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It was a good thing Alex wasn’t squeamish about blood. That was the first thing she saw on the video sent to her email – the giant pool of blood. The camera panned across a smeared trail to the bound body. Person. With that much blood, it was hard to believe that she was still alive, but her eyes were open and focused on the camera. Alex was grimly proud of the fire that was still there as she recited the statement.
“Alex. This is for you. I’m being held by a vampire named Barbara.”
Alex hit pause. This couldn’t be happening. She knew Barbara. Vaguely, only through stories and the occasional letter or email, but she didn’t need to hear the rest of what Patience was going to say to know what was happening.
She still had to listen to it, of course. There might be clues. She didn’t want to watch it alone, though. She wasn’t a hunter. She might miss something. She’d have preferred to call Jody, her mentor had more experience hunting and less experience being the captive because of Alex, but Jody was in Minnesota helping Donna with something. Claire was in town, though, so Alex called her.
“Wow. Shouldn’t she have seen that coming?” Claire plopped down, ignoring Alex’s unamused glare. “Rewind it, let me see the blood pool.”
Alex did. Claire smirked. “Fake. Some of it may be her real blood, but a lot of that is stage blood. This Barbara bitch wanted you scared, but didn’t want to hurt Patience too bad.”
“That’s not the Barbara I sort of know.” Alex shuddered. “She probably just didn’t want to waste all that perfectly good food, or risk losing control and drinking her to death before she could record this.”
“Ha! Yeah, you’re probably right.” Claire shifted. “Okay. Show me the rest of this.”
“Alex. This is for you. I’m being held by a vampire named Barbara. She says you know why she has me and what you need to do, all you need to know is where.”
Claire paused it again. “Care to fill me in? Is Barbara another Henry?”
“No. Barbara was Celia’s sister. Actual, blood family… actually, with vampires, that’s probably not the right word. Biological sister, not like the nest Celia ran, but she’s a vampire too. Barbara and Celia fought like two bettas in the same tank if they were together, but when they went their own ways to create their own nests instead of trying to share one, they became close. Barbara would’ve known all about me, and the only thing I don’t understand here is why it took her this long to track me down.”
“What do you need to do?”
Alex sighed. “I have to surrender myself to her. I don’t know if she plans to turn me, kill me, turn me and then kill me so I go to Purgatory like the monster I am and Celia can get her revenge there, or use me as bait like Celia did, but that doesn’t matter. Getting Patience back means giving myself up. She’ll want me to come alone, too.”
“That’s not happening.”
“Claire…”
“I know. That’s your girlfriend out there, you need to know she’s alive or you won’t have the courage to face what you have to do, I know. I’d do the same if it were Kaia. Thing is, you’re not going alone. There’s a way to mask my scent, I can hide in the back seat, don’t worry about it.”
Alex shook her head. “No, Claire. I can’t take that chance. Not with Patience.”
“Fine. Whatever. Let’s watch.”
Patience’s next words were a surprise. “Bring Jody Mills and meet me at the abandoned farmhouse out east of town.”
Claire smirked. “There we go. You’re not going alone.”
“I can’t bring Jody! Even leaving aside the fact that I can’t do that to her, even if it’s just that Barbara wants to make her watch me die or turn, there’s still the small fact that she’s in freakin’ Minnesota!”
“What are you talking about? I’m right here!” Claire grinned. “I can borrow some of Jody’s clothes, use some makeup to make me look older. Worst case scenario, Barbara knows what Jody looks like, you still have backup there so you can grab Patience and get out.”
“Without you?”
“If you have to! I’ve got the best chance of the three of us to get out of there alive if it becomes a fight and you know it.”
Alex sighed. Unfortunately, Claire was right. They didn’t have time to wait for Jody to get back, and Barbara would get impatient and kill Patience if Alex didn’t go. This was their best option. Unless the Winchesters were around… no, it was probably best to avoid calling in the Winchesters and their drama. She played the rest of the video. There wasn’t much.
“See you soon. I love you, Alex.” Patience’s voice was replaced with a video of kittens dressed as Vikings jamming out to “Immigrant Song.” Alex rolled her eyes and shut down the video.
Barbara bought Claire as Jody Mills. “Perfect. Alex, come here. Jody, you get to watch as I finish what Celia started all those years ago. She turned Alex, but didn’t make her go through the last step. Fortunately, I’ve got a nice fresh human all trussed up and ready to go here, don’t I, Patience?”
Patience’s eyes were huge and fearful. Alex’s stomach plummeted. Getting turned, yes, drinking human blood so she couldn’t be cured this time, yes. Being forced to drink Patience, though… that had never been on the radar. “I thought you’d set her free! Let Jody take her home!”
“Why on Earth would you think that?” Barbara’s smile had way too many teeth in it. “Jody, you so much as blink wrong, I kill them both and then you. Alex, come here.”
Alex started toward Barbara, tears in her eyes. When she got close, she leapt, tackling Barbara. “You wanna bite me, turn me? You gotta work for it, you sick sadistic jackass!”
While she held off Barbara – it wasn’t easy, but Alex had learned a lot of tricks in her time with Celia’s nest – Claire went for Patience. Once Patience was free and running for the car, Claire drew the gun and shot at Alex and Barbara.
The first shot hit Alex, which stung, but other than that didn’t hurt her. The second shot hit Barbara, and she dropped. Claire grinned as Patience came back with the machete and blew imaginary smoke from the gun. “Tranq gun. Dead man’s blood. I even made sure to check the dead guy’s blood type in case I hit you.”
Patience held out the machete. “Who wants to do the honors?”
“Me.” Alex took the machete and hacked Barbara’s head off. She wiped the machete off on Barbara’s pants. “Let’s get out of here.”
Claire held up the keys. “You two can sit together in the back, but your clothes stay on until we get back and I can get away from you. Got it?”
“Yeah, whatever, mom,” Alex said. “God, you sounded just like Jody.”
They settled into the car, where Claire announced one more thing. “Driver picks the music. You wanna complain about it, I’m pulling over and making Patience ride up front with me.” She hooked up her phone, and Alex groaned as Robert Plant started screaming.
Claire turned around, eyebrows raised. “Is that a complaint? We’re not even moving yet…”
“Nope. Not at all,” Alex said. She crossed her arms at Claire’s skepticism. “I was just thinking that we’ve all seen Ragnarok, so… that fight would’ve been a million times more epic if you’d played this while we were fighting!”