Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife)

by Robles, Joyce

  Her father had worked where Tom did, he started in the Army and stayed with the government, it just hadn’t been the only route to go. Her father had mentioned on a couple occasions that Jennifer could remember that he worked out of the city, not a neighborhood, not that it made a difference in the end she supposed. Clearly after what had happened to her family, Doug’s family, she had a good idea why neither of them had wanted to go the city route. She could admit to herself that Doug hadn’t gone the route she had at all, he had chosen another path to deal with what he’d seen, but he was still connected to it. Jennifer pulled her Cousin’s car into the lot behind the church and parked in the spot she knew was reserved for him. Sometimes it amazed her that he had a car at all as he rarely left anymore. She supposed he had it in case of emergencies like last night, and she knew that she wasn’t the only person that he rushed out to offer assistance to, although she hoped that he didn’t often have to help others escape crime scenes.

  As she climbed out of the car she gave herself a moment to simply look up at the building in front of her, to try and absorb some of that sturdy brick structures constitution. She didn’t feel like herself lately, she felt weak, and not just because she’d nearly gotten people she loved killed, now there was the vampire. But this was her church, the place where she could come to feel safe, the place she came to try and make the world safer for other people. Taking another deep breath she made her way to the rear entrance, it was her usual route and she was sure that at this time of day she was more likely to find her Cousin there than in the confessional. She was going to have to try and hold herself together, and she wasn’t entirely sure that given this upcoming conversation that was something she would be capable of managing. She had felt something in her unraveling last night, in a way that she wasn’t entirely sure would have left her sane, if it hadn’t been for the vampire she didn’t know where she’d be. She might still be standing here getting prepared to ask her Cousin if she was completely mad or if their entire family had turned into ravenous undead and eaten each other alive, or she might be lying in a puddle of her own drool screaming about the sky falling.

  She reached to pull her keys back out of her pocket and hesitated, pulling her phone out as well. She checked but there was no return message from Tom, there was however a voice-mail from Marcia, "shit." Hitting dial and praying that she had been left a message that she wanted to hear and not one with screaming and crying involved, she was greeted by her voice-mail and when the message finally did play it was just Marcia calling to tell her she was fine and had taken a cab home. It was a relief but not one that she fully trusted, vampires had their ways. She would call when she was done here but for now she stuffed the phone back in her pocket. Quickly she unlocked the back entrance, just as quickly locking it again behind herself. "Doug!" She probably shouted a little too loud given the fact he couldn’t have been far, perhaps the idea of the conversation ahead was making her hysterical.

  When he didn’t immediately appear she made to call again but as if he could sense that she was getting ready to disturb the peace of a holy place he popped his head into the room she was about to make her way out of. "Wait just a moment," he indicated she should try to be quiet for that minute by holding his finger to his lips. There was nothing for her to find irritating, not really, it was just because there was too much coming at her at once. A past she hadn’t remembered with zombies in it, a vampire she couldn’t handle, a voice in her head, more zombies, and still it felt like she was wasting time. If the vampire had any sense of how important all of this was he would have told her if they’d found anything. Instead she’d been reduced to his bedside manner which clearly had worked quite effectively on her given the fact that he’d showed her a mother and child he’d murdered in his past and she’d still wanted him to kiss her. "Jesus," but like Doug knew that in that moment she was going to be using that as a type of swear word her Cousin was back.

  "Manson wouldn’t like you using that name in vain," Jennifer nodded, hadn’t Manson just been reminding her of something similar last night.

  "You need to go back to the hospital."

  Jennifer nearly jumped out of her skin when the voice in her head popped in out of nowhere. She just barely managed to contain herself from using another deities name in vain in front of her Cousin. ‘Go away,’ she thought because she couldn’t say it out loud.

  ‘If you go now you’ll make it before your friend does.’

  ‘I’m headed there next, now please shut up,’ to be fair she shouldn’t be angry with the voice, she had no real reason, but it had proven to be of little assistance the night before.

  "What’s the matter Jennifer," Doug took her hand and led her out to the chapel where for a moment she allowed herself to be distracted by the stained glass windows showing visages of saints. Not that unlike her dream from the night before he led her by the hand to a pew, indicated for her to sit and then followed suite. "Something’s bothering you," her Cousin shifted in his seat, "is it this vampire?"

  For a moment Jennifer thought he was talking about Ethan, and yes he bothered her on too many levels, but even if that was her greatest worry she didn’t think she could voice what her concerns were without everyone here thinking she was completely compromised. So she reminded herself that the only vampire Doug knew about at the moment was Dimitri. Before she could answer two older women who had been up by the alter lighting a candle came walking up.

  "Good morning father," one smiled and waved and her Cousin, ever the patient priest, smiled and greeted them in return.

  Jennifer waited for him to finish and then for the two women to get out of earshot before she started. "I think he’s past the point of us being able to call him that." Jennifer tried to inform him cryptically but he just looked at her confused. "He ate his victims last night," she wanted to gag just saying it.

  "Isn’t that what vampires do," Doug asked without an ounce of guile.

  "No not drank their blood, he ate them, as in took great gaping mouthfuls out of them, he ate them." She made a show of snapping her jaw shut the way some of her family had in her nightmare and her Cousin nearly fell out of his seat onto the floor. She watched the color drain out of him the way she imagined it must have the day before for her. "So it wasn’t just a nightmare then," a tiny part of her had hoped that she would come here and her Cousin wouldn’t have a clue what she was talking about. "My father......" she couldn’t finish, couldn’t even blame the events that had taken place that night on him because she knew if he’d had any idea what might happen he never would have come home.

  "Yes, I didn’t think that you remembered," and he’d spared sharing the details.

  "I wish you’d told me," she’d spent her whole life assuming vampires had torn her family to pieces, no one had ever set her straight.

  "Would it have made any difference?"

  For a moment Jennifer just glared at him, trying to figure out if it would have made any. To know that her father had brought home the fucking zombie virus essentially resulting in her family all eating each other, maybe, probably, the information would have changed the reasons she was here. Would it have affected the fact that she hunted vampires, monsters too in their own right, definitely not. "We’ll never know I guess," was what she settled with in answer.

  "I thought if you’d forgotten, than maybe one of us could move past it, that you wouldn’t end up here." He made it sound so offal to know the truth, she wouldn’t know, her father had always told her and her sisters that monsters were real, she didn’t know how it felt to be in the dark and think you were safe. "But you ended up here anyway, I suppose I should have told you when Clive found you." But he said it very non-committal, she couldn’t say that she blamed him for not wanting to go there. "So this vampire is........." like her at the thought of her father he couldn’t finish the sentence.

  "So a fucking zombie," she said shaking her head and this once her Cousin didn’t tell her to mind her language.

  "When did
you remember your father?" Doug shifted in his seat facing away from her and she understood that he couldn’t look her in the eye, it was likely her father had eaten his after all.

  "Last night, the new Master vampire kept hinting at it, I’ve no idea how he knew, and then smack out of nowhere I dreamt about it in vivid detail, more vivid then I would have liked." Even now awake, she knew what she’d seen in her dream but her mind wouldn’t supply her with the images, didn’t want to face them. "I woke up," she felt tears gathering in her eyes and paused to push them back. "How did we get out of the closet," she asked because the vampire had pulled her out before she’d seen.

  "My father, before they......" he stopped, skipping the details, "he called your father’s co-worker, they showed up with a team, killed everything, pulled us out and burned the house to the ground." Without thinking about it he reached for her hand and she let him take it, no matter how disturbingly reminiscent of her dream it was.

  "Are they still alive, do you remember any of their names," Jennifer paused when he gave her a bewildered look. "If I could find just one of them I could get some answers," maybe she could ask Tom.

  "It was Tom," Doug informed like he’d plucked the name out of her head. "He was seventeen when your father brought him in, he was seventeen when he took over your father’s command." For a moment Jennifer was completely baffled, she knew that she’d known Tom forever but had never questioned how or where. Just another piece of information she could rack up with everything else that was trying to bury her, maybe he really was some kind of robot. She wanted to question it, wanted to believe that even as a kid Tom hadn’t been as he was now. But she had the vaguest memory of the end of that night, of the closet door opening and instead of her father being there to save her, a younger Tom carried her out in his arms.

  "This is crazy," she uttered to herself, but at least she finally had an age bracket for the Cyborg, he was twelve years older than her, it was more than she’d known about him five minutes ago.

  "Those things can’t be back," Doug finally broke what was becoming a tense silence between them, "I can’t handle the zombie apocalypse."

  Jennifer couldn’t help it she laughed, probably would have kept laughing if she hadn’t forced it back down. "Sorry," she apologized, "it’s just last night I said the same thing to Ethan."

  "Ethan?" For a moment Jennifer was back in a place that was normal for her, a place where any time she mentioned a male name that no one knew, they gave her this look like maybe all hope wasn’t lost for her after all. She’d thought that eventually they’d stop but maybe it wouldn’t happen until she was in her sixties and locked into a nursing home raving about monsters in the dark. Just a few months ago Malcolm had them all keeping their fingers crossed, but with that relationship falling through it looked like she was back to square one.

  "Master vampire, I’ll explain later, how was Manson last night?"

  "He pulled through the surgery but started a fever half way through the night, I told Trish she could call me if she needed anything." He shrugged indicating that Manson’s wife had not called to report any change. "Clive was the same," he informed without her having to ask.

  Jennifer nodded, glad at least that there was no bad news on that front, "is there anyone downstairs," she asked not that there was much of her team left. Doug simply shook his head in answer, so Malcolm hadn’t come in yet, neither had Marcia, she supposed it had been a long night for all of them. It would have been nice if she had someone on her team to collaborate with even if they couldn’t really help her in the field. When she turned her attention back to Doug she squeezed his hand before asking, "is something wrong?"

  "I pray to God not, but Jennifer, if the vampire is a zombie," her Cousin cringed and tightened his hand in hers to nearly the point of pain. "If he is then are Manson and Clive, are they infected?" Jennifer jumped out of her seat so fast that if it had been a chair, and not a pew bolted to the floor, it would have fallen over, instead she banged her legs almost painfully into the wood. Why hadn’t she thought of that, in the movies zombies bit, clawed and scratched and low and behold a zombie was born.

  "No, no, no, no," she couldn’t lose anyone else, not like that, "I’m going, I’m going to the hospital now." She pried her fingers from her Cousin’s grip, she could tell he was loathe to let her go, why hadn’t she listened to the voice in her head? "If Malcolm or Marcia come in you tell them to stay the hell away from the hospital, DOUG!" She yelled his name because it looked like he wasn’t listening to what she’d just said, "Did you hear what I said, tell them to stay away." If it was true, if Clive and Manson had walked away injured but dead anyway she couldn’t bear to lose what was left of the family she’d built with these people. "Have them wait for me here," she hoped like hell that it had to be a bite because these two men had taught her everything she knew, she had grown to love them. They had taught her to survive, had even taught her how to cope with surviving if they didn’t, but it was a concept she had stupidly never thought she’d have to face the reality of because she’d always felt sure she’d be the one that would die first.

  "Wait," Doug made a grab for her hand as she was making her way down out of the pew and into the hall. "Maybe you shouldn’t go, not alone, we can call Tom and wait for him," he sounded so hopeful she hated to disappoint him, but she had to go.

  "I’m sorry Doug, but I have to go, call Tom," she told him, "maybe he can meet me there." ‘If he bothered to answer his phone,’ she thought to herself. "I have to go, I’ll see you in a little while," or at least she hoped she would.

  "Jennifer......." but she didn’t wait for him to finish because she was well and truly terrified and if she let him beg her not to go she was freaked out enough that maybe he’d succeed.

  Chapter 17

  The first thing Jennifer realized as she neared the hospital was that she’d taken her own car, stupidly leaving her regular arsenal in her Cousin’s trunk. She was armed only with the Beretta, admittedly she had enough ammo in her trunk that the one gun would be enough but it was still a pain in her ass to have to consistently keep reloading. She prayed harder then she could ever remember, praying that nothing was going on, that her friends despite their zombie induced injuries were alive and would stay that way. But she knew as soon as she drove up to the street the hospital parking lot was on that all that praying had been for nothing. The building was completely cordoned off, even the parking area was barricaded, worse still was that she recognized the uniform standing by the blockade waving people off. Tom was already here, which meant what, he’d gotten her text message, heard her team had suffered injuries and instead of getting back to her had come here, why? She pulled up next to the closed off entrance and got out of her car without waiting for the uniform to speak, she recognized the uniform but not the man in it. "Ma’am, you’ll have to get back in your car, this building is under a quarantine."

  "I am getting into that building," she warned the man in front of her, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent Tom a text informing him that he could get the barricade-boy out of her way or she’d move him herself. "My name is Jennifer Ryan, in a minute Tom is going to tell you to get the hell out of my way. If he doesn’t," she pulled the Beretta out, "I guess we’ll see whose a faster shot." As he’d gone for his rifle the minute she’d pulled her Beretta she figured he had a fifty-fifty shot. But not only did his radio come to life within the second but a black SUV came to a tire screeching halt behind him in the same instant. "See," but he didn’t lower his rifle, probably thought that the calvary had arrived to help subdue her.

  "Olsen put the rifle down," good little soldier complied the minute Tom climbed out of the vehicle and barked the order at him. "Ryan, I wasn’t expecting you."

  "Well then you’re an idiot, I am going in that building Tom."

  "I don’t think that’s a good idea," he informed her, like he knew she was off kilter about zombies even if at the moment she wasn’t showing evidence of it.

&nb
sp; "Again, you are an idiot," she would worry about whether or not she could handle it when she was inside. "Now are you going to get out of my way, or am I moving you," she hadn’t lowered her 9mm and she knew that he couldn’t like having it aimed at him much.

  After what seemed like a decade of inner debate on his part he gave a curt nod, "let her through," he made his way back to his suspicious nondescript SUV before turning back to her, "meet me at the front."

  Jennifer nodded climbing into her car and getting ready to drive through the barricade if he’d been lying to her, but Olsen moved it and closed it again behind her as she drove past. She didn’t bother parking in the lot, she pulled up as close to the building as the inner barricade would allow and popped her trunk. She stuffed as many magazines into her pockets as she could fit, she was hoping she wouldn’t need them but she wasn’t stupid. If Tom was here and had gone to all these lengths to close this place off, then her friends were probably gone. She would cry about it later, first she was going to take care of this, and even then there was still Dimitri to deal with, she couldn’t afford to mourn until then. She slammed the trunk closed to find Tom waiting there for her, "oh goodie, my babysitter has arrived." She was in no mood for him, she had a good idea of why he hadn’t contacted her about this, because he knew how she’d react. She was all about saving lives, Tom’s team was all about containing a situation at any cost.

  "This is my operation now Ryan, you follow my rules," he didn’t have to clarify necessarily but it didn’t stop him, "this is strictly clean up and contain, do you understand, not search and rescue." She gave herself a minute to study him, confused by the knowledge that she’d known him since she was little. He looked like he was in his late twenties or early thirties, hadn’t changed at all in all the time she could remember knowing him. She’d only ever briefly seen him smile so she couldn’t really recall what that looked like much but he was handsome even when he was scowling, chiseled cheekbones and straight-nosed. She had never really paid any mind to his face, which was always in stark relief because he kept his hair shaved tight to his head. She knew he was blond when it was grown out a little, but shaved this close it simply looked brown, in truth she’d always paid closest attention to his ice blue eyes. They were always calculating, always cold, he was like a machine, hence his nick-name, not that anyone called him that to his face.