Deliverance of the Damned

  DELIVERANCE

  of the

  DAMNED

  Trilogy of the Damned

  Book One

  Jean Marie Bauhaus

  Copyright © 2019 by Jean Marie Bauhaus

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are made up or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead or undead, is purely coincidental, and really, if your life resembles this book, you have bigger problems than intellectual property woes.

  Book interior and cover design by Jean Marie Bauhaus.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Deliverance of the Damned (Trilogy of the Damned, #2)

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY- ONE

  TWENTY- TWO

  TWENTY- THREE

  TWENTY- FOUR

  TWENTY- FIVE

  TWENTY- SIX

  TWENTY- SEVEN

  TWENTY- EIGHT

  TWENTY- NINE

  THIRTY

  THIRTY- ONE

  THIRTY- TWO

  THIRTY- THREE

  THIRTY- FOUR

  THIRTY- FIVE

  THIRTY- SIX

  EPILOGUE

  Watch for

  Get Book One on Audio!

  Also by Jean Marie Bauhaus

  NOVELS

  Dominion of the Damned

  The Restless Spirits series:

  Restless Spirits

  Love Letter: A Restless Spirits Novella

  Kindred Spirits

  Bound Spirits

  Novellas and Collections

  Eucha Falls

  Midnight Snacks

  Shiny: A Clockwork Fairytale

  Fragments & Fancies: Ficlets, Flash Fiction & Shorts

  Weather Witch

  Women’s Work

  Listen to Book One!

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  ONE

  IT WAS TOO NOISY TO sleep. As exhausted as she was from the events of the past couple of days, which she was nowhere near having processed, Hannah’s newly enhanced hearing picked up every sound. Her own breathing and heartbeat thundered in her ears, but not enough to drown out that of the baby lying next to her or, more wondrous, the sounds of life coming from Alek on the other side of the bed. Even with all of that noise, she could hear each little creak that the house made, every bug that skittered along a wall or across the floor, every cricket chirping outside, every breeze that rustled the leaves on the trees. Burying her head under the pillow did nothing to muffle the cacophony.

  She sat up and looked over at Alek, sleeping as peacefully as her baby brother nestled between them. How did he do it? How did he filter out the noise? Watching him sleep, she realized she could see him clearly, even though it was the middle of the night and there wasn’t so much as a street light aiding her thanks to the storm taking out the power lines in her neighborhood. It was only moonlight that filtered in through the blinds, but it might as well have been the noonday sun.

  Knowing Alek didn’t sleep so deeply that he’d allow any harm to come to Noah, Hannah got up and padded out of the room in her bare feet. She went to the living room window and peeked through the curtains. A lone shambler shuffled down the street, somehow navigating through the storm debris all over the ground without getting tripped up or slowed down. It had already passed up her house, apparently not detecting the life inside. She made sure the window was locked up tight, closed the drapes, and headed for the bathroom.

  Hannah splashed her face with cold water and looked in the mirror. The ice-blue eyes of a vampire looked back, startling her. Something else she’d have to get used to. Opening her mouth, she examined her teeth. They looked the same as always—crooked and in need of a cleaning. Not even a hint of fangs. Except for her eyes, she looked human. She felt human. Inside, at any rate. Which didn’t account for the super strength and hyperactive hearing. Or how she had already healed from a fight that should have killed her, or at least laid her up for weeks.

  “What are you?” she asked the mirror. But it had no more answers than she did.

  Alek had his theories, but ever the scientist, he refused to settle on solid answers without testing and time. But as she seemed to be less human, he was now more so, freed from his need for blood, hungry for normal food, able to endure direct sunlight. Though still inhumanly strong, with the same souped up senses as Hannah, his strength and senses weren’t as strong as before. His fangs had disappeared, too.

  He was no longer fully vampire. She was no longer quite human. They were both something in between. Whether that was a good thing or not remained to be seen.

  Hannah pushed these thoughts aside. There would be time for philosophizing later. She grabbed a hairbrush and smoothed her long hair into a ponytail. Quietly, she stole back into the bedroom where both her men still slept, to gather her jeans and shoes off the floor and her handgun from the nightstand. She carried them to living room and put them on. Then she went to the closet where she kept her small arsenal and added her dad’s hunting knife to her belt. Finally, she found her house keys and headed outside, locking the front door behind her.

  She stood on the porch for several minutes, listening. She could hear the familiar moaning of the zombie invaders, but it sounded distant, carried on the breeze. It had been over twenty-four hours since the storm, but the air still smelled clean. Hannah breathed it in joylessly. It felt wrong. After all that had happened, it should smell like destruction. It should smell like death.

  She saw no sign of the wandering shambler. Still, she pulled her knife and kept it ready as she made her way down the front steps, stepping over the empty cans they’d strung across the top of the steps to warn of shamblers, or anyone else, creeping up on the porch.

  Small limbs and twigs littered the front walk, with larger limbs lying in the yard. Next door, Chris and Paula’s porch lay crushed under the weight of an entire tree. Hannah had winced at the sight before remembering they wouldn’t need it anymore. Not unless she and Alek could pull off some kind of miracle.

  Other than the one they’d already pulled off, that is.

  On her way to the street, she kept an eye on the limbs overhead, several of which looked like they could crash down any second. Which was why she didn’t see the shambler lurking behind an ancient oak until it was too late. It grabbed her and sunk its teeth into her bare shoulder even as she raised her knife and plunged the tip into its brain. The creature fell, and Hannah swore. She crouched down to wipe her knife on the remains of its tattered clothing, recognizing it in the process as the same one she’d seen earlier.

  She stood up and examined the bite. It hurt like hell. No amount of superpowered blood in her veins prevented that. But she’d already survived one bite, albeit having come back irreversibly changed. If Alek’s theories held water, she’d survive this one, too.

  Scanning the street to make sure the shambler didn’t have friends, she moved out from under the trees and made her way toward the administration building that had served as Alek‘s headquarters. Inside, passing the trashed out clinic, she tried not to think about how happy she’d been working there, the hours she’d spent wit
h Zach and Alek trying to discover the very solution that now flowed through her veins. She tried not to think about Zach at all as she climbed the stairs to Alek’s apartment. There would be time to grieve later. She had more pressing matters to attend to.

  She climbed the six flights of stairs with ease. Apparently her stamina had also increased. At the top, she opened the door into the short hall that stretched between Alek’s front door and the elevators. Closing the door quietly behind her, she stole over to the double doors, pressing her ear against them to listen.

  “Are you sure this will hold him?” she’d asked Alek as he activated the electronic lock.

  “They’re made of reinforced steel. They’ll hold him.”

  “You were worried shamblers would make it all the way up here?”

  “Not really, but they weren’t made to keep things out.”

  Hannah understood. They‘d been made to keep him in. No matter how good a vampire might be, it made no difference if he went feral from starvation.

  He’d motioned for her to approach the keypad. “Zach was the only one besides me with the code.” He punched it in as she watched. “Got it?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. Now you’re the only one.” He paused a moment before adding, “I was planning to give it to you anyway, you know. Before everything happened.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “I was just waiting for the right time. I thought there would be plenty of time.”

  “Alek, really. It’s fine.”

  “I don’t want you to think... I trust you, Hannah.”

  “I know.” She didn’t say she still trusted him, and he didn’t press. She did, mostly. His love for her, absolutely. His morality and his good intentions. That he would watch her back and go to the same lengths she would to protect Noah.

  His judgment she was less certain about. She would have to wait and see.

  Alone in the hallway, she checked the lock. Still activated. An emergency generator powered Alek’s apartment and all its security measures. Again, Hannah pressed her ear to the door and listened. It sounded quiet inside.

  “Are you there? Are you awake? Can you hear me?”

  She thought heard movement.

  “It’s me, Hannah. Can you speak? Say something. Tell me your name.”

  She strained to listen. The doors were so thick that even with her enhanced hearing it was hard to tell what was going on inside. She heard what sounded like footsteps. Then something banged against the door, startling her. She jumped back, her hand flying to the handle of her gun, ready to draw. But she waited, listening.

  Another bang, as if someone were pounding on the door, or throwing themselves against it. And then, faint but distinct, a moan.

  Hannah’s heart sank like a lead weight as she drew her gun and prepared to unlock the door. “Oh, Chris,” she murmured, knowing he couldn’t hear her. “I’m so sorry it’s come to this.”

  TWO

  24 HOURS EARLIER

  Chris ran. Hannah tried to stop him, but he was too quick, too determined. Those things had locked onto his mom and the others as the vampires herded them toward the choppers. Unarmed, they were sitting ducks.

  He fired at the zombie swarm. “Get away from them! Here! Come this way!” His aim was haphazard, and he only struck a few in the head. The rest turned to follow him. “That’s right, this way! Come after me!” He slowed down. Not enough so they could catch him, but enough to keep them interested.

  Back by the choppers, his mother screamed his name, called for him to come back. He willed her to be quiet. Her shouts caused some shamblers to turn back. Two vampire guards opened fire on them. Chris joined in. Together, they took out a fair number, but there were still so many of them. “Over here!”

  They moved so slowly, it was easy to stay ahead of them. He would lose them and then rejoin Hannah and the doc. By the time he reached them, his mom and the others should be safely on the helicopter. Then they would come up with a plan to rescue everyone.

  The ground sloped up before him, slowing his run. As he crested the hill, he ran straight into another swarm. The others were closing in, surrounding him from behind. He fired his rifle, but only killed a few before the cartridge ran out. Turning the rifle around, he swung it like a bat. It connected with a shambler who was so decayed his bottom jaw had gone missing. That one went down, but three more took its place, with still more closing in behind.

  He thought he heard his mother screaming, but his own cries of pain drowned the sound as teeth tore into his arm and shoulder. He flung himself to the ground and tried to crawl away between their legs. More gunfire came from multiple directions. All around him, shamblers fell. Not all of them were destroyed. Some were only disabled, legs or spines too damaged to hold them up. He tried to crawl past them, but he wasn’t fast enough. Hands reached for him, nails shredded his arms, tore through his clothing and gouged his torso and legs as he kept crawling. Another set of teeth clamped onto his calf, and he screamed and kicked the shambler with his free leg.

  He didn’t look at the damage they’d done to him, but kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, concentrating on getting away, dragging himself one inch at a time. Blood poured out of him, and he was growing weak. He couldn’t go much farther.

  Finally, mercifully, the hands pulling at him fell away. The sounds of gunfire thinned out, and then also stopped. Chris had stopped too, without even realizing it. He lay there, listening to the sounds of shouting. His mother sobbed. “I’m sorry,” he said, or tried to, but the words wouldn’t come. And then all he heard was the sound of the helicopter engines, their blades cutting through the air. With his last ounce of strength, he pushed himself onto his back and watched as they took off, carrying his mother and his friends to safety. For now.

  Chris drew a ragged breath. It tasted like blood. He coughed, and then drew another breath, thinner and more ragged than the last. As the helicopters disappeared from sight, he closed his eyes and surrendered to the darkness.

  “SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW?” asked Hannah.

  “Now?” Alek looked down at her and Noah and smiled. “Now we go change the world.”

  She returned his smile, allowing him this moment to revel in their triumph, such as it was. With Esme still on the loose, their people captured and their refugee camp in shambles and crawling with the walking dead, it didn’t seem to Hannah like much of a victory. “Something tells me it won’t be that simple.”

  Alek sighed, deflating a little. “It never is.”

  “Why don’t we start with next steps, then?”

  He squeezed her and kissed the top of her head before releasing her. The furrow of his brow signaled his mind was turning. “We need sleep.” A loud gurgling noise came from his stomach. He placed his hand on it with a puzzled frown. “And I think I need food.” He seemed awestruck by the notion. So was Hannah. Simply standing beside him in broad daylight felt like a miracle. The last time she’d seen Alek in the sun, he’d been on fire.

  “I could eat.” Hannah shifted the baby in her arms. “And it’s been too long since Noah last ate.”

  Alek nodded. “Then we’ll head to the lab. I want to get blood samples and see exactly how we’ve both changed.”

  “See whether we’re human, you mean.”

  Alek looked at her so intently it was like he saw all the way inside her. “You’re still human, Hannah.” He cupped her face and tenderly stroked a thumb across her cheek. “In all the ways that matter. No matter what’s happened to our DNA.”

  She covered his hand with hers and pressed her face into his palm. They stood like that a moment until his stomach growled again.

  “And right now I’m human enough to be dying for some breakfast.”

  Hannah smiled and let go of his hand. “Then let’s go eat.”

  They headed toward the residential area of the base and the little bungalow Hannah called home. She didn’t know what they’d find when they got there. Between the vampire raid and the tornado tha
t ripped through the base, Hannah had no idea whether her house was even still standing. Not to mention the zombies that got in after the tornado took out a section of the military fence surrounding the camp. For all she knew, her neighborhood might be crawling with them.

  They crossed the grounds of the old fort where the camp had made its last stand against the vampires. Everywhere Hannah looked were dead bodies. Picking her way around them, Hannah hoped all of them belonged to shamblers. She also hoped they were as dead as they appeared.

  As if in answer, one of the ravaged corpses grabbed her ankle. To her credit, she didn’t scream. She stepped back and yanked her foot away, more quickly than she’d have thought possible. It came away easily. She looked down at the shambler that had grabbed her and froze. The heart that had tried its best to leap into her throat a moment ago sank as recognition set in.

  “Alek.”

  Several paces ahead of her, he turned back, and she nodded toward the body. “It’s Chris.”

  He hurried over and knelt beside the body.

  “Careful,” she told him, feeling helpless as she stood there holding the baby, doing her best to keep his gaze averted from all the carnage.

  “He’s breathing.” Alek pressed two fingers against his neck, over the spot where his artery would be. “He has a pulse. It’s faint, but it’s there.”

  Hannah swore. “Look at him.” She looked around, wondering where she’d dropped her gun, and when. “How much time does he have?”

  “Not long.”

  “Alek, we can’t let him become one of those things.”

  “We won’t.” He scooped Chris into his arms and got to his feet.

  “What are you doing?”

  “We need to get him to the clinic.”

  “Alek—”

  “Move!” He took off toward the clinic, heedless of what they might find once they got there. Loaded down with Chris, he wouldn’t be able to fight. Hannah wasn’t much better off with a baby in her arms.