The sight she was confronted with was Tom, without a scratch on him as far as she could tell, some of his people behind him with their rifles raised facing off with the six vampires. "Stop," she thought she’d said loud enough to be heard but nothing happened, she had no idea why they were wasting time with the vampires but she wasn’t going to sit by while this idiocy went down. Staggering to her feet Jennifer practically landed on her face making her way off the carousel platform and jumped between the two groups. "What are you doing?" She was going to point out that they had other things to be shooting so they shouldn’t be squandering bullets but a look behind Tom’s lines showed the floor littered with corpses. Her brain wandered off while she pondered how long she must have been out of it for that to have happened. "How long," she interrupted whatever Tom had been saying, she leaned out to see further past the people in front of her. Not one of the bodies on the floor was moving, "how long was I unconscious?" It looked as though it must have been a good bit of time if they’d wrapped everything up while she was out. Tom just glared at her like she aught to shut her mouth and get out of the way.
"A minute, maybe two," she glanced behind her to Ethan, remembering his bite and wishing she could go back to check him but she was currently a human shield. His words sank in after a minute and she realized that there was probably another reason that Tom had plans for killing the vampires. She’d thought she’d seen Tom taken down by that mass of revenants and then Ethan, inwardly she cringed at the memory of that bite. It had been too much, she’d known since she’d laid eyes on the vampire that something wasn’t right where he was concerned. She’d seen him that first time and something in her had shifted, not in a way that she could say was good, but then she was the stubborn type, she didn’t want to feel anything for a monster. But she knew what he was now and whatever it was between the two of them hadn’t gone away, she really did think of him as her vampire and that was bad. He’d been bitten and she’d seen red, and clearly she’d done whatever she had as a child and the vampire had seen it.
"Let them go," Jennifer put her focus back on Tom, she was aware this was his way of trying to protect her. He must be at least partially certain that the vampire knew she’d had something to do with the zombies falling over without blunt force trauma for an excuse.
"Can’t do that," was all the Cyborg growled back.
"I’d have been killed if not for him, we’d be dead now probably a hundred times over. One of their people died to see this finished, you will let them go Tom." She didn’t say that he’d have to kill her to do anything otherwise but she could tell that he caught her meaning because he looked like he was about to fly into a rage. Clearly this whole debacle was too much even for the Cyborg because he was usually so calm.
"You don’t know what you’re doing," he warned her.
Jennifer glanced over her shoulder to the vampires there, "yes I do." This group was not anything she ever would have expected finding in the midst of monsters, she wouldn’t be the one to have them executed. "Go," she told them, but instead of blurring off like she knew they could Ethan made to take a step toward her. "Just go," she told him loud enough for everyone to hear, but willed him to understand she would find him later. There was a pause, like he was debating whether he could get away with snatching her on his way out but finally he nodded and like it was the only signal needed him and his people were gone in the blink of an eye. Thank god, it was all she could think as the fight drained out of her and she let herself slip to a seated position on the floor.
"Jenny," Tom was next to her with Brook right behind him, their concern was touching. Tom knelt, that concern and a good deal of anger permeating off him, "they know what you are."
Jennifer looked to him confused, was he implying she was something other then human, that was irritating. "Ethan knows," she corrected him, "that’s one," and he wasn’t going to go around sharing that secret she was pretty certain. She wanted to correct him also that he’d seen what she’d done not what she was but didn’t feel like going into that with quite such a large crowd.
"They’ll have to be dealt with," was of course his only thought.
"No Tom," she shook her head, but she had no real reason, at least not one she could share with him as to why he couldn’t do that. Given that answer would be because she didn’t want him hurting her vampire, who might already be dead anyway, she simply shook her head.
"It’s not your call," she understood why he was so protective, there had been a time, very long ago, when they’d been family. He’d made promises to her father and it was likely if he hadn’t he’d still be overbearingly protective.
When he made to get up after that statement she grabbed unto his uniform collar to stop him, "you will have to go through me to get to them." She was not joking, until that group of vampires did something that earned them an execution she wouldn’t see one of them dead.
"Careful," Tom warned her in equal measure, he clearly thought she was taking the wrong side, she didn’t care. In the end he pulled her to her feet without another word and handed her off to Brook with an order to have her taken back to his offal decontamination team. She managed to convince Brook to hold onto her weapons for her until she could get them back which she could only hope was soon.
"What’s going to happen here," Jennifer inquired as Brook led her to the exit and the laborious decontaminating process.
"The Lieutenant will probably have it burned down," or blown up she thought, Tom wouldn’t leave any evidence behind. "Some of the guys are saying this wasn’t viral, rumors are going the vampires used hoodoo to make this happen." She knew the point he was going to make before he did, "why’d you let them go?"
"Because they didn’t do this," they’d gone out of their way to see it stopped. "Tom knows where to go looking for who started this and if he doesn’t you can tell him I told you straight out it was that master-vampire-bitch Adelaide." Brook actually looked surprised, maybe Tom didn’t share all his need to know information, in this case she was thinking the more people who knew the better.
"So no virus," Brook inquired.
She shook her head, she still wasn’t sure what it was, it showed up in the blood stream or Tom wouldn’t have had a hundred vials of hers taken after the hospital incident, but then vampire blood didn’t look human either under a microscope, she knew that much. Ada had used power to bring back the dead without giving a drop of her blood, and instead of a vampire what she’d raised was a zombie. Jennifer didn’t understand how vampires worked, didn’t know what kept them alive after death, maybe it was evolution, maybe they were sent from hell. "I don’t know what it was," she finally told him, how could she know. She’d like to believe that the revenants were viral, it had spread like it, but then again she didn’t think anyone could put a virus down with a thought either. They didn’t exchange another word until he had her at the exit and was getting ready to hand her off to get hosed down with whatever anti-zombie crap they had in mind, and she was handing over her weapons which she’d retrieved before leaving. "I want these back," she told him as she handed over the hip holster with both Beretta and knife and then the Remington.
"Yes Sir," he nodded with a tired smile.
"You can call me Jennifer," she told him but she was pretty certain she was going to be hearing more Sir’s from him in the future.
Chapter 32
After yet another exhausting experience of getting her clothing taken from her, Tom was at least good enough to have her driven home. Since she felt like every inch of her was covered in bruises and ready to fall over there was very little in her that was willing to protest having someone else drive her. She was simply grateful Tom had the foresight to have someone following with her car so she wouldn’t have to go get it. By the time she actually was dumped off at her place she was completely wiped out but she forced herself to dig through the fridge and pulled out something edible. She had become aware that she’d eaten almost nothing since this had started, even now she had lit
tle appetite but if she had any hope of getting to Ethan tonight she was going to need something to give her a boost and keep her from falling over.
As if sensing she wasn’t going to be sticking around Kahn didn’t follow his usual pattern of trailing her around the house, he simply waited by the door. It probably wasn’t hard for him to tell she wasn’t staying with as much nervous energy as she was giving off, with good reason, it was likely there wasn’t much time. The first time she’d encountered Dimitri he had still been a sadistic vampire, by the next night he was something else, if Ethan was infected she figured she didn’t have long to see him while he was still himself. After stuffing an acceptable amount of food down her throat she shambled into her bedroom to change out of the medical gown she’d found herself in for the second time in as many days. Since the vampire had pretty much witnessed her at her worst to begin with she didn’t worry over much about the clothing she climbed into. There were very few things she paid an over abundance of attention to, weapons, training, the logistics of a fight, but clothing had never really qualified unless it involved how it could conceal her gun. Since her wardrobe consisted of jeans, tees, and sneakers it wasn’t as if she had a wide range to choose from anyway so she ended up in a grey shirt with black jeans then slipped on a pair of boots. She stopped on her way to the basement to grab something to tie her hair back with, and very quickly ran her fingers through the mess before tying it up on her way down the basement stairs. Feeling like she had little time she paused to pull her phone, which Tom hadn’t confiscated this time, and sent the vampire a text inquiring his location. Then she went about grabbing a shoulder holster, shoving yet another 9mm into it, grabbing a k-bar and stuffing it down a slit in her boot, there specifically for knives and let that be the end of it. She could take more weapons, probably should even since the revenants were officially gone and that should mean that their truce was over. But other then taking an extra magazine she closed and locked the weapons locker and made her way back upstairs.
By the time she reached the top of the flight her ribs felt like they were going to collapse into her lungs, she should probably have stopped to wrap them, or go to a doctor. She paused by a hall closet to catch her breath and grab a coat to hide the gun holster at which point her phone rang, she hastily answered, "Ryan here," out of habit.
"I got the info you wanted on your vampires," Zip’s voice came over the line and a spike of disappointment shot through her before her tired brain processed his words.
"I only have time for a quick run down, so give me what you thinks important on Gabriel now and I’ll contact you later for the rest." She held her breath while she listened, waiting for Zip to tell her all of Ethan’s past horrific exploits but if he had any the kid glazed over them. He covered very quickly Gabriel Ethan Allen Rouquette, he was born in 1758 in the America’s, he and his family by marriage had presumably died in a fire at which point he’d turned up and gotten himself excommunicated from the catholic church as a demon. He’d basically disappeared after that was all Zip had to say to that effect, then reminded her he had backgrounds on the others as well. "Thanks Zip, I’ll call you back for the rest," at which point as usual he hung up.
"Son of a bitch," she growled, putting two and two together hadn’t been overly difficult once Zip had told her Ethan’s full name. Only half of her had been listening by the time Zip had thought to mention the death of Ethan’s family in a fire, the minute he’d said it she’d recalled that dream she’d been dragged into in his head to witness. She’d assumed that it was a fire he’d set, but it very well could have been a memory of how he’d watched his family burn. He could have said that, she thought irritably but stowed the emotional crap, her only concern at the moment was whether or not a vampire of two-hundred and fifty years and some change was going to survive a revenant bite. She could be pissed about his invasion of her head later, she would try to placate herself with the knowledge that he’d done it to help her. She checked her phone quickly to see if she’d gotten any response from Ethan but her phone remained silent outside of the one call.
Jennifer tried to mentally prepare herself for the possibility that pissed or not she might be going in search of Ethan just to find she’d be forced to kill him. That idea took the wind from her sails, at least where her anger with his mind reading crap was concerned. She’d already intended to head to the club anyway, she checked the time, if she left now she could probably get there and have forty minutes to spare before the sun was up.
Grabbing her keys she went to the front door and gave Kahn’s head a quick pat, "I’ll be back." Although she could not guarantee that this was the truth she closed and locked the front door behind herself and made her way to her car which Tom’s people had left parked in the street. She was just glad to find it here at all, she had expected the possibility that Tom would do everything in his power to keep her at home. But apparently he was beginning to catch onto the fact that he could try to stop her, but one way or another she finished what she started.
✦✦✦✦✦
Unlike the previous occasion that she’d driven and had Marcia with her Jennifer pulled directly into the parking lot of the club. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting to find but to see it was quiet like nothing was out of place wasn’t it. She couldn’t say why she’d been expecting some kind of anarchy, she simply had, but the place was quiet. For reasons she couldn’t explain she found herself in such a rush to get out of the car and into the building that she almost fell out of the vehicle in her haste. Slamming the car door she shoved the keys in her pocket and pulled the one that Ethan had given her from around her neck before she raced around to the back end of the building. There was nothing about the silence of the surroundings that should have bothered her, this place was usually dead on week nights. Maybe it was because she had expected the vampire to be waiting for her and he wasn’t, he hadn’t even called. Given the circumstances she didn’t think it was too much to ask for, then again a vampires sense of time wasn’t exactly on the same level as a normal persons. She’d just made her way over to the back and was looking for that damned invisible door when it slid open all on its own. She had the 9mm in hand before she could blink but her aim just as quickly faltered to the floor when she was confronted by Ethan’s second. Her mind tried to pull up his name so she wouldn’t end up giving him a nickname to replace it, at which point his real name would be forgotten, possibly for good. Before she remembered it he stepped forward and motioned the rest of the team out behind him. "Go," he ordered and without a glance in her direction at least one of the vampires took off.
"What’s going on," Jennifer demanded but paused when the remaining twin, who she quickly labeled Meredith, so she didn’t go around calling him the remaining twin, stepped into her path. Part of her didn’t know what to expect so when he got to his knee in front of her she wasn’t sure if she should stay still and hope for the best or shoot him before he could do anything.
"I’m in your debt hunter," she was about to stutter out that she hadn’t done anything to deserve any debts when he explained curtly. "You helped in the rescue of my brother, and even after his death was inevitable you objected his sacrifice." Before she could twitch he was back on his feet, her normal disposition would have been to tell him to take his debt and shove it. But he may have had the most miserable expression on his face she’d ever seen, twins were said to be close and he’d had his brother with him for who knew how long. He was alone now, "I’m yours to call on if ever you have need of me." She nodded at him unsure what she should say because it wasn’t like he had a cell phone, if she needed him she’d have no clue how to find him. As soon as he’d said his peace though he was gone, which Jennifer had to admit she was more then a little grateful for.
Once that was done though she looked to the other vampires and found only three, Jim, Lydia, and the second whose name she was still working on. "Where’s Ethan, and why are you leaving?"
Jim made to say something but Ethan’s secon
d put a hand up to stop him, "the two of you go now. You know the plan," the Cowboy looked to be debating with himself on whether he was going to listen.
In the end he walked up and offered her his hand, when she just stared at him and his offered appendage he smiled. "Don’t be like that, it’s goodbye for a little while, the least we could do is shake. If you prefer I could get down on a knee and pledge my devotion like Scotty did."
"Shut up," Jennifer caved in and gave him her hand which he shook.
"Sorry we can’t stick around an’ all," he still had hold of her hand when Lydia whizzed up next to them. "Come on L," he dropped her hand and grabbed onto the weeping vampire next to him.
"Why are you crying, what’s wrong?"
"I’m so sorry about Ethan," Lydia wailed before Jim could tow her off.
Jennifer immediately turned back to the Second in command, "where is he?"
"Gone," for a hopeful minute she thought he meant that Ethan had run off, though she should hardly have been hopeful of that as it might mean he’d turn somewhere someone couldn’t stop him if he did. But from the look on the seconds face it was clear that was not what he’d meant at all, she never would have believed Ethan had run off without them anyway. "It is no longer safe for any of us here," he told her before holding up the same sword Ethan had let her take hold of not but a few hours ago. "He would have wanted you to have it," was all the vampire in front of her supplied before depositing it into her hands.
Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) Page 34