Blood Lust: A Supernatural Horror (44 page)

“What about the ventilator shaft?”

“
It’s a concrete lined tunn
el
big enough to allow a man access to the fans and electrical grid
linking
the two shafts about midpoint.
It connect
s with the main airshaft I mentioned.”

“Could the creature use it?”

“I doubt it. It’s covered by a heavy steel grate
locked for safety reasons.”

“You haven’t seen how strong this thing is
,” I commented.

I
examined the area of the map he pointed to more closely
.
“So, I could
enter
the old tunnel system
here at one of the emergency doors
and have someone seal
it
behind me.”
Even as I said it, it sounded foolish, like volunteering to walk into the
Coliseum
to fight the lions
with a
piece of meat
.
I knew I needed help.
I had relied on Lew over the years to back me up and to
keep me grounded when I got a wild idea.
I’m sure he would remind me not to be ‘Hardtack’ on this one.
I was hesitant
to ask
Captain Bledsoe
for more men
, especially since I had resigned the force
.
Even if he agreed, h
e would shut me out of
the operation entirely
and rush in unprepared with a
SWAT
team.
I couldn’t even ask McNeil
for help
since
I no longer had any standing with the force.

“You look like you’re in a quandary, son,” McNeil said
, breaking my
dour
reverie
.

I grimaced.
I decided to be truthful.
“I might have misled you a little. I quit the force yesterday in a dispute with my boss. I have no authority to ask anything of you.”

He slapped my shoulder. “Some of those dead girls were good Catholic girls
, Detective
. Maybe some you save
by doing this
will be too. My sainted mother would want me to help. I think I can find a few
go
o
d
men willing to do a little dirt work
off the clock
.
”

I couldn’t believe my luck.
I didn’t know what to say. I just stared at him
, my jaws slack
.

“I’ll get a crew on decking over the
main
airshaft.” He checked his watch
, a
battered ancient
gold
railroad
watch hanging from a chain
and fob.
He saw me staring at it. “My father’s.
It
might take a while.
Even if we work all night,
I don’t think we can be ready
before dawn
. Will tomorrow
morning
be good enough?”

I thought about another girl dying
during the delay
, but it could
n’t
be helped. I would have only one chance at the creature. If I blew it by moving too
quickly
,
it
could leave
the area
as it
had
threatened
.

“That will be fine,” I replied.
“Have your men m
e
et me here.” I pointed to an airshaft n
ot far from the monastery
. “Nine o’clock will do.”

“We’ll be there.”

I was taken aback. “We? You’re coming?”

He smiled. “
Son,
I know those tunnels like the back of my hand.
I explored them when I was a mucker on the new line.
I would never send
my
men to do something I wouldn’t do.”

I nodded. “All I want from you is to seal the doors after I go in. Don’t take any chances.”

“Don’t you worry, Detective. It’ll be a bit of a holiday to get out of this office for a while. I need
the smell of hot brakes and oil in my lungs every now and then to remind myself
where
I came from.”

We sealed the deal with a second handshake.
As I left McNeil’s office, I cons
idered my options.
I wanted McNeil’s help but was I doing the right thing involving them even this far
?
I could swallow my pride and ask Bledsoe for help. We could flood the tunnels with men and drive out the creature,
kill it at one of the exits,
but I suspected the cost would be high. Men would die. Or I could cowboy my way
in
with six-guns blazing and confront the bastard,
mano a monstero
.
That was what I wanted, but I knew more was at stake than my
wounded
pride. I had to do it alone – I wanted no more deaths on my conscience
– b
ut I had to do it right.

It bothered me that I would have to wait until morning to get started.
Night
time
was
the creature’s
feeding time. I wanted to catch this thing at home before it had the chance to kill again.
I could only pray that tonight it would not kill.

My preparations were simple. I had the elephant gun. I stopped by a sports stor
e
and picked up a pocket full of glow sticks
,
a
powerful
flashlight
and a roll of duct tape
. As I was walking to the cash register, I passed a display of
road safety flares
.
On impulse,
I
grabbed
a couple
. I had no idea of what use I would find for
them
. I had the glow sticks
,
but a voice in the back of my head said
to
take
them
and I always followed my hunches
.

Back in
at the motel
, Joria greeted me
with a questioning look
, especially when she saw the elephant gun
.

“You’ve been gone a long time.”
She sounded concerned.

             
“I had a lot to do
,
”
I replied tersely.

She waited a few seconds for me to expand on my answer. When I didn’t, she asked,
“Have you a plan?”

“Sort of,” I answered truthfully.

“Sort of? That doesn’t sound good.”

“I think it’s using the old subway
tunnel for a lair.
I’m going to trap it inside the tunnel during the daylight when it’s more likely to be there.
”

She listened attentively but I could see doubt on her face. I, too, had my share of
reservations.

“What do you intend after you trap it?” she asked.

I knew my answer wouldn’t please her. “I’m going to seal myself in with it and kill it.”

“What? Are you mad?
With that?” She pointed
with disdain
to the elephant gun. “
It will kill you.”

That was the part of my plan I didn’t
like
. “It will try
, but I’m going to end this killing spree once and for all
and i
f there are more than one left, I want to clean out the nest
.”

“There will be just the one,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow
at her.
“How do you know?”

“The adult spoke to me when I was its prisoner. Only one of its young survives
to adulthood
. The strongest kills its siblings
to secure its territory.”

That jibed with what the creature had told me, but could I believe either of them.
I nodded.
“That makes it easier.”

“When do we start?”

“We?” I questioned.

“I’m going with you
. You need my help.”

“
Whoa!
I’ll pick your brains but I won’t put you in danger. I go in alone.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow morning
.”

She smiled. “That leaves tonight.”

I felt that old familiar stirring and cursed myself for my weakness
, but y
ou can’t teach an old
dog
new tricks
. In spite of what she had
done
, my desire for her
had not diminished. When she stood and slipped off her shorts, revealing no panties beneath,
my pulse raced like a Formula One
Lotus engine on a straightaway
.
In a hormonal trance, I watched her shrug off her top
and stand in front of me
in her
naked
beauty
.
Any thoughts that she had lied to me or used me fell by the wayside
when faced with her offer of pleasure, a pleasure that I had sampled and enjoyed profusely.
I offered no resistance as she
assisted me
with my clothes.
Naked, we embraced
. I scooped her up, one hand under her buttocks and the other touching a pendulous breast, and carried here to the bed.

This time, it was I who
took control, not because of any macho sensibilities, but because she was moving too slowly for me. Our lips crushed together as our tongues locked in
a wet embrace. She wrapped her legs around my waist so hard I thought she might cut off the circulation to my groin. Luckily, enough blood had already found its way
there
. I took a breast in each hand as I entered her
with one thrust, massaging her nipples until they were rock hard.
The
French call the orgasm ‘the little death’ and they may be right.
Joria could have stabbed me in the heart as my orgasm hit me and I wouldn’t have felt it. She shuddered beneath me and I hoped she had climaxed as well.

We lay together afterwards, not talking, just basking in our mutual release. I wish it could have gone on forever, but
those nagging doubts rose as my manhood fell.
Too keyed up to sleep,
I dressed and sat in a chair facing the window.

Night fell like a
death
pall over the city.
Word of t
he three latest deaths had
brought reality crashing back down on people. They scurried from building to building like frightened rats.
I stared out my
motel
window as if expecting to see the creature flying over the city
’s skyline
. It’s funny what one
ponders
when waiting for possible death. I had never considered what condemned felons thought of as the clock ticked away their final hours
waiting for Death’s sure and certain touch
. I figured they had it coming, another kind of punishment.

I thought
again
of my
first
ex-
wife, Alicia. We had met when I was a rookie cop making about as much money as our paperboy. She was a waitress, but we made ends meet.
She was pretty,
a
tall
,
willowy blonde
with seductive
green
cat
eyes. Her laughter was a song and she laughed often those first few years. I suppose those long nights waiting up to see if I
would
walk through the door
after my shift
or if some punk in an alley
had shot me
took their toll on her. I tried to reassure her, but every cop that died
, every injured officer
wound her up tighter.
My wife had been unhappy for years before I realized it and still couldn’t understand why. I thought it was
the
job, the long hours, the dealing with the dregs of society
, b
ut it had been my one-track approach to
m
y job
and
to her. I had been wearing blinders, focusing on one thing at a time, ignoring the little things that didn’t add up. I was a detective but I didn’t have a clue.
Finally, I came home one night and she was gone, no note, nothing.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it had torn me up inside and almost wrecked me. I still had scars down deep where no one could see them but me
.
She hadn’t run off with the butcher as I had told Lew. I don’t know where she went or what she was doing now. I guess I could have traced her but couldn’t see the need. If she felt that way about me, she was better off alone.
At the time, I thought I was too.