Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife)

by Robles, Joyce

  "Have you lost your mind," Tom all but hollered behind her, he’d been doing a lot of that this week.

  "No," she turned to him calmly, it was an odd switch to be the calm one, "given the few options I had working with the vampire seemed like the logical thing." He didn’t like her answer, he came charging down the carousel steps to seize hold of her arm.

  "I’m taking you home," he growled yanking her off the platform behind him and toward the end of the building opposite where Ethan and the others had entered.

  "I belong here," but she knew she could protest all she liked the cyborg was cutting her out of things again.

  "Clearly you don’t," he barked but didn’t look back at her, "do you have any idea what they might have done to you?"

  "Yes Tom I’m aware of what vampires do, but for your information we are officially under order of cease-fire from Ada herself just so we can solve this shit. I was as safe as can be, well except for when you tried to shoot me," she pointed out.

  "Are you seriously telling me you have no idea why it is you should not have been anywhere near them. If word got back to Ada about what you were capable of," his words died when her feet went dead beneath her like they were made of lead and dragged him to a halt. For a moment he just looked at her and apparently her expression told him the answer. "You don’t remember at all do you, your parents death, how I found you?"

  Jennifer shook her head, "I remembered their death, my father," Jennifer paused trying to push back the image of him digging his teeth into her mothers throat. "He brought something home, it killed everyone and my Uncle hid me and Doug in the closet. I remember hearing gunshots, I thought you saved us, I remembered seeing your face, but not the specifics, why what are you saying?"

  Tom gave a brief look around like he thought there might be microphones in the walls, although vampires technically didn’t need those with their super hearing and all. "Not here," he finally told her, "I’m taking you home, we can talk there."

  Chapter 26

  Tom had not stopped dragging her behind him like luggage, past his people who were cordoning off the building, out the door, it had even managed to feel like she was being dragged about when he shoved her in some random vehicle, in the back seat no less so she got the joy of feeling like a prisoner. Then when he reached her home, he towed her back out of the back seat, snatched her keys from her, and persisted the luggage treatment as he dragged her inside. Khan was there to greet them, he wasn’t overly fond of visitors so he growled at the sight of Tom and followed them into the house. She’d seen her dog do worse, he’d all but attacked Malcolm the few times she’d tried to bring him in, apparently Tom was unlikable but possessed a do not attack sign. He slammed her door shut behind him on his way in and before she could so much as say a word dragged her into her own livingroom and forced her to sit.

  Jennifer thought about saying something on multiple occasions while he paced in front of her, running his fingers through what little hair there was on his buzzed head. Finally when he looked like he had no idea what he was going to say or where to start she broke in, "what exactly happened that night that has you this worked up?" She was still trying to work out why he thought if the vampires knew she would suddenly be the best prize in the world.

  "You really don’t remember," was all he managed, still acting very not-Tom.

  "No, up until two nights ago I didn’t even remember that I’d seen a revenant before, repression is a beautiful thing." He didn’t laugh, but then that was pretty much business as usual for the cyborg, that was probably why she’d forgotten that younger version of him. He didn’t smile anymore like the kid she’d remembered back there, then again it probably had a lot to do with clearly she’d decided to repress everything from her parents death and before the event.

  "What do you remember," he asked instead of just saying what he knew.

  "I remember Dad having some kind of seizure or something, chaos ensued, my Uncle taking me and Doug upstairs." She didn’t say out loud that she remembered Doug’s hand in hers, the way he’d prayed in the dark, or the way she’d sat there convinced her father would somehow overcome evil, that he would save them. That she’d nearly gotten them killed when a shadow had stopped in front of the door and she’d called it to them. "One of those things found us, I remember it pounding on the door, trying to get to us," she couldn’t forget the sounds of Doug screaming behind her, "there was gunfire," and then her memory went blank. "I thought you’d gotten to us first, I remember you carrying me out," she couldn’t remember how Doug had followed, if someone had carried him or he’d walked.

  "Do you know how these things are created," Tom asked, again not filling in her blank. Jennifer had gotten the impression that Ada had something to do with it, though she had no idea how so she shook her head. She wasn’t surprised at all that Tom knew, there seemed to be very little he wasn’t clued in on. "Ada created the first one by forcing her power into a body, a truly dead human body, the goal is to give the thing life like her blood gives life, they call it necromancy. We know that the first time she experimented on a human but she couldn’t control it, she must have thought it would work better on a vampire of her lineage, something already under her command before it’s death."

  "Wait," Jennifer interrupted, "Dimitri is what fifteen years later, why didn’t she just do it then?"

  "She’s powerful but this particular act is clearly not within that power, the first time drained her and she was forced to wait until she was stronger." Tom divulged, "but you understand that this isn’t a super virus we’re dealing with, it’s her vile power that animates them."

  "So you’re saying it’s magic," Jennifer asked exasperated, she supposed that sounded easier to deal with at any rate.

  "Don’t under estimate it, these things could just as easily kill everything as a virus could, it’s power without a leash. It’s master might be able to create it, but she’s no control over it, she’s too weak." At this Tom finally did stop his pacing to look at her, "that’s why they can’t get hold of you."

  "Me," Jennifer repeated still confused, "I’m good with a shotgun Tom but I don’t think that means I’ll make the best vampire in the world." She did not inform him that Ada did want her all vamped out just so she could use her as a power play over Ethan, her apparently disobedient favorite.

  "I didn’t stop your father that night, I got to the bedroom and I froze up when I saw him." This was something that she could not believe she was hearing.

  "You froze," she asked incredulously, the Cyborg did not freeze, not even when he was killing children.

  "Yes," he might have needed to say more but the memory came back at her like a punch in the stomach. She’d called out for her father and that thing had started slamming itself into the door.

  She rocked back, fear gripping her so tight she tumbled both herself and Doug over like bowling pins. The door was locked but the wood wasn’t so strong, every impact began to cave the frame around it in a little more. They wouldn’t have long, but there was gunfire, Jennifer could have joined her cousin who was still praying. But all she could do was wait, her whole world was gone and no amount of praying would bring it back. But then just like someone had been listening to her cousin after all the door fell silent. She heard a familiar voice and knew that it was Tom. A shot went off, it pierced the door and sent painful splinters of wood into the closet, she ducked back but couldn’t make herself stay. She went to the door, ignoring her cousin who lay shaking at her feet, he made no move to stop her when she grabbed the handle and twisted.

  The lock popped open and the door swung out with barely a push, her relief at finding Tom there was short lived. He was on his back, a bloodied unrecognizable version of her father throttling him, trying to lunge it’s head forward and dig it’s teeth in. Tom had a hold of his throat but had to keep readjusting his hold because there was so much blood his fingers were slipping. There was no way he could reach for a weapon, not when it took both hands just to keep those
snapping jaws back. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, she loved her father, he was supposed to be a hero, he was supposed to save them. But he was trying to kill Tom, the boy he’d brought home for almost every dinner since she could remember, every birthday, in a sense trying to kill the son he’d taken in, a brother to his daughters. Watching him savagely trying to remove chunks from that boy with his teeth and bare hands had tears of sadness quickly becoming tears of rage.

  He was no hero, he was a monster, and with that realization something in her snapped, it was a part of her she didn’t know. But she remembered feeling as though a force had come bursting out of every inch of her, vaguely recalled seeing it rip across the room like a wind knocking both the remains of her father and anything else like him over.

  Jennifer came back to reality with a jolt, she shook her head, she was just a Hunter, nothing else. "I couldn’t have done anything, it couldn’t have been me," she was not a monster, she refused to be one.

  "I was there," Tom tried to course correct her denial, "whatever you did, whatever came out of you then put them down for good, not one of them got back up."

  "But the house, it burned down," there would be no reason to do that if she’d solved the problem.

  "We didn’t know as much then, even now we couldn’t afford to take the chance of leaving a body behind." Tom actually sat down on the couch beside her, Khan who’d immediately planted himself at her feet as soon as she’d sat growled at him. "I don’t know what you did or how you did it but I never told anyone what I saw and if your cousin saw it he never said. With what you’re capable of if they got their hands on you, if they turned you, I don’t know what you’d be." That was funny because at this very moment she wasn’t sure what she was either.

  "What am I now," that he’d protected her little secret was yet another surprise, he was all about killing the monsters.

  "You’re a Hunter," she looked to him then, "your father took me in, treated me like family. You are my family and I promised him I would protect that." His eyes wandered to his feet, another first for Tom, "I failed him but no matter what is inside you you’re still just a human being, still family, I do know that."

  "You’re a Hunter Tom you can’t believe that," Jennifer nearly jumped out of her seat, the question of whether or not she was human already driving her crazy.

  "I made sure Jennifer, you’re as human as anyone else," but she knew at this point he was as biased as any family member could be. "You’re not the last I’ve seen, vampires hunt people who display power when they find them then turn them because whatever they have as a simple mortal gets ten times stronger once they’re turned."

  "I want to believe you Tom I do," but she didn’t think he had a clear head when it came to her. Which explained why when she thought back on all the shouting he’d been doing lately it made perfect sense.

  "I went and found a kid they called a spoon bender, moved things with his mind, a girl who could start a fire just thinking about it, it’s not as uncommon as you’d think and they were all just people, no vampires." He was going out of his way to convince her, it looked like he’d gone out of his way to convince himself. That was all very interesting and Stephen King she might add, but what the hell had she done back there, how did you kill a revenant by looking at it, and not just her father, Tom had so much as said that what she’d done had taken them all down.

  "But what does that make them, what does that make me?"

  "Human," Tom answered, "I swear that you’re still only human," but he couldn’t believe that not really or he wouldn’t have kept it a secret for so long.

  "How did I do it, what did I do?" She had no answer to that so she looked to him.

  "I don’t know."

  Chapter 27

  Tom had left her with a whole lot of crap to digest, her cell phone, and a command that she try and get some sleep. She was certain that he’d intended to add more orders, like say don’t go near the living-dead people again, but he thought better of it, at least for the moment. Or maybe he thought her new found status as semi-freak would keep her from going there to avoid becoming a super freak. She was already on their radar, but she was fairly certain that disappearing wouldn’t make her less of a target.

  She was lying in bed trying to force herself to sleep because she fully intended to do her job again tonight but she couldn’t even manage to get her eyes closed. That little girl she’d remembered, doing unnatural things, had her brain doing somersaults trying to associate that with her. She had passed out once it was done, and now that she could remember what she’d done her brain wouldn’t rest. The offal question of ‘what am I,’ wouldn’t cease tormenting her. It didn’t seem likely that anyone who found out would think of her as human, they’d probably think she was a necropheliac, or whatever Tom had said Ada was into.

  As soon as she’d crawled into bed Khan had assumed his position next to her, but even his warmth lacked its regular comfort. She was the one person that the giant dog had never growled at, he’d simply taken up a position in her life that she’d never questioned, now she had to wonder if he wasn’t somehow drawn to her semi-freak status. She hadn’t a clue about anything that was around her anymore, she rolled over and came face to face with the pup in question. He didn’t look like he was different from any other dog, well outside of size and strange breeding choice. Though she supposed that if she was going to assume her freak power was only over the very disgusting choice of revenants then she didn’t have to worry about her dog. She gave the pup a pat on the head and sat up, she wasn’t sure how long she’d waited trying to force herself to sleep because she knew she needed it, but it wouldn’t come. So she got up, stripped out of her pajamas and got dressed, she couldn’t recall the last time she’d eaten so she made her way into the kitchen. Replaced Khans food and water before grabbing a bowl out of a cabinet for herself. She retrieved milk from the fridge surprised to find that it was still good, and poured herself a bowl of cereal. She was a few spoonfuls into the bowl when her cell phone started ringing. She made a habit of answering given the only people with her number circulated around work.

  It had been a day since she’d seen or heard from either Malcolm or Marcia so she dropped the spoon and retrieved the phone from her pocket. "Ryan here," she could have looked at the screen first but she found she was less likely to get the phone before it went to voice-mail if she did. In answer to her greeting she heard Marcia rambling and terrified on the other end of the line, every jumbled set of words the woman emitted was followed by the sound of something heavy slamming into metal. "Marcia, calm down, I need you to tell me what’s going on and exactly where you are." For a moment there was nothing but more of the same terrified discombobulated talking. "Marcia," she barked into the phone, "I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on."

  "I’m sorry, I’m sorry," Marcia all but sobbed over the line and it took some will not to bark at the woman impatiently to spit it out. She was clearly in some trouble so they didn’t have the time for her to be having a melt down.

  "Are you with the vampires?" It was the first thing she could think to ask given the girls clear infatuation with them, then again it was daylight and they were probably dead to the world.

  "No," she went on like that for a bit whimpering and crying while the banging got louder.

  "Marcia, tell me what’s going on or I can’t help you," and she’d be damned if she would lose one more of her team to this.

  "Malcolm and I, Douglas told us you’d gone off with someone he’d never seen before to hunt these things, even after what happened to Manson and Clive." Great so the medium was going to start with filler despite the fact that her life was in danger.

  "Where are you," she demanded outright.

  "We thought if we went hunting them on our own you’d see that we could help you." Marcia sobbed over the line, clearly she was regretting that action now. They had gone looking for the revenants themselves and apparently found some, panic officially settl
ed as the medium sobbingly kept apologizing.

  "Marcia," Jennifer tried again, desperate for the woman to get her shit together, "I don’t care that you took off without me, I don’t care why you did it, just tell me where you are." She dragged each word out hoping that it would get through the cloud of panic that was prompting Marcia’s inability to communicate the one thing she needed. Without a location she was powerless to help them, just like she’d been powerless to stop what had happened to Clive and Manson.

  "Malcolm saw one go into the sewers at the apartment complex where Manson was injured, we followed the sewer-line for maybe eight or nine miles south from there." Jennifer tried to calculate that distance in her head, tried to figure in the direction and immediately knew where they were.

  "Marcia I need you to hang tight, do you hear me, is Malcolm there with you," she waited for Marcia to confirm that they’d both holed down in an area with a metal hinged door, which Malcolm was currently using his weight to help hold closed. "Listen to me," Jennifer told her, "I need you to hang the phone up, I’m on my way, the two of you need to remain absolutely quiet, these things are drawn to sound." She waited for Marcia to confirm but there was just more hysterical crying from the other end. "You want to prove to me you can work in the field," she demanded from the other woman, "then prove it Marcia, suck it up, shut the fuck up and wait for me to reach you." She was aware that she’d just exploded and that she’d probably just made a hysterical ninny worse so she was kind of surprised when she heard some sniffling over the banging.

  "My GPS will be on," Marcia said and then the line went dead, hopefully not because the door had broken in and the last of her team was being eaten alive.

  A very large part of her wanted to spend time to freak out, the rest of her knew she couldn’t unless she wanted them to die. Grabbing the cereal bowl she placed it on the ground next to Khan’s leaving it for him to finish. She had no choice but to go into the basement and retrieve more ammunition, she’d burned through more then she usually would in a few days. She stuffed the cell phone back in her pocket and quickly hooked herself back into the harness for the Beretta and slung the Remington back over her shoulder. When she finished pushing her feet into a pair of running shoes she charged to the basement door, closing it behind her when Khan tried to follow. She still had a potentially lethal bag of cloths lying at the top of the stairs that she had no time to deal with. Practically jumping the stairs she ran to the storage locker that held her weapons. She punched in the code on the door, pushed it open and ignoring the veritable arsenal she had stored there she grabbed loaded clips for the Beretta, and restocked the belt where the ammo for the Remington was held. Taking note of the empty holster on her left hip she grabbed another Beretta, checked to see that it already possessed a loaded clip of it’s own and stuffed it in the hip holster on the opposite side of the single one she still had. Tom had given her back her cell phone but he hadn’t given her back the Beretta he’d taken. On a whim she grabbed a P-32, checked to ascertain it was loaded and strapped it to her ankle. She didn’t take time to grab anything else although she thought it was likely she’d miss having Manson at her back with his light anti-tank hardware. She didn’t bother to cover any of the weaponry that she was wearing, outside of slamming the storage area for her arsenal closed she paused for nothing.