Echoes of Blood and Glory

by Ripley Proserpina

  “Love love love.”

  He smiled wider, and she realized she’d given herself away. She should probably say it out loud, that would be the brave thing to do, but when she opened her mouth, what came out was, “Uh.”

  Head back, Horus laughed. He laughed until tears ran down his face and he had to pinch his side. “It’s okay,” he said. “I heard you.”

  Time for a subject change.

  “So, my blood…”

  “Don’t you dare—” he began when Ra’s voice boomed in her head.

  “We’re here.”

  Her focus went inward. “Are you okay?”

  Seti answered. “The crawlers aren’t among the personnel, so we’re scoping it out. When we find them, we’ll kill them. And then we’ll be home. Stay out of trouble.”

  His voice filled her head, taking up space next to Ra’s, but with his final words, he left. It was such a strange sensation, like walking into an unexpectedly empty room.

  She glanced at Horus. “I could feel them in my head,” she told him. “Is it always like that for you?”

  “They’re always with me,” he replied. “But sometimes, we close a door to give ourselves some privacy.”

  He tugged his shirt over his stomach, and she drummed her fingers on the counter. “So it’s my blood. I wouldn’t know what I was looking at, so drawing it and putting it under a microscope would be pointless. But… we do have the internet.”

  “Yes,” he replied. “But what do we even look for?”

  That was the question, wasn’t it? Briar had said something when Rose visited her lab. She’d said she had a gene that helped her heal without scarring. Briar had to look at her DNA to find that, which was something Rose couldn’t do.

  “You can walk in daylight,” she said to Horus. Her mind was whirring. “But other vampires can’t.”

  “Yes,” he said. “My brothers and I, Briar, and Lindy are able to walk in sunlight.”

  “Briar was turned into a vampire, right?”

  He nodded.

  “So why is she different?” she wondered aloud. “If all humans become vampires or crawlers, and all vampires and crawlers burn in sunlight, what made Briar different?”

  “Hudson thought it had something to do with a condition she had while she was human,” he replied. “She was allergic to the sun.”

  Rose was pretty sure her eyes bugged out of her head. “Come again?”

  “As a human, Briar couldn’t come into contact with sunlight. Every part of her body had to be covered. I don’t remember the name of it, it was very long and sounded like a made-up word.”

  “The fuck?” she asked. “So a human who can’t be in sunlight is turned into a vampire and suddenly she can be in sunlight?”

  “Well, there was more to it than that. She’d also been given some of Hudson’s medicine, the one he made to allow vampires to walk in sunlight, right before she died. That could have had something to do with it.”

  Rose sighed and studied the kitchen where they stood. Her stomach suddenly grumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten yet. No wonder she was so confused. She hadn’t even had coffee.

  Lost in her thoughts, she moved around the kitchen. She put on coffee to brew in the fancy-ass coffee maker and grabbed a piece of fruit, taking bites as she waited for her coffee.

  On the edge of her vision, she caught Horus easing onto a seat. “Oh shit. Do you want breakfast?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “If I wanted something, I would have made it. You’re not responsible for me.”

  “No,” she allowed. “But it’s rude not to at least offer.”

  His smile was gentle and kind. “No, Rose. I don’t want any breakfast. Or coffee. I am thoroughly enjoying watching you gather your thoughts.”

  “They’re not so much thoughts as me repeating the question, ‘What the fuck?’ over and over inside my head.”

  The coffee maker beeped, and she grabbed a mug from above the machine to fill. She sipped it black, not bothering with the extra cream and sugar just yet. She needed the boost. Her next cup she’d doctor just the way she liked it. The liquid touched her tongue. “Ew! Yuck. Never mind.”

  Horus laughed, watching as she made noises of disgust while fixing it. Her next sip was much better.

  “Rose, you never bore me.”

  “The paramedics are removing bodies. They are in bags. We can’t see their injuries,” Ra announced, and she forgot about her coffee.

  “How many?” How many people had died last night because Dr. Stone wanted to make a point?

  “Four.” Seti hesitated before announcing the number. “I overheard one of the officers say that accounted for all missing employees.”

  Those poor people. Their poor families.

  Rose’s dream, and all the feelings it dredged up, were still so clear. She could easily put herself in the place of the people who were going to learn their loved ones weren’t coming home ever again.

  “We’ll wait until they leave, but there’s no sign of the crawlers,” Ra said.

  “Nothing out of the ordinary here,” Horus told his brothers, “except that Rose tried to drink her coffee black and then danced around like a dog who licked a frog.”

  “A dog who licked a frog?” What did that even mean?

  “Haven’t you ever seen a dog lick a frog?” Horus asked aloud. “Their skin is bitter, and often the dogs will shake their heads and move their tongues in such a way—”

  She just stared at him like he was crazy.

  “You probably haven’t seen it since you live in the city, but it is very funny.”

  “How do you even know a frog tastes bitter?” she asked before realizing Seti and Ra were gone again. She took a sip of her coffee, trying to forget the image Horus had created of frogs with bitter-tasting skin.

  Skin.

  Sweeping her gaze around the room, Rose located a notebook. She got it, and a pen, and began writing down all of her questions.

  “‘Hard skin,’” Horus read over her shoulder, startling her. “‘Quick healing. Daylight. Burn in sun. Drink blood. What’s in blood? Why do people need to drink it? Is drinking blood in people’s DNA? Is it related to being a carnivore?’ What are all of these?”

  “Questions to search on the internet,” she answered, a little embarrassed. “I want to look them up and see what I can learn myself.”

  “‘Longevity.’”

  “I might not be a scientist, but maybe I can learn to ask the right questions. Who knows when we’ll be able to talk to Briar and her husbands. Right now, I’d need to have like, a four-hour conversation with an English-to-science translator. But what I might get is only a ten second conversation. I need to narrow down the questions, figure out what is the most important thing to ask.”

  “There’s a computer,” Horus said, and then cleared his throat. “Seti got it for you as a surprise.”

  “He did?” Her voice squeaked. When the vampires took her, everything in her apartment had been wrecked. Her clothes, her computer, camera, bed, all of it had been beyond saving. For Seti to do this for her… “When I see him, I’m going to kiss him.”

  “On my way.” Seti was laughing at her, but she was serious. The way these guys took care of her was overwhelming. And wonderful. “In a bit,” he finished. “Hold that thought.”

  “Thank you.” She tried to send him an impression of just how much it meant to her.

  “You’re welcome,” he replied, the teasing gone from his voice. “It makes me happy to do things for you, Rose.”

  When she opened her eyes, Horus was watching her. “I’m ready,” she said.

  He led the way through the house toward a study. Like she’d done all week, Rose walked through it with her mouth agape.

  She had a feeling that Marcus might have had something to do with this house in Manchester-by-the-sea, Massachusetts. It had that same sort of understated moneyed feel that his house did. In other words, she was very very careful not to break anything.<
br />
  The house was old, but had been renovated recently. The kitchen had all the latest appliances and top-of-the-line gadgets. But the low-ceilings and deep-set windows gave away its age. She hadn’t gone outside much, afraid that she’d somehow attract the notice of a vamp who might be passing through, but the walkways and gardens were old, too.

  She really liked it, and someday if she won the Powerball, she’d buy a place like this. Or one closer to the ocean—since she was buying million-dollar homes. This one was a bit too far inland.

  Horus glanced over his shoulder at her. “What are you smiling about?”

  “Can’t you read my mind?” she asked.

  “Not always,” he said. “Sometimes you close the door, too.”

  “Huh.” She’d have to pay more attention to that since she was broadcasting intimate things before she was ready to, and keeping inane thoughts to herself. “I was just thinking about how much I like this house, but that it’s a little too far from the beach.”

  “It belongs to a friend of Marcus’s, I believe,” he said as he opened the door to the study.

  She snorted. Nailed it.

  The study was all dark wood and leather-bound books. The huge desk that took up most of the room was intimidating, bringing to mind robber barons and white-mustachioed men smoking cigars.

  Horus went behind the desk and removed a white, rectangular box.

  “Holy shit,” she said. This was a top of the line computer. One she dreamed of but didn’t expect to get for another decade if her business was successful enough. “This is mine?”

  “Do you like it?” he asked.

  “I love it.”

  6

  Seti

  Horus mentally tapped against the door in Seti’s mind before opening to show him Rose. Seti had to stop his patrolling to enjoy her expression.

  She was shocked and happy.

  Her eyes sparkled, and she clasped her hands together like a child while bouncing on her toes. “I love it!” she said, holding out her hands.

  Horus gave her the computer, and she held it to her chest, eyes closed.

  “What are you doing?” His brother’s voice was full of humor.

  “Just taking a minute,” she said. “This is beyond anything I ever imagined.”

  “It’s just a computer,” Seti observed. Her reaction surprised him.

  “Not to her,” Ra said. “You took care of her. That’s why she’s happy.”

  “I never expected this,” she said. “Never. I was so worried about not contacting my insurance company, that it would look suspicious, and I had no idea how I was going to replace my things. This is incredible.”

  “See?” Ra was smug.

  Seti had never thought of it that way. He knew her things had been ruined, exposed to the elements and all the dust and asbestos that rained down on her belongings. One of those things had been a computer, so he bought it for her.

  He wanted to get her more now. He wanted to take her shopping for a wardrobe, not just the three outfits Ra had managed to find her in one of the closets of the house where they stayed. He wanted to get her the best camera and all the fancy pieces that went along with it.

  He wanted to take care of her.

  The wind picked up, bringing with it the scent of rot and decay. He would have to do all that later. “I found them.”

  As one, he and Ra took off in the direction of the scent. The crawlers had hidden, but not well enough. They tracked the creatures through the snow and the woods until the trees opened up to a field, and beyond that a hill. In the blink of an eye, he’d crested the top.

  Boston’s skyline gleamed in the distance, shining in the winter sun. And there, not far away, were two gray bodies sliding through the snow.

  Ra got there first, but he didn’t kill the creature. He held it to the ground, booted foot against its throat until Seti arrived.

  “Get it.” He gestured to the crawler who’d doubled its speed in an attempt to get away.

  Seti moved quickly. Crawlers were slippery little suckers. Their bite had to be avoided at all costs, but their skin was soft and it was easy to crush them if he wasn’t careful.

  Seti grabbed it by the neck and flung it toward Ra. He sprinted to the spot it would land and caught it, slamming it down in the snow next to its partner.

  Like Ra, he held it down with his boot, but leaned over to hold its arms to the ground. They had sharp claws, and he didn’t want to rip his jeans, or his new leather jacket.

  Ra lifted an eyebrow. “Ready?”

  He gave a brief, quick nod. “Go.”

  Taking a breath, his brother gathered himself and imbued his will into his question. “What are you doing here?”

  Crawlers weren’t known for their bravery. Ra probably didn’t even need to compel them to answer. It was a testament to how much he wasn’t fucking around that he did it. He wanted answers. He wanted them fast. And then he wanted to be gone.

  “Just a test,” the one beneath Ra’s foot said. He appeared to be newly made. His skin was gray and bloated, an indication that his human body was still decomposing while he finished the transformation to immortal crawler. His teeth were still even and white, not jagged or rotted like the one Seti currently kept beneath his boot.

  “A test of what?” Ra asked.

  The creatures hissed, and Ra pressed down harder. “Careful,” Seti warned. The thing looked ready to pop.

  “We don’t know,” the one Seti held answered. Saliva spilled from its mouth as it spoke, and Seti wrinkled his nose. It stank. He should have changed before they left the house. “He gave us medicine. Sent us here.”

  “What was it?” Ra asked.

  “Don’t know!”

  He must have pressed harder, because his crawler wailed. “Don’t know! Didn’t ask!”

  Leaning over, his brother glared. “You’ll tell me the truth.”

  “He wouldn’t tell us!” it screeched. “We didn’t want to come!” The thing began to scream.

  “You’re going to kill it,” Seti warned his brother.

  “It’s not me,” he said.

  The one under Seti’s boot echoed the cry. Heat burned through the bottom of his boot until it was impossible to keep in place without being burned himself. He let go and jumped away, as did Ra.

  The creature writhed and screamed, holding his hands up to the sky as if it could block the sunlight. Its skin turned bright red, but then it began to heal. Skin knitted over muscle only to blister and pop again.

  The one he’d held was perhaps luckier. Its skin peeled away, flaking into ash. In seconds, it was gone. But the younger one was still alive. Its wounds gaped and oozed, and as fast as they healed, they burned again.

  “The sun,” Ra said.

  “Why?” he asked, backing away from the crawler. It rolled in the snow, trying to burrow beneath it. Burn. Heal. Burn. Heal.

  It was an endless cycle, and one that Seti, for all his lack of sympathy for the crawler, couldn’t endure another moment longer. He lifted his boot and pressed it against its torso, then as fast as he could, ripped its head from its shoulders.

  That did the trick.

  Instantly, the creature began to disintegrate until all that was left was a pile of sticky, gray ash.

  “Was that the test?” Ra asked. “For them to burn?”

  “We can assume he’s giving them something made from Rose’s blood,” Seti said. “But I have no idea if that’s what did it.”

  “It’s doing something,” Ra said aloud. “Turning them. Allowing them to heal even from the sun while fully exposed to its rays. I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Whatever he is doing, he wanted us to see.”

  “We should leave,” Seti replied. He hated not knowing what was happening, and why. But they’d done what they had come here to do.

  “Yeah.” Ra studied the field and hill and surrounding forest. “Let’s go.”

  7

  Rose

  Though deep into her research whe
n Ra and Seti arrived home smelling of snow and ash, Rose stood quickly. She hurried around the desk to wrap her arms around the brothers. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes,” Ra answered. “We’re fine. We’ve learned nothing, but we’re fine.”

  That’s all that matters.

  The thought hit her, and she immediately felt guilty. She’d asked them to protect those people, but in the time they were gone, she had become more focused on their safety than anyone else’s.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “We’re not sure, really,” Seti answered. His features were tight, tense, and he changed the subject. “I thought I got a kiss.”

  She should have started with that. Ra moved toward her computer, frowning at something on the screen, but Seti cupped her cheek and turned her head toward him.

  “A kiss?” he reminded her.

  His blue eyes were dark and troubled, not matching his lighthearted tone at all. She lifted onto her tiptoes and placed her hands on either side of his neck. “Seti,” she whispered, shaking her head. If he wasn’t ready to speak, she wasn’t going to force him. She pressed her lips to his, hoping to give him the escape he searched for.

  He wound his arms around her back, lifting her up so he could deepen the kiss. While his tongue pushed past her lips in a way that demanded her response, he strode out of the room.

  She couldn’t see where they were going, and she didn’t care. All she could do was try to keep up with him. Wood splintered and cracked, but she didn’t lift her head.

  Desperation filled every press of his lips and touch of his hands. Even so, he was gentle when he eased them both onto the bed. Arms propped on either side of her head, he softened, moving his lips from hers to nibble the soft skin near her ear.

  She slid her hands under the cold leather of his jacket until she could feel his skin. “Seti, what happened?” she asked.

  The muscles in his back were so tense, she was afraid he’d shatter into pieces.

  Slowly, she stroked her hands along the sides of his spine and eventually, he sighed and let his weight come gently on top of her. “I don’t know,” he said. “Ra started to ask the crawlers questions, and suddenly, they began to burn. One of them did. But the other…” He closed his eyes and tucked his face against her neck.