Bad Blood (Battle of the Undead Book 1) (4 page)

“Thanks for the help.” I raised an eyebrow at Satan
, who’d backed into a nearby corner with his ears flat to his head and tail between his legs. He slunk toward me for a reassuring head pat, which I gave. He then pricked his ears up and sniffed at a nearby door. In all the zombie-killing frenzy, I’d forgotten what I was actually supposed to be doing, trying to find survivors. I listened at the door. I definitely heard at least one heartbeat in there. I knocked.

“Hello, is anyone there?”

I heard movement, but no answer.

“I can hear you in there. It’s Brit from upstairs
. I’m here to help you.”

Whispers, then the door opened to reveal a woman in her thirties with two sets of big
, round eyes peering from behind her legs.

“I remember you
. You’re that Goth girl,” said the woman.

“Umm, no. I’m not actually a Goth girl.”

I’ve been around much longer than that
, I thought.

“Oh, you always look so
…”

Yeah, this conversation wasn’t going to earn her my protection, so I cut it off quickly.

“I know a place that’s safe. I’m here to escort you there. Pack up quickly and let’s get these flats behind us, okay?”

She looked a little lost and vague, but the two children behind her turned, ran, and started packing their toys. They looked about seven and were twins, a boy and a girl.

“Go on, then. It’s not getting any safer.”

I nudged the mother, and she seemed to wake from her trance.

“Sure, okay. Umm. I’m Tracy.”

“I know.”

I didn’t actually know her name, but pretending we were bigger buddies than we really were might move things along quicker.

She turned and started to pack up a few things: photos, purse, a jumper
—the only useful thing. I stepped farther into the flat and looked around. Still neat and tidy, and it smelled of fresh washing and buttered toast. No wonder she was reluctant to leave. Satan butted his head in behind me. The kids were then drawn to him as though he were a massive furry magnet. He let them fuss him a little too roughly then stepped back into the hallway in order, one would hope, to keep watch, although I had to keep reminding myself he was just a dog.

I heard a jagged symphony of moans echoing from downstairs and looked at the three survivors. If I had to run and choose who to take, I’d grab the children and let the mother fight her own battle. The children were more of an asset. They would have longer lives and yield more blood. I had to think like that. Satan would also have to fend for himself if it came to it.

One of the kids was suddenly at my feet looking up at me. With all the bright primary colors I was wearing, I probably looked like a toy. I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but my lip got caught on my fangs so it came out more of a toothy snarl.

She grinned at me and said, “Cool.”

Then she turned to finish packing. Modern children had been brought up with the notion of vampires and werewolves. I guess even the slightest hint I was one was a bonus. After all, zombies were munching on her neighbors. It wasn’t the biggest leap in the world that a vampire could be standing in her hallway.

After a quick pack, the three of them stood in front of me. I nodded at them like a drill sergeant inspecting her tro
ops. I motioned for Tracy to pick up one child, and I leaned down, casually scooping the other into the crook of my left arm. He squirmed a little in my embrace, but then settled into the nook of my hip. Satan barked at a lumbering zombie shuffling down the corridor. I let that be the cue to get moving.

I led the way to the fire escape. Once there, I
realized I had a kind of chicken, seed, and fox problem. If I took down the kids first, I’d have to leave them alone to go back and get the mother. If I took the mother, I’d be leaving the kids alone. If I took them all, they’d know for sure that I wasn’t human. Nuts, lesser of two evils?

“What’s wrong?”
Tracy repositioned her daughter with an uncomfortable expression.

“We’re jumping down that fire escape.”

“I can’t do that. That’s over fifty feet!”

“You don’t need to.”

I whipped around and grabbed her by the waist, while simultaneously gripping both children, and jumped effortlessly to the street below. Once I set them safely on the ground, I called for the dog. “Satan!”

He jumped off the fire escape and straight into my arms. He licked my face, which was uncalled for. I let him jump the distance from my chest to the ground.

“What the…?” Tracy pulled her children behind her.

“There really is no time, and I think you know the answer anyway. You were all talking about me in the building long before this happened.”

She looked a little guilty.

“Are you going to drink our blood?” asked the girl with a little too much enthusiasm.

“Probably, well, at some point. Just not right now.” I winked at her, and she laughed. God bless the supernaturally obsessed, violence-numbing, drip-feeding media.

Tracy
looked a little less happy, but she soon got behind me when another zombie neighbor lunged from the shadows. I kicked it so hard its head shot clean off, like a football propelled toward the back of a net. I then bent down, scooped up the children, and started to run, Tracy and Satan following close behind.

The Dead Hare wasn’t far, and the streets, although looking a little ransacked and burnt, weren’t too difficult to
maneuver, even with three humans and a dog. If this was a taste of things to come, then the zombie apocalypse wouldn’t be as bad as I feared. Maybe all the books and films had it wrong, just like they got vampires wrong time and again. We arrived at the front door of The Dead Hare, which was blocked by a thick, metallic rolling blind. I knocked. No answer. I knocked again.

“What’s the special password?”

“Nicholas is an ass.”

I rolled my eyes, and Nicholas opened the door just wide enough for us all to scoot under.

He stepped back, looked at Tracy, the kids, and then Satan.

“What do you think this is?
One Man and His Dog?
Taking the shepherding duties a little too seriously, eh?”

“Shut up. Where’s Philippe?”

“He’s not arrived yet. Nice to see you started the collections early.” He motioned at Tracy as she pulled her children behind her.

“Don’t worry, Tracy. He won’t hurt you or the kids.”

I knew he wouldn’t. Nicholas was a lot of things, but he’d never attack frightened women and children, no matter what the circumstances. In fact, they were probably safer with him than with me. Another thing I hated about him, righteous son of a…

I looked out at the pub and scanned the regulars’ faces, but I didn’t see Mrs. Lewis
. She must not have made it here in time. I shook off the slight sensation of sorrow and bent down to fuss at Satan.

“So, how long do we wait?” Nicholas swept in beside us like a Dickensian villain.

“Until Philippe gets here. I’m not leaving without him.”

I knew that without Philippe, Nicholas and I would be at each other’s throats within seconds of leaving the building, exposing our new wards to the very dangers we were supposed to save them from.

“Well, you’re late, so that makes Philippe more than fashionably late. I’m going to call him.”

Nicholas flipped open his mobile phone. It was an old model, but it was still impressive that he carried that kind of technology on his person. Vampires don’t like things they don’t understand.

“Hello, Philippe, this is Nicholas. I’m here with Brianna, and we’re concerned for you. Please call back immediately.” He hung up and looked satisfied.

“My name is Britannia.”

“I knew you first as Brianna. I think I prefer Brianna.”

“Yeah, well, I preferred being Brianna, but some selfish asshole vampire turned me into something else.”

“Are you crediting me with your sexy patriotic persona?”

“Crediting isn’t really the word I’d choose.”

“No? Do you not like who you’ve become,
Brianna
?”

I smacked him. It was a closed fist punch that sent him crashing into the nearest wall
. Still, it barely fazed him. He got up, brushed himself down, and walked back to where he’d been standing. That was when I noticed his outfit—black leather trousers, jacket, and a designer black turtle neck. “Nice outfit, Nicholas. All you need is the red ball and you’ve got a complete gimp suit set.”

“Well if you can lend me your little doggy’s ball…”

And I smacked him again.

“This isn’t helping anyone!” Tracy screamed.

Clearly, she’d had enough experience with squabbling kids to know when to step in.

“He started it,” I whispered under my breath.

“She’s right.” Nicholas sighed and straightened his polo neck. “Let us venture out while we can, save a few more…”

“Wards?”

I thought wards sounded better than cattle, blood bags, mortal minions, or even free-range humans.

“Yes, the rest can stay here. It is secure, and there is plenty of food and water to last for at least a couple of weeks.”

I looked around. It was obvious the Elders had either seen this coming or had been incredibly paranoid. Either way, it meant that our collection of humans was already at six pensioners, two bar staff, a mother, and two kids.

“We can use the pub as a drop-off point until we’re ready to travel,” I said in agreement.

Already the kids were being given crisps from behind the bar and being fussed over. It seemed like a good idea to keep everyone in a base camp.

“We need to check our
…wards for bites. If we put an infected person in here, we may as well just kill them all now.” Nicholas looked at Tracy.

That was a good point, and I felt a little silly that I hadn’t checked the three I’d picked up.

“Have you checked the ones in here?” I asked.

“They never left.”

“Okay.”

I stepped over to Tracy and ran my hands down her arms and legs then checked her body. Nicholas then did the same with the children
, who laughed as though he were tickling them. Fortunately, they were all clean. I hated Nicholas, but I had to admit his practical nature was probably going to come in handy.

I turned to Tracy.
“Philippe is another…one of us. He is meeting us. If he gets here when we’re out, check that it’s really him. Ask him this question, ‘Who are your children?’”

Tracy
 narrowed her eyes. “Okay.”

“The answer is Tate and Lyle.”

“You’re kidding. Tate and Lyle, like the sugar?”

“Philippe always had the best sense of
humor.” Nicholas grinned. “But let only him in. No one else. Even if they are human, they might be infected.”

Tracy
nodded.

“Well, do let us back in, though.” I thought I’d better add that in case Tracy turned into an automaton.
 

She nodded again.

Satan padded up to me, and I scratched his ear.

“You stay here and protect everyone.”

Nicholas pulled on the front steel blind, and we inched through. The blind slammed behind us, and I started feeling very unsettled. Having Nicholas so close was starting to fester uncomfortably in my gut. Every now and then as we walked, he’d look over at me and smile. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said he had engineered the whole zombie invasion just so we'd be working side by side and he'd have the opportunity to worm his way into my affections.

My footfalls seemed louder than usual as we made our way through the ruined streets of London. Underground stations were collapsed in on themselves, leaving piles of rubble and blood stains. Buildings were partly boarded up with Rorschach-style blood splatters layered across them, and the only sound was the sizzle of dying fires on the breeze.

“Where are we going?”

Nicholas struggled to keep pace with me, while I struggled to keep him out of my eye line.

“There.”

I pointed to an office block in the distance. From one of its windows flapped a white sheet with the word
“Inside” spray-painted on it in dripping black.

“When did you see that?”

“When we left the Dead Hare.”

“Why didn’t you say?”

“Because I’m not one of your little
yes-sire-no-sire-three-bags-full-sire
minions. I don’t have to tell you what I’m doing.”

“You do if you want me to help you.” He stopped walking.

I kept going. “Great. I don’t need your help. Yet another positive for keeping my mouth shut.”

“What if a zombie wrote that and it’s a trap?”

I turned and narrowed my eyes at him. “Seriously? Zombies barely have motor skills. You think one of them is some evil genius who not only hatched the plan, but also retained enough artistic skill to spray paint the sign, too?”