Blood Lust: A Supernatural Horror (33 page)

Looking at her, I decided any questions would wait for later. Neither of us was in any condition for conversation.

1
4

I awoke
with a start
.
I opened my eyes and did not recognize my surroundings. I lay
flat
on my back staring
up
at a
water-stained
white acoustic
-
tile ceiling rather than a starry sky. The light was dim
, masking my surroundings in gloom. The room, wherever I was,
was
eerily silent
.
I resisted the urge to call out in panic.
T
he squeak of rubber sole shoes
sounded from the shadows and the
lights
brightened
slowly. I
groaned. I lay in yet another
hospital
bed with a dour faced nurse riding shotgun on me.
Outside the window was pitch black indicating it was night
,
b
ut was it the same night
.
My throbbing right arm nested in a sling.
I pulled back the sheets
with my left hand to assess
the
extent of the
damage
to my aching body
.

A plaster
cast
enveloped
my
left
ankle.
I looked over
at
the
nurse
dutifully studying
my chart
and
coughed to get her attention.
She
eyed me
warily over the rims of wire-rimmed glasses
. I took that as a bad sign, especially when I saw the uniformed officer outside my door.
Evidently,
Captain
Bledsoe was taking no chances
with me
.

“How long have I been out?” I asked. This sent me into a coughing jag from the smoke
and dust
I had inhaled.
I noticed
a coating of
salve on my arms and saw that t
he
flames had singed
the
hair
.
I reeked of toasted flour.

The nurse waited patiently until I had finished my self-examination.
“They brought you in two days ago in bad shape
,
”
she replied.

Flashes of the fight with the two creatures and the ensuing fire rushed to the front of my mind
.
“Yeah, I guess.”
I pointed to the uniform. “Is he for me?”

“One of the men in suits said something about arson. Aren’t you a cop?”

I nodded. “I was two days ago. Now, I don’t know.”

“You were moaning in your sleep about someone called Jory
and a body
.”

“Joria,” I corrected her
.

She smiled. “It didn’t sound like you would murder her. It sounded more like you were in love with her.”

I winced but said nothing. She got the message and turned away. I saw
Captain
Bledsoe through the glass door
speaking
with the uniform
ed
guard. The guard nodded
.
Bledsoe
burst into the room
scowling
.
He pointed a finger at me
like a gun and wagged it
.

“You really screwed the pooch on this one, Hardin. I suspect you had good reason to burn down the
monastery
but the Mayor
and the city council
is on a
holy
rampage. The parents of the
dead
girl are outraged
that
you burned
her
bod
y
.
” At my look
of incomprehension
, he
explained
, “
Firefighters found her remains
.
Now, where is
Doctor
Alvarez?
She
has
disappeared from her hotel room.
I assume she was with you.
”

I looked him in the eyes. “
She’s missing?
”
I had last seen her sitting mutely beside me
outside the monastery.

“You know she’s missing. You went looking for her. Did you find her?”

“Yes.
”

He glanced away and swore. “
And now she’s disappeared again.
Jesus, Hardin
!
You’re digging a hole so deep you’ll never climb out. What the hell happened?”

“The creature took Joria to lure me
back to the monastery
. I found it, killed the last juvenile and
Joria and I escaped. It looked like the Feds attempted to capture the creature. They failed.”

“How do you know?”

“One of them didn’t make it out of the church,” I said.

Bledsoe exploded.
“Jesus, Hardin! You didn’t kill him too?
”

“No, the creature got him.”

“
Christ! Corpses everywhere. It’s like some da
mn slasher movie.
Did you get them all?”
He stared at me hopefully.

I
s
hifted un
comfortably
in bed
.
“The adult got away
, but t
he juveniles are dead
, all three
.”

“Okay. Never mention them again. If word gets out there could be more of these things, people would panic.”

“Where are the first two
creatures
I killed?”

At first
,
I thought he wasn’t going to answer. He looked at me smugly. “The government has them
,
Homeland Security.
Appar
e
ntly t
hey consider them a unique
find
.”

I shook my head
in dismay
. More governmental cover up
.
At least I now knew for whom the two men in the black SUV worked.
Captain Bledsoe
turned away and began to pace the floor with his hand on his chin.

“Hardin, the Mayor wants your
ass
but I need you. Right now
,
you’re all I’ve got who knows
anything
about this
… this
thing.
”
He
looked at me but did
n’t
wait for an answer. “
It’s likely
it
won’t leave you alone, so you
’
r
e
in
it whether I toss you to the dogs or not.
The best thing I can do is put you back out there where I can keep an eye on you; use you as bait.
Sidelining you didn’t do any good.” I tried to look properly chagrined. “
If you screw up again, I’ve got a readymade patsy to pin it on.
”

He shifted tactics.
“You’re a good detective, Hardin, but you
’re a rogue
. God knows how Atwood could put up with you. I’ll never find you another partner. Half the
officers
think you’re crazy and the other half are afraid of you.
Bodies are dropping around you like pins in a bowling alley, only
no one’s setting them
up again.
” He sighed. “
The doctor will release you in a
few
days. Get back to work.
Forget about the Alvarez woman. The Feds are looking for her.
”

He turned and stalked off. I wondered how much self
-
respect it cost him to allow me to stay on the case
. O
r had our Homeland Secur
i
ty friends
had a chat with
him?
At least he
had
put finding the creature above sucking up to the Mayor.
I was worried about Joria. Parts of her story
didn’t gel. Now the Feds were after her. I had a few questions for her, but mainly I was concerned for her safety.
If the Feds found her before I did, she might simply disappear
for good
. If the
Chupacabra
found her…

My priority was to find the creature and end the
grisly
string of killings. First, though, I had to mend.

1
5

Clad Simmons sat opposite his boss
,
Tray F
aber
,
in Faber’s office.
Simmons
was uncomfortable in Faber’s presence, especially under the circumstances. Two men, moreover two friends
,
were dead on his watch.
Faber’s eyes refused to rest on
him
, increasing
Simmon
s
’
sense of unease. The open file on Faber’s desk bore photos of the burned
monastery
. He felt a knot in the pit of his stomach at
the thought of
Denny Pryce’s
body trapped inside the collapsed building.

Faber cleared his throat. “H
ardin cost us our last chance to capture one of the creatures alive. The President
was not pleased
.”
He stared
hard
at Simmons.

Simmons knew what he wanted. He wiggled
uncomfortably in his seat
before speaking.
“I’ll take the heat
,” he volunteered
.
“
The Twins are
dead and it’s my fault. After
D
enny died, I was more concerned with getting us out of there alive than in capturing the creatures.
”
He closed his eyes and
rubbed his brow. “I didn’t even get that done.
I’ll take the responsibility.
”

Faber shook his head.
His eyes softened somewhat but did not lose all their heat.
“No, it’s not your responsibility. I sent you in weaponless. We grossly underestimated the power of these creatures
again
. I though
t
Hardin was being overly melodramatic. Now I know he was not. You did the right thing.
We lost track of Hardin and we paid the cost. I should have
sent
someone back out there immediately after you called in. I delayed.”

Faber’s admission still did not lift the
weighty
burden
of guilt from Simmons’
shoulders. “The tranks worked on the juvenile at a heavy dosage
, but
I don’t know if we killed it.
”

“From Hardin’s report to his superiors,
you
didn’t. Both
adult and the juvenile
were present when he entered the church. He is certain
that
he killed the juvenile but the adult escaped. It’s probably long gone by now. It seems our suspicions about Dr. Alvarez were well founded.
She seems to have disappeared
.
”

Simmons
swore aloud. “Damn bitch! McAllister
in Baltimore was a friend of mine.
What was left of his body wasn’t even recognizable.
I’m certain s
he had something to do with his death.”

“I’m sure you are right but we could prove nothing. Now, however, we have enough evidence
to detain her, perhaps deport her.”
Faber
nervously twisted a paperclip lying on his desk into a
spiral
.
“Even Hardin is beginning to have doubts about her.”

“Are we still in business?”
Simmons
asked.

“The creature will resurface somewhere. We will be on the lookout for it.”