Blood Lust: A Supernatural Horror (61 page)

“Rejuvenate from that, bastard!” I shouted down at it and laughed.
Just to be certain, I reloaded and fired both barrels at its head, smiling as it disintegrated into a bloody pulp
. I looked up at
Faber
.
He
stood staring at the creature with his mouth open,
looking
like he had
just
lost
his
best friend.
To further spoil his day, I said, “You’ll find Joria Alvarez’s body back in the tunnel
.”

He looked at me in surprise. “Dr. Alvarez? She was here?”

“Helping the creature. She’s been helping him all along.”

He nodded. “We thought so.”

“Thanks for telling me, you bastard
,” I spat at him and brushed past him.

“Did you kill her?”

I spun and leveled the elephant gun at him. He had forgotten it wasn’t loaded and backed away until he tripped and fell in the water on top of the creature.
When he realized what where he was, he jumped up wiping the creature’s yellowish blood from his suit.

“The
Chupacabra
did.”

I marched triumphantly back up the riverbank and saw McNeil smiling at me.
“Case closed?”

“Case closed. How
’s
Clad
?”

“He’s in the ambulance. He’s in bad shape, but he’s awake.
He w
ants to talk to you.
Maybe you two can share an ambulance. You look like shit.”

“We can make it a threesome. I seem to remember
putting you in ambulance
not long ago
.
”

He laughed. “I
had things to do. Besides, I
’ll outlive all of you.” He glanced at
Faber
walking up the slope
still wiping daintily at his ruined suit with a handkerchief
. “Faber’s bosses won’t be happy with him or
with
you, I imagine.”

“He lost five men needlessly
.
Clad
was the only one with any sense.”

“If I had any sense I wouldn’t have shoved that stun stick in the
creature
while I was in it
,
”
Simmons
called out from the back of the ambulance.

I
peeked
inside. He lay on a
gurney
with an EMT working on his wound. An IV bottle
hung above him with a tube running to his arm. He tried to grin but it took too much energy.

“Good thing you did,” I said. “
You
saved our lives.”

“Is it dead?” he asked.

“It is now, permanently. You may be out of a job though.”

“The others?”

I paused. He could read the answer in my eyes.
“All dead.
Joria too.
”

He closed his eyes and lay back. “Good men,” he said.
“Her, I don’t give a crap about.”

I looked at the EMT. “Got room for one more?”
I crawled inside and sat down on the edge of Simmons’ stretcher. The EMT
looked at my wounds
with professional interest
.
Ella
came up
to the back of the ambulance
. Her hair was dirty and mussed and her face was filthy, but she was smiling.
She was also the only one who had come through unscathed. She was small but tough.
I decided I liked her.
She handed me the .357.

“
Thanks.
It
i
s dead, isn’t it?”

“Very dead.”

“
Is it the last one?”

My stomach did a flip
-
flop.
I didn’t know what to tell her. She was a reporter. I chose a safe reply.
“I hop
e to hell it is.”

“I guess my story is dead too.
No one will ever believe all this without proof.
The Feds will probably
confiscate all my stuff.
Poor Steve.
All that work.
”

I grinned. “I’m sure you’ll think of something
.” I offered her my hand. I wasn’t surprised to feel a small hard object pressed into it
my palm
as she shook my hand – the memory card from the camera.
I quickly pocketed it. “Look me up sometime.”

She looked at me
quizzically. “
You risked your life so many times to kill the creature. Why?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “When I start a case, I like to finish it.”

“I think it’s more than that. I believe some people are
born
heroes and they just have to act heroic. It’s their nature.”

“A hero? I don’t think so. I’m just stubborn.”

“Maybe that’s what being a hero is – being stubborn.” She looked away. “I have to go now
and tell Steve’s mother what happened
.”

“Do me a favor
. When you write your story, t
ell the truth. The people deserve it.”

She smiled
again
and walked away.
I figured
it wouldn’t be too long before the truth came out. Whether people chose to believe it was another matter.
Outside the ambulance, Faber was on
his
phone. I didn’t like the way he smiled
as he hung up. He noticed me and walked over. He hardly glanced at
Simmons
.

“Just thought you might want to know, Hardi
n. It seems our counterpart in the Ukraine has identified a pair of what they described as
‘
gargoyles
’
killing young women in rural communities.
” He smiled smugly and walked off.

I silently cursed and hung my head. Joria had been right after all. There were more of the creatures
in the world. After all I had done,
all we had
been through, it meant nothing.

“I’ve never been to Russia,”
Simmons
said
breaking my bout of self
-
pity
.

I looked over at him
and grinned
. “Is that an offer?”

He shrugged.
“We’re both currently
, er,
unemployed. Why not start a
Chupacabra
Busters
business
?
God knows
we have
enough experience. Besides, I would
dearly love to frustrate Faber again.”

The ambulance rocked as
McNeil
crawled
in
,
sat on the floor by the door and pulled the doors closed
behind him
.

“Do they have subways in Russia?” he asked with a smile.

The EMT gave me a sedative
and
I allowed
myself
to
relax
. As it coursed through my body,
I remembered a bible verse from Sunday
school
:
Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord
.
I thought that maybe the Lord wouldn’t mind me horning in on a little piece of the action.