Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife)

by Robles, Joyce

  "Yea I’ll have all the back up in the world," she grumbled, this was what she got for wanting a distraction. "I’ve been meaning to ask, I recognize the weapons you’re guys are carrying and why," she looked back at the twins with their medieval weapons then indicated his sword, "is that like a samurai sword you’ve got there?"

  "Katana," he offered shaking his head but as usual smiling for her.

  "I wouldn’t think that you were all that old," she explained to him, "everybody else looks to be carrying around weapons that fit them into a specific time or place." She pointed to his fancy sword, "but you just don’t feel that old and you’re definitely not Japanese."

  His crooked smile seemed to grow brighter and he chuckled at her obvious observation, the sound made her knees weak, which was annoying. "No I’m not am I," but that hardly explained why he was still just that much more mysterious than even his own people. She kept staring at him blatantly waiting for him to explain and when he realized this was how she’d chosen to grill him on the issue he simply said, "it belonged to a friend."

  Jennifer nodded her head and looked back to the floor, she couldn’t see the blood there from here but she understood his meaning well enough. His friend was dead, that was why he was carrying around a weapon that had little to do with himself. "Is it Shinto," she asked trying to get some clues without digging up his friend’s grave.

  "Koto, you know Katana?" Without being asked he pulled it from behind his back and presented it to her with the handle up.

  "I was guessing," but she wrapped her hand around the handle, he let it go when it was securely in her hands. "It’s lighter then I thought it would be," she was used to carrying around a ton of ammunition as well as the weaponry to use them, she was used to heavy.

  "My friend crafted it himself," he offered, which meant at the very least that his friend had been quite old.

  "It’s beautiful," she offered the weapon back to him and he smoothly put it back in it’s sheath in a well practiced motion. "I don’t suppose that you two grew up together," Jennifer shrugged at his quizzical look, "I haven’t heard back yet from my guy about anything concerning you and yours just yet."

  "Then I’d rather not spoil the surprise," his eyes focused on a point behind her but she ignored it.

  "I’d rather know before I die," she answered in turn before diverting her attention to Tom who was approaching her from behind.

  "We’re leaving," was all he said as he brushed past toward the exit, clearly pissed off.

  "Done flirting," she was asked from behind her immediately following Tom’s departure, but she recognized the voice and without thinking turned to wrap her arms around said persons neck.

  "Thank god," she gave Brook’s throat a good squeeze before backing off to find him a solid shade of red, "I wasn’t sure if you were alright."

  "Fine Sir," Jennifer rolled her eyes at the title but smiled anyway.

  "Sorry for causing you any trouble," that was why she’d been so worried, he was competent enough in her estimation to handle zombies, revenants, whatever, she just hadn’t been sure what sort of fallout he’d find himself exposed to from Tom.

  "We’re all good Sir," Jennifer gave him a quick nod and when he didn’t move on guessed immediately he was put back on Jennifer Ryan detail.

  "You’re my babysitter," she’d expected worse.

  "Yes Sir," she nodded again unsure how else to respond to that.

  "We better get to the door then," she turned but quickly spun back, "and I wasn’t flirting." She protested and spun back around to find Ethan and his people waiting on her. "Don’t say a thing," she warned before pushing her way past the vampire and making way to the door. When she was practically standing on top of Tom she stopped waiting for him to decide to let the vampires past. After a lengthy pause in which he was clearly debating the vampire situation with himself, and Jennifer was fighting the urge to smack him in the head, he finally gave in.

  "Monsters first," he offered in that usual stoic manner of his.

  "Cute," Jennifer gave Tom her best quizzical expression, "who knew you were capable of humor." But she stepped aside to make room for Ethan and his people to pass her. She was used to being on point, it had been a long time since she’d trusted anyone to take that position but herself, so it was tough to do so now. To her surprise Ethan allowed Thadeus and Jim to take the lead, she shouldn’t have been surprised that he put himself at the rear, not only could he watch his peoples backs he could watch over her. Why he was concerned she hadn’t a clue, but between him and Tom she was beginning to feel the smothering effect of so much concern. A strange sense of anticipation hit when Jim took hold of the door handle, before, after she’d understood what she was up against, she had never felt anything but fear at the prospect. But she could feel that this time was going to be different, this time it was going to be finished, and the sooner it was finished the sooner she could go after the real source of this.

  The door beyond was full of only darkness, her eyes couldn’t penetrate, but she knew that for the vampires it wouldn’t be a problem. She heard that strange sound of teeth snapping together before Jim’s Mossberg and then the thud of a body hitting the floor. But there was only the one shot which meant that the revenants that had killed Malcolm had wandered off. Her anticipation was short lived, knowing that it was likely she was going to have to walk over what was left of Malcolm had killed the feeling. "Sir, we’re up," Jennifer snapped herself away from her sudden apprehension and forced herself to put one foot in front of the other. Ethan managed to keep in front of her by only a few feet as if he could sense when she was going to move without looking. This was something that was confirmed for her when she paused by the door next to the revenant with a bullet in it’s head lying there and he stopped without missing a beat.

  She couldn’t decide at first if she was relieved or horrified at seeing that it was not Malcolm on the ground. It was a teen with sunken features and bloodied cloths holding a severed forearm eaten down to the bone. She stared down at the floor, tracking the trail of blood that was smeared down the hall, praying that it was only there because the revenant’s had dragged Malcolm away and not because he’d gotten up and walked off on his own. "I’m good," she barked when someone put a hand on her shoulder, she forced herself to take steps in the direction of that trail. It was just her luck that her team wasn’t one that would be taking off in the opposite direction. "I take it we were anticipating a bigger resistance on our way in the door." She commented over her shoulder getting a glimpse of another group taking off down in the opposite direction.

  "Give it time," she heard Tom behind her and took another brief glimpse back., the team consisted of herself, Brook, Tom as expected, another guy she’d never laid eyes on, and to her surprise the Amazon. She hadn’t expected the woman, since she’d been included in Tom’s little briefing Jennifer had expected her to be leading a group of her own.

  She was tired of giving things time because the longer it went on the more lives were lost, and that was exactly the kind of thing she’d gotten into this line of work to prevent. Unlike Tom whose entire existence revolved around cleaning up no matter the cost, she was in this to save lives, even though she knew the cost was high. "Let’s go then shall we," she looked to Ethan who was basically in statue mode, since he almost never did that her own alarm bells went off. "Fuck me," she swore before gun fire went off behind them. "BACK, GET BACK!" With the vampires in front and Tom and the rest of his team behind, and with her being the odd man out in terms of height, she couldn’t see the revenants coming but she heard them, and she heard too many.

  The vampires line tensed up like a brick wall and she felt the first wave hit but never got the opportunity to see anything until a line of corpses was on the floor. The vampires were swift, efficient and she had absolutely no doubt that if they chose could plow their way through the horde plugging the path forward, unfortunately she could tell from the rate of screaming and shooting on the other end that t
hey’d be blocked in on both sides. "There are too many," she shouted over the heads of both the guy she didn’t know and the Amazon, "we have to pull back." The tunnels were too small to form a decent line, two people, especially people the general size of Tom’s people took up enough room that you couldn’t shoot around them, but the revenant’s didn’t seem to have the same concept of space. They were packed into the space to nearly the point of crawling over each other and when bullets took out the front row the ones behind came stumbling over them. The vampires were fast, it was an advantage Tom’s people didn’t have, that and considering his people were supposed to be elite she took note that Amazon didn’t have the sense to aim for the head. "TOM!" It figured that no one would listen to her, the vampires were pushing forward all the while the revenants to the rear had pushed Tom’s second team back. But he didn’t even look to her until she grabbed hold of his rifle and shoved the barrel to the floor, effectively ruining his aim. "We have to pull back and let them into the building," at least then she could shoot something that wasn’t a team mate in the back.

  "Hold the line," Tom barked at her, probably content to have her stuffed in the center. She glanced to the vampires who were maneuvering in and out between one another with a speed and accuracy that was blinding. There were already bodies piling up beneath their feet, which was great but was soon going to make it difficult to move forward.

  "This isn’t workin’," she heard Jim shout somewhere in front of them. Jennifer couldn’t have agreed more, if the vampires didn’t think it was working when they were doing as well as they were she couldn’t see how Tom didn’t see it when only half his people were getting off shots.

  "Fuck this," Jennifer growled before turning back, "Ethan," he appeared next to her before she could blink and it took a good deal of self control not to shoot him when he did. "Jim’s right this isn’t working we have to pull back." The vampire nodded, she was thrilled to see at least one of the people or sort of people in his case, was willing to listen to her. "TOM!" She shouted again over the gun fire, "either pull us back or move out of the way!" She had hoped that her estimation of the situation from what little she could see was off, that Tom wasn’t pulling back because he really did have things under some control, but the minute she spoke the Amazon was snatched from the line at a speed that couldn’t have been the result of just any revenant. Jennifer got a glimpse of the tall, blood soaked, but handsome revenant pulling the other woman in tight against it’s body and snapping it’s jaws closed over her mouth. When it yanked it’s head back half the woman’s face came peeling away with little resistance. She was well past asking for permission, Amazon’s gap let her see that the team who had taken the opposite direction was gone, swallowed by a wall of revenants, and the tall one outside that mass, with it’s perfectly sculpted male physic and chiseled but blood drenched features was a vampire if she’d ever seen one, or it had been once. Before nameless guy could take up the position Jennifer shoved past him and out past Tom’s little relegated line. The woman who was still getting hunks of her face eaten off was struggling in the things arms so Jennifer did the only thing she could think to, she put the first bullet in her head.

  Tom’s first shot, after Jennifer took out Amazon, hit the revenant in the chest, the next shot took it in the right tenple and it stumbled releasing the body in it’s arms on its way to the ground.. Jennifer wished she was surprised when even after that it started pushing to its feet. She grabbed hold of Tom’s arm when he made to move forward, "Ethan," as if on cue two vampires, MacArthur and his twin Meredith were in front of them.

  "They’ll clear a line back," Ethan told her before disappearing again, his version of protecting her at least didn’t involve standing next to her.

  "Brook," Jennifer called though she didn’t have to he was behind her where he’d been the whole time unable to fire without a clear line of sight. "We’re moving back," though she hardly thought she had to tell him, she turned her attention glaringly back onto Tom but he made no argument. That was an improvement she supposed over holding the line which was an impossible feat at this juncture. She waited for the twins to push the revenants back past the door they’d come in, "MOVE!" Just in cast she kept her fingers tightly gripped into the material at Tom’s sleeve and pulled him forward with her. Brook and the other guy followed without question, which might not have been the case if Tom hadn’t cooperatively stayed beside her. "Up the stairs," Jennifer ordered them, they needed more maneuverability then this room had to offer. "Go," Brook blessedly did as he was told, nameless guy hung back at Tom’s side. She practically had to jump in front of him to keep him from shooting one of the vampires as they entered the door behind them.

  "Jennifer," Tom all but snapped at her, not that it was her fault nameless guy was a moron.

  "I’m waiting for them," she told him, "if you aren’t going to be useful then you should go and I’ll meet you upstairs." She pushed nameless guy behind her and was relieved to see Lydia and Jim come through the door first, Thadeus and the German were next. "Where’s Ethan," she shouted over the cacophony of snapping teeth and strange guttural shrieking.

  "Getting one of the twins, pull back," Thadeus ordered, the rest of his people moving without question to follow. Where did Ethan and Tom find people who followed orders so unerringly, she was certain they were thrilled she wasn’t a hassle they had to deal with often. She had no idea what he could mean by getting one of the twins but it couldn’t mean anything remotely good.

  She made to move back to the door and was stopped immediately by Tom’s restraining hand on her forearm. "I’m going Tom, you can either help me or get out of the way," she was not leaving a single person to these things if she could avoid it, not even a vampire. Especially given a vampire turned revenant was an insane thing to deal with, she still wasn’t even certain they could be killed after seeing that one take a shot to the head.

  "Get upstairs," for a moment she was certain he was trying to order her around but to her surprise nameless guy took off up the stairs without being asked twice. "You’re going to get us both killed," he told her but made no move to do anything contrary to moving them both forward.

  Jennifer shook her head but of course she very likely could be getting them both killed, she owed the vampire at least enough to make certain she wasn’t leaving him behind to be someone’s dinner if it could be avoided. So when Tom let go of her arm she immediately reloaded the Remington, shot the first rotting corpse that came at her through the door and kept shooting until they’d cleared the entrance. She shouted for Ethan but didn’t have to look far, both him and one of the twins were slicing through revenants like butter. A look further down revealed one of the twins slamming the revenant missing half it’s upper head into a paved wall, Ethan’s and the second twins efforts were clearly hell bent on keeping the slower revenants from getting the distracted twin from behind. "Get out of there," she shouted well aware that if the twin locked in a choke hold could do that he would have already. "Damn," she lost sight of the twin and the revenant with the blown open skull so she forced herself back out beyond the door, shooting any bloodied thing that tried to break the vampires lines.

  "Jennifer get back inside," she heard Tom yelling behind her as she started pushing further out. She spun back in the direction of the door, instinctively knowing that revenants were closing in behind her, she was going to be forced to clear the way back. She turned with the intent of doing just that and froze, the figure behind her was barely recognizable, the gut section was hollowed out like a pumpkin, she was pretty certain that the spinal cord might be visible it was that deep, it was missing a hand and the face was badly damaged, mandible torn away, one eye swollen shut, but she felt like she would have recognized him if revenants had eaten every inch of flesh from his skull.

  "Malcolm," she couldn’t have done more then breath his name before what was left of him lunged forward in an attempt to get her. It had no lower jaw so it couldn’t physically bite her, she could only
assume that it intended to try and get through her flesh by landing on her face first with it’s upper teeth. She should have reacted but instead guilt got the better of her and she didn’t shoot until it was already on her. She was going to have to take the blow and it wasn’t going to result in anything good for her future. She got off a round but Malcolm’s corpse was going to fall on her whether she plugged him in the chest or not. She was braced for the fall so when it happened it didn’t hurt as much as it might have if she hadn’t been expecting it but Malcolm’s corpse didn’t follow her to the ground. She looked up to find Ethan standing over her, his arm blocking the teeth that had been meant for her. "No," she moved to help but with that same speed she couldn’t see his sword took the corpses head off and he pulled her up into his arms.

  "Merry," he called before she could say anything else, "pull back now." A glance over her shoulder revealed the short haired twin dragging his very beaten looking brother back toward the entrance. She thanked her lucky stars that Tom was clearing one direction back to the building so she could focus on shooting anything that was behind them. She got a very limited glimpse of the pieces of the revenant that the twin had pulled apart before she started firing into the revenants that swarmed over it.

  "How are there so many," she called not expecting an answer, she was pretty certain she didn’t actually want to know if someone had the answer. This was quickly moving in her mind from revenants back to zombies, at least down here it felt like the apocalypse had hit. Ethan could have easily picked her up and whizzed her off to safety, he’d done it before, but he led her backwards with the hold he’d taken on her to get her to her feet but let her continue shooting at the revenants coming up on their rear. It wasn’t until they reached the door that he shoved her in ahead of him, effectively making him the last person in the door. She would have thought with his vampire speed he would have managed to slam the door without a problem but there were just too many of those things, and they felt no pain, so when he swung the door shut there were too many limbs to jam it closed.