Read Online Vampire Dreams (Bloodscreams #1) by Robert W Walker - Free Book Online Page A

the corn to grow, they'd passed a slip of the Spoon River, going over a bridge, and they'd passed a graveyard that stood out in the moonlit glow of the early spring night casting out the faint message that where there was a graveyard there had to be a town ... but where was it?
    Now they were angry with one another and their frustrating circumstances. It was the kind of fix Jim Bradley always thought it took a fool to get mixed up with; the kind of situation that ranked with running out of gas, forgetting one's wallet, keys, or losing one's glasses. At the moment, he was so tired and sleepy that he couldn't even see with his glasses, and if Maude said one more word, he feared he'd explode.
    “Hell with it,” Jim announced, his protruding Adam's apple bobbing with irritation. “We'll just park it right here, and to hell with it. Curl up in the back--”
    “Sleep in the car?”
    “Yes!”
    “All right ... I guess....”
    “I'll sleep in front. Come daylight, we'll find the interstate easy enough.”
    “Wish I'd never heard of Sarah Giddings,” she replied, crawling over the seat.
    Jim and Maude Bradley were going to Sarah Giddings's third wedding. Maude and Sarah had been roommates in college, but like Maude, she hadn't finished, marrying instead. In Maude's case, she'd remained with Jim Bradley through the years. “Sarah's somethin',” Jim commented.
    “You men ... all alike.”
    “Oh, Maudie--”
    “So Sarah's got long legs and a pencil-thin waist--”
    “Don't start!”
    “She's a vamp, Jim. Can't keep a man because she runs right over every man she's ever had.”
    Not like you,  Jim thought but did not say. “I got to sleep,” he moaned instead.
    “Sure, honey ... you get some rest now and things'll look better in the morning. Lock your doors.”
    They both worked to be certain all the doors were locked. “Thank God we thought to bring the car blankets,” she said, spreading one over him and then herself. “Night.”
    “Night, Maudie.”
    An hour into sleep Maude felt the impact of something like a tree fall over the rooftop of the car. It made her sit up and exhale with a gulping scream. Jim was also awakened by the sudden impact of something hitting the car. Whatever it was, it had been heavy. The sudden pound was like the slamming of a door. When he and Maude opened their eyes, however, all their attention was on the strange fog that engulfed the car. He had seen fog over the river when they drove past the bridge before, but this was pretty far from there. Valley fog, he reasoned, but it was an unusual fog in that the windows hadn't become wet with condensation. They were clear, so clear you could see the swirls in the fog on the other side of the glass, swirls that spiraled and dipped and did little loop-d-loops. It was like looking through thick gauze.
    “Fog,” he said, having become somewhat mesmerized by the stuff.
    “To hell with the fog! What was that noise? What struck the car?” she wanted to know, couldn't let it go.
    “I don't know.”
    “On your tombstone! That's what they'll put on your tombstone! I--Don't--Know.”
    “Probably a tree branch.”
    “Can't you just get out and check?”
    “It's over.... What's the use of trudging out in the dark and--”
    “Flashlight is in the glove compartment. Hand it to me and I'll have a look!” she said in a tone that clearly challenged Jim.
    He shoved off the blanket about him and smacked out at the button that popped open the little compartment, sending papers and a screwdriver to the floor. He snatched out the flashlight and turned it on and banged his shoulder on the door, forgetting to unlock it first.
    “Christ,” he muttered, “you can't leave it alone, can you?”
    Before she could answer, he got out. Two feet from the car he was out of the eerie fog. It was bizarre. The fog seemed to be seeping from the tree under which they'd parked, and the car was rocking, literally rocking now, with Maude inside. He could hear her gulping