Blood & Dust (15 page)

'I'll tell you what you should do - ice that bastard and then help me keep them
out.'

'I can't do that,' Thomas says.

And then it all goes to hell. Petrol bombs explodin', the buildin' shakin' and
burnin'; the air turnin' to smoke. He grabs for the Hunter's weapon. The gun goes off, once, twice;
the second shot gives him his chance as the Hunter jerks back in time to save his own face. He
thumps the Hunter and then kicks him to the shithouse. Runs for the door. The place is blazin',
crashin' down, and outside the sun is a furnace and he hopes his people can catch him in time coz he
doesn't wanna have to go to ground here, not with all the attention that's gonna descend on this
joint like Ashton's fuckin' circus. He spares a glance for the kid on the floor and thinks, it's a
waste, but it's for the best, given the risk, and spares a moment's thought for the poor bastard
lyin' on the floor with a hole in his chest who simply had no idea, they never do, and thinks good
riddance for that Hunter Dave, doin' all right on my blood, the cunt.

Another blast shakes the joint and he sees the Hunter, wreathed in smoke, comin'
for him again, and he's outta time. He hurls the filin' cabinet to the side and tears open the
office door and runs outside and hopes his people have a brolly handy coz it's plenny hot out here,
but not as hot as the barbie he leaves behind.

And later, in the back seat of Kala's Monaro with her blood pumpin' through his
veins, he realises the kid's survival instinct has come through. He'll have to send someone back to
nab their new mechanic after all.

The sky was still dark, the moon low, when they pulled into a lonely service
station. A sickly yellow corona beyond the darkly swaying fields marked the nearest town. They
refuelled and shortly after turned off the highway. The Night Riders extinguished their headlights,
relying on moonlight as they followed a narrow road, passing paddocks and occasional gateways,
darkened homesteads sitting at the ends of long, dirt drives. Eventually, they reached a sign post
that warned of 'no through road' and cut the engines.

Taipan pointed at a house, barely visible through a stand of eucalyptus trees. It was brick,
one-storey, with a double-door garage to one side. 'Whaddya think?'

'Is this The Farm?' Kevin asked.

An anonymous snort was all the answer he got.

'Looks good,' Penny said. 'Only the one neighbour, fair distance away.'

'Can't hear no dogs, either,' Reg added.

'Why are we doing this?' Acacia asked.

'Coz we need to rest up outta the sun,' Taipan said. 'Coz we need tucker, the good stuff.'

'Not like this, Tai. Not this close to a town. Not with VS at our heels.'

'We're doin' it. You don't like it, the highway's over there.'

They stared at each other. Fear iced Kevin's skin. Acacia turned away.

'Any of you other fellas got a problem?' Taipan asked, sweeping the gang with his gaze.

Kala stared at the ground.

'We're with you, Tai,' said Reg, flexing his fingers to make the knuckles crack.

'Rightio, let's walk 'em up, eh. Kala - you, Hippie and 'Cacia mind the Rover.' Taipan motioned
to Kevin. 'You keep an eye on the bikes. Not a sound from none of youse till we give you the nod.'

Kevin stood between Reg's BMW and Penny's Kawasaki, watching powerlessly as Reg, Penny and Taipan
crept up the gravel drive. He tried to catch Acacia's eye, or Kala's, but they both ignored him.
'Whose place is this?' he whispered.

'Dunno,' Acacia answered. 'Shut up now, eh.'

The three bikers approached the manicured lawn, the grass brown, a line of rose bushes resisting
the drought. A couple of polythene tanks squatted by the garage. A swimming-pool sized lagoon
glimmered down the paddock, cracked grey banks making it look like an ulcer. Taipan and Penny kept
watch while Reg picked the lock. A dog yapped as the door swung open. The three bikers darted
inside. The barking stopped mid-yelp. Kevin winced.

After a nerve-wracking wait, Penny re-appeared and waved them up. They tucked the bikes in next
to two vehicles - a sedan and a four-wheel-drive - and parked the Rover where they felt it would be
least conspicuous. 'I'll do a shuffle later,' Hippie said. 'Get it under cover before sun-up.'

They stepped around the dead dog as they followed Penny through the laundry into the living room.

Kevin balked at the sight of the heeler lying in a pool of blood. 'What the hell are we doing
here?'

Acacia gave a look that said dumb questions didn't deserve answers.

The lights were on in the kitchen and adjacent living/dining areas, the curtains pulled tightly
closed. A middle-aged couple sat gagged and bound in their nightclothes on the sofa. Their daughter,
fourteen or fifteen maybe, hugged her younger brother where they huddled in their pyjamas on the
floor. Taipan and Reg leant against the kitchen counter, arms crossed with the air of stockmen
taking in a cattle sale.

'It's a smorgasbord,' Reg said by way of greeting. He grinned like a great Dane.

Kevin felt the dread descend with all the surety of nightfall.

Kala, Hippie and Penny helped themselves to food and drink in the kitchen. A kettle boiling,
crockery clanking, sounded over-loud and disconcertingly normal as the tension in the living room
rose. Sweat broke out, clammy under Kevin's arms. His body froze, muscles locked as he waited for
the storm to break.

Reg and Taipan began to strip, piling their clothes on an armchair.

'Got a case'a the shy, 'Cacia?' Taipan asked. 'Want us to turn our backs?'

'Now we're here, you should feed,' she told Kevin as she began to undress.

'You heard 'Cacia,' Taipan said. 'You want a bib or somethin'? Get ya gear off if you don't wanna
make a mess.'

Reg shouted for Penny. In the background, meat sizzled in a pan, releasing its charred aroma. She
came in, a glass of beer in one hand. 'You bellowed?'

He tore the boy from his sister's grip. The girl clawed at Reg and he knocked her down, then
thrust the terrified boy at Penny. 'Keep an eye on dessert here for a bit, won'tcha?'

'Do I look like a nanny to you?'

'Just do it.'

She drained her glass and held it out to him.

'Don't get pushy,' he told her. She thrust the boy back at him, so Reg pulled a knife and cut his
arm and bled into the glass till it was half-full.

'Nice head.' Pink foam coated her lips as she drank the blood in eager mouthfuls.

'Now piss off while I have dinner,' he told her. 'We can play swapsies later.' He slapped her
arse.

'Steak's almost done anyway.' Penny threw the empty glass. It smashed into a family portrait on
the wall, fracturing the glass and leaving the photograph hanging askew. She grabbed the sobbing boy
and led him into the kitchen. 'You are a plump little dumpling, aren't you?'

The daughter screamed her brother's name and the brother screamed back till something muffled
him.

Kevin stood, paralysed.

The father tried to stand but Acacia pushed him to the floor. She sliced his shirt away in
pieces, cutting his chest, then began to lap, savouring each mouthful.

Taipan tore the mother's nightgown open and buried himself in her throat. Her panicked features
burnt into Kevin's vision as his frozen mind tried to work out what to do. Pinned under Taipan, the
woman stared down at her daughter, her mouth moving soundlessly in some futile prayer, some final
words.

Reg leaned over the squirming girl, pinned her arms above her head and used his fangs to rip open
her throat.

Kevin shouted at them to stop. He grabbed Reg's shoulder and tugged him away. The girl stared up
at him. Blood spilled down her chest, darkening her nightie with lurid scarlet.

Reg's crimson-smeared lips curled in a sneer. 'Feed or fuck off.'

Blood scent clouded the air. The father swore and swore, his bound legs bucking. Acacia bit down
on his inner elbow. The man's helpless rage quickly turned to terror. His eyes bulged as his
vitality bled away.

Kevin shook his head. 'I can't do this.'

'Your loss,' Reg said.

'You have to stay strong,' Acacia said, slurring slightly. 'Try the girl. A short life won't
crowd you too much. Just make sure you stop before the end. You won't want her hanging around, not
till you can handle the lifestream.'

'I don't even want to know what you're talking about,' Kevin said, stumbling backward, his vision
so very bright and clear, his body trembling.

Taipan smirked at him, his white teeth outlined in crimson. 'Fresh from the vein, fella.'

'I can't!'

Kevin ran. He reached the laundry. A shape loomed behind him. A tap on his ankle sent him
careening into the side of the washing machine, then to the floor. When he got to his feet, he found
Reg blocking the door to the garage. Kevin tried to push past, his mind a black wall of desperation.
But Reg held him fast, and then a pain in his back robbed him of all strength. He choked; coughed up
a gout of blood. Reg lowered him to his knees, then pushed him over.

Taipan stood over him. 'Whaddya think you're doin', fella?'

Kevin couldn't say a word, couldn't even lift a finger. The fury of being once again helpless
threatened to burst his skin. He seethed as he was carted back into the living room like a bale of
hay and dumped on the floor next to the family. He landed on whatever Taipan had jabbed into him,
sending a sharp pain slicing into his back. His head lolled to the side, revealing the young girl
next to him, whimpering, her arms pulling her legs tight against her bloodstained chest. He wished
with all his might that the stake would send him into oblivion, but his body fought, the blood
fought. He stayed painfully awake, life and death fighting a tug-of-war for his heart; he stayed
awake and powerless as Reg approached the girl again. She offered the barest of resistance as Reg
pushed her down. He forced her legs apart and buried his fangs in her groin.

'Man, this is awesome shit,' he said, teeth outlined in gore. 'There's horse riding, swimming,
tennis. And a boyfriend - a girlfriend, too! I
love
this women's tennis.' He punched Kevin's
arm. 'Can't believe you don't want some of this. It's not like you can just go do this shit for
yourself. Not anymore. Here, have a taste.'

He bent over Kevin, pried his jaws open and dribbled a fresh mouthful of blood into his throat.
Kevin choked, but even staked out, he felt the blood being absorbed by his system; by his very
cells. Sluggish, though; not like the lightning he'd felt when he'd fed from Kala. He experienced
none of the lifestream that Reg was bragging about; nothing but the torpid warmth and the horrible
sensation of drowning.

Acacia lifted her face from the father's femoral. 'Reggie, you fuckwit. That fella's not gonna
get nothin' out of that. Not with that spike in his pump.'

'Fuck,' Reg said, sitting up and wiping his mouth. 'I should just piss on him. That's all this
gutless pup is worth. I gotta take a leak.'

He walked out and Kevin heard the waterfall.

'Shut the door at least,' Acacia shouted. 'Fucking yob.'

'That fella's on the money, but,' Taipan said, rolling off the mother, her throat one tattered
gash. 'I ain't tasted sunshine like this in a long time. Bin livin' too quiet in the nest.' He
crawled over to the girl and bit into her arm, then went to the father and whispered something to
Acacia before he drank from him, too.

Reg came back and went for the girl again. 'Shit, she's done. Oh, well, still got room for some
boy juice.'

He called Penny to bring in the son.

'You must have hollow legs,' Taipan said. He hoisted himself up against the sofa, licking blood
from his fingers. The mother sat silent and still above him.

'I'm a growing lad, what can I say? Penny!'

She brought the boy in, hands on his shoulders. The lad stumbled along as though he was
sleepwalking. Welts on his face showed where a hand had been clamped over his mouth.

'Bleed that young'un,' Taipan told Reg. 'Bleed him and wait for it to settle.'

'What's it matter? Blood is blood.'

'You don't want that kid stuff in ya head, I'm tellin' you.'

'I don't get it.'

'And you don't wanna. The little buggers feel everythin' so intense-like. It'll do ya head in.
Penny, see if you can't find some bottles or jugs or somethin'. We'll bag what Reggie can't finish
off, eh.'

The snivelling boy - he couldn't have been much more than ten - stood in Reggie's light grip like
a calf in the crush while Penny fetched a couple of plastic jugs. Reg slit the boy's throat and held
him over the containers.

Kevin couldn't even close his eyes. Couldn't even scream.

Finally, it was over. Reg rolled the body onto the floor and picked up the smallest of the
containers, the first to have filled, and tasted the blood. He screwed up his face. 'Might as well
be that hospital shit. It's not much better than moo juice.'

'It's the right way to do it,' Taipan said. 'Bag 'em,' he told Penny, and she took the containers
away.

The vampires lolled around the room, faces turned beetroot, eyes bloodshot.

'I need to piss something fierce,' Reg said, dragging himself to his feet and waddling for the
loo again.

'You keep an eye on 'em while we water the horse, eh?' Taipan said to Kevin as he stepped over
him. The biker walked slowly, his skin an oily, bruised black. Kevin heard him open an outside door.
Acacia leaned against the wall near the toilet door, swearing at Reg to hurry up.

The three of them had only just returned, vague presences outside Kevin's vision, when he heard
Kala swear. She crouched over him.

'What have you done?' she asked Taipan, and then shouted over her shoulder, 'Jesus, Penny, why
didn't you tell me?'

Penny stood behind the sofa, Hippie behind her. 'Didn't seem important,' she said, and wiped her
mouth with the back of her hand.

'Think I'll go move those cars around, maybe have a smoke,' Hippie said. 'Call me if there's
brew.'