his mother; Brendan had made a quick, clean disposal of Mrs. Brandt. They both looked at him without words.
We all know that you never hesitate, their silent glances seemed to say.
And, yes, he knew. But he also knew that in Victory, Texas, they had let some of the changed retain their strange new existences. But they knew those they had allowed this for. It might have been possible that someone as young as this girl would awaken and search for a way to appease her hunger without attacking humans, but that would have been an amazing rarity.
He nodded, and though he felt tremendous pain again, he pulled down on the worn shirt of the older male servant and made quick work with his stake and mallet. A slight shudder seemed to escape the man.
There was no blood.
Cole pulled the man’s shirt back into position.
They had completed their task.
The three of them rose, carefully seeing that the dead were covered again in their poor shrouds, and left them in peace. They headed for the helpful officer’s tent. Orderlies, nurses, doctors and civilians who had come to see what comfort and aid they could possibly give patients were hurrying about in different directions bearing water, medical bags, alcohol, bandages and surgical instruments. As they walked, despite the stream of humanity, Cole heard someone crying out pathetically for help. He found himself pausing despite himself and the mission that still lay before them.
“Go on,” Cody said. “We’ll get Megan.”
He followed the sound of the cries. They were coming from a tent that must have held at least thirty cots. There were four nurses or attendants, but they were all moving as quickly as possible. Men lay about in bloody bandages. Some had stumps for legs. Some were covered with sheets that quickly soaked blood from wounds that refused to completely mend.
He heard the cry again and passed by a wounded soldier who did nothing but stare blankly ahead. And then he found the victim crying so pitiably.
He looked about for a makeshift camp table and found a pitcher of water and a glass, poured some from the first to the latter and came down on one knee by the soldier’s cot. He noted the man was still in uniform, a strange one at that.
“Where are you wounded, sir?” Cole asked, moving to lift the man’s head.
The fellow’s eyes took on a strange light. He smiled suddenly.
And opened his mouth.
Cole had never moved so quickly in his life, reaching into his coat, finding a stake. He couldn’t bother with the mallet but had to depend upon his own strength and positioning between the ribs.
He laid himself hard against the man, trying to hide his deed with the mass of his shoulders and back.
The man’s jaw locked in an open position. The eyes glazed slowly. The fangs retracted even more so.
Almost shaking, Cole withdrew slowly, secreting the stake back into the inner pockets of his coat. He realized he was still gripping the water in his free hand.
“Sir! What is happening there?” An orderly or doctor, standing behind him now, demanded.
He drew back, shaking his head. “I’m afraid I came too late, Doctor. This man is gone.”
Cole stood, rising to his full height, meeting the doctor’s gaze. For a moment, he was afraid the man might to challenge him.
But the doctor just shook his head. “Cover the poor boy then. God knows, we can’t save them all, try as we will.”
The doctor was too busy to tarry long. Cole hurried from the tent, scouring the faces and bodies of the others in the tent ward as he did so.
The “plague” here was bad.
Very bad.
No one else was crying out in the same way, though, and Cole moved on.
He should have known. He should have known from the sound of the cry that it had been a moan of an unnatural hunger.
He’d heard the cry often enough before.
And he had fallen for the plea of the hungry, thirsty, desperate new vampire despite all that he knew.
They needed to be doubly wary now.
He found Cody, Brendan and Megan still with the officer who had been charged to deal with the current, imminent danger.
He found himself looking at Megan, who was politely thanking the officer and apologizing for the time she had taken. The man was smitten, of course. The officer was young, and the war had probably taken him far from those he loved. Having a pretty young woman like Megan needing his attention was probably something he would remember and dream about in the long days and nights to come.
Poor boy. He didn’t know.
Megan turned to look at Cole as he arrived among them. He felt a slight trembling in his length, a heat, a tension in his body.
She was a stunning woman with her perfect face and mesmerizing golden eyes. And she, perhaps more so than even Lisette Annalise, was quite an amazing actress.
That, he told himself, was something he was going to have to remember at all times. Especially now that she seemed to be doing such a superb job of joining in with them.
Especially now that it seemed Cody had accepted her, and even Brendan seemed to be falling for the beauty and sweetness of her spirit and…
Facade.
CHAPTER FOUR
MEGAN STOOD IN the middle of the cemetery, feeling the faint stirring of the breeze and looking around, wondering where to begin. The cemetery was relatively new. And yet, it was new at a time when the death toll was staggering. Across the country—or both countries—women waited at railroad stations for the post to come in, to read the lists of newly fallen, and pray that their beloved husbands, sons and brothers were not on those lists.
Many injured returned home. And died.
Disease was rampant.
Prospect Hill had been created when the law had stated that new burials must take place beyond city boundaries for such reasons. Technically, it was owned by the Men’s Evangelical Society of Concordia Church; it had been consecrated in 1858, and it officially opened the following year. It wasn’t a soldier’s cemetery, but since Washington had been the staging ground for the First Battle of Bull Run, as the Union called it, the First Manassas, as the Confederates called it, many local sons had died very early on.
Now graves were dug in expectation, but those who had been destined to reside within them might never do so. Exigencies meant that far too many men had to be buried where they fell. Some remains would be retrieved at later dates; some would remain where they had fallen forever.
She was alone with Cole on the mission; the day was not long enough for their small party to cover the many places that came to mind after they had attended to the victims who had been murdered during the night.
