Trail of Tears (24 page)

He looked over to the barrel and saw it
slowing. Bullets whined around it as the thralls tried to explode
the barrel before it became a danger to them. Most of the shots
missed but some managed to strike it. The barrel absorbed the
bullets like a sponge, leaking fuel like blood, until it finally
came to a halt gently against an outcrop of snow. Maybe the cold
prevented the barrel from igniting, he wasn’t sure. The thralls
stopped firing, judging the danger too far from them and they
resumed their cautious advance. McAteer sighed as he looked from
the barrel to the line of thralls. It was too far. He heard a
distant rumble and wondered if it might be thunder. He hoped it was
thunder, but the noise continued too long for that. He cursed as
the reality of the noise became clear. Carter’s reinforcements were
coming.

Curtis Kavanagh smelt the acrid stench of
burnt flesh long before he saw the thin trail of smoke in the
distance. It was unlikely that the humans were stupid enough to
light fires but anything as blatant as a spiral of smoke was worth
investigating. It was probably another patrol that had been
attacked. He had forced his vampires to rise with the sun still on
its downward descent in the hope that he would get to just such a
scene before Von Richelieu. They had complained as their flesh
burned under the sun’s pale caress but he ignored them. They would
heal. The sun wasn’t strong enough to kill them this time of day.
But he had to begin his search before Von Richelieu.

He wanted to see if he could find any trace
of the fleeing humans before anyone else. There must be tracks they
could follow. Maybe Von Richelieu had missed something the last few
times. The ancient vampire was no fool but he surrounded himself
with older vampires who were stuck in the past. Maybe he and his
more modern vampires would see something the others had missed. The
humans must have a reason to attack so many patrols. There could
not be enough of them to need as much food as they had already
stolen; four patrols in as many days. His thrall spy had been
unable to find out if all the food had been stolen or whether they
had destroyed it.

If it was destroyed then who did the humans
think they were hurting? The food was for the remaining human
captives as well as the thralls, and the thralls would eat first.
Surely they could not want the other humans to die? While it would
be a sure way to kill the vampires if their food supply was to die
of starvation, he dismissed this strategy. It would take far too
long and it was far too callous for humans. Vampires might think
like that but he did not believe that humans could. So, if their
aim was not the captives then they must have another agenda. It was
possible that they were just attacking their former masters in
retaliation for their years of bondage but, somehow, he doubted
that also.

These attacks were too well planned to be
the work of demented revenge-fuelled men and women. No, he was
missing something. He swooped overhead and examined the scene
carefully. He judged he had about ten minutes before the other
vampires arrived so he had to work fast. Thralls lay still on
either side of the road and the vehicles had been disabled or burnt
out. There was a truck missing so they had obviously taken it and
its contents. He called for his Lieutenant, Dee Snyder, and sent
her and two others to follow the truck’s tracks. It was unlikely to
lead to the human hideout, but it might give them an area to
search.

Dee had been one of the humans who had come
forward to offer him aid while he stood down the humans a week ago.
Though she was new to being a vampire Kavanagh saw ruthlessness in
her that he liked. Of course, he could trust her only so long as
her goals matched his, but he needed soldiers who were prepared to
think outside the box and had the balls to follow through on their
convictions. He watched her as she gathered up two vampires and
couldn’t help but notice the sway of her hips. Just because the
physical part of sex was denied him as a vampires didn’t mean he
couldn’t enjoy looking and remembering when it had meant something
to hold a woman in his arms.

His other vampires had balked at first when
he had promoted such a young vampire but even they had come to
accept that she had the skills. It had been her idea to send a
thrall spy into Von Richelieu’s camp and she had already stood toe
to toe with anyone who stood against her. Vampires might heal
quickly but the pain of broken bones was every bit as painful as it
had been when they were human.

He wondered at what point vampires had
become so docile. It had suited him that these vampires had been
malleable enough to convince them to join him against Von Richelieu
but, now that they had joined him, he wished that they were more
independent. What had happened to the ultimate predator? They were
more like sheep sometimes. Having their food provided to them had
made them soft.

Kavanagh’s musing was interrupted as he came
across the last truck. It had been torn apart from the inside out.
There was no way the humans had done that. He saw a smoking pile of
clothes off to the side and he whistled as he realised what had
happened. He was impressed. Impressed with Von Richelieu for being
sneaky enough to send a vampire with the patrol but doubly
impressed with the humans for taking out the vampire.

These humans were proving to be very
interesting. While he certainly needed fresh blood, literally, for
his own cable he might be able to use their abilities to weaken Von
Richelieu further, if he handled this the right way. And then he
could step in and take it all. If only he could figure out what
they were doing. The number of thralls in this patrol was nearly
double what had been sent in the last one
and
there had been
a vampire with them. Why would the humans want to risk their lives
with these patrols that were growing in strength? All they were
doing was making their attacks more dangerous by pulling …

He smiled. Of course. He had forgotten that
he was dealing with humans. He had been a vampire for a few years
now but already he realised he had fundamentally changed. It was
impossible to feed on your own race and not go mad unless you
shifted your attitude dramatically. He had long ago stopped
thinking of himself as human. He saw humans as food. He was not
sure if this was part of the change or not but the physical changes
that came with being a vampire were obviously augmented by the
psychological ones. He had seen some, very few but some
nonetheless, that had not made the transition and they had been
driven mad by the guilt and had been put down.

Sometimes he found it hard to even remember
what it had been like to be human. The evidence pointed at only one
possible answer though. The humans were purposely trying to attract
attention. They wanted Von Richelieu to pull more and more of his
thralls onto these patrols. The more thralls out here guarding the
food the fewer that would be left to guard the captives. They were
going for the whole pot.

“Jesus,” he whispered. “They’re going to
attack Von Richelieu directly.” They would be slaughtered, of
course.
Wouldn’t they?
They were certainly resourceful but
Von Richelieu had over a hundred thralls. He pursed his lips as he
continued his line of thought.

He might not be able to find where the
humans were hiding but, with a little patience, he knew just where
they were going to be. And he would be there to help them. A two
pronged attack might just tip the odds in their favour. At least
until Von Richelieu was dead. And then he would kill the humans who
survived. They were far too deadly to leave alive and there were
enough in the pens for his purposes.

“I’ve seen enough,” he announced and the
other vampires looked relieved. If he had had any doubts as to
promoting Snyder as his Lieutenant the looks of relief in his
cabals’ faces were enough to banish them forever. “Pussies,” he
muttered as he took to the air. “The fucking humans have more balls
than some of these bastards.” Well they would have to step up to
the plate soon or be left behind. There was change in the air and
he was the one who would ride it for all it was worth.

* * *

“Soon,” Josh promised, “but we’re not ready
yet.” He held Tanya’s gaze and could almost feel the frustration
coming from her in waves. “Come on, Tanya,” he sighed. “You saw
what it was like with just one vampire yesterday…”

“If we attack during the day then the
vampires aren’t an issue,” she spat back at him.

“No,” he agreed. “You’re right. If we attack
during the day all we have to worry about is the hundred or so
thralls and the hundreds of yards of open ground between the pens
and the nearest cover.” He watched her face and could see her jaw
grinding her teeth as she thought through her options. “Tanya, I’m
tired of these arguments. Everyone here is tired of them.” She was
about to interrupt but he held up his hand and continued. “Most of
the people here just want to bury themselves in this mountain and
never leave again. They’re scared and they have every right to be.
They are wrong though; we can’t just stay here and hope the
vampires will leave us alone. But we can’t go throwing ourselves
into certain death either. There are other mothers and fathers here
who have just as much right as you do to keep their children
safe.”

He could see the tears well up in her eyes
and hated the fact that he was being so hard but these arguments
had become so commonplace that he was finding it difficult to get
anyone to come on the raids, especially after they had come up
against a vampire in the last patrol. People were starting to avoid
Tanya and that wasn’t healthy for anyone.

“Do you really want these people to become
so sick of you that they will not come with us when the opportunity
does come up?” He waited for her to respond but she remained
silent, glaring at him. “What is the point, Tanya? What do you want
here? How many of our lives is it worth to you for us to throw
ourselves into a meat grinder and get chewed to pieces. How many?”
He raised his voice in frustration and immediately felt guilty as
he saw her recoil as if slapped. He wanted to apologise but at the
same time he had to get his point across. Already there were
factions growing in their small community that were gaining
momentum every time they returned from a raid with less people than
they went out with. They had enough food to last them a few weeks
now so there was really no need to attack any more patrols for a
while. No reason but Tanya’s continued insistence that they rescue
her son.

No one knew her or her son. In fact, no one
really knew anyone. They had all been thrown together by
circumstance. After the initial recovery from the serum and the
shock of their imprisonment people were already jockeying for
position within the community. Some wanted to leave the area, to
find somewhere where there were no vampires. Did such a place even
exist? Some wanted to stay where they were, buried under this
mountain, and ignore what was going on around them. There were even
a few who talked of giving themselves up. They argued that if the
thralls found them now they would kill them all. If they
surrendered then the thralls would forgive them and feed them. Yes,
they might take their blood but that was a small price to pay to
keep living. In fact the only faction that was not growing in
popularity was the one that wanted to continue to fight and to
rescue the other prisoners.

If he was honest, he himself would take the
current campaign at a slower pace if he had a choice. He had
escalated the raids to try and force a situation that would weaken
the main camps defences. Unfortunately he was weakening his own
support in this community far quicker than the pen’s defences. The
death of Hammond and the fact that they had gone up against a
vampire had sent ripples of fear through their community and he had
noticed the looks that people were directing towards Tanya. She was
becoming a focus of their fear and he had to do something about
that or she would lose any hope of their support.

“Tanya, you’re driving everyone away. You
need to work with these people, talk to them, laugh with them or
they will not support you when you need them most. Help me to help
you. Can you do that?”

She looked at him, the tears drying on her
cheeks leaving twin glistening lines. “I don’t think I can, Josh.”
She looked at him and took his hand in hers and squeezed once
before dropping it again. “I can’t let him down. Whatever these
people think or do. I am his mother and I have to get him back.
He’s all alone in there, petrified and confused. He doesn’t even
know I’m still alive. Every moment he is there and I am here is
like a knife through my heart. I can’t bear it, Josh. I just
can’t.”

Josh felt he should say something but the
words would not come. “I know you are doing everything you can,”
she continued, “but it’s not enough.” The tears began to drip once
again and she rubbed her hand across her face. “I have to go to
him. I have to let him know someone still cares for him. I am going
to leave my most precious possession with you. I have no right to
ask but I need you to look after Jillian.”

“You can’t be serious,” Josh shouted and
looked around him to see if anyone was listening. “What makes you
think they will keep you alive? They’ll torture you until they are
certain you have nothing left to tell them and then they’ll bleed
you dry. You’ll condemn everyone here.”

“No, I won’t. I’ll give myself up over at
the food gardens. They’ll think I have been wandering on my own
since the escape. There’s no reason for them to suspect anything
else.”

“Are you willing to risk every ones’ life
here on that theory?” Josh couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Did she think she could just walk back to the thralls and they
would just put her back in the pen?
Jesus, the strain is
becoming too much for her.
“Tanya, if the others figure out
what you are planning they are likely to kill you, just in case
you’re wrong. You can’t just abandon Jillian.”