Infinite Vampire [Book 4]_Antivenom

by M. Lorrox

  “Well, I—”

  “AND, you’re assuming that the armlets are still in the trunk. That’s a huge assumption that’s probably incorrect. They’re small and very valuable. Lorenzo most likely took them out of the trunk and has them on his person. And if that is the case, the time spent incapacitating the SUV will delay us and might allow Lorenzo to get away.”

  He slumps in his seat and groans. “Yeah... I guess you’re right.” He scrunches his face and clenches his teeth.

  Qilin merges on Route 66 headed toward DC. She shifts into fourth and cruises at eighty. She takes her hand off the gearshift and puts it on Jambavan’s shoulder. “Listen, we’re a team, okay? This is your first mission, but it’s not my first. We can do this if we work together.”

  “I just…want to do a good job.”

  “I know.”

  He swallows. “Okay. We’ve got a bit of a drive to Philadelphia, should I try and arrange tickets in case we need them?”

  Madeline pops her head into the front. “Let’s try real hard not to need them… Besides, after the zombie outbreak in DC, I heard all flights on the east coast are booked for weeks.”

  Qilin smirks over her shoulder at Madeline, then nods to Jambavan. “Good thinking. We’ll probably have to put deposits down on buyout tickets. I’ve got one of the Order’s magic credit cards in my wallet. Let me know when you need it.”

  Sadie thanks Skip and Katlyn one last time for watching Minnie all day, then she leads Minnie back to their room. Sadie helps Minnie change into pajamas, and as she finishes, she hears her phone vibrate. She checks it and sees an email from Charlie. She grabs a glass of water from the bathroom as she opens the message.

  As she reads, her eyes grow wide, her lips purse, and she starts taking deeper and deeper breaths.

  “Is everything okay, Mommy?” Minnie, Rusty, and Valentine sit next to one another on the bed, waiting for their bedtime story.

  Sadie sighs and lowers the phone, then looks at her daughter. “Oh. I’m sorry dear, I’m not upset at you. Pick out a story, and I’ll read it to you.”

  Minnie lifts a book up.

  Sadie frowns. “Show Valentine some pictures, I uh, I’ll be back in a minute.” She opens the hotel room’s door, flips the little brass bar into the doorframe to keep the door from locking, then steps into the hall. She leans against the wall, staring and thinking, then she takes another sip of water.

  She twists the glass a bit as she lowers if from her lip, and the she feels a nip of pain. She looks at the glass in her hand—it’s chipped with a faint bit of blood on the rim. She licks her cut lip and scowls at the glass, then she looks down the hall. Empty... She steps one of her long legs down the hall, raises the glass up behind her, and with all her frustration, launches the glass. It whistles as it tears through the air until it smashes into—and breaks—the drywall at the far end of the hall, over a hundred feet away. -Crash!-

  Sadie takes a breath, stands back up, and replies to the message.

  Charlie, I understand the situation, and I agree that you don’t have a better solution... I know you’ll do your best to complete the mission while keeping the kids safe. Good luck.

  She sends the note, then stares for a moment.

  At the end of the hall, a woman steps out from her room beside the busted wall and inspects the damage. She looks down the hall toward Sadie. “Hey!”

  Sadie turns to her as she casually slips her phone into her pocket. “Can I help you?”

  The woman points at the wall. “What hell’s going on?”

  Sadie shakes her head. “I wish I knew.” She steps back into her room, locks the door, and is greeted by a frowning little girl. “Alright darling, let’s read a story. Slide over.”

  Next door, Katlyn walks out of the bathroom and motions toward the door. “Did I hear Sadie? Did she forget something?”

  Skip is propped up against the headboard attached to the wall behind the bed. His injured leg is raised up on pillows, his hands are folded across his stomach, and a subtle smile is pushed to his face by slow-release oxycodone pills. “No, she didn’t stop back.” He scoots himself up an inch. “You know, you’re really great with kids... How come you never had any? Oh, and though you never told me how old you are, I did look up the Winter War, so I know that you’re at least, uh…twice my age.”

  She shakes her head. “You know, the reason I even mentioned that war was because I knew how to make Molotov cocktails, and now I see it’s come around to bite me in the ass.”

  He laughs. “You certainly don’t look old... You know it doesn’t really matter, I’m just curious.” He extends a hand out toward her, but his aim isn’t great, and his hand drifts.

  She intercepts the rogue invitation and sits alongside him. “I guess it’s just an old habit; being secretive. It’s always been necessary.”

  “Do you think, uh, society, I suppose, will ever accept you and other vampires?”

  She shrugs. “I dunno, but that was a major aspect of the meetings they called this week, to discuss it. The House of Elders is wise. They’ll make the right decision.”

  He nods and caresses her hand. “So, how come you never had any children?”

  She dips her chin and frowns. “I don’t know. I was born in Finland…in 1900. I’m a new-century’s new-year’s baby, if you believe it... Then there was the First World War, which our country wasn’t really involved in, but toward the end of that, we had a civil war, which was devastating to my family.” She takes a fast breath and wipes her eyes, and Skip moves his arm to embrace her. She swallows. “My brother joined the labour movement, and he fought with the Red Finnish Army. They lost, he was imprisoned with tens of thousands of others, and he was among many that died in the camps.”

  She shakes as tears drop from both eyes and roll down to her chin. “Ah, jeez…”

  “It’s okay, darling…” Skip tries to hug her tighter, but he merely twitches his arm.

  She sniffs and smiles at him. “I loved my brother so much, and I carried his loss with me for a long time. Then there was the Winter War during thirty-nine to forty, and then the Continuation War after, both with the Soviet Union. Then the Lapland War against Nazi Germany. After, it was quiet for a while, and I moved around.

  “While traveling, I met a lad—” She smiles and wipes her face. “—in Ireland. He was a vampire too. He disappeared though, and I always wondered if he got wrapped up in The Troubles between Ireland and Northern Ireland.” She twists around to face Skip. “He knew how much the wars affected me, and he always looked out for us. We were planning on leaving when some tensions flared up near where we lived, and then one day, he was just gone.”

  Skip pats her hand. “When I lost Monica, June...err, uh, July’s mother...” He looks off to the side and shakes his head. His thoughts spin with sorrow about what happened to his daughter.

  Katlyn places her palm on his chest. “Do you want to talk about her again? It’s okay, you know. She’s your daughter and always will be, and you can talk until you’re blue in the face, and I’ll still kiss it.”

  He smiles. “Thanks. Umm, I was saying that when I lost Monica, I was crushed. I didn’t know what to do without her, let alone how to raise a child—a girl—without her.”

  Katlyn rubs his chest. “You did an amazing job.”

  “Did I? If Monica was here, would this all have happened? No, I guess not, because I, or we I guess, wouldn’t have moved near Charlie and Sadie…”

  She places her hand on top of Skip’s. “Don’t doubt yourself… So, to finish the story, losing someone so close to me again kinda shut me down…just like way back when I was young. I feel like I’ve grown a lot since then, but I think that’s why I haven’t had any children…”

  Skip glances up into her eyes, waiting for more, then nods. “Thanks for sharing. Even though I know it’s hard, I just want to know everything
about you... I think I’m falling for you, Katlyn.”

  She scoots closer to him and leans her head onto his chest. “Yup, I’ve fallen... Don’t go disappearing on me now.”

  He pets her head. “I don’t plan on it...” Oh boy... “Say, have you ever had a broken bone like this?”

  She laughs. “Yeah.”

  “How long did it take you to heal up?”

  “Well, I had also broken my hip and cracked some vertebrae, but my leg was good to go in a couple weeks. Bones take longer to heal than muscle.”

  “That I know... What caused your injury?”

  “Nothing exciting like you. I was hit by a car.”

  “Oh...”

  She leans off him. “What’s on your mind?”

  He considers if he should tell her.

  “Come on. What is it?”

  “Well, I can’t help but wonder about... Well, now that Jun-July is umm, a vampire, and I’m most definitely falling for a vampire, uh, I guess—”

  “You’re curious if you should become one?”

  “Should, could, might—a lot of things… I dunno, I guess I’m just thinking about how I almost died the other day.” He reaches his hand out to her face while his eyes grow wet. “When I was on the roof, and the helicopter was leaving, I wasn’t scared, I was happy that you and the kids were safe.”

  She holds his hand against her face, which now wears a smile.

  “But when the zombie tackled me and we fell through the roof, then I was thinking about me, and you, and my daughter July, and I didn’t want to die and leave you all without me. If I was a vampire, then being bitten by the zombie wouldn’t matter much, but I was terrified.” His eyes dart back and forth between hers. “I was so scared, more than any other time in my life I think... No, that was a week ago when July got bitten... Anyway, I—”

  “Shhh.” She kisses his palm. “Being a romantic vampire living through the age of modernization and online dating, I can tell you that I’ve thought about this same thing, a lot.”

  “And?”

  “First, there’s a chance we’re not careful, and I infect you.” She bites her lip. “I mean, did the doctors ask you about your back? Who knows, maybe someday you’ll cut me and then get my blood in you.”

  He nods. “The thought has crossed my mind.”

  She sighs. “And the second thing I’ve thought about is how being a vampire is forever and can never be undone. Call me old-fashioned, but it’s not something I’d even consider doing before marriage.”

  Skip laughs. “I think that’s the only thing old-fashioned about you. Have you seen my back?”

  She smiles. “Shut up. You know what I mean.”

  “I understand. I’ll try my best to not get bitten by any zombies, or fall into burning buildings and be left for dead—or well, die at all—until maybe… Someday… If things go right… Until I guess I propose to you… Deal?”

  She laughs. “That’s a tall order, Mr. Skip...” She rubs a finger on his chest and licks her lips much slower than usual. “Think you can fill it?”

  He sniffs through one nostril and nods. “Oh, absolutely.”

  She withdraws her hands to take off her shirt. “I hope so...”

  “Katlyn, stop.”

  She frowns. “What’d I do?”

  Skip shifts and smiles at her. “I think I’d like to talk to you some more...about July.”

  She flushes. “I’m sorry! I just get carried away sometimes.”

  He laughs. “It’s fine, believe me. But let’s also get some food. If I said deliverable, you’d say—”

  “Pizza! One hundred times out of one hundred.”

  “Deal. Let’s make it happen.”

  The doors to the regional plane are closed for an entire half hour, and in Milford Sound, the team, once again, unloads their gear. Here however, there are no airport terminals or hangars, only a single runway running southeast to northwest and a large paved area for small planes to park. They carry their equipment and weapons to a corner of the lot, and Charlie tasks Gabriel to stay behind to guard it. The plane leaves them, and Charlie leads the team out to explore.

  At the Queenstown airport, they got a good view of the airport’s tarmac and the small city that lies alongside a lake. But now, in all directions are tall, wild mountains that stretch into gray clouds. Charlie feels a warm breeze, and he takes a deep inhale. He smiles at the scent of leaves and ocean mist. He spins around, taking in the vista. Beside the parking area is the air-traffic tower, which is nothing more than a glass encased room on the second floor of a small, square, block building.

  A man with curly hair comes out of the building and waves. He speaks with a thick, Kiwi accent, “You’re the Americans, eh?”

  Johannes beelines to him. “Yeeeahh, that’s right… We’re looking for someone named Jono. He may be near the sound.”

  The man laughs. “The sound’s about all you’ll find out here.” He points to the north. “There’s tourist things up that way: kayak and helicopter tour rentals.” He turns and motions in the other direction past some single-story buildings doing a great job of being hard to see. “There’s a gravel yard down there, and if you follow this road past, you’ll come around to the marina.”

  Johannes thanks him, and the team starts walking.

  Eddy looks upon the tall mountains with awe. He walks alongside July, and he points at a tall peak. “Did you know that they filmed the Lord of the Rings movies here?”

  She nods.

  “I can just imagine those signal fires—the ones lit to tell Rohan that Gondor was in trouble—I could totally see them being lit up on those peaks.”

  She glances up at the peaks, then back to the ground in front of her. “Yeah, that was a cool movie.” She feels a growing warmth inside her body. What am I sensing? Eddy, or this place?

  Eddy nods while still imagining hobbits igniting a large, mountaintop blaze. So cool.

  The team walks around a curve and can finally see docked boats, and at first, Charlie is concerned. He scratches his head. “Oh Johan...”

  He grumbles. “Yes?”

  “I count three ships docked here.”

  “And?”

  Charlie, unsure of exactly what to say, looks again at the ships. There’s an expensive-looking party boat with a decent sized outboard motor—and a colorful egg-shaped smoker-grill on its deck—but the boat is way too small for everyone. He also sees a small speedboat, and a thirty-foot sailboat. “You said your navy guy said it was your lucky day?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Then, Charlie sees a proper naval vessel. Far out in the deep-water basin in the distance is a sleek, one-hundred-and-eighty-foot, light-gray patrol boat. With his sharp eyes, he can see a couple sets of very large machine guns mounted on the deck and a variety of antennas and sensors extending high above a large, window-rimmed cockpit. He nods. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

  Johannes turns to him and furrows his brow. “Huh?”

  Charlie motions with his chin. “Way out there.”

  Johannes looks, then he shakes his head. “Oh that’s right, my contact said that’d be here...” He turns around to Charlie and the team again. “Believe me, I wanted to get the Pukaki, but my man couldn’t swing it.”

  Ricochet bursts into laughter so hard that he nearly loses his footing.

  Charlie turns to him and frowns.

  He gathers a modicum of his total potential composure—just barely enough to speak. “I’m sorry sir! That’s... That’s a terrible name!”

  Johannes squints. “It’s named after a famous Māori chief and a very beautiful lake and river... Anyway.” He turns back around and keeps walking.

  Charlie sighs. “But it’s still our lucky day?”

  Johannes nods. He spots a local with fishing gear, and he asks if he knows
Jono. The fisherman points them to an oddly modern and large building at the end of the dock that starts on land and extends out into the water. As they approach, they see a white flag with the union jack in the corner and four red stars on the side. Johannes gestures to it. “That’s a navy flag... I bet this is it.” He glances over his shoulder to Charlie. “Being a team out of the U.S., the navy thought it would be acceptable that you take something a U.S. company has loaned New Zealand for testing.”

  When they reach the steel-gray painted building, Johannes knocks on the door.

  A salt-coated Kiwi with a rough-cut beard just starting to gray answers. His skin is a rich tan with deep wrinkles that make him look older than he is. “You the Johannes fellow?”

  He nods. “Jono?”

  “Yup. Come on in.”

  They’re led down a plain-looking hall, around a corner, and into a meeting room. One wall is glass with a projector screen pulled down in front of it. There’s a large table in the middle of the room and plenty of chairs. Jono stands beside the door and looks the team up and down as they enter. They all wear American military clothes, but they look crazy as! She’s got green hair... He’s got heaps of tats... He’s knackered… She’s a pretty one!

  Ghost looks him up and down too. She winks at him, then sits.

  When the door closes, Jono turns to Johannes. “Who’s the big man on this one?”

  “That’d be me.” Charlie stands, barely taller than Naga as he sits between the two men.

  Jono steps to the side to see past Naga. “I can see that. I got the word you want to suss this piece of work in the ditch?” He throws a thumb over his shoulder toward the projector screen.

  Charlie responds with a pained expression. “What?”

  Jono sighs. Americans. He raises the screen, revealing very little; the other side of the glass is darkened, making the glass act like a mirror. He takes a step to the side and flips a bank of light switches next to the window. Lights beyond the glass flicker on. “I said, I heard you want to go and test this piece of machinery in the Tasman Sea.”