The Immortal Rules (19 page)

“Yes, sir.”

“And does she know our situation? What we are searching for?”

“I’ve told her, yes.”

I expected Ruth to pipe up, voicing her suspicions to what was obviously the leader of the group. But Ruth was quiet and still as she stood beside Darren, staring at the ground. Caleb, too, clung to her hand and remained silent. Only Zeke seemed truly at ease, though he stood straight and tall with his hands clasped behind him, like a soldier awaiting orders.

What have you gotten yourself into, Allison?

The human continued to observe me, betraying no emotion. “Your name?” he asked, like a pet barking orders to his underlings. I swallowed a growl and met his piercing stare head-on.

“Allison,” I replied, giving him a smirk. “And you must be Jeb.”

“I am Jebbadiah Crosse,” the man continued with a slightly offended air. “And Ezekiel knows I turn away none in need, so you are welcome here. However, if you choose to stay, there are rules everyone must follow. We travel at night, and we move fast. Those who fall behind will be left. Everyone contributes—there are no free meals here, so you will be expected to work: hunting, gathering, cooking if there is need. Thievery of any sort will not be tolerated. If you think you can follow these rules, then you are welcome to stay.”

“Can I now?” I said as sarcastically as I could. “Thanks so much.” I couldn’t help it. Throwing rules in my face, expecting me to follow just because someone said so, never sat well with me. Ruth and Darren blinked at me, shocked, but Jebbadiah didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow.

“Ezekiel is my second—any problems you have, you take up with him,” he continued and turned to Zeke, giving him a curt nod. “Good work finding the boy, son.”

“Thank you, sir.”

A very faint, proud smile crossed Jebbadiah’s lips before he turned sharply to Ruth, who cringed under his stare. “I expect you to keep a better eye on young Caleb in the future,” he said. “Such carelessness is unforgivable. Had Ezekiel not found him tonight, he would’ve been left behind. Do you understand?” Ruth’s lower lip trembled, and she nodded.

“Good.” Jeb stepped back, nodded at me, his steely eyes unreadable. “Welcome to the family, Allison,” he stated and strode away, hands clasped behind him. I was tempted to make a face at his retreating back, but Zeke was watching me, so I resisted.

Darren slapped Zeke on the shoulder and returned to his post. Caleb beamed at us, but Ruth took his hand and dragged him off. I shot Zeke a sideways look, raising an eyebrow.

“Ezekiel?”

He winced. “Yeah. It’s the name of an archangel, but only Jeb calls me that anymore.” Raking a hand through his hair, he turned away. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

Not long after, I met nearly everyone in the small congregation, though I forgot most of their names as soon as I heard them. Of the dozen or so skinny, half-starved people, about half were adults; the rest were kids my age and younger. I suspected, from the amount of children running around with no parents, that the group had been larger once. I wondered how long they had been wandering, following a fanatical old man, looking for some mythical city that probably didn’t exist. I wondered how many hadn’t made it this far.

Initially, the adults were cool toward me; I was a stranger, new and untried, and yet another mouth to feed. It was the same back in the Fringe. But after Zeke told my story, with even more hatred and anger for the vampires than I had first embellished, they regarded me with newfound sympathy, awe and respect. I was relieved; in one fell swoop, I had won over this group of strangers without having to say or prove anything at all. Well, actually, it was Zeke who did the winning, but I wasn’t going to complain. Staying with these people would be hard enough without immediate suspicion and distrust.

“All right, listen up, everyone!” Zeke called after introductions were made. “Dawn is about two hours away, and it’s too late to continue on tonight. So we’re setting up camp here. Now, listen, I need the first and second watch doubled until sunrise. Darren and I didn’t see any rabids in the area, but I don’t want to take chances. Allison…” He turned in my direction, surprising me. “Did you see any rabids when you first came in?”

“No,” I replied, thrilled at what he was doing. Including me, making me a part of the group. “The road was clear.”

“Good.” Zeke turned back to the others. “Most of the apartment rooms are fairly clear and have concrete floors, so we’ll be safe there. Everyone get some rest while they can. Jeb wants an early start tomorrow night.”

The group broke into organized chaos, moving slowly into the apartment complex. I stood beside Zeke, watching them, and caught several curious glances, especially from the kids and young people. Ruth glared daggers as she led Caleb into the apartment ruins, and I smiled back nastily.

“Ezekiel.” Jeb appeared again, coming from nowhere to stand before us.

“Sir.”

Jeb put a hand on his shoulder. “I want you to take first watch tonight with the others. At least until dawn. It’s not that I don’t trust Jake and Darren, but I want someone more experienced in a town like this. Make sure the demons don’t creep up on us in our sleep.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jeb’s gaze shifted to me and back again. “Take Allison with you. Tell her how things are done here. She can start contributing to the group today.”

Oh, great. I hope they don’t expect me to take watch in the daylight hours. How am I going to get out of this?

Jeb suddenly looked right at me, and something in those flinty eyes made me want to back away, snarling. “You don’t mind, do you girl?”

“Not at all,” I replied, staring him down, “if you ask me nicely.”

Jeb’s eyebrow twitched. “Ezekiel, will you excuse us a moment?” he asked in his not-really-a-question voice. Zeke gave me a helpless look but immediately nodded and left, walking back toward the gate.

I raised my chin and faced Jebbadiah Crosse, defiant smirk firmly in place. If this crazy old man wanted to lecture me, he was in for a surprise. I wasn’t afraid of him, I wasn’t part of his flock, and I was more than ready to tell him what he could do with his lecture.

Jeb regarded me with no expression. “Do you believe in God, Allison?”

“No,” I said immediately. “Is this the part where you tell me I’m going to hell?”

“This is hell,” Jebbadiah said, gesturing to the town around us. “This is our punishment, our Tribulation. God has abandoned this world. The faithful have already gone on to their reward, and he has left the rest of us here, at the mercy of the demons and the devils. The sins of our fathers have passed on to their children, and their children’s children, and it will continue to be so until this world is completely destroyed. So it doesn’t matter if you believe in God or not, because He is not here.”

I blinked at him, speechless. “That’s…”

“Not what you were expecting?” Jeb gave a bitter smile. “It is useless to offer words of hope when you have none yourself. And I have seen things in this world to make me certain that God is no longer watching us. I am not here to preach His message or to convert the entire world—it is far too late for that.

“However,” he continued, giving me a hard stare, “these people expect me to lead them to our destination. I expect Ezekiel has already told you about Eden. Know this—I will allow nothing—
nothing
—to keep us from our goal. I will do whatever it takes to reach it, even if it means leaving a few behind. Those who cannot contribute, or those who cause problems, will be cast out. I give you this warning now. Make of it what you will.”

“You’re still hoping to reach your Promised Land even though you don’t believe in it?”

“Eden is real,” Jeb said with utter confidence. “It is a city, nothing more. I have no illusions of a Promised Land or Paradise. But there
is
a human city, one with no vampires, and that is enough to keep us searching.

“I cannot offer them God,” Jebbadiah continued, looking back toward the apartments. “I wish I could, but He is far from our reach. But I can give them hope of something better than this.” His expression hardened. “And perhaps, when we reach Eden, I can offer something more.”

Once again, his gaze flicked to me, becoming sharp and cold. “This world is full of evil,” he said, peering at me as if he was trying to see inside my head. “God has abandoned it, but that does not mean we should submit to the devils who rule it now. I know not what waits beyond this hell. Perhaps this is a test. Perhaps someday, we will cast the devils out for good. But first, we have to reach Eden. Nothing matters but that.”

He might not be a true religious fanatic, but he was still scary, with that determined, obsessive gleam in his eyes. “Well, you can relax,” I told him. “If you want to look for Eden, by all means, go right ahead. I’m not about to stop you.”

“No, you will not.” Jebbadiah stepped back as if that was the end of it. “Go to Ezekiel,” he said, dismissing me with a wave of his hand. “Tell him to find you a tent and a backpack—we have a few left over from those who have passed on. And be ready to move out as soon as the sun sets. We have a lot of ground to cover.”

As soon as he was gone, I seriously considered leaving. Walking away from this insane cult with its fanatic leader who already had it in for me. How was I going to feed with ol’ Crazy-eyes watching my every move? Something told me Jeb wasn’t the understanding type. If he ever discovered what I was, I could see torches and angry mobs and stakings in my future.

For a second, I wondered if I shouldn’t just vanish into the night. It was stupid and risky to be around so many humans, anyway. Maybe I
should
turn into a predator lurking on the fringes of their small society, hunting them through the darkness. But then Zeke came around a corner, a green knapsack over one shoulder, and I felt my convictions disappear.

“Heads up,” Zeke said, tossing the pack at me. “There’s a tent and a few supplies,” he explained as I caught it, surprised that it was so light. “It’s not big, but at least it’ll keep the rain off you when we’re camping out in the open. You know how to put up a tent, right?”

“Not really.”

“I can show you,” Zeke said, smiling again. “Tomorrow, I promise. But right now, I have first watch until dawn. Come sit with me a few minutes, and then I’ll let you sleep—you probably need it after today.”

As I smiled back and followed him to where he had set up watch, I couldn’t help thinking that this boy—this helpful, friendly, genuinely nice human being—was probably going to get me killed.

Chapter 12

The next evening, I woke up groggy and a bit disoriented. I wasn’t in the cool, comforting earth; I’d taken shelter in a top room of the old apartment complex the previous night, well away from the group below. I’d had to climb a few flights of broken stairs, and I’d spent the daylight hours in a windowless hole of a room, lying on hard concrete, but it was necessary. I didn’t want anyone tripping over my body in the daytime and realizing I slept like the dead.

Dropping back to the ground floor, I found most of the group just beginning to stir, as well. In the middle of the room, Ruth and an older woman with graying hair were starting to lay out food, opening cans of fruit and pouring them into metal bowls and cups. They seemed efficient as they opened a can, poured half the contents into a bowl, and handed it to a waiting child. Caleb, after receiving his share, trotted away with cup in hand, picking out yellow slices with his fingers. He stopped short when he saw me.

“Hi, Allie.” Beaming, he held up his cup. “Look at what Zeke and Darren found yesterday! It’s sweet. Are you going to get some?”

“Um.” I glanced at the women and found Ruth glaring at me again. What the hell was the girl’s problem? “Not now. I’m not really that hungry.”

His eyes widened, as if he couldn’t believe what I had just said. “Really? But, we hardly ever get food like this! You should try it, at least a little bit.”

I smiled wistfully, remembering when I had taken such pleasure in a can of fruit. I wished I could’ve tried some, but Kanin had warned me that normal food would make me sick, and my body would expel it almost immediately. Meaning I would hurl it back up, something I did not want to do in front of a group of strangers.

“Here.” Caleb held up a dripping yellow slice, and abruptly, the sweet, cloying smell made me slightly nauseated. “Have one of mine.”

“Maybe later.” I shifted uneasily and took a step back, feeling Ruth’s never-ending glare at the base of my skull. “Have you seen Zeke?”

“He’s always with Jeb when we first wake up.” Caleb stuffed the whole slice into his mouth, then gave me a yellow-orange smile. “We usually don’t see him until after breakfast.”

“Here, dearie.” An older woman stepped in front of me, holding out a bowl. It was half full of slimy, colorful fruit chunks, and my stomach recoiled at the sight of it. “We never got to thank you for finding Caleb last night. I know you must be hungry—go ahead and eat. We won’t tell the others you skipped your place in line.”

I stifled a sigh and took the bowl. “Thank you,” I told her, and she smiled.

“You’re one of us now,” she said and hobbled back to the others, favoring her left leg. I tried to remember her name and failed.

Taking the bowl with me, I walked outside, looking for Zeke.

I found him talking to Darren near the broken gate, discussing plans for the night. Physically, Darren and Zeke were similar, all lean muscle and wiry strength, though Darren was dark where Zeke was pale and fair. Between them, the pair probably did most of the harder physical tasks, since the majority of the group were women, kids and old people. There was a middle-aged black man—Jake, I think his name was—who helped out as well, but he had a bad shoulder so the harder tasks fell to the two boys.

“I think we should spend some more time scavenging, too,” Zeke was saying as I came up, “but Jeb wants everyone to move out as soon as they’ve finished eating. He already thinks we’ve wasted too much time here. You want to argue, you take it up with him. Oh, hey, Allison.” He nodded pleasantly, and Darren scowled at me and walked off. I jerked my thumb at his back.

“What’s with him?”

“Darren?” Zeke shrugged. “He’s just being sulky, don’t worry about it. He thinks we should wait another night before moving on, search the rest of the town for food and supplies. We got lucky yesterday. Found a mini-mart that hadn’t been picked clean, and Dare thinks there could be more nearby.” He sighed and shook his head. “He has a point. Unfortunately, once Jeb says it’s time to go, it’s time to go.”

“That’s insane. Here.” I handed him the bowl. He blinked in surprise but took it with a murmur of thanks. “He won’t even stop for food? What’s the hurry?”

“He’s always been like that,” Zeke replied with a careless shrug, and picked out a chunk of white fruit, tossing it back. “Hey, don’t look at me. I don’t make the rules. I just carry them out. But Jeb has our best interests at heart, always, so don’t worry about it. Speaking of which, did you get anything to eat? We’re not going to stop for several hours, and you should have something for the march.”

“I’m good,” I told him, avoiding his eyes. “I already ate.”

“Ezekiel!” called a familiar voice. Jeb walked out of the apartments and motioned to him. “Are we almost ready?”

“Yes, sir!” Zeke called back and headed in his direction. But he stopped and gave the bowl to the elderly man sitting on the fountain ruins before continuing toward Jeb. “Everyone is packing up. As soon as we’re all finished eating, we’re ready to go.”

They walked off, still discussing. I turned and came face-to-face with Ruth.

The other girl held my gaze. We were about the same height, so I could see right into her dark brown eyes. Oh, man, she didn’t just dislike me, she
loathed
me. Which was pretty ungrateful, I thought. Especially since I had saved her darling little brother.
Especially
since I had no idea why she hated me so much.

“Can I help you?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at her.

She flushed. “I know who you are,” she huffed, making my stomach lurch. “I know why you’re here, why you’re hanging around.”

Narrowing my eyes, I regarded her intently, wondering if she knew what a dangerous position she was in. “Is that so?”

“Yes. And I’m here to tell you to forget it. Zeke isn’t interested.”

Ah,
now
it all made sense. I almost laughed in her face. “Look, you don’t have to worry,” I said, trying to be reasonable. “I’m not interested that way, either.”

“Good,” she said, watching me intently. “’Cause there’s something about you that isn’t…right.”

My amusement vanished. My senses prickled a warning, and the vampire within urged me to attack, to silence her before she became a problem. I shut it down, hard. “Aren’t you taking this ‘don’t talk to strangers’ thing a little far?” I asked.

Ruth’s lips tightened. “You’re hiding something,” she said, taking a step back. “I don’t know what it is, and I don’t care, but Zeke is too good to be ruined by someone like you. He has the unfortunate habit of seeing the good in everyone, and he’s too nice to realize he’s being taken advantage of. So I’m warning you now, keep your dirty claws away from him. I’ll make you sorry you ever came here if you don’t.” Before I could respond, she flounced off, dark curls bouncing. “And stay away from Caleb, too,” she called back over her shoulder.

“Charming,” I muttered under my breath and felt my fangs poking my gums. “Well, we know who’s going to get bitten first now, don’t we?”

Not long after that, fed, packed up and ready to march, the small group of eleven people gathered around the fountain, talking quietly with each other and shooting curious glances at me, hanging back in the shadows. Then, as if prodded by an invisible signal, we started moving out; three teens, five adults, three children and a vampire, weaving silently through town and onto the road. They walked quickly—even the kids and the two elderly people moved with a sense of purpose—and soon the town faded behind us.

* * *

“S
O
, A
LLISON
,
WAS
IT
? You came from a vampire city. Did you see many of the soulless devils wandering about?”

I repressed a sigh. That was the question of the night, it seemed. I’d already been asked something similar by Teresa, the old woman with the bad leg; Matthew, a freckly ten-year-old; and Ruth, who inquired with a perfectly straight face if I had been a vampire’s whore. Of course, then Caleb had to ask what a whore was, and Ruth gave him a very vague and watered-down explanation, all the while smiling at me over his head. If Zeke and Jeb hadn’t been nearby, out of earshot of course, I might’ve punched the smug bitch in the nose.

This time, the question came from Dorothy, a middle-aged blond woman with vacant green eyes and a smile to match. She would often wander a little behind the rest of the group, staring down the road or toward the horizon, always smiling. Sometimes she waved to things in the distance—things that were never there. Other times she would randomly break into song, belting out “Amazing Grace” or “On a Hill Far Away” at the top of her lungs until someone told her, very nicely, to shush.

I suspected she was a few bricks short of a full load. But there were also times where she seemed perfectly coherent and normal. Times like now, unfortunately, when she was sane enough to ask questions I really didn’t want to answer.

“No,” I muttered, keeping my gaze on the road ahead.
Don’t make eye contact with the crazy woman; don’t look at her and maybe she’ll go away.
“I didn’t see many vampires ‘wandering about.’ I didn’t see many vampires, period.”

“How do you know?” Dorothy asked, and I gave her a suspicious look, forgetting not to make eye contact. She smiled emptily. “Vampire devils are masters of disguise,” she went on, to my extreme discomfort. “People think they’re slavering monsters with red eyes and fangs, but that’s what they want you to think. Really, they can look like anyone else.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “That’s what makes them so dangerous. They can look perfectly human. They can look just like Teresa. Or me. Or you.”

I felt a flutter of panic and squashed it down. “I don’t know, then,” I told her with a shrug. “I saw lots of people in the city. Maybe they were all vampires—I couldn’t tell.”

“Oh, there are other ways to tell if a person is really a devil,” Dorothy continued, nodding seriously. “Devils hate the sun. They burst into flame in the light. Devils can’t resist the sight of blood, and they don’t breathe like we do. But most important…” She leaned in, and I felt my fangs pressing through my gums, wanting to bite, to silence her. “Most important,” she whispered, “devils are surrounded by this red glow, this aura of evil that only a few can see. You have to know what to look for, and it’s difficult to see at a distance, but that is how you can tell a devil from a real person. Just like the white glow around the angels that walk down the road sometimes.” She broke off, smiling dreamily at the horizon, where the pavement met the sky. “Oh, there’s one now! Can you see him? He’s walking away from us, so it might be hard to tell.”

There was no one on the road. There was nothing ahead of us at all, except a large brown bird, perched on a fence post. I gave her a wary look and edged away, as she waved both arms in the air, making the bird fly off with a startled
whoo-whooing
sound.

“Is that Gabriel? Or Uriel?” She signaled frantically, then pouted. “Oh, he disappeared! They’re so shy. It might’ve been Gabriel, though.”

“Dorothy.” Zeke was suddenly there, smiling as I shot him a desperate look over the crazy woman’s shoulder. “Allison doesn’t know us very well yet. She might be nervous around your angels—not everyone can see them as well as you.”

“Oh, right! Sorry, love.” Dorothy squeezed his shoulder, beaming crazily, but he only grinned back. “I forget sometimes. You’re an angel yourself, you know that? Ezekiel. The angel of death.”

Now Zeke looked faintly embarrassed, giving me an apologetic glance as Dorothy patted his arm and turned to me. “He thinks he can fool me,” she whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear, “but I know he’s an angel in disguise. You can tell. When you’ve seen as many angels as I have, you can always tell.”

She tried patting my arm but missed as I slid smoothly away. Unconcerned and humming softly to herself, she wandered to the side of the road and peered into the distance, probably looking for her bashful angels. Zeke sighed and shook his head.

“Sorry about that,” he said with a rueful grin. “Forgot to warn you about Dorothy—she’s a little touched in the head, if you hadn’t figured it out by now. Sees angels every other day.”

My body uncoiled in relief. For a second, I’d thought I was in real trouble. “Has anyone here seen a real vampire?” I asked, wondering whom I should be wary of. “Forget fangs and claws and red beady eyes, does anyone here really know what they look like?”

“Well, Dorothy swears she’s seen one, though she can’t remember exactly when or where, so who knows if it was real. Beyond that…” He shrugged. “Jeb. Jebbadiah’s whole family was slaughtered by a vampire when he was a kid, and he’s never forgotten what it looked like. He says he’s always remembered, so he can kill the vampire if they ever meet again.”

I looked at Jebbadiah, at the head of the group, walking briskly down the road without looking back. And I wondered what a lifetime of anger, resentment and hatred could do to someone like him.

A few hours later, my internal clock was giving me the two-hour warning when Jeb held up a hand, calling the group to a stop. Zeke jogged up beside him, leaned in as Jeb spoke quietly, then turned to face the rest of us.

“Set up camp!” he called, sweeping his arm to the side, and the group immediately began shuffling off the road into the dry grass that surrounded us. “Jake, Silas, you’re on first watch. Teresa—” he nodded at the old woman “—Darren will help Ruth with dinner tonight. You should rest your leg. Keep off it for a few hours at least.” Darren muttered something as he passed, and Zeke rolled his eyes. “Yes, poor Darren, forced to cook and clean and do other unmanly things. Next thing you know he’ll be wearing an apron and popping out babies.” He snorted as Darren turned and did something with his hand. “We’re friends, but we’re not that close, Dare.”