Night Realm (34 page)

“Oh, they do. There’s no doubt now, and my little sister’s caught up with them all. I’ve got to get her away from them. I really need to get my hands on this serum, or vaccine, or whatever label you want to put on it.”

“Even if you do, surely you’re not just going to hand it over to this Selena woman?”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. All I know is that I should get some anyway. That’s what my gut is telling me to do and I always follow it. So
, did you find out where I can get some samples?”

Angela nodded her pretty head, her dark hair floating about her face as a light sea breeze gently caressed its way across the balcony. “There’s some in cold storage in Brisbane.”

“Brisbane,” Ryan repeated. “That’s good. Much closer destination than Sydney or Melbourne. Does it need to be kept refrigerated?”

“Only for long storage,” she told him. “It doesn’t need to be kept constantly chilled to a certain temperature.”

“What’s it made of, do you know?”

“I kind of do, but if I explained the intricacies of it to you it would just go straight over your head.”

“Fair enough. I guess I don’t really need to know anyway, I just need to know that it will do what Becker claims it will do.”

“So Becker’s not as insane as we first thought,” Angela noted.

“No. It ends up he’s the sanest of the lot, and everyone else is either just too stupid or narrow-minded to lend him an ear.”

Angela went deep in thought for a minute of two and, during the stretch of silence, Ryan occupied himself by drinking his bourbon. By the time he’d drained his glass she finally spoke again.

“I think I might be able to help you get your hands on Doctor Becker’s vaccine,” she said. “Whether you can pull it off is on your capable shoulders, but I just might be able to get you an in.”

“Any help would be greatly appreciated.”

“Why don’t you just go to the police?” she suggested.

He held up his hands. “And tell them what exactly?”

She thought about that a moment, then dropped the idea. “Okay. We’ll go with your plan. But you can’t let on at any time, even if you happen to get caught, that I helped you with this. Okay?”

“My lips are sealed. I solemnly swear.”

“I could think of better things to do with your lips,” she said, her own lips curling into a cheeky and seductive smile.

Ryan grinned. “I can’t say I’m not tempted. I’m just worried about ruining our great friendship.”

“I know. I’ve thought about that too, believe me, but I’ve also often wondered if you and I could have really made something of us; something beyond friendship and lust.”

“True romance?” Ryan raised an eyebrow.

“Yes.” She fixed him with her sexy gaze. “I think we have all the necessary ingredients to have something really special.”

“I’m not playing hard to get,” he assured her. “Really, I’m not. Just let me get this current problem dealt with first and then we’ll talk.”

She nodded. “Okay. I’m happy with that. But at the very least, after all the help I’m giving you, you owe me a couple of nice dinners. And maybe throw in a show at the casino for good measure while you’re at it. Maybe by then you’ll see what a great match up we really are.”

*  *  *

Selena moved stealthily through the forest. Silent movement was one of her gifts and it helped her to keep a tail on her brother and his new friends without being detected.

She didn’t trust Michael, felt she barely knew him anymore, and she certainly didn’t trust his playmates. They’d only just settled here and she so didn’t feel like going through the hassle of having to pack up and move again. That process was difficult enough for humans. It was much more of a drama for a vampire, especially when one was restricted by daylight. Everything had to be planned to perfection and the timing had to go like clockwork. On top of everything else, the use of humans to help was always required, and that risked exposure.

“I don’t want to sneak around and pick off fuckers that nobody’s gonna miss.” It was Paul’s voice, with its heavy British accent, that Selena could hear. “We’re vampires. We rule the world. We should be going out there and kicking their arses and letting them know who’s boss.”

“Shut up, fool!” Michael snapped. “Or I’ll shut you up permanently and take your cute little girly friend for myself.”

“You wouldn’t,” Paul challenged.

“I could and I would. Isn’t that right, Kelly?”

Selena heard no response from Kelly. The girl was probably way too afraid of Michael to open her mouth. Her boyfriend was really pushing it with her brother, though. Michael was right. The guy was a fool.

“Why are you in charge anyway?” Paul wanted to know.

The guy just doesn’t know when to shut up, Selena thought as she crept through the forest about forty metres behind them.

“Because I’m your maker,” Michael said, surprisingly calmly. “Everything you can do I can do ten times better. The strong are always in charge. That’s just the way it is and the way it’s always been. So either live with it
, or die by my hand. Your choice.”

Michael must have finally got his point across, for Paul didn’t utter another word for the next twenty minutes.

Selena maintained her distance the entire time, moving silently as always, but keeping the trio in her sights at all times. She was careful not to rustle any bushes as she swept through the forest like a spirit in the night. Her eyesight was superb, even better than Michael’s. She just wished she’d been given the gift of flight like he had. That ability would be magnificent.

The three up ahead crossed a road and walked down a rutted dirt driveway. Lightning flashed, illuminating the trio like three ghosts in the dark. Thunder cracked nearby. The storm was almost upon them now. A stiff wind picked up as Selena darted across the lonely road. She crouched behind a clump of shivering bushes, looked ahead, then moved quietly along the driveway, keeping to the undergrowth along its left edge. The road curved gradually to the right. As Selena rounded the bend she saw a farm
house. Out front was parked a four wheel drive utility with a cement mixer in the back. Beneath a carport rested a black Holden of some description.

Michael was standing on the porch, while Paul and Kelly lingered near the carport. No lights burned within the house. Those that were home had obviously retired for the night.

Selena sneaked behind a grove of trees just to the left of the carport and waited. She saw Paul sniff the air. He looked all around, but failed to spot her. Kelly just stood quietly at her boyfriend’s side. Michael was trying to pry a window open. It was old, made of wood and glass. It creaked and groaned and threatened to shatter.

“The hell with this,” he said and walked back to the front door. Standing about two feet away from it, he lifted his right leg and kicked the door in. It flew off its hinges and crashed inside the house.

So much for being discreet, Selena thought gravely.

Michael stepped inside. Paul and Kelly glanced at each other. Paul grinned, grabbed her by the hand and dragged her in.

“Feeding time!” he said happily.

When she heard a blood curdling scream come from within the house, Selena slipped in through the shattered front entrance way just as thunder cracked viciously overhead. The first heavy drops of rain fell from the night sky and pattered on the
rusted tin roof. Wind tore through the valley and frequent lightning flashes lit up the windows. She slithered down a hallway, not needing to be as quiet now that her presence was covered by the sounds of screaming, struggling and the ravenous slurping of fresh blood.

“This is better than an orgasm,” Paul said as he stepped out of a bedroom, blood dripping from his chin and his eyes crazy with lust. “I want another one. How many live in this house?”

When he disappeared into another room, Selena crept forward and poked her head around a corner, peering through an open doorway that led into a bedroom. There the body of a teenage boy lay on the floor. Kneeling on the floor beside him was Kelly, her jaws clamped onto the throat of a lifeless young woman with fiery red hair. Kelly didn’t notice Selena. She was too intent on sucking every drop of blood from the corpse that she could.

Selena moved on, quickly ducking past the bedroom where Paul had gone to find another victim. She came to the end of the hall and went left. She found herself outside the master bedroom. Glancing around the door frame she saw her brother leaning over the bed. A woman lay there already dead and Michael was about to feed on her husband. He wasn’t moving. Presumably Michael had rendered him unconscious first.

“Come in and join me, Selena,” he said softly, as if he had eyes in the back of his head. He never turned around, but somehow knew she was there.

“You’re supposed to be discreet, Michael,” Selena snapped.

“I know why you’re here.” Now he did twist his head to face her. His jaw was covered in gore. When he smiled she saw blood dripping from his fangs. “I know why you’re here,” he repeated.

“Oh? And why’s that? Why am I here, Michael?”

“Because you want some of this action,” he said, a knowing glint in his blue eyes. “You crave human blood, I know you do. You’ve had it before. We’re like sharks. Once we get a taste, it never goes away.”

“That’s you, not me.”

“Stay in denial then. I know you want it.” He nodded down at the unconscious man he held in his arms. “Come and have this one. He’s young and nice and fresh. You’ll like him.”

Selena felt her mouth salivate at the thought of clamping her needy fangs down onto that exposed throat and sucking the blood from the man. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her fangs sprang to life. As if in a hypnotic trance, she slowly stepped over to the bed and dropped to her knees. Michael maneuvered the man until his neck was within her reach.

“Take a bite,” he encouraged his sister. “Just one bite won’t hurt. Just suck a little blood if you want and I’ll finish him off.”

Selena wasn’t even listening to him anymore. His voice was indistinct, like it was way off in the distance somewhere. She bent forward and savagely bit into the man’s exposed throat. Blood gushed from the puncture wounds and channeled up her fangs. She slurped loudly as she sucked hard, desperate now to get that precious human blood into her system as quickly as possible. It had been so long. Self-depravation was no longer a good thing. She needed this and loved it.

When she’d finished she tilted her head back and hissed, spitting blood all over the white ceiling above as the storm raged outside.

From this point on she would never be content to drink anything but human blood.

Once again Detective Marks had
endured a sleepless night, and once more he’d spent the night in his office. He was up until four in the morning poring over case files from interstate, searching for clues; anything that would pinpoint possible suspects.

After five hours of fitful dozing on the couch, his mobile phone had rung, alerting him to a house of horrors in Eagle Heights. A multiple homicide. Five dead. Marks knew the SOCOs would be there for quite some time processing th
at scene, so he delayed his arrival on site until well after midday.

A small tent city had been erected on the property. There were police cars, ambulances and unmarked vehicles parked on every available bit of land. News crews and other members of the media waited in the wings to capture any snippets of footage o
r bits of information that they could. As soon as Marks got out of his car he was accosted by several eager journalists. He brushed them aside like annoying flies. Even if he’d wanted to talk, he had nothing to tell them. Right now they probably knew more about the situation than he did.

He adjusted his sunglasses as he weaved his way through the myriad of vehicles, tents, equipment and people.
There were still puddles on the ground from last night’s thunderstorm and the air was thick with humidity. All the while he scanned for Detective Scott Richards of CSU. Richards had been the one who had made the call to him earlier. He spotted him standing near a carport, tall and lanky, his blond hair glowing in the afternoon sunlight. Today he was dressed very casually in faded blue jeans, button-up beige shirt and had trainers tied to his feet.

The two detectives shook hands when they came together.

“Very grisly scene inside, David,” Richards gave him the heads up. “Prepare yourself when you go in there.”

Marks nodded and played with his goatee. “You said on the phone there are five bodies.
Is that confirmed?”

“Yep
. Sure is.”

“An entire family?”

“Not sure yet. Looks that way, but until official identifications are made, I can’t be certain. At this stage it’s just conjecture.”

“Fair enough. How much longer do you think the forensic
s guys will be?”

“Hard to say, really. They’ve been at it for over four hours already. Come with me.”

Marks followed Richards around the side of the house and into a tent, where coffee and biscuits were served. He realized he needed both. He’d only had the one coffee some hours ago and he hadn’t eaten a thing. His stomach was growling like an enraged animal.