Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife)

by Robles, Joyce

  Ethan walked her up to the crowd much closer then she would have liked to be before stopping, "you met Dominik already," the buzz haired vampire gave a nod, "MacArthur was there with us that night as well." Jennifer had very briefly seen the other vampire though he had chosen to keep his distance that night. She didn’t blame him, he probably didn’t like hunters much, and given she didn’t like vampires much that hardly seemed to matter. She was never surprised anymore to look at a vampire and see they were Hollywood quality beautiful. He was of course, he had leaner longer features then Ethan or Dominik but he was still breathtakingly handsome. Auburn hair, that nearly bordered on copper flowed past his shoulders down his back, it was longer then she’d want to have in a fight but to each their own, his eyes were a shade of brown that was so similar in color to his hair that she didn’t even think brown could be applied and judging from his glare he wasn’t happy to see her. That suited her just fine, she could deal with open hostility far easier then she could pretend pleasantries. "And his brother Mary," she glanced to where Ethan indicated and then did a double take. Mary was a complete carbon-copy of MacArthur in both build and facial features, the only differences were that Mary had shorter hair that fell shaggily about his forehead and ears and he sported a scar that ran the length of his left eye to his upper lip. The scar was maybe the first she’d ever seen on a vampire, it didn’t detract from how handsome he was but it was still something, as far as she knew, that would have disqualified him for vampirism. Both twins were wearing some kind of chainmaille get-up that really screamed old world and though it wasn’t what she was used to seeing vampires run around in she would have probably guessed what they were with a glance.

  Without pause Ethan dragged her in the direction of the last three, "this is Lydia," he said nodding to an Adonis with dark hair cut short in a bob style, "Jim," he indicated an attractive younger looking man with a cowboy hat, "and Thadeus, my second." And there it was, if there was rank involved vampires just had to mention it. While everyone he’d introduced were up to the standard of vampire beauty a survey of the vampires in the room and what they were wearing was not within the regular range. Lydia was wearing what Jennifer was pretty sure were jeggings and some filmy looking dress with a fashionable belt cinched at her tiny waist. Jim had on holey jeans, a flannel shirt with the sleeves ripped off and snake skin cowboy boots. And Ethan’s second, though his hair seemed more old school in the cut was still only wearing black jeans and a t-shirt with words in another language scrolling across the center. She knew from her quick glance at Dominik that he was wearing a black long sleeved shirt with cargo pants, these were definitely not the regular kind of vampires she ran across. Usually they were gothed-out, running around in era dated cloths like the twins, or mostly naked to show off their splendorous assets. "And of course all, this is our resident Hunter Jennifer Ryan," Jennifer nearly jumped when Ethan spoke again, she’d let herself get that distracted.

  She wasn’t at all sure what she should say to that introduction, she doubted somehow they appreciated having it pointed out that she was the resident person, who under normal circumstances, would be killing them. So instead of opening her mouth she just stood there and did her best to ignore the urge she had to reach for a weapon. She was really going to have to work on that if she intended to stay in the room and not get her arm ripped off.

  "Jim," Ethan spoke up after a pause, "can I leave her with you?" It took Jennifer’s brain another second to translate the ‘her’ he was referring to was in fact her. She looked up at Ethan and was about to protest when he said, "I need a moment alone with Thadeus," if he thought she would find that comforting he was so delusional. But she didn’t say anything because what could she say that would make a difference. Besides it could have been worse, he might have asked to leave her with the chainmaille twins and that would probably be twice as uncomfortable as sitting next to a flannel, cowboy boot wearing vampire.

  "Yea no problem Boss," Jennifer wasn’t sure what it was but the minute she heard the voice something in her tried to recognize the vampire in front of her. He had a clear Texan accent, and for some reason having heard that voice made him seem staggeringly familiar. She didn’t argue when Ethan gave her hand a squeeze and he and Thadeus made their way to the far side of the room. Probably more because they didn’t want her to over hear their conversation then anyone else. "Come on sweat heart, I won’t bite," he made a show of patting the bench seat next to him. Taking a deep breath and forcing her hand to stay away from her gun Jennifer took the few steps it required and dropped down into the seat next to him. As soon as she was seated he offered her a hand to shake, which was holding a roll of duct tape, "sorry," he turned a shade of pink she wouldn’t have expected a vampire was capable of. He quickly put the tape down and offered her the hand again, "James Walder," when he said his name it was like a puzzle piece fell into place.

  "But," she tried to think of how to say she’d been told that he was dead, that vampires had killed him and stopped. He was a vampire, so they had, she supposed in their way, killed him, but the James Walder she’d heard stories about was a hunter. Young true, but he’d quickly gained popularity among Hunter’s because he was insane, took on covens alone, and won. "You’re a vampire," she finally settled for saying when nothing else came to mind.

  "Yes Ma’am," he removed the cowboy hat from his head and looked at the floor for a minute. She wanted to say that he couldn’t be, no one with his reputation for mass extermination of vampires would ever agree to become what they hated. "I know what yur thinkin’," he told her, "I believed it too, they drill the shit into your head so you feel safe, ordained by God." He gave a quick bitter laugh before looking at her again, "they lied when they told us that blood suckers need yur permission to turn ya." Jennifer spent a moment trying to digest this, her brain quickly rejected it because she’d been told her whole life it was true, even her Father had believed it. But then when you believed in God and the people who were supposed to be closest to Him told you that kind of evil couldn’t be done unless you wanted it, believers tended to go on faith and believe. She was still trying to tell herself he was lying, the same way she had when she’d seen Ethan in her church when the sound of him pulling duct tape free of the roll made her nearly jump to her feet.

  "What are you doing," she watched as he started wrapping the tape around his own arm, circling his wrist twice before moving up his arm repeating the process all the way up to his elbow.

  "I saw it in a movie once," he mimicked a chomping motion at his own forearm, "keeps em from breakin’ the skin." He started on the other arm before she could decide if this was a brilliant or stupid idea, "you want to go at it next." She watched him loop the tape around the second arm but didn’t say anything.

  "Hey," again Jennifer nearly sprang out of her seat when she realized that she’d let herself get so distracted in watching the Texan tape his arms up that she hadn’t noticed the female vampire, Lydia, ghost up next to her. "You can do me next," she plopped down in the seat next to Jennifer and she was claustrophobically aware that she was now seated between the equivalent of two potentially lethal individuals. "I’ve never met a vampire hunter before," the girl addressed her and Jennifer didn’t know what to say. She was aware now that the vampire on her right side was probably less then a year dead, so she had to wonder now how old Lydia was. "Not including you Jim, since I met you after and all technically," she gave a bright smile to the guy next to her.

  "I ain’t gonna take it personal, although in terms of epic huntin an’ all I never really heard of ya," he was addressing Jennifer again, she was in the middle of a conversation with two vampires.

  "I’m not in charge," she mumbled, but she had spoken to Jim here on the phone once she swore a few years back, only to transfer him to Manson. The thought of Manson made her blanch, he’d been the name in their group, the legend, and Clive had run everything like clockwork. She was just the back up who’d recently been promoted to point-man, and only beca
use Manson had been approaching retirement. She wasn’t sure where their loss left her, who was in charge, she had no idea, which was probably why she was now currently sitting between two vampires.

  "Ah sorry I forgot, I was real sorry to hear about yur loss, Manson was a good man." He made like he was going to pat her shoulder and remembered that she’d declined to shake his hand so dropped it. "Here," he offered her the duct tape, "you should give it a try." Jennifer thought about refusing it but in the end couldn’t think of a good reason to.

  "Where’d you say you saw this again," she took the duct tape doing her best to try not to look at him while she did.

  "Zombie movie," he admitted, "but I think it should hold up pretty well to regular dead folks teeth. I wouldn’t let Dimitri stick my arm in his mouth or nothin."

  "You saw this in a zombie movie," Jennifer repeated, she went over movies she’d seen in the past and couldn’t recall any zombie ones in particular, it seemed likely she avoided them on purpose.

  "He watches way too much TV," Lydia offered from beside her. Jennifer glanced up at the woman beside her, Lydia offered a friendly smile before Jennifer looked back down. She didn’t think she could feel any more disturbed then she did right now boxed in by friendly vampires, why couldn’t Ethan have put the twins to babysit her, she could deal with surly and spiteful, instead she’d gotten happy and friendly.

  "Yea well it helps pass the time an all," Jennifer went about following what Jim had done and taping her arms, when she was done she dutifully passed the roll to Lydia who smiled again. Ethan had clearly sat her with the happy smiley bunch of vampires in hopes that she wouldn’t rabbit and make a run for it. "So," Jim said from beside her, "yur a Remington girl?" He waited to see if she was going to say anything but all she did was glare willing him to shut his mouth rather then challenge her choice of artillery. "No offense meant," he offered, "I’m more of a Mossberg fella myself, upgraded to the 590 right before I got turned."

  "I prefer the 870," Jennifer interjected, she’d heard all the arguments for Mossberg before but she’d still found the design awkward.

  "But the pump release....." she turned to glare at him again and Jim threw his hands up like she was aiming the Remington at him. "Okay, I can take a hint, no Mossberg for this lady," he lowered his hands and smiled, "I don’t suppose you’ll mind if I bring mine along?"

  "As long as you don’t shoot me with it Cowboy, I couldn’t care less," Jennifer tried not to let herself get comfortable when he chuckled, it was a very human sound.

  "Listen to the two of you, bringing a gun to a knife fight," Lydia added from her end of the bench.

  "I think ya got that one backwards sweat heart, it’s a knife to a gun fight, I put money on my Mossberg over yur cute little pig sticker." The Cowboy was leaning around Jennifer to address the vampire across the way.

  "Insult them all you like now country boy, but you’ll wish you had my cute little pig sticker when you’re pump action shot gun runs out of bullets." Lydia shook her head and then motioned down to Jennifer’s belt, "even the Hunter knows better than to put stock in just guns."

  "Now that is a thing a beauty right there," Cowboy was looking at her Bowie knife and Jennifer rolled her eyes, of course he would think that, but if he started singing the praise of the Alamo she was going to punch him in the head. "Can I see it," he asked.

  "Only if you want me to stab you with it," she informed him.

  "Hard core little lady aren’t ya," but at least he didn’t start singing remember the Alamo.

  "You’ll see soon enough," he could have taken it as a threat, he decided not to and smiled instead.

  "I can see why he likes ya," Jennifer knew he was talking about Ethan without him saying who ‘he’ was. She pretty much felt herself blushing pink at the thought of Ethan liking her and wished she could shoot herself.

  When Lydia sighed beside her Jennifer looked in her direction, "it is romantic, in that Buffy the vampire slayer kind of way."

  "It is so not like that," Jennifer interjected at Lydia’s gooey doe eyed look at the prospect of Ethan and Jennifer. Instead of dignifying her response with an answer Lydia just dreamily sighed again beside her.

  "He’s just so perfect," Lydia finally put in, "you shouldn’t let him get away if you can help it. I know it seems like your worlds apart now, but love always finds a way."

  For a minute Jennifer just stared at the female vampire beside her, "you are completely insane."

  "I’ve been waiting my whole life to meet my soul mate," was all Lydia said and Jennifer knew at this point she must be looking on at the girl in complete disgust.

  "How long’s that been, nineteen years," Cowboy teased and Lydia came out of her day dream enough to glare at him.

  "Like you get any say, men like you wouldn’t know their soul mate if they walked up and smacked them in the back of the head, right?" Jennifer gave a quick look between the two of them before realizing that Lydia was asking her to agree with her.

  "I," Jennifer stopped trying to decide if she should be honest or not, in the end she couldn’t see what lying would gain her. "I don’t believe in the whole soul mate thing," Lydia huffed at her admission but didn’t go into a blind vampire rage the way Jennifer half expected her to.

  "The two of you are just depressing, it’s absolutely ridiculous the way you Hunters insist on dying alone." She crossed her arms over her thin frame in an almost petulant way, "and don’t you dare say James Walder that I carry on my sappy hope for true love because I was turned at eighteen." At this Jennifer looked back at the woman, looking past the bobbed hair and trendy clothing. She had more of an oval shaped face so it was longer, which might have been why she didn’t immediately take note of how young she could have been when she died. Brown eyes were lined by an elegant streamline of makeup that helped her look more mature then she physically was. Even then her eyes, which were a dark shade of chocolate, didn’t hold the same feel of years that most of the older vampires had.

  "How old are you, if you don’t mind my asking," Jennifer added as an after thought.

  "I was born in 1813, my mother named me after one the characters in her favorite novel. She was turned when I was sixteen and came back for me when I was eighteen." She gave a tiny shrug but never stopped smiling, that made her old.

  "You don’t seem that......."

  "Old," Lydia finished for her, "my mother kept me in the equivalent of a very boring convent for longer then anyone should have to stay." It was beyond Jennifer how the vampire kept smiling, that sounded offal, "I caught up on a lot of reading."

  "Clearly ya spent most of that readin’ time on romance novels," Jim chided again.

  "Just because you spent your twenty-five years with a third grade reading level reading comic books and playboy does not mean that is how I spent my time."

  "Yur loss," was all Cowboy came back at her with.

  "Should I leave you two alone," Jennifer asked half hoping they’d say yes just because the conversation was far to normal for two vampires.

  "Oh please," Lydia groused, "I may have made him but it was only because I felt sorry for him."

  This was getting way more personal then Jennifer was prepared to deal with, and how the hell had the little toothpick next to her manage to turn one of the fiercest Hunters she’d heard of in her generation.

  "I found him gutted like a fish and bleeding to death," Lydia said next to her, "idiot tried to take out a coven of seventy." Jennifer realized that she must have said the last out loud, and again she was surprised that Lydia didn’t turn homicidal.

  "Yea I might a been dyin’ but I still won," Jim put in his peace of mind, "and ya shoulda let me be."

  "If I’d let you be, you’d be dead," she pointed out without an ounce of spite behind her words, she may even have displayed a little remorse.

  "I shouldn’t have asked," Jennifer said trying to diffuse the argument she’d started between them. She was probably getting better than her share of survey
answers out of these two, and for some reason it just felt too intrusive.

  "It’s no big deal," Cowboy said from beside her giving Lydia a glare before asking, "can I call ya Jennifer?"

  That was a stumper, vampire’s had addressed her before, she couldn’t remember any politely asking what they could call her. "I guess," she finally decided, at least it was better then getting called Sir. "You prefer Jim," she asked in return.

  "You can call me whatever ya like sweat heart," Jennifer vaguely took note of the way Lydia huffed beside her.

  "Whatever you say Cowboy," she let herself smile at him, comforted at least vaguely in the knowledge that not that long ago he had been like her, although whether that should be a comfort, she thought likely not.

  "Like I haven’t heard that one before, ya know what they say about Cowboys don’t ya?"

  "That they wear ridiculously ugly uncomfortable shoes," Lydia told him. "Since he gets to call you Jennifer I get to as well right. I don’t mind if you call me Lydia or Lia, everybody used to call me Lia before that dumb oaf killed them." Lydia gave a brief indication at Jim that again threw Jennifer for another curve.