Blood Lust: A Supernatural Horror (30 page)

“He’s dead!” he screamed in
Horowitz’s
ear as
Horowitz
struggled to break free of his grip. “You can’t help him.”

The
adult
rushed
to
its young’s aid
and with one slash of its talon, sliced through the steel mesh net
that held it
.
Freed, the juvenile screeched its anger and faced the two
men
.
Simmons
went to his knees and grabbed the electric prod
Horowitz had dropped
.
Now, i
t
was
their only weapon. When the juvenile lunged at them, he shoved the prod in its face and pulled the trigger. With a shower of sparks and the smell of burned meat, the creature fell back
, alive but
now
leery
of the prod
.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,”
Horowitz
cried out
, tugging on
Simmons’
sleeve
.

Simmons brushed his hand away.
“If we turn to run, we’re dead.”

Horowitz stared at Simmons
. Fright and fury fought for dominance in his brown eyes.
“Damn! I wish
I had my gun.
”

“I don’t think it would have mattered,”
Simmons
said.
He tried to think. “We back out slowly
keeping the prod between them and us
. Get behind me.”

He
reached out and roughly
pushed
Horowitz
behind him and faced the two
Chupacabra
,
parent and child
, now almost equal in size
. He knew there were t
o
o many places
on the way back out that the creatures could surround them, but he
could
think of no other option
.
In the narrow
, confining
corridor
,
he could hold the creatures at bay while Horowit
z retrieved their weapons from the van.
He was tired of playing by the rules.

They retraced their steps, carefully avoiding some of the side tunnels and
finally
reached the entrance to the basement.
Then h
e turned to
Horowitz
.

“I’ll hold them here. You go to the truck and call for back up
.
Bring
back some weapons.
”

Horowitz
held his ground. “Man, I ain’t leavin’ you here. We still got ou
r
dart guns. I got four darts. Let’s fill them full of juice and knock their asses out.”

Simmons
considered Horowitz’s idea
. He
had seen
how ineffective one dart had been, but he had been more concerned with capturing than
in
killing the creature. Now, their very lives depended on
escaping
and h
e wasn’t certain he could hold the creatures off until Horowitz returned
with weapons
.

“All right. Let’s do it.”

He allowed the creatures to back them into the basement where the creatures could spread out
, allowing a better shot
at both of them
and readied
his dart gun.
When
the juvenile screeched and lunged at them, he knew they had to act.

“Fire!” he yelled.

The dart guns were automatic. He pumped his remaining three darts into the adult while
Horowitz
emptied his into the juvenile. He almost cheered when the juvenile staggered and fell down. The adult backed away but
remained on its feet
.
Simmons
held the prod in front of him to remind the adult he was still armed.

“What now?”
Horowitz
asked
when he saw the adult still standing
. His voice
was
edged with panic.

“We keep moving
back
and get the hell out of here.”

“What about
Denny
?”

Simmons
shook his head.
He remembered what Pryce had said about the
sarcophagi
.
“He’s dead. He won’t know.”

The adult eyed them warily, but made no move toward them. It stood
protectively
over the juvenile,
gently
prodding it with one leg. When they reached the
steps
to the
sanctuary
,
Simmons
yelled
,
“Run!”

They raced
through the sanctuary,
down the corridors and out of the church. When they reached the van,
Simmons
jumped in,
cranked it
, threw it in gear
and sped off
,
barely giving Horowitz time to leap in. Simmons
suspected they would not get away clean
ly
.
He was right.
At the edge of the
gravel
lot, the adult
Chupacabra
slammed into the passenger side, broke out the window and
quickly
dragged a screaming
Horowitz
through the opening.
Simmons
grabbed
Horowitz’s
leg
with his right hand while he steered with his left.
He
looked into
Horowitz’s
pleading
eyes and saw
stark
fear
b
efore the creature
’s
jaw snapped shut on
Horowitz’s head. The
Chupacabra’s
strength overpowered him
and
yanked
the
already dead
Horowitz
from
his grip
. Through the windscreen, Simmons stared in horror as the creature
swept
Horowitz
into the
evening
sky
and disappeared
.
Simmons
slammed his fist into the steering wheel
until it began to bleed,
but
he
kept driving. There was nothing else he could do.

1
3

I spotted the unmarked
police
car a block from my apartment with
two men watching my building.
I crossed the street, went through an alley and entered the building next door. I went to the fourth floor where I knew the apartment across from mine was being renovated. I had watched the painters working earlier. I
pressed my shoulder to the door and shoved. The pain it caused brought a tear to my eye but the door gave.

Inside, I grabbed
a
piece of aluminum walkway from a pile of
painters’
scaffolding and maneuvered it across the
eight-foot space
between the two balconies.
The building shielded me from prying eyes on the street and the closed curtains in most of the building's windows made me confident no one would observe me.
I was no aerialist, but I managed to
suppress my vertigo long enough to crawl
the short distance between buildings.
My balcony door was unlocked. I went inside and checked to see if anyone was stationed outside my front door.
As I had expected, there wasn’t. The captain could not afford to tie up too many men on my account.

I
changed from my suit to
jeans
,
a t-shirt and
light
jacket. I
wanted to lay back down and sleep, b
ut could
n’t
risk it.
R
ummag
ing
through my closet
, I
found a flashlight, a couple of road flares and a stun grenade I had ‘borrowed’ from the weapon’s locker
some time back
. I grabbed a small gym bag and placed the items inside, along with a couple of bottles of water.
Then I sat down to wait.

Waiting gave me time to think. Mostly I thought about Joria and the danger she might be in. I hadn’t known her long, but
I
was drawn to her. Sure, she was an exotic beauty, great in bed and
twice as smart as me, but those things were just window dressing.
I felt a deep connection with her, much more than I had with either ex-wife.
She seemed to offer me everything I wanted. The cynic in me doubted it was all real, that she gave me what I wanted just to use me in her game of catch-the
-
monster
. Lew would have told me to stop bitching and get to
pitching. Maybe when all this was over, provided either of us survived, I’d take her to my cabin, now my latest ex’s cabin, for a
well-deserved vacation.

I surmised the men
tailing me
in the black SUV had to be Feds after the creatures
. Had they known about them all along or became aware of them as I had, by chance.
If they were watching me, that meant they wanted the creatures, probably alive. I would have to interfere with their plans.

Just before sunset,
I re-crossed my makeshift bridge, pulled in the scaffolding and hoped no one had spotted me. I left the building
by the rear entrance
, walked two blocks and hailed a taxi. I intended to reach the
monastery
early
in the evening
before the creature
s
left to feed
, pushing aside the image of Joria with her throat slashed. They wanted her alive, at least until I showed up.

I made one more stop, a service station
,
where I bought a two
-
gallon
plastic
gas
container
and filled it with gasoline.
I intended to set a trap for the creatures, one that would ultimately cleanse the abandoned church of their presence and of their stench.

Capturing one of the creatures live or preserving its corpse for science did not concern me.
I did
n’t
care about its reasoning or its origins.
It was a murderer, and as such in my opinion had forfeited any rights
for consideration, intelligent or not
. The Constitution concerned the rights of American citizens and
legal
visitors to our country, but I doubted even the most liberal application covered blood sucking
Chupacabra
s
. Any judge who disagreed, I would gladly place in a small room with the creature to
allow them to
discuss
the merits of the case.

As we pulled up in front to the monastery, the driver turned to me and
eyed me suspiciously
, “Ain’t this where them
dead girls
was found? You sure you want out here
, mister
?”

I said nothing as I paid him off and got out. He shrugged and sped off.
I stood for a few minutes outside the
yawning
gate
of the monastery
watching the
sun
slowly
set
,
wondering if it was to be my last
sunset
. Then I grabbed the gas can and my
bag of goodies
and w
alked in
.
Inside
the church
,
I removed the Pfeifer from its case and used a strip
of cloth
ripped
from one of the filthy mattresses lying around to make a strap
and slung
it from my shoulder. I stuffed the flares, the stun grenade and the extra ammo in my jeans pockets. I carried the flashlight and the gas can
both
in my left hand so I could use my right hand to fire the Pfeifer in a hurry.