Bad Blood (Battle of the Undead Book 1) (15 page)

“Why him? Why did you give in now?” Nicholas had finished his feeding, and John’s heartbeat was still strong, although he wouldn’t be waking for a while.

I thought about the question, but every answer I came up with was weak. It was a good question—centuries of stubbornness and I meet a sick kid and simply give it up.

“It wasn’t giving in so much as giving up,” I replied, echoing an answer I’d given Nicholas before.

“Giving up what?” Nicholas perched on the desk in front of us.

I really didn’t feel like having a heart-to-heart with a vampire who’d been my sworn enemy for as long as I could remember, but answering seemed preferable to yet another argument.

“Loneliness.”

“You could have always come to me, Britannia. You were the one that made me the antagonist in your story. I was always there for you.”

“Not now, Nicholas.”

“Think about it. You killed hundreds of vampires, yet you never killed me. You could have a thousand times over, but you never pointed your sharp scythes at me.”
He got up and walked toward the door. “No matter what happens with Danny, you tried—it is all one can ask. There’s enough John left for both of you when he wakes.” He then walked out, closing the door behind him.

“I thought he’d never leave.” Danny looked up at me with a toothy grin.

I watched as short, dark sprouts of hair erupted from his bald scalp and my bloody symbol disappeared into his forehead. “You’re alive,” I whispered.

“I can smell blood, and other things,” Danny said, shifting to sit up.

“How do you feel?”

“I feel
…great.”

“You’ll be a little uncoordinated for a while. You need to get used to your new strength and speed.”

He jerked forward and gave me a hug that almost broke my ribs. “Can I call you Mum?” he asked.

“No.”

“No worries.” He got up and walked toward the sleeping John. His movements were graceful, and I noticed that his frail frame had also bulked out a little in the transformation. The magic had fixed what the illness had taken from him. This was what he’d have been like if he’d not been sick.

“Do I just bite him or something?”

I smiled. He had control, too. He reminded me of Lyle. I’d been there the night Philippe had made him. Tate and I had waited anxiously as Philippe summoned the magic over our half-dead friend. Lyle had been shot in a hunting accident. It had always been in Philippe’s plan to bring him over, but the impromptu bullet had sped things along. Instead of being a vampire in his mid-twenties like Tate, Lyle was only nineteen when he’d been brought over. His near-death state had taken away most of the initial inconvenience of new vampire-hood. It would appear the same had happened to Danny. He’d skipped the first stages of awkwardness because his body had needed healing, probably even more so than Lyle’s had.

“Yes, you can bite him. Try the wrist
, though.” I moved off the couch to hover over him as he fed.

“It tastes weird,” Danny said as he pulled away.

“It does, I’m afraid. You can still eat normal food if you wish, although it will do nothing to sustain you.”

The air around us was saturated with blood, so I sat on the other side of John, picked up his free wrist, and finished him off. There was no way we could trust him now, and as Nicholas had said, waste not, want not.

“I’m going to let you get used to your new…newness,” I said. “Stay here till I can prepare the others, okay?”

“Sure, Brit,” he replied through a grin.

I left him in the office and walked over to Tracy, who was still sifting through the goodies we’d stolen.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Yes. Danny’s fine, and John is no longer a concern.”

“That’s good.”
I pulled out the necklace I’d stolen, the delicate silver cross. “Here, I brought you something.” I handed it to her.

“What is it?”

“It’s kind of a joke, really.” I shrugged.

“Oh, it’s lovely, thank you.” She smiled and put it on. “Is it for warding off Nicholas?”

I laughed. “Something like that. Crosses have no effect on us, but you guys seem to like the idea.”

She hugged me, and I patted her shoulder.

“I put your stuff over here.” She pointed to a pile of blue hair dye and my dress.

“How did you know I picked the dress?”

“Just a hunch.” Tracy looked over to where Josh and Green were talking.

I scooped up my goodies and went into the ladies’ toilet. I cleaned myself up, washed my hair, and dried it beneath the hand dryer. It was a little curlier than I liked, but when I put on the dress, I looked more like a lady than a murdering monster of the night. I went back to the office and found Danny also had cleaned up and changed. He was wearing the union jack T-
shirt I’d picked up from the museum.

“Danny, you look
…adjusted.”

“Thanks. Umm, Brit?”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to change my name, now that I’m not, well, human anymore.”

“I like Danny. Why would you want to change it?”

“Danny was a sick kid who spent his entire life in and out of hospitals. I want to be someone else now, someone who’s strong and useful.”

“What would you like us to call you?”

He grinned and pointed to his T
-shirt. “You’re called Britannia. I’d like to be Union Jack. Jack for short.”

I smiled. “Jack it is then.”

The mood wasn’t as strained as I’d thought it was going to be. Everyone had gotten to know Danny, and the emergence of Jack was considered a win in more than one way. They got to keep their friend, and they also got a third protector. Jack was still young, and his enthusiasm was contagious. No one was afraid to hug him, and even Satan wagged his tail when he saw him alive and well.

That night was a good one. We all sat around talking and laughing. Only a random zombie or two knocked on the door, and Nicholas was all too willing to show Jack how to deal with them.

We formed a plan to get us up north and, as we all turned in for the night, I found myself sitting with Josh as he fiddled with his army radio.

“Any good shows on?” I motioned at it.

He laughed. “Naw, just hoping I pick up a signal. Maybe make contact with a base that isn’t overrun or something.”

“Good thinking, Batman,” I said, batting my eyelashes for all they were worth.

He gave me a lopsided smile. “So, what you did for Danny, I mean Jack. Could you do that for everyone?”

“No. There would be anarchy if the world were populated with my kind
...”

“You gonna confirm to me what your kind is now?”

“I think most people have guessed what we are. Although, British manners forbid them to openly point it out.”

“You don’t say it either.”

“I’m British, too.”

“Stiff upper lips are harder with fangs.”

“I know no other way, Josh.”

“You could learn?”

“I’m too old to learn new tricks now.”

“No, you’re not.” He lean
ed over and put his hand on my cheek. I wanted to lean into him, for our lips to hover together, but I hadn’t kissed a man since Langdon, and I was pretty sure that many things had changed since then. Popular erotic novels nowadays made women feel inadequate if they didn’t know every trick in the Kama Sutra. I certainly had no tricks up my sleeve when it came to sex, and as much as I had had a million day and night dreams of this moment, I still couldn’t bring myself to make the first move.

Fortunately, at that particular moment, I didn’t have to. The radio buzzed with a distant voice. Josh looked down at it and played with the knobs until the voice was clearer.

“Is anybody out there?” A man’s voice came through. A man’s voice I instantly recognized.

“Tate
, is that you?” I clutched the radio handset and cradled it like a newborn baby.

“Brit? My God. I knew it. You’re alive. Is Philippe with you?”

Being a private, Josh knew when an awkward conversation was above his pay grade. He put a hand on my shoulder and walked away to join the rest of the group.

I let the white noise stretch out between us. How could I tell him his maker was now a deranged, half-zombie psycho?

“Brit? He’s not with you, is he?”

“I’m so sorry, Tate. He’s been bitten and, he’s not our Philippe anymore. Is Lyle with you?”

I used to think that Tate and Lyle had a relationship similar to Nicholas’ and mine, but it turned out that they took only the love part from our love-hate relationship.

“No, he was in Ireland when this all went down. He’s found some massive fenced-off town to lay low in. I’m on my way to him with my survivors.”

“We’ll see you both in Argyle then?” Hope dripped from my words.

“No.”

“Oh, Tate, what’s happened?”

A myriad of tragic events paraded in front of me. Had he been bitten? Was Tate turning into a
vambie?

“The Elders can go suck themselves. Do you know what they’ll do to the humans that make it there?”

“Tate? What are you talking about?”

“Ever been to a battery farm, Brit?”

In truth, I hadn’t even thought that far ahead yet. It had been such a struggle to just keep everyone alive.

“Brit?”

“I’m still here.”

“I’m going to Lyle’s place. It’s secure, and he’s already got quite a few humans there.”

“Free-range humans?” Even that sounded awful.

“We’re creating a symbiotic society.” He sighed. “I want you here with us, Brit. Philippe always said that if anything”—he stifled a cry—“if something happened to
him, we were both to look to you.”

Had
I just gotten guardianship of Tate and Lyle? They were both over three hundred years old. It wasn’t like they’d need any babysitting, but…they were strong and skilful. They held similar, even slightly more radical, beliefs to mine. I could trust them.

I nodded,
and then realized he couldn’t see it.

“We’ll meet you at the docks. Liverpool is the nearest. We’ll go by ferry to Ireland.”

“Love you, Brit.” He’d been saying goodbye with that statement since I’d known him.

I gently caressed the side of the radio.
“You’re meant to say over and out.”

“You’re meant to say it back.” Tate laughed.

The humor was strained, but it was there.

“I’ll be with you soon. Put the kettle on.” And I clicked off.

Chapter Fourteen

I didn’t need to tell Nicholas about my discussion with Tate. The moment he’d heard his voice, Nicholas had been eavesdropping from the shadows.

“Are we off to Ireland then?” he asked.

“I think it’s the right thing to do.”

“Better be sure, Britannia. The Elders don’t take too kindly to traitors. Surely you remember them setting you on a fair few back in the day.”

Of course I knew of the dangers of defying the Elders. I’d killed on their behalf on a number of occasions. I’d stopped my work for them when Lyle’s name had come up on their
to-do
list.

“Tate put it best. They can go suck themselves.”

“If humans become scarce, they’ll send others after us.”

“The Elders have been around for more than a millennia. They’re not stupid enough to come after me.”
I stood straight and put my hands on my hips. It was my defiant superhero pose.

“I suppose not under normal circumstances. I think the one thing we can agree on is that these are not normal circumstances.”

“Hey, I can hear someone outside,” Jack called to us.

We both ran to the door and put our ears to it.

A deep chilling chuckle rumbled behind the door. It was Philippe. He’d followed us out of London.

“Was that my Tate I heard earlier? If so, I would so like to catch up with him.”
I heard him lick his lips.

“I’m giving you one last warning, Philippe.
Back off
!” I shouted through the steel shutters.

“I’ll back off
…a few feet, give you enough for you to send out your humans. Then me and mine will have some dinner.”

“
There are hundreds of zombies out there,” Josh shouted.

“There’s more on their way, too,” said Green.

They had both been on watch on top of the factory’s skylights.

“What are we going to do? We can’t get out.” Tracy said.

“There really is only one thing we can do,” I said, stating the obvious. “Kick some undead ass.” I pulled my scythes from my bag.

Nicholas looked at the blades. “Agreed
. It’s time to take Philippe’s head.”

“It would have been cooler to say, ‘it’s harvest time!’” Jack said, coming to stand beside us.