Travis appeared beside his brother just as Michael started to recover. The youth grabbed Michael by the head, took a deep breath, then wrenched his brother’s head so violently that it ripped clean off his neck.
Michael was finally dead.
Ryan peeled his eyes away from the macabre scene when he sensed his sister approaching. She placed a comforting arm around her boyfriend’s hips. Travis still clutched Michael’s head tightly in his hands. Eventually he let it go and it dropped to the ground, landing with the sound of an egg shell cracking.
Chelsea looked at her brother, her eyes that surreal mix of amber and blue. She opened her mouth and hissed at him, lethal fangs protruding from her jaw.
Ryan was completely taken aback by it all, seeing his sister transformed into what she was now. At that moment he really feared she was about to kill him. He waited, all the superhuman strength in him now gone. He was a mere human again, standing in the midst of two live vampires.
For a while no one moved and not a word was spoken. Ryan could cut the tension in the air with the knife he still carried in his pocket.
Then Travis suddenly turned to him and said,” You have Doctor Becker’s serum, don’t you?”
Ryan nodded and walked over to the doorway. From the bag he removed both loaded injector guns. Travis took one from him and immediately injected himself. A moment later he was lying on the floor, out cold. Chelsea glanced down at Travis for a long moment, then slowly she extended her arm to Ryan so he could administer the dose.
With his sister now lying unconscious on the ground, Ryan had nothing else to do but wait for the transformation to take place.
Forty Three
Five days later
Ryan was sitting on the balcony of his twentieth floor highrise apartment. He had a coffee on the table before him and no cigarettes. The sky was rendered an attractive shade of cobalt blue as the sun dropped in the western sky.
He’d just gotten off the phone to Tessa, his real estate agent. His late parents’ Sunshine Coast home was now under contract. That was a huge relief. He’d also just arranged to have his stricken car towed to a wreckers. It was time for a new one.
His mind wandered back to the events of the other night and what had transpired between then and now.
The transformation in Chelsea and Travis had taken several hours. Both sweated profusely throughout the process and often appeared racked with pain and in the terrifying midst of unimaginable nightmares. The curious thing was, as each of them was on the verge of awakening, they both broke into beaming smiles before opening their eyes. It was like they had been reborn, and in a way they had.
Outside they’d found Selena wandering around aimlessly in the cow paddock. Travis had hugged his sister tightly and, to Ryan’s utter amazement, Chelsea had done the same to him. At first Selena wasn’t too happy about being human again, but when dawn broke and she felt the sun on her skin for the first time in ten years, her bitterness quickly dissipated as the endless night disappeared.
Last night Chelsea had brought Travis around for dinner and it had given Ryan a chance to get to know the young man a little better; and as a human, not a vampire. He could see his sister was very much in love with the guy. Chelsea still harbored some ill feelings toward her brother, but she had softened considerably and Ryan was confident they could soon be friends again like they used to be. However, she still refused to return to school, despite the fact that Travis pledged to go to university and further his studies in medicine and genetic engineering.
Of course there had been a number of interrogations with police regarding the events of the other night and the deaths of Detectives David Marks and Scott Richards. Ryan, Selena, Travis and Chelsea were all interviewed on a number of occasions. In the end, with some serious and animated input from Doctor Marlon Becker, the police decided that the four weren’t crazy and pinned all the recent murders - including those of Marks and Richards - on Michael, Paul and Kelly. Which, in the end, was exactly how it had been anyway, and DNA testing proved that. Apart from one moment of madness from Selena, they were all innocent. Selena was off the hook and Ryan was eternally grateful the police never found anything to charge her with.
Both Marks and Richards were to be honoured with State Funerals next week. Marks was also credited with solving the mysterious murders in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
The story made national front page and headline news. Ryan was portrayed as some sort of hero. His phone had been running hot for days with offers of television appearances, magazine articles and even a book deal. His detective business had received a huge boost due to all the publicity. Calls from potential clients - both locally and interstate - were coming in all day long.
Right now Ryan was faced with a new dilemma and it made him smile. On his iPhone there were two recent text messages; one from Angela Cartwright and one from Selena Thorne. Both wanted to take him out to dinner.
Only problem was, which one was he going to choose?
THE END
Read the Sequel
Night Realm 2: Scarlett Dawn
Other Novels by Darren G. Burton
Power Play
Minotaur
Scarecrow
Silhouette
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Night Realm Page 28