One Foot in the Grave

That made the decision for me. “Do it.”

THIRTY-NINE

THE CEMETERY WAS COMPLETELY QUARANTINED off. Even the airspace above it was closed. My entire team was in place around the perimeter. Farther back, there were more guards. Don wasn’t taking any chances on interruption. He was even filming, and one of the dozen men in the immediate vicinity of the grave held a portable camera.

Rodney glanced at all the pomp and shook his head.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Look at all this shit.”

“All this shit” encompassed the hundred-plus military presence. Rodney was camera-shy. He didn’t trust the government as far as he could throw them, which, in his case, was actually pretty far, but suffice it to say he didn’t like the audience of brass.

Bones didn’t care about the onlookers. When it was finally time, he held up three fingers. From the dozen volunteers in our unit, that number stepped forward. We could have used plasma bags, but according to Bones, fresh blood had more kick to it. My three captains and I weren’t on the menu tonight, because he wanted us strong in case things went south. Like Dave’s head, for example. A sword was at my feet just in case. I’d insisted on being the one to wield it, if it came to that. Dave was my friend. If he wanted to die a second time, it would be from the hand of someone who loved him, although what comfort that might give was questionable.

A medical team stood by, discreetly out of direct eyesight. After Bones drained them to the point of dizziness, the three men staggered over to the med unit. They would get transfusions on the spot with the handiness of modern science.

The casket had been raised from the dirt. It hurt just to see it. All the clamps and seals were broken, and the spotlights illuminated Dave’s face when the lid was flipped back. We were under a tent even though it was well after dark. Don’s paranoia that someone would witness this attempt mandated the tent, on top of everything else. A little corpse reanimation made him downright jittery.

Rodney had a special curved knife for the next part. The five of us gathered closer as Dave was lifted from his casket and laid on the ground.

“Jesus,” Tate mumbled as he saw Dave fully under the lights.

I gripped his hand and found that it was shaking. So was mine. Even Juan trembled next to me, and I clasped his hand as well. My grip increased when they cut the clothes off him from the waist up.

I smothered a gasp when that wickedly curved blade drove into Dave’s breastplate as easily as a knife through cake. Rodney carved out a sizable piece of his rib cage, exposing the heart and surrounding organs. Bones casually placed that piece aside on a waiting tray that now resembled nothing short of a platter.

Who ordered the ribs? the macabre thought raced through my mind.

Rodney doffed his shirt and folded it neatly before placing it well outside the circle. He already had a spare pair of pants there. Then he squatted beside Bones, who was dressed only in a pair of dark shorts. His skin gleamed under the fluorescent lights, but my usual admiration was absent. Must have been the sight of him plunging that same dagger under Rodney’s rib cage, wiggling it around, and then drawing out the ghoul’s heart.

Two of the waiting blood donors vomited. The rest looked like they wanted to join in. I couldn’t blame them, but thankfully, my throat stayed clear. Rodney was amazingly quiet throughout, only grunting a few times and making a comment about paybacks. Bones snorted with grim amusement at that. Rodney’s heart was then placed on another waiting tray before they turned their attention back to Dave.

This part was much simpler with his breastplate off. Swish, swish, swish, and out came Dave’s heart. Rodney unceremoniously shoved it inside his chest cavity while Bones arranged Rodney’s former ticker in Dave. Finally satisfied with the placement, he leaned over Dave’s torso and dragged the knife deeply across his own throat.

The soft outcry came from me, not him, at the sight of his neck hacked open. Bones had warned me that this would be graphic, but hearing and seeing were two different things. With his power, he forced the blood from his body. It came in crimson streams. He had to cut his neck three more times after it healed, and there were more sounds of indigestion from the troops. When that red flow finally slowed, Bones set the knife down and waved at the remaining donors.

“Move it,” I hissed when there was hesitation.

One by one the seven men knelt down, Bones drinking from their necks before they stumbled away. When the last one headed for the medic unit, Bones reopened his artery and the faucet was turned back on.

Something began to happen. I could feel it before seeing anything. The air became charged with energy. My skin crawled as it slipped over me. Blood continued to gush into Dave’s chest, overflowing the cavity, and then my own heart stopped for a second when I saw his finger twitch.

“Holy fucking Christ,” Tate breathed.

Dave’s hand lazily curled, flexing. Next came his feet, toes flinching sporadically even as the torrent of blood from Bones ebbed again.

“He needs more. Get another six men,” Rodney barked, since with his throat open, Bones could hardly speak.

I shouted out the order, unable to tear my eyes away. There was scrambling as more donors were rounded up. Rodney helpfully held them in front of Bones long enough for the refills to take place, and then each man was dragged away to the medics. Distantly I hoped they’d brought enough plasma, because this was taking much more blood than we had anticipated.

When Dave’s head tilted to the side and his eyes opened, I fell to my knees. Rodney placed his severed rib cage back over Dave’s chest like fitting a piece into a puzzle. Bones rubbed the area with the blood pooling around him, and I had to try twice before I could speak.

“Dave?”

His mouth opened and closed before a scratchy reply sent tears coursing down my cheeks.

“Cat? Did…the vampire…get away?”

God, he thought he was still in the cave in Ohio! That made sense, since it was his last memory. Bones and Rodney moved away. Juan wept, mumbling in Spanish. Tate knelt, shell-shocked, before he touched Dave’s hand and broke into tears at the answering squeeze.

“I don’t believe it. I do not fucking believe it!”

Dave frowned at the three of us.

“What happened? You guys look awful…Am I in the hospital?”

I opened my mouth to respond when he reared back suddenly and sat up.

“There’s a vampire! What…”

He finally noticed the blood. Bones was also covered in it where he sat a few feet away. I held Dave by the shoulders and spoke urgently to him.

“Don’t move yet. Your chest hasn’t knitted together completely.”

“What-?” He looked down at himself, and then around the tented area before his eyes settled on the coffin and the headstone bearing his name.

“Dave, listen to me.” My voice was thick. “Don’t worry about the vampire; he won’t hurt you. Neither will the ghoul next to him. You…you weren’t hurt in that cave in Ohio. You were killed. This is your grave, and that’s the coffin you’ve been inside for the past three months. You died that day, but…we brought you back.”

He stared at me as though I’d gone crazy, then a heartbreaking smile tugged his lips.

“You’re trying to scare me for breaking formation. I knew you’d be mad, but I never thought you’d go this far-”

“She’s not trying to scare you,” Tate croaked through his tears. “You died. We saw you die.”

Dave glanced in alarm at Juan, who gulped and hugged him hard, crawling behind him.

“Mi amigo, you were dead.”

“But what…how…”

I went to Bones and Rodney, laying a hand on each of them.