Jerusa shook the thought from her head. It was a vicious circle with no end. Taos was to blame. Before his cryptic warning in the garage, Jerusa had a clear check list of her friends and enemies.
Without warning, Thad’s body stiffened, and he planted his feet into the soft muddy earth as he clutched Jerusa’s hand tight.
“What’s wrong?”
Thad’s eyes were as wide as they could get. Any wider and they would be in danger of dropping from the sockets. “There’s something in front of us.”
Jerusa scanned the trees before them, but saw nothing out of place. If Thad could see something, surely her vampiric eyes would see it all the better.
“I don’t see anything. Where are you looking?”
“Right in front of us.” Thad pointed. “I can barely make it out. It looks like a small pillar of glowing mist. Not very big. Not very bright.”
The others stopped and peered into the darkness ahead.
“Do you see anything?” Jerusa asked them. Each said that they didn’t.
They were all silent. The only noise was Thad’s panicked breathing. Jerusa focused her vision with all that she had, pressing away the darkness. If something was there, she would see it. But there was nothing. No light. No mist. The only thing standing before them was Alicia, waiting patiently for them to follow her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jerusa gasped.
“What is it?” Shufah asked.
“It’s Alicia. Thad can see her.”
“What are you talking about?” Thad seemed horrified by the notion of seeing a ghost, forgetting, altogether, the fact that he was holding hands with a vampire.
“What do you see?” Shufah asked Thad.
“I don’t know. It’s kind of like that image you get when you’ve stared at a bright light too long.”
“What do you see?” Shufah asked Jerusa.
“I see Alicia. She is standing right there.”
Shufah followed Jerusa’s eyes, but shook her head. “I can’t see anything.” She looked to the others, all of them agreeing that they, too, saw nothing. “What is Alicia doing? Is there anything unusual about her?”
“She’s just standing there. She’s glowing a bit, like she is standing in moonlight, but she’s been doing that on and off since I was turned.”
Alicia looked down at her hands, perplexed, as if unaware that she was glowing. The aura around her brightened and her skin even seemed to shine.
“Oh, wow,” Thad blurted out. He pulled his hand out of Jerusa’s and pointed at Alicia, but almost immediately, his face fell into a puzzled frown. “Where did it go?”
“What happened?” Shufah asked.
“I don’t know.” Thad rubbed his face as if trying to wash off a lingering sleep. “The mist got brighter, and for a moment … it looked like a person. But then it just blinked out like someone turned off the power switch.”
“You mean,” Shufah said in the slow, unsure way one does when talking through a problem, “it vanished when you let go of Jerusa’s hand.”
They all looked at Jerusa, but she could only look at Alicia. The ghost seemed more shocked by this theory than anyone else. The aura that illuminated Alicia flickered for a moment, then went out. Jerusa could still see her, even in the dark, but now the ghost seemed no different than the trees by which she stood. She looked weary, though, as if the act of glowing had been an intense workout for her. She vanished for a moment, only to rematerialize in the same spot.
“May I?” Shufah asked, reaching out to take Jerusa’s hand.
“That’s fine, but I don’t think you’ll see anything.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Alicia stopped glowing.”
“I would like to try anyway.” Shufah took Jerusa by the hand. Shufah’s skin was warm and soft, like silk, but Jerusa could sense the power hidden within. Shufah scanned the forest before them, but Jerusa could tell by her wandering eyes that she did not see Alicia.
“What do you see?” Foster asked.
Disappointed, Shufah pulled her hand free of Jerusa’s. “I see only what you see, my love.”
“Is this some attempt at deception?” Suhail asked, his bronze eyes alight with suspicion.
Thad spun around to face him. “No! Why would I lie?”
“Don’t play coy with me, human. It plays to your favor if you can convince others that you see spirits, too.”
“I didn’t say I saw a ghost,” Thad said in exasperation. “I just said I saw something. I don’t know what it was.”
“Are you all right, brother? You don’t seem quite yourself tonight.”
Suhail’s eyes fell upon his sister with a hard blow, but quickly softened. “My apologies, Shufah. The strain of the past two days is wearing on me. I am eager to be done with our grim task.”
“As am I, brother.” Shufah looked as though she had more to say, but pressed the issue no further.
Taos, however, couldn’t resist the moment. “Be careful of what you accuse my mark of. One day, he may be turned and I can’t have you slandering my future fledgling.” He shot Thad a wicked little wink. Thad seemed uncomfortable with the gesture, and Jerusa allowed a bark of laughter to escape her, but Suhail didn’t seem the least bit amused. Taos should have stopped there, but restraint was not one of his qualities. “And be careful how you behave around the blood witch. Her maker might be close at hand, listening. You don’t want to end up like Kole, now, do you?”
Suhail’s eyes narrowed and for a moment, Jerusa expected red laser beams to fire from his empty pupils and reduce Taos to ash. When it didn’t happen, he turned to Jerusa. “Lead on, blood witch.”
Jerusa didn’t know if the term “blood witch” was supposed to be a compliment or an insult, but considering only Taos and Suhail called her that, she figured it was the latter. Either way, though, she kind of liked it. She had never had a nickname other than “freak” or “Frankenstein” or some other bit of unimaginative tripe. Blood witch at least sounded powerful and frightening.
In the end, Jerusa ignored the name-calling, as she always did. She looked at Alicia, who seemed to still be trying to regain her luminous aura. “Are you ready to go?” Alicia dropped her hands to her sides in defeat and nodded. “Then show us where Kole is at.”
Once again, they fell into a silent line, trudging through the swampy low ground where the water collected despite the thirsty trees. Jerusa offered her guiding hand to Thad, but he politely waved it off, giving her some lame excuse about having to learn to do it for himself. She knew the truth, though. Thad was afraid to touch her.
The water deepened, first to their ankles, then to their knees. It was just late spring and the ground had not had the benefit of a summer’s worth of sun to charge it with heat, so the swamp they waded through was as frigid as the North Sea. Jerusa’s feet numbed, and her calves ached as though someone was kneading her muscles into knots. Somehow, she was able to go on, though she expected, any minute, to have to stop and break her legs free from a covering of ice.
Thad’s teeth chattered nonstop and his breath spilled out in shudders. It was obvious that he suffered more from the icy water than anyone else. Jerusa worried about him. Her skin, like the other vampires’, would heal, but Thad very well could get frostbite, or at least hypothermia. She considered scooping him into her arms against his will, but she had already damaged their relationship enough without overpowering him into submission.
Thankfully, the ground began to rise and they moved up out of the swamp and onto a patch of ground slick and miry beneath the carpet of low-lying plants and dead foliage. Their legs weren’t dry, but at least the frozen torture in her calves was subsiding.
“I couldn’t help noticing,” Taos said after a bit, “that we’re not actually moving deeper into the forest. We’re just skirting around the edge of town.”
“I noticed that, too.” Jerusa wasn’t sure what else to say. She could hear the hustle of the town to her left, cars driving, l
ights buzzing, people chattering to one another like flies buzzing around a corpse. She had a sudden fear that Alicia would lead them full circle around the city only to wind up back at the headless man’s body. Taos would never let her live that one down.
But then they came to a break in the forest. An empty strip one hundred feet wide, stretching for miles in both directions, with a series of towers and power lines zipping down the center of the path. The night sky was almost cloudless, with a heavy dusting of stars. A bone-white crescent moon smiled down upon them from the eastern horizon. The slight orange glow of the city’s lights burned to the west like the dying embers of a great furnace.
Alicia led them out into the clearing and to the west. The path sloped down a steep hill and though Jerusa had never been here before, she recognized it as Power Line Hill, a popular winter hangout for those wanting to add a little more excitement to their snow sledding. She tried to imagine the ground covered in tight packed powder, the icy wind blasting her face as she zipped beside and around the massive skeletal towers. It was the kind of activity that her mother would be appalled by.
Jerusa promised herself, right there, that if she survived until the heavy winter snows fell, she would return here and ride the drifts all the way back to town if possible.
Alicia slowed her pace and began looking about as though she had lost something. She turned to Jerusa and signaled for her to be on the lookout. Jerusa turned to relay the message to the group, but before she could speak, a dark figure exploded from the opposite bank of trees with a growl so fierce Jerusa’s legs seemed to melt beneath her.
Kole charged into the midst of the group so fast that none of them had a chance to raise their weapons in defense. They scattered in haste, avoiding Kole’s grasping hands and gnashing teeth, their preternatural speed and agility affording them only the least bit of advantage. But one of them was mortal and lacked the power to save himself.
Thad darted side to side like a bewildered chicken before gaining enough presence of mind to just turn and run. But by then, it was too late. Kole marked Thad as the weakest of the group and made a dash for him.
Taos turned, launching his axe blade in a wide swing at the savage’s neck. Kole dropped, evading the blow, rolled back to his feet, and continued without missing a stride. Taos, thrown off balance by the inertia of his missed attack, lost his footing and rolled down the steep hill.
Shufah jabbed at Kole with her spear fashioned from a shovel, catching him with a glancing blow to the ribs. The strike split his flesh, spilling forth thick black blood smelling of decay, but to the savage, it was a superficial wound.
Thad ran straight for Jerusa, his mouth peeled back in a silent scream, his eyes wide as twin moons. Kole was gaining fast, running like a rabid beast, his dangerous teeth bore in a frothing snarl. Within ten yards, Thad would be caught. Jerusa gripped her machete with both hands and raised it up over her shoulder like a katana sword. Though Foster’s warning of killing a savage ran through her mind, Jerusa had every intention of removing Kole’s head from his body, or at least bludgeoning him senseless with the dull blade. She started forward to intercept Kole, but something snagged her rear foot and sent her tumbling face first into the tall grass.
Jerusa looked back in time to see Suhail sprinting, axe in hand, for the tree line. Why had he tripped her? Before she could consider what had just happened, Thad’s frightened screams cut through the night.
Jerusa sprang to her feet. Kole had Thad pinned to the ground. The savage dropped, snapping at Thad’s throat, but Thad managed to shove the thick metal flashlight into the beast’s mouth, wedging his jaw open. Thad tried his best to keep the flashlight lodged in Kole’s mouth, but the savage reared back out of Thad’s range.
Kole started in for another attack. Jerusa closed the distance fast and thrust the machete deep into the side of Kole’s neck. The point was dull and even with Jerusa’s increased strength she failed to deliver a serious injury to Kole. Instead, the savage rolled to the side, still grasping Thad and sprang to his feet. He clutched Thad around the waist, tossed him over his shoulder, then leapt fifteen feet into the air to the first rung of one of the skeletal towers. Kole ascended the tower with the grace and determination of a greedy ape.
Jerusa scaled the tower’s leg closest to her. Shufah and Foster called to her, begging her to wait, but she could not. Every second brought Thad closer to Kole’s venomous bite. Her only chance to save Thad was to keep Kole on the run.
Kole scaled the diagonal cross support beam better than Jerusa would have expected, seeing as how he only had one free hand. She shimmied to the side until she was under Kole, then jumped up hoping to snag his leg. Just before she made contact, Kole jumped to the adjacent side. Jerusa was so fixated on Kole’s ankle that when he jumped, she reached out for him and nearly forgot to grasp the horizontal support beam above her head. The fall wouldn’t have harmed her, but the time lost would have proven fatal for Thad.
Jerusa pulled herself up, perched, for a moment, like a bird on a wire, then followed Kole. As she landed, she brought the machete down hard, but Kole was on the move and the blade clanged against the steel support with a blast of sparks.
Jerusa pursued Kole up and around the tower in a spiraling path, swatting at him all the way with the dull machete. Once she drew close, but misjudged her distance and came within inches of lopping poor Thad’s ear off.
They were nearing the top of the tower. The pyramid of steel rungs grew tight. The air smelled of ozone and the thick cables mounted to the top of the tower buzzed like a swarm of angry hornets. Kole mounted the pinnacle, somehow avoiding the dangerous power lines. He was out of room, but his savage mind held other concerns.
Despite Thad’s thrashing, Kole pulled him down into his lap. There was a moment when, silhouetted against the moonlight, the pair seemed some ghastly gargoyle atop an ancient parapet. Kole wrapped his arms around Thad’s chest, then constricted it, driving the air along with the fight out of the young man. Kole’s white teeth, perpetually exposed as though he had gnawed off his own lips, stood out in stark contrast to his gray skin. He gave a rattled sigh as though savoring the moment, then moved to bite Thad on the side of the neck.
Jerusa could not get to Kole without injuring Thad. She could see only one option. She jumped with both hands on the machete and swung with all her strength, striking one of the thick power lines where it connected to the tower.
A tremendous pain infiltrated every inch of Jerusa’s flesh, as though thousands of flaming arrows had pierced her from crown to sole. The stench of burnt hair and charred flesh overtook the smell of the ozone. A blinding white ball of lightning burned like a miniature sun before her eyes. Kole uttered a cry that no living creature could produce, which seemed forged half from pain, half from fear. Jerusa could hear distant voices mumbling to one another and she had the oddest sensation of flying. Then a dark and smothering void swallowed her and she knew nothing.
Jerusa awoke to Alicia leaning over her. The ghost gave her a relieved but strained smile, then shifted out of the way as the others crowded in around her. Jerusa watched the pinpricks drifting lazily in the black canopy above, her mind washed of all thought. Why did everyone seem in such a panic? Why was she on the ground? Why was there a fountain of fiery sparks erupting from the top of the power line tower?
Jerusa’s mind clicked into place like a slipped gear finding its notch. It all came rushing back in on her — Thad, Kole, the acrobatic chase to the top of the tower — and for a moment, she had to close her eyes to process it all.
Jerusa sprang to her feet. “Kole? Where is he?”
Foster put his hands on her shoulders. “Easy. He’s gone. The light from the explosion chased him off.”
“Where’s Thad? Is he — ” She couldn’t bring herself to say it.
Foster turned her around. Thad sat on the ground behind her, leaning back on his hands with his knees drawn up. He was panting as though trying to catch his breath, and his eyes wer
e a bit glassy. The left side of his face and neck were black with soot, but he seemed uninjured.
“What happened?”
“You hit the wire with your machete,” Foster said. “Made one helluva big fireball. You took a pretty good jolt. The light was too much for Kole to stand, so he dropped Thad and took off for darker areas. I caught you. Shufah caught Thad.”
Jerusa looked at her hands, all black with soot.
“The important thing,” Suhail said, stepping forward, “is not to blame yourself.”
Jerusa turned to Suhail and a sudden hatred for him rose within her. Her mind was still jumbled from the powerful shock and the reason for her animosity toward Suhail evaded her. “Blame myself for what?”
Suhail pointed toward the base of the tower. Between that tower and the next one to the west, a thick black power line danced upon the ground like a beheaded snake, sending up sparks when it touched the dew-wetted grass. Jerusa’s eyes followed the path of towers as they descended the hill, rose over another, and disappeared behind the black western horizon. A horizon which, minutes earlier, had been stained orange by the light pollution spilling forth from town.
“Darker areas,” Jerusa heard herself say. “I caused a blackout.” It was a statement, not a question. “The town is without power.”
“And Kole went straight for it like a dog to a steak bone,” Suhail said. Jerusa couldn’t be sure, but she though she saw a smile tickle the corner of his mouth.
Jerusa’s skin felt hot all over and a deep chasm seemed to have opened in her stomach. She took a step closer to Suhail. “You tripped me.” His face seemed neither shocked at her accusation nor apologetic.
“What do you mean?” Shufah asked. She placed herself between Jerusa and her brother, perhaps sensing the combustible energy brewing between them.
“He tripped me,” Jerusa repeated. “I was going after Kole, when he first grabbed Thad, before he climbed the tower. But Suhail snagged my foot with his axe.”
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