Blood Lust: A Supernatural Horror (60 page)

The creature dove at him.
He caught
the creature
in the neck
with
the prod
. It
shrieked and
plummeted into the pool of water.
H
e
waded into
the pool
,
thrust
the prod
into the
creature’s
midsection
and trigger
ed
it
again
.

Simmons’ body jerked
the
high voltage current
surged through hi
m
and fell face first into the water
.
The creature was in a frenzy, struggling to free itself from the water but unable to move. Its screams filled the cavern
as it flopped around
madly
. Smoke erupted from its mouth and nostrils
. The odor of burning flesh filled the air.
I hoped it was all the
creatures
.
Finally, its cries fell silent and it floated face down in the water.
I had the presence of mind not
to
grab
Simmons
with my hands
to drag him from the water.
F
irst
, I knocked the
prod
from his grip
.
He released the trigger.
Dragging him from the pool,
I
quickly
checked his heart. It was not beating.

“He’s dead!”
Ella scr
eamed. I didn’t know if she meant
Simmons
or
the creature
.

“Damn,” I muttered and rolled
Simmons
onto his back
and ripped open his shirt.
Large blisters covered his face and hands.
His wound was
w
ee
p
ing
fresh
blood
through the makeshift bandage
I had applied
.
I yanked it off.
The edges
of his wound
were ragged and raw, puffy with infection, but that was now the least of his problems.
I tried to remember what I had gleaned from my first aid classes and began to perform
CPR. I hated to imag
ine
what kind of damage I was doing to his ribs as I pounded and pressed down
forcefully
.
            

“Here, let me do it. You’ll kill him.”
Ella
pushed me as
ide and
applied a gentle
,
steady pressure to Simmons’
chest with the he
e
l
s
of her hand. I backed away and let her work.
I glanced at Joria. She stared
numbly
at the
inert
Chupacabra
.
With a gasp,
Simmons’
chest heaved as he drew in a lungful of air. His eyes fluttered and he looked up at me
.

“Did I get the bastard?”
he whispered.

I rolled him over so he could see the creature floating
i
n the water. He smiled.

“Good.”

The
floor of the
cavern
rocked
violently
as if caught in an earthquake; then the blast of the explosion shot up the river channel.
A gust of smoke
and dust
-filled air roiled into the cavern from the flaming tunnel above as a new opening appeared at the old mill site
, pulling air from the tunnel
above us
.
The water level dropped
precipitously as it
sought the
new exit
.

“
Come on
,
”
I
said
, lighting my last flare
.

I dragged
Simmons
back
into the
pool
with my free hand
, holding his head above water a
s
I floated him like a raft down the river.
Behind me,
Ella herded Joria along with the
pistol,
savagely
poking her in the back
to get her moving
.
The water level was
now
barely knee deep
and moving Simmons was difficult
. I did not relish the idea of
lugging
his heavy body
out
the tunnel
on my back
.
I set the flare on a rock ledge.
As I bent over to pick
up Simmons
, Ella cried out.

“Oh, my God!” she gasped.

I turned
and saw the
Chupacabra
alive and well headed for us. I dropped Simmons and aimed my elephant gun, but Ella was in the way.

“Move!” I yelled, but she was either too frightened or
couldn’t hear me over the creature’s
raucous
shrieks.

Ella, thinking fast on her feet, shoved Joria toward the creature and raised her pistol.
Joria
, her eyes blazing in an almost religious fervor,
spun and raised her arms in some futile attempt to prevent Ella from firing.
Joria’s
expression turned to one of pain and surprise as the creature’s talons gripped her head and lifted her from the water
in its frenzy to reach the rest of us
.
As i
ts
six-inch long
talons sank deep into her
skull, she groaned out
, “Why?”

“Foolish human,” the creature replied as it tossed her aside like a rag doll
. “Did you think I would share my world with you? You are cattle.”

Her limp body
thudded
sickeningly
against the wall of the tunnel and
sp
l
ashed
into the shallow water. The water turned red around her,
flowing
toward the entrance.
Silently, I thanked the creature for administering justice.
As much as I now despised her, I didn’t savor the idea of her languishing in a prison cell for years. She could walk out still looking thirty-five.
I didn’t think she would have adapted
well
to prison life.

As the creature readied itself to attack,
f
ive men dressed like commandos
splashed toward us
.
It turned and flew away.
One
of the men
stopped
and
looked me over
carefully before
glanc
ing
down at
Simmons
. He slung
his weapon
over his shoulder
,
pick
ed up Simm
ons
’
dead weight as if
he weighed nothing
,
and draped
him
over his
other
shoulder.

“Come with me,” he said
as he urged
us
out of the tunnel
.
He glanced at Joria’s body but said nothing.
His four companions
continued up the tunnel
after the creature
.

Ahead of us, t
he tunnel grew lighter. It was good to se
e daylight again. They had blasted not through the massive piles of debris above, but through the side of the dry riverbed closest to the underground channel.
The river now formed a waterfall cascading into the centuries
-
dry river.
M
cNeil’s smiling face appeared in the opening, as well as a dapper suited man who had to be
Simon’s
boss
, Faber
.
The commando continued up the bank with
Simmons
to a waiting ambulance.
One
McNeil’s
men grabbed
Ella
and helped
her
up.
Faber
removed his shades
and offered me his hand.

“Well, Detective Hardin.
W
e meet
at last
.”

I ignored his hand and jerked my thumb back down the tunnel.
“
Y
ou’re about to lose four men
. If you have any brains at all, you’ll
pull them back and
bring in a shitload of explosives
to
blow this thing to hell and back.”

He smiled one of those condescending smiles that made me want to take a swing at him. “We’re professionals, Detective. Let us do our job. You look like you could use some medical attention.”

I nodded.
“I warned you.”

I took McNeil’s offered hand
, stepped out of the tunnel
and
climbed
up the slope, leaving
Faber
alone.
Before I reached the top, gunfire erupted inside the river tunnel. I shook my head.

“They never learn,” I muttered.
I checked to see my elephant gun was loaded,
turned and descended the slope
.

Faber
had his cell phone out, screaming into it. “Talk to me
Getty! What’s happening?”

Screams echoed down the tunnel and from
the speaker of
his cell phone. More shots
followed
.

“They’re dying in there, for Christ’s sake. Pull them back.”

He stared at me
open mouthed
. I stepped past him into the
smoke-filled
tunnel.

“Where are you going?”

“To finish my job.”

He reached for me. “You can’t…”

I shoved the barrel of the
elephant gun into his belly hard enough to make him gasp
for breath
. “Don’t try to stop me,” I warned. He backed away.

The shots had ceased. I held out little hope any of his men had survived
, therefore
I was surprised when one man raced down the tunnel, stumbling
through
the
smoke
in
knee
-
deep
bloody
water
, h
is shirt
ripp
ed and
his face was
a
bloody
mess
.
Not far behind him came the
Chupacabra
.
Five yards from me, the creature won the race, picking up the
screaming
man and slamming him into the roof of the
river tunnel with enough force to crush
his
skull. Not satisfied with this, it ripped into his dead body with its
teeth
, scattering entrails and organs
, then
dropped the body into the river. I watched
the body
floa
t
past me, trailing
bloody
intestines.
The creature raised its head, sniffed deeply
.

“Freedom!” it shouted, recognizing fresh air and maybe even the smell of the
monastery
where it was born. It faced me.

“Not yet,” I said. “You have to come through me first.”

The creature screamed and flew at me. I did not move. I raised the elephant gun and fingered both
triggers
.
I knew I had one shot before it was on me.
The creature opened its wings wide and thrust out
one
leg
, trailing t
he broken one behind.
Just before it
slammed into me,
I fired both barrels. I went down
, hurting
, bowled over by the momentum of the creature
. We both exited the tunnel
into the
late
afternoon daylight
and
tumbled down
the
waterfall.
The water was not deep. I hit the bottom
hard
with the creature on top of me. I managed to push it aside and surface
, gasping for air
. I hurt all over. I had
bloody talon
gashes on both sides and
teeth marks in my neck
where the creature had
grazed
me
, but the creature floated
face
down
in the river
with twin holes the size of grapefruit
s
through its body.
I thought it strange that i
t
looked so much smaller floating there.