When Dallas lifted his head a moment later and looked back at Stark, his eyes were glowing with a bizarre yellow light.
“Have the soldiers climb over the fence here.” Dallas kept both of his hands on the post, jerking his chin to the left of him. “Tell them to hurry. She’s got a lot of volts going through here. I can only hold them for a few minutes.”
“You heard the lieutenant, get the men moving!” Stark shouted.
Stark stood back and watched the red vamps crawling over the fence. They look like fucking ravenous roaches. Stark didn’t let himself shiver, even though it felt as if bugs were crawling over his own skin. The Red Army is necessary, he reminded himself sternly. Plus, it wasn’t like they could be offended. They didn’t give a damn about how disgusting they were; all they gave a damn about was their insatiable hunger.
“Your turn, General.” Dallas’ words pulled Stark out of his thoughts, and he quickly made his way over the fence. “Okay, let’s spread out and form a loose line, then we’ll move that line up the ridge.”
They’d been walking for about fifteen minutes, pushing their way through winter-brown undergrowth and forest debris before they found a rough dirt path barely wide enough for an ATV, though it was obvious it had been used recently.
“This doesn’t look good,” Stark said. “Lieutenant, did you see any ATVs on the old woman’s property?”
“Yes, sir. Saw a couple of those fancy things that look like souped-up golf carts. She drove one down to the gate to talk to me.”
“Polaris,” Stark said, studying the tracks.
“Pardon, sir?”
Stark looked up at Dallas. “That’s the name of the vehicles. And these tracks look like they were made by one. Might not be as bad as I thought. The old woman could actually just be checking for poachers. But let’s follow this trail up a ways and be sure.”
“Yes, sir!”
After about thirty more minutes of walking and there was a shout from Stark’s right. “Incoming!”
Stark pulled his ever-present bow from the sling across his back and nocked an arrow. Six deer, thoroughly spooked and wide-eyed, bounded past them, causing the red soldiers to mill uncertainly as they stared after the moving venison, obviously considering whether they should chase down this prey or wait for more delicious and slower moving two-legged dinner.
Stark frowned in disgust. “Dallas! Get those soldiers under control. No one kills a deer without Neferet’s permission. Be sure those eating machines understand that.”
“Yes, sir!” Dallas sprinted back down the path.
Stark could hear him yelling at the Red Army lieutenants, and he was, for the second time that night, annoyed as hell that General Dominick and his squad of soldiers had seemed to suddenly disappear a few days ago. Dominick was widely acknowledged as the most ruthless and intelligent of the red generals, which meant his soldiers were always the most disciplined.
“Fucking undependable Red Army,” Stark muttered. He made a mental note to try to get Neferet to consider phasing as many of them out as possible in the day-to-day running of the war, and only use them during major altercations with human armies or the Resistance. “They’re a bigger liability than they’re worth.” Not to mention that he thought it was disgusting that the bite of any fledging or vampyre Marked red was poisonous to humans—always killing them, and always causing them to rise within three days as grotesque, zombielike things whose bite was also contagious. “And they fucking smell awful.”
“Sir, the soldiers are under control,” Dallas said, panting, as he rushed up to Stark.
Stark grunted. “Then let’s get moving again. Crawling around this ridge is not the way I wanted to spend my evening.”
The line of soldiers kept moving forward, snaking their way around as they followed what could barely be called dirt roads. Soon the trail took a sharp turn to the right, and then headed almost straight up. Stark sighed and bent to the task, not liking that the air felt colder and damper. He tried to remember if ice or snow had been forecast. He checked his phone and cursed softly under his breath.
Of course there’s no damn service out here in the middle of nowhere.
Suddenly, overhead, a single raven began circling and shrieking, as if it was pissed that they were on his ridge.
“Let’s pick up the pace,” Stark told Dallas. “Go back down the line and tell them to keep up with me.”
General Stark didn’t wait for an answer. Pumping his arms, he began to jog up the red dirt trail, wishing he was just about anywhere but there.
* * *
Other Kevin
Dragon Lankford grabbed Kevin’s arm and pulled him roughly to his feet, dragging him to the lip of the small cave. His longsword was drawn and he stood in front of Kevin, holding the pointed razor tip of the weapon against his throat.
“How many of them are there?” Dragon demanded.
Grandma Redbird tried to rush to his side, but Anastasia snagged her wrist, not allowing her to go to him.
“No, my friend. This has gone beyond your good will. Dragon must deal with your grandson now.”
“How many?” Dragon repeated, and the sword drew a tiny bead of blood from Kevin’s neck.
“Kill me. Cut off my head. Do any damn thing you want, but it won’t change my answer because I am telling you the truth. I don’t know what’s going on out there. I don’t know how they found your ridge, but it has nothing to do with me.”
“So, it’s just a coincidence that a lieutenant in the Red Army shows up here, and the same night so do soldiers of the Red Army?” Dragon’s voice was filled with barely controlled rage. “Do you know how many innocents are with us? Dozens! They’re scattered all around us in deer blinds. Humans and blue fledglings—just children. All looking for safety and freedom, and tonight they will lose their lives. Because of you!”
“No!” Grandma Redbird shouted. “Kevin has been with me. He’s telling you the truth! I swear it to you on my own life.”
Dragon spoke only to Kevin. “She’ll die tonight too. Horribly. And if they leave enough of her, she’ll rise in three days a ravenous, brainless eating machine. Your soul must be completely filled with Darkness to do such a thing as this.”
Kevin turned his head away, unable to look at his grandma. “I’m so sorry, G-ma. I should never have let you bring me here. I knew it was too dangerous. I should’ve spied on Neferet like you told me to and let you report to the Resistance for me. I’m so, so sorry.”
“They’re coming up the west trail!” A blue vampyre Kevin didn’t recognize scrambled up the last few feet of the ridge to them.