Jerusa didn’t believe Suhail’s story. She couldn’t explain why, though. Something in his stance, hands straight down at his side, as though it were a struggle to keep from fidgeting. And something in his eyes, as well, the way they would flick to Taos whenever Shufah would look away.
But why would Suhail lie to his sister? What would he have to gain?
“We should have figured he would still be close by,” Shufah said. “With the storm and his injuries, it makes sense that he would want to hole up and regenerate. But he’ll be on the move now. We should go before he catches up to us.”
“Wait,” Jerusa said. “We know where he is right now. If we leave, he could end up anywhere. Kill another innocent person.”
“So?” Taos asked.
“So why don’t we go right now and kill him?”
Taos stepped toward her, his eyes almost glowing in the moonlight. “And how would you suggest we do that, might I ask? Shall we throw rocks at Kole? Or jab at him with pointed sticks? I know that you survived his savage bite, but I don’t have some mythical guardian watching over me. I’m in no hurry to test my strength against his.”
“But there are five of us.” Jerusa felt a bit guilty about not including Thad in her count, but he wouldn’t stand a chance against Kole. In all likelihood, neither would she. “Together, we can overpower him.”
Taos clenched his teeth and released a hiss. “It never ceases to amaze me just how little you know. You’re in over your head, fledgling. If you feel you can best Kole with your bare hands, by all means, go to him. I’m sure he would very much enjoy opening your skull, even if the prize within is less than to be desired. I, however, am not getting within an arm’s length of Kole until we have a means to destroy his remains.”
Taos’s words hurt worse than being slapped in the face. She bit her quivering lip and willed her misting eyes to dry up. She would not let him see that he had hurt her. She would not give him that power over her. Jerusa didn’t quite understand what Taos meant by “means to destroy his remains,” but she didn’t have the courage right now to ask.
Shufah turned to her with that gentle and knowing look, as though she could feel the pain echoing through the hallow chambers of Jerusa’s heart. “Taos, though despicable and rude, is right. We cannot face Kole as we are.”
Shufah must have read the objection in Jerusa’s eyes, for she motioned for her to be patient.
“I understand your concerns,” she continued. “But nothing can be done about it right now. It is clear that the blood of your strange friend, Silvanus, has worked in you a remarkable change. Like I said before, I’ve never seen a fledgling quite like you, but I highly doubt it has inoculated you to another of Kole’s bite. And we certainly aren’t immune. All it takes is for Kole to break our flesh and the savage virus will transmit without failure. Fledglings, like you and Foster, would turn savage right away. Suhail and I might be able to fight on for a while, but eventually, it would overtake us as well.”
Jerusa nodded that she understood. Foster motioned for Thad to get on his back. He did as bidden, but did so without his previous urgency. Thad was so tall that even with Foster hooking him behind the knees his feet still nearly touched the ground. An image of a giraffe hitching a ride on a zebra came to mind and Jerusa fought back a spasm of dark laughter — the kind that only comes when you are too afraid to cry.
They rushed through the forest in single file with Shufah in the lead and Taos taking up the rear. Their speed was unimaginable. No natural creature on Earth could move as they moved. Thad buried his head in Foster’s back, as much to shield his face from whipping limbs as to stave off the inevitable motion sickness. Twice, on their journey, they had to stop so Thad could vomit. Shufah and Foster were kind and understanding, Taos complained as though he were being forced to tend to a daycare, Suhail kept his own quiet counsel, and Jerusa just did her best not to make eye contact with Thad.
They covered a great distance in a short time, making their way back into town just a little before eleven p.m. It was a week night and not many were out on the streets, but even so, they avoided others as best they could. Suhail, Taos, and Jerusa all three had tattered, grass and mud stained clothes. The last thing they wanted was to draw any attention.
“Should I call someone about my Jeep?” Thad’s voice was dreamy and distant again. “Maybe I should call and report it stolen so the police don’t come looking for me when they find it crashed near . . .” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
Jerusa watched him carefully. Something was wrong. He swayed on his feet as though dizzy and his lips were pale and dry. She was amazed at how much her new senses told her. His blood sugar was low, he was slightly dehydrated, and he was now coming down from the adrenaline high.
Thad stumbled and would have fallen straight back had Jerusa not rushed over to catch him. The others glanced at her with disapproving shock for revealing her speed in the open. But no one was around to witness the act, so Jerusa shook it off.
“Thad needs some water,” she said, looking to Foster. “And something to eat, too.”
Shufah took Thad from Jerusa’s arms. She motioned to an all-night diner down the street. “Foster and I will take Thad there. You three stay here, out of sight.” She looked to Taos. “Behave yourself.”
Taos smiled and bowed. “Of course, Your Highness,” he said, mocking her.
Jerusa followed Suhail and Taos into the dark alley between a bar named The Peg Leg and a Mexican restaurant that was closed for the night. They stood in the shadows, not quite hidden from the occasional passerby, but shrouded enough to mask what they were. Alicia materialized and paced in the space between Jerusa and the others.
Alicia was no longer luminous as she had been in the forest, but appeared now as she always had. Light and shadow played on her, covering her one moment, revealing her the next just as if she were corporeal. The only thing that marked her as a ghost in Jerusa’s sight was the fact that she did not cast a shadow herself.
Alicia watched Taos and Suhail with a locked jaw and squinted eyes. Her stance was that of a soldier preparing to rush the enemy. She had the body of a hobbit with the tenacity of a troll. Jerusa was happy she was here. Not just here in the alley, keeping her company while she endured the malignant stares of Taos or the bemused glances of Suhail. No, Jerusa was happy that the vampire spirit hadn’t stolen Alicia away from her as it had apparently done for countless mediums before her.
“What’s so funny?”
Jerusa glanced around Alicia and noticed Taos still staring at her. “Nothing.”
“Something has you tickled.” He leaned against the rustic brick wall, standing on one foot with the other pulled under him. “A person doesn’t just smile like that over nothing. Is it me? Did I do something amusing?”
“I doubt that’s one of your talents.” Jerusa’s face burned. She clenched her hands hard enough for the nails to bite into her palms.
Taos laughed, but there was no humor in it, like the call of a hyena. “I wonder if you will be smiling when I finish off the last of your boyfriend’s blood and set his remains ablaze. Will you laugh at me then?”
Jerusa looked across the way. She could see Thad sitting inside, eating something with slow, methodic bites while Shufah and Foster flanked him. The pair of vampires looked almost human. The perfection of their resplendent skin and the fierceness of their eyes betrayed them, but only to those who were looking. To the common observer, they were just a pair of uncommonly beautiful people, perhaps models or actors.
Taos followed her gaze. “What, Shufah? Don’t put your trust in her. When the time comes, she won’t be able to save your boyfriend, or you either, for that matter.”
Jerusa looked at Suhail. For all the similarities between him and his sister, they appeared to stop at physical qualities. Shufah was strong, fierce, quick to fight for what was right. Her brother, however, exhibited none of those virtues. His silent, passive demeanor on the surface spoke of wisdom and restrain
t, though there seemed to be something deeper. Some hidden machinery whose true purpose had long ago been forgotten, and only now shifts and grinds, gears rolling over one another for no other reason than it has always done so. He seemed lost, confused, diminished by some long-ago tragedy.
Suhail held the same vast age of his sister. Surely his strength matched Shufah’s. But why did he allow Taos to speak ill of his sister? Why did his anger not ignite at the mocking of his own flesh and blood?
Suhail shifted in a half circle, apparently agitated by Jerusa’s attention.
“She wasn’t laughing at you, Taos.”
Taos glanced about the alley in sarcastic shock. “Are you saying, wise Suhail, that she is communing with the dead? Right here in our presence?” He giggled, but Suhail’s face remained emotionless. “It’s such an honor. In all my short centuries, I’ve never witnessed it before. Tell me, fledgling, how does your pet ghost presume to find Kole? Will she sniff the ground like a dog, or perhaps set up a neighborhood watch with other spirits about town?”
Jerusa looked to Suhail. “You don’t believe I can still see spirits, do you?”
He looked at her, measuring her as if considering whether or not she was worthy of an answer. “No,” he said. “I do not believe. But I am by no means alone in my convictions.” When Jerusa glanced at Taos, Suhail shook his head. “No. No. Not this braying fool. You may have the other fledgling fooled, but do not think for a moment that his love shares this deception.”
“Why wouldn’t Shufah believe me?”
“Because she knows, as well as I, what it is like to have the vampire spirit strip that particular talent from you.” A broken smile flashed upon his face. “It’s like losing a child. But I’m sure you already know that.”
“But why would I lie?” Jerusa asked. “What would I have to gain?”
Taos put both feet on the ground and squared his stance. “Shufah’s favor, of course. But her opinion will mean little to the Stewards. They will test your proclamation of clairvoyance and when you are found wanting, they will search you for physical perfection.”
Jerusa’s hand drifted up to the scar on her chest. The Stewards had judged Foster physically unworthy, but had given him grace to reach perfection. But he had still been human, able to alter and craft his appearance. Vampires couldn’t do that. From what she saw and understood, this would be the body she inhabited for however long she walked this Earth.
The Stewards respected power and beauty. She could see spirits, but what did that matter? How could she prove it to them, let alone convince them it was a worthy talent? Having a ghost find hidden items for you wasn’t the most sought-after of powers. And when she failed to impress the Stewards with her abilities, they would focus on her beauty.
Would the Stewards really destroy her because of a scar?
“There is another way,” Suhail said. His voice had taken on a sympathetic tone, as though she were already condemned. “There is something else you may give the Stewards. Something I believe they would greatly desire.”
Jerusa turned away from them. She couldn’t stand their stares and judgments. It wasn’t fair. She had escaped death’s snares so often that she had lost count. And now that she no longer had to fear the weakness of her own body — first a faulty heart and then a borrowed one — death would finally catch her because of a scar.
Jerusa wanted to spit in their faces and call them liars, but she knew that Suhail and Taos were telling the truth. All of her natural life, she had been an outcast, forced into the fringes of society by circumstances beyond her control. It seems the vampire spirit did not disavow old prejudices. The Stewards, whoever they were, would never accept her.
But they might accept Thad.
“What do I have that they might want?” Jerusa’s voice was low, nearly a whisper. Her head was bowed. Alicia knelt down and gazed up into her face with an encouraging smile.
Suhail approached her, but remained out of reach, as if afraid he might somehow be infected by her. “The story of how you became a vampire will intrigue the Stewards, there is no doubt. No one has ever survived a savage bite, and that is your redemption. But the Stewards will demand to know how it was done. They will want to see the one who made you.”
“Silvanus? Why would they want him?” Suhail and Taos didn’t know that Shufah had told Jerusa the myth of the Divine Vampires, and she thought it best to keep it that way for now.
Suhail smiled, but it did not touch his eyes as his sister’s smiles did. “The Stewards are great collectors of wisdom and truth. If there is a way to protect us from the savage bite, they will want to know of it. The one you call Silvanus might be the key to stamping out the savage curse for all times.”
Alicia’s arms were crossed over her chest as she shook her head. She seemed to be regaining a bit of her old demeanor, suddenly making faces and rude hand gestures at Suhail and Taos. Jerusa stifled the smile threatening to break upon her face.
“If you can do as you say,” Suhail continued, “then use your gift to find Silvanus, not Kole.”
“What about the Hunters? Won’t they come and kill us all?”
“It’s possible, but if we could join with Silvanus, we would stand a much better chance at destroying Kole.” Suhail shrugged his shoulders. “The choice is yours, of course, but know this. My sister spent all of her clout with the Stewards purchasing immortality for her lover. When it comes time to face them, you will need my help. My sister is worried about saving Foster. I’m worried about saving us all.”
Jerusa wasn’t sure what to say. Part of her wanted to call him a liar, but the other part found wisdom in his words. Silvanus had withstood Kole once. Maybe he was just the weapon they needed. If he was still alive.
Jerusa was spared the need to answer by the approach of two police cars. They pulled up silently from opposite directions and parked in front of the diner, their red and blue lights drawing the eyes of every gawker on the street.
“Well, this isn’t good,” Taos said.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The two police officers exited their cars, met in front of the diner’s door, and stopped to talk. Jerusa focused her hearing and found her suspicions were correct. They had found Thad’s Jeep near the wreckage of the Ford pickup and the mutilated body of its owner. As the police officers discussed the situation, a third police cruiser pulled up.
“Up the wall,” Suhail said. “Get on the roof.”
“What do you mean ‘up the wall’?” Jerusa turned, but Suhail and Taos were gone. She looked around in amazement. Alicia waved her hand and pointed up.
Halfway up the wall, moving with great speed, Suhail and Taos scurried up the rough brick facing like a couple of cockroaches startled by the light. They were up and over the edge of the wall in no time.
Jerusa went to the wall. She placed her hands on the bricks. They were gritty and still held a small measure of heat from the sun, but none protruded more than a half inch. It was barely enough to get a finger grip on, let alone her feet.
Taos’s head appeared over the edge of the wall. He motioned for her to follow, and his agitated face seemed to suggest she shouldn’t take her time doing so.
Jerusa placed one hand high, one hand low. She lifted one foot and slid it along the wall until it found a brick protruding enough to catch her toe. She had never climbed anything in her life, though she had watched more than one person attempt those climbing walls at the county fair. Not that this was going to be anything like that.
She took one last look at the forty-foot vertical path and sighed. If Taos and Suhail could do it, she could too.
Jerusa pulled with her upper hand while pushing with her feet and to her surprise, she went up. She threw her lower hand up, caught hold and pulled again. She repeated this process a couple more times, but when her feet were about a body’s length from the ground, her grip faltered and she slid back down the wall.
Jerusa backed away and looked at the wall in frustration. What was she doi
ng wrong? She went back to the wall and tried again. This time, she hardly made it a few feet off the ground when her grip broke.
She looked up at the top of the wall, hoping Taos or Suhail would be looking down to give her some instruction, but no one was there. She considered how they had managed to scale the wall. Both men had had their arms and legs spread out, their body drawn close to the wall. She had tried that. What else?
The only other difference she could find had been the speed at which they had climbed.
Jerusa backed over to the opposite wall. She pressed off with all her might, coved the width of the alley in two bounds, then leapt ten feet into the air, hitting the rough brick facing. There was a moment where her hands and feet struggled to find purchase, but then her fingers brushed the top of a brick and she pulled hard. Hand over hand, foot over foot, she continued to pull, never stopping nor even pausing long enough to consider whether or not she had a firm grip.
And it worked.
Jerusa continued to climb, marveling at the odd sensation of her ascent. The strength in her arms, legs, and even fingertips was so over-proportioned to the weight of her body that she felt as though she were swimming to the surface of water rather than scaling a wall.
Within seconds, she had climbed the forty-foot wall and spilled over onto the roof.
“It’s about time,” Taos said. “Were you expecting us to throw you a rope?”
Jerusa stood to her feet. “No, but a little hint now and then would go a long way.”
“Sorry, sweetheart. You’re not my fledgling.”
“Such a gentleman.”
Taos looked at her for a moment and something of a genuine grin flickered at the corners of his mouth. “My advice to you is this: stop being afraid. You’ll never know your full potential unless you press the boundaries.” He turned and left her standing there.
Jerusa followed Taos over to the front of the building where Suhail squatted behind the raised edge, spying on the unfolding dilemma. The police were now inside the diner and had approached the table where Thad, Shufah, and Foster were sitting. She wondered of these trained professionals could sense the mortal danger they were in. Jerusa and Taos crouched on either side of Suhail, waiting for him to speak, but he remained silent.
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