Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (18 page)

"A bloody lunatic probably, but it suites me, so," he didn’t take his eyes from hers, "are you
satisfied."

"Maybe," she conceded almost bitterly.

"You wound me, crazy I may be but I always leave a woman satisfied."

"Why don’t I think that’s true," she imagined that sometimes he left them dead, which was a far
cry from satisfied.

"But may I assume that you will be on your way," he never dropped the smile.

"Yea sure, but I will be waiting for her to contact me, if she doesn’t I’ll assume the worst, you
know the rest." She warned him, though she didn’t think that she had to, she didn’t think he was going
to risk the safety of his new coven for one woman. In the scheme of things Marcia was nothing more
than a pawn, at the moment she was apparently more useful as a live one.

"I would beg for you to call on me for assistance but I’m not foolish enough to think that you
would take advantage of my offer." His smile faded a little around the edges but he didn’t hesitate to
push the door that she’d unlocked open. "I do however expect to be kept appraised of what you find
when you get there."

"When I make a deal I keep it," in most cases this was true, she wasn’t entirely sure how well
that would stand to the test of her word to a monster. He nodded but said nothing further and she
watched very reluctantly as he closed the door behind her with Marcia still inside. It was going to be a
very long night indeed, she had not just a trip to the morgue to make but a sleepless night full of worry
until Marcia called to tell her she was still alive.

Doing her best to at the very least not linger on the fact that she’d potentially left Marcia to a
bloodless death or worse she slipped her phone out of her pocket. She scrolled down through her
contacts until she reached Richard, which was the cyborg’s alias, then typed in a quick text that read
only, ‘zombies?’ She was in no way inclined to believe in zombies of all things but Tom had seen far
more than she would probably ever know and he didn’t seem at all inclined to share. Once that text was
on its way Jennifer dialed for Zip, he always answered expediently since usually calls were life or death.
"I need to know which morgue the bodies from our vampire attack tonight were sent." She waited for
him to look up the information, with his considerable hacking skills it took him no time at all. Within
minutes she knew where she was going, "and Zip you have our vampires description, and I have his
name, is that enough to dig up information on him with."

"If it doesn’t bring up anything on the computers I’ll head straight to the archives."

"Good, Dimitri, that’s the vampire that’s running a muck. If you have time look to see if you can
wrangle up any information on a vampire named Gabriel Ethan, I don’t have a last name, only if you
have time it’s not priority."

"No problem boss, anything else I can do ya for?"

"Yea, one more, look to see if there’s any information about zombies."

"Like ‘night of the living dead’ zombies, or like ‘the serpent and the rainbow’ zombies."

Jennifer sighed, "I really have no idea, just anything you can find that is an actual sighting and not
a movie where the undead are eating flesh and not just drinking blood."

"Got it, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can boss." With those as his parting words the line
went dead, she supposed in the end she was going to see soon enough whether or not Ethan was telling
the truth, that was why she was going to the morgue now wasn’t it, to make sure the victims weren’t
coming back as zombies.

‘Be careful what alliances you make.’
The voice in her head warned out of nowhere.

"Yea....yea, warn me about the big bad vampire, you’re not telling me anything I don’t already
know." She sighed again, it was not good news that there was a voice in her head. "I’m still not entirely
certain you aren’t a vampire yourself so why don’t you just bugger off."

‘I’m here to help you.’

"Right, sure you are, so what’s your name then, that would be helpful."

‘Not yet, you need only know that when all is said and done this link between us will be
destroyed, it exists only to see this job done.’

"That’s comforting I’d still be more comfortable with the idea if I knew your name." Jennifer
waited a pause but when there was no forthcoming information she grumbled, "of course not."

‘Rouquette you can call me Rou.’

She could not explain why having a name made her so much more comfortable with the idea of
someone roaming around in her head but it did. "Alright Rou, let’s go find us some zombies," inwardly
she rolled her eyes and looked forward to the moment she could call the Master vampire back and tell
him how full of shit he was.

Chapter 13

Ethan was unsure how long it was he waited by the door listening to the sound of her retreating
footsteps, it could easily have been an eternity given he was capable of hearing a great span of distance.
He didn’t move a muscle until he heard the familiar cadence of steps approaching him from behind.
"Thadeus, you picked a fine time to join me," in all truth his old friend might have decided to join him
sooner.

"Master," he obediently acknowledged.

"You know I do hate it when you call me that, it is ever the boring title, and I do prefer it when
only the simple minded followers use it. Whatever makes them feel safe from the big scary hunters in the
light." He glanced over his shoulder to find his old friend watching him with amusement.

"It is a habit I feel for now keeps us all safe here, for the moment, but I shall try to remember to
call you Ethan when we are not in the company of our enemies." He gave a slight bow before
straightening and making to hand over the items that he had brought with him. "Are you certain that this
alliance is wise, I wouldn’t say with any certainty that I thought the Hunter can be trusted."

"No worries my friend, I will deal with the lady." They exchanged a knowing look in which
Ethan hoped would comfort his friend to some degree. He understood his friends hesitancy, hunters
were always a risk if for no other reason than the fact that their dedication stemmed from a deep rooted
hate for the supernatural. He took the harness from Thadeus’ hand and was in the middle of slipping it
over his shoulders when Thadeus worked his way up to addressing his real concern.

"Is this not something that you should be clearing with your Maker first?"

"Your concern is touching, let me worry about Ada as well," Ada was always a problem, but
given she was the one who’d started this mess with no intent of cleaning it up he figured she could only
look at his actions as he was doing her a favor.

"They will both be a problem given their history," Thadeus wasted his breath explaining.

"Probably, Ada does hate it when her power doesn’t work on people to the degree she
prefers." As someone that her considerable amount of power didn’t seem to work quite as well as she
hoped he understood exactly the kind of problem that making an alliance with Jennifer might cause. He
was aware of their history, it was just one more reason that he had chosen Jennifer as an ally. It never
hurt to have an enemy in common, and that was certainly what Ada was. "All you need remember if
things go wrong is that you and the others need get as far from Ada as you can. She does so love to
force compliance and it is a fate I wish on no man, you would know if I find my demise, I will spare you
all that fate and severe our bond." He would give her nothing if she managed to sink her claws back into
him in the way she had when she had first turned him.

"Yes Master," Ethan grunted and looked back at Thadeus.

"Really," he really hated the title Master, he really only did have the dim-witted vampires he
couldn’t trust call him that, and even then it was only because it was what Ada would want. It was the
same principle for why everyone here called him Gabriel, that was the name Ada insisted he use even
though it wasn’t the name he’d used before his undeath either. He gave Thadeus another irritated glare
before taking the sword from his old friends hands and sliding it into the harness with a practiced ease.

"Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you," Ethan could tell from his tone it was
taking his old friend a great deal of will not to add some kind of grandiose title to the end of the question.

"I’m sure, I need you here to make sure that no harm comes to the woman, the Bartender seems
trustworthy enough but he’s no warrior. Her safety must be ensured, I trust you to see to that, I’ll make
sure our beautiful Hunter doesn’t get herself foolishly killed." Thadeus gave a nod but he was clearly
discontent to be left to play guardian to an unworthy human woman. "Don’t worry old friend, there will
be plenty of blood-shed to come for all of us soon enough. First we stop these foul creatures, then we
will accomplish why we truly came. We’ll be free soon enough, the queen will fall, and I think our
Hunter will help us make it so."

"I do not think that we can trust them," he meant the Hunters and of course he was right, Jennifer
had stabbed him after all.

"No, but trust must first be earned and perhaps if we prove ourselves trustworthy there will
come a time when they will do the same." Thadeus simply shook his head, but he made no objections as
Ethan took the trench coat he still held while he’d waited for Ethan to finish securing his weapon.

"The plan is madness," his old friend informed him.

"Yes, it is, but you must admit that my mad plans are always the most fun and turn out with the
best of results." Ethan shrugged the coat over his shoulders and wished that Thadeus would refrain from
hovering like a mother goose.

"Your plans have never involved trusting humans before," Thadeus pointed out.

"I know, and of course the first time I do I ask you to trust them they would be Hunters," Ethan
took the time to pat the larger man on the shoulder. "Have no fear General the Hunters numbers are
diminished we can handle them if they come here for us, and should they come during daylight we don’t
rest here so there’s nothing to fear. They’d be doing us a favor if they burned it to the ground." He
smiled and watched his friend grimace, the man had a hard time faulting a chain of command.

"Your Maker would not be pleased with us if she found it razed to the ground."

"No she wouldn’t and that is what would make it so gloriously entertaining."

"From the way you talk one might think that you wanted to end up forced back beneath her
thumb." Thadeus accused with little cause, there was no reality that Ethan had despised more than
serving his maker.

"In a small way she already has, that is why we’re here, and that is what all this dubious planning
is about. Hold steady Thadeus, I’ve promised us freedom and I will get it for us even if it is only through
battle and glorious death." At this reminder his second smiled, it was comforting to know that little had
changed with his friend. "Keep a close eye on the human, she seems to have little sense of self-preservation and I will be back before our dead friends can rise, or at least I hope so."

"Let’s hope that you can get back before the sun rises," Thadeus reminded him as he pulled the
back door that Jennifer had exited some moments ago open.

"Let’s hope so," Ethan agreed but he found it was no great worry, unlike most of his brethren
the thought of death wouldn’t make him cower, if the sun was meant to take him it would only be putting
him out of decades of misery. "Don’t look so forlorn friend, I have promised you bloodshed and I
always deliver, fortes fortuna iuvat," he offered as farewell and brought the door closed behind him. He
was going to the mortuary for more then one reason, the first being that Jennifer had made it plainly clear
that she did not believe a word he had said outside of Dimitri’s name. That was a problem because it
could result in several things, the first being that she wouldn’t check as she had promised which left a
great deal unresolved. The second reason was that if and when she did check she would not go
prepared for what she would have to face. In both cases the end result was either the true dead
escaping and spreading their condition with the potential bonus of Jennifer’s imminent death.

He didn’t try to explain to himself why the possibility of her death displeased him, he didn’t have
to. He’d known that there was something that was out of the ordinary between them as soon as he’d
laid eyes on her. And it wasn’t difficult to see that whatever was between them was not something that
only he had felt. It had been in every move that she’d made when he’d first seen her, as if she could
sense him entering the room before he’d done so. He may have written that off as her being incredibly
aware of her surroundings, alert to the point of paranoia even but then she had failed to read his true
nature.