Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (20 page)

"The one in my head," Jennifer accused but at this he just looked at her like she’d gone mad.

"Should I be concerned for your mental stability?" He smirked and it did little to convince her of
his innocense.

"Don’t look at me like that," Jennifer almost yelled but did her best to keep it in check, "don’t
pretend you don’t know that vampires can do that kind of thing." She could tell he was going to say
something but it was interrupted by a bang from one of the other two rooms down the hall. "What was
that," Jennifer barely noticed the fact that the vampire was by her side faster than she could think.

"Nothing good, I only hear five others still here in this room which means one is likely out there,"
Jennifer realized that at least she’d reacted by turning towards the door instead of huddling away, she
turned to look at him beside her.

"One of them is out there," she barely contained the urge to go hide in a corner, not that this
particular reaction had ever helped anyone.

"Yes," the vampire gave her a very serious look, "one of them is definitely out there." He
seemed to understand that she was not firing on all cylinders at the moment. Before she could react, not
that he didn’t give her the chance because he did so slowly, he reached behind her and pulled the 9mm
from her jeans. "I believe the next course of action would be to arm yourself," he held the gun out
where she could see it, his hand wrapped around the barrel leaving the handle open for her to take. She
was pretty certain she stood there longer than was strictly necessary staring at the gun like she’d never
seen it before. "At least take it Jennifer and stay here to make certain that no one releases another."
This response irritated her enough to let her at least take the gun from his hand.

"I’m coming," she muttered though she was not at all certain how useful she’d be. Ethan simply
nodded and motioned for her to take the lead if she wished, she didn’t but took it anyway. Usually she
would in no way trust a vampire at her back but in this case she knew her actions so far had left her with
something to prove. Without thinking about what she might be facing she pushed the door out of her
path and checked both directions of the hall with gun raised. As if whatever was waiting to be
confronted wanted to be found another bang rang down the hall. Jennifer’s senses were by no means as
keen as the vampires but she knew which room it had come from. She gave the room between her and
the last one a quick once over simply to be thorough before moving to the last where the noise had
originated. "You can do this," Jennifer told herself as she hesitated outside the door.

"If you’re unprepared to deal with this just yet I can take care of it," Ethan offered behind her.

"Just shut up," she growled over her shoulder and kicked the door in front of her out of the way.
She didn’t allow herself to hesitate, she simply shot the first thing that moved in the head, trying not to
see what it had been up to before it sprang to it’s feet. But as soon as it was over and the body was on
the floor she wanted to vomit. "This isn’t happening," not that saying it could change the fact that there
was another body on the floor in a lab coat with it’s guts hanging out. The thing she’d shot had been
crouched over that body, eating when she’d interrupted it, eating human flesh not blood. She stumbled
into the room prepared to take a better look at the corpse she’d put down when the vampire grabbed
the collar of her coat and pulled her back outside the door. "What are you doing," she put up a very
minimal struggle, in fact possessed very little fight at the moment.

The vampire used his sword to point down, " you nearly walked into it’s mouth." Jennifer nearly
screamed at the sight of the thing on the floor using bloodied fingers to try and drag itself forward. A
quick survey of what was left of the body told her where the security guard had gone. She realized that
she was practically holding unto the vampire like a baby monkey but couldn’t force herself to put her
feet on the ground.

"This isn’t happening," but she didn’t think there was any talking herself out of it now.

"Shush little Hunter," very deliberately Ethan took a step back putting a small amount of distance
between himself and the creature on the floor. "I’ll put the security guard out of his misery and then we
can simply burn the building down."

"Burn it down," Jennifer asked stupefied but relieved, when he smiled she almost relaxed but
then she realized he was going to try and put her on her feet and she froze up. "No, don’t go in there,"
she thrust her gun at him, trusting him with it only because she didn’t want to be left alone.

"Such an inelegant weapon," but Ethan took it without hesitating because he knew it was trust
she would not normally instill on one of his kind. It wasn’t until he pulled the trigger and the creatures
brain exploded across the floor that Jennifer relaxed her hold on him and put her feet solidly on the
ground.

"How are we burning it down," Jennifer asked as he handed the 9mm back to her. She didn’t
think she fully understood how much trust she’d given him until he was arming her with it, again.

"I always come prepared," he informed her but gave no further reply.

"So what are we waiting for," Jennifer was loath to leave without putting a bullet in the head of
the lab coat corpse but couldn’t muster the courage to walk into the room, what was wrong with her.

"My calvary," he informed, as if on cue something in his pocket buzzed, he didn’t even bother to
pull what she assumed was a phone from his pocket.

"Whose the calvary," she asked even though she was afraid she already knew the answer.

"My vampires," he informed with a smile that was more then a little smug, what with her needing
their help and all she supposed she’d never live it down.

"Your," but she never finished the thought because he took hold of her hand and led her out
where at least two other visible vampires stood waiting. At this her instincts came back online and she
tightened her grip on the Beretta. She was entirely aware that the reaction was ridiculous considering
that not only had Ethan saved her twice in a row, he’d put her gun in her hand just as many times making
certain she was capable of defending herself. Apparently that didn’t change her instincts because as
soon as she thought she saw one of them getting ready to move toward them her impulse was to raise
the Beretta. Ethan however seemed to anticipate this move so used his hold on her other hand to pull
her behind him. Not a bad move necessarily since he was tall enough that she couldn’t really see past
him unless she leaned out around him.

"Dominik, I trust that everything is set to go," when there was no verbal response Jennifer did
lean out past the vampire. "Good, I trust you rigged it with enough to take care of everything."

"Yes mein Herr, nothing will remain of the building or the remaining occupants," Jennifer did a
quick once over of the vampire that Ethan spoke to, cataloguing his appearance, military shaved white-blond hair, blue eyes. Chiseled jaw with a prominent cleft in his chin, he was handsome, no surprise
since they all were. The German accent was definitive though and she had a name for him now as well,
it was part of her job to make sure the vampires she met and didn’t kill were put into their system for
future use because eventually they all crossed the line. "The explosives are ready," Dominik confirmed
in that thick accent of his, so it took her a moment to pick up on exactly what he’d said.

"You can’t use explosives here," Jennifer interjected forcing herself to come out from behind the
vampire with her gun pointed at the ground.

"No worries little Hunter, my friend here knows what he’s doing," but Ethan’s confidence in
‘his’ vampires didn’t boost her own.

"Oh really," Jennifer sarcastically commented, "and how exactly do you intend to control an
explosion?"

Dominik was the one to answer her, "the same way a demolitionist takes out any building, only
with a lot more feuer." The German smirked and Jennifer wished she could shoot him, which was the
usual when a vampire irritated her.

"Fire is precisely my problem," Jennifer informed them, "demolition is one thing they bring the
building down on itself, I imagine fire combined with explosion tends to spread."

"It is an event we have to risk Jennifer," Ethan countered, "we can not afford to leave anything
that might allow this to spread beyond this place."

It was a point that Jennifer understood but it was out of their control one way or the other, the
thing that had started this was still running around out there. She glared back at the other vampire that
was keeping his distance, as apparently tense and ready for violence from her as she was from him. "I
can’t let you do this," although what she thought she was going to do to stop them or otherwise she had
no idea. Would she go back in there and get rid of the five remaining bodies that were clawing to get
out of their confines, it didn’t seem likely. And even if she could talk herself into going back in there how
would she dispose of the bodies after. Of course there were clean up crews that she could call but she
wasn’t entirely certain they would know how careful to be with potential hazardous zombie materials.
"There has to be another way," she insisted regardless.

"I’m sorry Jennifer, but given the current circumstances, there isn’t the time," she should have
guessed what he was going to do, he had after all never relinquished his hold on her hand. She would
otherwise have made some other argument, but he nodded to his vampire and used his hold on her to
pull her against his chest. Before she could blink he used his inhuman speed to move her a block down.

"What did you do," she accused as soon as he came to a stop, she yanked herself away from
him fully aware that he let her. "You can’t just........." but the sentence didn’t finish because behind her
she heard it before she felt it, but the rocking beneath her feet only made the deafening roar of the
explosion that more real. She knew that it wasn’t as big as it sounded because she wasn’t blown off her
feet and no debris came their way despite the fact that they were not that far away. But she could feel
the heat, she whirled around to face the building fully expecting to see the neighborhood on fire but true
to the vampires word only the mortuary was burning. "I want their names," Jennifer demanded whirling
back on the vampire.

"Whose names," but she could tell that he knew exactly who she was referring to.

"All of ‘your’ vampires," Jennifer answered through gritted teeth.

"I imagine they’re all in your glorious database Miss Ryan I see no reason that you should feel
the need to have them added with such little provocation." He seemed to be serious and Jennifer could
not believe what she was hearing, what the hell had been wrong with her that she had trusted this
monster with her life.

"Little provocation," Jennifer poked a finger into his chest, again fully aware that he was putting
up with more from her than most vampires would have bothered. "You just blew up a building, that
could have hurt innocent people!" She was yelling, she wasn’t sure why she was yelling but then again
she felt light headed too, she didn’t get light headed, she didn’t faint, she would not faint.

"I suppose if an innocent bystander did just so happen to be in the area despite the fact that my
people did a sweep they should simply have counted their blessings that they got such a quick end. I
imagine it would be far more pleasant then getting eaten alive." Jennifer drew her hand back away from
him and ran it frustratedly through her hair instead, quite a bit of it had come loose from her ponytail.
She pushed what had come free behind her ears and tried to calm herself down instead of attempting to
initiate a fist fight with a vampire.

"Fine," was all she could come up with to say at the end of the day, he wasn’t wrong, his
disposal had been quick and dirty, but the most effective way that there was. "What do we do now,"
Jennifer asked only because she had no plan of her own at this point. Remembering that the beast in
front of her was hardly her only source of information or back up she pulled her phone out of her pocket
but was only confronted by an empty screen, again. "Great," she turned her attention back to the
vampire who seemed to be looking through her rather than at her, "what, stop looking at me like that
and just spill it already."

At least when she addressed him he seemed to focus, "the plan Jennifer is that me and mine will
continue to canvas the city for what’s left of Dimitri. Since he is operating on very little intelligence,
clearly checking any and all places that he was known to go underground is the next step. We have no
idea how far along he is in becoming completely mindless but it is better than waiting for him to make
another appearance." Jennifer nodded but knew already from how he started explaining his great plan
that he was not including her in it.