The Harvesting (28 page)

“
Layla?”

“
A kind of spirit, a fox
woman, guided me there and told me the labyrinth is a
doorway.”

“
To where?”

“
Out of here.”

“
I thought foxes were
supposed to be tricksters,” he said absently, but then added. “I
suppose it would just be too easy to take the yacht?”

“
They can transform into
shadow. They could find us if we take the yacht.”

“
Yep, too
easy.”

“
We’ll be fine. I’ll get
the girls and meet you there.”

“
Layla,” Jamie said
grabbing me and pulling me close. “I love you,” he whispered and
gave me a deep kiss. “Please, be careful.”

“
I love you too,” I
replied, and squeezed his chin, kissing him sweetly. “Hey, we
survived hundreds of the undead so far, what’s a handful of
vampires?”

Jamie shook his head at me. “See you
soon.”

“
See you soon.” And we set
off in different directions.

Chapter 32

The hotel was dead. It was too late
for any survivors to still be up, and all of the staff was gone.
Apparently they had gone to the party Ian had mentioned. The idea
that it was a party worried me. What were they celebrating, and
what, besides that poor girl’s heart in a jar, was on the menu? I
shuddered to consider it.

I exited the hotel. Hiding in the
shadows as much as possible, I went west. I took the path I’d seen
Rumor and her entourage take into the thick forest. The air was
cool under the trees. They made a thick canopy which nearly
occluded the moonlight. I stepped carefully through the woods
trying to make as little sound as possible. The earthy woods smell
was tangy and sweet. I passed through the woods, worrying every
shadow was one of them, and soon found myself at the edge of a very
large pond. On the other side was a reception hall. Through the
nearly floor to ceiling windows, I could see people moving around.
At such a distance, however, they were merely shapes. The room was
full of candle-light; the flames bounced on the waters of the pond
outside. Apparently, I’d found the party.

I kept low and near the water’s edge.
When I neared the building, I heard the outside door open and
close, but no one came near me. The sound of happy and excited
voices filled the night air when the door opened. When I was
finally near the hall, I lay on my belly, snuck up the bankside,
and looked inside.

I wasn’t sure if what I saw within was
a blood bath or an orgy. I squelched the scream that nearly escaped
my lips. Inside, almost everyone was either naked or half
undressed. The hosts were drinking the blood of those I’d see
during the day; white flesh was streaked red with dripping blood.
Many were having sex and being bled at the same time, sometimes
being eaten by more than one vampire. From the looks on their
faces, they were in a state of rapture. My eyes scanned the room
for Kira and Susan, praying they were not witness to such a
horrific sight, praying they were not being eaten alive. As I
scanned, my eyes fell on Ian. He and Rumor were lost in their own
ecstasy; he was thrusting into her while she bit his shoulder, her
legs wrapped around his waist, blood dripping down his back. I felt
myself tear up. Then I stood and maneuvered toward the back of the
building.

Once I got to the side of the
building, I looked into the window of one of the back rooms. Kira
and Susan were sitting side by side on the floor in the kitchen.
They had been redressed in simple white gowns, their hair adorned
with spring flowers. They were holding fast to each other and
looked scared, but they were alive. Carefully, I tried the window.
It was locked. But there was a door at the back that led directly
to the kitchen.

I slid around the side of the
building. There was no one there and the door was ajar. I opened
it. Kira and Susan looked up. They were both startled to see me.
Kira opened her mouth to call out, but Susan quickly covered her
mouth. I put my finger over my lips and motioned them to come to
me.

Quietly, the two girls came hand in
hand. I led them out. As I turned to look for an escape route, I
found myself face to face with Corbin.

He smiled menacingly at me and this
time I could see his fangs. “I told you to remember that you asked
to come.”

In a heartbeat, I dropped Susan’s
hand, freed the shashka from the scabbard across my back, and let
it sing through the air. With one fell swoop, I sliced off Corbin’s
head. It hit the earth with a thud. The creature’s ridiculous smile
was still on his face.

“
Shut up,” I said and
kicked the head into the weeds. I then slid the body under a
thicket.

The noise didn’t seem to attract
anyone. I grabbed the girls, carrying Susan and holding on to Kira,
and we took off in a run toward the hotel.

We had almost passed through the
forest when my hands started to tingle. There was someone in the
forest with us. I stopped and looked around. The moonlight above
cast long shadows everywhere. I swore I saw something moving but
could not get a fix. My eyes darted around trying to spot one of
them, but I saw nothing clearly.

“
What’s wrong?” Kira
whispered.

I put my finger to my lip to silence
her. I bent to pick her up, but in that same moment I felt someone
behind me. There was a strange feeling of built up energy when he
morphed from shadow to corporeal form. The leaves crackled under
its feet.

“
Going somewhere?” a male
voice asked.

I turned to see Ambrosio standing
there.

“
Go away,” Susan yelled at
him. I felt a tug on my vest and then Ambrosio flung backward, a
look of shock and pain on his face. He opened his mouth to scream
but fell into a pile of ash.

I looked at Susan. She had pulled the
water gun Jamie had given me from my vest. She’d blasted him with
holy water.

“
Nice shooting,” I told
her, and then hoisting up Kira, I set off in a run.

I ran across the lawn toward the
eastern end of the hotel. Everyone was waiting. When they spotted
me, Jamie and Frenchie rushed to intercept me. I set the girls
down. They ran to their mother.

Jamie wrapped his arm around me and
kissed the top of my head. “Amazing,” he whispered.

Frenchie smiled at me as she kissed
her daughters. I saw her eye their clothes, and she too could guess
the meaning of such dress.

“
We’re in trouble. We need
to go, now,” I replied.

“
Oh, Layla, thank god.
Where did you find those girls?” Ethel asked.

“
Don’t ask,” I replied.
“We need to move.”

“
Where is Ian?” Mrs. Finch
asked.

I gazed at Jamie who said nothing. I
shook my head.

“
What should we do?” Larry
asked.

“
We need to take out the
hotel and the yacht,” I instructed. “Jeff, you got the
bottles?”

He nodded, tapping some boxes with his
foot.

“
What is going on here?”
one of the survivors asked.

“
Just stay with Layla,”
Ethel replied.

“
We have the cloth
strips,” Summer said and handed them to me.

“
Quickly, start corking
bottles,” I instructed.

“
Molotovs?” Kiki
asked.

I nodded. Jeff and the others started
rapidly corking vodka bottles with strips of cloth. I could see my
grandmother shaking her head—a terrible waste.

“
We can take out the
hotel,” Tom said, and several others around him nodded.

“
What about the yacht?
Won’t we need it?” Kiki asked.

“
No, everyone needs to
come with me. There is another way off the island. We have to go to
a smaller island just off shore. There,” I said, pointing toward
the shoreline where the fox had led me down the earthen steps
earlier that day.

“
We got the yacht,” Jeff
said as he and Gary packed a bag of liquor bottles.

“
Guys, we need to haul
ass. We’ve already killed some of them. They could be on us at any
minute. Fire. Decapitation. I don’t think guns will do anything,” I
cautioned.

Moments later, everyone was moving off
in different directions. Jamie headed out with Tom and his group. I
led my group through the rocky weeds down to the shoreline. The
moon above illuminated the waves. The row boat was where I had left
it.

“
Quickly,” I said,
motioning them toward the boat.

I turned to Larry. “Get everyone on
that island as fast as possible.”

“
On it, Layla.”

I grabbed Larry’s arm. “Frenchie and
the girls on the first trip.”

He nodded affirmatively.

I waited until he got the first boat
loaded and was headed safely across the waves. Then I ran back
toward the hotel. Just as I reached the lawn, I heard the sound of
breaking glass and a familiar boom as fire exploded. The burning
alcohol sprayed across the wooden thatches.

From the western end traveling east, I
saw explosion after explosion tearing at the side of the hotel. In
the firelight, I saw Jamie’s and Tom’s hustling figures.

Then I heard another sound. A wailing,
like a banshee scream, sounded from somewhere in the
distance.

I saw Tom and Jamie stop for a moment
and then set off in a sprint across the lawn.

Then there was another explosion from
the direction of the dock. The yacht was on fire.

My heart raced. I melded back into the
grass and watched: Jamie, Tom, Will, Dusty, Buddie, and Mr. Jones
raced across the lawn toward me.

A shadow moved across the night’s sky.
There was another scream as the creatures spotted the
men.

“
Move!” I screamed at
them.

In a heartbeat, two of the vampires
were amongst us. They moved too fast.

Jamie dodged one. It was Finn. Jamie
shot at him. Finn dodged the bullets and lunged at Jamie. Jamie
slid to the ground, under and behind the vampire.

I ran toward them. Grabbing the last
vial of holy water from my vest, I rushed the creature.

When Finn caught sight of me, he went
in for the kill.

I unstopped the liquid and just as
Finn was about to grab me, I rained holy water across his
face.

He screeched a horrific cry, clutching
his face. He melted into the ground, crumbling into a heap of
ash.

Then I heard Mr. Jones scream. Matilda
had grabbed him. She hovered about ten feet in the air, snapped his
neck, and dropped him.

Next, she made a move toward Buddie
who shot an arrow through her throat. It slowed her. She stopped to
pull it out, an annoyed expression on her face.

Will swept in behind her. Lighting one
of the liquor bottles, he pitched it at her. Before she had time to
react, it exploded, raining fire all over her. She wailed in
agony.

I looked up. More shadowed figures
moved across the horizon.

“
Now, now, let’s go,” I
screamed. We took off through the weeds. Down we went through the
brush and onto the marsh. We rushed through the swampy water to the
stone-lined shore.

Larry had the last of the survivors
rowed half way to the island.

“
We’re fucked,” Will
said.

“
We have to get to the
island. They can’t touch us there. Go, go, swim,” I yelled at
them.

“
What about you?” Dusty
asked.

“
Jeff and Gary are still
out there.”

“
Layla, go, you’re the
only one who really knows what to do,” Jamie said.

Just then, the shadowy shapes of Rumor
and Katya appeared near the hotel. They were scanning for
us.

“
Go, go, let’s go,” Jamie
said and pulled me toward the water.

“
But--”

“
Now, Layla, move your
ass,” Buddie said.

We went crashing into the water. It
was bitterly cold. I could feel the heavy weight of my equipment on
me and suddenly I worried I might not make it. Adrenaline pushing
me forward, I forced myself to swim. The boat was just nearing the
shoreline. As I swam, I saw Larry unload the rest of the people and
hustle them up the bank. In the darkness, I saw the shadowed crowd
watching the events unfold in horror. I could not imagine the
sight: the hotel burning, the other survivors swimming, the
vampires hunting.

As I emerged from the water, I heard
an ear-piercing scream. Rumor had spotted us. Dusty and Will helped
me stand. We turned. In full flight, Katya and Rumor darted over
the water. At the same moment, Jeff and Gary crashed through the
marshy brush onto the shore of Enita Island. Not seeing the
vampires, Jeff called out.

“
Layla,” he
screamed.

Rumor turned and in the blink of an
eye, she fell upon him. She smashed him under her foot like a fly.
She reached down, plucking his head off, and drank blood from the
trunk of his neck. She then threw the bloody head across the water
to me.