Grave New Day

by Lina Gardiner

  A caring hand touched her shoulder. “Jess? What can I do to help?”

  “Believe me when I tell you that you were staked earlier. That you had a huge hole in your chest that had to be stitched up by Zeke.”

  “Who?”

  “Never mind. Promise me that no matter what I tell you, you’ll trust me. I seem to be the only person virtually unaffected by that man’s mesmerist abilities.” Good God, if that was true, how had Britt healed so fast

  His hand slipped from her shoulder to her neck. He cupped the back of her head in his large hand and lowered his head to hers. His warm lips tantalized hers as he slowly caressed her mouth with his. Impossible heat struck her, and she had the instant urge to be anywhere but here at this moment. To be alone with him once again would be paradise. She sighed and reluctantly pushed him away. “Later,” she said, hoping it sounded more like an invitation than an evasion.

  She marched down the hallway toward the elevator and held the doors open for Britt.

  “I don’t get it. Why the shirt destruction, then? Lady, you’re very confusing today.”

  “I have the feeling you’re just beginning to find out how confusing things are going to get.”

  As they rode up in the elevator, Britt decided he didn’t understand his beautiful vampire today. She’d been talking like she was still under the influence of Vaslov’s Mayan paste. On the other hand, he had a niggling feeling that everything she’d said was true. That somewhere in the back of his mind, the truth was reawakening.

  Was the paste the root of all their problems right now? If so, how? They’d burned it in the police destruction oven. Hadn’t they? Funny that his memory of how they wrapped up that case was a little fuzzy.

  No sooner had the thought struck him when something unusual buzzed through him. Felt like a surge of energy, a tingle of electricity. He squeezed his hand and looked at his fist. Was it his imagination or was his hand larger than it used to be? That would be impossible.

  On the way to James’s place, Jess drove like a maniac, as usual. He squeezed the dashboard most of the way. Probably left his finger indentations in the leather. He didn’t complain, though, since she had a look on her face that meant business and he didn’t want to distract her. He had the feeling she was onto something important.

  Jess left rubber on the road when they screeched to a stop outside James’s apartment. Yeah, she meant business. It didn’t surprise him when he had to jump out of the vehicle and chase her to the front door.

  His stomach tightened at the sight of the main door open and hanging partially off the hinges. What had Jess said about James being in trouble? How had she known?

  Didn’t matter. He went into cop mode, his attention on full alert as he entered the home of his newly married friends. He’d been here a couple of times before. They always had the lights on, and Terry often had cookies in the oven. Fresh, warm cookies were a temptation he couldn’t ignore.

  Today, it was dark and silent and there were no tempting aromas. In fact, there was an odor of something else inside. Something dark and disturbing. He shook his head. Was he catching Jess’s apprehension?

  Had Jess noticed the same thing? But of course she had. She had gone ahead of him, as usual, since she moved extraordinarily fast. In fact, she was on the second level checking out the bedrooms.

  He heard her curse above him.

  “Jess, everything okay?”

  “Don’t come up here, Britt.”

  Those words drew him instantly to the base of the stairs. “Why the hell not? What’s going on?” Dread pooled in his gut. Had she found the family?

  Jess didn’t answer him again. He thought he heard a muffled sound, though. In response he drew his pistol, loaded with blessed bullets, and held his stake in the other hand. For some odd reason Sampson had retrieved Britt’s weapon from forensic lockup just before he and Jess had left the lab. Neither man seemed to understand how it had gotten there. Maybe Jess had been right. There were strange things going on, and she knew more about it than they did.

  The fine hairs stood on the back of his neck. It wasn’t his imagination now. He could actually sense the presence of vampires. In fact, if he drew in a deep enough breath, he could smell them. That sweet, sickly scent of near-decay had never seemed quite so overpowering to him until now.

  Of course, Jess didn’t have that scent. She was blessed, her soul partially saved. Indeed, she smelled like heaven to him.

  He looked up the stairs. No doubt at all now. Evil permeated the house, drifted down to him as surely as if long fingers of acrid smoke wafted down and curled into his nostrils.

  He tore up the stairs two at a time. What he saw at the top floor stopped him dead in his tracks. More vampires—three of them. Each one armed. One held a stake over Jess’s heart. One circled her neck with a thin, silver-wire garrote. Decapitation finished vampires forever. Not a weapon the Black Ops team had ever used, but he could see the benefits of its use on a vampire. He had to force himself not to panic. He had to keep his calm in order to save Jess from a horrible death.

  Vampires in New York had never been technically inclined. That helped the police force keep them under control. New tools and deadly looking silver stakes that were finely crafted could make things a whole lot more dangerous for the men and women on the Black Ops team.

  “You’d better let her go,” Britt said, his voice low in his throat, his eyes glued to the weapons aimed at Jess, “or I’ll make you sorry you ever messed with her.”

  Big vampire on the right, with his hair in a ponytail and a clipped goatee, laughed. “How do you propose to do that?” he said in a thick accent.

  More old Italian vampires?

  She’d transitioned to her vampire self as well. Her eyes were black and her fangs obvious. He knew she’d changed because she’d need all her strength against these three, but he doubted even all her strength would be enough. She couldn’t fight three of them. With him here, the odds were much better. He tamped down the rising terror in his core, the fear that threatened to swamp him, and he smiled at the trio of bloodsuckers, though his gaze kept returning to Jess’s chest.

  The stake pressed into her cleavage caused a thin line of blood to trickle down between her breasts. His gaze took it all in. More than he needed to see to rip the offending vampire bastard limb from limb.

  “I’ll only warn you once. Get your goddamned meat hooks off Jess if you want to be able to go back to Italy.”

  The vampires laughed and the silver stake pressed deeper into her skin, its sharp tip slicing her flesh open wider. She didn’t make a noise. Didn’t give the bastards the satisfaction. Britt couldn’t be prouder of her—or more scared.

  Mouth pursed, he knew she damned well would die before giving them the satisfaction of making her cry out.

  Decision time. If he attacked one, the other two would take her out. The garrote worried him more than the stake aimed at her heart. The entire situation seemed untenable. The only way he could save her might be to attempt hostage negotiation. Not something the department recommended with vampires.

  He focused on the vamp wielding the garrote. “Look, can we talk about this? After all she’s never given your … group any trouble. We only hunt vampires in New York.”

  The word “we” brought serious dead vibes from the monsters. They obviously didn’t like the reminder that there was a group of police in the city who made it their jobs to kill vampires. Even distracted one of them enough that he let his stake drop to his side. That’s when Britt knew he had a method to divert them from their primary quarry.

  “Yeah, you know Jess, but you don’t know me. I’m her second in command, Lieutenant John Brittain. Between Jess and I, we’ve taken out a shitload of you vermin in the past few months.”

  “Arrogant bastard, isn’t he?” the vampire holding the garrote said to another.

  Jess didn’t move. Her black irises were pinned on Britt. With a half-smile she forced a chuckle. That’d really drive them nut
s.

  “You vamps came all the way over here to North America just to die? Hell, you could have stayed home and lived another century or two. What’s so appealing about our gal here that makes it worthwhile for you to do something so damned stupid?”

  Jess had to give Britt credit. He’d already distracted her captors more than she’d thought possible. She had to help him kick their asses, but being surrounded by old vampires made her blood sing. Their presence initiated a call to a code that had been followed by vampires for millennia. Even two old ones together could create a source of power that was almost impossible for a younger vampire to ignore. She had to fight it. If she didn’t, both she and Britt were dead.

  “Let’s show him how arrogant he is, boys.” The vampire with the garrote was stupid enough to let the wire drop from Jess’s neck and lunge for Britt.

  Jess watched Britt push his shoulders back, waiting for the attack.

  At that moment, Jess chose to show them what she could do. She spun around and kicked out with her toe spike. The vampire she impaled exploded so violently everyone in the room was knocked to their knees. Thick ash flew around in a manic swirl, and dropped to the floor as if it had suddenly discovered gravity.

  The blast rocked the room. A vampire would have to be very old in order to have created an explosion like that.

  Cursing violently, the vampire with the ponytail dove at her, while out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Britt had slammed the other vampire sideways, sending him crashing into a wall.

  Her attacker grabbed her by the neck and flung her high enough that her head jammed through the ceiling. She heard a sickening crack in her neck. Her head flopped to the side when the vampire’s thick nails yanked her down again. His claws had shredded her favorite leather suit and were now digging painfully into the soft flesh of her stomach.

  She’d let her guard down, and now it was her turn to die.

  While the monster growled low in his diaphragm, the reverberations sent uncontrollable shivers of ecstasy through her. Even in pain, the strength of an old one could inundate the strongest North American vampire. A couple more seconds and he’d probably rip her to shreds.

  She cried out. Not because of the pain. Not because she was going to die. Because she’d failed Britt. She’d failed Regent. Not to mention that she’d let James, Terry and the baby down, too. A heavy burden to carry as one crossed the dark veil into death.

  In Jess’s clouded, pain-filled last few minutes, she heard Britt shout.

  Her heart broke into a million pieces. Was he also dying?

  Now, unable to get the upper hand with her attacker, she dredged up every bit of determination that she could, but it wasn’t enough. Caught like a dying mouse in a wicked cat’s claws, she was finished.

  “Got any last words, hunter?” the vampire asked. He dropped to one knee beside her, one hand tightly wrapped around her crooked neck. His other hand held a shiny silver stake aimed over her heart.

  Suddenly someone grabbed her under the arms from behind and picked her up, much to the obvious surprise of the vampire who’d planned to kill her. Before she could see who’d hoisted her off the floor, she was tossed out the window.

  Shattering shards of glass cut her flesh. Her neck was still crooked sideways but had started to heal. Instinctively, she rolled with the drop and landed on her toes. Unsure how she’d managed to react before she smashed into the pavement, she took advantage of her good fortune and made for the house again. Britt was alone inside with two vampires.

  But who’d thrown her to safety? What had just happened?

  She cricked her neck sideways and even though it still hurt, her bones were knitting back together again. Hardly missing a beat, she dove for the front door. Britt needed help.

  Before she could crank the front door open all the way, a blast of air and light stronger than the sun drove her ten feet backwards, sent her tumbling like a fall leaf in a heavy wind. Heat assaulted her in flesh-searing waves.

  Even with her ability to withstand sunlight her flesh disintegrated. No vampire could endure light that strong. Not even her. She screamed and fell to her knees. Smoke rose from her, clouded her vision. Burned her nostrils. When the air cleared she was afraid to assess the damage.

  She looked down at her body, which looked as if she’d been through a nuclear blast. Upon closer examination she realized she’d been luckier than she’d first thought. Only the top few layers of her dermis had been cooked. She’d survive.

  But what the hell could cause that kind of destructive power? The Italians? Had they come up with some horrific new weapon? Suddenly, her heart clogged in her throat. Britt was still inside the house!

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter Fourteen

  With hunks of flesh hanging wherever her skin had been exposed to the brilliant light, she yanked the door open again. If the blast had caused this much damage from outside the building, what had happened to those inside?

  She made it to the landing in seconds and bounded up the stairs. Heart pounding. Afraid to look.

  To see what had happened to Britt.

  Britt stood alone in the middle of the room. There didn’t appear to be a scratch on him.

  In fact his jeans and black topcoat weren’t even singed. However, the two Italian vampires were burning embers on the rug in front him.

  “What happened, Britt? What did this?” She stared in confusion at the charred vampires, then at her own damaged flesh. Suddenly, her knees felt weak, partially because Britt was still alive and partially because her body was in shock after receiving so much surface damage.

  “Oh God, Jess,” Britt said as he lunged at her. He reached out as if to pick her up, but then pulled back.

  “You still got hurt even though I threw you outside! I’m so sorry. I thought you’d be safe out there.”

  Well, that solved one mystery. Britt had tossed her through the plate glass window, and he’d done it to save her. But from what?

  “I don’t understand. You did this?” She looked down at her seared and peeling flesh. She looked like a character from a zombie movie.

  If he hadn’t thrown her outside, or if she’d gotten any closer to the building before the blast struck, she’d probably be dead too.

  It was then she realized Britt’s hands were shaking. In fact, his entire body was shaking as if he was in shock.

  “I don’t know how it happened, Jess. All I know is I wanted those two idiots dead for trying to hurt you. When I thought your life was in danger, something inside me shifted into overdrive. I suddenly knew I had to throw you out that window in order to save you from what was going to happen. Then I raised my arms to defend myself against the two vampires who were moving in on me. I could feel energy building inside my chest like there was something alive inside me that needed release. Then blinding light blew from the tips of my fingers. It was like a bomb blast, and the vampires instantly burst into flame. They screamed bloody hell, too, like they were boiling in acid.”

  “You did that by simply raising your arms?”

  His head dropped. “I annihilated those vampires without even being completely aware it was going to happen. All I knew was I had to get you outside.”

  Jess cleared her throat and straightened her spine. “Do you now believe what I said happened at the lab? Strange things are going on. Things have happened to you. Things you don’t remember,” she said.

  Surely this was the proof he needed. Somehow, his body had been revamped. Improved.

  His expression thoughtful, he said, “I do remember a little.”

  “Then what did Zeke do in the lab? No one could have saved you from those injuries. How did he do it?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. But I have the sense that we’re both needed for something important. That’s why he saved me, again.”

  Hell, she hated this. She hated that what he said struck such a resonant chord inside her. She knew instinctively it was true, but between the
two of them they still didn’t have enough information to do a blessed thing.

  “Forget about all that for now,” Britt said. “We have to find some way to track your friend, James.”

  She sighed. “He’s your friend, too.” Apparently, he didn’t remember quite as much as he thought. Jess tipped her head to the side and concentrated on the smells around her. “There are plenty of residual odors from James, but they’re too weak to track once we get outside.

  “Damn,” Britt scowled.

  “Wait. What about the park where James left his cell phone earlier this evening?” she said. “That was before you got impaled. Do you remember that?”

  “It’s coming back to me bit-by-bit.” He rammed fingers through his hair. “I hate this. It’s unacceptable that I’m letting you down.”

  She watched heavy lids shutter his gaze. “Britt, you’ve never done that. And I’m not about to let you down this time, either.”

  He inhaled. “If we’re going to be able to move on, we have to accept that what happened before doesn’t matter. What matters is right now.”

  His words lifted some weight from her soul. “Let’s go.”

  He stepped over one smoldering vamp without a second glance. “Sure you’re up to this?” He winced when he accidentally bumped against her burned, but healing arm.

  She couldn’t help smiling. “If you really do remember me, you know I’m virtually indestructible.”

  He looked back at the simmering corpses and clamped his teeth, his jaw muscles working visibly. She got his unspoken message loud and clear. He’d told her once before that she wasn’t as indestructible as she thought she was. In light of his new ability to vaporize vampires, he’d be afraid for her more than ever now.

  She took a quick peek at her hands and brushed at the peeling, dead flesh. The worst part was, Britt didn’t even know how he did it.

  How had he gotten this ability? Had the mysterious Zeke given it to him? She didn’t doubt that in someone’s lab a dead man could be brought back to life with today’s technological advances. But in what universe did they have the capability to create a vampire eradication machine with advanced DNA?