Blood Work Read Free Page B

everything else.
    Behind me,
Roberts was a heartbeat and soft breaths. I felt it as he rubbed at
the wet patch of paint on his chest, sensed his nose wrinkling as
the garlic I mixed with the water-paint made itself known. He
didn’t want to be here, but he was, for me and he knew that I
wouldn’t let him get hurt.
    I pushed past
him, widening my reach. As I’d thought, there was a girl just
around the corner. Fast, panicked gasps; heart beating a frantic,
terrified race. She was bleeding, puncture wounds in her wrist,
which was also broken from the strong grip of the vampire towering
over her. It was male, tall, lean, powerful. His heart was also
racing, but in excitement, lust, desire... hunger .
    Shit. The mob
had finally realised what they were, what they needed to satisfy
them.
    They were
young. That much I had worked out from Barry’s descriptions of
their attacks. Turned less than a month, I guessed. I didn’t have a
lot of experience with vampires that young. They’re mostly kept
within the clan, hidden away until they’d finished the
transformation from human to monster. In those first few weeks,
they’re incredibly vulnerable. Physically weak and mentally
compromised as they try to reconcile their past as normal people
with normal wants and needs, with the creature they’re becoming. At
about the same time the blood lust became overpowering, their
memories of being human faded and their psychic abilities kicked
in, leaving nothing but the predator, the insatiable hunter.
Everyone around them becomes food. That’s when they’re let out of
hiding and set upon an unsuspecting world.
    This mob,
however. According to Barry they couldn’t mesmerize their prey,
were strong but not pull-limbs-from-sockets-strong, were fast but
couldn’t blur out of sight and, most importantly, hadn’t tried to
suck the blood from any of Barry’s patrons.
    Until now.
    While I was in
the zone, I reached further still. Feeling my way through the maze
I found six more humans—the players plus the attendant—and eleven
more vampires. An even dozen.
    I came back to
myself, the music slamming in around me with an almost concussive
weight. I’d never gone up against so many vampires before. Even
young ones like these.
    I needed my
partner, and I needed her now.
    The girl
screamed again, her cries were twisted by pain, mixed with pleas
and promises. Yup. These vampires had finally figured out what food
would ease the ache in their bodies. Just as clearly, they hadn’t
yet mastered the art of psychically subduing said food so it didn’t
struggle, or feel pain.
    I raced down
the narrow corridor, Eagle at the ready. Roberts pounded along
behind me. I didn’t slow at the corner, just barrelled around it
and snapped the gun out. Thanks to my psychic recon, I knew exactly
where the bastard would be and I snapped off a shot before he even
realised I was there.
    The paintball
missed his left shoulder by a tiny margin, exploding in a splatter
of green against the wall. The vampire jerked back, probably more
in surprise than anything else. He dropped the girl he’d pinned to
the wall and she hit the floor, falling to the side with a soft
moan. Ignoring her for the moment, I trained my laser-sight on the
vampire.
    In the
shifting gloom and flashing neon, I couldn’t get a good look at
him, but at a very rough guess, I figured he was no more than
eighteen years old, a surfer by the broad shoulders, trim waist,
dreads of sun-bleached hair and rock-hard abs. He wasn’t wearing a
shirt, but had on board-shorts and, I kid not, flip-flops.
    His only other
adornments were a blood-splattered chin and neck, and two very long
fangs jutting down from his top jaw, adequately displayed as he
hissed at me.
    I took aim and
put the next paintball in his mouth.
    Smoke poured
out from between the vampire’s green smeared lips. His eyes rolled
wildly as he tried to scream but the paint had already eaten
through his tongue and throat and all that came out