by Aimée Thurlo
“That sounded like a shot. Where did it come from?” Muller looked around, trying to find the source.
Another shot rang out, and the van lurched again. “The other rear tire, it’s gone too!” Ingrid looked around outside frantically, then spotted the rifle barrel under the semi.
“Back there, somebody with a rifle! Under the truck!”
“Keep moving! We’re sitting ducks right now, and we can’t leave the van. We’ll fry in five minutes,” Muller yelled.
Ingrid poked the barrel of her pistol out a small opening in the window.
“Don’t! You’ll never hit him from that angle, and our ears will be ringing for the next hour!”
“Damn.” Ingrid shut the window and turned her pistol back toward Lee.
Kurt kept the van rolling on the tire rims, moving less than five miles an hour, down the dirt track toward the Interstate.
“What’ll we do?” Kurt asked. “We can’t go out on the highway like this, and we can’t fix two tires. There’s only one spare.”
Muller looked ahead at the Interstate, constructed on a built-up ridge several feet above the floor of the valley. “There.” He pointed with his pistol. “Go through the underpass. There’s an arroyo on the other side, and a small wooden bridge, I think there’s a house up there somewhere, I remember seeing the lights last night. If we can get up there under the trees, we can pull into some shade and be able to get out of the van to fire down at the dozer if he fixes the track again and comes after us.”
“We can also keep the rifleman at a distance,” Kurt added.
“Once its dark, we’ll have the advantage. Be patient,” Muller added. “It looks like this was the work of some of the locals, not the police, who are still wasting their time farther east. It’s probably the man from that house closest to the hogan, the medicine man. Another friend of yours, Officer Nez?” Muller asked rhetorically.
At the speed the van was moving, it took ten minutes to reach the tree line on the upper slope of the valley. They nearly got stuck once when Kurt got off the tire ruts serving as a road. But Muller was worried about being stranded out in the open under sunlight, and insisted that Kurt keep moving forward.
Once they were under the shade of a tall pine, about fifty feet into the woods, Muller called for a halt. “Now we wait for sundown. Just keep watch for the man with the rifle. If he tries to come across the valley floor, we can catch him in the open.
“He’d have to be crazy to try that,” Kurt said.
“The scales will tip in our favor soon. Once it’s dark, we can track him down and take him out. Then we’ll make one more attempt to get that buried box.” Muller nodded. “Others are counting on us, and time is running out.”
“I know just the way to convince our warrior cop to quit stalling. I’ll start by cutting off the pretty girl’s fingers. Every time fifteen minutes go by that we don’t have the box, she loses another. By the time an hour goes by, she’ll probably have bled to death, though. How fast can you dig, cop?” Ingrid waved her blade around like a sword, making cutting noises until her husband started staring.
“There’s a house around here somewhere, didn’t you say?” Ingrid asked, quickly changing the subject.
“It must be farther up in the trees,” Muller said with a shrug. “We’ll have to keep watch until dark in case whoever is living there stumbles upon us. I doubt we’ll have any problems, though. Of course, in the shade, we can always open the windows and shoot anyone who gets too close. If somebody gets curious and walks up, you two just start making out, and I’ll say we came up here for a picnic. If they get too close, we’ll shoot them, especially if Nez and the woman don’t play along. Okay with you two?” Muller smiled at Lee and Diane.
“You think the driver of the dozer was injured?” Diane asked Lee, trying to ignore the vampires for a moment.
“I think the blade and the heavy segments of the track would have shielded him from the shrapnel. Hopefully, there are tools on the truck and trailer that brought it here, and he can make some repairs. If and when we go back over there after dark, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it coming at us again.” Lee didn’t know how true that was, but he figured that anything to create doubt for the vampires was a useful strategy.
He was glad that Muller had decided to come up this particular slope seeking cover and protection. If anybody was in the area, the vampires would have a greeting party soon after dark, one they’d be surprised to see coming. He and Diane would be the ones knowing what was going on for a change. And this time, all the windows were already open.
After a while, with nothing to do but wait for dubious allies to make their move, he decided to try and warn Diane of what was to come. “Sitting here with you, looking out the window and breathing the fresh air, reminds me of the last time we were in my apartment in Los Cruces. We had dinner first, remember, Agent Lopez? Diane.
“Oh, no, not some romantic b.s. I thought you two didn’t like each other.” Ingrid chuckled. “Now I find out you’ve been spending time together in his apartment.’
“I remember quite a bit about that evening.” Diane’s eyebrows rose, wondering what he was getting at. Then her eyes gleamed. “I’ve never been pawed so much in my life.”
“Tonight I promise things will be different.” Lee smiled as he realized Diane had understood something was up. “Smell the fresh air coming in?” Muller had rolled down one of the windows at the front of the van, which was in the deepest shade, and the breeze was blowing everyone’s scent uphill, the right direction.
“You two shut up. Save your breath for digging. It won’t be long until we can get moving again.”
“Notice that the bulldozer hasn’t moved? It looks like you two are going to be on your own again.” Kurt had been guarding them, and turned to look across the valley. “With any kind of luck, this will be our last night here.”
“That’s what I’m hoping too.” Diane looked up, flashing Ingrid a taunting grin. “Your last time anywhere, as a matter of fact.”
“Shut up,” Ingrid and Kurt said at the same time. Lee reached over and gave Diane’s arm a gentle squeeze of encouragement. She caught his eye after the gesture, and he nodded subtly.
Nearly a hall hour went by, and it was dark in the van, by ordinary human standards, which meant that only Diane’s vision would be limited by the low light. The fact that they were parked among an unfamiliar stand of trees at the edge of a forest didn’t bother the vampires much, Lee was glad to notice. Cockiness could be the weak spot of the strongest foe.
He was the only one who knew there was a skinwalker trail less than fifty feet from where the van was parked. If they’d made it back from Grants, the three Navajo women and the old man might have noticed his patrol car off the road not too far up the Interstate, and been watching for him all day. Now that the scent of three full-blooded vampires, plus himself, was nearly at their front door, he had a feeling the shape-shifters would be paying them a visit.
“Let me go try and see if there’s a vehicle around here we can steal—maybe at that house around here. It would save us some time,” Ingrid suggested.
Lee had been keeping watch, listening and looking for any signs of the skinwalkers. If they were around here at all, they were being extremely careful. He thought he’d seen an animal moving through the brush once, but it could have been just a shadow. If they’d caught his scent already, that would explain their caution, knowing that he knew they were around.
“I’m going with you,” Kurt said. “We’ll watch each other’s backs.”
Ingrid and Kurt stepped out of the partially open door of the van, and walked uphill, disappearing into the woods within a minute.
Trying to appear disinterested, and knowing Muller was watching him, he reached over and touched Diane on the arm. She smiled. “Hungry?”
“I could cat a horse, or even a wolf, if it would stand still long enough.”
He heard the sound of someone crashing through the brush, and w
atched as Ingrid ran up to the van, an anxious look in her eyes. Kurt was right behind her, his pistol out.
“What’s wrong?” Muller said, instantly alert for danger, trying to look past them into the trees.
“I heard something big moving through the brush, and it didn’t sound like a man,” Ingrid said, jumping quickly into the van and pulling out her pistol. Kurt stood just outside by the door, searching the shadows.
“Probably a cow.” Lee shrugged. “The forest service leases grazing rights all over the area. Or could it be a Navajo vampire?”
“I bet it’s your friend with the rifle, or a few local cops planning to ambush us once it got dark. Talk about a dumb move.” Muller climbed out of the van and checked his pistol.
“You could be right, but if it was the guy with the rifle, and he knows what we are, he would have insisted on a daylight attack. Or maybe it’s just whoever lives in that house up the hill. Either way, I think it’s time we gave them a courtesy call, but with Ingrid here guarding our prisoners.” Kurt nodded. “Shall we go hunting?”
“Why do I have to stay here and baby-sit these weaklings?” Ingrid had her courage back, apparently.
“We have more tactical training and combat experience, Ingrid, and you’re finally out of grenades. But you have my permission to slap the woman around if they cause any trouble. Just don’t injure her too much, unless you want to do her share of the digging,” Muller instructed.
“What’s a little digging?” Ingrid winked at Diane, who rolled her eyes.
The male vampires slipped away quickly, working their way uphill about fifteen feet apart from each other, advancing like combat veterans. They had their pistols ready, and were supremely confident. Something moved in the brush farther up the hill, and they quickened their pace, moving farther apart to outflank whatever it was.
Leaves rustled and Ingrid turned just as a golden blur of muscle and teeth leaped into the van through the open window, slamming her across the interior and into the passenger door. Her pistol went flying. The cougar ripped at her throat as Ingrid screamed, trying to hold the animal off with one hand while she groped blindly for her knife with the other.
Lee leaped forward and grabbed Ingrid’s knife off the floor, whirling around just as an enormous gray wolf leaped into the van through the open door. The blade caught the beast on an outstretched leg, and the animal howled, twisting around to snap at Lee’s arm. Lee dove out the door. Diane was already scrambling out the window, and he slammed the door shut and turned to grab her arms and pull. She flew out, knocking him down as she landed on top of him.
“Under the van!” He pushed her beneath and handed her the bloody knife he was holding, then ducked down as the wolf leaped out the window, slashing at his back with razor-sharp canines as it passed over him. Ingrid screamed hysterically inside the van as the cougar continued to maul her. She tried to climb out the passenger window, her bloody hands slipping against the metal, but was pulled back inside.
The wolf, limping badly but full of fight, crept uphill toward the sound of gunshots, ignoring Lee and Diane.
“There are two more skinwalkers. Stay under there, and stab anyone who isn’t me that comes close.”
Lee grabbed a dead limb from a pine and broke it off. Holding the jagged edge forward like a spear, he moved uphill in the direction the vampires had taken, keeping a sharp eye out for the wolf.
He heard shouts ahead, and gunfire. Trying to decide who was more dangerous, he crouched behind a rock and waited, watching. Ingrid’s screams had stopped, and the cougar stepped back outside the van, blood on its muzzle. Lee noticed a light-colored streak on the side of its head, and knew it was the young Navajo woman who looked like Annie.
She stood and watched Lee for a second, then stuck her head beneath the van and growled. With a cry of pain, the cougar jumped back, licking a slash under her eye. The animal slipped off into the forest on the other side of the van.
Lee ran back to the van and opened the door, holding the jagged branch out to stab, if necessary. Ingrid fell out onto the ground, unconscious and bloody from a torn throat and shredded upper arms.
He grabbed Ingrid’s pistol from the slippery, blood-soaked floor of the vehicle, and spotting another weapon and spare magazine under the seat, took those as well. “Diane,” he whispered. “Out this side. Hurry!”
She scrambled out on her belly, watching all around for the wolf. Gunshots and shouting continued up the hill, and somebody yelled out in pain. An animal howled.
Lee turned to shoot Ingrid in the heart, then heard voices approaching.
“She’s down for now,” Diane whispered harshly, grabbing his arm. “It’s payback time for Muller and Kurt.”
“Hide behind the van by the front tire,” Lee whispered. He handed her one of the pistols. She immediately checked to make sure there was a shell in the chamber, then moved away.
Lee ducked behind a tree, pistol in one hand and makeshift spear in the other, and noted that Diane had disappeared around the side of the van.
Muller staggered down the hill, dragging Kurt, whom he held under the arm. Both were covered in blood, and it was obvious that Kurt had suffered a bad head wound.
Muller looked dazed, and he’d been raked badly across the face. One eye was a mass of blood. His pistol was dangling from his bleeding hand.
Before Lee could fire at the man, the cougar with the knife wound on her face leaped from a pine tree and caught Muller in the upper back. The German vampire’s pistol fired into the ground as he fell. Without Muller’s support, Kurt collapsed like a sack of potatoes, facedown.
The cougar grabbed Muller by the neck and shook him like a rag doll, then began to drag him off toward a thicket.
“Finish off Kurt!” Lee yelled, then ran after the cougar hauling away Muller.
The mountain lion, hearing Lee, fled. Muller lay motionless on the ground, alone, just on the other side of the brush.
Lee shot him in the heart three times at point-blank range, then turned around, searching for Diane. He heard two shots. “Diane, where are you?” He ran back down the hill quickly.
“I’m here.” She stood beside Kurt, who had Lee’s makeshift spear impaled in his chest. When she saw Lee approaching, she waved.
A black panther leaped from behind a rock and struck Diane from behind, driving her to the ground.
“No!” Lee ran frantically toward her, hearing shots and not knowing if they were from his pistol or hers. He was there in a few seconds, tackling the big cat and yanking the animal off her with all the strength he could muster. He twisted the panther’s head around, ignoring the teeth sinking into his arm, until the animal’s neck popped. The creature yelped, then sagged lifelessly to the ground.
On his knees, he turned and found Diane lying there on her back, her collar ripped open and blood pouring from her shoulder and neck onto the ground.
“Not as fast as you,” she whispered. “Did we get the vampires?”
Lee nodded. “Don’t talk, don’t move. I can stop the bleeding.” He looked around frantically for something to use as a bandage.
“Never happen.” Diane smiled weakly. Bubbles formed at the wound on her throat, and she coughed. “Is this what dying feels like?”
Lee took her hand, trying to think of a way to save Diane. The van would barely move, and the highway was more than a mile away. Any medical help was a half hour or more down the road. What could he do?
“Never told me about Annie. Guess you’re off the hook.” She had started to drift now, he could see it in her eyes.
“I’ll miss you, night walker.”
Lee held her hand, watching Diane slip away. With Annie, she’d been cold, dead for an hour or more when he found her body. If only he’d been there in time . . .
Lee ran clumsily around to the other side of the van where Ingrid lay sprawled out, unconscious, but healing. The German woman was still alive. Diane had finished Kurt, but not Ingrid. Her blood still might save Diane.
/> Scooping up the injured vampire, he carried Ingrid around to the other side of the van, and lay her down next to Diane. He sat down his pistol and reached into his boot, looking for his knife, then remembered Kurt had taken it hours ago.
Lee felt a hand touch his shoulder, and his heart nearly stopped. He’d been so worried about Diane, he’d forgotten about Ingrid!
Turning, he met her gaze, and the hate inside her was terrible to see. He reached for his pistol, but it was gone, already in her hand.
“Your turn to die!” she screamed, pointing straight at his heart from two feet away.
There was an explosion, and a hole appeared in Ingrid’s chest, spraying blood everywhere. Lee jerked away in shock.
Ingrid dropped the pistol and flopped down on her back, thrashing about like a fish out of water.
Lee turned and saw John Buck standing there, his .30-30 aimed at the woman vampire, who was wounded horribly but still not dead. John was pale, something you don’t see often with a Navajo.
“What does it take to kill a creature like that?” the medicine man asked, his mouth open. He fired again, and the woman trembled as another hole appeared right above her heart. Finally she stopped moving.
“Thank you isn’t enough,” Lee mumbled, looking up at the medicine man, who kept looking back and forth between the dead panther, Ingrid, and blood-soaked Diane.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have shot that night walker again, though. Can you save your friend with your own blood?”
He knew he had to try. He was only a half vampire, but perhaps he could keep her alive long enough to get some help.
Looking around, he found the knife on the ground, and quickly slashed his wrist. He felt cold as the blood oozed out, but knew he had to hurry.
Taking Diane’s wrist, he made another cut, hoping she was still alive and pumping blood. As the precious fluid emerged, he pressed his seeping wound firmly against Diane’s, praying that the blood would mingle, as it had so many years ago with him.