Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (44 page)

"Fine," Tom agreed too easily for Jennifer’s comfort, "there’s no time to debate placement." He
looked to his people and nodded, without question they dispersed to, Jennifer assumed, get the rest of
their people ready to go. "You’ll have a five man team going in at your backs," He informed the
vampires, "Jennifer will be among them but she will not be in charge of them." She didn’t have to ask to
know that Tom would probably be the one who was.

"Those are agreeable conditions," Ethan looked to her, "we’re quite satisfied." The rest of his
people didn’t say a word, not even Jim which Jennifer found unnatural.

"I couldn’t give a fuck," Tom very uncharacteristically made his way over to her and grabbed
hold of her arm, "I know what you’re up to." If she thought for even a second there was even a small
sliver of hope that Tom wouldn’t be riding her ass the whole time it vanished.

"Tom," but before she could say a thing he was on his way off to gather the troops he was
bringing along.

"Someone’s got a crush," Jim finally piped up behind her.

"Shut up, it’s not like that," she looked over her shoulder at the vampires there, "besides I
thought Lia was the match maker?" She addressed Jim but her attention stayed on Ethan who smiled at
her comment, "thank you." She figured she should probably get that out of the way in case, not so
impossibly, she died.

"You are welcome Jennifer," in an attempt to hide any blushing that his attention on her might
induce she turned her thoughts back to Malcolm and everyone else she’d lost to this. It wouldn’t be
much longer before this would be over, the sooner the better, because there would be no retribution for
her people until Ada was dead. That was an exercise in vengeance that should have been dealt out long
ago, a fact of which Jennifer had not been aware. But she remembered everything now, her purpose
was clear, when the time came Ada would pay with her life for taking nearly everything Jennifer had ever
cared for.

Chapter 29

Jennifer had already pulled the Remington from her shoulder, loaded it during the wait, and now
had nothing currently to distract her in the interim. Considering she was probably standing next to what
very little was left of not only one of her team mates but a boyfriend she’d just broken up with she didn’t
like the lack thereof. When it became clear that Tom’s people were going to spend a little more time
going over who was going which way she sidled her way back toward Ethan in a currently crowded
room. "Hey again," she greeted once she was back within proximity though she hardly had to wait, he
probably would have heard her from across the room.

"Miss Ryan," he didn’t seem nervous to be in a room full of people that in general wanted him
dead, but his greeting was far more tense then when there hadn’t been quite so many people.

"Worried," Jennifer asked giving him a nudge with her elbow in hopes that he’d stop physically
acting like such a vampire. "You don’t have to worry I won’t let them shoot you," given her general
proximity and Tom’s solemn vow to her father to protect her she thought it was likely Tom would
prevent it before she could take a bullet.

"How are your ribs," Ethan non to subtly changed the subject, not an ounce of tension having left
his shoulders.

"All things considered," Jennifer gave a tentative twist to her torso, it hurt like hell, "I’m not
dead." It was the best that she could give him in answer, but she had yet to have the injury cause any
real hindrance. "Don’t tell me that’s the reason you wanted me close by," but of course it was, she gave
an indignant huff at the reality of her situation, she was going to find herself safely sandwiched between
Ethan and Tom. "Ethan," she didn’t think that she could find the given situation any more annoying then
she currently did.

"If you intend to take on a vampire, particularly one as dead as Dimitri you are going to need
someone with you." Very matter of fact and as much as she wanted to tell both Tom and him that they
aught to be looking after themselves she knew that neither would listen.

"Yea I’ll have all the back up in the world," she grumbled, this was what she got for wanting a
distraction. "I’ve been meaning to ask, I recognize the weapons you’re guys are carrying and why," she
looked back at the twins with their medieval weapons then indicated his sword, "is that like a samurai
sword you’ve got there?"

"Katana," he offered shaking his head but as usual smiling for her.

"I wouldn’t think that you were all that old," she explained to him, "everybody else looks to be
carrying around weapons that fit them into a specific time or place." She pointed to his fancy sword,
"but you just don’t feel that old and you’re definitely not Japanese."

His crooked smile seemed to grow brighter and he chuckled at her obvious observation, the
sound made her knees weak, which was annoying. "No I’m not am I," but that hardly explained why he
was still just that much more mysterious than even his own people. She kept staring at him blatantly
waiting for him to explain and when he realized this was how she’d chosen to grill him on the issue he
simply said, "it belonged to a friend."

Jennifer nodded her head and looked back to the floor, she couldn’t see the blood there from
here but she understood his meaning well enough. His friend was dead, that was why he was carrying
around a weapon that had little to do with himself. "Is it Shinto," she asked trying to get some clues
without digging up his friend’s grave.

"Koto, you know Katana?" Without being asked he pulled it from behind his back and
presented it to her with the handle up.

"I was guessing," but she wrapped her hand around the handle, he let it go when it was securely
in her hands. "It’s lighter then I thought it would be," she was used to carrying around a ton of
ammunition as well as the weaponry to use them, she was used to heavy.

"My friend crafted it himself," he offered, which meant at the very least that his friend had been
quite old.

"It’s beautiful," she offered the weapon back to him and he smoothly put it back in it’s sheath in
a well practiced motion. "I don’t suppose that you two grew up together," Jennifer shrugged at his
quizzical look, "I haven’t heard back yet from my guy about anything concerning you and yours just yet."

"Then I’d rather not spoil the surprise," his eyes focused on a point behind her but she ignored it.

"I’d rather know before I die," she answered in turn before diverting her attention to Tom who
was approaching her from behind.

"We’re leaving," was all he said as he brushed past toward the exit, clearly pissed off.

"Done flirting," she was asked from behind her immediately following Tom’s departure, but she
recognized the voice and without thinking turned to wrap her arms around said persons neck.

"Thank god," she gave Brook’s throat a good squeeze before backing off to find him a solid
shade of red, "I wasn’t sure if you were alright."

"Fine Sir," Jennifer rolled her eyes at the title but smiled anyway.

"Sorry for causing you any trouble," that was why she’d been so worried, he was competent
enough in her estimation to handle zombies, revenants, whatever, she just hadn’t been sure what sort of
fallout he’d find himself exposed to from Tom.

"We’re all good Sir," Jennifer gave him a quick nod and when he didn’t move on guessed
immediately he was put back on Jennifer Ryan detail.

"You’re my babysitter," she’d expected worse.

"Yes Sir," she nodded again unsure how else to respond to that.

"We better get to the door then," she turned but quickly spun back, "and I wasn’t flirting." She
protested and spun back around to find Ethan and his people waiting on her. "Don’t say a thing," she
warned before pushing her way past the vampire and making way to the door. When she was
practically standing on top of Tom she stopped waiting for him to decide to let the vampires past. After
a lengthy pause in which he was clearly debating the vampire situation with himself, and Jennifer was
fighting the urge to smack him in the head, he finally gave in.

"Monsters first," he offered in that usual stoic manner of his.

"Cute," Jennifer gave Tom her best quizzical expression, "who knew you were capable of
humor." But she stepped aside to make room for Ethan and his people to pass her. She was used to
being on point, it had been a long time since she’d trusted anyone to take that position but herself, so it
was tough to do so now. To her surprise Ethan allowed Thadeus and Jim to take the lead, she shouldn’t
have been surprised that he put himself at the rear, not only could he watch his peoples backs he could
watch over her. Why he was concerned she hadn’t a clue, but between him and Tom she was beginning
to feel the smothering effect of so much concern. A strange sense of anticipation hit when Jim took hold
of the door handle, before, after she’d understood what she was up against, she had never felt anything
but fear at the prospect. But she could feel that this time was going to be different, this time it was going
to be finished, and the sooner it was finished the sooner she could go after the real source of this.

The door beyond was full of only darkness, her eyes couldn’t penetrate, but she knew that for
the vampires it wouldn’t be a problem. She heard that strange sound of teeth snapping together before
Jim’s Mossberg and then the thud of a body hitting the floor. But there was only the one shot which
meant that the revenants that had killed Malcolm had wandered off. Her anticipation was short lived,
knowing that it was likely she was going to have to walk over what was left of Malcolm had killed the
feeling. "Sir, we’re up," Jennifer snapped herself away from her sudden apprehension and forced herself
to put one foot in front of the other. Ethan managed to keep in front of her by only a few feet as if he
could sense when she was going to move without looking. This was something that was confirmed for
her when she paused by the door next to the revenant with a bullet in it’s head lying there and he
stopped without missing a beat.

She couldn’t decide at first if she was relieved or horrified at seeing that it was not Malcolm on
the ground. It was a teen with sunken features and bloodied cloths holding a severed forearm eaten
down to the bone. She stared down at the floor, tracking the trail of blood that was smeared down the
hall, praying that it was only there because the revenant’s had dragged Malcolm away and not because
he’d gotten up and walked off on his own. "I’m good," she barked when someone put a hand on her
shoulder, she forced herself to take steps in the direction of that trail. It was just her luck that her team
wasn’t one that would be taking off in the opposite direction. "I take it we were anticipating a bigger
resistance on our way in the door." She commented over her shoulder getting a glimpse of another
group taking off down in the opposite direction.

"Give it time," she heard Tom behind her and took another brief glimpse back., the team
consisted of herself, Brook, Tom as expected, another guy she’d never laid eyes on, and to her surprise
the Amazon. She hadn’t expected the woman, since she’d been included in Tom’s little briefing Jennifer
had expected her to be leading a group of her own.

She was tired of giving things time because the longer it went on the more lives were lost, and
that was exactly the kind of thing she’d gotten into this line of work to prevent. Unlike Tom whose
entire existence revolved around cleaning up no matter the cost, she was in this to save lives, even
though she knew the cost was high. "Let’s go then shall we," she looked to Ethan who was basically in
statue mode, since he almost never did that her own alarm bells went off. "Fuck me," she swore before
gun fire went off behind them. "BACK, GET BACK!" With the vampires in front and Tom and the rest
of his team behind, and with her being the odd man out in terms of height, she couldn’t see the revenants
coming but she heard them, and she heard too many.

The vampires line tensed up like a brick wall and she felt the first wave hit but never got the
opportunity to see anything until a line of corpses was on the floor. The vampires were swift, efficient
and she had absolutely no doubt that if they chose could plow their way through the horde plugging the
path forward, unfortunately she could tell from the rate of screaming and shooting on the other end that
they’d be blocked in on both sides. "There are too many," she shouted over the heads of both the guy
she didn’t know and the Amazon, "we have to pull back." The tunnels were too small to form a decent
line, two people, especially people the general size of Tom’s people took up enough room that you
couldn’t shoot around them, but the revenant’s didn’t seem to have the same concept of space. They
were packed into the space to nearly the point of crawling over each other and when bullets took out the
front row the ones behind came stumbling over them. The vampires were fast, it was an advantage
Tom’s people didn’t have, that and considering his people were supposed to be elite she took note that
Amazon didn’t have the sense to aim for the head. "TOM!" It figured that no one would listen to her,
the vampires were pushing forward all the while the revenants to the rear had pushed Tom’s second
team back. But he didn’t even look to her until she grabbed hold of his rifle and shoved the barrel to the
floor, effectively ruining his aim. "We have to pull back and let them into the building," at least then she
could shoot something that wasn’t a team mate in the back.