Time Will Tell

by Chloe Garner

  “You have a phone?” Tina asked. She’d forgotten to ask before.

  “I took the battery out before I got here, to town,” Colette said. “It’s a self-defense app.”

  “Huh,” Tina said, impressed.

  “Is he dead?” Colette asked.

  “Not yet,” Tina said. “But he isn’t going to feel it when it comes.”

  Colette spat over her shoulder and kept coming.

  “Tell was always too soft to do it,” Colette said.

  Tina kept her reply to that unspoken.

  “Why only send one?” Tina asked, looking back once more.

  “He had a gun,” Colette said. “Why didn’t he shoot you?”

  “He thought he had me at bay,” Tina said. “Don’t know why, but that’s what he thought. You’re bleeding.”

  “Hands,” Colette said. “Probably need stitches. Tell still have the gear for that?”

  “Downstairs bathroom,” Tina said. “Can help if you need it.”

  “Been a long time since I’ve had to stitch my own wound,” Colette said. “Bet you’re better at it.”

  “He’s always taken me to the Niddles,” Tina said.

  “Don’t know them,” Colette said. Tina nodded.

  “Healers who work in his building. They’re great.”

  “You were human not that long ago,” Colette said. “But he let you stay. Why did he let you stay?”

  “Have to ask him that,” Tina said. “It was a hard call. I knew it could end up getting me killed.”

  “And did,” Colette said.

  They came out of the alley into orange street lamps and Tina looked up and down the block for signs of anyone else who might be lying in wait for them.

  She saw Tell come around the far corner and she raised her arm at him. They were okay. He disappeared again and Tina pulled her hood up over her head.

  “Keep moving,” she said. “Anyone tries to stop you, kick him in the knee.”

  “Done,” Colette answered.

  Only one.

  Tina couldn’t get over it.

  You only sent one man if you were either short of willing hands or convinced that the one man had overwhelming force.

  Why only send one?

  She couldn’t work it out.

  She went over her entire car, smelling out whether someone had tampered with it at all, then they got in and she drove back to Viella, waiting in the garage for Tell.

  “He shouldn’t have been behind us, should he?” Colette asked.

  Tina shook her head.

  “No.”

  It was a full ten minutes before his car turned into the garage, and Tina stepped in front of Colette until she saw that it was Tell - and only Tell - in the car.

  Something wasn’t right. The way he was driving was off.

  He pulled into his parking spot, but the door to his car didn’t open.

  “Go upstairs and tell Hunter to call Kirsten. He needs fountains. Three,” Tina said. Colette was frozen. Tina got out her key card and shoved it into Colette’s hands. “Elevator. There. Top floor. Doors won’t open without the key card. You know how they work?”

  “I’m not a Luddite,” Colette answered. “He isn’t okay, is he?”

  “Probably not,” Tina said. “But we’re going to take care of him. Okay? Get. Now.”

  She pushed the woman, making sure she was moving toward the elevator before Tina turned back to Tell’s car, going to open the passenger-side door and getting in.

  He had a lap full of blood.

  “Talk to me,” she said.

  “Not healing,” he said, his eyes closed. “Ought to have healed by now.”

  “Have you fed since you turned?” Tina asked. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

  “No.”

  “Is it really that surprising?” she asked. “You’re a baby. Come on. Entry wound, or entry and exit?”

  “All the way through,” Tell said. “Twice.”

  He sounded like he was laboring to speak, and Tina thought seriously about carrying him upstairs, rather than just helping him walk.

  His dignity would have interfered too much, she finally decided as she got out of the car and walked around to his side, so she pulled him out by the elbow instead, ignoring the groans of pain out of him, putting his arm across his shoulders and lifting his weight with an arm around his waist to walk him up to the elevator. She pushed the button and waited. He was dripping blood on the floor.

  “You should have healed more than that,” she agreed.

  “And it shouldn’t hurt this much,” Tell answered. “It’s like the Kaija toxin, but different. I can feel it. I couldn’t feel the Kaija toxin that kept me from healing.”

  Tina looked at him with alarm.

  “You think they’ve found a way to keep you from healing?” she asked.

  He let his head hang.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t think.”

  “Tell, that blood is awfully red,” Tina said, looking at it. He nodded, leaning harder against her.

  “It is, isn’t it?”

  She held him up as the elevator doors opened and she dragged him on, then she lifted his wallet and lifted his knees out from under him. He wasn’t supporting his own weight at all, at this point, so she was just dragging him, anyway. She pushed the button for the penthouse, scanning the keycard and tucking the wallet away into her backpack, then went and leaned against the back wall.

  His blood smelled funny.

  “They had a box,” she said quietly. “At the house where they were holding Colette. He went to go get something out of it to fight me, after he saw I was there and that I was a vampire. I’m wondering if they don’t have weapons designed especially for us.”

  “They’ve had a lot of time to think about it,” Tell said. “It’s burning like an acid is still there.”

  “You can’t coat a bullet and expect it to do much, hitting a target,” Tina said. “It accelerates too fast and too hot, and would burn off almost anything.”

  “If you knew what you were doing, you could fill a hollow point with something, though,” Tell said. “Would change the ballistics of it, but not so much that you’d care, at handgun range.”

  The elevator doors opened and Tina brushed past Colette. Hunter was on the phone.

  “Tell her there’s a body I need her to take care of, too,” Tina said, going to put Tell down on a couch.

  “Tell,” Colette cried, falling on the floor next to him. “I’m so sorry.”

  “He’s not dead yet,” Tina said. “I’m going to figure it out.”

  Colette looked up at her with wet eyes.

  “What do you mean?”

  Hunter paused, breathing a ‘hold on’ into the phone and looking directly at Tina.

  “He isn’t healing,” Tina said. “All I know for sure right now is that there’s something strange going on. We still need fountains, there’s still a body…”

  “…two,” Tell cut in. Tina nodded.

  “Two bodies that need to be taken care of, and someone should let Vince know that there’s a mess of blood in the garage and on the elevator.”

  Hunter nodded, turning his back to indicate that he was working on it again. Tina got out her keys.

  “Colette, I need you to go down and get the box out of my trunk. You should be safe in the garage, and I need to get to work.”

  “What?” Colette asked. “I’m not leaving him.”

  She was. She was wasted in love with him.

  “Now,” Tina said. “Could be that what I need to know is in that box.”

  Colette slowly took the keys, then went to the elevator, pushing the button. She looked around the penthouse slowly, still awed by it the way Tina had been, at the start, then the elevator car arrived once more and she was gone. Tina turned her attention to Tell.

  “Two holes,” she said. “Which one is going to kill you?”

  He picked up his hand to touch the one in his chest.
>
  She ripped his shirt to look at it, then went to the bathroom downstairs to get towels. She needed to be able to see better.

  “I’m calling Ginger next,” Hunter said evenly, standing outside of the bathroom. “And I need the addresses of the bodies.”

  Tina closed her eyes, struggling.

  “He has my phone,” she said. “I can find it on my phone.”

  “Go get it,” Hunter said. She nodded.

  “Right.”

  He grabbed her shoulder as she went by him, and he turned her to face him, putting the phone down against his chest.

  “I’m not worried,” he said quietly.

  That.

  She closed her eyes and breathed, feeling the pressure of his thumb under her collar bone. She nodded. Opened her eyes and kissed his cheek.

  “Thank you,” she said, going back to where Tell was on the couch. He’d managed to wrestle her phone out of his pocket and he handed it to her. She looked up the address of the Kaija building and gave Hunter directions on how to find the man she’d killed, then confirmed with Tell what alley he’d had his fight in.

  “You ought to be able to follow the blood trail back from across the street from the building,” Tina said as Hunter repeated back what she told him to Kirsten.

  He nodded and turned away again, and Tina put her fingers on the wound in Tell’s chest.

  It was…

  “Tell, it’s warm.”

  “What?” he asked. She grabbed his hand and then touched his face, ignoring the blood marks she was leaving on his skin.

  “You’re still cold,” she said. “But the wound is warm. That’s why it isn’t healing. You need the Null.”

  “The Nag,” Tell coughed. “And we have no idea how her magic would interact with this. It’s not a good idea.”

  “Well, we have to figure out something,” Tina said. “You’ve got a bullet hole in your chest, and the bits of your body right around it think you’re human.”

  “Well, that’s one way to kill a vampire,” Hunter said, leaning over the back of the couch. “Did I not do a good enough job turning you, buddy?”

  “Apparently not,” Tell coughed.

  “When you turn someone,” Tina said. “It spreads, right? From the point where you bite them?”

  “Typically you bite their neck rather than their arm or somewhere else, because it gets to their brain and their heart the fastest,” Hunter affirmed.

  “So if I mixed his raw blood with mine, the way that you do to turn someone, I could put it back into the wounds and turn them back?” Tina asked.

  Hunter was mid-dial, when he hung up and put his phone away.

  “You can’t do it,” he said. “But I can.”

  “Wait,” Tina said, looking over her shoulder quickly. “Do I have ninety seconds to take a sample? He’s human, by a vector we know nothing about. If I’m not going to get another chance at this…”

  “The gun,” Tell grunted. “You need the gun.”

  “Guns,” Tina said, looking at Hunter. “Tell Kirsten we need both guns the men were carrying that we killed.”

  He nodded.

  “You’ve got forty-five seconds to get your stupid samples,” he said. “That’s how long it’s going to take me to try this.”

  Tina ran.

  She could hear the elevator coming back up again, hear Colette standing on it, working hard under the load of the box, and she wanted to have this done before the woman got back. All of it. She didn’t want to discuss with Colette anything about turning a vampire human. That was a separate case.

  Right?

  She snarled, grabbing her sample vials and jumping over the railing to land next to Hunter and Tell. She drew the blood as Hunter bit his own arm, then stepped out of the way as he stood, eyes closed.

  “It’s human blood,” he said quietly, nodding. He knelt over Tell and bit him.

  “That’s so weird,” Tell muttered.

  “Does it hurt less?” Tina asked, and he made a sound that might have been a snort.

  “I’ve never been bitten in the chest before,” he said, coughing. Hunter put an arm across Tell’s chest to brace him still. The elevator stopped, but the doors didn’t open.

  Colette had forgotten the keycard.

  Hunter moved to Tell’s stomach, pulling the fabric of his shirt out of the way and bit him there, and Tell twisted his head away.

  “Bad enough, letting him turn me the once,” he said. Tina came to look at the chest wound and heaved a huge sigh of relief.

  “It’s working,” she said. Tell nodded.

  “It isn’t burning anymore.”

  Hunter stood and stepped away, and Tina walked up, licking her thumb to wipe the blood off the side of his mouth and his nose.

  “Not your fault,” she said. “He was already a mess.”

  He twisted his head to the side, just to express his indignance, but let her clean his face.

  “Will someone go let Colette off the elevator?” Tell asked.

  “I’m kind of liking her being trapped on there,” Hunter answered. Tina finished cleaning his face, then went and pushed the button to open the doors.

  “Need the key card to open it,” she reminded the woman as she came storming off of the elevator.

  “I got it,” Colette said. “What do you need?”

  “I’m okay,” Tell said. “I’m all right. Tina figured it out.”

  “She…?” Colette said, looking over at Tina, who nodded.

  “He’s healing. He’s still going to need fountains to get him all the way back to fighting strength, but we fixed it.”

  “How?” Colette asked.

  “Ancient vampire secret,” Hunter said mystically.

  “You haven’t changed at all,” Colette said, going to sit next to Tell again. “You’re sure?”

  She looked critically down at his shirt and Tell nodded, sitting up.

  “I’m sure,” he said, waving. “Bring that stuff over.”

  Tina got the box and set it on the floor in front of his feet, sitting down cross-legged to go through it.

  “That’s the beast he was menacing me with,” Tina said. “I thought it was a rocket launcher whose special power was going to be blowing me up into small enough pieces that I wouldn’t be able to heal, but who knows, now.”

  She went through the rest of the box, pulling out three more guns, a crossbow of all things, two boxes of ammunition, three glass jars of variously-colored fluids, three knives, two leather-bound notebooks, and something that Tina was very confident was a small bomb.

  Hunter picked up one of the knives and started wandering with it, and Tell took the larger gun that Tina had taken out first, looking at it with Colette over his shoulder, but Tina went straight for the notebooks.

  “These are in code,” she said after a minute. “I’m going to have to decrypt them before I can read them.”

  She picked up the other one and flipped through it, finding the same thing.

  There were chemical formulas, though, that looked promising, and the hand was neat and methodical, which was more promising.

  She tucked them away, half-tempted to go hide them in her room, then picked up the first of the vials, holding it up to the light and then opening it to smell it.

  “Can an X-ray see through metal?” Tell asked.

  “Um,” Tina answered, picking up her phone to check.

  It was fascinating.

  “Yes,” she said after a minute, putting her phone away again.

  “Or we could just cut it open,” Hunter said. Tell grunted and shifted, holding up a bullet.

  “Be my guest.”

  Tina followed Hunter into the kitchen, where he pried the bullet out of the casing and dumped the gunpowder into the sink. He held the bullet up.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  “Tenderizer,” Tina said. “It’s just lead.”

  He nodded.

  “I like it.”

  She got out a butcher�
�s cleaver and set it on the counter, then a meat tenderizer, and Hunter squashed the bullet between the two pretty easily. It had a cap on the end that didn’t deform like the lead did, but after the hit, it was easy to strip the lead out of the cap. There was a drip of pink fluid on the cleaver that Hunter almost poked with his finger before Tina slapped his hand.

  “Are you an idiot?” she asked. “You going to try licking it next?”

  “You know what?” he said to her. “That was state-of-the-art science when I was growing up.”

  She grinned, lifting the flat blade to sniff it. She nodded.

  “Yup. That stuff is potent, I tell you what. To be able to do that? Whatever it is…”

  She put the bottle she was still carrying down onto the counter next to the knife and pointed.

  “That’s it.”

  “That’s what?” he asked.

  “Whatever it is that they’re using that’s turning him human, it’s in that bottle. All three smells match.”

  She left her voice quite low, knowing that Tell could hear her, but that Colette couldn’t. She looked at the bottle.

  “I’ve got a lot of testing I want to do, yet,” she said quietly. “But that’s the break I need to figure it out.”

  “To go back,” Hunter said, equally quiet, and she looked up at him, nodding.

  “To go back.”

  He put his hand on her back and held it there for a moment, then let it drop and went back into the front room.

  “They had some kind of pink goo in them,” he said. “The genius back there is going to work on figuring out what it is, but it’s probably vampire poison. You should avoid it.”

  “Thank you,” Tell answered. “That’s very helpful.”

  “Oh, Tell, I’m so sorry,” Colette said. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I just don’t want Kyle…”

  “To do what that loser was always destined to do?” Hunter asked, throwing himself onto another couch. “Join up with the dark side and come after you all over again?”

  “Why are you here?” Colette asked. “Don’t you have people to antagonize all over the planet?”

  “But none of them are as much fun to antagonize as you,” Hunter answered. “You aren’t sending her out there alone again.”

  “No,” Tell answered.

  “I need to go get Kyle out of there,” Colette said.

  “I was talking about Tina,” Hunter said.