Bring Me to Life (14 page)

“What is there to think about?” she demanded incredulously.

“How you think death is the answer to everything,” he said as he set her down on her feet in front of a broken plywood board that could be called a door, maybe, in another lifetime.

She crossed her arms over her chest and took a step back into him. “This place is gross.”

“Sorry for that, but I needed some place where vampires weren’t running around causing trouble.” His hand rested on her shoulder as he leaned over to knock on the door.

That was sounding just as suspicious as Caleb’s need for cookies. “Then what does run around here causing trouble.”

“Demons,” he said as if he’d just said daisies.

“And this doesn’t bother you?” Vampires were demons in a human meat suit. The human soul trapped in the body with the demon made it harder for them to go around causing death and destruction, but it allowed them to move around freely in a human world without being noticed. It was why Draven and his minions were so dangerous, but why he wasn’t nearly as dangerous as the demon wanting to drag her into Oblivion.

“A vampire killed you.”

They weren’t getting anywhere fast, and she was irritated and afraid. “So demons are better. Great.”

He turned her around and crouched down in front of her. “A pulse is designed to kill demons. You’re safer here than you are in your time. I won’t lie and say you might not end up dead anyway, but you have a better shot here. At least here you can fight the bad guys easier.”

“But it’s easier for a demon to send you into Oblivion than it is for a vampire, isn’t it?” She asked the question without knowing the answer, but the look on Vincent’s face said her supposition was right.

His jaw worked and he stood up. “Don’t worry about it. Going to Oblivion means your death. I’m not about to let that happen.”

“I love you, too,” she snapped at him. He said it because he loved her. Still loved her, even after he believed the worst of her. He wanted her to live because it was the natural thing to want for the person you loved, even if it went against saving the world.

The rickety door thing opened. Vincent shook his head before Bryna was able to see the person who answered it. “Just a minute.” He pulled Bryna to the other side of the hall and instead of crouching down he hitched her up so they were face-to-face. “I love you, damn it.” He rested his forehead against hers. “I can’t even say I wished I was living again to fix this, because I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if I wasn’t. If my death gives you life, I can’t see that as bad.”

Her face crumpled, and she finally wrapped herself around him. When he put it like that she couldn’t be angry. She closed her eyes to stop the flow of yet more tears. She was beginning to feel selfish for wanting to be with him. She didn’t care if it was in life or in death, she just wanted him. No. She needed him. As much as she could see what dying would do by the stark world around her, it didn’t erase the feeling. Maybe it was because having him back was too new and still a shock.

She forced her eyes to meet his. “I need you. I’m sorry to make this so difficult, I just—I need you.”

Vincent closed his eyes and held her tighter. “I know, my sweet Bryna. You’re strong, and you will get through this. We just have to keep you alive first.”

They did have themselves in a fine mess. She knew she needed to die or Vincent would fail his mission to save the world. He knew she had to live or he failed to save her from herself. She went up on her toes and kissed his cheek. He’d been right, they did need some kind of closure. She hated to say the words, but they needed to be said, no matter how much she needed him. “I’m not the girl you loved. There is no reason for you to hurt yourself over this.”

“Bryna—” he started in a soft timbre.

“No,” she said in a trembling voice. “I need you. I do. But let’s face it. We are not the same people we once were. Whatever love we think we have, it’s just a memory from the past.”

He wrapped his arms around her and rested the side of his face on top of her head. “Wrong. The second I saw you at the cemetery, I knew you still had me. Even when I fought to hate you, I couldn’t. It’s why Felix didn’t send me sooner.”

She closed her eyes and wrapped herself around him. He was right. Knowing he was the Wraith didn’t change how she felt about him. They belonged together. Since he couldn’t come back to life, she had no choice but to follow him into death. Wasn’t love supposed to conquer all?

* * * *

Bryna hid herself behind Vincent. It was cowardly, and she was pretty sure she was going to sprout feathers because she was going to turn into a chicken. These people were freaking her out. The leader appeared to be the worst. The guy sitting on a dingy milk crate next to where Caleb stood didn’t appear right in the head. It wasn’t so much his physical appearance, because he was almost attractive in his post-apocalyptic warrior get-up, but it was his eyes. They said he was a man who treaded somewhere between crazy and dangerous. But what made it all worse was she felt like she should know this man, but it was impossible. Even if he was the spitting image of her friend Andy back in her normal time, this couldn’t be him. He was probably a son, or, more like a grandson, but it was still freaking her out.

Vincent turned to look at her. His brow quirked up. “You okay?”

She managed a smile for him even as she moved in so that she was pressed into his back and peeking around him like the shy fifteen-year-old she once been. “Sure, as long as you really think a guy more screwed up than me is safe.”

The man rumbled in a quiet laugh. “I’m not sure that’s possible.”

Bryna snorted at him. “I accidently killed—”

“This is Zerek, another time walker,” Vincent introduced over what she was going to say. “He’ll help keep an eye on you while I figure this out.”

Both Bryna and Zerek gave Vincent a quizzical look. Zerek shrugged. “You do realize my track record with women isn’t the best.”

Vincent nodded once. “Yes,” he said in a deadly quiet that had all the fine hairs on the back of Bryna’s neck standing on end. He took a step closer to the other man. “But if you touch her in any way that isn’t expressly to keep her life from fading, you’ll wish you were dealing with the mercy of a demon.”

Zerek whistled low. “You’re scary without the threat. Honest, anyone with eyes can see she’s off-limits. What am I dealing with, really?”

It was Caleb who answered. “If this woman dies, you’re forever assigned to a post-apocalyptic world.”

“Oh, so he’s the other Wraith, not the happy one.”

Caleb growled. “Shut-up! You’re gonna get me in trouble.”

“Too late,” Vincent said as he grabbed Caleb by the back of his neck, forced him down onto the crate-like seating and leaned over with a snarl. “Start talking or I start removing organs.”

Bryna curled her hand into Vincent’s shirt with a light tug. “It’s obvious.” Or at least it was to her. If she didn’t have to live instead of die the way she thought, the only other option was Vincent’s life. “We need to go back and save you to fix this mess.”

Vincent snapped around. “I can’t. I’ve already told you that. It kind of defeats the purpose of death if a person can easily go back and fix it.”

She didn’t want to believe it. “But you’re supposed to save my life.” She had no idea what this Zerek knew, but she didn’t care if she let them know things they weren’t supposed to know. Vincent was going to listen to her about this, even if he proved to her that she was wrong about it, she had to say it. “My life is crap without you in it. I might not die, but if you’re really supposed to save my life, we need a redo.”

“Oh shit,” Caleb said in a miserable tone as he sat on a crate next to Zerek. “Felix is going to string me up and feed my innards to harpies for the next one hundred years.”

*

But Vincent was no longer paying any attention to Caleb. He swiveled around so that he was facing Bryna. This was hurting something fierce, and as much as he wanted to go back and smack sense into his seventeen-year-old self, it wasn’t allowed. Dead was dead. If one could simply time walk back and fix it, there would be an awful lot of people running around who really were better off dead. He stooped down in front of her and tilted her head back so they were looking at each other. “I was told to protect you, nothing more.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Then how do you know you’re supposed to save me? Protecting is a hell of a lot different than spending an endless amount of time looping through the same events until you figure out how to keep some hopped-up vampire from butchering me.”

“Look around you!” he yelled. His muscles were stringing tight. How couldn’t she care about what she was seeing? Part of him had hoped she’d see this and want to live just to stop it, but she wasn’t buying what he had to sell.

“I am.” Her face was as stark as the landscape. “And I am trying to think of a way to stop it, but really, without you—”

“You’re being selfish,” he snapped out.

Her back went straight, and she closed her eyes as she slowly counted to ten before she opened them again. “Am I? You want me to live, and I am trying to help you figure it out. I’ve already died three times.”

“Actually,” Caleb said as he slipped off the crate and started backing up slowly. “It’s more like one hundred and ninety times.”

Bryna’s face twitched and then shook her head once before she nodded. “There you go, Vincent, one hundred and ninety times one of you guys tried to save my sorry ass, and they all failed. I die. It’s fated and no matter what you or Felix or the prevention of the end world wants, I keep dying. That should tell you something.”

“It just says that I wasn’t here to keep your ass from being stubborn,” he bit out. “You have no idea how much I would love to go back and make sure I wasn’t a fucking jerk to fix this all for you, but I can’t.”

*

“Or won’t,” she countered. Once again she had this horrible feeling she was some cross between being despicably selfish, and having the most brilliant idea of the century. If Vincent had lived, everything would have been different. The totality of her existence led to death. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. She’d been steadily working toward this end in a self-induced death sentence for causing Vincent’s death. No matter how innocent he’d proven she was of the crime, it was too late to stop the lethal injection.

“That’s not fair,” he said between gritted teeth. “I have a responsibility to make sure—”

She put up a hand when her entire body started with a prickly heat. She shuddered with the need to itch. “A demon’s coming.”

Everyone in the room was in motion then.

“How do you know?” Vincent moved in close, his body preparing for battle. “I can’t feel them until they are almost on me.”

She gave a wobbly smile even as she worked to build her charge. It wasn’t that difficult. Her fear was a powerful thing, and it had been mounting since the moment Wraith talked to her in the cemetery. “It’s a gift. We have to get out of here. It’s a powerful one.”

“We’re leaving,” he said. “Caleb, contact your brothers. Let them know I will find them, but she’s not safe here either apparently.”

“You’re sure? I might be able to help,” the other man said as he stood up.

*

Vincent looked around at the men and women of a time he rarely visited. It wasn’t something that set well in his gut, but then, he figured it wasn’t supposed to. The world wasn’t supposed to end up like this, and it was why he did the job he did. His eyes fell to Bryna. She was looking up at him with those beautiful eyes, but they weren’t the same ones he’d looked to every chance he got when he’d been alive. He cursed low. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to save her no matter where he took her. It seemed some demon felt her and didn’t want her here. “No,” he said to Caleb, his eyes still on Bryna. “I’m going to take her hopping. Let me know if you figure anything out.” He paused for a moment and glared at him. “Or decide to give up any of the information Felix won’t let me have.” Then he looped an arm around Bryna and pulled her into him. He knew where to take her and what to do to prevent this whole horrible mess. She wasn’t going to like it, but he was quickly running out of options. “Close your eyes.”

She turned her face into his chest. He moved them through time and space.

Bryna was gagging when they got to his destination. She coughed a few times and then stepped away from him. “You’d think we could at least move for me to get motion sickness, don’t you think?”

He looked down at her with a lifting of his brow. “We did.”

*

“Where are we?” she demanded as she looked around their new surroundings. It was nighttime, but the surroundings were way too familiar. There were two garage-like buildings. Someone was inside one of them swearing as he worked on a car. Her body stiffened as Vincent went to a pile of junk and started to rummage through it. “Vincent, what are you doing?”

“Changing history. It’s the best I can do.” He came up with a crowbar.

Then she knew where they were. It was old man Berton’s garage. The person inside was making noises like he was about to come out. She threw herself at Vincent, fighting for all she was worth to get the crowbar off him. They rolled and tussled on the ground. She bit and kicked and did everything she could think of to get the damn thing from him, but he wouldn’t let it go, no matter how mean she got.

The back door opened as she fell on her butt in front of the teenager. She shot up and used her little body to block a seventeen-year-old Vincent. “Don’t you dare. I’ll never forgive you if you do.”

“What the hell is going on back here?”

Bryna and young Vincent looked up to watch Wraith lift up the crowbar. “Sorry, baby, but if you don’t know me, I can’t fuck up your life with my death. Whoever is sent to save you will succeed.”

Bryna turned and used every ounce of energy she had to shove young Vincent out of the way. Damn brat! He wouldn’t budge, but he was able to duck Vincent’s swing. His hand wrapped around her wrist, and he yanked her into the building with them and slammed the door.

She stared up at the exact image of what she remembered. She was going to be sick. “Damn it.” Vincent was going to kill himself, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop it. “Move!” she yelled just as Wraith blinked into the car bay with them. The crowbar went up. There was no way anyone was going to be able to deflect that blow. Bryna jumped up, and wrapped her arms around the kid’s neck and her legs around his waist as she used her body to block his vital organs and his face. She waited for the blow to slam across her back.