Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (31 page)

Tom must only take people to his team with a good aim because after a few minutes the sound
of gunfire stopped, and there was nothing on it’s feet that had been chasing them. "Get her up," she
heard Tom say, she was too busy keeping her attention on the bodies that were a few feet from her,
waiting to see if one of them was going to try and crawl out to eat them. "Get her up NOW!"

Before she could react someone she didn’t know was yanking her to her feet, her death grip on
the little girls hand forced the kid up as well. "Take your hands off me," she warned when the guy tried
to yank her toward the door.

Tom was in her face before she could do anything to stop him, like kick him in the groin. "You
were told to leave the building." He gave her a once over that was all contained rage, "look what you
did." He pointed at what was left of Wheatly, who would have made it to the door if there hadn’t been
a horde of zombies there waiting for him. When she said nothing and he gave her another cold once
over he finally asked, "were you bitten?" At least he wasn’t yelling, she didn’t think she’d ever heard
him yell as much as he had today.

"Are you kidding me," she was going to indicated the kid and all the trouble she’d gone through
to get Sam and herself and Harrison out but he gave her that murderous look he was so good at and she
knew he didn’t give a shit why she’d broken orders, again, he only cared that she had.

"Are.....you.....bitten?" He took the time to emphasize each word, as if he didn’t think she knew
how important the answer was, the wrong one would get her shot, not that she could help it if her
answer was the wrong one.

"No," she knew she was a mess, she was covered in the left overs of birth-mother zombie’s
guts. It was his choice whether or not he wanted to believe her, she thought they’d known each other
long enough for him to know she wouldn’t lie and risk anyone else’s life.

He glared at her like he wanted to kill her anyway and even then after a pause when he spoke he
didn’t address her. "Take her down to the decontamination," he looked around her but before Jennifer
could look back at Harrison the beefy nameless guy was dragging her toward the door. She didn’t put
up a struggle until they pried her hand away from Samantha’s.

"Tom!" She tried to turn back around but a second nameless soldier forcefully took hold of her
free arm. She heard Harrison say something, but Sam was screaming and she couldn’t make out the
words. She struggled enough to get her head turned in time to see that Tom had his gun aimed at the
man who had risked his life to save someone else’s. "STOP!" But she knew whatever Harrison had
said hadn’t been what the Cyborg had wanted to hear, because without missing a beat Tom but a bullet
in Harrison’s head. "TOM stop.....stop......STOP!!!!" She screamed at him but no matter how hard
she struggled and thrashed she couldn’t get out of her captors grip. Her Beretta was yanked out of her
hands, and she watched helplessly as he turned his aim on Sam. The little girl was crying now and
Jennifer was screaming at him, telling him in not so many words that she would never forgive him for this,
she would never forget it. She freed one of her arms and immediately slammed her elbow up into one of
the mens noses, he grunted and fell off her some and she took the opening to try and fight off the second
guy. She turned toward the one that still had a hold on her, struck out at his throat, but he caught the
punch and before she could try again she took a blow to the head from behind. She fought the
blackness that tried to take her but her vision was swallowed by the dark and she lost consciousness to
the sound of a second gun shot.

Chapter 21

Jennifer was oblivious to her surroundings, was at least mentally numb, physically it seemed like
she felt every blow she’d taken in the last couple days. Tom’s decontamination process, what she’d
been awake for, had felt like yet another violation. Not just because she’d been stripped of her cloths,
hosed down with what chemicals she didn’t know, and had ten blood samples taken. But when it was
over Tom hadn’t had the decency to meet her again face to face. Instead he’d sent Brook to tell her to
leave, and she’d been forced to do so in a flimsy medical gown, no undergarments, no shoes, and they
hadn’t given her the Beretta back, they’d forced her to leave basically naked in every way.

The entire situation was too much, her team was gone, and now because of Tom she’d gotten
three people killed. True she blamed Tom for two, but the cold hearted bastard had made it clear that
Harrison was on her, and Tom had made Harrison’s selfless act for nothing. She had always known he
was cold, that was why when people called him Cyborg she couldn’t argue against it, but he’d gone too
far. Even with every loss her team had suffered, she would rather take them, respect the sacrifices they
were willing to make, then do what Tom had done. Maybe he thought he was saving more people this
way, he couldn’t be that stupid, the hospital hadn’t even been where this had started, its beginning was
still out there.

Jennifer jumped when her Cousin reappeared dropping a blanket around her shoulders, "you’re
starting to worry me Jenny, what happened?" But she just shook her head, couldn’t make herself say it
just yet because she knew when she did she would never be able to look or even think of Tom in the
same way. "You should at least come downstairs," but when she didn’t move he sighed, "alright I’ll go
make some tea." He didn’t say that he was going to call the others but she knew he would, she didn’t
have the stomach for phone calls right now, even if she did, she was pretty sure Tom had her cell,
bastard.

But with the phone calls she at least knew that she would have some time alone to herself. She
was grateful for her Cousin and the blanket, but she wasn’t sure she could handle any more comforting
then that, wasn’t even sure she deserved any. She should have seen this coming, she’d been warned,
the vampire had told her what was going on, had gone out of his way to show her and she still hadn’t put
two and two together. If she’d thought of the possibility of Manson being infected she could have
stopped what had happened at the hospital. She’d never had any chance to save Manson, he was gone
probably from the minute that revenant had drawn blood, but she might have saved Clive, or Samantha,
if she’d thought ahead she could have saved Harrison, all of them. What it came down to was the fact
that she had been an epic failure the whole time.

Jennifer pulled her legs up under the blanket Doug had provided, wrapping herself up tight under
the material. It was already dark, she had no time to waste sitting around pointing fingers, even if she
was only pointing at herself, the problem was she didn’t know where to go from here. She didn’t know
where Dimitri was, didn’t know how she was supposed to find him, she had no team, no hope. She had
always had a certain amount of faith in her own skill in the field, but she was not so delusional as to think
that she could take this on herself. It had never actually been an issue for her before, her team had lost
people in the past, but never so crucial a part. Malcolm, Marcia, and Zip were all that was left and they
would be all but useless to her in the field, she didn’t feel she could turn to Tom for help, and her only
other option was nearly unthinkable.

She was still brooding in her own head when one of the large chapel doors opened and slammed
shut, Jennifer jumped a little in her seat, forgetting that Doug never closed the doors, but other than that
she simply slumped lower in her seat and pulled the blanket over her shoulders tighter around her. The
potential for intrusion was probably why her Cousin had asked if she would go downstairs. She had
declined because down there would be nothing but memories of friends lost, at least up here she could
comfort herself, try remember that she had faith, a cause. "I have to admit this is much cozier than I
remember," Jennifer nearly fell out of her seat again at the sight of Ethan standing next to the pew she
was seated in.

"You........you can’t be here," she told him, stumbling over the words just seeing him in a place
that was supposed to be physically impossible for him to enter.

"Really," he smiled and walked past where she was seated, making his way toward the podium
and crucifix standing there.

"No you can’t," her world was already upside down, she could not be hallucinating vampires
right now, "this is holy ground." She told him as if she expected just the words to cause him to burst into
flames.

"So it is," he looked to the crucifix again before looking back at her with a smile, "are they still
telling that lie?"

"I’m asleep, right, that’s what this is I’m still asleep," she asked feeling panic bubbling up at the
surface. She was supposed to be safe here, she had been promised that she was safe.

"Sorry, but no," he made his way back down the aisle to the pew she sat in now ram-rod
straight. "I didn’t think they were still telling people that whole, vampires can’t walk on holy ground lie."

"It isn’t the holy ground, it’s faith that keeps evil away," or something like that, she couldn’t
remember exactly how it had been described to her.

"Wow, so now they’re just telling it backwards, I guess that isn’t a surprise." He smiled again,
he always seemed to be smiling but she could tell that it wasn’t one of his genuinely amused expressions,
"I suppose if they told the truth their hunters wouldn’t feel as safe sleeping at night."

"What do you mean?" She wasn’t sure that she really wanted to know, but so far this vampire
was one of few who had been straight with her, and he was standing in front of her in a place that was
supposed to be impossible for him to enter, ignoring what he had to say seemed idiotic at this point.

"It’s the vampire’s faith that keep them off holy ground, that makes your holy water burn like
acid and your crosses sear their flesh. Those of us lucky enough to be atheists, well I’ve never seemed
to have any trouble," as he said this he made his way down the aisle to where she was sitting, clearly
being careful to keep his movements at their most human.

"What are you doing," she asked as he brushed past her and sat down.

"I heard about your day."

"How could you have......," her words died when he put his arm over her shoulders.

"I have spies everywhere, I have to tell you, your government friend is a piece of work." He
shrugged but otherwise fell into that eerie stillness that seemed to come naturally to his kind. "In the end
I came to see if you’d be in any condition to work, but I think rather not, at least not tonight."

"You can’t be here," she insisted again because she hadn’t even managed to work her way
around that fact.

"Full circle," he sighed, "fine I’m pure evil put on Earth by Satan, I defy all logic with my evil
powers. Better?"

"This isn’t funny," she tried to push him off her but everything hurt and she gave up before she’d
really gotten started. She was suddenly horrified with herself that like a ridiculous hormonal female her
eyes began to tear up, not for the first time today. "Why are you here?" She asked again trying to wipe
her eyes and failing.

"For you, unfortunately, as I said, you are in no condition to be useful," he slid his free hand
beneath the opening in her blanket, grabbing one of her bare ankles and using it to pull her in closer
beside him. "You seem to be a mess," at this point he had her practically pasted to his side and rested
his jaw against her head, it should have been terrifying to be this close to a vampire, instead it was
comforting, she was clearly suffering from some wacked out PTSD.

"I work just fine when I’m a mess," she snapped trying to pull her leg out of his grasp but she
might as well be dealing with a statue.

"I might actually believe that if I hadn’t already witnessed you working as a mess." He sighed
again and finally put some space back between them. "It is unfortunate that I haven’t the time to spare
to be more comforting," he smiled and this close she had a hard time fighting the effect he had on her.

"What makes you think I find having a blood sucker ‘here’ makes me feel remotely comforted?"
It was the only thing that she could think to say, she just wished that she actually meant it.

"Of course," he stood without any warning which she could have lived without because she
almost fell out of her seat when he did. "I did bring you something, I’ve heard through my very
mysterious informants that you find yourself here, unarmed." Jennifer waited, when he reached into his
coat she half expected him to pull a weapon and kill her. What she wasn’t expecting was for him to pull
her Bowie knife off his belt, flip it so that the handle faced her and offer it back to her.

"But I stabbed you," she reminded him.

"Yes," he laughed at her surprise, "I remember, and I thought about keeping it as a souvenir but
as knives go it is rather large and awkward. If I have a knife I want a knife, otherwise I prefer my
sword," He raised his eyebrows at her hesitation to take the weapon he was offering her, "would you
rather I kept it?"

"No," Jennifer immediately snatched the knife out of his hands, "thank you." She looked back
to him, for probably the first time since he’d arrived, finding herself capable of seeing the details. He
hadn’t changed much, he was still wearing faded jeans but he had changed out of the shirt she’d put a
hole in. "Are you kidding me," she asked in what was almost complete disbelief.