Read Online Bad Blood (Battle of the Undead Book 1) by Nicky Peacock - Free Book Online Page A

scared and very human. If I diverted the attention of the zombies, my prey would have the chance to escape. I could lose it in the streets or to a slippery un-deader who had avoided my scythes. I needed a plan.
    I used to watch wildlife progra ms. Growing up, I had been entranced with nature, and that spell had continued to weave itself around me as a vampire. I felt like a lioness watching a group of hyenas circling my zebra. There was only one of me, but it only took one lioness to make a kill.
    I ran into the cluster of zombies, twirling my scythes so fast it was like I was wielding two mini chainsaws. Limbs jerked this way and that. Some zombies turned their attention away from the phone box just in time to have their faces sawn off . Most still had that one-track thing going in their minds, so they never saw me coming and simply crumpled beneath my thrusts. It took less time than you’d expect to clear a path, but when I did, I found a cowering man in a suit clutching at the door of the phone box. I tapped on the glass, and he looked up. I tried to smile, but smiles need practice and sincerity, neither of which I could muster. He stared at me with as much horror as if I had been a zombie.
    “You need to come out now,” I said.
    “No!”
    “That’s not the T ARDIS, sweetheart. You can’t live your life in a phone box.”
    He looked thoughtful. Really, he hadn’t worked that out yet? I could justify this little encounter on the Darwin rule of feeding. Killing off the ignorant and dumb helped mankind in the long run . I was skimming the crap out of the gene pool.
    I could have forced the door open. I didn’t. Instead, I waited for him to creak it ajar.
    “Who are you?” he asked, taking in my less than human appearance.
    His suit was Armani, crumpled, and splattered scarlet with blood. 
    “How did you get in there?” I asked.
    He straightened his lilac tie. “There were a few of us in the office over there.” He pointed a nearby building that looked mostly intact. “We ran for it.”
    “Only you made it?”
    “Yes.”
    I could smell his blood pumping through his limbs. I could hear his heart knocking against his ribcage more from habit now than fear. What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, he was probably lounging in his Armani suit ordering his minions around. He was tall, quite a bit taller than me. He looked to be in his late thirties and had skin so beautiful I wondered how many facials it took to make a face so dewy and youthful. His nails were manicured too. I hated men like that. Give me a solider any day of the week, a real man with laughter lines and muscles born of manual labor.
    “Why are you looking at me like that? Who are you?”
    He demanded answers from me—he was used to getting them, used to being in control.
    I had a number of options. If I fed on him, then brought him back, he’d tell the others what I was. Although , I was reasonably sure most of them suspected already, but I still had to be careful, as suspicion and knowledge birthed two very different reactions. Or I could feed and kill him. I doubted the new world would miss him, and I needed a good meal to keep me going, to save the others.
    I pushed him back into the phone box and slipped inside with him.
    “What’s going on?” he yelled at me.
    I felt my shoulders slump then I took in another pointless breath.
    “Can you keep a secret?” I asked.
    He looked worried , but nodded.
    “Things are very bad indeed.” I nodded outside where the moans of the undead still echoed like cankered bird song. “But you’re not exactly safe in here, especially as I’m a vampire.”
    He raised an eyebrow and suppressed a laugh. “You’re pretty and looked useful fighting those things, but I don’t do mentals.” He snorted and gave me a look of disdain.
    What the hell was he thinking? That he was going to do me? That he was some pampered princess locked in a tower and I was the handsome prince who had fought to save him and now