Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife)

by Robles, Joyce

  "You should have left him," Tom shouted behind her and she turned back toward the twins.

  "Help with the door," Jennifer told her adopted family before rushing over to the twins. "Were you bitten," she asked the one that looked to have had the crap kicked out of him, fully aware that if these two hadn’t intervened when they had it was likely that more then just the Amazon would be dead.

  "Aye," was all he gave in answer, his twin said something to him in a language she didn’t recognize but the one she was pretty sure was MacArthur shook his head. "I’ll go back out there, give the rest time to reach higher ground."

  "No," Jennifer protested before the twin could, he looked slightly flummoxed by her protest but distraction or no they weren’t feeding anyone to those things again.

  "Aye," MacArthur insisted, at which point the twins argued in that language for what little time they could spare before MacArthur finally pushed his twin off. "I’m dead already anyway."

  "You don’t have to do this," Jennifer felt a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, she was trying to keep a vampire from killing himself and worse yet she was doing it because she didn’t want him to die. A glimpse to the short haired twin made her stomach twist painfully, he was clearly barely containing the urge to tackle his brother to the floor.

  "Best be making your way upstairs lass," was all he said as he stumbled past her. Once he weaved his way to the door he stopped by Tom instead of Ethan, "give me the device from earlier."

  "Oh shit," Jennifer cursed when Tom handed over the grenade he’d shown them for ‘in case of imminent death’ use only. As soon as Tom handed the explosive over he took his weight off the door and grabbed hold of her on his way to the stairs.

  "Ethan," she remembered half way up the flight that he may very well have been bitten too, she couldn’t let him stay.

  "I’ll see you upstairs Hunter," he called pushing back so hard on the door the metal was beginning to bow out away from him. She shook her head but did finally pull her head out of her ass enough to notice that his forearms were wrapped in duct tape. He wouldn’t just kill himself for nothing so if he wasn’t bitten and he said he’d see her upstairs then she trusted that she would see him, assuming he didn’t explode. She allowed herself to be towed the rest of the way up all the while keeping her fingers crossed that his vampire speed would be fast enough to avoid a thermobaric explosion. The last thing she saw before Tom pulled her up and past the stairs was MacArthur slipping back out into the tunnels, another team member gone. She had to force herself to keep pace with Tom, not an easy feat when he started to run full out to get them both as far from the explosion as he could. When nothing happened she figured that something had to have gone wrong.

  "Tom wait," she dragged her feet forcing him to come to a stop beside her, "shouldn’t it have gone off by........." She felt it before she heard it, apparently they hadn’t gotten far enough because the floor seemed to quake beneath her feet. Tom was thrown in one direction and she felt herself pulled in the other, her back slammed into what could only be the wall behind her and for a brief moment the world turned on its axis as it went black. She knew that she wasn’t completely unconscious because she felt weight as something heavy landed on her. For a moment she thought it was the wall she’d collided with but she didn’t get a chance to wonder what it was that felt as though it was crushing the air out of her lungs; because she felt what little awareness she was grasping onto slipping away as that sudden impact of weight slammed into her chest.

  Chapter 30

  Consciousness came back in a haze, details coming back into focus in stages, first a ringing noise in her ears that slowly started to fade into voices that she recognized, which were slowly drowned out by the chattering of teeth. She blinked her eyes open to find Ethan over her, probably shielding her from the blast that had knocked her over. The minute her eyes were open he was on his feet but made no move to pull her up behind him this time, maybe he thought it best that she find her equilibrium first. She rolled to her side and found the Remington a good meter away so instead of wasting the time to reach for it she pulled the Beretta’s from the hip holster and forced herself to sit up even though her bruised ribs tried to insist she lay still. The pain was the jolt her system needed to push her into full awareness, the gunfire was the second. Sitting up put her face to face with Tom firing his M-16 into a small group of revenants, he put the bloody blackened figures down before turning to her. There was a cut above his brow and blood was running down into one of his eyes but he ignored it and made his way to her side.

  "Can you get up," he asked her, instead of answering she forced herself to put unsteady feet beneath her. "Good," he didn’t have to tell her they were pulling back, at the end of the hall was the door that would lead them into open ground, where the revenants could disperse and they had the opportunity to take the high ground as well as have room to maneuver. For the moment the way behind them was clear, but judging from the noise coming from beneath them she didn’t think it was going to stay that way for long. She backed up the space it took to reach the Remington, painfully bent over to retrieve it and tossed it over her shoulder.

  "We’re leaving," she shouted to the vampires who apparently insisted on staying in the rear even though their weapons were short range. She didn’t waste her breath saying anything else just followed Tom to the door content to believe the vampires could handle themselves. She wasn’t sure why she was expecting it and Tom wasn’t, but the minute he pushed the door open shots went off. As they both made their way through the door Jennifer shoved the Cyborg and herself to the right knocking them both over before shouting at the top of her lungs, "we’re not zombies you morons!"

  A cease fire was called out before Tom and her got back up and the vampires came through the door behind them, not bothering to close it. They wanted the revenants inside, "let them in," Tom said and Jennifer realized he was probably still wearing a radio in his ear so he could talk to his people. "Hold your fire until they are inside," he ordered everyone else before turning to her, "I want you on the second floor."

  She shook her head, "sorry Tom but I’m not going to play sniper," she wasn’t really equipped to do so anyway with only the Beretta’s and the Remington.

  "You can’t do anything easy can you," he groused but at least didn’t secretly order to have her towed away against her will.

  "Sure I can you just never give any orders I like," she shrugged which hurt but then movement in general had become something of a painful issue for her over the last couple days. She ignored it and started walking backward, she was staying on this floor, it would give her the best opportunity to get Dimitri if he showed up. She was also aware that it was likely she was going to need every last bit of her ammo for him, so conserving was her best shot. She holstered one of the Berettas and pulled the Bowie knife from her belt. A regular revenant she had some hope of taking down the old fashioned way, given it wasn’t really hard to tell the difference she figured using the knife until she ran across Dimitri should work out just fine.

  She disregarded the look Tom gave her when he saw her swap the Beretta for the Bowie knife, hating the fact that he felt it necessary to watch her every move like she was a toddler that was going to choke on something. She was contemplating pulling further back just to put some space between the Cyborg and his over protective streak when the first wave of revenants hit the door. The vampires pulled back when it became clear Tom’s twitchy-trigger finger elite were going to try and take the first wave out with a random spray of gunfire. "Bluddy idiots," the remaining twin swore when he landed next to Ethan who consequently landed near her in their hasty leap of retreat.

  "I thought these were supposed to be a group of elite," Ethan asked clearly looking to her for a reason why currently Tom’s people were the contrary.

  "Don’t look at me," she told him, she was pretty certain that Tom’s people didn’t care if they accidentally killed the vampire help. And then there was the fact that she wa
s pretty certain at least most people were panicking over the prospect of the whole possible zombie apocalypse thing. It wasn’t as if she’d reacted any better to the idea of nearly un-killable corpses that she could be riding around on a high horse about it.

  "I think I understand now why we avoid playing with others," again Jennifer couldn’t say she blamed him, the only group that had shown even an ounce of competence so far had been Ethan’s.

  "Thanks for that," she offered non-to-sarcastically, "no need to stick around and play here with me." She offered if only to avoid having a protection detail surrounding her at all times.

  "I was staying close so they wouldn’t shoot me," the vampire explained, but she didn’t believe him for a minute, he’d gone out of his way so far to make sure she didn’t end up dead. If he hadn’t thought ahead and covered his forearms he’d have been bitten in his rushed rescue to keep Malcolm from her. The remaining twin growled something in that language she didn’t know and she looked to Ethan wondering if he knew the translation. "He said your friends could at least attempt to aim," Ethan provided though she imagined whatever the twin had said had contained more then one colorful expletive that he’d omitted.

  "Yea," she’d noticed that, "well," she paused to look from one vampire to the other, "nice chat boys but back to work." It was taking a chance, she really didn’t want to get shot by a bunch of people who clearly were either under informed or just plain under skilled but standing around wasn’t going to get them anywhere either if the group on the second floor weren’t going to make head shots. The revenant she came into contact with first was floor bound, it’s kneecaps had been shot out in a way that had left everything from the knee down nearly severed so crawling along the floor was the only mode of transport optional. She kicked it in the face when it tried to grab unto her ankle and while it was as stunned as a corpse could be put a bullet in it’s head. It was probably a waste of a bullet but she was in no mood to bend over to stab it. Bullets rained down from above her trying to cut off the next revenant on it’s way to her, forcing her back a step and when the bullet spray finally did hit the corpse in front of her, managed a head shot only because the shooter had hit it everywhere else first. Normally Jennifer was used to weapons with automatic fire being your best friend, against a vampire the more bullets you put in them the slower they’d be. In this situation she was thinking using automatic fire was a complete waste of ammunition. She was going to have to agree with the vampires, Tom’s people were acting like idiots.

  It was going to suck if she managed to avoid getting eaten but died because some idiot shot her, she supposed she would reserve worrying if it came to that. Taking a deep breath she forced herself to ignore the bullets and charged back into the mass of revenants that was pushing it’s way inside. She walked up to a blackened looking corpse, it’s first instinct, probably because it’s movements were strained due to all that charred flesh, was to attempt falling on her like Malcolm’s corpse had earlier. A kick to the sternum sent it stumbling back, when it came for her again she let it get close enough that she could stab the Bowie knife into it’s temple. She didn’t wait around when she yanked the blade out to watch it fall over just moved to the next. She was confronted with yet another teen, this one still clutching a can of spray paint in one hand, a large portion of it’s throat shorn out in jagged hunks. This one was short enough so she struck out with the blade again forcing it to hilt into the eye socket. It was the last revenant she got a good look at before she realized she was quickly getting penned in. It was an event she imagined could prove fatal, so she took out two with the Beretta, the next with a quick plunge of the blade. She let the fight become about the motions, the only details she absorbed were how many she found closing in on her and what the best angle would be in shoving her blade into their brain.

  She had lost count of how many she’d taken down, stopped to kick out behind her to push one trying to ambush her from behind back a few steps before stabbing the body in front of her, inconveniently shoving the blade in through the nasal cavity. She’d suspected more resistence because of the cartilage there but pulling the blade out was done easily enough when she held unto the Bowie’s handle tight enough and shoved the corpse back with a kick to the chest. She turned to deal with the one behind her when she saw Dimitri, he wasn’t hard to recognize. As yet she’d been too absorbed in her own fight to look and see what the vampires might be up to and she probably wouldn’t have noticed Dimitri if he hadn’t been in her line of sight when he’d made his inhuman leap to the second floor. She was not letting him out of her sights again, without thinking she sheathed the Bowie knife and shot the revenant stumbling toward her in the head. Leaping over the bodies that were littering the ground at her feet she ran to the nearest flight of stairs simply shooting any corpse that got in the way of her destination. When she did finally reach the nearest set of steps, which turned out to be a dilapidated looking escalator, she quickly shot three corpses stumbling their way upward before taking the steps two at a time to reach the top floor.

  There was already screaming coming from above her and before she even reached the top a body came flying over the railing, blood leaving a streak on the edge right before the person came shrieking over it. Swearing Jennifer started jumping over the bodies that were blocking her path up and didn’t slow her pace until she was to the top. It was mostly revenant free up here, which in a way was lucky because it left them free to fire down and help the people on the first floor, but was apparently just as unlucky as they’d gotten the first vampire revenant to appear.

  The scene she came upon when she located where all the struggling was coming from she supposed shouldn’t have surprised her. One of Tom’s people came running down the hall unnoticed by Dimitri’s corpse, only because it was locked in a struggle with a vampire. Jim was on his back on the floor, one hand holding back snapping fangs, the other equally trying to dislodge the corpse from on top of him. But even with all of the injuries Dimitri had sustained from her encounter with him days before he was not functioning with any less vampire strength or speed that she noticed, just less then half his brain capacity. "Hey," she shouted, which gave Jim a second to push Dimitri back when the corpse looked in her direction. When it put it’s head up she fired but very true to how this revenant had behaved before it leapt from it’s place on the floor and away from the head shot. Jennifer swore again, pulled the second Beretta from it’s holster but never stopped shooting as she backed up away from the clumsy blur making its way to her. She saw Jim make an attempt to get to her and the thing coming at her, but he was forced to stop and deal with a line of revenants making their way up the same escalator she’d taken to get here. It was the last thing she saw before the blur slammed into her, she felt the impact like hitting a wall head-on. The force of it sending her feet out from under her with so much force she flew over the railing with a shriek not any less terrified then the person who had gotten tossed off before her.

  She landed too soon to have hit the floor, a notion confirmed when her head smacked down on a grated surface instead of smooth tile. For a moment the world went dark, it seemed like an impossible feat to try and force her vision back in line. She heard the impact of Dimitri’s corpse landing not far from where she was lying prone on the ground but even that didn’t put her senses back in order. She tried focusing on gripping the Berettas, they were still clutched in her hands, but nothing came into focus until she heard someone shout her name. Jennifer blinked open her eyes and came face to face with the canopy top of the carousel she remembered from her childhood, she’d landed on the second story. She felt the surface under her groan the same instant she heard it, a sure indication that the revenant was only a few feet away. Jennifer rolled to her side in hopes of retrieving the Remington and realized she must have lost it in the fall, she was armed only with the hand guns and her Bowie knife. As if that wasn’t bad enough from her angle she caught sight of Tom trying to get to her through a mass of revenants he was bound
to get swallowed by first, he was buried in the crowd within those few seconds she’d caught sight of him. "Tom!" She made an attempt to rise off the floor and ended up slammed back unto her back with yet another impact. She knew that she’d taken this one indirectly and that Ethan had only brushed past her as he’d snatched Dimitri away from her. But she’d still ended up on her side, she struggled just to manage to get unto her stomach hoping that putting her legs under her would be easier from that angle. She’d lost hold of both Beretta’s this time so as soon as she’d made it to all fours she reached for the nearest weapon. Her fingers wrapped around the grip of one of the 9mm that had landed not a foot away. But when she lifted to aim, she froze as the revenant locked it’s jaws around Ethan’s arm, something in her snapped as blood started running from the wound. The realization that Tom was gone and her vampire was now essentially dead made something in her fracture, something in her best left forgotten. It was like poison screaming in her veins, she wanted the revenants dead, every last one, felt it seething out of her every pore, and like she could will it Dimitri’s jaw went slack and he fell without a twitch. When it was done Jennifer found herself looking up at Ethan, his expression was unreadable, in that moment it wouldn’t have mattered anyway she only hoped that whatever she’d done would save him. She got to her feet, intent on doing what she wasn’t sure exactly but the minute she got up her vision blackened and she was pretty certain she fell into the vampires arms.

  Chapter 31

  This time when Jennifer came to it was to more shouting then she would have liked, when she cracked open her eyes she was expecting to see people running and screaming, probably being chased around by corpses. What she found was that she was lying on the bottom story of the carousel, so here she was again with something that had once been a happy childhood memory. She thought very briefly that those memories would be overshadowed now by the memory of Ethan getting bitten, saving her no less. She sat bolt upright, regretted the motion because everything hurt ten times more then when she’d lost consciousness.