Read Online Vampire State of Mind by Jane Lovering - Free Book Online

heeling himself out of range to crouch behind some decorative stonework; huge pointed ears above a dog-like muzzle, viscous body like mist formed from treacle. ‘It’s a hell-hound!’ I shouted back, not knowing if anyone could hear me above the yelling and the demonic screaming, flattening myself back against the stonework of the Abbey and hoping that those red eyes wouldn’t notice me as fifteen separate guns emptied fifteen separate magazines into the creature.
    They were good and they were efficient. Within seconds the creature was gone, two Hunters were bending over their fallen colleague, several were forming a protective circle around me, and the one Hunter who hadn’t been hiding behind the door when the sociability gene was handed out, was patting my shoulder.
    â€˜It’s okay,’ he said, ‘it’s dealt with.’
    I found I was shaking a bit. This wasn’t what I was here for. I’d come to identify a vampire, something that could be taken down by a good shot; sod it, distract the vampire with a 50 per cent sale leaflet from the Designer Outlet and you wouldn’t even need to aim. This was something else, something serious. ‘No, it –’
    There was an abrupt ‘uggh’ from beyond us, a dragging sound, all over in about two seconds, then everyone was on their feet again.
    â€˜It took Daz!’ someone called. ‘Came from nowhere, and took him!’
    It had left his hat, though. Hell-hounds have a comic-book sense of style.
    â€˜No, he’s here!’ Another voice shouted a reply. ‘We need a medical team, stat, he’s wounded.’
    â€˜You can’t kill it.’ I tried to measure my voice carefully, knowing that they’d only listen if I sounded as though I had authority. ‘You’ll have to trap it, tie it to the earth.’
    A suddenly much-tighter bunch of Hunters grouped around me. ‘How do we do that?’
    My stomach lurched. People could
die.
I could feel the adrenaline-sting in my blood as shock shouldered all my emotions out of the way to make room for action.
    And then, there it was, sliding up from the earth to form on our side of the wall, hanging for a second between reality and nightmare. Truncated muzzle, tiny red eyes like glass beads in a plague-pit and a mouth which swept open, loops of stained saliva roping from it and smelling of everything sour.
    Watching me.
    â€˜What do we
do
?’ The whisper was urgent, as a matter of reflex the guns were all raised and aimed but we all knew how much good they were. ‘You’ll have to tell us, Jess.’
    I kept my eyes on the creature in front of me. ‘Look. There’s an ice-cream van abandoned down the path there; we came past it on the way up. Empty out the freezers.’
    I don’t know how it was communicated, but two Hunters from the back of the group moved slowly away, peeling off towards the path. The hell-hound didn’t seem to notice. It was watching me. Still.
    And now it was getting dark, too. The stone arches of the ruins stood stark against the dying light. The vampires were gathering down by the river. I could feel them and their interest; they’d be able to smell the blood by now.
    So quickly that I didn’t see it coming, the hell-hound struck. Snaked forward as though growing through its own skin, bulging towards me and I turned and fled through the limestone eyebrows of St Mary’s with the Hunters at my back, three of them helping the injured Hunters to run. There was another burst of gunfire – you had to hand it to them, they kept trying – and a muffled yell and then we were all running, flat out across the open parkland, heading downhill towards the path where the ice-cream van was innocently parked.
    The demon wasn’t fast, it wasn’t particularly agile, but it could dematerialise and reappear anywhere. It could also keep this up all night – forever, if it had to. It