Unholy Torment

by Kristie Cook

  Despair colored her tone. I pushed my way between Tristan and Owen and looked out at the small crowd.

  “These are all my fans?” I asked with disbelief.

  “Well, not exactly, not anymore. That’s how we started, but we’ve added other people since everything went to shit. Family, neighbors, friends . . . anyone we find still alive and can convince to come with us. Strength in numbers and all that. Ammi and a small group are out right now, looking for survivors from these latest bombings. I was out with them, but then I saw you lot and had to stop. They took off without me.”

  “But these are all A.K.’s supporters?” Charlotte asked.

  Kristen grimaced. “Some don’t know what to believe, but they owe us their lives. No one would be here if Ammi and I hadn’t started this cell. They’d either be dead or in the camps with that bizarre-o military holding them hostage. They came with us because they know the media and the governments were full of shite when everything went bad, and they trusted us over them. So yeah, we trust them, too. So can you.” She wrung her hands together as she looked over her shoulder at her people, then back at us. “So, uh, are you hungry? Thirsty? Tired? Want tea or a bath?”

  She had me at bath.

  Although, her idea of a bath was quite a loose definition—a soup pot of cold water and a washrag. At least a second pitcher had been provided to wash my hair. Except for Dorian, who crashed out on a cot, we’d already caught enough sleep to be wide awake when everyone else returned to bed. Everyone but Kristen.

  “I’ll sleep when my sister returns,” she said as she led us down the hall to a room that served as the cafeteria. It apparently had been an employee break room in the not-too-distant past.

  “I can’t sleep either,” said a girl’s voice behind us.

  “Same with me,” said another. “I mean, A.K. Emerson’s really here!”

  I looked over my shoulder to find several people following us and suppressed a sigh. I’d never liked the attention when I’d lived as A.K. Emerson and still didn’t like it now, but this went beyond being embarrassing. It was also very humbling. These people had come together because of their love of my books . . . and that love just might have saved their lives and many others’. I’d never believed it until now, but Rina and her council just might have been right about my stories.

  Kristen lit a lantern in the dining room and set it at the center of one of the round tables, but we hadn’t even sat down when two knocks, a pause, and then five more echoed down the stairs and through the hall. Kristen ran for the door, and a few moments later, hushed voices traveled to our ears, followed by Kristen and two others, a guy and a girl. The girl let out a strange little squealing noise and clapped her hand over her mouth.

  “Oh gosh, I can’t believe it,” she said, her words muffled behind her palm. “It’s really you!”

  “I’m going out,” Kristen announced, ignoring the girl and turning back for the door.

  “Wait,” I called out. “By yourself?”

  “I have to find Ammi.”

  “You’re not Ammi?” Tristan asked the girl who still stared at me with huge eyes behind square glasses. Her gaze finally pulled away when she realized he spoke to her, and when she looked at him, her face flushed the color of a ruby grapefruit.

  She shook her head, and as though she just remembered herself, her hand dropped from her mouth, her expression sliding from surprise to despair with it. “We lost her and the others.”

  “We thought we’d lost Kristen, too,” the guy said as he pulled a knit cap off his head and bunched it in his hands. “We hadn’t realized she didn’t run away with us when those vampires attacked those people. We thought it was too late for them, and we heard someone crying for help, so we ran off. I guess Kristen hadn’t followed us. Maybe she’d seen you guys or something. And then, we got in a fight with more bloodsuckers—”

  “Wait. You fought vampires?” I asked, not sure whether to be impressed or to yell at them for their stupidity.

  He nodded. “We thought we ran them off, but then our whole group except us was gone. One second, they were next to us. The next, they weren’t.”

  Tristan and I exchanged a glance, and he gave me a nod.

  “Solomon and Char, you better go with Kristen,” I said, and they took off after the girl.

  “You shouldn’t be out there in the middle of the night,” I told the other two—and anyone else who happened to be listening—while I dropped into a seat. “That’s when they hunt.”

  The girl’s blue eyes widened again as she moved farther into the room and sat down at the table next to ours, facing us.

  “It’s really you,” she whispered.

  “Somebody had to look for survivors after tonight’s bombings, though,” the guy said. He stuck his hat in his back pocket, and then reached his hand out toward me. “Terrence. That’s Olivia. I guess you’re the A.K.”

  “Alexis.” I shook his hand, and then he went around our group, learning everyone’s names while introducing himself and Olivia. Tristan, Blossom, Sheree, and Jax joined me at the table. The others who’d followed us from the main room into the dining room leaned against tables and the wall, staring on in sleepy fascination.

  “You didn’t find any survivors?” Sheree asked.

  Terrence pushed a hand through his longish, dark blond hair. “Everyone’s dead or gone, it seems. Except the ones in the camps.”

  “The person we thought we heard?” Olivia spoke up. “There was nobody there.”

  “You were deceived,” Tristan muttered.

  “Wot?” the girl asked.

  “That’s what they do,” Jax said bitterly. “They trick you, pull you in, and then go in for the attack.”

  I winced at his bluntness.

  Olivia gasped. “Do you think they got our friends?”

  “Chances are . . . yes,” Vanessa said matter-of-factly.

  “Maybe more of us should go out and search,” Owen suggested, looking at me.

  I nodded my permission before dropping my face into my hands.

  “Why on earth would you try to fight vampires?” Blossom asked. “How?”

  “With silver, of course.” Olivia’s voice notched up an octave with excitement. I looked up at her in disbelief, and she gave me a small grin. “Just like in your books. We’ve been plundering when we’re out, finding as much silver as we can.”

  “Do you have weapons?” Jax asked.

  Terrence and Olivia both flashed some kind of large gun under their coats.

  “Are those paintball guns?” Tristan asked with an undertone probably only I noticed. One that subtly said, Are you serious?

  “Not many guns in England,” Terrence said. “Not ones that work. But we’re legally allowed to have paintball guns, and that’s what we found. We melted down silver and coated the paintballs in it.”

  “Huh,” Tristan muttered, and I knew that sound, too. He was slightly impressed.

  “We have knives, too,” Olivia said. “We’ve raided the stores and the museums. Found a whole bunch hidden in Westminster Abbey. That’s where Kristen found her fab sword.”

  I suppressed an inappropriate snicker. What would Solomon have done when he found out the secret stash of weapons in the abbey had been pilfered? I, personally, could only be proud of these guys for their boldness in stealing them.

  “Do you know how to use them?” I asked.

  Olivia grimaced. “A little. But we’re just nerds. Everything we know is from books, the telly and films, and video games. Terrence and some of the guys we’ve brought in have taught us a tad bit, though.”

  “Thanks to your books, we know how to recognize the bad guys,” the girl in the corner said. “We know not to be fooled by their beauty or charm, and to look for red eyes.”

  “The Daemoni don’t always have red eyes,” Sheree said.

  “The who?”

  My books, of course, didn’t call the “bad guys” the Daemoni. When I wrote them, I knew the word, but associate
d it with Satanic worshippers and the like. I’d had no idea the creatures in my books made up the Daemoni . . . or the Amadis. So we explained to the group, which grew as morning approached, who the Daemoni were and who we were.

  “So hold on, you’re all supernaturals?” Terrence asked.

  Sheree and Jax both let their fangs and claws out.

  “Whoa,” Olivia breathed as she stared at them. “But you’re good.”

  It wasn’t a question.

  “Right. We’re the Amadis. We’re the good guys,” Sheree confirmed after retracting her fangs.

  “Our reason for existence is to protect you and the rest of the humans from the Daemoni,” I said.

  “But you’re not,” a woman accused from the corner. She was in her early thirties with a baby on her hip. “You let them attack the first time, and now they run around like they own the world. They’re probably behind this worldwide war.”

  Tristan nodded. “You’re right. They greatly outnumber and out-power us. It doesn’t mean we’re not doing everything we can. It hasn’t helped that the majority of humans have been turned against us.”

  “They’re turned against the Daemoni, too,” Terrence said. “They were anyway. When we could still get the news, the Americans were really fighting back. I don’t know if it did them much good, though.”

  “We need to get more humans on our side,” someone said.

  Olivia turned her head to look over the shoulder at the speaker. “There aren’t many left that we can get to. They’re all dead or locked up. Or turned into evil creatures themselves.”

  Several people reacted to this with noises of disgust.

  “Who would have thought,” Terrence mused out loud, “that the apocalypse would come by vampires and werewolves?”

  Everyone at my table looked over at him.

  “The apocalypse?” Blossom asked.

  “Obviously,” he said. “That’s what everyone’s saying. The horsemen are coming down on us, meting out God’s punishment.” He shrugged. “It’s a theory. Conquest, War, Famine, and Death? We’ve got them all now. Last we heard, anyway, before shit hit the fan.”

  “Those evil creatures showed themselves and conquered the humans,” someone else in the room said. The voice coming from behind me sounded older, and I turned to find a woman with a gray bun making tea. I hadn’t noticed her come in. Besides the woman with the baby, she was by far the oldest we’d seen here so far. “We already have World War III. People rioted and hoarded food before, and since there’s no electricity, there won’t be food processed, packaged, and sold anymore. Who knows if there are even farmers left to grow it? So there’s your famine.”

  “And people are dying everywhere,” Olivia whispered.

  “That man on the telly?” a girl piped up from the door. “The one who said you were the bad guys? He sure looked like the Antichrist to me!”

  Several people murmured in agreement, but I chuckled. Yeah, I supposed Lucas could be seen as the Antichrist. You couldn’t get any more anti-God than him.

  Another young woman joined in. “Me wee granny always said everyone in today’s generation were antichrists because we didn’t go to church anymore and did all sorts of immoral things.”

  “But there’s been war, famine, disease, and death forever,” Blossom said.

  “Every generation has been able to point out signs of the end of the world,” Sheree agreed.

  “But nobody’s seen it until now, right?” Terrence asked. “What would you call that out there? Looks rather apocalyptic to me.” He chuckled, but the sound came hollow with little humor. “And here we thought the zombie apocalypse would get us before God did.”

  I frowned at his words. Zombies weren’t completely omitted from this picture he’d painted in my mind. This image of the end of the world. Was that what this was? Were we witnessing the end of times? If so, I needed a word with my mother and the rest of my ancestors. They could have warned me! They could have taken me with them. Why did I have to be the one left behind to deal with this horror? I’d been left here alone with darkness trying to reign the world, and maybe there was a reason for it—because it was all hopeless in the end anyway, and I belonged here, not in the Heavens of the Otherworld. Was that what Mom had meant?

  The conversation became a din in my mind as I contemplated this, my heart sinking as the minutes passed. Thank the Angels Vanessa and Solomon’s mind signatures came within range, along with a Norman. Owen, Charlotte, and Kristen came in right behind them. Anxiety enveloped all of them, and I jumped from my seat and rushed for the door to the outside world, clearing the steps five at a time.

  “Tell me what’s wrong with her,” Kristen said frantically after the door banged against the wall.

  Vanessa had apparently thrown it open, and Solomon carried a limp body in his arms. The warlocks and Kristen followed after. My gaze jumped from face to face of my team members.

  “She’s been turned,” Vanessa said. My eyes shot back to her. “I can smell the vamp’s blood in her.”

  Ammi? I asked, and she gave me the slightest of nods. Kristen doesn’t know?

  “Not yet, but she will soon.”

  I nodded. We had to tell her.

  “Where can we take her?” I asked. “Where do you take the sick or the hurt?”

  “Is she going to be okay?”

  I clenched my jaw. “We need a private room. Where can we take her?”

  Kristen pushed her way through. “This way.”

  She hurried down the hall, and Solomon followed after, with the rest of us on his heels. The Normans fell into step behind us, but once we reached a small office with a couch and Tristan and I joined the ones who had been out, Charlotte shut the door and muffled the room. Solomon laid the girl on the couch, and Kristen dropped to the floor next to her, taking her sister’s hands in between her own.

  “Tell me what’s wrong with her,” Kristen said. “She looks dead. Her chest doesn’t even move. But you said she’s not?”

  She shifted to glare up at us. Knowing I needed to be the one to do this, I crouched down beside her.

  “She’s been turned, Kristen,” I said softly.

  Her eyes about jumped out of her head. “She’s . . . one of them?” She shook her head violently. “A vampire? No. She can’t be like them. Alexis, do something. Please. She can’t handle something like this. She’s too sweet and kind!”

  I gently laid my hand on her arm. “We will. We can.”

  “You can turn her back?”

  I cringed. “No, I’m sorry. But we can save her. We can make sure she’s not like them. She’s going to wake up with a crazy-insatiable thirst, but we can help her stay good.”

  She blinked at me as she tried to comprehend.

  “Good vampires?” She didn’t seem to believe the possibility at first, but then her eyes flitted over to Vanessa and Solomon who stood at the other end of the couch. “Like them?”

  “Exactly like them.” Char smoothed Ammi’s dark hair away from her pale face. “That’s what we do—convert those who’ve been turned against their will to the good side.”

  “Will it be painful?” the girl asked.

  “Could be,” Char said honestly. “But since she’s waking up with us and not them, it won’t be as bad as it could have been.”

  Kristen gnawed on her lip for a moment, then nodded. “What choice do I have? We can’t throw her out on the streets.”

  “No, that would only be worse for her,” I said. “And then we might eventually have to kill her.”

  “Like you did the ones when I found you?”

  I nodded.

  “Then do it. Keep her good. I can’t . . . I can’t imagine her going dark.”

  And I wondered then if Kristen was really the one who wouldn’t be able to handle Ammi’s change.

  “You should probably leave the room,” Char said. “All of you except Alexis and Tristan. Send Sheree in.”

  “I don’t want to leave her,” Kristen protested.r />
  Tristan wrapped an arm over her shoulders and lifted her to her feet. “Trust me, you don’t want to be here. She won’t want you to see her like this. And you’ll need to explain to your people what’s going on.”

  Kristen looked back at me. “It’ll be better coming from you, Alexis. They look up to you.”

  I glanced at Charlotte and Ammi.

  “Go on,” Char said. “We can start without you. But your power will help her most.”

  I nodded and followed Tristan and Kristen out with Solomon and Vanessa behind us. Questions immediately started flying.

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  “Is she okay?”

  “Where are the others?”

  Kristen stuck her finger and her thumb in her mouth and whistled, quieting everyone. “She’s going to be okay, but Alexis has something to tell you. Let’s go to the big room.”

  Everyone packed into the large room, chattering and speculating, and Kristen gained all of their attention for me. As soon as the words “vampire” and “turned” came out of my mouth, panic broke out.

  “Why would you bring her here?”

  “She can’t stay here!”

  “She’ll kill us!”

  “We need to kill her first!”

  “Enough,” Tristan said, and although he didn’t technically shout, the tone came out loud and frightening enough to shut everyone up. “Let Alexis explain.”

  A few crossed their arms over their chests or showed other signs of annoyance or confrontation, but they all listened as I told them more about who and what we were and how we could convert the turned to our side. They seemed to relax as I finished explaining.

  “Ammi will be good then?” Olivia, who stood up front, asked, her voice full of hope.

  “Yes. Unless she purposely gave her soul to the demons to become like one of them, she’ll be good,” I said.

  “She would never do that,” Kristen said.