Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife)

by Robles, Joyce

  "No," Jennifer shook her head and went back to shoving any bit of furniture in her path against the door. "Were you," she asked over her shoulder, she waited for him to try to shoot her or answer the question, after a pause he shook his head. "Dandy," Jennifer breathed, "we should go." He nodded and Jennifer made her way to the nursery door trying to ignore the screaming kid as she passed, that was going to complicate things. " Are you any good with kids," she’d never spent any time with them, her job was all consuming and her family was dead, all but one.

  "What," Triple-F looked at her like she’d grown a second head.

  "I’m not asking you to marry me so I can bare your children, we need the kid to shut up." She did not want to be forced to run down these halls with a screaming beacon. Admittedly the exit they wanted wasn’t far, but they couldn’t guess which direction outside of the door they’d just entered through those things might come at them. She actually took the time to glance at the kid, it was splattered with blood like she was and it’s clothing was a gender neutral color, even it’s hair was cut in a unisex way, she was so unused to children she couldn’t tell what sex it was. "Well are you," she asked again when she noticed that Triple-F was now just staring at the kid like it had grown a second head. It looked like it was going to be left to her, which was probably a guaranteed disaster.

  Jennifer rushed over to the kid and got down on her knee beside it, "um," she had no clue where to start, was lousy at comforting adults, granted children were a completely different breed of human, that didn’t mean she knew where to start.

  ‘You can start with it’s name, it’s usually a good ice breaker for both children and adults.’

  There was no time to ask Rou, her head invader to buzz off, especially not if he was being helpful, "hey," Jennifer took hold of the child’s hand, "it’s okay, it’s going to be okay, I need you to stay quiet okay?" She waited to see if the screaming would stop, if it didn’t she was going to resort to clocking the kid in the head and carrying it out or stuffing something in it’s mouth, luckily after a beat the scream died down to a whimper. "That’s good," she said in her best soothing voice, " my names Jennifer, can you tell me your name?"

  "Sam," it whimpered, "Samantha," it filled in and Jennifer wasn’t surprised because maybe she didn’t know kids but it could have gone either way.

  Jennifer patted her hand, "okay Sam, we’re almost home, almost safe but we have to go back out into that hall." She indicated the nursery door behind them, the little girl shook her head, "yes we have to so we can get you safe, but I need you to be really quiet okay?"

  "But they’re out there," she whimpered back.

  "They’re about to be in here," Triple-F reminded.

  "It’s going to be okay Sam, me and......" Jennifer looked over at Triple-F and realized she’d forgotten his real name, no time for it now. "We are going to get you out of here, you only have to be quiet, I need you to promise me that you will." After a pause, and a forceful slam on the other side of the door where the revenants were trying to enter the little girl finally nodded. "Good, take my hand and don’t let go," Jennifer laced her fingers tight through the girls and dragged her behind to meet Triple-F at the door. She made sure she kept her voice down low so only Triple-F could hear her. "We might not make it," he nodded, "I forgot your name, sorry."

  "Harrison, Elton Harrison," after that he simply looked back to the door.

  "Jennifer Ryan, it was nice to meet you Harrison, in case we die," or one of them died and they ate each other, or any other scenario that might arise.

  "We leaving," he looked back at the door that was caving in, jammed up cradles all that stood in the revenants path to them.

  "Absolutely," Jennifer nodded, tightened her hold on the kid.

  "After you," Harrison grabbed the handle and pulled the door out of their path. Jennifer shot out the opening, taking little time to make sure it was clear, the nursery windows pretty much showed the entire hall, all but the floor so she made sure to look down quickly. She’d nearly had her ankles bitten once and she hadn’t forgotten it. As soon as it proved clear she took off down the hall, felt Harrison behind her. But she heard the revenants behind them too, they made unnatural noises in their frenzy to keep up and considering how dead they were they did a disturbingly good job keeping pace.

  They must have gotten closer then she’d thought because after a minute Harrison was clearly forced to shoot. Jennifer glanced back, they were close and she prayed they’d have the time to get out the door. "We’re not gonna make it," Harrison shouted behind her.

  Jennifer knew he was slowing down to shoot, "Harrison just run," she saw the door in reach, it was revenant free which was lucky but she didn’t see any way with the number that was behind them that they could make it out the door and still manage to close it behind them. She would not bring this down on Alpha or Whiskey if they weren’t expecting it and she had no way to warn them. Maybe they could run around the hall again but she liked that idea even less then trying to get out the door. She had no idea if all of those things were behind them, for all she knew there were some down the hall in front of them. There were no good options not really, at least involving more of Tom’s people gave them a chance.

  Again as if thinking about him conjured him out of thin air, the door opened before they reached it and Tom and the small team that he’d taken to the tenth floor came through with rifles raised. To her horror they didn’t hesitate to fire, Jennifer barely managed to duck down when they did because she spun around to grab hold of Harrison. They landed on the floor in a heap, but the gunfire that could have struck them took out the revenants that would otherwise have been on them with teeth chomping. Jennifer had managed not to land on the kid but she was screaming again, Jennifer forced herself to ignore her, instead she focused on putting a bullet in anything that landed on the floor but hadn’t taken a bullet to the head.

  Tom must only take people to his team with a good aim because after a few minutes the sound of gunfire stopped, and there was nothing on it’s feet that had been chasing them. "Get her up," she heard Tom say, she was too busy keeping her attention on the bodies that were a few feet from her, waiting to see if one of them was going to try and crawl out to eat them. "Get her up NOW!"

  Before she could react someone she didn’t know was yanking her to her feet, her death grip on the little girls hand forced the kid up as well. "Take your hands off me," she warned when the guy tried to yank her toward the door.

  Tom was in her face before she could do anything to stop him, like kick him in the groin. "You were told to leave the building." He gave her a once over that was all contained rage, "look what you did." He pointed at what was left of Wheatly, who would have made it to the door if there hadn’t been a horde of zombies there waiting for him. When she said nothing and he gave her another cold once over he finally asked, "were you bitten?" At least he wasn’t yelling, she didn’t think she’d ever heard him yell as much as he had today.

  "Are you kidding me," she was going to indicated the kid and all the trouble she’d gone through to get Sam and herself and Harrison out but he gave her that murderous look he was so good at and she knew he didn’t give a shit why she’d broken orders, again, he only cared that she had.

  "Are.....you.....bitten?" He took the time to emphasize each word, as if he didn’t think she knew how important the answer was, the wrong one would get her shot, not that she could help it if her answer was the wrong one.

  "No," she knew she was a mess, she was covered in the left overs of birth-mother zombie’s guts. It was his choice whether or not he wanted to believe her, she thought they’d known each other long enough for him to know she wouldn’t lie and risk anyone else’s life.

  He glared at her like he wanted to kill her anyway and even then after a pause when he spoke he didn’t address her. "Take her down to the decontamination," he looked around her but before Jennifer could look back at Harrison the beefy nameless guy was dragging her toward the door. Sh
e didn’t put up a struggle until they pried her hand away from Samantha’s.

  "Tom!" She tried to turn back around but a second nameless soldier forcefully took hold of her free arm. She heard Harrison say something, but Sam was screaming and she couldn’t make out the words. She struggled enough to get her head turned in time to see that Tom had his gun aimed at the man who had risked his life to save someone else’s. "STOP!" But she knew whatever Harrison had said hadn’t been what the Cyborg had wanted to hear, because without missing a beat Tom but a bullet in Harrison’s head. "TOM stop.....stop......STOP!!!!" She screamed at him but no matter how hard she struggled and thrashed she couldn’t get out of her captors grip. Her Beretta was yanked out of her hands, and she watched helplessly as he turned his aim on Sam. The little girl was crying now and Jennifer was screaming at him, telling him in not so many words that she would never forgive him for this, she would never forget it. She freed one of her arms and immediately slammed her elbow up into one of the mens noses, he grunted and fell off her some and she took the opening to try and fight off the second guy. She turned toward the one that still had a hold on her, struck out at his throat, but he caught the punch and before she could try again she took a blow to the head from behind. She fought the blackness that tried to take her but her vision was swallowed by the dark and she lost consciousness to the sound of a second gun shot.

  Chapter 21

  Jennifer was oblivious to her surroundings, was at least mentally numb, physically it seemed like she felt every blow she’d taken in the last couple days. Tom’s decontamination process, what she’d been awake for, had felt like yet another violation. Not just because she’d been stripped of her cloths, hosed down with what chemicals she didn’t know, and had ten blood samples taken. But when it was over Tom hadn’t had the decency to meet her again face to face. Instead he’d sent Brook to tell her to leave, and she’d been forced to do so in a flimsy medical gown, no undergarments, no shoes, and they hadn’t given her the Beretta back, they’d forced her to leave basically naked in every way.

  The entire situation was too much, her team was gone, and now because of Tom she’d gotten three people killed. True she blamed Tom for two, but the cold hearted bastard had made it clear that Harrison was on her, and Tom had made Harrison’s selfless act for nothing. She had always known he was cold, that was why when people called him Cyborg she couldn’t argue against it, but he’d gone too far. Even with every loss her team had suffered, she would rather take them, respect the sacrifices they were willing to make, then do what Tom had done. Maybe he thought he was saving more people this way, he couldn’t be that stupid, the hospital hadn’t even been where this had started, its beginning was still out there.

  Jennifer jumped when her Cousin reappeared dropping a blanket around her shoulders, "you’re starting to worry me Jenny, what happened?" But she just shook her head, couldn’t make herself say it just yet because she knew when she did she would never be able to look or even think of Tom in the same way. "You should at least come downstairs," but when she didn’t move he sighed, "alright I’ll go make some tea." He didn’t say that he was going to call the others but she knew he would, she didn’t have the stomach for phone calls right now, even if she did, she was pretty sure Tom had her cell, bastard.

  But with the phone calls she at least knew that she would have some time alone to herself. She was grateful for her Cousin and the blanket, but she wasn’t sure she could handle any more comforting then that, wasn’t even sure she deserved any. She should have seen this coming, she’d been warned, the vampire had told her what was going on, had gone out of his way to show her and she still hadn’t put two and two together. If she’d thought of the possibility of Manson being infected she could have stopped what had happened at the hospital. She’d never had any chance to save Manson, he was gone probably from the minute that revenant had drawn blood, but she might have saved Clive, or Samantha, if she’d thought ahead she could have saved Harrison, all of them. What it came down to was the fact that she had been an epic failure the whole time.

  Jennifer pulled her legs up under the blanket Doug had provided, wrapping herself up tight under the material. It was already dark, she had no time to waste sitting around pointing fingers, even if she was only pointing at herself, the problem was she didn’t know where to go from here. She didn’t know where Dimitri was, didn’t know how she was supposed to find him, she had no team, no hope. She had always had a certain amount of faith in her own skill in the field, but she was not so delusional as to think that she could take this on herself. It had never actually been an issue for her before, her team had lost people in the past, but never so crucial a part. Malcolm, Marcia, and Zip were all that was left and they would be all but useless to her in the field, she didn’t feel she could turn to Tom for help, and her only other option was nearly unthinkable.

  She was still brooding in her own head when one of the large chapel doors opened and slammed shut, Jennifer jumped a little in her seat, forgetting that Doug never closed the doors, but other than that she simply slumped lower in her seat and pulled the blanket over her shoulders tighter around her. The potential for intrusion was probably why her Cousin had asked if she would go downstairs. She had declined because down there would be nothing but memories of friends lost, at least up here she could comfort herself, try remember that she had faith, a cause. "I have to admit this is much cozier than I remember," Jennifer nearly fell out of her seat again at the sight of Ethan standing next to the pew she was seated in.

  "You........you can’t be here," she told him, stumbling over the words just seeing him in a place that was supposed to be physically impossible for him to enter.

  "Really," he smiled and walked past where she was seated, making his way toward the podium and crucifix standing there.

  "No you can’t," her world was already upside down, she could not be hallucinating vampires right now, "this is holy ground." She told him as if she expected just the words to cause him to burst into flames.

  "So it is," he looked to the crucifix again before looking back at her with a smile, "are they still telling that lie?"

  "I’m asleep, right, that’s what this is I’m still asleep," she asked feeling panic bubbling up at the surface. She was supposed to be safe here, she had been promised that she was safe.

  "Sorry, but no," he made his way back down the aisle to the pew she sat in now ram-rod straight. "I didn’t think they were still telling people that whole, vampires can’t walk on holy ground lie."

  "It isn’t the holy ground, it’s faith that keeps evil away," or something like that, she couldn’t remember exactly how it had been described to her.

  "Wow, so now they’re just telling it backwards, I guess that isn’t a surprise." He smiled again, he always seemed to be smiling but she could tell that it wasn’t one of his genuinely amused expressions, "I suppose if they told the truth their hunters wouldn’t feel as safe sleeping at night."

  "What do you mean?" She wasn’t sure that she really wanted to know, but so far this vampire was one of few who had been straight with her, and he was standing in front of her in a place that was supposed to be impossible for him to enter, ignoring what he had to say seemed idiotic at this point.

  "It’s the vampire’s faith that keep them off holy ground, that makes your holy water burn like acid and your crosses sear their flesh. Those of us lucky enough to be atheists, well I’ve never seemed to have any trouble," as he said this he made his way down the aisle to where she was sitting, clearly being careful to keep his movements at their most human.

  "What are you doing," she asked as he brushed past her and sat down.

  "I heard about your day."

  "How could you have......," her words died when he put his arm over her shoulders.

  "I have spies everywhere, I have to tell you, your government friend is a piece of work." He shrugged but otherwise fell into that eerie stillness that seemed to come naturally to his kind. "In the end I came to see
if you’d be in any condition to work, but I think rather not, at least not tonight."

  "You can’t be here," she insisted again because she hadn’t even managed to work her way around that fact.

  "Full circle," he sighed, "fine I’m pure evil put on Earth by Satan, I defy all logic with my evil powers. Better?"

  "This isn’t funny," she tried to push him off her but everything hurt and she gave up before she’d really gotten started. She was suddenly horrified with herself that like a ridiculous hormonal female her eyes began to tear up, not for the first time today. "Why are you here?" She asked again trying to wipe her eyes and failing.

  "For you, unfortunately, as I said, you are in no condition to be useful," he slid his free hand beneath the opening in her blanket, grabbing one of her bare ankles and using it to pull her in closer beside him. "You seem to be a mess," at this point he had her practically pasted to his side and rested his jaw against her head, it should have been terrifying to be this close to a vampire, instead it was comforting, she was clearly suffering from some wacked out PTSD.

  "I work just fine when I’m a mess," she snapped trying to pull her leg out of his grasp but she might as well be dealing with a statue.

  "I might actually believe that if I hadn’t already witnessed you working as a mess." He sighed again and finally put some space back between them. "It is unfortunate that I haven’t the time to spare to be more comforting," he smiled and this close she had a hard time fighting the effect he had on her.

  "What makes you think I find having a blood sucker ‘here’ makes me feel remotely comforted?" It was the only thing that she could think to say, she just wished that she actually meant it.