The Vampire's Consort (Undead in Brown County) (14 page)

“What happened here last night?” Michael asked Victoria.

They were sitting together on a large boulder that sat a couple hundred feet to the south of the cabin.
It was the first moment they’d had alone for quite a long time. She had been looking forward to it.

Sometimes she wondered why she and Michael hadn’t become lovers before the
Captain came into the equation. It almost seemed taboo to even think about. They carried a deep respect for each other. Michael knew that she’d given up a lot since she agreed to become one of the coveted undead. He also recognized she was a sister to him.

That was the kind of influence he needed back then.
Her advice was readily given in times of question or danger. She did not let rejections of her propositions lower her confidence. As long as Michael was in her world, she would continue to do as she was asked.

On the boulder, sitting next to Michael and watching the sun go down, Victoria began her tale.

“Kate and Alex went up into the cave.
Jackson had already shown Jones and me the cave that led up there. We didn’t see any vampires. Jones caught the scent of one, but whoever it was had enough psychic energy to repel any attempt I tried to make to understand what it was thinking. Michael, we’re dealing with something I have never encountered before. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a first for you too.”

“Sarah found Alex and Kate. Kate had been horribly wounded in the abdomen, neck and shoulder. The rogue had all but drained her. Alex kept pushing his bleeding wrist against her mouth, demanding that she drink. When Sarah saw what was happening, she went on the hunt for Lone.”

“Lone?
Mahdi Lone did that to Katie… Kate?”

“Yes.
Alex got a good look at his face before the son of a bitch disappeared back in the bush and down into a deep crevice in the mountain. It’s definitely Lone. But, that’s not all. The other vampires who were in there with him have been transformed into something horrible.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The only word I can accurately use to describe these things is
zombies
.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“No. When Sarah ran off trying to follow Lone’s scent, three of these awful things pounced on her like cats. She was able to fend them off quite easily. Jones and Alex finished off the rest of the horrid things but they had to hunt them down one by one. And I think we missed at least four.”

“That must have been when Alex called me.
We got disconnected.”

“That’s why I sent Jones down off the mountain to call you.
The signals up here are ridiculous.”

“So why are we going back up there?”

“Because you will have to see this to believe it.”

The hike up into the crumbling cave dwellings wasn’t bad but the cave gave them some trouble.
Alex swore the outlet that led up into the containment field was to the right. But, when they reached the spot where the opening should have been, the path was collapsed in on itself. When they backtracked down several dozen feet, Alex called out to those behind him.

“There’s a new opening hidden up here, you guys.
It reeks of Lone.”

Jones slammed a fist into the cracked wall of the cave nearest him.

“That bloody thing escaped!”

Victoria sighed and shook her head.

“
I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before. Mahdi Lone must have known about this particular containment zone for a very long time. He knows it takes Pawnee blood to control the comings and goings. He drained Jackson’s father. Then he attacked Katie. The blood of those two gave him exactly what he needed.”

“That means he’s long gone,” Katie said from behind Alex.

Michael spoke up behind them.

“It also means he’s something more now than he was.
Mahdi Lone has become a Warden.”

They all looked at each other with startled expressions.

Victoria saw auras and heard flashes of their inner monologues.

Michael didn’t even attempt to block her.
His thoughts were full of rage and the urge to catch Lone as soon as possible.

When I get my hands on that foul creature, he’s going to wish he’d stayed where we put him
.

Sarah wanted revenge.

If that creepy vamp thinks he’s going to run away from me, he’s got another fucking thing coming.
I can’t believe how badly he hurt Katie. Kate.

Alex was processing the upcoming threat and thinking ahead to where Lone might
run to.

No.
Not the farm. No. How could he know about that?

Victoria skipped a trace on Jones.
They would discuss things later when they were alone. But, there was one other very active mind in the cave with them. That was Kate. Surprisingly, there was no indication at all that she was thinking about Lone or his escape.

I don’t know who you are or why you’
re talking to me. But I want you to cut it the fuck out!

In the cave, Victoria maneuvered her way to Katie’s side and grasped one of her hands to try to achieve a more pure tendril of this capable young vampire’s mind.
What she felt was alien to everything she thought she knew about the paranormal creatures and spirits that sometimes haunted this planet.

There was something serious happening with Kate.
Victoria wasn’t sure if she should ask about it. Turning her head, she met Victoria’s gaze coldly.

“Stop reading me.
I’m off limits.”

Victoria let go of
her hand and stared at her. Kate wouldn’t make eye contact.

What is she hiding?

If it was important to the council, she felt almost as if it were obligation these days. She’d become a part of politics again and wasn’t thrilled about it.

“Tell me what’s going on with you.
Right now
.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Probably not. But if you are going to be a part of Michael’s security team, I believe I have the right to know about the stability of your mental health.”

Kate looked at her blankly.

“
My mental health
?”

If Victoria
had tried to read her mind at that moment, she would not have been happy about the internal expletives going off in Kate’s head.

“You think I want to be on Michael’s security goon squad?
Are you fucking serious?”

Victoria cleared her throat before she spoke.

“I apologize.
I assumed that you would remain with your sister. It would make sense for you to guard either of them.”

Kate hadn’t thought that far ahead.
All she wanted to do was get through this exploring session so she could head back to the cabin. She had wanted to hike down to where she saw the bull elk the night before.

“I’m not telling you anything, Victoria.
If I think it’s important, I’ll tell Michael myself. No need for you to be his little spy.”

There was a more than a little bad attitude coming from Kate.

“You tell Michael to come talk to me when you’re done.
Then I’ll know you speak the truth.”

“
I thought you could read minds,” Kate said. “Are you getting a little rusty?”

A brilliant shine lit Kate’s eyes.
A challenge.

After a few moments, Kate rolled her eyes and relaxed.

“So is this the kind of friendly get-together that I earned by going through detox?
Shit, I should have planned things out a little better.”

She sighed as Victoria and Sarah stared at each other in dark malice.

“I was supposed to become a vet.
Putting on a long glove and sticking my whole arm into the vagina of a Hereford cow to check on a calf in utero. That would have been a fucking garden party with an open bar compared to this bullshit.”

Victoria snickered.
Sarah’s eyes narrowed for a second until the humor finally made its way up past the anger she was nursing for Victoria. Her lips trembled and then she burst out laughing, bent over with her eyes watering. Victoria’s cool hazel eyes crinkled before her light lilting giggle burst forth.

“Well, I’m really glad to have amused you, bitches.
So what exactly is the plan?”

“We just went over all that, Kate.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

She sighed and scuffed her boot into the dirt.

“What’s going to happen once this whole thing is over?
We all just assemble around Michael and make sure we keep his stalkers under control?”

Michael piped up from behind them.

“I was hoping for a harem, ladies.”

Future planning hadn’t mattered much to Kate after she lost her chance to become a veterinarian.
None of that had really mattered most of the time. She was sad about that sometimes. She had loved working with animals and she was very good at it. Until she became a vampire.

The family dog, Sadie, had even growled at her.
It had taken six months before that dog had warmed back up to her at all. Sadie would allow Kate to pet her, but she never looked around for Kate in the house or came running at her with a tennis ball with her usual happy Golden Retriever smile. Whiskers, Sarah’s cat, had acted the same way. The horses too.

But the bull elk she’d seen the night before had not seemed afraid of her.
He’d seemed very interested in her. She had a feeling that elk was the key to understanding the changes coming over her lately.

Something was definitely happening.
She’d been having some unusual dreams since she’d left the clinic. Dreams about wolves. Not really any kind of wolf Kate had ever seen before. And she had been a veterinary student. Wandering in these vivid, startling dreams was always the
golden one
. He seemed to find her easily every single time the dream occurred. She also felt compelled towards him, as if he were drawing her into his own primitive vision of this strange dream world. The disappointment always surprised her when she knew the dream was coming to an end. He wouldn’t come back until the next dream.

Did he exist in the real world?
Kate didn’t know. She did know she had to try to learn more about what was going on inside her. She had repelled Victoria’s psychic probing and hoped the harsh rebuke would keep Victoria out of her head for a while.

They were approaching the mouth of the cave that led out onto the containment plateau.
Bright pinpoints of fading sunlight illuminated the recesses of the narrow passage they were traveling through.

Jones was in front.
He turned back towards the others suddenly.

“Do you smell that?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Michael said. “It’s the same putrefying scent that was coming off William before I took him out.”

The others had heard Michael’s tale about William’s death and had been horrified.
Kate was more than a little relieved that creepy ancient thing was gone. Teddy still had to be told and Michael wasn’t looking forward to that.

Victoria nodded towards a crevice ahead of them.

“That’s where we threw the pieces of the ones we caught.
Look at it now.”

What Michael saw over the edge of that crevice sent icy chi
lls darting through his body. Strewn down among the scattered bones of some unfortunate animals were body parts. Gray mottled hands. Feet, some of which still clad in ragged shoes. There were two heads that had been separated from their bodies. Parts of legs drenched in blood as black as a moonless night.

Michael had seen such things before.
Body parts were nothing new to him. What was almost beyond comprehension was the fact that the heads were
alive
. Just like William’s had been. They had no voices, these living dead things, yet the tongues protruded sickeningly from cracked gray lips and the eyes roved from one rock wall to another, as if they were sizing up their chances of escape.

“Where are the other heads?” Jones demanded.
“There were four.”

“Maybe they rolled under that outcropping down there,” Kate suggested.

Victoria went completely still. Each of the others knew something was about to happen, but none could have guessed what Victoria was hearing in her head. Her eyes were pools of terror in the background of her pale lovely face.

“They want us out of here,” she whispered.
“We have to leave right now.”

“Who?” Michael asked.

The answer quickly made itself known without another word from her. Two dark shapes raced at them from opposite sides of the plateau. One caught Jones unaware and he was shoved into the crevice. He fell with a shout of rage in his throat.