No Man's Land: An Imp World Novel

by Debra Dunbar

  “Next one I’ll manage to keep alive for you to question,” the woman said confidently. “I’m sure these guys let someone know you were here before they set out. There will be more soon enough.”

  Kelly made a noise, unable to speak. She leaned over, trying to clear her head of the dizziness. She was dying. It wouldn’t matter if Jaq killed the next one or not; she wouldn’t be alive to question it.

  “Should we dig a hole?” Jaq asked, her voice sounding like it was coming from inside a tunnel. “It will go faster with the two of us.”

  Kelly shook her head and stood straight, trying to focus her fuzzy eyesight on the woman before her. She was too weak to dig anything. After her mad dash through the forest and the fight with Wes, she was barely strong enough to stand. But she had an idea, something preferable to a blanket and comfort food.

  Her family didn’t want her back. Facing her death had brought that home loud and clear. They were just toying with her. The Kincaids were the enemy, and even if she could access the money, she’d never make it to Vegas alive in time to beg the Rochelle family for asylum. She’d die tonight, but maybe she could at least feel like she had died in her own land.

  “Is that offer of home still open?” she asked, gritting her teeth as a wave of pain nearly doubled her over. “Cause I could really use one about now.”

  Jaq dropped the pickaxe and threw her arms around Kelly. “Yes, that offer is always open. I’m sorry, honey. So sorry.”

  “I’m the one that’s sorry,” Kelly mumbled against the other woman’s shirt. She felt herself relax, her weight collapsing into the werewolf. It was nice to rest there for a moment, to know she’d die at home where at least one person cared about her. More than one, she thought, remembering the humans who’d invaded her trailer. Still, she wasn’t dead yet, and there was one more thing she wanted to do before she left this life behind.

  “How far is it to the Virginia state line?”

  Jaq pulled away to look at her, holding her shoulders for a moment before letting go. “Probably eight miles. It’s about fifteen miles to Berryville.”

  Eight miles was too far to walk carrying two dead bodies.

  “Is there a strip club in Berryville?”

  “I don’t know.” Jaq looked at her curiously. “It’s about twenty–five miles to Winchester. I’ll bet there’s one there.”

  Kelly thought for a moment. “Do you have access to a car?”

  “I have a truck we can use.” Jaq reached down and tossed Wes’ body across her shoulder, then walked over and effortlessly did the same with the other vampire. Balancing their weight, she bent down and retrieved her pick axe.

  “You change out of those bloody clothes and meet me at my house. I’ll put these two in my truck and grab some supplies.” Jaq paused, a faint smile at the corner of her mouth. “Are we going to a strip club after we take care of these guys? I’ve never been to one, and I don’t know what to wear.”

  She’d missed that smile. Really, really missed that smile.

  “No.” Kelly couldn’t help but laugh. This whole situation was absurd, but the feeling of joy she had at having Jaq by her side once again was indescribable. When the werewolf was around, Kelly felt more like fighting and less like dying. “We’re going to dump the bodies at a strip club and head back. I’ve got a promising evening ahead of me with a blanket and tuna casserole.”

  “Sounds good to me. I might join you.” Jaq strode off as if the two vampires on her shoulder weighed nothing, while Kelly stared after her. Werewolves were downright scary. No, Jaq was scary. Wonderful scary. Killing vampires like she was swatting flies, completely nonchalant about the idea of body disposal. Where had Jaq been dumping all those vampire bodies? Kelly giggled, thinking of all the deer bologna in the other woman’s freezer. Jaq wasn’t that scary.

  22

  Kelly rode shotgun in Jaq’s old truck; the vampire bodies in huge garbage bags rode in the back, weighted down with tools and bricks. Jaq told her they were taking back roads to avoid the highway.

  “It’s early morning, and there’ll be lots of police catching drunks,” she explained. “Better to be on the safe side.”

  Kelly nodded. They sat in silence, the only noise the whirring of the truck’s tires on the road. Tired. So very tired. Kelly leaned her head against the truck window, feeling strangely disconnected. Her body seemed to be filled with lead weights. It had taken every ounce of strength to pull herself up into Jaq’s lifted truck. But it was her head, floating above her like a helium balloon that was the strangest of sensations. Head here. Body there. What would happen if she floated right out above the truck and drifted away? Already she felt a blurry sense of peace at the idea.

  Jaq stirred in the driver’s seat, taking her eyes from the road to cast a concerned glance Kelly’s way. “You look like complete and total crap.”

  “Thanks.” She couldn’t manage a smile let alone make a witty comeback about her lack of make–up. Head, floating away.

  “I didn’t realize …I mean the last two days you’ve really gone downhill.”

  There were all kinds of witty rejoinders to make, but even if she’d been able to put words together in her head, Kelly doubted she could manage to get them out of her mouth.

  “You’re getting weaker, and I can tell you don’t have much longer. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.” The werewolf pounded the steering wheel with a fist. It bent slightly. She must do this a lot, because the steering wheel looked like it hadn’t been completely round in several years.

  “Screw it. I’m getting you a human. Just this one time, that’s all. I’ll grab him or her, and hold them down while you cut them up and drink. I’ll heal them. I’ll deny everything; claim that they’re some psycho that imagined the whole thing.”

  “Then in three days I’m back to this,” Kelly forced out.

  “Then we’ll do it again in three days.” There was terrible pain in the werewolf’s voice, and Kelly knew she would be breaking every moral she held dear.

  “No. Won’t let you betray your pack’s trust.”

  It wouldn’t work anyway, and she saw that same realization in Jaq’s eyes. They could get away with it maybe once, but over and over again? Humans with the same bizarre story of being attacked by a blood–sucking girl in a dark alley, with an accomplice that healed? Kelly didn’t think the werewolves would overlook it the first time it happened.

  The truck abruptly pulled over to the side of the road in a spray of gravel, and Jaq slammed it into park, turning to face Kelly.

  “We’ve got to tell them,” Jaq said, her voice catching. “Margaret is a nurse at the VA hospital in Martinsburg. She could probably sneak some human blood out for you. They all care about you, but they can’t help you if they don’t know. I’m not gonna tell them your secret. I know what it’s like to need to hide what you are, but sometimes you got to trust people to help you.”

  Kelly stared out the window. She’d broken a lot of rules, but she’d never betrayed her people to the humans. How could they tolerate her presence if they knew she needed to feed on them to survive? A predator. A parasite. Cue the doom music and fire up the torches.

  “Ok,” Jaq said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “Drink those dead vampires then. They still have some blood left in them. Enough to get you by. I know you said you don’t do that sort of thing, but if it will help you live, you need to.”

  Kelly gagged. Gross. She couldn’t drink vampire blood, even that of her enemy. Her stomach rebelled at the thought.

  The woman beside her took a deep breath. “Then drink from me. I have a knife, and you don’t have to worry about hurting me. I’m not sure my blood will be okay. It might make you sick or kill you, but a little bit will probably be fine. Besides, the odds are better than what you’re facing now.”

  Kelly shook her head.

  “You stupid, stubborn vampire!” Jaq slammed her hands on the steering wheel, cracking it with the force of the blow. “Just take m
y blood.”

  Kelly again shook her head. Jaq was a friend — her only friend. She didn’t eat friends. Besides, the balloon–head feeling was beginning to be rather nice.

  “It’s okay,” Jaq said, a carefully contrived note of hurt in her voice. “I know I’m not human, that I’m not what you like when it comes to blood type.”

  Kelly almost laughed. Werewolves were also manipulative. Who knew? She pulled her floating mind back and forced herself to focus. She at least owed Jaq a reason.

  “No.” The glass of the truck window was cool on her cheek. “You’re my best friend. The only friend I’ve ever had.” Thoughts of George crossed her mind, but that had been different — a flurry of reckless passion and desperation. He’d been a ray of sunshine, but Jaq was like her right arm. “Friends aren’t food. I can’t do that to you.”

  Jaq reached under the seat for something. Suddenly the scent of blood filled the air. Strange blood. Sharp as ice, with cloves and the bite of exotic black and red pepper. “Best friends help each other. Please. I don’t want you to die,” she begged Kelly.

  Jaq was her best friend. Caring for her after her own family left her for dead, filling her fridge with cow blood, watching out for her, helping her, defending her when she had no one else in the world to turn to. Kelly couldn’t recall anyone ever drinking werewolf blood before. What would it taste like? Would it kill her, or do nothing, leaving her just as weak and on the edge of starvation as she was now? Kelly struggled to lift her head and put her lips over Jaq’s spotted wrist, determined to take only a mouthful.

  It tasted of honey on the coldest snow, numbing the sides of her throat as she swallowed. An explosion hit behind Kelly’s eyes, sending sparks racing down through her nervous system. There was a wash of color and noise overwhelming her senses. Her heart froze in place and then galloped out of control.

  Gasping for air, Kelly pulled her mouth away. Sound roared in her ears, like she’d had too much oxygen, like she was on sensory overload. Her night vision crashed as her pupils dilated to their full diameter. She’d drunk from crack addicts and never had such a rush. For a moment she thought she’d die, that every cell in her body would rupture. Then gradually her heart resumed its normal rhythm; her breathing slowed. Kelly stared at her hands. It was as if every nerve ending was lit up and alive.

  “Are you okay?” Jaq asked, her voice rising in panic. The werewolf gripped her arm, and gently shook her. “Kelly, speak to me.”

  “What are you?” Kelly stared at her hands in amazement, flexing the fingers. She was powerful, invincible. Nothing could harm her. Not even the Master with all his ancient power. There’s no way werewolves had blood like this. Vampires would have drained them all dry centuries ago if they had.

  “I’m a First,” Jaq whispered. “No one can know. No one.”

  “First what?” Kelly rubbed her fingers along the dashboard of the truck, marveling at the feel.

  Jaq shifted in her seat, looking around as if there were someone to hear them on the deserted road. “First. A Nephilim. The offspring of an angel and a human.”

  Kelly turned her attention from her hands to the woman beside her. “Wait. I thought you said you were a werewolf.”

  “I am. My children will be like the other werewolves, but Firsts are different. That’s why no one can ever know. If the angels catch me, our whole species is at risk.”

  Well, yeah. Angels were not supposed to be making naughty with humans, and any offspring would have a death sentence hanging over their heads. A link between Nephilim and the werewolves would lead to their genocide. The whole heavy–handed existence contract was due to their undecided status — either a quirk of human evolution or the product of illicit passion. But that wasn’t what grabbed hold of Kelly’s thoughts.

  “Children? Who are you having children with? Is this a duty? An obligation that you have to further the werewolf race?” Her hands sparked against the dashboard of the car, or maybe it was just her screwed up vision. Either way, the thought of Jaq married to the highest bidder and surrounded by a dozen pups filled her with anxiety and a slow burn of anger.

  There was a soft snort of laughter that smoothed her worry. “Silly. What do you think we are? I mate with who I choose, when I choose, and I’ll have offspring only if I wish to. But Firsts don’t have the fertility problems that plague latter generations of werewolves, and we have a broader range of abilities so we’re coveted as a potential mate. We’re also granted special status in the Pack.”

  “I wondered. I mean, you don’t smell the same as Dale and his crew. I thought maybe my sense of smell was off because I’ve been so hungry.”

  She saw Jaq’s faint smile. “Are you saying I smell bad?”

  “Werewolves smell bad,” Kelly confessed. “Like dogs and old ham. You don’t smell bad. You smell like ice and pepper, cloves and pine trees.”

  Jaq choked back a laugh. “Ham? Old ham? If you value your life, don’t ever tell a werewolf that to their face.”

  “Wait,” Kelly said, suddenly facing the other woman. “Is Mike a Nephilim too? How many of you half angels are there?”

  Jaq shook her head. “No. He’s my step–brother. My father brought me to the Pack when I was an infant. I’m the only one in West Virginia at the moment. It’s really not that common.”

  “You never knew your parents?” Kelly asked softly. Maybe she and Jaq had more in common than she’d thought.

  “Well, I consider the werewolf couple that raised me to be my parents, but no, I never knew my angel father or my human mother. It was for the best. I would have been a danger to both of them if they’d kept me — proof of an angel’s sin.”

  Kelly squashed a wave of jealousy. What she wouldn’t have given for a pair of loving foster parents, and a step brother. All she’d had was a box behind the stove and a slap if she daydreamed and didn’t work fast enough. But that life was behind her, and she should be thankful that Jaq didn’t suffer the same bleak childhood as hers.

  “I worked with an angel back in Atlantic City — our liaison. He was alright for an angel, but I can’t see him having reproductive organs, let alone allowing passion to sway him into sex with a human.”

  Jaq laughed, clapping a hand over her mouth. “I know. Seriously. I’ve never met an angel, obviously, but from what I’ve heard I just can’t imagine it.”

  “You blood is a total rush. I can’t tell if I’ve got enhanced abilities or I’m just on some delusional high. Good thing you aren’t a full angel. I think I my head might have blown right off my body.”

  “What does it feel like?” Jaq peered at her curiously, waving a hand in front of Kelly’s face.

  “I can feel everything in such detail. My whole body is tingly. I’m still hungry, but not starving. It doesn’t seem to bother me as much. I’m not as weak.”

  “Do you need more?” Jaq asked, indicating her arm.

  “Good lord, no. I think it would kill me. Just that mouthful and I felt like I was going to explode out from the inside. I’ve never heard of any of us drinking from a werewolf before, let alone a Nephilim. If they did, I can only assume it didn’t end well. If I hadn’t been holding back, I’d probably have taken too much and stroked out.”

  “I’m not sure werewolves would have the same effect,” Jaq confessed. “My make–up is really different. I’m probably more potent.”

  “I’ll say. Super potent. Super–duper potent.” Kelly looked at her fingers again. Could she shoot laser beams from them? It sure felt like she could.

  “Will it wear off?” Jaq asked, peering at her. “Your pupils are huge, like you’re drugged.”

  “I’m sure it will. I just don’t know how long it will take.”

  Jaq put the truck back in gear. “I’m going to keep driving. Let me know if you need me to pull over so you can puke or something.”

  They headed on to Winchester as Kelly marveled at the stars and the scenery that seemed in such incredible detail. She felt like she could recall every leaf
on every tree they passed. It was like being on a hallucinogenic. As they pulled into town, Kelly suddenly smelled vampire. Kincaid vampire.

  “There,” she told Jaq. “Turn there.”

  “The pawn shop?” Jaq asked.

  “Yeah, pull around back and we’ll throw the bodies in front of the dumpster.”

  They got out and dropped the tailgate to pull out the bodies when Jaq froze, looking at Kelly with an eerie intensity.

  “There’s one here. I smell one,” she whispered.

  Kelly didn’t have time to react before she was knocked to the ground and straddled by a male vampire.

  “Fournier scum. What are you doing in our lands?” he snarled, his hands at her throat.

  A roar split the air and massive claws slapped the vampire from her, sending him skidding ten feet across the asphalt parking lot. Jaq had become an enormous wolf, her tawny fur covered in unusual brown spots.

  Unfortunately the intimidating effect of the werewolf’s fierce roar was negated by the lacy panties dangling from one rear leg and the t–shirt and bra twisted around her middle. Kelly couldn’t help a snort of laughter.

  The wolf paused just a moment to glare at Kelly before leaping after the vampire. Jaq no longer had the element of surprise on her side, and the vampire had taken advantage of her inattention to jump to his feet and charge. They collided. He grabbed Jaq, tossing her into the side of the dumpster.

  “No,” Kelly shouted, scrambling to her feet. She reached out her hand, and the shovel from the truck flew into her open palm. Instinctively, she swung the tool, impacting the side of the vampire’s head with strength far beyond her years, breaking the wooden handle in half and sending the vampire sprawling backwards.

  Knowing the blow wouldn’t do more than slow him, she tossed the splintered handle aside and grabbed the vampire, heaving him into the air and slamming him against the side of the dumpster. He hit the thick metal rods used to lift and empty the garbage with force, and they slid through him, impaling the vampire right through the heart. He was dead. Jaq stared at her, the werewolf’s form returning to human with a flash of light.