Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (38 page)

"How much did you tell your pet," his Maker demanded but he displayed only indifference, he
certainly hadn’t given away details enough for the Hunter to be acting as though she had an ounce of
leverage.

"It’s just a matter of time before Dimitri comes knocking on your door, sure maybe he’ll take out
the entire human race first but he’ll get there eventually." Ada didn’t turn her glare from him as she
digested this piece of information, "I’m willing to help get rid of him, but...." his Maker made as if to
strike him again and he knew without looking down when pavement glanced against his leg that the
Hunter had made the shot to keep her from making the blow. "Sorry," she said, though she didn’t sound
as though she meant it, "can’t let you do that, we’re a team at the moment and nobody touches my
team." The instant pride he felt in hearing the Hunter’s words died when Ada’s expression turned dark.
Not in her usual violent way, in a way that let him know there would be no end to her obsession with the
Hunter now.

"You would protect one of my vampires," she smiled almost cheerfully, in a way that was
completely unnatural to her, and he knew that there would be no pulling the Hunter out of his fight.

"If he’s dead for real he won’t be of much use," she would have been better off verbally denying
it.

Ada simply made a curious noise before she smiled again, "Tobias, so nice of you to join us, if
you please." She indicated with her hand that she wanted the Hunter down and it took everything that
Ethan had to stay where he was. To move in her defense would be more trouble then either one of them
needed at the moment, the Hunter had brought them enough. He heard the shotgun go off again but
kept his eyes solidly on Ada, trying to judge from her expression what was in store for Jennifer. "That’s
much better, doesn’t that feel as though it were a place you were born to be." Ada moved to step past
him and he followed her figure, instantly zeroing in on Jennifer behind him. Tobias had clearly snuck up
behind her, taken a shot to the shoulder before disarming the Hunter and using a hand hold in her hair to
force her to her knees. He fought yet more raging instincts that were outside his usual range of emotions
to rush to the rescue.

"Not even remotely," the Hunter spat, he could hear her heart pounding from here, but her voice
stayed steady.

"I think it is, I missed it before but you were clearly born to be my blood," he watched Ada run
her index finger along the Hunters throat drawing a line of blood.

"I’d kill myself first," was all the Hunter said in reply, no wavering as her head was forced to the
side.

"Would you now," Ada looked back at him, apparently encouraged in her endeavors when she
looked back and found him watching her like a hawk. "I find this new found romance in bloom quite
exciting," she rose from where she’d hovered over the Hunter’s exposed throat.

"Why does everyone keep assuming there’s something between me and Batman over there," the
Hunter delivered with a good deal of disgust.

Ada chirped and all but clapped her hands in excitement, "it’s in the way he watches you, in the
way you all but gave your life just to keep me from striking him." Ada took a step back, "why force the
change on you when I think eventually you will come to me for it." She looked back at Ethan with a
smile, she thought she had them in her web already, so easily he refrained from smiling back at her
naivete. Whatever there was between the Hunter and himself was admittedly strong, but the Hunter was
too strong willed and full of revulsion of vampires to ever come to his Maker for eternal life, even if she
did fancy herself madly in love with a vampire. Ada would be waiting for an event that wouldn’t come if
that was what she thought was going to happen. "Release the Hunter Tobias," Ada waved her hand
dismissively before making her way back to Ethan. "I will allow this action, for now," she stepped on
one of Sophie’s mutts as it tried to twitch to it’s feet, slamming it back to the pavement with a thud.
Somewhere behind him he heard the golden haired vampire make a pained noise, which Ada chose to
ignore as she approached him. "But there will be no excuses made for the next time," when she was
within reaching distance she took hold of his chin. "If you make a move without my order in the future
Gabriel I will punish you." Just the thought made her dreamy eyed and keeping the disgust off his face
would have been advisable. "You will come to me the minute you’ve taken care of our little problem,"
she stepped back, dropping his chin from her grip. "Sophie, retrieve your dogs, we’re finished here," he
thought she’d disappear immediately so as to avoid the clean-up but she turned back to Jennifer who’d
possessed enough sense to stay on her knees even after Tobias had dropped his hold on her. "I’ll be
seeing you again soon Jennifer Ryan, I imagine quite soon."

Like that she was gone, her spy Tobias vanishing on her heels, leaving only Sophie to deal with
the downed werewolves on the ground. He watched the vampire jump down on the ground next to the
wolf that Ada had seen fit to trample under foot, she crooned at it, though why he hadn’t a clue.
Nothing had been done to any of her puppies that would kill them, it took longer for them to repair
themselves but they aught to be back on their feet in a few minutes. Ethan got up and all but materialized
in front of the hunter, aware that his grim expression probably wasn’t the best mask for his anger.
"What were you thinking," he demanded, already noticing that the back of her neck was bruising from
where Tobias had held onto her.

"I got tired of sitting around," was all she could commit to as she reached over to grab her rifle,
once she had it in hand she held onto the barrel of the gun and used it to push herself to her feet. "What,
it all worked out just fine," she said as if that made her idiocy any easier to deal with.

"Where were you," he shouted when he took note of Jim making his way out of the minimal
foliage near the building.

"Sorry Boss, lady wouldn’t stay put," he had the nerve to tilt his hat and smile to the Hunter.

"And so you were doing what, exactly," he did not like that one of his people had left her to fend
for herself.

"Lady asked me real nice, if her plan went south quick and Ada tried to turn her, she wanted a
bullet put to her." Ethan gritted his teeth as again the foreign need to rip someone’s throat out rose to
the forefront. Apparently the Hunter had aptly judged his level of violence because she put her hand on
his chest to keep him from making a move forward.

"Focus right, time is not on our side here, we should go," she was not shy about meeting him eye
to eye. He hated that her calm helped him focus, he glanced to Jim but knew that the Hunter was right,
they didn’t have time for any fight at the moment but the one that need be waged against the revenants.

Chapter 25

      Jennifer was still trying to wrap her brain around what she’d seen back at the club when she
was being whizzed across town. She didn’t particularly recognize the location when they got where they
were going, but then she didn’t have to. It looked like maybe one of Dimitri’s new favorite hide outs
was a shut down shopping mall. She vaguely remembered this place from when she was a kid, before
they’d closed it for asbestos or some other health issue or other. She’d thought it was meant to be torn
down but apparently it hadn’t happened, it was probably just such a place that she should have been
paying attention to as a vampire haven. "Just great," she groused, not only did they get the joy of
searching a place that was yet again much larger then she would have liked, but now she got to wonder
if the asbestos was going to kill her too.

"Problem Hunter," Ethan asked before he even disengaged his arms from around her, which
considering they’d stopped some time ago was taking him long enough.

"Nope I’m good," not necessarily a lie, the odds of her living long enough to die of cancer were
so low that she couldn’t see any reason to worry. "Is this really where the guy spends his free time," the
place was cavernous and even if it did look as though the windows had been mostly blacked out it was
still a big risk for someone who could burst into flames when hit by sunlight.

"It’s not a terrible place to make a den, more then one escape route, more then one place to
hide." She looked back to the vampire and he shrugged, he was still clearly pissed at her, but she could
deal with pissed, if he’d thrown himself a vampire tantrum well she would have been able to deal with
that to, only shooting him didn’t seem like a good trust building exercise.

"Is he the only vampire living here," inquiring minds would want to know, since it was life or
death potentially for them and all.

"No likely not," that was comforting. Ethan finally let her go away from his chest, she probably
should have said something beforehand when he didn’t let go right away. He pulled the sword from
over his shoulder so she did the same with the Remington.

"How are we doing this," she asked more to be polite although she supposed she aught to
wonder, it seemed unlikely that vampires would operate in a fashion similar to humans. She gave a
quick survey of the others, Jim had his Mossberg in hand, Lydia had sharp edged blades in both of hers,
she was pretty sure Dominik was holding a Lugar, the twins had pulled what looked like a claymore and
a flail, and she was pretty certain that Ethan’s second had pulled a short sword. Yea she was not
thinking that going into any fighting situation with a flock of vampires at your back was going to be
anything like having humans.

"Thadeus," Ethan addressed his second instead of answering her question, "take Jim, Lydia, and
MacArthur with you to the upper levels." Once the order was given the vampires that had been named
disappeared without a single question asked. "We are taking the lower levels," he informed her, and of
course by ‘we’ he meant him, her, Dominik and Mary. She was going to be working outside of her
comfort zone, it figured he’d let her get comfortable with the most human of the vampires and then have
her in the team that didn’t include them. "You don’t like the arrangement," had she made it that obvious,
"I’d had a different arrangement in mind myself until you’d convinced James to shoot you."

"Is that why you’re all cranky," she asked, when he just glared at her she couldn’t help it she
rolled her eyes at him, "I was like fifty-five percent certain he wouldn’t have to shoot me."

"Those are lousy odds," the vampire told her before ignoring her again, "spread out, we want
this cleared as quickly as possible, our Hunter’s human friend can’t be far behind." Again he spoke and
like what he said was the fastest motivator alive the other two vampires disappeared.

"How do they even know which way to go," she suddenly wondered if vampires accidently
bumped into each other at warp speed but couldn’t image what might result if they did. Assuming that
he wanted her to do the same Jennifer started to pace off in one direction or another but the vampire
grabbed her arm. "What, I’m just doing what you said, just at normal speed," she grumbled to herself,
there was probably more then one reason vampires and hunters didn’t ever work together and
disadvantage was a big one.

"Not you, you are staying with me," she probably gave him the worst stink eye she’d bestowed
on him yet but it was pretty obvious it had no effect. She understood from his vantage she looked pretty
helpless and pathetic all bruised up and limping about, not that she was limping. But she was used to
taking care of herself, mostly, it was true that vampires seemed to prefer spreading out a little further
than she would normally have with her team. But then what was their worry when they were fast, strong
and immortal, sure maybe a revenant would catch them off guard but you’d have to be a pretty stupid
unsuspecting vampire. Then again there was vampire-revenant Dimitri to worry about, but even his
vampire speed had slowed a bit, and nobody here was unsuspecting, at least she hoped not.

"I can handle myself," Jennifer told him just to make a reminder, "I’d be more worried about
your vampires if I were you. Have they even seen a revenant before?" When he didn’t answer she
looked up and found him standing by like he was waiting on her to start moving. "Are you leading this
charge or am I," she had assumed that she was going to be following him and not the other way around,
apparently he was willing to cater to her ego a little after all.

"I thought you liked to take point," it was not a question, not really, even before when he’d met
her at the morgue and she’d been terrified she’d taken point. He was a fast learner, she would give him
points for that much. She smiled before raising the Remington and taking off in the direction that she
thought the other two had taken off in. They would probably have their sections cleared before her and
Ethan made it to the other side of the building.

"I don’t think I know exactly why I’m here, I mean I know why I want to be here, I’m just not
sure why you want me to be here. As far as I can tell I’ll just slow you down," there was no reason in
particular that she pointed this piece of information out to him, pointing out her apparent lacking wouldn’t
do her any favors but she had to wonder why.

"You’ve the most experience with these things and in my experience there can come a time
when that makes all the difference." Jennifer didn’t look back at him when he said this, but could sense
even without watching what she knew would be a controlled expression on his face that there was
something he wasn’t telling her, some way he thought she’d be useful or she wouldn’t be here.