Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (21 page)

"I’m coming with you," she demanded though there wasn’t anything she could do to convince or
use to force him to comply.

"No my little mortal ally, you I fear are well past your ability to function properly. You have
gone without sleep for too long and your body has sustained damage enough for one night. You would
slow us down and if by some miracle you were present when we found him I fear you would only react
as you have with these others." Like a coward, was what he was saying, he thought that she reacted
like a coward.

"Look here you, vampire," she settled on when no other insult came to mind, "I don’t need you
to tell me what to do anyway." Jennifer pointed out, she wasn’t even sure why she’d bothered to ask, "I
can go canvas for undead freak-shows all on my own, wouldn’t want to slow you down and all." Had
that sounded childish, "it’s almost daylight anyway," she pointed out to cover any petulance she might
have displayed, "looks like I’ve got more time then you do," and the petulance was back. She should
probably be relieved that the vampire she was dealing with seemed to be stock full of patience because
she was pretty sure if she’d been in his super-human shoes and he was being this annoying she would
have snapped his neck already.

"Jennifer," he soothed, "think this through, you need rest and as it has become very clear you are
in dire need of answers." He gave her an apologetic smile, "if you were one of mine I’d order you to
rest so you could be fully prepared for the battle to come, but as you are not I can only ask you. Rest,
speak to your cousin, then find me."

Jennifer held her breath as he stepped in closing distance between them that she should not allow
him to close. "What if I don’t want to find you," she asked pretty certain that even if she did want to find
him she would do everything in her power to ignore any such compulsion.

He made a curious noise before reaching up and pulling her hair free of her ponytail, she let him,
she shouldn’t have let him. "I think it’s likely I will come in search of you," Jennifer was pretty sure her
heart fluttered in her chest, it shouldn’t have done that, she tried to convince herself it had reacted in fear.
"You are one who keeps your word, yes," he asked with his fingers now curled through her freed hair.
Jennifer just nodded completely unsure where he could be thinking of going with this line of questioning.
"Good, I would like you to promise me that you will rest first, go home, clean yourself up, and sleep. If
you promise me this I will consider it a favor and will repay it in kind by giving you each and every name
of my loyal allies. As I currently count you among them I see no harm that can come of it," he finished
but didn’t let go of her hair. "Do you promise?"

Jennifer nodded first fully aware that vampires would never consider a deal sealed until the
words were spoken so she finally choked out, "yes, I promise." She told herself she was agreeing
because he was giving her information she not only wanted but at some point would definitely need, not
because he was touching her and she liked it.

"Good," without giving warning his hand dropped out of her hair, and whatever non-power he’d
had over her seemed to ebb. She wanted to accuse him of using his vampire hoodoo on her but she
knew that he hadn’t. She’d experienced it often enough to know what that really felt like, and whatever
was going on between the two of them was not that. "You should head home, Dominik will stay behind
to ascertain that we’ve taken care of all here."

"But it’ll be daylight soon," not that she held any concern for a vampire or anything.

"You’re concern is touching," sarcasm that was a first, "where are you parked?" Jennifer gave
her current surroundings a once over, she was exhausted and had a blocks walk to make.

"Back in the parking lot across the way," she supposed that her parking across the street was a
blessing now as perhaps the car had survived unscathed by debris. "I guess I’d better....Hey!" Very
lamely she tried to protest as he snatched her out of what little space that had been between them and
zapped them back the blocks distance with his freak-speed. "I didn’t ask you to do that," Jennifer tried
not to shriek at him but vampire speed was damned disorienting when you weren’t a vampire.

"You are welcome," was Ethan’s only response, "since the danger has passed perhaps you
might consider putting your pistol away while you drive."

Jennifer puffed out an irritated breath looking down to find the Beretta still in her hand but
unused, so unlike her. Relenting without a word she tucked it back into her waistband, "I can’t believe I
agreed to any of this." That was the truth of the matter, she could not believe that she was going to do
anything a vampire suggested or asked of her. But the truth was, she was injured, she was exhausted
and she’d been damn near useless tonight.

"Believe me Jennifer you won’t regret it," he promised even though she was pretty certain she
already did. But she didn’t voice any concerns, it would have been a waste of breath, he clearly thought
he was awesome and that she was or should be thrilled that he’d bother to make her an ally. In fact
she’d done it in word only, she hadn’t expected to need his help, and had no intention of asking for it,
she hadn’t even been certain that she would contact him the way she’d promised. She was however
certain that at least for now she was going home to take a shower, and get sleep. She would start her
day early, talk to her cousin because if he really had some answers she would have them and then get
her ass back to work. Without waiting for the vampire to say or do anything else she climbed into the
drivers side of the car put the key in the ignition and paused to pull out her phone. Hesitantly she pulled
up her cousins number and sent him a brief text. ‘Need some information, I’ll call you in the morning.’

She hadn’t yet closed the car door and realized when she tried that the vampire had his hand on
it. "What no goodbye Miss Ryan?" Instead of answering him she did her best to simply glare at him,
"as you wish, at any rate I wish you good night and I’ll be seeing you soon enough." She tried to
convince herself that it had just been a frisson of fear that had shivered up her spine and not anticipation.

"Whatever," she finally grumbled and still fully aware that it only happened because he allowed it
she yanked the car door closed, turned the ignition and drove away.

Chapter 15

Jennifer pulled into her driveway at five o’clock in the morning, it was still dark out but the sun
would be coming up soon enough. Figuring that if she took a very quick shower she could maybe push
to sleep for four hours. She realized that she would need most of the day still but if she didn’t push for
sleep she was likely to get none until this was over. Besides, she was pretty sure the vampire would
know somehow if she didn’t, and she really did want those names.

As soon as she pulled into the drive and made her way to the door she pulled her own keys from
her pocket and unlocked the door. Within the second that the door opened Khan was there to greet her
like he almost always was. "Hey buddy," she rasped, wishing like hell she could just pass out in bed, but
a shower was a must after everything she’d been exposed to today. She gave the giant dog, she
suspected a strange mix of German-Shepard and Doberman a pat on the head before locking the door
and dead-bolting it behind her

. She could have been entirely wrong about his mix, she had made a guess going on what she
thought he looked like, but his size defied either breed, his head came to her hips when he was standing
straight up, maybe there was some pony in his blood. He made his usual growl in greeting and then went
about following her through the house. First she collected a trash bag from the kitchen, and then she
dragged herself to the bathroom. She had no idea if she had gotten anything on herself tonight that could
prove contagious so she was taking no chances. As soon as she was in the bathroom she stripped down
until she was wearing nothing and tossed everything but the Beretta into the trash bag, even her coat.
She regretted the loss of it as it was comfortable, but in the end its loss was better than any zombie
potential it might possess now. So she tossed it all in the bag and sealed it up tight before jumping in the
shower, she made quick work of getting clean as at least she’d known that she hadn’t gotten any of
those things blood on her skin. When she was done she still added the loofa she’d used to the trash bag
just to be safe. All the while Khan sat patiently in the room like any over protective dog would. The
canine seemed to believe it was his purpose in life whenever they were together. Otherwise he was as
free a spirit as ever, he had been a stray when she’d found him and no attempt that she’d made to
contain him had been successful. So in the end he’d ended up with a doggie door that let him go
outside, and he had no trouble jumping the fence. She had no idea what he did when she wasn’t around
which was a good majority of the time, but she did know that no matter what time of day she came
home he was always there to greet her. She gave him another pat on the head after she wrapped a
towel around herself.

She was in no mood to waste time she didn’t have so she simply took her bag of discarded
cloths and tossed them in the basement, closing the door behind her until she had time to deal with them.
Then she headed to her room, pony sized Khan trailing behind, and managed to pull on undergarments
before slipping under her sheets. She felt Khan climb unto the opposite end of the bed as the bed
dipped but was too tired to look. She had gone longer then two days without sleep before but she
couldn’t remember a time that it had left her feeling this physically and emotionally exhausted. As soon
as she closed her eyes she immediately drifted off to sleep, Ethan’s words from their encounter earlier at
the club ringing through her head, "you really don’t remember seeing this before do you?"

The little girl sat on the couch watching her father walk around the house as she always did, he
was her hero, it was the same for her sisters. He had come home injured again from work, there were
no lies in their family, so she always knew that he’d escaped the monsters yet again. She had hugged
him when he’d come in the door because she always did right before he left and when he returned.
Today was her sister Josephine’s thirteenth birthday and consequently her second oldest sister’s
birthday was only a month behind, Julia would be eleven. Her own birthday was months away in
October something that didn’t bother her except in the fact that her older sisters were closely knit in a
way that she was not included at five years of age.

As it was Jo’s birthday she tried to reign in her usual need to try and hold her father’s attention
indefinitely. It was her only goal in life to grow up to be exactly like him so she spent every minute she
could trying to listen and learn from him, she was determined not to be afraid of the monsters like her
older sisters, she wanted the monsters to be afraid of her. Her mother was saying something to her
father that she couldn’t quite make out and when he said nothing in return she put her focus back on the
coloring book and crayon she had in hand. But then there was a bang and her mother was screaming,
when she looked back her father was on the floor convulsing. Before she could think she had dropped
the coloring book on the floor and was running over to help get her daddy up. She pushed past her two
sisters who were screaming and backing away to try to help, was almost there when her father fell still.
"Daddy?"

Like something in her voice registered her father’s form twitched where it lay otherwise
completely still, her attention was riveted to his still form willing him to get up, he was a hero, hero’s
couldn’t die. She barely noticed her mother crouched over his figure to busy praying for him to get up,
to keep fighting, because that was what he had always told her hero’s did. She felt the tears gathering at
the corners of her eyes, spilling down her cheeks, "DADDY!" As if his still form had heard her his eyes
flashed open, and for a second, at five years old, she thought God must have heard her prayers, that
God had saved her Dad. But then her mother noticed his eyes were open, relief flooded her features
and she put her hand to her husbands’s cheek.

"Baxter, look at me, what happened, are you okay?" For a moment nothing happened, her
father did nothing and the room had fallen silent as if waiting for him to take a breath, he never did. He
never said a word, never gave any warning, her father simply lunged straight up off the floor where he’d
fallen and clamped his teeth around his wife’s throat. For a moment she stood stock still,
uncomprehending as to what had just happened, paralyzed by the sight of her father’s teeth sinking into
her mother’s neck. Unable to move as he thrashed his head from side to side dislodging flesh,
splattering blood, her mother’s screams disintegrating into gurgling. Her mother’s throat gave away so
quickly, but just like that the room was a frenzy again, people screaming, all the grown-ups near by
trying to wrestle her parents apart. All the while she stood still, unable to move, to run to or away from
what was happening in front of her, terror holding her still as her father for all intents and purposes tried
to eat her mother.