The Disciple and Other Stories of the Paranormal by Jemma Chase Page B

David’s body
went into the ground, there was no mistaking the loss.
    We finally knew, in our souls, we would die
here. Now the only questions were when and would we have completed
our mission before the last of us fell?
     

     
    We found no vampires for another several
months. We found other mobs, though. News of us had spread, and it
wasn’t good news.
    The bubonic plague was devastating the
population, the Hundred Years War was raging throughout the land,
and yet we were targeted as more evil than either of these two
horrific calamities. Liam said it was because we were tangible and
could be hurt and so gave the people something to react
against.
    Perhaps.
    “ Maybe Jonathan was right
– they’re distrustful because we’re women,” Hannah suggested, after
yet another group had run us off before we’d found if there was a
’Pire in their midst or not. “We dress and act like you men do.
Much as I hate to suggest it, maybe that’s tipping the mobs
off.”
    “ Possible,” Liam said.
“But doubtful. While this era didn’t consider women to have any
authority, during these dark times even women could offer last
rites to the dying. They should be greeting us with at least a
semblance of joy, seeing as we’re all clergy and wearing holy
symbols.”
    “ You’re sure them calling
us whores and abominations has nothing to do with our sex?” I could
admit it probably wasn’t the only reason, but the insults tossed
towards Adrienne, Hannah, and me were a little more venomous than
those shouted at the men.
    “ I’m with Liam,” Marcus
said. “It’s too focused to have all these mobs after us simply
because we have female warriors in our group.”
    “ Here.” Adrienne handed
something to me and Hannah.
    “ What are they?” Hannah
asked.
    “ Leather skullcaps.”
Adrienne looked embarrassed. “I was going to buy them, but the mob
ran us off before I could.”
    I examined mine. “There’s a hole in the back
for our hair.”
    “ I think it makes it more
comfortable,” Adrienne said.
    “ Thank you. This should
help us hide a little, and they’ll be good for battle, too.” We had
no armor for our heads, and in a fight, even the smallest advantage
could turn the tables. The idea of hiding, at least in a small way,
didn’t seem as outrageous and insulting as it had only a short
while ago, either.
    Hannah hugged Adrienne. “I’m glad you found
these. From a clean shop, too.”
    “ I’m glad we didn’t have
to buy much gear in this time,” Liam said. “Most of what I’ve seen
is even worse than I’d expected.”
    “ I’d glad we were
inoculated against the diseases,” Jonathan said. “The skullcaps are
wonderful, and the rest of us should find our own as soon as
possible. I’d also like to find somewhere we can rest and regroup,
if only for a short while.”
    None of us argued with Jonathan’s desire.
But shelter from the world was hard to find, and not what we’d
traveled back in time for anyway.
    We were forced farther north, towards the
Alps, to escape our newfound reputations as much as to avoid the
fighting and the oppressive death. There were times, when we went
through a town with more dead in the streets than were still
living, that I wondered if the vampires weren’t a better option
than the Black Death.
    But bubonic plague didn’t play with its
victims, didn’t get joy from their pain. The plague we were here to
fight was much worse than the Black Death. Though it wasn’t
spreading as fast we knew it would last far longer.
    The vampire plague would outlast the Hundred
Years War easily, and it would rage longer and further than the
Black Death, too. The vampire plague would prove the adage right –
slow and steady would win this race.
    Unless we stopped it.
     

     
    “ Maybe the ’Pires don’t
like the cold,” Marcus said. “We should go back south.”
    “ Their influence is here,”
Jonathan said. “At least, if the standard reactions to our presence
are any