Graves of Wrath

by Lina Gardiner

  He’d just gone around the corner, a block from his apartment, when he spotted Jess. She was alone and, once again, there was no sign of Britt.

  “Jess. Wait up. I’m right behind you,” he said. He didn’t need to shout since she had incredible hearing.

  She stopped and turned around, waiting for him.

  He drew closer. “Where’s Britt?” he asked before he noticed her short hair.

  “Who eez this Britt?” the woman said.

  Dear heaven, again he’d have sworn it was Jess. Even her gait was the same.

  “I’m sorry, miss. I’m afraid I’ve mistaken you for my sister again. In fact, I was hoping to run into you tonight. I brought a picture of Jess, to prove to you that I’m not some crazy old man.”

  “Well, you might be middle-aged,” she said looking him up and down. “But, hardly old.”

  He’d forgotten that part. He’d lived a long life and felt every one of his years.

  He snatched the picture from his wallet and showed it to her.

  She inhaled sharply this time and her arrogant demeanor slipped just a little as she stepped under a streetlight to get a better look.

  “Not possible. You’ve taken a picture of me, somehow. This is a trick,” she said, her eyebrows narrowing. “What are you up to?”

  “I swear, that is my sister. She’s in Paris, visiting, right now. If you would indulge me, I’d love for you to meet her. I think she’s wondering about my sanity, too,” he said, smiling pleasantly at her.

  The doppelganger laughed. Even that was similar to Jess’s laugh. “I suppose I could do that. I have to admit I’m curious. But not tonight. I have to go to work.”

  He wanted to reach out and touch her, to see if her flesh was cold, but that would be going too far. And if she was a vampire, as he suspected, it could be dangerous. Instead, he held out a hand to shake hers.

  “I’m a bit of a germaphobe,” she said, ignoring his extended hand.

  Now he knew for sure. She didn’t want him to feel the cold marble of her flesh. He’d been right about her. But what were the odds of Jess’s lookalike being a vampire, too? Pretty darned slim.

  “Would you agree to meet tomorrow night at the café where we first talked?”

  She paused, eying him up and down. He should have noticed her couture clothing style. She dressed very fashionably in a short skirt with a top that frayed in odd places, and she wore four-inch spiked heels. Her hair was the same sable color as Jess’s, but the style was shorter, and cut in different lengths. And close up, he noticed the ends were tipped with blue and purple.

  “I guess so. Okay,” she said, albeit reluctantly.

  “Around ten?”

  “Make it eleven,” she said. He instantly knew why. It wasn’t fully dark until ten, this time of the year.

  “Wonderful,” he said, then watched her stride quickly away.

  She was barely out of earshot before he called Jess, telling her about the chance encounter again tonight.

  “That’s a bit of a coincidence, Regent,” she said. “Could this woman be playing you? In a city the size of Paris, don’t you think it’s odd that you’d run into her again?”

  “I think it’s her regular route to work,” he said.

  “Right,” she said, but didn’t sound convinced. He couldn’t blame her.

  “I’ve scheduled a get-together at the café tomorrow night. Can you come?”

  “We’ll be there, Regent. This is one woman I cannot wait to meet.”

  BRITT COULDN’T WAIT either. But unlike Regent, it worried him that this woman looked so much like Jess. He downed the last of his coffee and put his cup in the dishwasher. Ever since a fringe group of the church had turned seventy-three-year-old Regent into a forty-something middle-aged man, he’d learned not to underestimate their capabilities. But could they create a woman vampire? A clone? And if they had, why?

  For the first few days, while Jess had been in stasis, he’d spent a lot of time mapping the streets of old Paris during the day. He wanted to get a better feel of this city before they started prowling around at night. And he knew Jess well enough to know she’d want to check things out before long. She’d find local vampires one way or another.

  And speaking of dark things, the fact that Regent had met Jess’s lookalike twice, was of considerable concern. He was staring into his empty coffee cup when Jess strode into the room.

  “Britt, do you want to go looking for those shadows again tonight?” she asked.

  “Okay.” He knew her well enough to know she was getting restless. She was ready for a bit of vampire ass-kicking action. That said, they both knew they had to be careful about starting anything unless they had to. Trouble usually found them, though. Deep down, did he really want a tame, boring vacation? Besides, they were going to be here for at least three months. He might have angelic DNA, but he believed he’d come from a lineage of warrior angels. He needed action, craved it. Finding what was behind those shadows might be exactly what they both needed tonight.

  They were heading toward Pont Neuf where they’d spotted the shadows before, when Jess pulled two small bottles and a piece of paper out of her pocket. She held them up. “Holy water and a special prayer against evil spirits.”

  “Did you get this from Regent?” Britt asked.

  “Nope, on the Internet,” she said. “I ordered it the first day we were here, just in case something came up.”

  He stopped walking and gawked at her. “I’m sure that’ll be something we can count on. Holy water from the Internet?”

  She shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. “I know, but I didn’t want to ask Regent. He’d only worry. If you want, I could spill a little on my hand to see if it really is holy water,” she said.

  “No way!” He grabbed the nearly opened bottle from her.

  The fact that she’d even consider using holy water told him that she was catching the same vibes about these spirits as he was. Big, bad, dangerous vibes. “If this stuff is real, you’ll get burned,” he said seriously.

  “Don’t worry. I figured I’d hand off the bottles to you and be well out of splash range when you use them. I can’t wait to see if it has any effect on those shadow things.”

  “Have you considered it might just make them angrier?”

  She looked him in the eye. “I didn’t know they were angry. Are you telling me you’re getting some sort of message from them? As if they have feelings?”

  “You could say that. I think they’re dangerous,” Britt said.

  She tapped her chin. “I think they’re dangerous, too. But I’m not getting the messages you are.”

  “I just wish this was happening on our home turf. We have no backup here. Who do we call if we end up with a corpse on the street, or a dead shadow?” he said. “We can’t exactly kill something in Paris and dispose of the evidence without being noticed.”

  “I think we could figure out a way to dispose of the corpse if we had to. But do you really think a shadow can die?”

  He sighed. “That might be our next problem.”

  They neared the end of the bridge. Maybe in their desperation for action, they’d blown the whole situation out of proportion. At least he could hope. But when he searched the sidewalk across from the bridge, his muscles contracted. Crap!

  “Do you see what I see?” Jess said. “Over there?”

  “I do. Those shadows near the building aren’t natural. And they’re close to the place we saw them before, aren’t they?”

  Jess nodded. “They seem to be growing bigger—or are there just more of them? Not good, either way.”

  “Definitely, not good,” Britt repeated.

  “I think we should report this,” Jess said.

  “Who could we possibly report it to?”

&nbs
p; “Maybe the clergy? Regent could do it for us.”

  “Let’s try the holy water first. If it has any effect, we’ll get out of here and consult with Regent.” No way was he going to burn her. “Move away, my love.”

  She took a couple of steps back. “Don’t leave the safety of the bridge, Britt, just in case. They don’t seem to like being near the river.”

  He kept his feet firmly planted on the bridge and tossed the bottle like a Molotov cocktail. It flew high into the air, allowing maximum splashdown upon contact with the cement.

  The bottle smashed and holy water exploded in the center of the darkening mass. The shadows scattered so quickly, he could barely follow their movements. It appeared that not a drop of it hit them, because they slid into the cracks of the building at lightning speed, vanishing.

  “I guess we won’t need the second bottle,” he said.

  “I think we might.” Her gaze remained pinned to the other side of the street. Nearly as quickly as they’d fled, the shadows were reemerging, pouring out from between the cracks and nearly covering the sidewalk for at least a block. They were practically roiling. “I think we just made things a heck of a lot worse. They brought reinforcements,” she said.

  “Dammit,” he said between gritted teeth, more to himself than to her. “I thought the holy water might actually work.”

  “I think it worked too well. Let’s go, Britt. Their anger is building so fast, I can even feel it now. We need to regroup and think of some other way to stop them.”

  “Wait a minute,” he said. “Look! There’s someone coming down the street. He’s walking straight at the shadows, as if he doesn’t even see them.”

  Jess waved her arms in the air. “Turn back,” she shouted. “Turn back.”

  The young man looked at them like they were insane. “What have you two been smoking?” he said with a laugh, continuing down the sidewalk toward his possible doom.

  “Can’t you see what’s right in front of you?” she yelled. “Don’t go any farther.”

  He laughed even harder and staggered along his way.

  “Why, in the name of all that’s holy, didn’t he listen?” Jess said, shaking her head. “What will happen to him now?”

  “Oh crap,” Britt said. The man was inches away from the swirling mass now. How could he not see them?

  Then it happened. The stranger stepped into the middle of the darkest shadows Britt had ever seen. They swirled around the man’s feet, but he continued walking, as if he neither saw, nor felt a thing. Before Britt knew it, the man was through it and going on his way, unaffected and unaware.

  “What just happened?” Britt said to Jess.

  “Maybe we’re hallucinating? Could it be there’s nothing really there?”

  “One person might hallucinate, but two of us, seeing the same thing—I don’t think so.”

  “What do you think would happen if one of us stepped into those shadows? Would we be as unaffected, or would it be different for us, because we can see them? Maybe we’re blowing this out of proportion?” She made a move. “I’ll go,” she said.

  Britt held up a hand to block her, even though trying to stop a vampire wasn’t particularly smart. Still, he took his chances. “You will not. I’ll go. You can save me if anything bad happens.”

  Even though she scowled at him, she said, “Go then.” She handed him the last bottle of holy water. “If the holy water fails, I’ll pull you out.”

  He crossed himself and looked skyward. Hopefully, they were overdramatizing this. His sense of dread was real enough, even though a stranger had just walked straight through them without realizing the shadows were there. “Maybe they’re harmless. They didn’t hurt that guy.”

  “You don’t think that for a second, do you?” Jess said.

  “No, I don’t.” In fact, the writhing mass spiked fear into his chest. He wasn’t normally afraid. Why did these things affect him so fiercely? Maybe because their dankness, their soulless depths of despair and inhumanity, drifted off them in stark, invisible clouds.

  The second his foot left the bridge and touched the street, the shadows reacted like a school of piranhas. They swirled toward him at lightning speed.

  It definitely wasn’t the same reaction they shown the fellow who’d waded through them a moment ago.

  They were on him in seconds. As if fire ants were chewing at his feet and lower legs, pain overwhelmed him. He groaned but managed to shout to Jess. “Don’t pull me out. They’ll attack you!”

  He dropped the holy water near his feet and the shadows skirted away from the liquid, but only for a second. Still, it gave him enough time to dive back onto the Pont to safety.

  His sneakers were covered with black soot, or slime, and parts of the leather were eaten away as if by acid. Where there was no sneaker, his foot looked burned and his skin bubbled from the effects of the creatures. “Holy hell, it hurts. It feels like it’s still burning.”

  “Hurry, let’s go find Regent. He’ll be able to help,” she said. “If I know my brother, he’ll have brought his herbs and potions with him, like the ones he uses on me when I’m burned by holy water. They have to work.”

  Britt attempted to walk, but stumbled. The poison continued to burn into his flesh, working its way through the sinew and bones of his feet. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” he groaned. “It’s excruciating.”

  They had to take the long way around because the shadows were between them and Regent’s apartment. They walked quickly, but not quickly enough for Britt. He was in agony and faltered several times. Jess supported him and kept him from falling flat on his face.

  It was embarrassing to say the least. He’d been kidding when he said she could save him. He actually considered himself to be strong enough to be the one who did the saving, but Jess practically had to carry him the last few yards.

  Reaching the entrance of Regent’s building, she easily broke the security door with one twist of the handle.

  Near the end of his strength, he felt as if he was looking at climbing Mount Everest. But with Jess’s help, he managed the stairs. They burst into Regent’s apartment without knocking and Jess dragged him to the couch.

  “Regent, get your potions out. You need to find something to help Britt. Hurry.”

  Regent rushed out of his bedroom, his reading glasses in hand. “What’s going on? Oh dear! What happened to Britt’s feet? Was he burned by acid?”

  “No, by evil shadows on the sidewalk,” she said. “Can you help him?”

  “Evil shadows?” Regent hesitated for just a moment, a strange look crossing his features.

  “They’re not vampires, Regent. They’re something much worse.”

  “What in hell could be worse?” Regent asked, immediately moving to root in a cupboard off the kitchen. His reaction told Jess he was afraid. He only used curse words when he was terrified . . . and considering the excruciating pain in Britt’s feet right now, she knew he was petrified to look down. Had most of Britt’s flesh burned off? If her brother looked, would there only be sinew and bone left?

  Jess grabbed Regent by the shoulders. “Hurry, please. Since this was done by evil, you’re the only one who can help Britt now.”

  “I don’t know, Jess. It looks very bad.” He held a bag of dried herbs in his left hand, but he looked unsure of his concoction.

  “Just try something,” Britt said, between gritted teeth. “Anything. It’s the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. And you have no idea how much it hurts to die and be regenerated. But this is ten times worse.” He finally couldn’t hold back the agony and passed out.

  REGENT CAREFULLY removed Britt’s sneakers so he could apply his herbs. Jess bit back a scream when she saw what was left of Britt’s feet. Looking at the burned tissue and visible bones, she couldn’t believe Britt had been able to stay con
scious as long as he had.

  Thank heavens Regent had his herbs. Even though they’d never really helped her when she was injured, she prayed they would work on Britt. And though Britt had angelic DNA, he was definitely very human.

  “Let’s try to get what’s left of his socks off,” Regent said, sounding calmer now, maybe because he knew she was on the edge of losing it. And when she lost it, it wasn’t good news.

  Jess reached out to instantly yank them off.

  “Wait! Don’t touch them with your bare hands,” Regent shouted. “You might get burned too. I have silicone oven mitts in the kitchen.”

  She raced in there, grabbed the mitts, and gently pulled off the strips of cotton that was all that had been left of his socks without causing any more damage to his horribly injured flesh.

  Even while unconscious, Britt moaned.

  “Damnation,” she said, then bit her lip.

  Regent started praying over him as he administered the herbs. A few minutes later, Britt started to come around.

  Feeling impotent and unable to do anything, Jess got Britt a glass of water. She helped him tip his head to drink, but he was having a hard time getting past the pain.

  He hadn’t looked at his feet, and that was a good thing. They were horribly burned. And if she wasn’t mistaken, it looked as if sharp claws had opened gashes on the insteps and down his Achilles tendons.

  Regent continued to pray aloud while spreading holy oil on the horrific gashes. After he wrapped the herbs around Britt’s feet, he covered them with gauze. Jess bit her lip. Regent’s ministrations had to help.

  Had it worked, or was the poison working deeper into Britt’s system? She couldn’t tell now that he was bandaged, but he seemed a little calmer. What herbs had Regent used this time? It could be frankincense and myrrh, for all she knew.