Peg reached in with both arms again, trying her best to ignore the fact that Zoey’s legs had stopped moving.
Black blood spurted in her face as she pulled out something that had once been lungs but now looked like it had merged with a spinal column. She spit as much as she could from her mouth and kept digging. Peg didn’t need to destroy enough hearts to kill it. She wasn’t even sure if such a thing was possible. All she needed to do was destroy enough to get it to drop Zoey.
The other appendage hit her again, this time coming up from below. Her legs came away from Zoey, completely removing her anchor. She started to slip.
No. No. Just…
Her fingers clenched something else inside. It felt like it was moving. As her body started to fall she pulled at it, afraid her grip would give out before the connective tissue inside.
She dropped the fifteen feet and landed on her back. The pain was horrible, but the scream that came from her lips wasn’t from the agony. It was one of desperate, hopeful triumph. The thing in her hands beat several times before it started to disintegrate.
She couldn’t see anything that was happening above her, but she could feel bits of meat splattering on her body. The thing screamed again, and although it might have been her imagination she believed the noise might have been slightly weaker this time. A significantly larger piece fell a few feet away from her, then another. A jawbone hit her in the head. She tried to roll out of the way of the collapsing tentacle, but she was so disoriented by now that she couldn’t tell which direction to go.
Something huge splattered onto the stone right next to her. The thing screamed again, but this time the noise was retreating. Through whatever form of locomotion it used it was going deeper into the cavern. Peg had no idea how deep it could go, nor did she have even the slightest desire to learn. It was time to leave before it decided it wanted to come back for its revenge on her. But she could only leave under one condition.
“Zoey?” she asked, although she was no longer sure that she would get an answer.
“Peggy,” Zoey responded, but her words were weak. Peg crawled in their direction.
“Zoey, keep talking. I can’t find you if…”
“Peggy,” Zoey said again. The words may have been closer, but they were fainter as well.
Peg put her hands in a gory mess, and the gory mess moved beneath her touch. She recoiled until she realized that underneath it all she had felt something that might have been Zoey’s stomach.
“It’s okay Zoey. I’ve got you,” Peg said, but as she slid her arms under Zoey’s body she vaguely registered that the shape was wrong.
No, that can’t be right, Peg thought, not after all that. This isn’t how it’s supposed to end.
The thing groaned from somewhere deep in the earth. Now was not the time to deal with this yet. They had to get out first.
Doing her best to ignore the unnatural way Zoey sagged in her arms, Peg picked her up. She wasn’t sure exactly which direction she had come from, but she figured that the safest assumption was to go the opposite direction of the inhuman noises still getting weaker in the gloom. Even though her mind tried to tell her that urgency was still important, her body was telling her it was time to slow down. Vampire or not, she was not immune to taking a beating. Maybe she could heal from it all, but not now. For now, she just wanted to collapse. Especially if Zoey…
No. She’s going to be okay.
The thinnest amount of light came through the door ahead, just enough to tell her that she was going in the right direction. There might even be enough light for her to see Zoey now, but she didn’t allow herself to look down at the bundle in her arms. As much as she wanted to deny it, she already had an idea what she would see.
She had expected to see chaos when she opened the door, but the room was mostly empty. All the cages had been opened and most were empty, although Peg could hear the hint of voices from the exit. Even Pig’s cage near the end was empty, although she didn’t think it would have been easy for him to escape. One or two stragglers stayed in their cages, still huddled away from the opening as though they expected something to come in after them at any moment. Maybe Peg would be in a state to deal with or help them later, but right now it was time to stop putting off the inevitable. She finally looked down at Zoey.
No one other than Peg would have been able to recognize her anymore. It was as though her body had been shaped in clay and some giant, malicious child had grabbed her in random places and squeezed. Which, Peg realized, wasn’t too far from the truth. Peg gently got to her knees and lowered Zoey to the ground, trying to make sense of what parts of her were supposed to be where.
Whatever trick the thing did to its victims to shape them into its body, it was obvious that it had already been in the process when Peg had freed Zoey. She had extra flaps of skin hanging from all over her body that didn’t quite match her skin tone. Her right shoulder was a good half a foot lower than her left. Her face was mostly intact, although her ear had migrated to her cheek, her hair getting pulled along with it until it all stuck out along the side of her head. Her hips were twisted at a nearly ninety degree angle. Her delicate butterfly wing tattoos, formerly on her back, were now crowding in where he right breast should have been, which itself was disturbingly close to her belly button. Her entire left foot was missing, vanishing just below the calf.
And yet, through a bodily trauma that should have killed even the hardiest person, Zoey still breathed.
Peg’s first reaction was to say that Zoey needed to hang on, that there was some way they could fix this, but she held her tongue. To attempt to help Zoey after this would only be torture for her.
Zoey’s lips moved but no sound came out. Peg leaned closer, trying to hear, but instead leaned forward on her sister, cradling the mangled body and rocking as the tears started to come.
She’d failed. Again. There were no possible excuses this time. She couldn’t try to tell herself that she had no way of knowing. She should have been able to stop it this time. Everything her mother had ever said about her was right. She should be the one dying, not the beautiful, spunky, bratty little angel that she had grown up with.
Her sobs stopped suddenly. A calm came over her, a great peace, although Peg didn’t understand at first how such a thing could have formed so quickly in her mind. Then she realized these were not her emotions at all. She sat back up and looked back down into the ruin that now passed for her sister’s face. Despite the obvious and intense pain, there was something on Zoey’s face that could almost be a smile.
All of Zoey’s emotions washed over Peg, cleaning away the guilt and anguish. Zoey didn’t blame her. She wasn’t even angry at Peg, never had been in the slightest. What she felt instead was gratitude. And love. A love so deep it felt to Peg like it could crush her heart in her chest.
Because Zoey had always known that day that her big sister would save her. There had never been any doubt. And in Zoey’s mind, she had been saved. She wasn’t going to be part of the never-torment currently slinking away deeper beneath the earth. She could finally be at peace. And she had Peg to thank for it.
Peg sat there for several minutes quietly stroking her sister’s remaining good cheek. When she was ready she stood up and searched the room for a good size rock, something she could use to make it as quick and painless as possible without resorting to the trick she’d used on the minions.
But by the time Peg got back to Zoey she had stopped breathing. The extra flaps of skin had already broken away and were turning into unrecognizable muck, with the rest of Zoey’s body following quickly after.
Peg sat at her side and held her hand until it too disintegrated. And sense of peace or not, Peg started to cry again.
Epilogue: Seeds Sown
V trudged up the bleachers to join Peg in her spot away from all the other parents. She had a pair of hotdogs in her hand that she had picked up at the gas station so they would have something to snack on as the game started. Peg would be able t
o choke one down just to keep up appearances, but she wouldn’t really get any nourishment from it. Her actual meal would have to wait until later when she could break out the bottle she had gotten from the meat market without anyone seeing.
“Here you go,” V said, handing her a dog in a bun. “Got it especially for you.”
Peg started to reach for it, then stopped when the stench assaulted her nostrils. It was actually an Italian sausage. And it was full of garlic.
“Hardy fucking har,” Peg said.
“Hey, don’t look at me. What makes it so funny every time is that you still almost fall for it.”
“Bitch,” Peg said.
“Whore,” V said with a smile, then held out the other hot dog instead. “There’s your real one.”
“Where’d Zoey go?” Peg asked as she brought the hot dog to her nose and took a whiff just to be sure.
“Made a bee line for her usual place,” V said.
In her typical over-protective manner Peg reached out to make sure she had a solid feel for Zoey’s emotions. She was happy. That was more than enough to satisfy her.
“Did I miss anything?” V asked, her mouth full of sausage and relish.
“Not really,” Peg said. “Brendan hasn’t gone up yet.”
For anyone else it would have been the perfect day for a Little League game. The sun was high in a cloudless sky with just a hint of a breeze to keep it from getting too warm. All the other parents were in shorts and tank-tops. Peg, on the other hand, was dressed in jeans and long sleeves, a fashion statement that got her more than a few strange looks from parents that already thought she was a little odd. She also wore a large floppy hat and sunglasses, and every exposed portion of her skin was thickly lathered with the strongest sunblock she could find. Despite this she would likely be in a great deal of pain by the time she got back home, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to let a little discomfort keep her from Brendan’s first game of the season.
After a couple of other ten-year olds had their turn at bat Brendan finally came up. Peg and V immediately stood up and cheered, prompting a red-faced glance from Brendan before he turned to concentrate on the pitcher. Despite his embarrassment Peg could feel how happy he was to have her here. He knew how hard the sunlight was on her. Usually V or her husband Norm were the ones who took him to his daytime events. Although she never sensed his emotions with quite the same clarity as Zoey’s, Peg knew how much this meant to him.
The years of raising him following Tony’s death had been full of unique challenges, the biggest being the question of how much to tell him about his mother’s new nature and at what times. He was a smart boy, though. He’d eventually figured it out himself. Peg wished there was someone professional he could talk to about his family’s unique nature, but the only other person Peg allowed him to share with was V. She had been instrumental in keeping Peg sane as she tried to navigate the perils of single motherhood.
The first peril, of course, had been trying to explain Tony’s murder. The fact that Peg had disappeared for a day hadn’t helped any. Only V providing her a fake alibi had kept her out of a courtroom. Tony’s murder was still officially listed as unsolved, although certain horrible gossips in the town still liked to spread the rumors that she had murdered her husband for some unknown reason. Peg could deal with those kind of rumors. They were nothing compared to the real terrors she’d faced.
There were also the rumors that Peg’s continued good looks, looks that would have been more appropriate in a woman about ten years younger, were the result of plastic surgery paid for with Tony’s life insurance. Those, at least, Peg found hilarious. She wondered what all the other soccer moms would say if they knew the only work ever done on her face was the constant filing of her teeth to keep them from growing out to their natural length. Quite a few of them would be a lot more careful about what gossip reached Peg’s ears, she bet.
Brendan hit the ball on the second swing, sending it bouncing between second and third base, earning him a place on first and sending a runner home. Peg and V cheered, but before Peg could sit down she was struck with a strong sense of unease. She sent out her own concern, trying her best to make it feel like a question, and the response she got was a sensation of being in bed, a warm and safe place, but with a sense of dread that she might not be alone. It was fear, but a very specific fear. Fear of the boogeyman.
“Keep an eye on Brendan, would you?” Peg asked. Something on her face must have worried V.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“I think so. Probably nothing I can’t handle,” Peg said.
Peg swiftly but calmly walked down the bleachers and went into the direction of the park’s nearby playground. She found Zoey in her favorite hangout, literally. She was dangling upside down from the monkey bars. That had been part of her regular play for the last several months, her way of pretending she was a bat. At her size the act looked far more dangerous for her than it actually was. To most people she only looked four or five. They were surprised when they realized she was actually several years older.
As Zoey saw her approach she let go of her perch and tumbled to the ground. Any other mother would have screamed and run in a futile attempt to catch her child. Peg, however, knew full well that Zoey was in no danger. The little girl spun in mid-air, a motion that was so fast normal eyes could barely see it, and Zoey landed on the ground in a perfect three-point landing. That concerned Peg, not because it was dangerous but because it was showing off. She’d warned Zoey over and over again not to do anything like that where other people might be able to see. The last thing Peg needed was even more unanswerable questions about their peculiar little family.
Zoey ran up to Peg and hugged her leg, her unsettled emotions again registering high in Peg’s mind. Peg took a knee so she could look her daughter in the eye. She had Peg’s eyes, but her father’s nose. The hair, however, that was all from the aunt that had died nine months before she was born. Sometimes Peg looked at Zoey and her heart ached for the people she’d lost. But most times Peg just looked at her little girl and her pride swelled.
Zoey had been a surprise in oh so many ways. Peg hadn’t even thought that a vampire like herself, even a new one, could get pregnant. But apparently she had, and it had been only hours after her sister had unwittingly turned her. She’d had a lot of anxiety that her blood, freely mixing with that of her unborn daughter, would also change the baby. There’d been a lot of questions about what a vampire baby would even be like. Would it never age? Would it be a baby forever? Would she have to feed it blood? The answer to all those questions, in the end, had been “not quite.” While her mind matured at a normal rate her body aged slower. She’d fed just fine at Peg’s breast, which Peg realized probably wasn’t the kind of milk that she would want to give to any other baby anyway. Zoey didn’t have to file her teeth like her mother, but Peg had no idea if it would stay that way once she finally lost her baby teeth. Her daughter, as far as Peg knew, was something new and unexplored.
There had never once been a question of what she would be named, though.
“What is it, honey?”
“Mommy, I think I saw one.”
That was exactly what Peg had been afraid of. It was possible Zoey was mistaken, but Peg had taken a lot of time intentionally instilling a fear in her daughter that she hadn’t in Brendan. She’d told her stories, light enough on details that Zoey didn’t wake screaming in the night like her mother (although for Peg it was usually more like waking screaming in the day) but with enough information that Zoey would be able to give a warning if she ever saw anything suspicious.
Peg had returned to the abandoned house on Lake Winnebago a week after her escape, this time with V at her side along with every weapon they could possibly find on short notice and many full gas cans. She’d felt it was her duty to return and burn, destroy, or kill anything that was still left at the bottom of the sink hole, although she hadn’t really believed she would be able to force herself an
y further than the ramshackle door.
But they hadn’t even gotten that far. In the intervening week the rest of the house had collapsed in on itself. The sinkhole was still there under the rubble, but it was significantly shallower. The walls had collapsed in on themselves. The rickety stairwell was gone, likely fallen first and then buried under tons of limestone. V had said the place gave her the chills, like something still didn’t want them to be there, but other than those things there was no trace of anything out of the ordinary.
Peg had supposed that the thing at the bottom could have been killed in the cave-in, but she doubted it. The cave-in couldn’t have been a coincidence. Even in its weakened state (if Peg had even succeeded in that much) it could have been able to cover its tracks. It no longer had any minions that she knew of and no other way out, so the best she had been able to hope for was that it would be trapped for the rest of Peg’s lifetime.
She’d taught Zoey what to look for, though, just in case.
“Where?” Peg asked quietly. Zoey pointed toward a copse of trees on the far side of the park. It was right near a creek that ran through the park, and it had plenty of shade. Peg noticed that, even though the park was full of playing children, not a one of them went anywhere near that spot.
“You just stay right here,” Peg said. “But look away. Understand? No matter what you hear, no matter what you feel from me, you do not move and you do not look. Can you listen to your mommy for once?”
Zoey nodded. As strong willed as she was, Peg believed she would obey.
Peg turned and started to walk back to the baseball diamond. Although she’d always had some trouble with the trick, she concentrated hard on creating a glamour around herself. Normal humans would see her and not realize she was there. She could stand right in front of them, whisper in their ear, and they would only think it was the wind. She’d never quite gotten to the point of doing mind control, although she had seen it work, but she didn’t need that right now. The only important thing was that no one else could see her. No one except her half-vampire daughter and the minion hiding among the trees.
Blood Harvest (Book 1): Blood Fruit Page 17
