“Overall?” a woman asked as she straightened up from where she was working on the fence. “Does that mean there’s bad news?”
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing we can’t handle,” I said. “You’re all doing a great job with these barriers, so just keep up the good work.”
They seemed relatively reassured, so I waved and headed across the gravel lot to find the girls. When I entered the church, James was asleep on the couch but was no longer hooked up to a blood bag or IV fluids, so he must be doing a lot better. Celia was keeping watch beside him, and she looked like she had been dozing in and out of sleep, so I knew she must be worried about him.
“Celia,” I murmured when I got a little closer.
The silver-haired woman jumped and then smiled up at me.
“Where’s everybody else?” I asked.
“Val said she had to go check on a pregnant horse,” Celia replied, “and I told the girls to go make themselves some lunch while I took over nurse duty here.”
“Thanks for looking after them,” I said, “and for looking after James.”
“Of course,” Celia said. “Go on and catch up with them. I’m sure you’re eager to catch them up on your morning.”
I glanced at James again, nodded, and then headed to the church kitchen. The girls were the only ones there at the moment, but I was pleased to see that all six of them had decided to take lunch together. As soon as I was inside, I shut and locked the door behind me, and they all stood up from the table before I gestured for them to sit down again.
“What’s wrong?” Natalie asked. “What happened?”
“So, a couple things,” I said as I joined them at the table. “One, apparently, Thaddeus’ brother was part of that last raiding party that was sent to Red House.”
“So what?” Neko demanded. “So we killed the brother of the big bad leader of the fiefdom down there. Does he even know that we killed him?”
“He will eventually,” I replied, “but that’s not really what I’m worried about. The vamps in Black Betsy… well, they’ve got fucking guns now.”
“Of course, they have guns,” Catherine said immediately. “This is West Virginia. Everybody has guns.”
“Sometimes, I think you’re a lot more like the people here in West Virginia than you are like a rich rancher’s daughter,” Erika said with a smile.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Catherine said with a toss of her dark-red hair.
“I meant it as one,” Erika replied.
“I don’t mean just a few guns here and there,” I said. “They’ve got every type of gun, and they’ve got a fucking lot of them, so they’re about as well-armed as we are… only there’s a lot more of them than the seven of us.”
“But the people in Red House have guns, too, so it’s not just us,” Lily said. “That’s how they’ve been able to do their patrols and shit, right?”
“Yeah, and we can certainly take an inventory,” I said, “but I don’t think they’re as well-armed as those fuckers down in Black Betsy.”
“Plus, they’re still humans,” Natalie murmured, “and a vamp with a gun is always gonna be more dangerous than a human with a gun.”
“Yep,” I sighed. “Look, I’m just worried about what we can actually do to defend this place. There is only one of me, and—”
“You don’t think our fortifications and barricades are enough?” Brianna asked.
“They’ll help, for sure,” I said, “but I honestly don’t know if we’ll be able to hold them off, or if all we’ll really do is just put off the inevitable.”
“What if you drink from every single person in town?” Lily asked. “Then you could have the blood of a hundred people in your system, and that would make you crazy super powerful, right?”
“It would,” I replied, “but it would still just be me against like fifty vampires.”
“And since both sides are now armed,” Catherine said, “I guess that doesn’t really do a lot to work to our advantage.”
“Yeah,” I said. “So if we take the guns out of the picture because we’re more or less on an even playing field when it comes to that, then it’s just me versus like fifty bloodsuckers.”
“And about a hundred innocent humans that need to be protected during all of that,” Erika said.
“A hundred and six,” Brianna said. “If you count us girls.”
“That sounds bad,” Neko said as she tucked her hands into the pockets of her jacket.
“Well, it’s not good,” I said. “I’m fresh out of ideas, so if any of you--”
“Sam,” Natalie murmured. “What if it wasn’t just you versus fifty bloodsuckers?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well…” my gorgeous girlfriend hesitated. “What if you weren’t the only vamp who could fight those assholes downriver?”
“Do you have some secret fanged friends that the rest of us don’t know about?” Catherine arched an eyebrow.
“No,” Natalie sighed. “I meant… what if I become a vamp, too?”
We all just stared at her, but I instantly felt my heart start to beat a little faster inside my chest.
“Um… what?” I demanded.
“Okay, just hear me out,” Natalie said. “I’ve actually been thinking about it a lot. We’ve done pretty good so far, right? We survived the initial wave in New York, we made it out of the city, and we made it all the way to West Virginia.”
“Yeah, and?” Catherine asked. “I’m not sure I really follow your logic there, Nat.”
“I thought maybe that after we got out of the city and started to head west, that things would get a little easier,” my girlfriend said. “I thought there wouldn’t be as many vamps outside of New York, but clearly that’s not the case.”
“Plus, the vamps that are still alive have just gotten stronger,” Neko said. “They’ve figured out that the more humans they have in their blood pool, the more powerful they become.”
“Yes, exactly!” Natalie said. “That’s my point. Sam, you have kept us safe every step of the way, and you’re beyond incredible for that, but it’s not fair to keep asking you to look after us or a hundred extra people when we can’t return the favor.”
“You’ve all been amazing,” I said. “I know that you can’t fight exactly like a vamp would, but--”
“Yeah, that’s also my point,” Natalie said. “If we all want to survive, and I mean really survive, not just scrape by because we get a little bit lucky… then I think you need another vampire on your team.”
“And you think that should be you?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Yes,” my gorgeous girlfriend replied as she gazed at me with her big blue eyes. “Yes, I do.”
No one else said anything for a minute, and I kept silent, too, as I tried to think about everything that Natalie had just said. Of course, when all this shit had first hit the fan back in New York, I had wondered what it would be like if Natalie and the other girls had gotten the vaccine and turned into vamps, but the fact of the matter was that they hadn’t gotten the vaccine, so there was really no reason to think about what-if scenarios too much.
But now that Natalie had raised the issue herself, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. My girlfriend was already such a badass as a human that if Natalie was a vampire on top of that, we would be able to do a lot of damage between the two of us. We might not be able to eliminate the whole town of bloodsuckers downriver, but we would stand a lot more of a chance than we did at the moment.
“Actually,” Erika squeaked as she finally turned away from Natalie to look at me, “what Nat said makes a lot of sense. Only… what if she wasn’t the only one who became a vamp?”
“What, do you want to be one, too?” I asked.
“This isn’t because you hope your eyesight is gonna be magically cured, is it?” Catherine teased. “Because I think your glasses are pretty cute, Erika.”
“No, it’s not that,” the black-haired girl said with a blush, even
as she pushed her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose. “It’s just that Nat made a lot of good points. If a couple of us were vamps along with Sam, then we would really be able to make a difference.”
“Easy, Miss World Peace,” Catherine said. “You’re starting to sound like Brianna over there.”
“I take that as a compliment, thank you,” Brianna said with a toss of her blonde hair.
“What do the rest of you think?” I asked as I leaned back in my chair. “Forget about the logistics of it for a minute, and just tell me what you think. Nat and Erika think it’s a good idea to become vamps, but what about the rest of you?”
“Let me just say one more thing,” Natalie chimed in. “If it wasn’t just me who became a vamp, think about how strong we would be. We could be a unit of seven vampires, and that would make us incredibly powerful against any other assholes we come up against.”
“And since the bloodsuckers we come up against seem to keep getting stronger, that’s not a bad idea,” Erika added.
“Yes, what she said.” Natalie leaned forward onto the table as she glanced around at all of us. “The vamps are only gonna be stronger from here on out. They’re making fiefdoms and kingdoms for themselves, and they are collecting human cattle to make themselves more and more powerful.”
“And if this is how bad it is in rural West Virginia, imagine what it might be like in other parts of the country,” Erika said, “like in more populated areas.”
“Plus, if we did turn, or even if I just did it alone,” Natalie said, “there’s a hundred people here in town, so there would be plenty of blood to go around.”
“They do already trust me,” I said with a nod, “so I don’t think it would be hard to convince them to trust you, too, especially not if they thought that was the only way we could keep them safe from those bastards downriver.”
“I think it’s a good idea,” Neko murmured as she leaned back in her chair and just dug her hands deeper into her pockets.
“I know it sounds crazy, but… so do I,” Brianna said. “At least, I think so.”
“Girl, this isn’t a purse you can return to the store if you don’t like it,” Neko said with a smirk.
“I know, I know,” the curvy blonde huffed. “I think it would just be kinda nice to be all powerful and everything. Like, I know Sam will always take care of us, but what if we could do more to help? And what if we could help watch his back in the same way that he always watches ours?”
“That is a pretty compelling argument,” Catherine said, “and I’m pretty sure if anybody in town had any problems with this, Uncle James would whip them into shape soon enough.”
“He does seem to have a lot of sway in the town,” Erika said, “and so does Celia, so between the two of them, they should be able to keep everybody else in line.”
“Lily, you’ve been really quiet,” I said with a glance at the Hispanic girl. “You know that you can always be honest, so just tell us what’s on your mind.”
“I think everybody’s made really good points,” Lily said as she pulled her thick dark curls up into a half-ponytail, “and I’m pretty convinced, except for… oh, I don’t know, I think it might sound silly after everything you all talked about.”
“Just tell us,” Neko said with a little smile. “We won’t bite.”
“Not yet, anyway,” Catherine snickered.
“It’s just that if I was a vamp,” Lily said, “then I would just, like, really miss when Sam drinks from me.”
“Ooh, good point,” Catherine said. “I didn’t think about that, but that would suck.”
“Oh, I don’t think you need to be worried about that,” I said. “Remember that vamp that I attacked inside the minivan?”
“You mean one of the members of the raiding party?” Natalie asked. “Yeah, it’s kind of hard to forget that.”
“Well, when I attacked him, I bit him and ended up drinking from him,” I said, “and it was the weirdest thing. I know he was a vamp, but his blood still tasted like… well, blood.”
“So you think you could still drink from us?” Lily asked.
“I don’t see why not,” I said with a shrug. “I’m not sure it would have the same effect on me as it does now, but I’ve also never really tried it before, so who knows what it would do?”
“Was that your only objection?” Erika asked.
“I mean…” Lily hesitated. “Yeah, basically.”
“We would be totally badass,” Catherine said as she stretched her arms up overhead. “I mean, yeah, we already are, but if we were vamps on top of everything else, then we could really fuck some people up.”
“And protect each other,” Natalie said with a roll of her eyes.
“Oh, yeah, that, too,” Catherine said with a grin.
“And we could also protect other people, like the humans in Red House,” Erika said.
“It would be a lot easier to survive the vampocalypse if we… you know… were vamps,” Brianna said.
“It would also be more fun,” Neko said with a smirk.
“As long as we’re together, and as long as we’re with Sam, I’m on board for anything,” Lily said, and then she nodded hard enough to make her curls bounce.
“I can’t believe you all want to become vamps with me,” I said.
“With you, yes,” Natalie said, “but also for you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean that since all these powerful vamps have started to make their own fiefdoms and kingdoms everywhere, I want us to be able to do the same thing for you,” Natalie said. “I want us to be your right-hand women who can do whatever you need or want us to. You are the lion, and we are your lionesses.”
“But how would it work?” Brianna whispered. “The incubation period from when you get the vaccine to when you turn into a vamp isn’t exactly a science.”
“Yeah, I know Isaac turned right away when he injected himself,” Natalie said, “but Sam’s took about a week to take effect.”
“We could always stagger them,” Erika said. “Just in case some of us get sick for a few days at first, we wouldn’t all get it at the same time, so we could take care of each other in stages, until we were all finally turned.”
“And you don’t think any of us would, um… turn out like Isaac?” Brianna murmured.
“You mean like a murderous psychopath?” Natalie asked. “It’s okay, you can say it. Just because he was my brother doesn’t mean that I can’t see how bad he turned out to be, in the end.”
“I think I know you all well enough to say that none of you would turn into bloodthirsty psychopaths,” I said. “I think the vaccine tends to turn people into the truest versions of themselves, and you’re all good people.”
“If that’s true, then that means there’s an awful lot of assholes in the world,” Catherine muttered.
“Well, that’s definitely true,” Neko said.
“We are pretty decent humans,” Lily said with a smile. “Especially because we don’t want to become vampires to hurt other people or just to become super powerful.”
“Speak for yourself,” Catherine snickered.
“No, she’s right,” Erika said. “The only reason that we’re even talking about this at all is because we want to help the people of Red House and save them from those assholes downriver.”
“And because then we could do whatever Sam wanted us to,” Natalie said as she smiled at me. “We would be like his own personal army.”
“I like the sound of that,” Neko said.
“So…” Natalie bit her lip. “What do you think, Sam?”
“I’m not gonna lie,” I sighed. “I really like the idea. I think it would solve a lot of problems, and I also think it would make us goddamn unstoppable.”
“But?” my girlfriend asked.
“It’s all just an interesting idea in theory,” I said, “and maybe if the timing was different, we’d be able to do something with it, but the vaccine never even made
it to this town.”
“Oh, yeah,” Erika murmured. “I actually forgot about that.”
“So where the fuck would we even be able to get one vaccine, let alone six of them?” I asked.
Neko suddenly shifted in her chair, dug her hands into her pockets, and then pulled something out. She dropped two handfuls onto the table, reached back into her pockets, pulled out two more, and dropped them into the pile with the rest.
Ten sealed vaccine vials against airborne AIDS looked up at us from the table.
“Oh, shit,” I murmured.
“What the…” Catherine inhaled.
“When did you get these?” Natalie asked. “And where?”
“And why?” Brianna added. “How long have you been holding on to these, Neko?”
“Not long,” the petite Japanese girl said with a shrug. “When we went to the hospital last night and grabbed all that other stuff from the pharmacy, I just kind of… well, I just saw them and grabbed them.”
“But why?” Brianna asked again. “Were you and Natalie already talking about this or something?”
“No, but I guess we had the same idea,” Neko cleared her throat and then smiled at my gorgeous girlfriend. “I’ve been helping out Sam a lot in the fights, but I know I’ve just been getting lucky, so… I just grabbed them on impulse because I thought…”
“That we might be able to use them?” Natalie finished for her.
“Yeah,” Neko said. “Every time I fight back to back with Sam, it just feels so natural, but I know that I can only do so much as a human. It’s only a matter of time until a particularly strong vamp catches me with a punch and then...”
“That’s exactly how I feel,” Natalie said. “But if we were vamps…”
“Then we could do anything that we wanted,” Neko said. “We would be able to take on more bad guys, and Sam wouldn’t have to worry about us quite so much every time he had to leave us somewhere for even just a few minutes. Plus, then we wouldn’t smell like humans.”
“So it would be a lot harder for vamps to track us down,” Natalie said with a nod.
“I think it’s really cute how you two are finishing each other’s sentences,” Catherine said with a smirk, “but maybe we can get back to the fact that there are ten vaccines on the table?”
Vampire Lord | Book 5 | Vampire Lord 5: Conquering A Bloodthirsty Earth Page 28