snow.
BT yelled from the barn. 'Mike, you alright?' he asked with concern.
I stood back up, dragging my sleeve across my watering mouth and with my other hand I waved back towards him.
'Are you ready to listen?' It was phrased as a question, but there were no alternate choices.
I nodded dumbly.
'I want Tomas.'
I shook my head in the negative, acidic bile threatening to once again make its triumphant return.
'I do not think you understand what I am saying to you Michael. I will flay the flesh from your seed as they scream your name in vain. You will watch as I disembowel your wife and let my zombies eat her while she lives on. The last thing you will see will be your friend Lawrence as he rips your neck open to drink deeply of your blood. He will be the only thing I spare, for I think I might like to keep him as a pet for a while.'
I could almost swear I saw a flicker of jealousy cross Durgan's face. Apparently this wasn't part of the original plan.
'Michael, you cannot keep running from me. Eventually your unnaturally deep well of luck will run out and I'll be there when it happens. I gave you one opportunity to be spared, but you spurned it. I am giving you and your family a chance to survive as your kind do. I will not offer you sanctuary again; even now my legion is nearing.'
I looked over Durgan's shoulder to see if anything was approaching. Her words snapped me back to the fore.
'Michael, even if you run today, I know where you are going. I know where your friends Alex and Paul have gone.'
She never actually mentioned places. Was Eliza bluffing? Did she need to? If our lives were divided into a standard deck of 52 cards, Eliza was holding 50 of them. I was maybe looking at the 'two of Hearts' and the 'four of Clubs'.
'You know I can't give him up. What kind of person would that make me?'
'A live one,' she replied instantly. 'You have known him for two months yet you would sacrifice yourself and your family for him? That is why humans are so weak.' She fairly spat out the words. 'He has led you down the path of destruction like he has so many others. He cares naught for any of you!'
'You lie, Eliza!'
She laughed, but no tone of merriment accompanied it. 'You are foolish to believe that a 500-year old immortal cares at all about the fleeting lives of the humans he uses.'
Her words stung deep. Being this close to her was keeping my mind clouded. I was having great difficulty distinguishing truth from lies in her venomous words. If ever a serpent spoke, it was now.
'You loved him once!' I shouted, hoping my words would knock something loose in that frozen countenance of hers.
'Michael, you misunderstand why I have let him live all these long years. Perhaps once when I was a girl I cared for him, but that is from a previous life. I now let him live merely to torment him. The look of pathetic sadness and longing on his face is what I thrive on. The pain his quest brings to others, that is all the solace I need. I forfeited my soul willingly when D'Arvain turned me. I could not now get it back even if perchance I wanted it, which I don't. I have been liberated. I am free to do as I please through this world.' She spread Durgan's arms wide. 'The world is mine, Michael, I have control over the largest army this planet has ever known.'
I wanted to tell her that if we were talking about just sheer numbers, the army ant might protest her claims. Seemed like an inappropriate time though.
'Too bad you're dying then.'
Durgan/Eliza looked pissed! If her zombies were in place, I would have been as good as dead. 'Give me Tomas, Michael, and you and your kin can live out the rest of your pathetically short lives without interference from me.'
Please don't misunderstand the tone of my words in this conversation; evil oozed from Eliza. She had some form of mental manipulation also and she was not afraid to place scenes of unbelievably gruesome acts of violence into my head. My knees knocked, my bladder yearned for release, my heart kept skipping beats. On occasion, I think I forgot to breathe. Still something was nagging. 'Why are you even asking me? Why not just take him?'
I thought the contortions she put Durgan's face through were going to make his skin split like an overripe banana. Eliza did not do well when her authority was questioned.
'I mean if that piece of shit is here.' I said motioning to her host body. 'Then you must be close.' The wheels in my head were threatening to spin off their axle. 'It is light out though, does that whole vampire in the sun thing hold merit? At Lowe's it was daylight, but you looked way more like a zombie back then. Is there any chance I could find you before tonight and drive a stake into your shriveled black heart?'
'Enough!' she screamed. 'I have listened to your ranting for entirely too long. Tomas or your family, Michael, you decide.' With that she left Durgan. He fell forward a few inches as Eliza released him, then his eyes cleared and looked up at me. 'I'll be back, Talbot.' He started the snow mobile and gunned the engine heading straight for me. I rolled to my side and grabbed the K-Bar strapped to my ankle. As Durgan passed, I used his momentum and dragged my blade across his left calf. A small smile of satisfaction crept across my face as a crimson blossom spread out from the wound. His only acknowledgement was to open the throttle faster so he could leave quicker.
'Tommy is family,' I told his/her retreating back. I dusted myself off and headed back to the barn.
'What's he want?' BT asked, as I wiped my blade off in the snow.
'He said something about making a trade for some blackberry preserves and a bushel of crab apples.'
'You're not funny.'
'Yeah, well neither is the alternative. They want Tommy. We need to get the hummer fueled and get the hell out of here before tonight.'
'Dammit, I guess that means we aren't going to finish those beers then. Did you get hurt?' BT asked, finally noticing the blotch of red in the snow.
'Not mine, his. And no, unfortunately it wasn't a fatal blow.'
'Good.'
'What?' I asked incredulously.
'Because I want to do it myself.'
Within an hour, we had ransacked the house for whatever might turn up as useful. It was a woefully pathetic yield. I was happy to find that the hummer actually had seat covers. I guess now that I'm thinking about it, they were designed to be removed and replaced if an occupant was to expire in there. Well that's a macabre thought. Not much, but some of the previous tenant's remains had seeped through. This was quickly fixed with a throw rug I pilfered from the upstairs bathroom.
I filled the hummer up to brimming with fuel. With the help of Tommy, Travis and Justin (I actually delegated) we put the half full remaining drum in the trunk.
'The first couple of hundred miles are going to suck,' I said aloud.
Justin looked over at me, waiting for me to finish.
'The trunk isn't going to shut, gonna be as cold as Eliza's sn….' I stopped when Tracy was approaching with some boxes of food. 'Uh, hi Hon.'
'You've got that look of just getting caught in the cookie jar thing going on,' she stared at me suspiciously. I shrugged. 'Help me with these and drag your mind out of whatever gutter it's wriggling around in.'
A few more back and forths and the hummer was as full as it was going to get and still hold occupants. I helped Carol into the front so she would be closest to the heat, wrapped her in a few blankets and then was halfway back to the house to get Henry when Tracy called from the front door.
'You seen Tommy?'
It was an innocent enough question, so then why did my bowels seize up? 'No I…' I honestly couldn't remember the last time. Sure, he had helped with the barrel but when? We had been bustling around so much. There had been so much activity I didn't stop to take stock. 'Get Travis and Justin!' I yelled.
'What?' Tracy asked concerned. She wasn't nearly as alarmed as I was. I was halfway around the eastward side of the house looking for any tracks that led away.
Justin and Travis ran up to me, alert for signs of trouble but not seeing any. 'What's up Dad?' Travis asked,
