The New Night Novels (Book 1): Rippers: A New Night Novel (13 page)

     Phoebe, who had moved up to sit between the kids, snapped her head up at that. “No,” she protested. “No, I want to be the one to go with you, Jameson.”

     The vampire’s eyebrows flirted with his wavy bangs. “Wait, what?”

     “I want to go,” Phoebe said. “I need to be more than a babysitter.”

     “Honey, you are more than that,” Elise spoke up as she began to slow the van. “I’ve only been around you for a while and I know that. You don’t have to prove anything to us or anyone else.”

     She parked the car a good distance away from the other two cars in the parking lot. Before Leland could get his seatbelt unbuckled, Phoebe had opened the back of the van and hopped out.

     “Prove it to myself and all those clichés,” Phoebe muttered loud enough for only Jameson to hear. He was just glad the sun had set when she’d decided to start her Miss Apocalypse contest.

     “I’ve got her, guys,” Jameson assured the others. “Keep it running until we come out, okay?”

     Elise nodded and ran a worried hand over her protruding belly. Leland sighed and adjusted his hold on his baseball bat. What kind of weapon had Phoebe taken for herself? She’d grabbed a piece of metal pipe from the convenience store, Leland remembered. He’d laughed when she picked it up. The thick piece of silver metal was almost half as tall as she was. He hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.

     “Stay behind me and move slow,” Jameson directed Phoebe as they approached the rest area.

     The walls, floors, and roof of the building were all creamy white. Trees butted up to it on all sides and a wide sidewalk wrapped all the way around the parking lot. It was a typical type of construction along this stretch of highway. Jameson would have rather been anywhere else than the sterile, silent place.

     “If there’s any of them here, they’re probably in the building,” Phoebe said. She ignored Jameson’s orders and jogged right beside him as they approached. “They seem to have a drive to get out of the sun when it’s daytime.”

     “Well, it’s
not
daytime anymore,” Jameson reminded her firmly. He took ahold of her arm and stopped her before she opened the door to the women’s area. “It’s night and they’re going to be strong and bat shit insane again, okay? You have to stick behind me and let me go first.”

     “I can handle myself, Jameson,” Phoebe said. The angry, arrogant tone begged him to believe her.
     “You can’t handle shit unless you can do what I say,” he retorted. “I’m stronger, faster, and older than you. As your elder, I get to tell you what to do.”

     Phoebe’s hard expression faltered when confronted with Jameson’s cocky grin. His attempt at placation had worked. Though Phoebe was still angry with herself for reasons she didn’t quite understand, she was no longer taking it out on Jameson.

     “Let’s go in there and not die,” she suggested.

     “My thoughts exactly,” Jameson agreed.

     Jameson eased the door to the women’s area open. Automatic lights had already been activated by motion in the room, so he wasn’t surprised when a blond woman attacked them. Her breasts were bare through her torn shirt and hung to either side of her body by strands of skin and the few remains of her pectoral muscles.

     The Ripper lunged and Jameson finished the job of mangling her upper body. He took her neck in both hands and squeezed until it snapped.

     There were two more female Rippers inside the rest area. They charged Jameson as one and knocked him down. One stayed on top of him, trying to savage his face and neck, and the other went for Phoebe.

     Jameson flipped the Ripper on top of him over to her back and stared into her rabid blue eyes. The electric shade was almost identical to his. Under the grip of the Grissom virus’s madness, the color was the bright turquoise of ocean water on the sunniest of days. Jameson drove his fist through them until he hit the softness of brain matter.

     Phoebe darted to one side as Jameson pulverized the face of the Ripper who’d had the misfortune of attacking him first. The other, a brunette woman who looked like she’d been the one to tear through the first one’s throat, came at the teen girl with a rage-filled snarl.

     Phoebe told herself not to hesitate and swung the metal pipe she’d taken from the convenience store. All of her sadness, anger, and strength went into the swing. She twisted her lean body into the blow. The crack that echoed through the building sickened her as the woman’s head crumpled toward her opposite ear. Her dark eyes went wide for a single instant, and then she dropped to the ground as though her legs had been cut from under her.

     Jameson stood as the door to the men’s area was flung open. Phoebe was slow in her turn; enough so Jameson sprinted past her before she’d even hefted her weapon for a second attack. He hit the male Ripper with enough force to drive it back into the outside wall of the building.

     The stone cracked beneath the Ripper’s body. Jameson heard the spine crack, as well, but the creature showed no evidence of being bothered by the injury. He snapped his head toward Jameson, teeth clicking together as the vampire put one meaty forearm under the beast’s chin.

     Jameson hissed at the Ripper. He bared his fangs and leaned closer. There was something wrong with the blood. It carried the scent of disease and corruption. He didn’t want to feed from the things. He just wanted them destroyed.

     Jameson jerked what was once an attractive man forward and slammed him back into the wall. He did it again, and the blocks to either side buckled under the pressure. On the next hit, the Ripper stopped biting at Jameson’s face. On the last, Jameson let the body go and it slid in a broken heap to the ground.

     “Do you think more will come?” Phoebe asked. Her voice was low, breathy, and told Jameson everything she thought about his display of power and ferocity.

     “Even if they don’t, we shouldn’t stay long,” Jameson suggested.

     He waved the others out of the van. Nothing else moved in the area at the limit of his hearing. Because he could hear things nearly a half mile out, he was confident they would be fine to stretch for a few minutes, at least.

     “You did well,” Jameson complimented Phoebe as the others cautiously made their way from the van. “That pipe worked pretty well for you, yeah?”

     Phoebe nodded and placed the pipe against the side of the building. “My arms hurt,” she admitted. “And so does pretty much everything else.” With a laugh, she shook her head. She twisted her back a few times, stretched out her arms, and shrugged. “Guess it’s something to get used to.”

     “I wish you didn’t have to,” Jameson said.

     Phoebe nodded her agreement. There wasn’t much more to say about that.

     When Leland reached them, he helped Jameson gather up the bodies and deposit them behind the building. They would have some time before they had to move again.

Chapter Nineteen – The Farm

     “I recognize this place,” Phoebe whispered to Jameson as they drove. He was in the front seat now, and she sat passenger.

     Elise had curled up in the far back with Leland. After some cajoling and assurances that he wasn’t being a creeper, Leland had convinced her to rest her head on his lap. He’d fallen asleep with his back up against the seat and Elise curled around his legs.

     “The farm isn’t far,” Phoebe realized with a jolt of fear and excitement. “Jameson, we’ll be there in less than ten minutes. We made it!”

     Jameson wanted to smile at her surge of exhilaration, but he knew there were thousands of possibilities that could await them. Most of them were negative.

     “You need to stay in the car as soon as he get there,” he warned her. “Please don’t go running off. I know you’re excited about finally reaching your family, but we need to stick together.”

     “Part of my family is in this car,” Phoebe stated softly. “I won’t risk everyone just because I’m stoked about seeing my uncle.”

     “That a girl,” Jameson said with a smile. He patted Phoebe’s knee and laughed when she swatted him.

     “Should we wake the others?” Phoebe asked as she took her seatbelt off and craned forward. She wanted to see the farm more than anything. She desperately hoped there would be someone alive and aware, ready to greet them as they pulled up.

     “Let’s see what we’re getting into first, all right?”

     Phoebe nodded and they drove on in silence. When Jameson came near the turn off for her uncle’s long, winding driveway, she pointed.

     “Right here,” she instructed. She didn’t try to disguise the shake in her hand or voice, but Jameson didn’t mention them.

     The vampire steered the car into the dirt and gravel drive and dropped his speed under ten miles per hour. He scanned the large yard, open fields, and area around the farm house with his keen eyes and super sensitive hearing. What he heard and saw was not encouraging.

     A howl sounded when one of the many Rippers on the property saw the van.

     “They’ll destroy the van,” Phoebe said in a thick whisper. She place her forehead against the glass and hid her tears against the window. “Drive back. We’ll have to park it and get out. We can sneak up on them and leave the others in a safe spot.”

     “Elise,” Jameson shouted toward the back of the vehicle. He hated to wake the people who needed the sleep the most, but they didn’t have time to let any of their allies be idle when they could be helping.

     Elise groaned from the back. Leland shot forward and apologized as he rocked the pregnant woman off of his lap.

     “What’s wrong?” Leland questioned.

     Eli and Carmen woke and began to cry. Phoebe tried to comfort them with shushing sounds as Jameson said, “We’ve got trouble on the farm. Rippers. We need Elise to drive the van around and away if need be. Stay ahead of the Rippers and we’ll try to pick them off.”

     Leland grabbed his baseball bat and nodded. “Good an idea as any, I guess,” he said. “Let’s fuck ‘em up.”

     “We don’t have much time,” Jameson said as he reversed the van. “I’m getting out and I’ll draw these first two away. Phoebe, Leland, you’re going to have to follow me in a bit. Be safe, okay?”

     “My uncle has guns,” Phoebe told the group. “Plenty of them. If we can get in the house, can anyone shoot?”

     Leland and Elise shook their heads but Jameson nodded.

     “I can. Get one to me and our chances will be even better.”

     “Okay, we’re about to switch,” Phoebe announced as Jameson slowed to a stop and threw the van in park. “Go, now!”

     Leland rushed out of the back and waited for Elise to get out before he slammed the rear door shut. Jameson had already exited the front seat and rushed toward their attackers in a blur of speed.

     Elise heaved herself into the driver’s seat as Phoebe left the passenger side. “Keep driving,” Phoebe told the pregnant woman. “You have all the precious cargo here. If you start to get overrun, just get out of here. You know the way back. Stay safe until the sun comes up.”

     Elise didn’t have time to respond as Phoebe slammed her door shut and joined Leland in running toward the farm. Torn with worry and fear, Elise did as she’d been told and accelerated the vehicle. She would go around the small town a few times and hope the Rippers didn’t follow her.

     The first Ripper Jameson had come into contact with had a machete in hand; the edge stained crimson. The blade was thrust clumsily at Jameson, who easily avoided the attack. He took the wielding arm and broke it in half, then tore it from the socket altogether. The Ripper yowled in fury and swung the remaining arm toward Jameson’s head.

     Jameson relieved the detached appendage of its weapon and planted the blade deep in its owner’s head. One hard swing down and the blade was embedded in thick skull bone like an axe in a tree stump. Jameson jerked the blade out and continued forward.

     One of the Rippers had slipped past him when he stopped to grapple with two others. Jameson hoped Phoebe and Leland could handle the single female.

     Matted dark hair concealed the wild eyes of the Ripper who came at Leland and Phoebe. Leland struck first, sending her sprawling with a well-placed swing of his bat. Moving up behind him, Phoebe wasted no time caving in the Ripper’s skull with her metal pipe as the writhing creature ate dirt. The skull cracked and caved in.

     Phoebe and Leland moved on.

     Jameson swung one of the Rippers on him into his companion. Both men tumbled together in a heap, but were back up in moments. They were so much more coordinated in the night it seemed unreal to Jameson. How could the shambling, slow-moving hordes of the day become these snake-like, functioning, thinking death machines at night?

     With the few seconds Jameson had bought himself, he’d gotten in a better position for the next attack. The first Ripper swung at him and Jameson swung his fist toward the chest of what used to be a simple, elderly man. The chest went concave and the Ripper sprawled backward. Jameson figured it would take the creature a moment to come at him again, so he focused on the younger of the two.

     The female Ripper had had half of her hair torn out. Part of the skin that once covered her skull hung in a flap down to her right cheek. Jameson dragged the female Ripper over to a fence and smashed the wounded side of her head into the wood. He caught her skull on the corner and drove it hard into the unforgiving material. Breath rattled out of her and she dropped, unmoving, to the ground.