The Taste of Night Read Free

apartments.
    No doors on the apartments. They heard hoarse coughs. Loud snoring. Eerie moans and groans…
    Yes, they’re here.
    Yes, they’re asleep.
    Yes, it’s time.
    Dr. Weller raised his wooden stake and pointed it down the hall. “Let’s kill vampires!” he cried.

chapter four
“GOOD-BYE, LIVVY”
    HE STEPPED INTO THE FIRST APARTMENT, WOODEN stake raised in his right hand, flashlight gripped in his left. He swept the light around the floor. It stopped on a figure sprawled on his back, arms dangling over a nearly flat mattress on the floor.
    Heart pounding, Dr. Weller moved closer. A young man, asleep, his mouth open. And the dark stain on his chin…the dark stain…caked blood. Running down his chin onto his bare chest.
    He must die. I have no choice. I have accepted this responsibility.
    But yet Dr. Weller hesitated. Am I taking a human life?
    No.
    Not human. Not human any longer.
    A scream of agony ended his thought, followed by another shrill scream from down the hall. The hunters had found their prey. Vampires were being slaughtered.
    He set down the flashlight. He raised the pointed stake high in both hands.
    Another scream of horror from another apartment.
    The young man stirred in his sleep. Closed his mouth. Eyes still shut, he licked at the caked blood on his chin.
    With a loud grunt, Dr. Weller arched the stake high, then brought it down with all his force. The point pierced the young man’s chest, then sank deep into his body.
    His arms shot up and his legs kicked. He opened his eyes wide and a scream of pain shattered the silence of the room.
    Dr. Weller buried the stake deeper, pushing hard, gripping it with both hands. The vampire’s eyes sank into their sockets. The arms and legs, still now, began to shrink. A rush of air escaped the vampire’s mouth, and then he didn’t move again.
    Dr. Weller freed the stake with a sharp tug. It pulled out easily, no blood on the tip.
    He grabbed the flashlight and lurched back out into the hall. Screams echoed off the plaster walls. Screams and howls of pain and shock, and the hard-running footsteps of the hunters as they invaded the open apartments to kill their deadly prey.
    Dr. Weller stopped for a moment to catch his breath. Then he dove into the next apartment, the woodenstake trembling in his hand.
    The light danced over the apartment floor. A small, square rug in one corner. A suitcase against the wall. A wooden table cluttered with bottles and tubes and jars of cosmetics.
    Dr. Weller swallowed. A female vampire lived here. His legs suddenly felt weak as he moved toward the bedroom in back. The flashlight grew heavy in his hand. He took a deep breath. Held it. Burst into the room.
    And saw her sleeping on a low cot.
    He recognized her with his first glance. Livvy.
    Oh, no. Livvy.
    She had cut her hair as short as Destiny’s. She wore a long, black nightshirt down over her knees. Her hands were crossed over her chest. In the trembling glow of the flashlight, her short, blond hair shimmered around her pale, sleeping face.
    I can’t do this, he thought.
    I brought her into the world. How can I kill her now? I despise all vampires. A vampire murdered my wife, took away the person most precious to me.
    I hate them. Hate them all.
    But to drive a stake through my own daughter? That’s asking too much of any man.
    Images flashed through his mind, bright and clear as photographs. Livvy as a baby. Livvy and Destiny in their snowsuits building their first snowman. Livvy and her mom giving each other makeovers, bright purple lipstickshining on his wife’s lips, sparkles in her hair.
    Livvy…
    I can’t.
    With a sob, he turned to leave. He stopped when she stirred, groaning in her sleep.
    She’s not my daughter, he realized.
    It’s not Livvy anymore. It’s a deadly creature in Livvy’s body. And I have no choice.
    He moved back to the cot. Raised the stake high in both hands.