The Disciple and Other Stories of the Paranormal (21 page)

We continued on, but the ’Pires were on the
offensive now. We no longer had the element of surprise, and many
times were attacked when we thought ourselves safe. They killed the
horses, too, which slowed us down, both in terms of attack and
retreat.

Interestingly, our holy symbols had more
effect after Adrienne’s death. We had no idea why, and we’d still
not found the pattern that would help us identify and find their
source, but even a small help was better than none.

But small helps aren’t much good in a war
where one side outnumbers the other by thousands.

At first we questioned every ’Pire we could,
before we killed them, but either they knew nothing of what we
asked, refused to answer, or said as the other ’Pire had – that we
were the abominations, the demons, and they were holy.

Soon we stopped questioning.

One by one, they cut us down. Hannah,
Jonathan and Liam each fell during separate fights with vampire
clans. Each body was buried as we had David’s and Adrienne’s. And
with each body interred, more of our hope was buried as well.

“
Maybe we should…forget
this mission,” Marcus said as we finished our prayers for Liam’s
soul.

I stared at the grave. “Liam died in the
future, was saved and resurrected, and died again now. Each death
was because of the vampires, the plague from this time that grew
unchecked for centuries. If we can succeed, stop the plague here,
he won’t die in the future.” Neither would Violet, or David,
Hannah, or any of the others. We’d all be alive in the future, if
we were successful here in the past.

Marcus took my hand. “But there are only two
of us now.” He pulled me to him and held me. “I can’t lose you. I
couldn’t go on alone here without you.”

“
You could.”

“
No.
You
could.
You’ve always been the bravest, the strongest of us. I would die
here without you to give me a reason to go on.”

I leaned against his chest. “Then we’ll have
to ensure we survive.”

He sighed. “I want you to at least consider
that we give up this quest. I love you, and I want to live with
you, in safety.”

“
I love you too.” I
considered Marcus’ suggestion as we held each other. Would it be so
wrong if we stopped, maybe only for a little while, and just
allowed ourselves to actually live?

Marcus knew my resolve was weakening. He
started speaking of a future where we would have children, live our
lives somewhere safe, where the plague hadn’t come. His dream
sounded worthy of consideration.

We wandered further north, not really
looking for vampires now. Instead, we were looking for somewhere
safe to live. I thought of all the vampire homes we’d left behind –
if we’d stayed, if we’d stopped and made one of them our base,
maybe the others would still be alive and with us.

If we’d stayed – at one of those homes or in
our own time – maybe we’d have been safe.

But it hadn’t been safe in our own time, and
safety wasn’t something we’d come to the far past for. I’d never
known the luxury of safety.

Marcus was offering safety, but I knew it
was a dream, an illusion. We would never be safe. Not as long as
the vampire plague existed.

We tried. We truly did.

I removed my cloak, wore a dress and an
appropriate woman’s head covering, hid my weapons, with the hope of
blending in. Marcus didn’t have to hide as much, but we both used
our cloaks as carrying bags.

Our attempts didn’t matter.

We thought to find a village and join it,
move into a home none had a claim on any more because the Black
Death had killed all potential claimants. But every village we came
across ran us off. The insults varied, but the results were always
the same.

“
Your plan for us to
settle down and stop vampire hunting doesn’t seem to be working,” I
said as we trudged away from another place that didn’t want us, the
shouts and screams of “God doesn’t want you here,” ringing in our
ears.

“
Maybe we need to choose a
place where all the villagers are dead.”

“
No. Then we’ll be accused
of killing them all, should anyone else happen by.”

Marcus sighed. “Most likely true.” He put
his arm around my shoulders and hugged me. “It’ll work out.”

“
Not if we want to live
with other people, apparently. They don’t like us much, do they? I
don’t think we resemble any demons from the Bible, but you’d never
know.”

Marcus was quiet.

“
What are you
thinking?”

“
Maybe God
doesn’t
want us here. Maybe we weren’t supposed to come back.”

“
We’re doing God’s work,”
I said firmly, even as I admitted to myself that this was a strong
possibility. “No religious text lists vampires as agents of good or
of God. If we question our faith, our faith weakens.”

Marcus chuckled morosely. “I don’t have
faith in much anymore. Other than you.” He hugged me again. “I know
if you believe us to be doing right, then we’re doing right.”

I didn’t tell him that I’d stopped wondering
if we were doing right months ago. Like Marcus, I couldn’t go on if
I rejected my purpose. So I continued to embrace it, as I wondered
if we could ever truly find safety, or if the mere hope of it was
asking for more than we deserved.

We weren’t able to find safety. We were,
however, able to find vampires.

There was a pattern, just as David had said
there would be. I wasn’t sure I could see the entire picture, but
certain commonalities were appearing to us.

The clans tended to be in more desolate
areas, almost always family groups, or tiny communities. The
solitary ’Pires were usually in the larger towns. There were
exceptions, but by now, we’d accumulated enough kills to feel
confident we were reading these patterns correctly.

The town ’Pires had thralls. The family
groups didn’t. The families appeared to feed from each other and
animals, but not so the town vampires. They had thralls as well as
many dead. But with the Black Death still raging, no one looked too
closely at the dead. No one but us.

It became easy to spot those a vampire had
drained for food – they looked so much better in death than the
victims of the bubonic plague.

In some few areas we were asked to give the
last rites to the dying and to pray over the bodies of the dead.
Our reputations as being evil or dangerous preceded us too often
for this to be a common occurrence. We were blamed for the Black
Death more frequently than we were hailed as clergy who could give
a dying soul peace.

“
Someone’s telling them
about us,” Marcus said in frustration after we were run out of yet
another town, a town with no vampires in it. “And they’re traveling
faster than we are.”

“
Maybe they have
telepathy. We know the maker has control over his thralls, and, to
a lesser degree, over the vampires he creates. Maybe that’s how
they’re communicating.”

“
Maybe.” Marcus frowned.
“That was true in our time. But things are different with the
’Pires of this era.”

“
The sooner we can
determine how they know about us, the sooner we can find the
source.”

Marcus put his arm around my shoulders. “And
the sooner we can find where we want to spend the rest of our
lives.”

I managed a smile. But I knew where we were
spending the remainder of our lives, and want no longer had
anything to do with it.