Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (47 page)

Chapter 31

This time when Jennifer came to it was to more shouting then she would have liked, when she
cracked open her eyes she was expecting to see people running and screaming, probably being chased
around by corpses. What she found was that she was lying on the bottom story of the carousel, so here
she was again with something that had once been a happy childhood memory. She thought very briefly
that those memories would be overshadowed now by the memory of Ethan getting bitten, saving her no
less. She sat bolt upright, regretted the motion because everything hurt ten times more then when she’d
lost consciousness.

The sight she was confronted with was Tom, without a scratch on him as far as she could tell,
some of his people behind him with their rifles raised facing off with the six vampires. "Stop," she
thought she’d said loud enough to be heard but nothing happened, she had no idea why they were
wasting time with the vampires but she wasn’t going to sit by while this idiocy went down. Staggering to
her feet Jennifer practically landed on her face making her way off the carousel platform and jumped
between the two groups. "What are you doing?" She was going to point out that they had other things
to be shooting so they shouldn’t be squandering bullets but a look behind Tom’s lines showed the floor
littered with corpses. Her brain wandered off while she pondered how long she must have been out of it
for that to have happened. "How long," she interrupted whatever Tom had been saying, she leaned out
to see further past the people in front of her. Not one of the bodies on the floor was moving, "how long
was I unconscious?" It looked as though it must have been a good bit of time if they’d wrapped
everything up while she was out. Tom just glared at her like she aught to shut her mouth and get out of
the way.

"A minute, maybe two," she glanced behind her to Ethan, remembering his bite and wishing she
could go back to check him but she was currently a human shield. His words sank in after a minute and
she realized that there was probably another reason that Tom had plans for killing the vampires. She’d
thought she’d seen Tom taken down by that mass of revenants and then Ethan, inwardly she cringed at
the memory of that bite. It had been too much, she’d known since she’d laid eyes on the vampire that
something wasn’t right where he was concerned. She’d seen him that first time and something in her had
shifted, not in a way that she could say was good, but then she was the stubborn type, she didn’t want to
feel anything for a monster. But she knew what he was now and whatever it was between the two of
them hadn’t gone away, she really did think of him as her vampire and that was bad. He’d been bitten
and she’d seen red, and clearly she’d done whatever she had as a child and the vampire had seen it.

"Let them go," Jennifer put her focus back on Tom, she was aware this was his way of trying to
protect her. He must be at least partially certain that the vampire knew she’d had something to do with
the zombies falling over without blunt force trauma for an excuse.

"Can’t do that," was all the Cyborg growled back.

"I’d have been killed if not for him, we’d be dead now probably a hundred times over. One of
their people died to see this finished, you will let them go Tom." She didn’t say that he’d have to kill her
to do anything otherwise but she could tell that he caught her meaning because he looked like he was
about to fly into a rage. Clearly this whole debacle was too much even for the Cyborg because he was
usually so calm.

"You don’t know what you’re doing," he warned her.

Jennifer glanced over her shoulder to the vampires there, "yes I do." This group was not
anything she ever would have expected finding in the midst of monsters, she wouldn’t be the one to have
them executed. "Go," she told them, but instead of blurring off like she knew they could Ethan made to
take a step toward her. "Just go," she told him loud enough for everyone to hear, but willed him to
understand she would find him later. There was a pause, like he was debating whether he could get
away with snatching her on his way out but finally he nodded and like it was the only signal needed him
and his people were gone in the blink of an eye. Thank god, it was all she could think as the fight
drained out of her and she let herself slip to a seated position on the floor.

"Jenny," Tom was next to her with Brook right behind him, their concern was touching. Tom
knelt, that concern and a good deal of anger permeating off him, "they know what you are."

Jennifer looked to him confused, was he implying she was something other then human, that was
irritating. "Ethan knows," she corrected him, "that’s one," and he wasn’t going to go around sharing that
secret she was pretty certain. She wanted to correct him also that he’d seen what she’d done not what
she was but didn’t feel like going into that with quite such a large crowd.

"They’ll have to be dealt with," was of course his only thought.

"No Tom," she shook her head, but she had no real reason, at least not one she could share with
him as to why he couldn’t do that. Given that answer would be because she didn’t want him hurting her
vampire, who might already be dead anyway, she simply shook her head.

"It’s not your call," she understood why he was so protective, there had been a time, very long
ago, when they’d been family. He’d made promises to her father and it was likely if he hadn’t he’d still
be overbearingly protective.

When he made to get up after that statement she grabbed unto his uniform collar to stop him,
"you will have to go through me to get to them." She was not joking, until that group of vampires did
something that earned them an execution she wouldn’t see one of them dead.

"Careful," Tom warned her in equal measure, he clearly thought she was taking the wrong side,
she didn’t care. In the end he pulled her to her feet without another word and handed her off to Brook
with an order to have her taken back to his offal decontamination team. She managed to convince
Brook to hold onto her weapons for her until she could get them back which she could only hope was
soon.

"What’s going to happen here," Jennifer inquired as Brook led her to the exit and the laborious
decontaminating process.

"The Lieutenant will probably have it burned down," or blown up she thought, Tom wouldn’t
leave any evidence behind. "Some of the guys are saying this wasn’t viral, rumors are going the
vampires used hoodoo to make this happen." She knew the point he was going to make before he did,
"why’d you let them go?"

"Because they didn’t do this," they’d gone out of their way to see it stopped. "Tom knows
where to go looking for who started this and if he doesn’t you can tell him I told you straight out it was
that master-vampire-bitch Adelaide." Brook actually looked surprised, maybe Tom didn’t share all his
need to know information, in this case she was thinking the more people who knew the better.

"So no virus," Brook inquired.

She shook her head, she still wasn’t sure what it was, it showed up in the blood stream or Tom
wouldn’t have had a hundred vials of hers taken after the hospital incident, but then vampire blood didn’t
look human either under a microscope, she knew that much. Ada had used power to bring back the
dead without giving a drop of her blood, and instead of a vampire what she’d raised was a zombie.
Jennifer didn’t understand how vampires worked, didn’t know what kept them alive after death, maybe
it was evolution, maybe they were sent from hell. "I don’t know what it was," she finally told him, how
could she know. She’d like to believe that the revenants were viral, it had spread like it, but then again
she didn’t think anyone could put a virus down with a thought either. They didn’t exchange another
word until he had her at the exit and was getting ready to hand her off to get hosed down with whatever
anti-zombie crap they had in mind, and she was handing over her weapons which she’d retrieved before
leaving. "I want these back," she told him as she handed over the hip holster with both Beretta and knife
and then the Remington.

"Yes Sir," he nodded with a tired smile.

"You can call me Jennifer," she told him but she was pretty certain she was going to be hearing
more Sir’s from him in the future.

Chapter 32

After yet another exhausting experience of getting her clothing taken from her, Tom was at least
good enough to have her driven home. Since she felt like every inch of her was covered in bruises and
ready to fall over there was very little in her that was willing to protest having someone else drive her.
She was simply grateful Tom had the foresight to have someone following with her car so she wouldn’t
have to go get it. By the time she actually was dumped off at her place she was completely wiped out
but she forced herself to dig through the fridge and pulled out something edible. She had become aware
that she’d eaten almost nothing since this had started, even now she had little appetite but if she had any
hope of getting to Ethan tonight she was going to need something to give her a boost and keep her from
falling over.

As if sensing she wasn’t going to be sticking around Kahn didn’t follow his usual pattern of
trailing her around the house, he simply waited by the door. It probably wasn’t hard for him to tell she
wasn’t staying with as much nervous energy as she was giving off, with good reason, it was likely there
wasn’t much time. The first time she’d encountered Dimitri he had still been a sadistic vampire, by the
next night he was something else, if Ethan was infected she figured she didn’t have long to see him while
he was still himself. After stuffing an acceptable amount of food down her throat she shambled into her
bedroom to change out of the medical gown she’d found herself in for the second time in as many days.
Since the vampire had pretty much witnessed her at her worst to begin with she didn’t worry over much
about the clothing she climbed into. There were very few things she paid an over abundance of attention
to, weapons, training, the logistics of a fight, but clothing had never really qualified unless it involved how
it could conceal her gun. Since her wardrobe consisted of jeans, tees, and sneakers it wasn’t as if she
had a wide range to choose from anyway so she ended up in a grey shirt with black jeans then slipped
on a pair of boots. She stopped on her way to the basement to grab something to tie her hair back with,
and very quickly ran her fingers through the mess before tying it up on her way down the basement
stairs. Feeling like she had little time she paused to pull her phone, which Tom hadn’t confiscated this
time, and sent the vampire a text inquiring his location. Then she went about grabbing a shoulder holster,
shoving yet another 9mm into it, grabbing a k-bar and stuffing it down a slit in her boot, there specifically
for knives and let that be the end of it. She could take more weapons, probably should even since the
revenants were officially gone and that should mean that their truce was over. But other then taking an
extra magazine she closed and locked the weapons locker and made her way back upstairs.

By the time she reached the top of the flight her ribs felt like they were going to collapse into her
lungs, she should probably have stopped to wrap them, or go to a doctor. She paused by a hall closet
to catch her breath and grab a coat to hide the gun holster at which point her phone rang, she hastily
answered, "Ryan here," out of habit.

"I got the info you wanted on your vampires," Zip’s voice came over the line and a spike of
disappointment shot through her before her tired brain processed his words.

"I only have time for a quick run down, so give me what you thinks important on Gabriel now
and I’ll contact you later for the rest." She held her breath while she listened, waiting for Zip to tell her
all of Ethan’s past horrific exploits but if he had any the kid glazed over them. He covered very quickly
Gabriel Ethan Allen Rouquette, he was born in 1758 in the America’s, he and his family by marriage had
presumably died in a fire at which point he’d turned up and gotten himself excommunicated from the
catholic church as a demon. He’d basically disappeared after that was all Zip had to say to that effect,
then reminded her he had backgrounds on the others as well. "Thanks Zip, I’ll call you back for the
rest," at which point as usual he hung up.

"Son of a bitch," she growled, putting two and two together hadn’t been overly difficult once Zip
had told her Ethan’s full name. Only half of her had been listening by the time Zip had thought to
mention the death of Ethan’s family in a fire, the minute he’d said it she’d recalled that dream she’d been
dragged into in his head to witness. She’d assumed that it was a fire he’d set, but it very well could have
been a memory of how he’d watched his family burn. He could have said that, she thought irritably but
stowed the emotional crap, her only concern at the moment was whether or not a vampire of two-hundred and fifty years and some change was going to survive a revenant bite. She could be pissed
about his invasion of her head later, she would try to placate herself with the knowledge that he’d done it
to help her. She checked her phone quickly to see if she’d gotten any response from Ethan but her
phone remained silent outside of the one call.