“Well, it is what it is.”
We sat there for a long time, the moon climbing high in the sky. I could sense Jamie was feeling ashamed about going back to the room we shared together. I understood, so we sat and took in the moonlight even though all of my senses were on edge. The feel of danger was all around me. After a while, we decided to go look at the water. We found a quiet spot and sat watching the moonlight reflecting on the waves. A distance away from the hotel, I felt better. The view was beautiful.
Late into the night, we decided to head back. We were crossing the lawn to the hotel when we heard the yacht’s horn sound. We turned to see the boat headed toward the hotel. It pulled into the pier then sounded the horn twice more. From our view we could see a flurry of activity on board.
“Did they bring more survivors after all?” Jamie asked, straining to get a look.
“I don’t know, but something’s up,” I replied, regretting I’d left my binoculars in the room.
One of the crewman bounced out of the boat before the plank had been lowered and ran, quickly, across the hotel lawn.
Concerned, Jamie and I headed toward the pier. They were dropping the plank for a small group of about five or six very normal but war-torn looking survivors. Behind them two men rushed the body of a female back toward the HarpWind.
Jamie and I had just reached the end of the pier as they passed us. The woman they carried was bleeding profusely from a wound on her side. From her appearance, I knew her to be a vampire. Now I was confused.
“She’s not going to make it,” one of the men said.
They stopped and laid the woman on the ground. Then they both just stood over her. No one did anything. The new arrivals watched in horror as the woman lay on the ground, jerking and bleeding, seemingly dying.
“Isn’t someone going to do something?” one of them whispered.
“Do something,” Jamie told the two men.
They looked blankly back at him.
“What happened?” I asked the survivors.
“We aren’t exactly sure. We think one of our people who got sick grabbed her. We didn’t see it happen,” a man told me.
“Christ,” Jamie swore and pulled some medical gloves from his pocket. He started pulling them on.
“She’s one of them. You know that, right?” I whispered to him.
He nodded and bent down to look at the woman.
“Don’t do that,” one of the men said, but no one moved to stop him.
Jamie ripped the woman’s shirt away to reveal a nasty wound on her side. It was clear she had been bitten. As Jamie cleaned the wound, I kneeled down beside him. The woman breathed hard, blood sputtering from her lips. Her body twisted.
Jamie took the woman’s hand. He felt her wrist. “No pulse,” he whispered to me, but the woman was clearly moving.
We both looked at the injury. I remembered how it looked when April turned. This was not the same thing. I didn’t know what I was seeing. It was almost as if her body as trying to heal itself, and at the same time, the infection fought her. The battle seemed to have been going on for a while. Moments later, we watched as the wound finally sealed itself closed. Then, something strange happened. The woman’s moon-like white skin started to regain color. Her pale skin took on a rosy, healthy glow. We watched as it spread across her stomach and up her neck to her face. Her lips turned pink, and the blush of life came to her cheeks. Her eyes closed. A moment later, she opened them again. They were now hazel colored. She lifted her hand and wiped the blood away from her mouth, grimacing at the taste.
Jamie took her arm again, his fingers pressed against her wrist.
The next moment I felt a tug on the back of my pants, and then, startling all of us, heard a gunshot.
The woman jerked.
I jumped up and turned to find Rumor standing there with my gun in her hand. She was wearing a long, golden ball-gown, the trimming barely hiding her breasts. The gun in her hand made for a stark contrast.
Jamie and I looked at the injured woman; the shades of life momentarily back in her face were now frozen in the grimace of death. Rumor had shot her between the eyes.
“I guess it is a good thing you ignored me after all,” she said, handing me back my gun. “You’re very useful to have around. Why would I ever let you go home,” she motioned to the others to take the woman away.
“Welcome, all,” she said to the newcomers. “Where have you come from?”
“New York, Westfield area,” a woman said.
“Go inside. You’re safe here,” she said and motioned the newcomers to the hotel. She then motioned for Jamie and me to follow her.
We walked behind her. A crewman walked at her side. “What happened?” she asked, switching to dialect.
“She bit into one of the infected. She didn’t know. Then it attacked her,” he replied in the same.
“I told you all to be careful.”
“We’re sorry.”
“You’re sorry, but I was the one who had to shoot her. Let’s not be sorry next time.”