking English, she understood the words they used, but she could glean little understanding of what they were saying. She glanced at Thad. His face had the lightest touch of green to his complexion and he seemed on the verge of vomiting.

I’ll bet you regret coming back now
, Jerusa thought.

“We can’t stay here,” Suhail said. “Even if the Hunters don’t arrive soon, how long until Kole starts stalking us?”

“That won’t happen,” Taos said. “He’ll stay with the easy prey, the mortals.”

“Don’t be so certain,” said Suhail. “He will have regenerated by now, grown smarter. We don’t know what one his age will do.”

Jerusa had had enough. She slammed her fist down onto the countertop, accidentally cracking the granite as she screamed, “Hey! Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”

All eyes turned to Shufah as though she alone held the key to this arcane knowledge.

“Kole has made his first kill as a savage,” Shufah said. Her voice was even and clear. “We had hoped the storm last night would have prevented that, but fortune was not on our side.”

“I don’t understand.”

Shufah looked about the kitchen, then went to the sink, where she found a discarded steak knife. She walked in slow, precise steps over to Jerusa, and with a movement too fast to detect, she slashed the knife across Jerusa’s bare forearm.

Jerusa tried to recoil in terror, but Shufah caught her by the wrist of her injured arm.

“Look at the wound,” she commanded.

Jerusa looked down at the deep gash in her forearm and watched, in amazement, as the wound pulled itself closed. The blood reabsorbed into her skin and there was no mark at all to indicate she had been cut.

“The vampire spirit brings many gifts,” Shufah said. “One of which is accelerated healing. When a vampire goes savage, much is lost. Kole no longer recognizes who or what he is. The savage only knows to feed and survive. With much of the savage’s energy going to those two goals, they no longer can heal without the aid of added tissue. The reason that the victim Thad spoke of has a hole in his chest is because Kole had a hole in his chest. I say
had
because now that he has found replacement tissue, he will have regenerated.”

Jerusa’s stomach rolled at the thought. “But Kole didn’t have a head wound. Why did he eat the man’s head?”

“Even when no other tissue is needed, the savage will devour the brains of its victims. It’s unknown why they do this. Some speculate that if a savage can consume enough brain tissue it will cast off its brutish ways and regain a conscious mind.” Shufah shrugged. “But who is to say? No savage, in three millennia, has lived long enough to test the theory. The Hunters see to that.”

“Who are the Hunters?” Thad asked.

Shufah seemed to grow impatient with this conversation, or perhaps she didn’t like speaking of these things. She looked to each of them, stopping on Foster. He flashed her a warm and understanding smile, then tilted his head, indicating that he thought she should go on.

“The vampire spirit is not the same for all of us,” Shufah said. “The Stewards — the ruling body of old and powerful vampires — have long gathered those with special talents to use for their purpose. The Watchtower is a group of powerful vampires that have the gift of vision, able to peer over vast distances and track the movement of other vampires.

“Other vampires are gifted with extreme pyro-kinesis or telekinesis. They are trained to work in elite teams to track down and destroy not only savages, but infected humans or any vampire that dare to oppose the Stewards’ rule. They are known as the Hunters. There are other gifts a vampire might possess, but most are rare or remain hidden. It is not in a vampire’s interest to go touting a special talent if she wishes to remain free of the Stewards.”

Jerusa saw something glint in Shufah’s eyes, almost like an internal wink. It was obvious that there was a buried warning in her phrase “if she wishes to remain free,” but whether Shufah was indicating Jerusa or herself she couldn’t say. Did she know about Alicia? Jerusa had never considered that Foster had spoken of her and her ghost partner to Shufah.

“So you think that these Watchtower vampires know that Kole has gone savage,” Thad said, more to himself than the group. “And that the Stewards will send the Hunters to kill him. Why is that a bad thing?”

“Because, you small minded mortal,” Taos said, “Kole won’t be the Hunters’ only target. The Stewards will seek to make an example so that others do not create such a blunder.” He turned his pale blue eyes upon Jerusa. “Your enigmatic friend, this Silvanus, has caused us all a great deal of trouble. He did not save your life, but only prolonged your death, and condemned the rest of us to burn, as well.”

Jerusa wanted to explain, to make up an excuse, to apologize, but she couldn’t press a single word past the knot in her throat. Silvanus had killed Kole to save her. Both Silvanus and Foster had warned her. Had she only stayed at home last night, none of this would be happening. They were all going to die and it was every bit her fault. Jerusa turned her back on the group, unable to look into their faces.

“Is there nothing that can be done?” Foster asked Shufah.

“If we were somehow able to find Kole and destroy him before the Hunters arrive, perhaps the Stewards would show us mercy.”

“A wonderful thought, sister,” Suhail said with a derisive laugh, “but impossible. Even if we had the means to destroy Kole, we have no way of locating him.”

Jerusa turned to face the group. “I can find him.”

“And just how will you manage that?” Taos asked.

Jerusa looked at Foster, his eyes warning her to be silent.

“Alicia,” Jerusa said. “She can lead us to Kole.”

Chapter Fourteen

“A
licia?” Suhail asked. He straightened his stance, intrigued by this turn in the conversation. “Who is Alicia, and how can she help us find Kole?”

Jerusa started to answer, but Foster stepped in front of her.

“Don’t.” His eyes were wide with fright. “You heard what Shufah said about special gifts.”

“I heard,” Jerusa said. “But what other choice do we have? Alicia can help us find Kole. We can fix this.”

“And you can still see Alicia?” Shufah asked. So Foster had told his love about Alicia. Her young, beautiful face was furrowed in a way that was either disbelief or deep sorrow. Perhaps both. “You can still communicate with her?”

Jerusa looked about the room. Foster stood before her, Shufah off to the left. Thad remained in the corner, his eyes shifting quickly from one to the other. Suhail leaned against the kitchen sink with his hand to his chin, as if pondering a great mystery. Taos stood against the far wall, his arms crossed over his chest, watching her as an owl watches its prey scurry around in the underbrush.

But Alicia was not there.