Chapter Fifteen

We decided that acquiring an EMT was priority over going on a wild goose hunt for the warlock that might live in Philippe’s territory, so once Keith gave Angie the all-clear to travel three nights later, off to find Angie’s family we went.

The neighborhood was quiet. Too quiet, though I bet the place had been pretty sedate before the apocalypse. Sturdy brick bungalows lined the streets, each with a small fenced-in backyard and a small garage. It was the sort of working-class area where the kids played together outside until the streetlights came on. At this late hour we could almost imagine that everyone was asleep in the darkened houses, resting up before another full day on the job.

Almost.

The snow was marred by haphazard footprints left behind by mobs trudging through it—zombies didn’t stick to the sidewalks or walk in straight lines. There were no mobs to be seen, and no evidence of cars attempting to drive the streets. Once I found the right address I set the cruiser down in the backyard, hoping that the chain-link fence would slow any arriving zombies. Angie emerged from the car followed by her werewolf babysitter Keith, and together we stared at the silent house.

“I guess ringing the bell is out of the question,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Do you have keys?”

“At my place, not on me,” Angie replied.

“I can probably handle it.” After a few moments of magical fiddling I unlocked the back door. Despite my success, the door didn’t open.

“Barricaded,” Angie said.

“That’s a good sign,” Keith said. “The front looked intact too. We can try an upper window.”

“That’s the attic.”

“Well it won’t be barricaded then,” I replied. I lifted us up to the roof, and thankfully the window had a simple lock. “I’ll go first.”

“I should—” Angie said.

“No. If your dad shoots me, I’ll get over it. Normal bullets can’t kill you two, but it’ll hurt you more than it’ll hurt me.” And if Angie’s family tried to eat me, that would hurt me less too. I opened the window and shimmied through, and then hurriedly checked my surroundings. All quiet—it smelled of dust, but no decomposition. “Looks clear.”

I helped Angie and Keith inside. Werewolves can see in the dark just as well as vampires, so we didn’t even need a flashlight. The attic appeared normal, or at least what I assumed was normal for humans. The old wooden floor creaked as we moved, and the space was crowded with old cardboard boxes and plastic containers with labels like “summer clothes” and “Easter decorations”.

“I’m going first,” I announced as we approached the stairs. They led down in a narrow spiral designed to break someone’s neck if they tripped and fell.

“I should—” Angie said, and Keith interrupted.

“Stop arguing with the bulletproof vampire, is what you should do.”

We walked down the stairs and entered the kitchen. I paused and sniffed the air again. It smelled a bit like…soup. Tomato soup with a hint of wood smoke. No decomp and no blood, but I scented garbage and bleach.

“Call out to them,” I murmured.

“Mom? Dad?” Angela said.

Silence. I moved forward, hands raised, ready for anything, my sneakers soft against the linoleum. I motioned for the werewolves to follow—ugh, I was already thinking of her as one of them. Angie called out again, and I heard movement through the floor.

“Downstairs,” I said.

“Basement door is there.” She pointed to a white wooden door just outside of the kitchen. I looked past it into the dining room, but saw nothing out of sorts. That was encouraging in itself—no broken or overturned furniture, no signs of a struggle. The curtains were drawn, and I spotted living room furniture precariously stacked against the front windows.

“Again,” I ordered as stood beside the door and strained to hear.

“Mom? Dad?”

“…Angela?” a voice hesitantly replied, faint through the door.

Relief flooded me. Zombies didn’t talk. Well, they snarled, growled, moaned and so on, but they didn’t form coherent words or names.

“Yeah, it’s me. We’re coming down.” Angie pushed past me and opened the door. I resisted the urge to scold her for not letting me go first, but she was probably in the clear.

Weak light burst to life as Angie descended the stairs, and she was embraced by an older black woman. Mrs. Kinney, I assumed, followed by an older white man, a younger black woman and man, and two kids. Oh. She had an interracial family. Good for them.

White vampire privilege, Elizabeth said. My demon sounded amused, but I didn’t argue. She was right. I’d spilled my guts about my vampire family secrets, but I hadn’t asked Angie much about her family. All that big talk about needing a relationship more than sex, and yet I was failing in the girlfriend department.

I wasn’t sure of what to do. To be honest, I’d been almost certain we’d find Angie’s relatives dead or gone. Zombies I was prepared to deal with. Living in-laws, not so much. How the hell was I supposed to explain our unconventional relationship to Angie’s family? Or the fact that she’d become a werewolf? I glanced back at Keith, and he shrugged. There was a lot of everyone talking at once, so I sat on the stairs, waiting, while Keith helped himself to a chair at the kitchen table.

The kitchen was a tiny shoebox of a room. A plastic tablecloth decorated with cheerful sunflowers covered the kitchen table, which was shoved against an old radiator—guess someone had a toasty seat during the winter. White lace curtains trimmed the windows, but cardboard was currently taped over the glass. Smart. It was a cheap, easy way to block light and sound from attracting mobs. A collage of family photos and crayon drawings covered the fridge, complete with an assortment of colorful magnets bearing snippets of wisdom like “Bless this mess” and “What happens at Nana’s stays at Nana’s”. The setting was as alien to me as if we’d flown to Mars instead of the North side, and my insides squirmed as though I’d swallowed a live goldfish.

The familiar inquisitive whine of a dog caught my attention. A fat, aged golden retriever waddled toward the group, and then forged up the stairs to greet me. It was the first dog I’d seen since I’d lost all of mine, and I hugged it—her, judging by the pink nylon collar—as she licked my face. Keith whistled for her, and the retriever abandoned me for the werewolf’s attention. I seemed to be getting that a lot lately.

Mr. Kinney finally noticed me at the top of the stairs. He frowned, and I waved halfheartedly. “Hi. I’m Lizzy.”

“Sorry,” Angie said. “This is Lizzy, and I assume Keith is in the kitchen. These are my parents, my sister Keisha, her husband Scottie, and my niece Amelia and my nephew Adam. I see you’ve met Sandy.”

“Goldens love everyone, even Keith,” I joked.

“I’m a blonde magnet.” Keith scratched Sandy behind her floppy ears.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, “and I hate to rush, but we can do proper introductions once we’re out of here.”

“Right.” Angie nodded. “We need to do this quick. Take just the essentials.”

“And food, if we can,” Keith added.

“Where are we going?” Mr. Kinney asked.

“I have a building downtown. It’s secure, and solar powered. Hot water, electricity, food. Other kids,” I said. The niece and nephew perked up at that. “Sandy will be our first dog, though. But I have a ton of dog toys and treats.”

Sandy’s head whipped up at the word treat and she nearly clocked Keith in the jaw. Goldens. They’re like the tiger sharks of the dog world—ready and eager to eat anything, even when it isn’t actually food.

Mrs. Kinney’s jaw dropped. “You drove here from downtown?”

“Drove, no.” I looked to Angie, unsure of how to drop the vampire bomb. “We’ll be flying back. Angie can explain that later too.”

“Thanks,” she said dryly. I smiled.

Everything remained quiet as we loaded up the cruiser, and I was equal parts relieved and paranoid. We were just within the boundaries of Philippe’s territory, but he didn’t show up to rain on our parade. I didn’t think he would—he had a lot of territory to cover and we weren’t near his lair. I wondered about the lack of mobs. Was that a good sign that the area was filled with survivors who were hiding like the Kinneys? Or that the dead had moved on to other hunting grounds?

And thus the extended family of the first lover I’d taken in years moved into my building. Thankfully I was waylaid by Steve when we returned, and I was able to escape the awkwardness of helping Angie’s family settle in with the rest of the humans. Her brother-in-law was immediately recruited to examine Naomi and everyone else who needed medical attention.

“Well?” I asked Steve.

“Did you know you have an online cult following?” Steve asked. He blushed so red his face must have felt like it was on fire, or at least badly sunburned. “It’s pre-apocalypse too.”

“Yup. I prefer to call them clients, not cultists. Why, what about it?”

“Nathalie and I have been getting updates from your admirers, plus a few people we knew pre-disaster. None of them are close enough to pick up, but I’ve been checking military channels too. There’s a fort south of the city that went quiet, but I think they ran out of power instead of being overrun. They have soldiers, heavy equipment.”

“How far south?” Too far and we’d risk attracting Josef’s attention.

“Bourbonnais. Southwest corner, along the Kankakee River. It’s a historical site, not a modern fort, but stone walls are stone walls.”

I frowned—not too bad, but too far to fly. “Too bad we can’t take the train, it goes right there.”

“Why can’t we?” he asked.

“Pretty sure the trains aren’t running. Especially with no one to de-ice the tracks.”

“But we could take one over, right? They run on diesel. I think. We could fuel one up and go once it warms up. You could Force throw anything blocking the tracks. Should only take a couple hours to travel from here to there.”

“Good point. Start asking around to see if anyone knows anything about trains. We’ll keep it in mind. Anything else?”

“Yeah. We think we located your warlock. Or at least where he lived before the world ended. It was a real pain in the ass.”

“I don’t doubt it. He’s in Philippe’s territory?”

“Yeah. We poked around a bit, hoping someone else would be online in Philippe’s area, but everyone went dark a day or so after the power went out. That’s including some survivalists who should still be online.”

Shit. If Philippe had a pet hacker like Sean did, he could be abducting those people. Likely to force them into his flock, but he could be eliminating anyone he considered to be a threat to his resources.

“Got any good news for me?” I asked.

“We have some ideas for stores to loot.”

“Make a list. Where’s your boss?”

“On the pack floor with Javier, discussing important alpha things,” Steve said.

“Sounds like fun… You know you’re saying we a lot. Don’t let Sean catch you doing it.”

Steve blushed even brighter, and I chuckled as I thanked him and headed off to find Omar.

I found Omar and Javier muttering together over several maps of central and southern Illinois and Indiana. “Good news?” I asked.

“Not sure yet.” Omar stepped away from the table. “Hiding from the in-laws?”

“I’m not hiding. I’m giving them time to settle in.” I scowled and folded my arms. “I think we need to come up with an emergency plan for the building.”

“In case we’re overrun?” Javier asked. “It’s pretty much bend over and kiss our asses goodbye if you can’t fly us all to safety.”

“In case of anything,” I countered. “Fire. Tornadoes. Damaging hail. Social uprising. I’ve been pondering the apocalypse movie playbook, and no one ever has a plan for additional trouble after the world ends. That always comes back to bite them in the ass. We need to be proactive, not reactive.”

Omar nodded. “Fair enough. What do you suggest?”

“Steve and Nathalie can print out the building plans. If we have lists of who’s good at what, then give them homework on coming up with places to shelter and stuff. Keith’s a firefighter, right?”

“Right.” Javier scratched the stubble on his chin. I suspected that beards were going to make a fashion comeback. “It’s a good idea. We’re so worried about the zombies that we’re not prepared for the normal stuff like someone falling asleep with a lit cigarette, or a grease fire in the kitchen.”

“Or if Philippe shows up to kick the doors in,” I added. “The civilians need to know where to go while we stomp his ass. If nothing else, doing evacuation drills will give the humans something to do during the day.”

“We need a plan of attack for Philippe too,” Omar reminded me.

“Well now that we have a place to look for the warlock, we might be able to recruit him to help,” I said. “We can use all the allies we can get.”

We chatted a bit more about places to loot and people to search for, and then I headed down to my lair. Sean’s flock cleared out to give me some time to myself, but I still smelled them on the pillows and blankets. A floral shampoo, some sort of fruity body wash and the mildly appetizing scent of women. I stared up at the ceiling of my bedroom and pondered what to do next.

Angie was upstairs with her family. I’d never dated a nice girl with a family before. Technically I’d never dated, because we didn’t “date” when I was alive. Marriages were often business arrangements, and I hadn’t been a good investment. I didn’t have a say in my relationship with my Master and the others at Tara. I liked to think that Angie and I had both chosen to be lovers, and she hadn’t felt pressured or obligated. She seemed to enjoy our time together, and care about me. But I wasn’t exactly relationship material for a mortal. I couldn’t have children. I slept in a coffin when the sun was up—with another vampire. We seriously needed to get Sean his own coffin, but other things kept coming up.

“Hey,” Angie said.

I propped myself up and spotted her standing in the doorway. “Hey yourself. Shouldn’t you be with your family?”

“They’re sleeping. Exhausted is more like it.”

“Right. Normal people sleep at night. I forget that sometimes,” I replied.

“I wanted to bring Sandy down for you, but she’s asleep with the kids.” Angie shut the door behind her and then sat beside me on the edge of the bed.

“Where’s Keith?” I asked.

“Raiding the kitchen.” She smiled and took my hand. “Thank you. I thought I’d never see them again.”

“I’m glad I could help. Did they settle in okay?”

“As well as could be expected. Dad’s upset about leaving the house. His family’s been living in it for over eighty years.”

I smirked. “Wow, eighty years, huh? That’s almost as old as Sean.”

Angie chuckled. “Well, that’s a long time for mere mortals. Werewolves are still mortal, right?”

“Yeah. You lived there growing up?”

“No, but he did. My parents moved in after my grandma passed away. We lived in a few different places when I was a kid.”

“I’m trying to picture you as a kid.” I studied her. Little Angie probably looked like her niece Amelia did now—adorable. “Do you want kids of your own someday? Like, after we figure out life after the apocalypse, and if you found a sperm donor?”

“Maybe. For now it’s nice being an auntie. You can wind the kids up on sugar and hand them back to their parents.” Angie grinned.

“Did you tell your family about us?” I asked, almost afraid of the answer. I’d face zombies over in-laws any day.

“Yes. I’m out to my family, so they won’t care that I have a girlfriend. They have questions about the werewolf thing. And the vampire thing. I still have questions.”

“The fact that you have a normal family is as weird to me as the vampire thing is weird to you. The only thing I’m familiar with is having a family dog. I adopted a lot of dogs out to families, and we had to make sure they were the right type for our dogs. Not everyone can handle a pit bull or a Rottie.”

“You didn’t have a normal family while you were alive?”

“No, I did, but eighteenth-century normal is very different from twenty-first century normal.”

“True.”

“Girlfriend,” I said, as though tasting the word. “I like that.”

“I’d say partner, but Mike’s my partner,” she replied, and I chuckled.

“True… You know, same-sex marriage is legal in Illinois now.”

“If you want to propose to me, you’ll have to ask for my father’s blessing first.”

“Interesting.” I raised her hand to my lips and brushed a chaste kiss against her knuckles. “What’s your ring size?”

“You’re serious?” Angie blinked in surprise.

“You’re serious?” Elizabeth echoed. She’d been suspiciously quiet all night. I assumed she was still celebrating her demon tumble with Sean. I loved Angie. She was strong and brave—unafraid when she was surrounded by monsters. I thought of how she had charged to the aid of the werewolves without hesitation, even when that act had nearly killed her. The world needed heroes like Angie, now more than ever, and I would cherish every moment I had with her.

“Yes. I’m serious about this relationship. Does the Sean thing bother you?”

“I think it’s a little weird that my girlfriend is sleeping with a vampire who has his own harem, but everything’s weird lately. I agree with Evelyn.”

“About what?”

“It’d be best for you and Sean if you learned how to coexist with your demons. I get that you’re not comfortable with Elizabeth being the boss of you, but maybe you can work on being partners.”

“I like her. Our Athena is wise, even though she smells like wet dog.”

“You’ve been gossiping with Evelyn about me?”

“I take the fifth.”

I smiled dryly. “Well, you’ve got Elizabeth’s vote. I’m worried that you’ll be jealous. I don’t want you to feel like I’m cheating on you. Hell, I feel like I’m cheating on you. I wish I could be a one-woman vampire, but I’d starve.”

“Do you like Sean?” Angie didn’t seem angry, just curious.

“He’s all right—an actual nice guy. I wouldn’t believe a male vampire was capable of that, but his flock seems to support it. The world really has gone mad.”

“Yeah, but it brought us together.” Angie kissed me. “We’re still here, and we have each other. It matters. Come on. Nathalie and the others are watching Twilight and making rude comments. Let’s join them.”