Follow the Bloodshed (The Executioner Trilogy Book 3) (9 page)

I moved to the cabinet beside the stove and began to rummage through it. We had to have holy water and silver nitrate somewhere. Considering the state of the world you would think there would be a short supply, but not in this house. It took a few long moments but I found three clear bottles of holy water and one amber bottle. This would be all I would need to stop this man becoming a vampire. Did this work if he was bitten by crawlers though? I honestly had no idea and we were in no way prepared if this didn’t work. 

“Have we tried this on crawler bites before?” I pointed the question at Chase. Beth still hadn’t come inside and he was my best bet. More than likely they had at least tried. His eyes were only for the man on the kitchen island. I snapped my fingers in front of his face and asked again. “Come on, Chase. Does this work on crawler bites? I need to know now.” He seemed to snap out of it and his eyes met mine. The amber color seemed to be swimming around his pupil. It was strange how I had never noticed that before.

“I really don’t know. Normally it happened so fast we never had a chance to see if it worked or not.” The sentence was rushed and now I knew why he didn’t even want to try to save him to begin with. They had been through this before but didn’t have enough time to save them. I was beginning to wonder who it was, but I didn’t have time to stop and think. I was also beginning to wonder if he was lying to me about any of this.

“Gordon, I need a syringe. One of the glass ones,” I said as I pointed to the drawer directly behind him. “I have no idea if this will work, but I’ll give it a shot.”

He nodded and nabbed the syringe out of the drawer and handed it to me, while trying to move around Sam’s still form without running into her. I was standing at the man’s side. Sweat coated his skin and soaked his clothes and I knew the change was upon him. There was no way I was going to give up on him. I would save him or have to kill him, and I was truly hoping I wouldn’t have to do the latter. Killing another human being wasn’t an option, but soon he wouldn’t be a human. He would be one of those things. He would soon be only an animal with the instinct to kill and feed and there would be nothing left of him. Granted, I didn’t know him, but now that I knew there was barely any humanity left in the city it felt like I was losing something. Pouring the three bottles of holy water on the three bite marks, I listened to him cry out and watched as the steam rose from the wounds. I had never seen this happen before with your run-of-the-mill vampire. Did this also happen with Lilith’s breed of vampire?

The steam was rolling away from his body like a fog rolling its way down to the floor and over our feet. The sizzle grew louder as I poured more and more holy water onto his wounds until all three bottles were empty. This would need to continue until the reaction subsided. Then we could move onto the silver nitrate. With a normal vampire bite only three bottles were needed, but it looked like much more was needed for a bite from a direct creation of Lilith. I was hoping there was more. I hadn’t noticed as I watched the man writhe, but Sam had gripped his shoulders, holding him down like Gordon had me when we first met.

I thrust my hand towards Chase and asked, “Do we have more holy water?” His eyes went wide like he knew I wouldn’t like his answer. Damn. I slammed by fist down on the counter. Sam was focused on holding the man down. What could I say? We were all easily startled these days. The frustration leaked out of me in a low scream that quickly turned into a moan of sadness. I wasn’t going to lose another human being. Too many had already been lost in Lilith’s attempt at world domination. I truly had no idea. “I won’t lose him. I don’t care what it takes.”

Lifting the amber bottle of silver nitrate, I plunged the needle into the metal cap and drew out a syringe full. One quarter of the bottle was now within the syringe, and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use the remainder. Chase began to hand me a tourniquet but I felt like there was no time for that. This needed to be introduced into his system as quickly as I could get it in.

“Robin, you have to use the tourniquet.” This came from Sam. “You need a better vein.”

My glance shot up to her and I could feel the heat of anger rush into my face. “We don’t have time for that now. If I don’t inject this now we’ll lose him and I will not lose anyone else.”

I focused on the bend of the man’s arm as hard as I could to try to find just the right spot to inject the silver. This was why we normally used a tourniquet, but I was able to spot a neat little network of veins underneath his pale skin within seconds. I plunged the needle into the skin, rubbing his arm below the injection site to soothe him. With the first injection I didn’t see any reaction. He was just as calm as he was right before the first dose was given. This was when I knew that the whole bottle would be used tonight. That was if it would be enough.

Once filling the syringe I placed the needle against his skin again, injecting the next three doses of silver nitrate I thought it would take to cure him. For a moment nothing happened and everything went silent. This happened often these days. Not even the man’s ragged breathes could be heard. Sam’s eyes were wide. She removed her hands from his shoulders as he lay there, not daring to touch him again.

Then a low growl began to sound and it seemed like it was coming from all directions. He bolted upright and began to cry out in pain. Convulsions overtook him. It hadn’t been enough. Screams ripped from my body as his cries turned into animal howls. This was a change unlike any I had seen before. It was beyond terrifying to watch. The energy in the air changed dramatically, making the fine hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end and my nerves to buzz. I knew Chase and Gordon could feel it because of their wide eyed expressions.  Sam had felt it before the rest of us, which I felt had to be a part of the gift she had briefly spoken of before this. Beth appeared in the doorway, gripping the sides of the threshold. She knew what was happening. I realized both Beth and Chase had seen this before and that was why Chase was unwilling to help.

Within seconds the convulsions stopped and he was still, silent. Not even his chest rose and fell. I could see Gordon wanted to move towards him to make sure the cure had worked, but the rest of us knew that was a bad idea.

“No,” Beth yelled, reaching towards him. Her hand clasped his arm and yanked him away as the man sat and grasped for him.

My feet moved of their own free will, my hand reaching towards the quiver of arrows on my back and grabbing one without thinking. I wasn’t sure if he was a crawler or a vampire. I jabbed the arrow directly into the heart area, but it caused barely a reaction out of the creature. He turned and hit me, causing me to spiral against the counter on the other side of the island and fall to the ground in time to see him knock Sam unconscious against the opposite side. My ears rung and I was seeing stars. I knew I had hit the heart. That meant that he had been bitten by crawlers only. I heard scrambling above and around me, everyone yelling, but I couldn’t make out a word they said. I was on my back in time to see the newly changed crawler clambering off of the island and making his way towards me. The thirst for blood evident in his eyes and the set of his mouth. From the look on his face I gathered crawlers were just like vampires, they needed blood after rising to survive, and right now the only blood right in his line of sight was mine.

Chapter 15:

Blood on the Water

The man was on top of me trying to reach my throat, but I had my arms out and elbows locked so he was left snapping air. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold him since my arms were beginning to shake. His moans and growls sounded anguished, like he was in pain and for all I knew he could be. I had never seen a crawler right after they had turned. There was a first time for everything.

There was an animalistic tone to his voice and the look in his eyes was pure and savage. This was a look I was used to seeing as it was normally aimed at me anyways, but not in such close proximity trying to gnaw at my throat. The beast was rolling lazily inside of me, trying to awake from the Vlad induced slumber. Why couldn’t anything be easy? I couldn’t help the fear flooding my system, causing adrenaline to peak and flow and a scream to leave my throat. Then a pair of strong hands gripped his shoulders and pulled him away from me with ease. When I sat I found Gordon holding the crawler against his chest with his arm around its neck. Everything had moved so fast that he didn’t have time to grab a weapon to decapitate the creature with. I scoped the kitchen and stood, taking a large butcher knife from the block on the counter. This was going to be messy.

I closed the distance and placed the knife against the crawler’s throat, but saw something in his eyes. Fear. There was no way. He was no longer human. From what I had seen crawlers didn’t exhibit any kind of emotion besides hunger and savagery, but I was seeing pure and utter terror. I decided it didn’t matter that he was afraid. It only mattered what he was, and what he was would kill us. I started to cut at its throat in a sawing motion, cutting through muscle and sinew, feeling the snapping of the trachea through my entire arm as I cut through it.  Blood was spraying in spurts onto me from the jugular. The creature was making a gurgling sound, but I knew I wasn’t done yet. I had to separate the head from the body. Only then would it die and we had already established there was no saving him.

The spine was the easy to get through, and I knew I had it when I heard and felt the snap of the nerves housed inside of it. I sliced through the remaining strip of meat and skin with barely any effort and the head went rolling, tumbling across the floor until finally stopping, his face looking at me with mouth wide open in a silent scream. I could hear holy water dripping from the counter of the island, landing in the blood that covered the floor. As I looked around I noticed both Gordon and I were covered in blood. I felt the need to strip my clothes and wash myself but I resisted. Sam was unconscious, slouched against the cabinets on the other side of the island behind where she had been standing. Gordon moved to kneel beside her, feeling her pulse and nodding. She was alive.

Chase was leaning on the counter on the other side, eyes wide and afraid. Beth was sitting on the floor, rubbing her cheek. . I could see a bruise sprouting on her skin. Anger inside of me, heat spreading like a wildfire and even the beast was choosing to make an appearance. Chase and Beth had seen this happen before and didn’t warn me and neither one of them realized I had put the pieces of that particular puzzle together.

I pointed at Beth and let the anger fill me. “How could you not warn us? “ Beth turned to me, her mouth open in confusion. She had no idea what I was talking about.

“What are you talking about?” she said as she stood on shaky legs. Her hand gripped the counter as she nearly slipped, but kept her footing.

“You two have seen this before and didn’t warn us it wouldn’t work. How can you be okay with hiding something like this?” The question hung in the air like a sad song had finished playing. Their heads were hung low as if they had no idea what to say next.

I wasn’t sure what to say next and was fuming with rage. Gordon was as cool as a cucumber, but I could see the anger brimming underneath his black eyes as he looked at me from his position.  The silence was deafening and it only fueled what I was feeling. I felt like they were okay with hiding information, leaving me to find it out myself. That plan wouldn’t work. I needed to be armed with everything and they were neglecting everything.

I dropped my hands to my sides and decided enough was enough. “You know what, guys. I’ll be upstairs until you decide to tell me what the Hell is going on here. Until then you are on your own.” I began to walk from the kitchen, leaving them to clean up the mess, and Chase stopped me. His voice was so low I could barely hear him, but I had heard him enough.

I stopped and turned to him. I had already learned quite a lot without their help, but there was so much I was still learning about the world that I had fought so hard to get back to. It was safe to say it wasn’t the same world I left. Not even the air felt the same anymore. I began to ask what he wanted when Gordon moved past me with Sam in his arms, her head lolling to the side. He was taking her to Chase’s room. It was obvious I couldn’t trust Chase and Beth, and I wanted to know why.

“We did know it wouldn’t work,” Chase said. This made me cross my arms, an agitated expression on my face I didn’t care to hide anymore. What was the point?

“And you didn’t feel this was pertinent information why?” I asked. Sarcasm and irritation filtered into the words. Gordon came back into the room, hanging in the background and letting me handle what I needed to handle. He knew I was on a roll.

“It’s not that we felt it wasn’t important. We truly thought that we wouldn’t run intothis situation agai
n
because of how quickly the change occurred. How quickly it spread. We had no way of knowing this would happen.”

I had to give him credit for that at least. I wanted to know how they found this out. It seemed the same situation had presented itself before and they had tried to same cure that could cure vampirism in those bitten by a diluted breed. Lilith’s ilk and the crawler’s definitely weren’t like the ones I had slain before now.

Beth stepped forward “We had been on a run for supplies when we ran into a man being chased by a pack of crawlers. He had already been bitten once. We really thought it would work. We had no idea the change would take such a strong hold on him, but we tried.” She paused, licking her lips and cleared her throat. “There was a supply of holy water, silver nitrate, and syringes in the truck just to be on the safe side. You know, just in case one of us got bitten by a crawler or a vampire. We didn’t want to bring someone back home if they turned. Well, we did what we could and he turned anyways, forcing us to destroy him. That’s how we found out that crawlers don’t turn to ash until after their first feeding.” She sat down on a bar stool, still rubbing her cheek and stated, “I hope that clears a few things up.”

. “It does a little bit.” Gordon nodded. I agreed. The story cleared up the reason Chase didn’t want to try and the reason Beth broken when we brought the man inside. But why not help me once I had gotten him inside? What was up with that?

“It does a lot.” The words just kind of spilled out of me n as I looked from Beth to Chase. They were still hiding something, but I had already pressed them enough tonight and didn’t want to push too hard. While I felt like I needed more I also understood their need for time to heal.

I hadn’t been back long and I knew they were still a little apprehensive. It was something I could feel in the air when around them. It caused my skin to prickle, the fine hairs standing on end. Or maybe that was the cold shoulder I was getting. I couldn’t shake the sensation they were both about to fall apart at the seams. I had become stronger with my time away fighting for my life and trying to come back to lay Lilith and her kind to ruin, but they had become weaker somehow. It was like this world and what they had seen took something away from them.

What is their will? Was it their humanity? Was it their strength? I wasn’t sure yet, but something was different and the only way to know was to ask. I needed to know what she had seen and done while I was away. I needed a play by play of the events that turned the world I knew into this new, scary monster of a thing. The world I once knew was a writhing and hungry beast that devoured everything good and spit it back out once only dry bones were left, clattering on the broken streets only to land ay my feet.

The major difference I noticed? Humanity had been stripped away; it wasn’t lost to the darkness. With my first run in with crawlers I had seen a mother and a child, letting me know that humanity was still holding on strong and it could come back from the brink. But I wasn’t sure how far all of this reached. Was it only my shiny hometown of Los Angeles or did it reach much farther? Was it worldwide? If so that would be harder to come back from, but once Lilith was destroyed we could grow into what we once were.  Yes, it would take quite a lot of time, but time would be in excess once she was gone with barely a care in the world besides the residual creatures that I would be here to slay them as would our child. I had no doubt that our child would be born with the same talents with a few added extras from their father.

I knew I was right the moment the tendrils of whispers began to spread through my mind, still unintelligible but growing stronger each day. If only I knew the fate of our child, but I did have a feeling that he or she could bring this world back from the brink. Gordon and I were fire and ice. Complete opposites in all aspects. Would our child embody one or the other, or both?