She rubbed her eyes. "I have to go. I promised Yu Jie that I would save her people. They can't survive much longer at that level of malnutrition. Darafer is slowly killing them."
"I appreciate your wanting to help them. But we have a total of eight Vamps here. We could teleport all the villagers here in just a few trips."
Leah shook her head. "They're awake at night and might resist. It'll be much easier to treat them during the day when they're unconscious. Besides, Master Han's soldiers would be there at night to stop you. This way is really the best."
With a sigh, Dougal ran a hand through his hair. He knew the daytime plan was the best way, but he hated the thought of not being there to protect Leah.
She leaned forward to touch his shoulder. "Howard, Phil, and Rajiv will be with me. That's a grizzly bear, a wolf, and a tiger. Who's going to mess with them?"
Dougal groaned. There was no stopping this. Angus had given the go-ahead, and already he and J.L. had teleported close to the village to find a good spot for hiding the supplies. "All right. I'll go along with it."
"You're the one who will be in more danger," Leah continued. "I'll be safe in Tiger Town by the time the sun sets. You'll be facing Master Han's soldiers when they show up at the village."
"I'll be fine." Dougal took her hand in his. "We'll take you and the shifters there shortly before dawn. Ye'll only have to wait about thirty minutes before going into the village."
"Won't the sun be up here? How will you get back?"
"We willna come back here. There's a camp nearby. J.L. has stayed there several times. 'Tis less than a mile from the village." He would be close to Leah, but unable to help her during the day.
She squeezed his hand. "You still look worried."
"Am I still at ninety-five percent?"
She smiled. "You're up to ninety-nine."
"Och, that's excellent." He pulled her into his arms. "How can I gain that last point?"
She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'll think of something."
"Like making love?"
She snorted. "You wish."
"I do wish." He kissed her forehead, then her nose. With his lips a fraction away from hers, a knock sounded at the door.
J.L. called out, "Dougal? Are you in there? We're moving out."
He groaned.
Leah kissed his cheek. "Time to go save the world."
For the next few hours, Dougal teleported supplies with J.L. There were medical supplies, including ten IV poles, that Leah had packed, and an ice chest and several boxes of food that Rajiv had packed. Angus had found a shallow cave on the rocky ridge overlooking the village, and he remained there, standing guard, as they stashed away the supplies.
With that job completed, J.L. teleported Dougal to the nearby cave where the Vamps would do their death-sleep. It was a good defensive location, Dougal noted, for it was on a small island in the middle of a lake. They spent another hour teleporting supplies to the cave.
Then they returned to Angus and ventured close to the village to see what was happening there. Torches were set up around the field, and soldiers marched about while the villagers cut off stems of demon herb and dropped them into burlap sacks.
"I count ten guards," Dougal whispered, "and twenty-nine villagers."
"That's a few less than last time," J.L. said, half hidden behind a bush.
"There might be some in the village, too sick to work, or they may have died. Leah said they're all slowly dying."
J.L. sighed. "We should have done this months ago. The last time we were here, there were chickens and a cow. Now, there's nothing. And their homes are falling apart."
They hurried back to Angus, who had covered the entrance to the shallow cave with leafy branches.
He glanced at his watch. "Time for you to bring the others. I'll call in five minutes."
Dougal and J.L. teleported back to the school. Leah was ready, dressed warmly in a sweater and coat, and she had Yu Jie scrubbed clean and dressed in borrowed clothing. Kyo and his friends and all the shifters were ready and well armed. Abby and Laszlo would be left behind with Gregori and Gu Mina as their guards.
Angus called, and Dougal put his voice on the speaker phone so the Japanese Vamps could use it as a beacon. They grabbed the shifters and Yu Jie and teleported.
"Ready?" Dougal took Leah in his arms.
"Yes." She slipped her hands around his neck.
He kissed her, then teleported her to the ridge where the others had already materialized.
Angus showed the shifters where the supplies were hidden. "Good luck. We'll see you tomorrow night in Tiger Town."
Dougal touched Leah's cheek. "Be careful."
She nodded. "You, too."
He teleported with the other Vamps to the island. The minute they stepped inside the cave, he spotted a figure moving about in the dark. He seemed to be holding a burlap sack and filling it with their supplies.
"Who goes there?" Angus clicked on a flashlight.
The figure glanced toward them.
"Russell," J.L. whispered.
He backed up, his hand going to the sword on his hip.
Angus lifted his hands to show they were bare. "Russell, we're no' here to capture you."
So this was the Marine major who had gone AWOL over a year ago. Dougal noted he was a large man, dressed like a peasant, although he had a sword and rifle half hidden beneath his shabby coat. His hair had grown long enough that he now tied it back in a ponytail. He clutched the burlap sack with one hand, while his other hand rested on the hilt of his sword.
"I'm not going back until I've killed Master Han," he said in a voice that sounded stilted and rusty, as if he hadn't talked to another person in months.
"Ye doona have to come back with us." Angus inched forward. "But we could use yer help tomorrow night."
"We're rescuing the people in the zombie village," J.L. explained. "Tomorrow night, we take on the guards. There could be ten of them, so we're a little outnumbered."
Russell frowned. "You're doing your death-sleep here?"
"Aye," Angus replied. "Ye can stay here with us, if ye like. We'd like to hear what ye've been up to."
Russell looked them over, his gaze lingering on their weapons. "I might return. Or not." He vanished.
Chapter Twenty-six
As the following day progressed, Leah felt an odd mixture of satisfaction and disgust. Satisfaction that the plan was working so well, but disgust at how the villagers had been forced to live. In their drugged state, they had done nothing but sleep all day and work in the field all night, so the village itself had become a filthy pigsty.
Vegetables and fruit lay in rotten heaps. The lack of sanitation had rendered the place uninhabitable and dangerous. Poor Yu Jie had burst into tears when she'd seen the shambles that had once been her home, and her family lying on the dirty floor, unconscious. Leah had hugged her and reminded her that her family's slavery was coming to an end that day.
Instilled with new hope, Yu Jie proved to be an excellent assistant. As soon as the shifters brought down the medical supplies from the top of the ridge, she helped Leah go from one hut to another until everyone in the village was hooked up with an IV and had been injected with Abby's mental power boosting drug.
Leah estimated it would take about five hours for the healthiest of the villagers to wake up from their zombielike state. There were two elderly women she found who were in serious decline and would have to be carried to the fishing boats. She hoped the two women could be driven to a hospital once they arrived in Tiger Town.
Meanwhile, the shifters brought down the food supplies and two big stockpots. They set up an outdoor kitchen with the pots set on grates over a fire. According to Rajiv, the menu would be chicken noodle soup and rice. Once they had the food cooking, Rajiv was left to watch over it, while Howard and Phil attacked the field of demon herb. They whacked down the plants with machetes and piled them in the center.
By noon, half the village, the youngest and healthiest half, was awake and eating. Leah unhooked their IVs while Yu Jie explained what had happened. By one in the afternoon, the elderly and weaker half had wakened, and some of the healthier villagers helped wash and feed the two women who were in serious trouble.
With their minds alert and their stomachs full, the villagers gathered in the central meeting area close to the cooking fire. The women, disgusted at the filth, were drawing water from the well and insisting everyone wash up. The elderly men started arguing.
"How dare you interfere with our village!" One of the elderly men pointed a gnarly finger at Leah.
Before Leah could respond, Yu Jie yelled back, "How dare you agree to turn us all into slaves!"
Most villagers shouted their approval, shaking their fists at the elderly man. He yelled back, joined by another old man. Leah figured they were the village elders.
"Calm down!" she shouted in Chinese, but no one listened.
Rajiv let out a piercing whistle that silenced everyone. He motioned to Leah. "You should listen to the doctor who saved your lives."
"She has destroyed our village." The first elder motioned to the field where Howard and Phil were cutting down plants. "When Darafer finds out you've destroyed his field, he will kill us all!"
Several women screamed and grabbed their children.
Howard and Phil came running.
"Listen to me!" Leah shouted. "Darafer enslaved you with a drug that was slowly killing you. Two of your women are close to death. In another year's time, you would have all died."
Murmurs went through the small crowd. Most nodded in agreement.
"Twenty months have gone by," Leah continued. "That's almost two years stolen from your lives."
The women started crying and hugging their children.
"Darafer will come back to kill us!" the second elder shouted.
"That's why we're leaving." Rajiv pointed to a group of five men who were approaching the village. "Those are fishermen from my village who will take you all to safety."
"You can't force us to leave our home!" the first elder yelled.
"Look at your home," Leah replied. "Living in this filth without proper nutrition is killing you. If you want to live, you have to leave."
"You have no right to tell us what to do," the second elder insisted.
"Oh, shut up, old men!" An elderly woman shook a fist at them. "You're the ones who agreed to have us work for Darafer. Look what it's done to us! Look at our children!"
"They didn't even pay us the money they promised," another woman added.
"We should kill Darafer for what he's done to us!" a third woman shouted.
"If you want to hurt Darafer," Rajiv said, "the best way is to destroy his crop."
With a cry of revenge, half the villagers grabbed broken planks off doors and fences, then lit them in the cooking fire. Howard and Phil ran with them to the field to make sure the fire didn't get out of control.
While the field was burning, Rajiv's were-tiger friends made two stretchers for carrying the ill women. Leah and Yu Jie elicited help from the remaining villagers, and soon all the medical and cooking supplies had been safely stashed back into the cave on the ridge. Howard and Phil made a quick run through of the village to make sure no clues had been left behind as to who had interfered with the zombies.
It took about thirty minutes to walk to the Mekong River where five more were-tigers were standing guard over the ten fishing boats. Once everyone was aboard, they headed upriver to Tiger Town.
Leah waved at Yu Jie, who was in a neighboring boat with her family. She grinned and waved back.
In two hours they arrived at Tiger Town. The were-tigers had prepared tubs filled with hot water so the villagers could bathe, then they offered them fresh clothes.
"That's very kind of your people," Leah told Rajiv in English.
He grinned. "They're doing it for themselves, too. Tigers have a very strong sense of smell and can't stand stinky people."
Howard wrinkled his nose. "It's been rough on me and Phil, too."
Tiger Town had several jeeps, and they offered to take the villagers to a nearby town the next day. Most of the villagers had relatives in other towns, so they were eager to reunite with their families.
Rajiv led Leah and the shifters up the stairs to the courtyard. "I have arranged for you to have private rooms and baths."
"Oh, thank you." Leah would be relieved to wash off the stench of the zombie village.
"I'll have a servant wash your clothes, too," Rajiv added. "We'll give you something clean to wear."
"Thanks," Phil said as he looked around the courtyard. "This place is awesome."
Leah nodded, admiring the palace. "Absolutely beautiful."
"You tigers are living good," Howard said.
Rajiv grinned. "Wait till tonight. It'll be so much fun!"
"What's tonight?" Leah asked.
"We celebrate! There will be a feast and music and dancing." Rajiv punched the air with his fist. "It'll be great!"
Phil chuckled. "You sound like Tony the Tiger saying it'll be great."
"I don't know Tony," Rajiv said.
Howard snorted. "I'll drink and eat, but don't expect me to dance."
"Oh, come on." Rajiv nudged him. "I want to see Pooh Bear do the Tiger Dance."
Leah smiled, although inside she was feeling an increasing amount of fear. The daytime part of the plan had succeeded without a hitch, but as soon as the sun set, the Vamps would have to handle the fallout when Master Han's soldiers discovered an empty village and a field of demon herb burned to the ground. Dougal might end up fighting for his life.