Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife)

by Robles, Joyce

  "The entire point of the exercise was to use the key, not yourself as a battering ram," he gave her a half smile but instead of trying to take advantage of the hold he had her in he placed her back on her feet.

  "There’s no door out there, no handle," she explained even though she was sure that he knew that.

  "Your eyes can deceive you if you don’t know what you’re looking for," he motioned her to follow and this time he led the way outside. He waited for her to step out behind him then closed the door again. "Perfect craftsmanship, yes? One might even wonder if it was engineering or magic." He was teasing again but her shoulder hurt too much not to wish that she could shoot him again. "This is how you find it," he ran his fingers along the wall, "it’s here," he indicated that she should do the same and even though she really didn’t want to stand that close to him she did and felt along the wall. For a moment there was nothing but rough brick then her fingers hit a smooth surface that she couldn’t discern with her eyes, and on that surface a keyhole. She looked over at the vampire beside her, took hold of the key around her neck and slipped it into the slot, as soon as she did she heard the tumblers shift into place and the door slid open a fraction.

  "Holy shit," she repeated only this time not because she thought she’d been betrayed. "Why are you giving me this," it wasn’t an unreasonable question, he had literally given her the keys to his castle, she could come in and kill him in his sleep.

  "Because we are forming a partnership, temporary as it may be, and I’ve always found the best of alliances always seem to flourish with trust at its foundation." He waited to let that little bit of information sink in, before he went on. "Your friend can stay, she will be perfectly safe beneath my protection, and if for some reason or other I prove to be a liar I’ve given you the ability to take your vengeance."

  "He said you were crazy and I didn’t believe him but," Jennifer paused looking down at the key around her neck, "you are so crazy." She wanted to point out that he was a vampire and she was a hunter, that giving her this key was a death sentence but she looked back up and he was smiling, again.

  "A bloody lunatic probably, but it suites me, so," he didn’t take his eyes from hers, "are you satisfied."

  "Maybe," she conceded almost bitterly.

  "You wound me, crazy I may be but I always leave a woman satisfied."

  "Why don’t I think that’s true," she imagined that sometimes he left them dead, which was a far cry from satisfied.

  "But may I assume that you will be on your way," he never dropped the smile.

  "Yea sure, but I will be waiting for her to contact me, if she doesn’t I’ll assume the worst, you know the rest." She warned him, though she didn’t think that she had to, she didn’t think he was going to risk the safety of his new coven for one woman. In the scheme of things Marcia was nothing more than a pawn, at the moment she was apparently more useful as a live one.

  "I would beg for you to call on me for assistance but I’m not foolish enough to think that you would take advantage of my offer." His smile faded a little around the edges but he didn’t hesitate to push the door that she’d unlocked open. "I do however expect to be kept appraised of what you find when you get there."

  "When I make a deal I keep it," in most cases this was true, she wasn’t entirely sure how well that would stand to the test of her word to a monster. He nodded but said nothing further and she watched very reluctantly as he closed the door behind her with Marcia still inside. It was going to be a very long night indeed, she had not just a trip to the morgue to make but a sleepless night full of worry until Marcia called to tell her she was still alive.

  Doing her best to at the very least not linger on the fact that she’d potentially left Marcia to a bloodless death or worse she slipped her phone out of her pocket. She scrolled down through her contacts until she reached Richard, which was the cyborg’s alias, then typed in a quick text that read only, ‘zombies?’ She was in no way inclined to believe in zombies of all things but Tom had seen far more than she would probably ever know and he didn’t seem at all inclined to share. Once that text was on its way Jennifer dialed for Zip, he always answered expediently since usually calls were life or death. "I need to know which morgue the bodies from our vampire attack tonight were sent." She waited for him to look up the information, with his considerable hacking skills it took him no time at all. Within minutes she knew where she was going, "and Zip you have our vampires description, and I have his name, is that enough to dig up information on him with."

  "If it doesn’t bring up anything on the computers I’ll head straight to the archives."

  "Good, Dimitri, that’s the vampire that’s running a muck. If you have time look to see if you can wrangle up any information on a vampire named Gabriel Ethan, I don’t have a last name, only if you have time it’s not priority."

  "No problem boss, anything else I can do ya for?"

  "Yea, one more, look to see if there’s any information about zombies."

  "Like ‘night of the living dead’ zombies, or like ‘the serpent and the rainbow’ zombies."

  Jennifer sighed, "I really have no idea, just anything you can find that is an actual sighting and not a movie where the undead are eating flesh and not just drinking blood."

  "Got it, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can boss." With those as his parting words the line went dead, she supposed in the end she was going to see soon enough whether or not Ethan was telling the truth, that was why she was going to the morgue now wasn’t it, to make sure the victims weren’t coming back as zombies.

  ‘Be careful what alliances you make.’ The voice in her head warned out of nowhere.

  "Yea....yea, warn me about the big bad vampire, you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know." She sighed again, it was not good news that there was a voice in her head. "I’m still not entirely certain you aren’t a vampire yourself so why don’t you just bugger off."

  ‘I’m here to help you.’

  "Right, sure you are, so what’s your name then, that would be helpful."

  ‘Not yet, you need only know that when all is said and done this link between us will be destroyed, it exists only to see this job done.’

  "That’s comforting I’d still be more comfortable with the idea if I knew your name." Jennifer waited a pause but when there was no forthcoming information she grumbled, "of course not."

  ‘Rouquette you can call me Rou.’

  She could not explain why having a name made her so much more comfortable with the idea of someone roaming around in her head but it did. "Alright Rou, let’s go find us some zombies," inwardly she rolled her eyes and looked forward to the moment she could call the Master vampire back and tell him how full of shit he was.

  Chapter 13

  Ethan was unsure how long it was he waited by the door listening to the sound of her retreating footsteps, it could easily have been an eternity given he was capable of hearing a great span of distance. He didn’t move a muscle until he heard the familiar cadence of steps approaching him from behind. "Thadeus, you picked a fine time to join me," in all truth his old friend might have decided to join him sooner.

  "Master," he obediently acknowledged.

  "You know I do hate it when you call me that, it is ever the boring title, and I do prefer it when only the simple minded followers use it. Whatever makes them feel safe from the big scary hunters in the light." He glanced over his shoulder to find his old friend watching him with amusement.

  "It is a habit I feel for now keeps us all safe here, for the moment, but I shall try to remember to call you Ethan when we are not in the company of our enemies." He gave a slight bow before straightening and making to hand over the items that he had brought with him. "Are you certain that this alliance is wise, I wouldn’t say with any certainty that I thought the Hunter can be trusted."

  "No worries my friend, I will deal with the lady." They exchanged a knowing look in which Ethan hoped would comfort his friend to some degree
. He understood his friends hesitancy, hunters were always a risk if for no other reason than the fact that their dedication stemmed from a deep rooted hate for the supernatural. He took the harness from Thadeus’ hand and was in the middle of slipping it over his shoulders when Thadeus worked his way up to addressing his real concern.

  "Is this not something that you should be clearing with your Maker first?"

  "Your concern is touching, let me worry about Ada as well," Ada was always a problem, but given she was the one who’d started this mess with no intent of cleaning it up he figured she could only look at his actions as he was doing her a favor.

  "They will both be a problem given their history," Thadeus wasted his breath explaining.

  "Probably, Ada does hate it when her power doesn’t work on people to the degree she prefers." As someone that her considerable amount of power didn’t seem to work quite as well as she hoped he understood exactly the kind of problem that making an alliance with Jennifer might cause. He was aware of their history, it was just one more reason that he had chosen Jennifer as an ally. It never hurt to have an enemy in common, and that was certainly what Ada was. "All you need remember if things go wrong is that you and the others need get as far from Ada as you can. She does so love to force compliance and it is a fate I wish on no man, you would know if I find my demise, I will spare you all that fate and severe our bond." He would give her nothing if she managed to sink her claws back into him in the way she had when she had first turned him.

  "Yes Master," Ethan grunted and looked back at Thadeus.

  "Really," he really hated the title Master, he really only did have the dim-witted vampires he couldn’t trust call him that, and even then it was only because it was what Ada would want. It was the same principle for why everyone here called him Gabriel, that was the name Ada insisted he use even though it wasn’t the name he’d used before his undeath either. He gave Thadeus another irritated glare before taking the sword from his old friends hands and sliding it into the harness with a practiced ease.

  "Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you," Ethan could tell from his tone it was taking his old friend a great deal of will not to add some kind of grandiose title to the end of the question.

  "I’m sure, I need you here to make sure that no harm comes to the woman, the Bartender seems trustworthy enough but he’s no warrior. Her safety must be ensured, I trust you to see to that, I’ll make sure our beautiful Hunter doesn’t get herself foolishly killed." Thadeus gave a nod but he was clearly discontent to be left to play guardian to an unworthy human woman. "Don’t worry old friend, there will be plenty of blood-shed to come for all of us soon enough. First we stop these foul creatures, then we will accomplish why we truly came. We’ll be free soon enough, the queen will fall, and I think our Hunter will help us make it so."

  "I do not think that we can trust them," he meant the Hunters and of course he was right, Jennifer had stabbed him after all.

  "No, but trust must first be earned and perhaps if we prove ourselves trustworthy there will come a time when they will do the same." Thadeus simply shook his head, but he made no objections as Ethan took the trench coat he still held while he’d waited for Ethan to finish securing his weapon.

  "The plan is madness," his old friend informed him.

  "Yes, it is, but you must admit that my mad plans are always the most fun and turn out with the best of results." Ethan shrugged the coat over his shoulders and wished that Thadeus would refrain from hovering like a mother goose.

  "Your plans have never involved trusting humans before," Thadeus pointed out.

  "I know, and of course the first time I do I ask you to trust them they would be Hunters," Ethan took the time to pat the larger man on the shoulder. "Have no fear General the Hunters numbers are diminished we can handle them if they come here for us, and should they come during daylight we don’t rest here so there’s nothing to fear. They’d be doing us a favor if they burned it to the ground." He smiled and watched his friend grimace, the man had a hard time faulting a chain of command.

  "Your Maker would not be pleased with us if she found it razed to the ground."

  "No she wouldn’t and that is what would make it so gloriously entertaining."

  "From the way you talk one might think that you wanted to end up forced back beneath her thumb." Thadeus accused with little cause, there was no reality that Ethan had despised more than serving his maker.

  "In a small way she already has, that is why we’re here, and that is what all this dubious planning is about. Hold steady Thadeus, I’ve promised us freedom and I will get it for us even if it is only through battle and glorious death." At this reminder his second smiled, it was comforting to know that little had changed with his friend. "Keep a close eye on the human, she seems to have little sense of self-preservation and I will be back before our dead friends can rise, or at least I hope so."

  "Let’s hope that you can get back before the sun rises," Thadeus reminded him as he pulled the back door that Jennifer had exited some moments ago open.

  "Let’s hope so," Ethan agreed but he found it was no great worry, unlike most of his brethren the thought of death wouldn’t make him cower, if the sun was meant to take him it would only be putting him out of decades of misery. "Don’t look so forlorn friend, I have promised you bloodshed and I always deliver, fortes fortuna iuvat," he offered as farewell and brought the door closed behind him. He was going to the mortuary for more then one reason, the first being that Jennifer had made it plainly clear that she did not believe a word he had said outside of Dimitri’s name. That was a problem because it could result in several things, the first being that she wouldn’t check as she had promised which left a great deal unresolved. The second reason was that if and when she did check she would not go prepared for what she would have to face. In both cases the end result was either the true dead escaping and spreading their condition with the potential bonus of Jennifer’s imminent death.

  He didn’t try to explain to himself why the possibility of her death displeased him, he didn’t have to. He’d known that there was something that was out of the ordinary between them as soon as he’d laid eyes on her. And it wasn’t difficult to see that whatever was between them was not something that only he had felt. It had been in every move that she’d made when he’d first seen her, as if she could sense him entering the room before he’d done so. He may have written that off as her being incredibly aware of her surroundings, alert to the point of paranoia even but then she had failed to read his true nature.

  It was a situation that he might have been able to ignore if he hadn’t instantly known that he was unlikely to ever hurt her or even see her hurt. Which could prove a problem in the long run as she clearly had no problem hurting him, he would address it when the time came, if it came, until then his goals had to be met. Ada’s mess had to be dealt with before it got out of hand, then it was back to his original plan, it was time for Ada’s kingdom to fall. He regretted any part now that Jennifer would be forced to play but he could not afford to alter his plans, not when there were others relying on him to set them free. If there was anything he’d learned in his overlong existence it was that in the Afterlife freedom was something that could only be achieved with power. He had no interest in power or control over anyone but himself and that in itself was what put him and his maker at odds. She would not rest until he was a compliant slave like the rest of her followers and he would sooner be dead. But if that was his only recourse he left several trusted others without protection, if the only way to keep that front happening was do drag the Hunter into the Afterlife further then she’d ever been, he would do it.

  Chapter 14

  Jennifer paused when she reached the front doors to the morgue, she was fully aware that getting back to see the bodies would have been a pain in the butt if not for her friendly government issued cyborg. She was of course always glad for his assistance, she had yet to hear back from him about the potential zombie situat
ion. Probably because for the first time in his cyborg existence he was laughing hysterically, she had no idea why she was bothering. She would go where the leads took her, that was why, sighing Jennifer made her way up the steps to the entrance and pulled the government issue I.D., provided to her via the cyborg, from her pocket and pulled the doors out of her path. She was just a little surprised to find the front doors open but the desk unmanned. She realized it was well past midnight and that this place would be running on a skeleton crew but they didn’t usually leave the front door opened without someone at the desk. Already the situation felt off, which didn’t necessarily lead her straight to zombie confirmation, but at least told her that coming here wasn’t going to be a complete waste of her time.

  She hesitated to put the I.D. away but for now she had little need of it, so she slid it into her front pocket. If she ran across the security that should have been at the desk she could still simply pull it out, until then she removed the 9mm from her waistband and kept it in hand. Very quickly she made a survey of the front desk to see if there was anything useful there, and of course to make certain there wasn’t a half eaten corpse behind it. When she didn’t find anything she moved off to her right and down the hall, she was grateful that it wasn’t a large establishment. She didn’t want this to take up more of her time than it had to. She stopped at the first room that she encountered hoping that she wouldn’t have to search in the other two. The first room was the one that contained the freezers, the second or third could be either an autopsy room or a lab. With any luck she would only have to check one of the victims, two to be thorough, eliminating the possibility of having to go in search of any of the bodies that might be in an autopsy room. She’d been to more than one morgue where the freezers were in the autopsy room, she wasn’t sure if she was lucky that this wasn’t one of them or not.