Forsaken by the Others

Forsaken by the Others by Jess Haines Page A

Book: Forsaken by the Others by Jess Haines Read Free Book Online
Authors: Jess Haines
Tags: Fiction, General, Fantasy
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note-covered maps. If not for all the assurances in the folder
     that no one but vampires had died, I would have said to hell with the case then and
     there.
    Instead, we soldiered on, spending about an hour going over maps of Los Angeles that
     had notations about where the bodies of dead vampires had been discovered. We needed
     to get to know the lay of the land and the places we would have to explore. Though
     all the attacks had occurred within LA County, no two had happened in the same place.
    When she saw what we were doing, Florencia gave us some help figuring out where we
     were and the limits of Clyde’s dominion. His territory, though it included major cities
     like Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood, was quite a lot smaller
     than I was expecting. Considering Royce controlled multiple states, it was a bit anticlimactic
     to find out Clyde had such a small amount of land to call his own. When we asked about
     the areas that fell outside of his purview but were still in Los Angeles County, Florencia
     didn’t have any answers.
    The one common thread we could see was that many of the attacks took place close to
     properties Clyde owned on the fringes of his territory. Whoever or whatever was controlling
     the zombies appeared to be situated somewhere just beyond the borders. We couldn’t
     be sure since we didn’t know this area like we did New York, but hiding that many
     decomposing bodies meant they had to have a damned good place to store them in this
     heat to keep any neighbors from finding them. My guess was a morgue, a climate-controlled
     warehouse, or perhaps they were kept somewhere outside of the city—maybe in the Angeles
     Crest Forest?—until they were needed and then transported wherever the next attack
     was supposed to take place.
    There were problems with each of those theories, but until we had a chance to examine
     some of the locations of the attacks in person, I had the feeling that we wouldn’t
     be able to narrow this search down any more than we already had. More than anything,
     I wanted to know what the survivors’ notes didn’t say. Who were Clyde’s enemies? Who
     in the supernatural community around here had the kind of power it must take to command
     a small army of the walking dead?
    Arnold might be able to help with that end of things, though I wasn’t sure how much
     he’d know about Others in California.
    Sara and I decided to put off further speculation until after we’d spoken to Clyde.
     We spent the rest of our day mostly bored and occasionally shuddering when the memories
     of those pictures resurfaced during our discussions about where to start our search.
    The most likely place appeared to be near Burbank and Glendale, where three attacks
     had occurred close together.
    Shortly after sundown, I had a nosebleed tinged with the black stuff again. It was
     far less intense than it had been back in New York, and most of it was in my nose
     and throat instead of everywhere else, but it was still awfully unpleasant. Sara helped
     me to the bathroom and sat with me while I spat out ropy strings of blackish liquid,
     washed it from the corners of my eyes, and blew it out my nose. It was disgusting,
     yes, but nowhere near as painful as it had been the other times. There wasn’t as much
     of the crud as there had been that first night, or even in the shower with Royce the
     night before last.
    Sara said nothing as she held my hair off the back of my neck while I washed the crud
     out of my mouth, though I know she must have had questions. She knew I’d tell her
     when I was ready.
    Unfortunately, it was going to be awhile before I could bring myself to explain. She
     might have been my best friend, but the memories of those hours of helplessness, of
     pain and blood and knowing I was no longer quite human, were too close.
    Before I could help her come to terms with it, I needed to do something about that
     myself.
    Not long after I finished cleaning

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