Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife)

by Robles, Joyce

  "I’m not leaving you," she watched them with unblinking eyes, noticed the way her Uncle spared a glance down at his bleeding arm.

  "I love you and I need you to do this for me now, take your Cousin into the closet." He yelled as the door wrenched with enough force to almost dislodge the chair. She watched her Cousin look to his father one last time before turning and running to her, taking her hand and steering her back towards the closet. Her Cousin pushed her through the door first, shoving her back to make room for himself, he paused to turn the lock on the knob, a precaution her father had insisted be put on all doors, that was the last she saw of her Uncle, not holding the door closed but running to the table beside her parents bed where there was a phone. Then Doug slammed the closet door, took hold of her hand and dragged her to the floor beside him. For a fleeting moment she heard her Uncle’s voice again over the sound of bodies slamming into the bedroom door, heard the moment the wood collapsed beneath one impact too many. Then there was the frenzied sound of feet scrapping, a struggle, screaming, so much screaming, she sat in the dark, her cousin holding her hand so tight she could barely feel it anymore. When the screaming stopped there was only the sounds of wet chewing, the phone beeping a disconnect sound joined after a minute. After a while she felt her Cousin rocking back and forth, her arm swaying uselessly as he did. After a little while longer there was no sound but the phone beeping, her Cousin whispering silent prayers, her arm swaying limply back and forth.

  The only light in her dark tear streaked world came from beneath the door, hope flared through her as a shadow crept across it. Someone would save them, her father was a hero, he would always come to save them, "Daddy?" the minute she uttered the word the shadow slammed into the door, the sound of jaws snapping and nails clawing wood bombarded the darkness. She closed her eyes, but all she heard were those horrific noises, her Cousin’s silent prayers, and she felt madness grip her.

  "That was far more traumatic then I thought it would be," for a moment she couldn’t believe her ears, was still that paralyzed five year old child hidden in a dark closet. "I thought I felt your mind getting ready to snap and thought I might try to keep you sane." Jennifer didn’t open her eyes, just tried to pull herself out of her memory, tried to do that by focusing on the cadence of his voice. "It’s alright, it was just a memory remember, a fear to conquer not break you." It took her a moment to process but she realized who it was that had found their way into her head. Ethan, vampire, it should not have been possible, she cracked her eyes open and found herself crouched outside in the grass under a clear starry night.

  "Where am I?" She was surprised she had a voice, had felt for a moment as though she’d been screaming for hours as sanity slipped out of her reach.

  "My head, not a pleasant place really but currently in better shape than your own." She looked up at Ethan, too stunned to try and accuse him of anything, almost to grateful that he’d taken her away from her nightmare to care.

  "In your head," she mumbled too confused to try and puzzle her way through it on her own.

  "It was that or try to wake you at home, as that seemed unlikely given my current condition this was my best option." He smiled and instead of its regular effect to irritate her it helped her focus. "Your state of mind was quite distressing," he informed her, "but offal as it was let us hope you remember it when you wake up."

  "How am I in your head," as if to avoid having to answer her it was as if her surroundings came into full focus. The clear night sky above her began to fill with smoke, screaming rang out behind her and she whirled to face it. A large brick house with fire blazing through the windows stood behind her where she hadn’t known there was anything before. A woman screaming and a baby wailing hit her ears and she saw their figures trapped at the top story window. "Oh my god," she tried to take a step forward but the vampire’s hand shot out and took hold of her wrist.

  "It’s only a memory, there’s nothing that can be done here," she ignored him trying to pull free as the screaming intensified, the scent of burning flesh joined the assault on her senses.

  "Get off of me!" She tried to shake him off but he wouldn’t let her go, and then another figure charged out of the dark, a man shouting, never hesitating as he charged toward the burning structure. She tried again to struggle out of his hold but it was like a steel band even in his head. She wanted to help, almost desperate to help as she couldn’t have in her own dream. "Please I have to do something!"

  "There’s nothing to be done, the woman and child are already dead, for a long while now, the father to." Jennifer stilled at this, watching horrified as the man tried to enter the house but was forced back by the flames. "All dead and gone," the vampire whispered in her ear as the baby gave one last agonized wail and both mother and child fell silent.

  "No," Jennifer tried to kick and claw her way free but he wouldn’t release his hold on her and by the time she gave up to look back the flames had consumed the house, the man was on his knees in the grass screaming vengeance to the stars. "Why," she looked back at the vampire who watched motionless, expression bored with the scene that confronted it.

  "Because it is a dream, a memory, the outcome can not be altered," he shook his head and gave his focus back to her. "It seems my mind inconveniently decided to remember something that could only traumatize you further, my apologies."

  Jennifer looked back at the figure on his knees, "let me go to him," she begged.

  "No, leave the memories to their misery, he can’t hear you," he forced her to turn away from the scene. "How did your own memories go, by your amount of distress I can assume horrific but informing?"

  "Get your hands off me," Jennifer finally struggled free, turned and was greeted by her own bedroom wall. She spun and faced the bed, just as it was when she’d gone to sleep only missing Khan. "Where’s my dog, what’s going on here?"

  "Dreaming remember," she spun again and found the vampire behind her, "we’re simply back in your head." He gave a quick once over of their surroundings and shrugged, "interesting choice of location to bring us." When he met her eyes again one corner of his mouth turned up, "one must wonder why you chose your own bedroom."

  "I didn’t choose anything," Jennifer scolded, he was the one in control of all these head games.

  "Wrong again," he shrugged noncommital, "I can make the connection but can’t control the locale. If I could I hardly would have chosen one of the more colorful excursions of my youth."

  "You killed that woman, that baby," without thinking she rushed forward and shoved him in the chest as hard as she could. In the end it only pushed him back a step and he smiled at her for her apparent effort.

  "In a matter of speaking," he confessed without any hesitation, ‘monster,’ she wanted to scream at him. "Let’s forget about that yes, maybe focus on the fact that I came to your rescue before your mind turned to pudding." He made as if he was going to take hold of some part of her but she jumped back out of his reach.

  "How did you get into my head, how did you know I was in trouble?" She asked the questions but was terrified to know the answers, was she completely compromised by this vampire?

  "Can’t we just stick with the notion that you are grateful that I did," he asked.

  "I’m not grateful, how are you in my head!" She was pretty sure she’d screamed at the top of her lungs, completely feeling as though the world was slipping out from beneath her feet. Like he knew her grip on sanity was slipping as quickly away from her as the floor beneath her feet he plucked her off the floor and slammed her into her bedroom wall, trapping her between it and him.

  "Please breathe Miss Ryan and I might explain," he whispered by her ear, she didn’t like that his words and the feel of him against her, had her heart racing but her mind clearing. But he didn’t explain anything even after she managed to slow her breathing, as a matter of fact he seemed to take her calm as a cue to nuzzle her neck and then chew on her ear lobe with a fang. She wanted to react the way she should, wanted to thr
ash and scream to get away from him, instead she fought herself not the wrap herself around him and pull him closer. She wanted to believe it was him controlling her in her own mind but didn’t think it was anymore likely here then it was out in the real world.

  "How are you here?" She managed to whisper when she could pull her head together enough to ask again.

  "It’s simple enough, or not depending on your understanding of the mechanics of vampires and our particular brand of magic one might call it." He was silent for a moment, intent to bury his mouth by her throat.

  "If you bite me...." she warned but it abandoned her head when he did graze his incisors over her neck.

  "No point in that here Miss Ryan I wouldn’t get anything out of it," he kissed the spot he’d made to bite and it took more will for her then it should have to try and hold him in close. Instead she forced herself to grip his shoulders so he could lift his head and look her in the eye. "You remember Nickolei," he asked casually though she felt that he hesitated to ask.

  "Of course, I don’t usually forget vampires that nearly succeed in trying to kill me." She felt her bedroom begin to waver around them and did her best to fight back the memories of that night.

  "Vampires can force a link on mortals that they’ve taken blood from."

  "I already knew that," she interrupted annoyed because she was almost certain he was stalling. She had felt that bond Nickolei had forced on her the minute it had happened, and felt it an even larger violation then when he’d punctured her shoulder with his fangs.

  "Indeed, but perhaps you didn’t know that a powerful enough Maker can use that bond." Jennifer shivered against him remembering the way Ada had forced her mind to work against her, had simply whispered into her head for her heart to stop and the organ had done its best to comply.

  "Ada can’t get into my head," she pointed out.

  "That is because luckily for you Ada did not create Nickolei, I did," he confessed with a shrug. Why her mind stumbled around this she had no idea, he was a vampire, vampires made other vampires. Outside of Ada however Nickolei had been the worst coven vampire she’d ever encountered. "You look at me so accusingly, if it helps to know that I abandoned him to Adelaide’s machinations and that it wasn’t any fatherly influence of my own that shaped him would that make it better or worse?"

  "He was a monster," she accused him.

  "So he was, but by all apparent measures to you aren’t all vampires? Or have you reconsidered after reacquainting yourself with the truly soulless undead?"

  Jennifer tried using her hold on his shoulders to push him back away from her but he didn’t budge, "get off of me."

  "No, I think I rather like you where you are," he taunted her, "however if you admit that my kind are different from the nightmare from your childhood I might be inclined to give you the space you desire."

  "You’re disgusting," she told him with more than a little venom in her tone, "I know what you and your kind are, you’re no different than those things, feeding and killing helpless people, all soulless monsters." She wanted him to react badly, violently even, anything to get him away from her, to get him to behave the way he was supposed to. But the only thing that happened was his ever present smile wilted a little around the corners, why did he have to be so good at pretending to be human.

  "Perhaps we should test that theory then and see how disgusting you really find my kind." He put enough emphasis on ‘my kind’ to make her squirm, she was aware she had a physical and apparent weakness for this vampire. For reasons she could not explain, even though she’d felt his fangs graze her skin just now he was still completely off her monster radar. So when he gripped her hips and lifted her off the floor her traitorous legs didn’t hesitate to wrap themselves around him.

  "You......you’re controlling me," even though she knew on some level that he wasn’t.

  "Ah this is your head remember, what makes you so certain you aren’t controlling me." He accused her right back, Jennifer didn’t take notice of what she was wearing in her head or otherwise until his hand touched her bare hip. She looked down and realized she was wearing exactly what she’d gone to bed in, her underwear and a towel. That was insanely unfair of her own head, he ran his fingertips up her back and she arched forward for him, practically begging through body language for him to touch her. "So responsive to a monster," he reminded her, "I wonder how far you’ll let a vampire go?" She was going to tell him to stop, any minute now she was going to say it, but then he lowered his head and set his mouth to kissing the swells of her breasts. Her chest suddenly ached with the need for him to rip her towel off and give her breasts the attention where they needed it most, but in her head she repeated the mantra, ‘stop this.’ But she didn’t want to stop him, her fingers laced themselves in his hair and she groaned when he stopped to look her in the eye. His smug smile was in place but if her erratic breathing was any indication he probably felt he’d earned it. "I really want to fuck you in your head right now," her breathing got even more uneven when his lips got within inches of her own. She wanted him to kiss her, had probably wanted it since he’d kissed her and she’d stabbed him for it, wanted the opportunity to kiss him back. "But it’s time to wake up."

  Chapter 16

  Jennifer came awake with her heart racing and fighting to get her breathing under control, not at all because she was afraid. She wanted to hate the vampire, she wanted to be mad that he’d tried to seduce her in her own head, but in the end she was just grateful. True she’d woken up irritated and turned on, but she wasn’t entirely sure how she would have woken up from her own nightmare, angry, terrified, sane? She wasn’t sure what she’d felt at the end there, but there was clearly a reason that as a child her mind had shut it out, forgotten it, and never touched the memory again. Clearly zombies were too much for her to wrap her head around, or they were simply because of the memory she’d refused to face. Just like the vampire said, fears to face and be conquered before she could do her job without shrieking like a girl and dying. Damn she hated that vampire, with an exasperated sigh she rolled onto her stomach and allowed herself a moment to consider what she was going to do next. She thought about taking a cold shower, she wanted one, she still felt flushed all over, irritated that instead of kissing her the vampire had woken her up. Twice as irritated that she was irritated that he hadn’t kissed her because she shouldn’t want that at all.

  When she rolled over again she came face to face with Khan who sat with his head on his paws. "Hey buddy," she called trying to make herself sit up and go take care of other matters that needed to be dealt with. First thing as a matter of fact was that she hadn’t fed her giant pup before she’d gone to sleep. With another sigh she rolled unto her back and sat up in bed, Khan whined behind her so she took the blanket she’d been sleeping under and tossed it over him, covering all but his wagging tail.

  He made no move to follow her so Jennifer slid her feet into slippers and made her way to the kitchen where she rinsed and filled his dog bowls. When that didn’t immediately bring him out from under the covers she figured that with how she’d slept he’d probably stayed up all night and that she might as well let him sleep. Still she went back to the room, ditched her towel and pulled on a clean bra and cloths. She didn’t bother making a trip to the basement because she still had her arsenal from the night before in her cousins trunk. That was where she was going first, she would need to go speak to her cousin, from there she could take her car which was still tucked safely behind the same building and drive herself back to the hospital to visit Manson and Clive. She hadn’t yet decided where she would go from there, it would still be hours before the vampire was awake, and even then she didn’t think that she wanted to deal with him again. Which left her solely with the government Cyborg and she wasn’t sure that she was prepared to face him just yet either. Not that she really had any choice, she’d gotten one of his men killed true but given the circumstances whether she went to the vampire for help or not Tom had to be involved
.

  Shaking her head she gave Khan’s sleeping form a pat beneath the blanket and retrieved the Beretta where she’d left it. She had told her Cousin that she would call him, now she was certain that this was a conversation that needed to be face to face. Slipping into her shoes she grabbed both her Cousin’s car keys, her own and her phone and shoved them in her pocket before locking the door behind herself. It was a short drive from her home to the church, a boring drive, for most she imagined it was amazingly rural. One wouldn’t expect to find the headquarters of a monster hunting collective down the lane from a cul-de-sac and on the corner to the right. Maybe the church could be expected, especially if one was continually fighting monsters with which couldn’t step foot on holy ground without bursting into flames. That was helpful and so it made sense, but to pick a church so close to homes where children were playing down the block, and the frickin’ cul-de-sac, it boggled the mind. Or at least it did hers, it was nothing like she’d expected.