Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) (10 page)

"It’s nothing," now she was lying, she was damaged, had no business going about her work,
she was aware of that. That fact could not have been made more clear to her than with the fact that
Manson was down. She hadn’t been a hundred percent and that damned monster had not been your
average vampire, she didn’t even know what the hell was going on there. And that was why she knew
that she couldn’t afford not to take the chance to get as much information as she could. It wasn’t the
first time that she’d had to go to the monsters for it, she wished that it wasn’t the case.

"But I thought that you killed........." he stopped apparently unsure how to say or ask what was
on his mind.

"I did kill him, but another one always takes its place, I can play nice when I need to." A lie
she knew but she did the best that she could given whatever the circumstances were.

"Would you think about not going if I asked you not to?" Jennifer waited for him to give her a
brief meeting of eyes before she smiled and shook her head.

"There’s no one else Doug, Clive and Manson are down, I’m out of options." She was well
out of options she was beginning to wonder with this vampire if she’d ever had any options at all. The
rest of the ride to the hospital was a quiet one, she was grateful that what she planned next wouldn’t
need further justification, at least not with her cousin. She wasn’t sure that she had the energy for it at
the moment, especially knowing how much of an argument Malcolm was going to put up about it.
When they finally pulled up to the hospital Doug made to pull up to the front doors, "no wait, park," she
turned in her seat to look at him. "I want you to stay with Manson and his family, and I’ll need your
car." She was tempted to sigh in relief when he just nodded and did as she asked.

"You should at least get your ribs looked at," she nodded but made no commitment to do any
such thing. She didn’t have the time to waste looking out for herself, she needed to get this conversing
with the enemy thing done tonight, she could deal with herself tomorrow. When her cousin parked in
the lot and climbed out of the car she got out to meet him by the trunk. "Keys," she put her hand out
and without hesitating he dropped them into her upraised palm.

"I thought you were going inside," Doug gave her an accusatory look but didn’t try to take the
keys back.

Jennifer couldn’t help it, she smiled, "I am, I just wanted to have them handy for a speedy
escape. Malcolm is going to be a pain in the ass about all this, unfortunately the nights almost over and
I don’t want to get caught arguing with him and wasting both of our time." Her cousin nodded and
moved toward the building but stopped when she didn’t immediately move to follow.

"Coming?" again with the accusation.

"Yea, just going to grab something from the trunk," she turned to pop the trunk but he
interrupted her.

"It can’t wait until after?"

"Rather not, go on inside I’ll be right behind you." She nodded and popped the trunk, it
wouldn’t take her but a minute to get what she needed, she’d be a few steps behind him. She hated to
be unarmed, she really did, but she knew that it wouldn’t be smart to walk into a hospital with a gun
even if she did have a permit to carry a concealed weapon so she forced herself to take the gun out
from the ankle holster and to remove the Bowie-knife as well, just because as knives went it was rather
large, the only thing she let herself keep was the k-bar. When she was down to just the one knife she
grimaced at how naked it made her feel to be mostly disarmed right after a fight, but slammed the trunk
closed and forced herself to deal with the vulnerability that doing so invoked.

Once that was finished she forced herself to rush to the building, she didn’t want to, in fact she
was more than a little tempted to simply jump in Doug’s car and go take care of what needed to be
done. But in the end she knew that it would be unwise to take off without at least telling the others what
she was going to be doing. With her luck she would do just that and that would be the time that she
would disappear for good. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she showed up where she was going and they
decided that killing her would be easier than giving her information, especially considering the way
things had gone down the last time she’d met with this particular group face to face. It didn’t take her
long to find her co-workers, the minute she walked into emergency they were there waiting, perhaps for
her arrival as much as for news on Manson.

"Oh thank God," Malcolm immediately rushed over and wrapped his arms around her, although
why he bothered she had no idea, it was an awkward experience at best. "Are you alright?"

"I’ve been worse," was the best that she could come up with, it wasn’t a lie, she had nearly
died once, she was certainly in better shape than then.

 
"Did you get him?" Malcolm lowered his voice when he asked this question, though again why
he bothered she had no idea, nobody would know what he was talking about.

"No," she answered without a single hint in her voice that it worried her she’d failed twice in
two nights. But she didn’t dare look him in the eye while she tried to pull the lie off, the fact that she
had allowed for Manson to get hurt couldn’t have made her feel less secure than she did now.

"What do you mean no, we must have heard at least a dozen shots fired, you had to have hit
him at least once." Malcolm argued from beside her, this was going to be harder than she thought if he
wanted to start arguing about the semantics of a fire fight which wasn’t even the real issue at the
moment.

"I shot him with the Remington, clean hits, I emptied thirty 9mm rounds into him. He took my
Bowie knife in the chest. Before that Manson unloaded a full clip of his oozy on this guy, he wouldn’t
go down, my worst nightmare." She looked over at Malcolm and could tell already that he didn’t
believe what she was saying. It didn’t matter, she’d been there, she’d seen it with her own eyes. She
didn’t want to hear Malcolm’s doubts about any of it right this second, she just wanted to get what she
needed to finish this. "I don’t think that there’s much choice here," she forced herself to look at her ex
eye to eye, "we don’t have enough information about this vampire or what’s going on. It’s time to go
to the monsters......."

"No absolutely not, what are you talking about anyway there’s no one left to even go to."
Malcolm pointed this out as if he were talking to some infirm of mind lunatic, "they will kill you."

 
"I have to get this figured out before tomorrow night Malcolm, I don’t have time to argue with
you." She could tell already that Malcolm knew that she would not relent on the matter, she wished
that would be enough to allow him to let her go without further delay.

"Jesus Jenny, just wait for the rest of us to back you up," he pleaded, she just wished that with
all the time that they’d been together he would have realized that when it came to something important
no amount of pleading could convince her to simply let it go.

  
"We’re running out of time Malcolm, if I don’t talk to somebody who knows what’s going on
then it will be on my conscience when someone else gets killed. With as many innocent people as I’ve
got piled on me already I’d just as soon avoid anymore." Malcolm stared at her for a minute as if trying
to decide if there was anything else he could try to use as a bargaining chip.

"I can’t believe you’d go back in there without backup after what happened." He tried to
remind her that where she was going she was hardly welcome, she never had been. Usually with
Jennifer, when she wasn’t wanted she had a bad tendency of showing up at the wrong time.

"I’ve got back up Malcolm, I’ve always got back up," but even saying it out load didn’t make it
seem convincing. Guns weren’t going to be enough, heck, real back up probably wouldn’t be enough
to save her if her visit went sour. It would be ridiculous of her not to assume that it would go badly,
things had even before she’d managed to get rid of management. She couldn’t imagine that they’d been
at all pleased with that outcome, she’d be lucky if they didn’t try to kill her on sight.

"You’re going to get yourself killed," he finally just blurted the truth of the matter out.

"It’s something I have to risk," she wasn’t sure where else to turn at this point, they’d used up
their resources, and this was the last resort.

"Haven’t we lost enough," she would have thought that he said it to try and push her buttons
and guilt her into staying, but one look at him and she knew that he was genuinely grieving the potential
loss of their team altogether.

"I’m sorry," she didn’t know what else to say, she knew only that she couldn’t stay the way he
wanted her to.

"No your not," the way he said it let her know that he was angry, but then he was always angry
with her it seemed.

Jennifer shook her head, there wasn’t anything left to say really, he couldn’t change her mind
and she couldn’t appease him in the matter. So instead she simply nodded neither confirming nor
denying his accusation, she didn’t have time to stay around for more. "Doug is going to stay with them
the night, I’m taking his car, can you stay with him?"

"Yea," he said resignedly.

"Thank you," she figured with what little time she could spare she would make her inquiries, "is
there any word on Manson yet?"

"No, he’s still in surgery," Jennifer cringed with the knowledge that her friend and mentor had
been more damaged then she had perceived. "I checked on Clive he’s still stable, so that’s something I
suppose."

Jennifer nodded unsure what she should say in a situation where everything felt like she was the
cause. "I am sorry Malcolm," without saying more she headed back out the way she’d come, she
would either acquire the information she needed or she would die tonight.

Chapter 7

She was halfway back to her cousin’s car when she heard the clicking of heals against
pavement and Marcia called after her. "Wait!
I’m supposed go to," before Jennifer could put in her
protest the woman handed her the jacket she’d left in the van, Jennifer had forgotten it, and the odds
were she was going to need it to get in a concealed gun with her. "You’re going to need me," Jennifer
was not convinced that she would, but the woman was going to have to learn to be a negotiator at some
point. She wished like hell that she could make the woman’s introduction to the job a little less hostile
but there never seemed to be a mellow case of vampirism when you needed one.

"This is going to be very dangerous Marcia, you should know right now that the last negotiator I
brought in with me didn’t come back out breathing." She watched Marcia pale, but she didn’t try to
back out of coming. "Alright," Jennifer sighed, she was probably going to need the help anyway. Lord
knows she was running on empty and negotiating would probably wind up at gun point if she were
alone. Jenny started making her way back to her cousins car and without protest or inquiry about their
last negotiators demise Marcia fell into step beside her.

"So where are we going?" Marcia asked trying to keep pace with Jennifer, a difficult feat
considering the heels she was in.

"Trust me, you don’t want to know," she didn’t look at Marcia. She didn’t dare look, she
would hate to see that excited, young potential vampire worship look on her face. She would think that
after the woman had seen the end result of what vampires were capable of there would be a little less
excitement and a little more angst in her companions tone.

"Can I at least know what Malcolm was talking about, what’s your big history at this place?"
Again with the excitement, Jennifer could tell already that Marcia was the type of person who would
find listening to the occurrence as entertainment and not the warning it should have been.

"I almost died there," she didn’t give details, she didn’t know Marcia well enough for one, and
then there was the fact that she didn’t want to encourage the woman’s excitement.

"Is that what you were talking about with the negotiator?"

"Everybody with me that day died, everybody but me," a fact that still haunted her.

Marcia must have noticed Jennifer’s expression grow very dim and realize that she obviously
didn’t want to talk about any of this right now. She never talked about it, but watching that expression
come over a face that was the same age as her own was at least some deterrent. It hadn’t occurred to
her that tagging along might cost Jennifer another little piece of her innocence, might just steel away
some of the light she had left if once again Jennifer was forced to walk away alone. The two women
had only met a few months ago, and Marcia had yet to witness for herself the horrors that Jennifer had
been witness to since she was a child. That was what allowed Marcia to be the bright smiling creature
that bounced with excitement at the prospect of her first encounter with the monsters. Jennifer could
not remember a time when she had been bright, there was nothing much left of her now outside of the
iron clad stare she leveled on the enemy. "I’m sorry," Marcia finally said with a little less bounce
in her
stride.