Deadly Encounters (Raina Kirkland Book 4)

by Diana Graves

“What is she thinking?” Michael asked me.

  There was another knock at the door and Tristan opened it for the police and military to come through.

  “She’s thinking…” I had to focus hard because her thoughts were so confused and quiet. “Kill me,” I whispered. “No.”

  Detective Fillips entered first, and others in flat black combat uniforms filed in after her. The room was becoming crowded again, and it was obvious which man was Sergeant Kelley. He was the one with the three stacked chevrons on either shoulder of his black jacket and the physical presence of a giant hairy spider. Gabriel came in behind him looking less than confident. And lastly, Alistair came in. He and Fillips looked shocked to see Katie just standing there, nude and in shambles.

  “I told you,” Gabriel chimed in. “She’s under control, completely tame.”

  “How?” barked Kelley. Gabriel gestured to me with his hands. “What is she, a necromancer? We’ve tried necromancers. They died. You found a better one. Good on you. Now shoot the thing in the head and show me your reports doctor. I haven’t got time to waste.”

  “No!” many of us yelled when a uniformed men pulled out his gun and pointed it at her. Katie thought, “Yes, please, please, yes.”

  “It’s a zombie. Kill it,” Kelley said, and his voice was hardened with finality.

  “You can’t kill her,” Everett pleaded, still standing firmly in front of his wife. “She’s harmless. She never hurt anybody.”

  “She’s a corpse, son,” Kelley began. “She’s dead already.”

  “She’s not!” Michael yelled at him. “Unless you consider me dead.”

  My attentions were torn. I was watching the men, but I was also watching Katie. I could feel her mind growing stronger by the second. Her neural pathways were reconnecting, her internal organs were healing, re-oxygenating, and accepting nutrients. Her stomach was digesting the food still remaining in it. Her body was internally becoming vampire. If I let go of my careful control of her, she might have been writhing on the ground, screaming in pain.

  “You’re a vamp, of course I consider you dead. Law says otherwise and that’s the only reason you’re still standing. But even so, that thing is not a vamp. It’s a God dang zombie!” Kelley yelled back. “Shaw!” he yelled back at one of his men without fully turning around. “Shoot that stinking pile of dead shit so we can get the hell out of here. I think these vamps have wasted enough of our time, don’t you detective?” he said, turning his mean face to Fillips. She didn’t flinch. She stood her ground well against the loud, overly aggressive mountain of a man.

  “Sergeant, sir,” Alistair began, placing a hand on the man’s shoulder. “If you’d just calm down and listen to what we have to tell you, you’ll see that your visit was very much worth your while.”

  Kelley stared at Alistair’s hand with disgust until Alistair took it back. “Mister Alee-stor,” Kelley said, purposely pronouncing Alistair’s name wrong, making the name sound less Anglo-Saxon and more foreign. “The only reason I’m here instead of back at base planning our next move with my fellow commanders, is because local law enforcement failed to deliver a simple MARK, and instead brought back some cockamamie letter stating that a woman, witnessed to having been infected became a vampire instead, and some jack ass master vampire signed it, as if the word of a vampire means shit to me.”

  Katie wanted to talk, but I held her tongue because what she wanted to say was, ‘Do it! Kill me, please!’

  “No!” I thought at her, and I knew she heard it because it scared her. “You will not die, not like this.”

  Alistair became visibly angry and stood tall in front of the sergeant. “You don’t respect my people, fine. But you will not harm Katie. She is under my protection. She is a proper member of my legion, and I will decide her fate. She hasn’t committed any crimes, or broken any laws…”

  “Laws!” Kelley interrupted. “As of five hundred hours this morning, Washington State is under martial law! My law! And I will shoot this thing myself!”

  He pulled his gun out of its holster and we all reacted. Michael moved to attack him, but Nick held him back. Tristan pulled Everett out from in front of Katie, and Alistair dove in front of her. I hit Kelley’s arm, causing him to shoot the wall to the right instead, and his men all aimed their guns at me.

  “Wait!” I screamed. “Look at her! Just fucking look at her for a second before you shoot her. Can’t you see what’s happening to her?” The guns didn’t move away, but the sergeant begrudgingly walked forward. He moved around Alistair and stared down at Katie. “Do you see it?” I asked him from where I stood with guns in my face and my hands in the air.

  “It’s a corpse,” he said flatly.

  “Look closer at the wounds. What do you see?”

  He leaned forward, so did Everett and Tristan. The vampires in the room didn’t need closer proximity to see what was happening to Katie.

  “Oh my God!” Michael said. “Her wounds are filling with black blood.”

  “What does this mean?” Kelley asked no one in general.

  “It means she’s healing,” said Gabriel.

  And, everyone watched in awed silences as dark blood filled every cut and injury; drying quickly, clotting, scabbing, cracking and flaking off like aged paint, revealing pink almost translucent scar tissue. Under that tissue, muscle, veins, nerves and more were growing. Pink scars turned white until all that was left was smooth white patches on a completely healed and once again beautiful Katie.

  “She’s no zombie,” Alistair said. “Not anymore.”

  Kelley was still staring at Katie, dumb struck by her transformation. “How is this possible?”

  “Have you ever heard of Raina Kirkland?” asked Gabriel.

  “Yeah, that living vamp monster hunter who died some years back.”

  “She’s not dead anymore,” said Fillips. “I tried telling you before, but you wouldn’t listen. And now your goons are pointing guns in her face.

  Kelley tore his eyes off of Katie and looked at me. He seemed only mildly interested in the fact that I was who I was.

  “Raina and her brothers are carriers of a special strand of vampirism, more potent than the common virus. It was what reversed the zombie-like effects of this altered vampire virus. It’s a cure!” said Gabriel.

  Kelley snorted loud. “It’s no cure.” But he looked closer at Katie, inspecting her. “We’ll need to take it in for tests,” he said to one of his men. “The necromancer, too.” He moved to the door, making it obvious to everyone he meant for us to follow him out; his men, Katie and me. Guns were still in my face

  “Make it walk,” said one of the men with a wave of his rifle.

  “No,” I said.

  He looked back at his commanding officer for direction. Kelley sighed. “We don’t need her. Shackle the zombie and let’s go.”

  Protest erupted and Alistair stepped up to the sergeant. “There is no way I will allow you to take Katie.”

  “I’m taking her. It’s a matter of national security, vamp. Obstructing my authority in this is a crime punishable by death. You want to die? Then go right ahead and stand in my way. But I must warn you, I’ve been killing zombies all damn day. I have a damn itchy trigger finger and so do my men.”

  Alistair held his chin high, face stern. He looked deadly serious when he moved directly in front of the door. My heart was racing as I watched Kelley bring his gun up, but it didn’t get far. Alistair grabbed his head, twisted it and pulled it off, spinal cord and all! Blood sprayed everywhere.

  The guns that had been pointed at me, moved to Alistair, but I grabbed their minds before they could fire a single shot. I held them still, which made them easy pickings for Nick and Michael, who tore the men to pieces with their bare hands right before my eyes! The whole mess, the gore and shock of it all caused me to lose my hold on Katie and I heard her scream. I looked back at her just in time to see her collapse to the floor in pain. She was finally able to express all the pain she’d felt as
her body healed and changed, and she screamed loud and long wails.

  “Katie! Honey!” Everett cried as he rushed to her side.

  Tristan was standing far away from it all, and he looked horrified. Fillips looked scared, too, but she approached me.

  “Raina, are you okay, are you alright?” she asked me. I shook my head. “Are you hurt?” I shook my head.

  “What are we going to do?” I asked her, and my voice sounded weak. “We killed US soldiers. What are we going to do?” Goddess I was scared!

  Fillips looked up and past me. I followed her line of sight to Alistair, standing behind me. He was soaked in blood. I looked back at Fillips. If Alistair made a move to kill her, so there would be no witnesses, I’d have to stop him. I loved him, but she was my friend and I loved her, too.

  “You’ll have to hurt me,” she said to Alistair. “Not too badly, but bad enough that the other’s will believe I survived a zombie ambush just as we were leaving here. I’ll need the bodies placed in the Humvee, and I’ll take Gabriel’s reports, too. We still need them.”

  “Fillips,” I began.

  “It’s the only way,” she interrupted me.

  “I can make it painless,” said Michael. “I’m very good at hypnoses. It’s a gift. I can even make you believe the story, so your conscience will be clear.”

  “Do it,” she said.

  “I don’t want to be here for this,” I said. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this.” It wasn’t that I didn’t recognize the necessity of it. I just didn’t want to watch my friend get hurt, even if it was voluntary.

  “I understand,” said Alistair.

  I looked to Tristan, Everett and Katie, “Come on, let’s go.” And with shaky legs I helped Everett hold Katie up as we walked out of the room with Tristan following behind us.

  STAYING SAFE

  AS THE ELEVATOR opened to the main corridor our argument spilled out into the heavily occupied hall. Tristan stormed off, but Everett couldn’t get far without my help. Vampires are a great deal heavier than humans. I’d guess Katie weighed somewhere around three-hundred pounds, a little less than me even though she was taller. In any case, he was stuck with me. If I didn’t move, neither did he.

  “You guys can’t leave!” I yelled after Tristan. “It’s not safe.”

  Tristan stopped and turned back, his face red with anger. “And when the military storm this vampire collective, how safe will it be here, huh?”

  “That won’t happen.”

  “We can’t stay here, Raina. Katie needs to come with me,” Everett tried to reason. “Mato said the mountain range is overrun. All the cities along that range are next, including Tacoma. We need to get out of Washington!”

  I visibly calmed myself before I said another word. “If you leave you could run into the same things that killed our mom and infected Katie.”

  Tristan didn’t move, but he didn’t say anything either.

  “I’m scared,” Everett admitted.

  “Me, too. What we saw back there scared the shit out of me, but what could have happened if Alistair didn’t step up is scarier. Fillips is putting herself through hell right now, so this collective and everyone in it will be safe. If you walk out those doors, you’re spitting in the face of her sacrifice.”

  “I don’t agree with it,” Tristan said.

  “And you think I do? If you have a better way of doing things under these circumstances, please, pretty please tell us, indulge us with your wisdom.” He didn’t answer me and I didn’t expect him to. “Nothing that’s happening is perfect or glorious. It’s all shit and we’re swimming in this shit the best we can. We’ll swim in it better if we stick together, Tristan, Everett, we need you here with us, on our team, safe as can be. Please stay.”

  Everett looked down at Katie in our arms, still wincing and moaning softly in pain. He looked up at me and his deep red eyes never looked more serious. “We’ll stay.”

  I looked at Tristan. He was staring at the floor, thinking. The people in the halls, all manner of humanoid; trolls, witches, nymphs, big foots, and elves but mostly humans were all pretty much ignoring our little drama. They were probably too preoccupied with dramas of their own to pay us any attention, other than a passing curiosity.

  “I’ll stay,” Tristan said, and a weight lifted from my heart. “But I’ll be keeping to myself from now on. I don’t want any hand in any of this—where can I sleep?”

  A shallow smile spread across my lips. “There are some very old apartment’s four floors down. They’re lovely, really.”

  When Alistair, Nick and Michael came back to the Bastion after staging the ambush in which Fillips was the sole survivor, I stayed up only long enough to stand by Alistair as he addressed the party guests, Bastion staff and any other palace occupants. He welcomed them all to stay during the crisis, and opened all the old apartments, asking his staff to assign the dwellings at first come first serve with the stipulation that if more people come and they need room, that they may need to share living space with others. I couldn’t get over the contrast between the Alistair that ripped a man’s head clean off of his shoulders, and the Alistair that was so open and giving. Of course, they were the same man, expressing the same desire to be protective of those who can’t stand up for themselves. He killed to keep Katie safe, and he graciously opened his doors to the public, using up his limited resources to keep them safe.

  I did have one reservation, though. He wasn’t being too selective with who he let inside his palace walls. Not that I could ever deny a man shelter from this storm, but some of those coming to him for help were particularly vile, aggressive and argumentative people. I grant scared folks more leeway in the way of decency in situations like this, but some of their behavior, their hostility and heckles, were inexcusable. Alistair was trying to save their stinking lives, and they were treating him like garbage.

  It wasn’t until three in the morning that I was able to crawl into bed beside Thomas. I wanted to get to bed early, so I could wake up with the kids. I needed to be there for them, vampirism be damned.

  AN AGING DEMON

  RAPHAEL WAS STANDING in a grassy field, waiting for me. His long brown coat was billowing out in the wind as I approached him. I didn’t know how I felt about him anymore. I was so confused. He hated me, but he helped me. He hurt me, yet pushed me to be a better person, more thoughtful and empathetic. His insults cut deeper than his flattery ever did, and the blades that killed me cut deeper still. I was confounded by his actions.

  He looked down at me with amber-brown eyes and shaggy salt and pepper hair. I realized then that he was aging in appearance; from a young hipster just before my death, to this, an older gentleman. If I had to guess his age, I’d put it around sixty or so. Why?

  “I feel old,” he answered my un-asked question. “For the first time in my life, I feel all the years piling up behind me.”

  I just gave him a raised brow and a face of confusion, because that’s all I had for the demon anymore. “I think it’s time you told me.”

  His lips bowed in a would-be smirk, if only it didn’t make him look more miserable. “Not yet.”

  “Why?” He said nothing, but looked back out over the mountain range that surrounded us. I did love me some mountains. “Do you hate me? You killed me, so you must hate me. You put Adia inside my daughter, scarring her for life, so you must hate me that much more. But not having saved your wife doesn’t add up to this kind of hate.”

  He cleared his throat. “Just wake up already.”

  “No, tell me why!” I yelled, and I grabbed his shoulder and turned him around, forcing him to look at me. “You hate me, you want me dead and my family to suffer, so why help me at all? Why?” My face was inches from his. I was angry and confused and he was aging before my eyes. His salt and pepper hair turned sliver white, the skin under his eyes grew heavier.

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Everything is complicated, Raphael. Enlighten me.”

  “I don�
�t think you can comprehend it.” He wasn’t trying to be smug. As best I could tell his opinion of my reasoning skills were genuine, but I wasn’t buying it. My eyes narrowed in distrust. Raphael was only ever two things, cruel and deceitful. He didn’t do genuine.

  “Then, we can by-pass my incompetence. I’ll ask the questions, you’ll answer them.” I didn’t wait for him to agree to my terms. “It seems very suspicious that you should take Admetus’ wife from Hell, breaking Apollo and Admetus’ contract, which granted him eternal life so long as she remained in Hell; resulting in Admetus aging. Then he kills Adia in a mad attempt at turning the world-ending disease he’d been working on for Apollo for thousands of years into a cure for himself, which then ends up being exactly the thing that perfectly counteracts the world-ending disease once it is unleashed.”

  Raphael said nothing. The fact that he had no snide remark made me think I was correct in assuming he’d orchestrated the entire thing, at least in part.

  “It seems equally suspicious that the one person asked to fight Apollo should be accidently infected with said cure by Admetus years ago. That you should take Adia’s soul from Alistair just in time for him to save me from a burning building. That you should teach me by force to manipulate the internal organs of any living creature, and it’s that very skill that I used to trap you inside my body.”

  He did look at me then. “You had me killed in such a way as no one I loved would be around to get hurt. You made me sacrifice myself for love. You sent me to meet the Goddess that made me the way I am, and I came back to the world stronger than anyone has the right to be. You pretend to hate me so I won’t depend on you. Am I wrong?”

  He looked down at the grass, his bushy eyebrows hiding his eyes from view. “You understand a good bit, actually.”

  “What I don’t understand is why you put Adia inside Isobel and why I had to be dead for five years?”

  “Adia was a curve ball. I could not predict that she would be such a strong willed soul. The possession of her brother was not anticipated. I removed her when it was clear I had to. I held onto her because I thought of a better use for her. If I put her inside your daughter, you would be forced to learn a new skill. Conversion of matter.”