Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (24 page)

For a moment Jennifer thought he was talking about Ethan, and yes he bothered her on too many
levels, but even if that was her greatest worry she didn’t think she could voice what her concerns were
without everyone here thinking she was completely compromised. So she reminded herself that the only
vampire Doug knew about at the moment was Dimitri. Before she could answer two older women who
had been up by the alter lighting a candle came walking up.

"Good morning father," one smiled and waved and her Cousin, ever the patient priest, smiled
and greeted them in return.

Jennifer waited for him to finish and then for the two women to get out of earshot before she
started. "I think he’s past the point of us being able to call him that." Jennifer tried to inform him
cryptically but he just looked at her confused. "He ate his victims last night," she wanted to gag just
saying it.

"Isn’t that what vampires do," Doug asked without an ounce of guile.

"No not drank their blood, he ate them, as in took great gaping mouthfuls out of them, he ate
them." She made a show of snapping her jaw shut the way some of her family had in her nightmare and
her Cousin nearly fell out of his seat onto the floor. She watched the color drain out of him the way she
imagined it must have the day before for her. "So it wasn’t just a nightmare then," a tiny part of her had
hoped that she would come here and her Cousin wouldn’t have a clue what she was talking about. "My
father......" she couldn’t finish, couldn’t even blame the events that had taken place that night on him
because she knew if he’d had any idea what might happen he never would have come home.

"Yes, I didn’t think that you remembered," and he’d spared sharing the details.

"I wish you’d told me," she’d spent her whole life assuming vampires had torn her family to
pieces, no one had ever set her straight.

"Would it have made any difference?"

For a moment Jennifer just glared at him, trying to figure out if it would have made any. To
know that her father had brought home the fucking zombie virus essentially resulting in her family all
eating each other, maybe, probably, the information would have changed the reasons she was here.
Would it have affected the fact that she hunted vampires, monsters too in their own right, definitely not.
"We’ll never know I guess," was what she settled with in answer.

"I thought if you’d forgotten, than maybe one of us could move past it, that you wouldn’t end up
here." He made it sound so offal to know the truth, she wouldn’t know, her father had always told her
and her sisters that monsters were real, she didn’t know how it felt to be in the dark and think you were
safe. "But you ended up here anyway, I suppose I should have told you when Clive found you." But he
said it very non-committal, she couldn’t say that she blamed him for not wanting to go there. "So this
vampire is........." like her at the thought of her father he couldn’t finish the sentence.

"So a fucking zombie," she said shaking her head and this once her Cousin didn’t tell her to mind
her language.

"When did you remember your father?" Doug shifted in his seat facing away from her and she
understood that he couldn’t look her in the eye, it was likely her father had eaten his after all.

"Last night, the new Master vampire kept hinting at it, I’ve no idea how he knew, and then
smack out of nowhere I dreamt about it in vivid detail, more vivid then I would have liked." Even now
awake, she knew what she’d seen in her dream but her mind wouldn’t supply her with the images, didn’t
want to face them. "I woke up," she felt tears gathering in her eyes and paused to push them back.
"How did we get out of the closet," she asked because the vampire had pulled her out before she’d
seen.

"My father, before they......" he stopped, skipping the details, "he called your father’s co-worker, they showed up with a team, killed everything, pulled us out and burned the house to the
ground." Without thinking about it he reached for her hand and she let him take it, no matter how
disturbingly reminiscent of her dream it was.

"Are they still alive, do you remember any of their names," Jennifer paused when he gave her a
bewildered look. "If I could find just one of them I could get some answers," maybe she could ask
Tom.

"It was Tom," Doug informed like he’d plucked the name out of her head. "He was seventeen
when your father brought him in, he was seventeen when he took over your father’s command." For a
moment Jennifer was completely baffled, she knew that she’d known Tom forever but had never
questioned how or where. Just another piece of information she could rack up with everything else that
was trying to bury her, maybe he really was some kind of robot. She wanted to question it, wanted to
believe that even as a kid Tom hadn’t been as he was now. But she had the vaguest memory of the end
of that night, of the closet door opening and instead of her father being there to save her, a younger Tom
carried her out in his arms.

"This is crazy," she uttered to herself, but at least she finally had an age bracket for the Cyborg,
he was twelve years older than her, it was more than she’d known about him five minutes ago.

"Those things can’t be back," Doug finally broke what was becoming a tense silence between
them, "I can’t handle the zombie apocalypse."

Jennifer couldn’t help it she laughed, probably would have kept laughing if she hadn’t forced it
back down. "Sorry," she apologized, "it’s just last night I said the same thing to Ethan."

"Ethan?" For a moment Jennifer was back in a place that was normal for her, a place where any
time she mentioned a male name that no one knew, they gave her this look like maybe all hope wasn’t
lost for her after all. She’d thought that eventually they’d stop but maybe it wouldn’t happen until she
was in her sixties and locked into a nursing home raving about monsters in the dark. Just a few months
ago Malcolm had them all keeping their fingers crossed, but with that relationship falling through it
looked like she was back to square one.

"Master vampire, I’ll explain later, how was Manson last night?"

"He pulled through the surgery but started a fever half way through the night, I told Trish she
could call me if she needed anything." He shrugged indicating that Manson’s wife had not called to
report any change. "Clive was the same," he informed without her having to ask.

Jennifer nodded, glad at least that there was no bad news on that front, "is there anyone
downstairs," she asked not that there was much of her team left. Doug simply shook his head in answer,
so Malcolm hadn’t come in yet, neither had Marcia, she supposed it had been a long night for all of
them. It would have been nice if she had someone on her team to collaborate with even if they couldn’t
really help her in the field. When she turned her attention back to Doug she squeezed his hand before
asking, "is something wrong?"

"I pray to God not, but Jennifer, if the vampire is a zombie," her Cousin cringed and tightened his
hand in hers to nearly the point of pain. "If he is then are Manson and Clive, are they infected?" Jennifer
jumped out of her seat so fast that if it had been a chair, and not a pew bolted to the floor, it would have
fallen over, instead she banged her legs almost painfully into the wood. Why hadn’t she thought of that,
in the movies zombies bit, clawed and scratched and low and behold a zombie was born.

"No, no, no, no," she couldn’t lose anyone else, not like that, "I’m going, I’m going to the
hospital now." She pried her fingers from her Cousin’s grip, she could tell he was loathe to let her go,
why hadn’t she listened to the voice in her head? "If Malcolm or Marcia come in you tell them to stay
the hell away from the hospital, DOUG!" She yelled his name because it looked like he wasn’t listening
to what she’d just said, "Did you hear what I said, tell them to stay away." If it was true, if Clive and
Manson had walked away injured but dead anyway she couldn’t bear to lose what was left of the family
she’d built with these people. "Have them wait for me here," she hoped like hell that it had to be a bite
because these two men had taught her everything she knew, she had grown to love them. They had
taught her to survive, had even taught her how to cope with surviving if they didn’t, but it was a concept
she had stupidly never thought she’d have to face the reality of because she’d always felt sure she’d be
the one that would die first.

"Wait," Doug made a grab for her hand as she was making her way down out of the pew and
into the hall. "Maybe you shouldn’t go, not alone, we can call Tom and wait for him," he sounded so
hopeful she hated to disappoint him, but she had to go.

"I’m sorry Doug, but I have to go, call Tom," she told him, "maybe he can meet me there." ‘If
he bothered to answer his phone,’ she thought to herself. "I have to go, I’ll see you in a little while," or
at least she hoped she would.

"Jennifer......." but she didn’t wait for him to finish because she was well and truly terrified and if
she let him beg her not to go she was freaked out enough that maybe he’d succeed.

Chapter 17

The first thing Jennifer realized as she neared the hospital was that she’d taken her own car,
stupidly leaving her regular arsenal in her Cousin’s trunk. She was armed only with the Beretta,
admittedly she had enough ammo in her trunk that the one gun would be enough but it was still a pain in
her ass to have to consistently keep reloading. She prayed harder then she could ever remember,
praying that nothing was going on, that her friends despite their zombie induced injuries were alive and
would stay that way. But she knew as soon as she drove up to the street the hospital parking lot was on
that all that praying had been for nothing. The building was completely cordoned off, even the parking
area was barricaded, worse still was that she recognized the uniform standing by the blockade waving
people off. Tom was already here, which meant what, he’d gotten her text message, heard her team had
suffered injuries and instead of getting back to her had come here, why? She pulled up next to the
closed off entrance and got out of her car without waiting for the uniform to speak, she recognized the
uniform but not the man in it. "Ma’am, you’ll have to get back in your car, this building is under a
quarantine."

"I am getting into that building," she warned the man in front of her, she pulled her phone out of
her pocket and sent Tom a text informing him that he could get the barricade-boy out of her way or
she’d move him herself. "My name is Jennifer Ryan, in a minute Tom is going to tell you to get the hell
out of my way. If he doesn’t," she pulled the Beretta out, "I guess we’ll see whose a faster shot." As
he’d gone for his rifle the minute she’d pulled her Beretta she figured he had a fifty-fifty shot. But not
only did his radio come to life within the second but a black SUV came to a tire screeching halt behind
him in the same instant. "See," but he didn’t lower his rifle, probably thought that the calvary had arrived
to help subdue her.

"Olsen put the rifle down," good little soldier complied the minute Tom climbed out of the vehicle
and barked the order at him. "Ryan, I wasn’t expecting you."

"Well then you’re an idiot, I am going in that building Tom."

"I don’t think that’s a good idea," he informed her, like he knew she was off kilter about
zombies even if at the moment she wasn’t showing evidence of it.

"Again, you are an idiot," she would worry about whether or not she could handle it when she
was inside. "Now are you going to get out of my way, or am I moving you," she hadn’t lowered her
9mm and she knew that he couldn’t like having it aimed at him much.

After what seemed like a decade of inner debate on his part he gave a curt nod, "let her
through," he made his way back to his suspicious nondescript SUV before turning back to her, "meet
me at the front."

Jennifer nodded climbing into her car and getting ready to drive through the barricade if he’d
been lying to her, but Olsen moved it and closed it again behind her as she drove past. She didn’t
bother parking in the lot, she pulled up as close to the building as the inner barricade would allow and
popped her trunk. She stuffed as many magazines into her pockets as she could fit, she was hoping she
wouldn’t need them but she wasn’t stupid. If Tom was here and had gone to all these lengths to close
this place off, then her friends were probably gone. She would cry about it later, first she was going to
take care of this, and even then there was still Dimitri to deal with, she couldn’t afford to mourn until
then. She slammed the trunk closed to find Tom waiting there for her, "oh goodie, my babysitter has
arrived." She was in no mood for him, she had a good idea of why he hadn’t contacted her about this,
because he knew how she’d react. She was all about saving lives, Tom’s team was all about containing
a situation at any cost.