Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (45 page)

"Hold the line," Tom barked at her, probably content to have her stuffed in the center. She
glanced to the vampires who were maneuvering in and out between one another with a speed and
accuracy that was blinding. There were already bodies piling up beneath their feet, which was great but
was soon going to make it difficult to move forward.

"This isn’t workin’," she heard Jim shout somewhere in front of them. Jennifer couldn’t have
agreed more, if the vampires didn’t think it was working when they were doing as well as they were she
couldn’t see how Tom didn’t see it when only half his people were getting off shots.

"Fuck this," Jennifer growled before turning back, "Ethan," he appeared next to her before she
could blink and it took a good deal of self control not to shoot him when he did. "Jim’s right this isn’t
working we have to pull back." The vampire nodded, she was thrilled to see at least one of the people
or sort of people in his case, was willing to listen to her. "TOM!" She shouted again over the gun fire,
"either pull us back or move out of the way!" She had hoped that her estimation of the situation from
what little she could see was off, that Tom wasn’t pulling back because he really did have things under
some control, but the minute she spoke the Amazon was snatched from the line at a speed that couldn’t
have been the result of just any revenant. Jennifer got a glimpse of the tall, blood soaked, but handsome
revenant pulling the other woman in tight against it’s body and snapping it’s jaws closed over her mouth.
When it yanked it’s head back half the woman’s face came peeling away with little resistance. She was
well past asking for permission, Amazon’s gap let her see that the team who had taken the opposite
direction was gone, swallowed by a wall of revenants, and the tall one outside that mass, with it’s
perfectly sculpted male physic and chiseled but blood drenched features was a vampire if she’d ever
seen one, or it had been once. Before nameless guy could take up the position Jennifer shoved past him
and out past Tom’s little relegated line. The woman who was still getting hunks of her face eaten off was
struggling in the things arms so Jennifer did the only thing she could think to, she put the first bullet in her
head.

Tom’s first shot, after Jennifer took out Amazon, hit the revenant in the chest, the next shot took
it in the right tenple and it stumbled releasing the body in it’s arms on its way to the ground.. Jennifer
wished she was surprised when even after that it started pushing to its feet. She grabbed hold of Tom’s
arm when he made to move forward, "Ethan," as if on cue two vampires, MacArthur and his twin
Meredith were in front of them.

"They’ll clear a line back," Ethan told her before disappearing again, his version of protecting her
at least didn’t involve standing next to her.

"Brook," Jennifer called though she didn’t have to he was behind her where he’d been the whole
time unable to fire without a clear line of sight. "We’re moving back," though she hardly thought she had
to tell him, she turned her attention glaringly back onto Tom but he made no argument. That was an
improvement she supposed over holding the line which was an impossible feat at this juncture. She
waited for the twins to push the revenants back past the door they’d come in, "MOVE!" Just in cast
she kept her fingers tightly gripped into the material at Tom’s sleeve and pulled him forward with her.
Brook and the other guy followed without question, which might not have been the case if Tom hadn’t
cooperatively stayed beside her. "Up the stairs," Jennifer ordered them, they needed more
maneuverability then this room had to offer. "Go," Brook blessedly did as he was told, nameless guy
hung back at Tom’s side. She practically had to jump in front of him to keep him from shooting one of
the vampires as they entered the door behind them.

"Jennifer," Tom all but snapped at her, not that it was her fault nameless guy was a moron.

"I’m waiting for them," she told him, "if you aren’t going to be useful then you should go and I’ll
meet you upstairs." She pushed nameless guy behind her and was relieved to see Lydia and Jim come
through the door first, Thadeus and the German were next. "Where’s Ethan," she shouted over the
cacophony of snapping teeth and strange guttural shrieking.

"Getting one of the twins, pull back," Thadeus ordered, the rest of his people moving without
question to follow. Where did Ethan and Tom find people who followed orders so unerringly, she was
certain they were thrilled she wasn’t a hassle they had to deal with often. She had no idea what he could
mean by getting one of the twins but it couldn’t mean anything remotely good.

She made to move back to the door and was stopped immediately by Tom’s restraining hand on
her forearm. "I’m going Tom, you can either help me or get out of the way," she was not leaving a single
person to these things if she could avoid it, not even a vampire. Especially given a vampire turned
revenant was an insane thing to deal with, she still wasn’t even certain they could be killed after seeing
that one take a shot to the head.

"Get upstairs," for a moment she was certain he was trying to order her around but to her
surprise nameless guy took off up the stairs without being asked twice. "You’re going to get us both
killed," he told her but made no move to do anything contrary to moving them both forward.

Jennifer shook her head but of course she very likely could be getting them both killed, she owed
the vampire at least enough to make certain she wasn’t leaving him behind to be someone’s dinner if it
could be avoided. So when Tom let go of her arm she immediately reloaded the Remington, shot the
first rotting corpse that came at her through the door and kept shooting until they’d cleared the entrance.
She shouted for Ethan but didn’t have to look far, both him and one of the twins were slicing through
revenants like butter. A look further down revealed one of the twins slamming the revenant missing half
it’s upper head into a paved wall, Ethan’s and the second twins efforts were clearly hell bent on keeping
the slower revenants from getting the distracted twin from behind. "Get out of there," she shouted well
aware that if the twin locked in a choke hold could do that he would have already. "Damn," she lost
sight of the twin and the revenant with the blown open skull so she forced herself back out beyond the
door, shooting any bloodied thing that tried to break the vampires lines.

"Jennifer get back inside," she heard Tom yelling behind her as she started pushing further out.
She spun back in the direction of the door, instinctively knowing that revenants were closing in behind
her, she was going to be forced to clear the way back. She turned with the intent of doing just that and
froze, the figure behind her was barely recognizable, the gut section was hollowed out like a pumpkin,
she was pretty certain that the spinal cord might be visible it was that deep, it was missing a hand and the
face was badly damaged, mandible torn away, one eye swollen shut, but she felt like she would have
recognized him if revenants had eaten every inch of flesh from his skull.

"Malcolm," she couldn’t have done more then breath his name before what was left of him
lunged forward in an attempt to get her. It had no lower jaw so it couldn’t physically bite her, she could
only assume that it intended to try and get through her flesh by landing on her face first with it’s upper
teeth. She should have reacted but instead guilt got the better of her and she didn’t shoot until it was
already on her. She was going to have to take the blow and it wasn’t going to result in anything good for
her future. She got off a round but Malcolm’s corpse was going to fall on her whether she plugged him
in the chest or not. She was braced for the fall so when it happened it didn’t hurt as much as it might
have if she hadn’t been expecting it but Malcolm’s corpse didn’t follow her to the ground. She looked
up to find Ethan standing over her, his arm blocking the teeth that had been meant for her. "No," she
moved to help but with that same speed she couldn’t see his sword took the corpses head off and he
pulled her up into his arms.

"Merry," he called before she could say anything else, "pull back now." A glance over her
shoulder revealed the short haired twin dragging his very beaten looking brother back toward the
entrance. She thanked her lucky stars that Tom was clearing one direction back to the building so she
could focus on shooting anything that was behind them. She got a very limited glimpse of the pieces of
the revenant that the twin had pulled apart before she started firing into the revenants that swarmed over
it.

"How are there so many," she called not expecting an answer, she was pretty certain she didn’t
actually want to know if someone had the answer. This was quickly moving in her mind from revenants
back to zombies, at least down here it felt like the apocalypse had hit. Ethan could have easily picked
her up and whizzed her off to safety, he’d done it before, but he led her backwards with the hold he’d
taken on her to get her to her feet but let her continue shooting at the revenants coming up on their rear.
It wasn’t until they reached the door that he shoved her in ahead of him, effectively making him the last
person in the door. She would have thought with his vampire speed he would have managed to slam the
door without a problem but there were just too many of those things, and they felt no pain, so when he
swung the door shut there were too many limbs to jam it closed.

"You should have left him," Tom shouted behind her and she turned back toward the twins.

"Help with the door," Jennifer told her adopted family before rushing over to the twins. "Were
you bitten," she asked the one that looked to have had the crap kicked out of him, fully aware that if
these two hadn’t intervened when they had it was likely that more then just the Amazon would be dead.

"Aye," was all he gave in answer, his twin said something to him in a language she didn’t
recognize but the one she was pretty sure was MacArthur shook his head. "I’ll go back out there, give
the rest time to reach higher ground."

"No," Jennifer protested before the twin could, he looked slightly flummoxed by her protest but
distraction or no they weren’t feeding anyone to those things again.

"Aye," MacArthur insisted, at which point the twins argued in that language for what little time
they could spare before MacArthur finally pushed his twin off. "I’m dead already anyway."

"You don’t have to do this," Jennifer felt a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, she was trying to
keep a vampire from killing himself and worse yet she was doing it because she didn’t want him to die.
A glimpse to the short haired twin made her stomach twist painfully, he was clearly barely containing the
urge to tackle his brother to the floor.

"Best be making your way upstairs lass," was all he said as he stumbled past her. Once he
weaved his way to the door he stopped by Tom instead of Ethan, "give me the device from earlier."

"Oh shit," Jennifer cursed when Tom handed over the grenade he’d shown them for ‘in case of
imminent death’ use only. As soon as Tom handed the explosive over he took his weight off the door
and grabbed hold of her on his way to the stairs.

"Ethan," she remembered half way up the flight that he may very well have been bitten too, she
couldn’t let him stay.

"I’ll see you upstairs Hunter," he called pushing back so hard on the door the metal was
beginning to bow out away from him. She shook her head but did finally pull her head out of her ass
enough to notice that his forearms were wrapped in duct tape. He wouldn’t just kill himself for nothing
so if he wasn’t bitten and he said he’d see her upstairs then she trusted that she would see him, assuming
he didn’t explode. She allowed herself to be towed the rest of the way up all the while keeping her
fingers crossed that his vampire speed would be fast enough to avoid a thermobaric explosion. The last
thing she saw before Tom pulled her up and past the stairs was MacArthur slipping back out into the
tunnels, another team member gone. She had to force herself to keep pace with Tom, not an easy feat
when he started to run full out to get them both as far from the explosion as he could. When nothing
happened she figured that something had to have gone wrong.

"Tom wait," she dragged her feet forcing him to come to a stop beside her, "shouldn’t it have
gone off by........." She felt it before she heard it, apparently they hadn’t gotten far enough because the
floor seemed to quake beneath her feet. Tom was thrown in one direction and she felt herself pulled in
the other, her back slammed into what could only be the wall behind her and for a brief moment the
world turned on its axis as it went black. She knew that she wasn’t completely unconscious because she
felt weight as something heavy landed on her. For a moment she thought it was the wall she’d collided
with but she didn’t get a chance to wonder what it was that felt as though it was crushing the air out of
her lungs; because she felt what little awareness she was grasping onto slipping away as that sudden
impact of weight slammed into her chest.

Chapter 30

Consciousness came back in a haze, details coming back into focus in stages, first a ringing noise
in her ears that slowly started to fade into voices that she recognized, which were slowly drowned out by
the chattering of teeth. She blinked her eyes open to find Ethan over her, probably shielding her from
the blast that had knocked her over. The minute her eyes were open he was on his feet but made no
move to pull her up behind him this time, maybe he thought it best that she find her equilibrium first. She
rolled to her side and found the Remington a good meter away so instead of wasting the time to reach
for it she pulled the Beretta’s from the hip holster and forced herself to sit up even though her bruised
ribs tried to insist she lay still. The pain was the jolt her system needed to push her into full awareness,
the gunfire was the second. Sitting up put her face to face with Tom firing his M-16 into a small group of
revenants, he put the bloody blackened figures down before turning to her. There was a cut above his
brow and blood was running down into one of his eyes but he ignored it and made his way to her side.