Possession-Blood Ties 2 Read Free Page B

vampires returned from the dead that he was aware of. That fact alone made him a delicacy. One of the vampires snarled. Cyrus heard the jingle of chains as the creature approached, and he tensed. At his side, the girl quivered and shrieked. If he could have stood on his own, he would have thrown her to them.
    “He’s not to be harmed!” another vampire commanded, and the one advancing backed down.
    “Where am I?” Cyrus asked, hating himself for relying on this girl.
    “St. Anne’s,” she whispered. “A church.”
    “I gathered that. There are so few St. Anne’s car washes these days.” The door scraped open, and he gagged at the stench of death he used to revel in. He looked past the line of gleaming chrome motorcycles parked in the church vestibule, his eyes struggling to focus amid so much detail.
    “They said they were going to bury them after the sun went down,” the girl said quietly.
    “They never did.”
    Cyrus squinted at the tangled forms of two bodies on the carpet. One was dressed in black with a cleric’s collar. The other was a woman with white hair, her button-down blouse and matronly cardigan slashed open to reveal the wrinkled skin of her chest. Her skirt tangled around her thighs, showing the tops of her knee-high stockings.
    “Father Bart and Sister Helen,” the girl whispered tearfully. “They—”
    “I know what they did to her.” He turned his head and reached for the wall for support.
    “Cover her up.”
    Hello, conscience. We meet again.
    When the girl returned to his side, she was trembling. He wanted to strike her for her weakness, as he would have in his former life. Now, he doubted he could lift his arm on his own. Shameful as it was, he relied on her. It wouldn’t do much good to put her off helping him.
    “The rectory is downstairs.” She sniveled pathetically as she opened a door. Shagcarpeted steps led down into darkness. “I think that’s where they’ll keep us. It’s where they’ve been keeping me.”
    His mind raced, trying to piece together the information he remembered from his former life, and how it might apply to his current situation. “And who are ‘they’?”
    “Monsters.” The word came out as less than a whisper. He wished he could push her down the stairs. Unfortunately, that would send him tumbling, as well. “Yes, vampires. I know. But who are they?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re—”
    “Who are they? Who are they allies with? Are they the Fangs or the Celts or the Coveners?” He searched his memory for the names of other vampire gangs, and his heart seized in fear. “They’re not Movement?”
    What a stupid question. Of course they weren’t the Movement. It wouldn’t make sense for the Voluntary Vampire Extinction Movement to bring vampires back from the dead. Unless his new, human existence was some form of sadistic punishment they’d dreamed up. If it were, he could guess who’d moved his name to the top of that list.

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    The girl helped him down the stairs to a cinder block apartment with a cot, a reclining chair, a dented aluminum TV tray with a half-eaten microwave dinner and a copy of the TV Guide, turned to the crossword puzzle, atop it. A small bookshelf supported a television and a few books, with a bottle of holy water and a rosary nestled in the corner. Cyrus gestured to the water. “Hide that.”
    The girl propped him against the wall before moving to do his bidding. “Why?”
    “Because there are a lot of vampires upstairs, and they apparently didn’t search this room thoroughly. Any potential weapon we can find would be nice to keep.” He frowned at her as she picked up the bottle and walked past him, not sparing him a glance. “What’s the matter with you?”
    “Nothing.” The word was accompanied by a hysterical, terrified hiccup. “Aside from being kidnapped by vampires and watching my two