Blood Harvest: Two Vampire Novels (16 page)

Except that wasn’t quite true either. There
was something holding his face together, but Peg didn’t have any
word to properly identify it. It was a mass of some kind, pink,
spongy, and pulsing in irregular intervals. Greasy gray and green
tendrils of flesh radiated out from it, some of them connecting
with the inside of the nostrils, others merging with the remaining
muscle hanging in strings around the mouth. It took Peg several
seconds before she realized the strange red stalks of meat
protruding about half-way up the face—also heavily infested with
the moist tendrils—were the various muscles and tendons that should
have connected the eyeballs to the brain. The pulsing mass,
apparently, was all this had controlling the entire body.

“I think I may actually puke,” V said. She
stepped closer and tentatively poked at the squirming brain thing
with the tip of her shotgun. The body shuddered and V quickly
stepped back away. “This is the thing that… is this what killed
Tony?”

Even when looking at the face from the wrong
side Peg could see through its mouth to the other side. Part of its
lower jaw still remained and there were gums at the top, all of
which held those wicked sharp teeth into slightly incorrect place.
“Maybe. I think… yes.”

“And it’s what turned your sister into a
vampire? Don’t you need the blood of another vampire to do
that?”

“I think this thing
is
a vampire… or
it was. At some point.”

“Okay then, what the ever-loving sweet fuck
is it now?”

Peg didn’t get a chance to answer. The thing
jerked, its hands reaching up for her. To her own surprise Peg
didn’t flinch. V did, jumping back, but Peg stood her ground and
rammed the tire iron down. It went through the thing’s chest with
no resistance—Peg couldn’t be sure if there was even a rib cage
there, it was so easy—and sunk into the wooden floor beneath. The
thing made a noise, although Peg didn’t know what to call it. It
was somewhere between a hiss, a rattle, and a whistle. It shuddered
for several seconds, the movements so violent that Peg finally
stepped away. She could see the few places of exposed flesh turn
ashen gray and start to slough off his bones in thick slimy gobbets
of flesh. More of the black substance that wasn’t quite blood oozed
out from every opening in its clothes. By the time it stopped
moving the only way to identify that it had once been humanoid was
from the general shape of the clothing.

“I… I think I’ve finally found something that
I can’t describe with some variation of the word fuck,” V said.

“Heart,” Peg said. She hadn’t realized how
heavily she was breathing until the moment now when she desperately
needed to take a breath. “Guess we know. That works.”

“I suppose so,” V said. “Now…” V jabbed the
shotgun into Peg’s ribs.

“Ow! What the fuck?” Peg asked.

“We need to go downstairs,” V said, but her
voice was distant and dreamy. “They’re waiting for us.”

“What has…” Peg stopped and looked at V’s
face. Her eyes were unfocused and her head was cocked at a funny
angle as though listening to something only V could hear. Peg would
have bet good money that if V were able to describe this later
she’d say it in remarkably similar terms to what Zoey had said
about the night she’d disappeared.

Peg put her hands up. “There’s more than just
the one here, huh?”

“Go downstairs,” V said. She twitched, then
turned the shotgun away from Peg and awkwardly aimed it at her own
head. “Do it now.”

“Okay! Don’t do anything! I’m going.”

The door in the corner had been damaged when
the vampire thing had burst through it, so it hung open on hinges
that no longer wanted to close all the way. As they approached Peg
saw two sets of stairs beyond, one going up to the roof and the
other going down. There was light coming from above, the obvious
product of an open door. Peg could even hear the traffic out on the
street. Surprisingly what she did not hear was the wail of sirens.
There was no way gunshots had gone completely unnoticed in a town
like this. But if she couldn’t hear the police by now she had to
assume they wouldn’t be coming at all.

The stairs going down led into complete
darkness, although there had to be light coming from somewhere
because as she descended she had no trouble seeing. She didn’t
bother looking back at V. She could hear her walking down the
stairs with an uncharacteristic unsteady gait. The room at the
bottom was thick with cobwebs in the corners and the scent of old
dust in the air, not to mention the distinctly unpleasant odor of
mildew and mold.

But also, there was the scent of shit and
blood and body odor and decay. It was the scent that had clung
heavily to Zoey, and even before she saw anyone else that smell
told her that they weren’t alone.

There were two of them standing in the far
corner of the room. Peg couldn’t guess at their gender until she
got closer. They were wearing hoodies matching their dead
counterpart upstairs and the baggy clothing hid the shape of their
bodies, but by the gentle (yet still somewhat deformed) features of
their faces Peg guessed they were female, or had been once. Neither
of them reacted with the same violence as the one upstairs,
although Peg never doubted that they were still capable of it. Not
that they needed to do anything. Peg looked back to see that V had
followed her down the whole way with the shotgun still pointed up
underneath her chin.

“What do you want?” Peg asked the two
creatures. She was proud that her voice didn’t crack, but she was
sure that when (or if) this all finally ended she would not be able
to form a coherent sentence for quite some time. No human brain
could take this much pressure and come out the other side the same.
She knew that one very well from experience.

“Fruit,” one of the creatures said. “Fruit
that fell to the ground and rolled away.”

Peg was going to venture a guess that it
meant Zoey. “Where’s my sister? And my son. Your note said you
wouldn’t harm him.” Actually Peg couldn’t even remember by now if
that was true, but she hoped it might be possible to appeal to some
vestige of humanity that might be left in them.

The other creature gestured at the corner
behind them. Zoey had been so quiet and still that Peg hadn’t
realized she was there. She was huddled in a tight ball but she
wasn’t alone. Brendan sat in her lap, a thumb stuck in his mouth
and his eyes closed. He almost looked peaceful, but Peg didn’t know
how that could be.

“What did you do to him?” Peg asked. Try as
she might to keep it hidden her anger came out somewhat in her
voice.

“Same as her,” the first creature said,
pointing at V. “No remembering for him.”

“Zoey?” Peg asked. “What about you?”

Zoey looked up at Peg. For all the confusion
and pain that Peg had seen on her face ever since she came back,
none was quite as heartrending as what Peg saw right now. She had
tears on her face and there was definitely fear, but certainly not
confusion. Zoey had known exactly what she was doing when she came
here. Whatever the inexplicable hell might be that was waiting for
her back where these creatures had come from, her posture and the
way she held her head told Peg that she was more than ready to face
it.

“I’m going back,” Zoey said.

“The fuck you are,” Peg said. “I will kill
both of the fuckers before I let that happen.”

“You may have already killed one of me,” the
second creature said, “but we’re ready now. If you try your son and
your friend die.”

“So what, you just expect me to walk out of
here?” Peg asked. “And how do I know you’re not going to try
killing us all anyway?”

“We do not want your son. I do not want your
friend,” the first creature said. “They are too young and too old
for our needs.” It sniffed the air. Something caught its attention
and it tilted its head in curiosity. Without sniffing the second
one did the same. “They can go safely. But only if you come with us
too.”

Zoey stiffened. “No! No no no.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” Peg
asked.

“Trust?” the second one asked. “What does
trust do with it?”

“Trust doesn’t matter,” the first said. “I
want healthy fruit. We are not here to sow seeds.”

“I have no clue what any of that is supposed
to mean,” Peg said.

“Comprehension doesn’t matter,” the second
said. “You are coming with us. Your friend and son can stay.”

“No Peggy,” Zoey said quietly. “No don’t
no.”

Peg could try fighting. She knew she could.
She might even surprise everyone and manage to hurt or kill one of
the things. She’d done it upstairs, after all, although she didn’t
understand fully how that had happened. But Brendan would likely
get hurt, and V would almost definitely be killed. She’d already
lost Tony today, and she couldn’t take another dead loved one. She
wasn’t sure how she was holding it together right now as it
was.

But that wasn’t even what finally made up her
mind. Instead she knew exactly what she had to do as she saw the
look on Zoey’s face. She had been through eleven years of horror,
yet that entire time Peg had been living her life. True, sometimes,
even most times, she hadn’t been living her life very well, but
she’d been doing it. Even if Zoey had been able to forgive her for
all that Peg couldn’t say the same for herself, not yet. There was
still that vital part of her that wouldn’t be able to rest until
she really paid her penance.

“Can I hold my son one last time?” Peg
asked.

“Quick,” the first creature said. “We cannot
stay much longer.”

Moving past the two cautiously, Peg bent down
next to Zoey.

“You can’t,” Zoey said. “You don’t know. You
really don’t.”

“I have to,” Peg said. “They’ll kill us
all.”

Zoey shook her head. “No they won’t. No they
won’t. Not me. Not…” She sniffed the air. “No. No. I’m sorry.
You’ll ripen. I’m already there. Harvesting is coming.”

“Hey,” Peg said, reaching out to hold Zoey’s
hand. “I’m not just doing this for Brendan and V, you understand?
I’m doing this for you. We’ll get out of this and we’ll do it
together.”

“Can’t get out. Once the fruit is harvested
it’s gone forever.”

Peg wanted to say something else to calm her
down, but she didn’t know that anything would work. Peg herself was
scared out of her mind right now, and she didn’t even understand
yet what was happening. Zoey already did. The only thing Peg could
think to do to reassure her was squeeze her hand again before
taking Brendan into her arms.

He woke and sleepily squirmed in her arms.
She’d actually hoped he would stay asleep. As much as she wanted to
look into his enormous, innocent blue eyes one last time she also
didn’t want him to have to see any of this.

“Mommy?” he mumbled.

“I’m here sweetie.”

“Wass happening?”

“Nothing. Just go back to sleep.”

“I don’t wanna. Feels weird.”

“I know, baby.” Peg fought back tears as he
stared up at her, still completely uncomprehending. She didn’t have
any choice in this matter, but it felt like she was making one
anyway and she didn’t know what that choice said about her. Here in
her arms was the life she had made for herself. She’d gone through
so much and made so many changes in who she was just to feel like
she was even remotely worthy of the little boy huddled against her
chest. It felt like she was rejecting him, going back to the things
that had almost destroyed her.

Oh boo hoo hoo. Fucking spare me
, that
voice in her head said.
Do you really mean to tell me you’ve
gotten through all you have in your life just to give up
now?

Sometimes she hated that little voice. Other
times it was the only thing that kept her sane.

“Listen to me, sweetie,” she said as she
wiped away the tears, refusing to let any more come. “Are you
listening?”

“Yes?”

“Mommy’s got to go now. But I swear to you. I
fucking swear to you on your life and everything else that I find
holy, I will come back to you. You understand?”

“Mommy, you’re scarin’ me.”

“I know, honey. I’m sorry. But there’s
nothing to be afraid of. Aunt V’s going to take care of you while
I’m gone.”

V still stood in the same place, but at least
the two creatures had let her lower the shotgun. Peg set Brendan on
the ground next to her, making sure he was on the side farthest
from the shotgun. She didn’t know how long it would take for V to
come out of this trance they’d put her in, but if she was unaware
of the things going on around her Peg didn’t want her to wake up
startled and accidently shoot him.

“V,” Peg said. “If you can hear me I
need…”

She didn’t get a chance to finish her
sentence. An arm wrapped around her chest from behind and with a
sudden, impossible jerk they were gone.

The only way Peg
could describe the way they moved was pressure all around her. The
air itself felt like it formed a thin wall that the creature had to
forcibly push her through. The actual amount of time it took them
to move that fast couldn’t have been more than a few seconds total,
although it felt to her like they slowed down after the initial
burst of speed. Peg was only vaguely aware of their ascent up both
flights of stairs then felt the open air against her skin as they
came out on the roof and jumped off. She wasn’t sure how far away
they landed, but by the time the pressure finally stopped and they
ceased moving they were on a far end of the parking lot.

Peg tried to get her bearings, to look around
and see if there was any way they might escape, but didn’t get the
chance. She heard a metal door screech open and then she was
roughly thrown through it. She hit something metal that rattled
violently, then got another jolt as Zoey was thrown in with her.
Both of the creatures got in with them and then shut the doors
behind them, making for a dark, incredibly cramped space.