Fractured Hearts (Shattered Lives, Book Three) (15 page)

There was a vial on the floor next to the bed, a beacon in the systematic environment. It was like it had been forgotten or dropped…recklessly discarded.

Ben laughed as he picked it up, rolling it in his fingers. Dark, clotted liquid clung to the side. He popped the cap off, taking in a heavy inhale. The familiar bouquet of copper wafted into his sinuses.

“Blood… Busted asshole,” he murmured with a grin.

Ben marched back to his room and swung the door open with vigor, scaring his family. “I got them, Jane! I’ve got them good. Look!” He held out the vial.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look. There’s old blood in it.” Popping the cap off, he shoved it under her nose. She turned her head away, refusing to indulge in his wayward behavior. “Smell it! It’s blood!”

Placing her hand on his, she pushed the vial away. “I’m sure there’s a simple explanation as to why this is around.”

“Yeah, the explanation is…
they drink blood
! This is just the evidence I needed!”

The excitement in his words and movements were not understated in the least. The exaggeration in his arms flying around seemed as if he was about to break out in some sort of celebratory dance.

“Ben…”

“I’ve got them, Jane. We’re going to be okay. Trust me on this. I’m going to take care of us.”

He grabbed Jane’s face, placing a quick, hard kiss on her lips. The smile he wore was that of a boy on Christmas morning when he opened a gift he had been pining after for an entire year. He rushed to the cabinet and tossed in the vial, then the gun.

“Ben! Where did you get that?!”

Whipping around, he said, “They have
tons
of weapons. They won’t even know one is missing. You should see that room. It’s like an artillery store. Nuts. No normal person has that much firepower.”

With her worry even greater now, Jane sighed and glanced at her daughters with concern. They both shrugged. With a swagger, Ben waltzed over to their bed. His laugh was pure evil that seemed to have taken over his heart. Covering her face with her hands, then dropping them to her sides with a thunderous clap, she headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Ben asked.

“I just… I need a minute. I can’t be here with you right now.” Leaving their room, Jane decided to go to the library for a quiet moment to contemplate all that had occurred.

“How much gas do we have?” Nick asked from the back seat.

“If it’s only a few miles up, enough to get us back and forth a couple times.” I slowed down when a strip of stores came into view. “This must be it.”

The area was virtually untouched. Modernized buildings, which didn’t match the country setting, looked to be abandoned. I pulled up in front of the quaint church. It was your typical rural church—white clapboard siding with a steeple and a small front stoop. One where you would expect to see snake handling during the sermon.

I pulled out my Sig and opened the door. “All right. We’ll clear the building, then we can take a look around.”

Elaina took a deep breath and slipped out of the truck after Nick. No matter how many clearings we’d done, her nerves still freaked when it was time to get to the down and dirty.

As we walked to the stoop, those sickly, characteristic sounds came from around the back of the church. I sighed, and Nick and Elaina frowned. I was hoping we were going to get in and out without incident.

Not the case.

Silently, we walked to the side of the building. More rustling, so we sidled up to the church with our Sigs drawn, ready to take down the obvious.

Elaina sucked in a hard breath. Being so in tune with her, I reached to my right and touched her free hand, knowing the contents of her stomach had to be rolling from the fear and anxiety of the situation. Glancing over my shoulder to give her a reassuring nod, the disorder on Elaina’s face was evident and it was rattling her entire body. She tried to take another deep breath, but her body wouldn’t allow it. I wanted to make her feel better and hated the fact she was in such a position.

Another snarl broke through my thoughts. We all froze in place, knowing how close the danger was. I stole a glance around the corner, then looked back at Nick, giving him a single nod. He stepped around Elaina, positioning himself at my side. In sync, Nick and I jumped out.

Six gunshots later, we were clear.

I rushed back around the corner and saw Elaina holding her trembling hand over her mouth, trying to hold in her scream.

“Fucking bastards were having a rather nice meal,” Nick groused behind me. “A buck, too. That would have made a great meal for us. First animal I’ve seen in weeks,” he bit out.

Elaina’s stomach protested, making her heave out whatever was in her stomach. “Whoa, love…” I grabbed her before she fell to the ground. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. Just the thought…” She gagged, which made me chuckle. “Shut up, asshole.”

“You’d think you would be used to this by now. Come on. Let’s go check out the church.” No sooner did we turn around when we saw a herd coming from across the way, easily outnumbering us five to one. “Shit!” I yelled. How we missed them, I had no idea. They must have been in the woods or behind the other buildings.

It didn’t matter. We needed to take them out.

“I’ll distract them. You two get to the truck and get more weapons,” Nick ordered.

Elaina yelled after him, but he had already taken off. He ran to the left, drawing the undeads toward him. Brilliant, but a little kamikaze. Sprinting to the truck, I opened the liftgate. Not thinking we would need it, I laid my Sig down, grabbing the axe and rifle. Following my lead, she set hers down, as well. I tossed her the rifle and reached into my bag to grab an extra magazine.

“You remember how to use this?” Elaina was stunned and couldn’t speak. “Elaina! Snap out of it! I need you.” Looking down at the rifle in her hands, she looked back at me with lost eyes. I grabbed the rifle out of her hands, thrusting the axe into them. “Here. Take the axe and stay behind me, back-to-back. No wavering. You mirror my every step. I’ll tell you if I need you to start swinging. Am I clear?”

After Elaina nodded, I took off, her keeping pace behind me. I stopped and took a wide stance, preparing myself for the recoil, then pulled the trigger, popping off one undead at a time. Nothing gave me an adrenaline rush like a high-powered rifle in my hands. It was a little overkill, but bloody worth the thrill.

Every time I paused to aim for the undead’s head, Elaina whimpered, knowing I was about to cut down another. One by one, the undeads dropped to the ground.

Sighting on another, I pulled the trigger. Nothing. “Fuck!” I screamed, trying to fix it. “Bloody fucking hell! It’s jammed! Elaina, time to start swinging!”

Nick had already emptied his Sig. Having nothing left with which to defend himself, he ran in circles, trying to confuse the undeads—successfully, I might add. Several tripped, tumbling to the ground with the gracefulness of a toddler just learning how to walk.

I continued to scream for her to swing the axe, all the while trying to unjam the rifle. Absolute terror lurked in her eyes as she looked around at the group of undeads coming out of the woods. They were so grossly rotted—limbs torn off, chunks of flesh missing, dangling entrails—I was surprised they were still staggering about.

When a female undead with a missing jaw lunged at Elaina, she finally snapped out of the trance. She belted out a scream and swung the axe with all her might. One after another, she took off their heads with fierce intensity.
That’s my girl.
Giving up on getting the rifle to work, I followed behind her, crushing their skulls with the butt of it. It felt bloody good to be working as a team again.

Once the last one was down, Elaina bent over, trying to catch her breath. She was covered with guts and gore. A violent shudder ran through her. She dropped the axe and looked around. It’s what I imagined a war zone would look like. True dead bodies were scattered everywhere.

“You all right, love?” I murmured as I approached.

“Yeah. I think so.”

Nick jogged to us, wiping sweat from his brow. “Damn. I thought I was a goner.” He looked at Elaina. “Shit. Look at you, sis. Here. Put this on.” He pulled his long-sleeved button-down off and handed it to her. She turned around to change, and I headed off, slightly tapping all the bodies with the toe of my boot, making sure they all were, in fact, true dead.

I kept my eye on Elaina, just in case she melted down. She gagged as she pulled off the sticky, gore-covered shirt, tossing it to the ground. Putting Nick’s shirt on, she tied a knot at the waist and rolled up the sleeves so it would fit her smaller frame. No matter her state of disarray, she looked amazing.

Once I was sure they were definitely dead, I headed back to Elaina. “I’m glad we took care of them here. The kids would be terrified if they made it all the way down to the school.” She nodded, still looking a bit stunned. “You were brilliant, love. I’m so proud of you…the both of you. Great job.” I reached up to her face, wiping off a few bloody speckles and bits of gory splatter.

“It was just a lot…too much,” she whispered.

I looked at Nick. “Brilliant move, mate. Next time, let’s act a little less reckless abandon, death wish-like, yeah?”

“I did what I had to do. You’ve got a lot more to lose than me.”

I raised my eyebrow, concerned for his lack of care.

Elaina’s mouth gaped open, stunned at his admission. “Nick…”

I had to put a stop to this or there would have been a battle between the two of them. “Hush. We can chat about it later. Let’s go reload, then take a peek around the church. I’m going to have to take this gun apart at some point. I think it may need to be cleaned or something. I’m not sure what happened.”

Noticing all the goo covering the handle and my arm, Elaina shuddered again. There was no telling where my hand ended and the gun began. I wrapped my other arm around her, taking care I held the gun far away from her, rushing her past the mass of rotted bodies.

After we cleaned up and reloaded at the truck, we marched up the steps of the church. Elaina stalled before I opened the door.

“Doing okay, love?” I asked, taking note of her apprehension.

If she was in the same frame of mind I was, she was picturing our wedding. The images trampled through my brain like stop-motion photography. Moments that could never be forgotten.

The screams.

Killing the pastor.

Killing the limo driver.

Killing her father.

The spilled blood.

The exposed deceit and lies.

Elaina shook her head and rubbed her chest. I took my hand off of the door handle.

“Elaina?” I grabbed her shoulders. “Answer me,” I demanded.

She looked at me and managed to stammer, “I-I-I c-can’t.”

“Oh, love. We don’t have to.” I pulled her into my body and held her tight. “We can go back.”

“You stay out here with her.” Nick stepped up to the door and looked back. “I’ll go in. If you hear a shot, come running.”

As he put his hand on the handle, I grabbed his arm. “No. I can’t let you do that.” My voice was as firm as my grasp.

“I’m fine,” Nick said, glancing down at my hand on his bicep. It was the very same spot where I fucked him over for the rest of his life. “I can’t leave here without taking a peek around the place and seeing if there’s anything usable.”

I sighed and let his arm go. “Okay. Just hold on a sec.” I walked Elaina back down the steps. “Stay in the truck and lock the doors. If anything happens out here, I want you to hit the horn until I come running.” After she nodded, I handed her the keys and kissed her forehead, then jogged back to the church entrance again. “On three,” I whispered.

Counting down, when I hit three, Nick yanked open the door. The eerie quiet inside was a bit unsettling. We headed down the aisle, checking on the floor in front of each row of pews.

“Should I hum the wedding march?” Nick chuckled.

Turning, I glared at him.
Not fucking funny.
“Shut up,” I snapped. I was trying to keep my mind focused on the task in front of us, not on what happened back in New York. I wanted nothing more than to marry Elaina, but that hadn’t happened yet.

Soon
.

“I just thought, since we were walking down the aisle together…” Nick smiled.

“Shut the fuck up before I beat you down,” I growled. “Elaina is rubbing off on you. How can you even joke about it?” Then I turned around and mumbled, “You have to remember what happened the last time we set foot in a place of worship.”

The situation was bringing up too many bad memories for me.

“Dude, you probably shouldn’t cuss in a church.”

Clearly, he was ignoring me. “Seriously, I’m going to kick your ass in two seconds.” Nick smirked. “I’m worried about leaving Elaina outside alone. Let’s just get a move on.”

As we walked to the altar and looked around, my neck stiffened.
No, no, no
… I needed to keep my head tight and in the game. I didn’t have time to worry about the virus running rampant through my body.

“Door.” Nick stepped away from the altar and headed to the small door located off to the left. He opened it with a soft touch.

It was a tiny office with a desk. The unorganized pile of paperwork on the desk, plus the stacks upon stacks of books haphazardly lined up on the built-in bookshelves, made my OCD issues flare. Chaos in my line of sight made for even more chaos inside my head.

“Maybe there’s a book in here with ceremonies in it? At the very least, we will have some different stuff to read,” I said, trying not to tweak.

We both rushed over to the bookshelves and searched through them, grabbing anything that looked interesting. I spotted a framed photograph of Cora’s family, and wiped the dust off of the glass with a clean patch of my shirt. Seeing how happy they looked made me pause for a second. I thought Cora would appreciate something from Peter’s office.

Pulling open all the desk drawers, I found a smaller book with what looked like verses in it. Flipping through, I found a wedding verse—one similar to what Elaina and I had decided to use in New York.

“Boom. Got it. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Sitting in the driver’s seat, her hand hovering over the horn, Elaina was frantic, looking around the area. Her heart raced, waiting for Henry and Nick to come back out of the church.

All the worst images of their wedding which never happened came flooding back to her as soon as they stepped up to the front entrance. The worst image of all? Reliving the moment when she had to make her father true dead.

She had no idea she would have a complete meltdown at the church.

As they traveled into the little area, she felt certain she and Henry could get married, but after her reaction? She wasn’t sure anymore. Any sense life could be normal was flushed away. She just wanted them to move on with their lives and do what he said…put away all the insecurities and just do what they wanted in the first place. Now the fear Henry would revert began to take over.

Elaina gripped the steering wheel, the leather wrap creaking under her palms. Her eyes continued to dart around the area, looking for the inevitable. One breath away from hyperventilation, tempered relief hit when the church’s door swung open. When they stepped out, Henry looked across the way, then said something to Nick. He nodded and they headed to the truck.