Page 75 of Starved Until Sunset

“The same thing just happened to Cody,” Oliver said, gesturing toward Demetrius. “It landed, grabbed him, and took off again.” He shook his head slowly. “It’s got to be incredibly strong to be able to just lift him up like that.”

“You saying Cody’s fat?” Clarabell asked.

“What? No!” Oliver looked slightly panicked. “I mean, Cody’s a big guy. Like, tall, and broad.” He held his hands out away from his own shoulders as he looked around at each of them, his frantic gaze finally resting on Demetrius. In a voice that grew steadily quieter, he said, “He used to play football, so he’s big.”

“I was teasing you,” Clarabell said. “Sorry.”

“Not funny,” Oliver said.

“It kind of was,” Eileen said, then looked back at Deputy Walsh. “When did it take Deputy Durant?”

“Maybe thirty or forty minutes ago. I tried to follow it… follow her, in the car, but it flew too fast and off over some fields. I lost sight of them. I called it in, but I was already just outside the hospital here and thought I’d come in and talk to Dr. Graham since he’s…” She made a face and waved a hand slightly. “One of them.”

“I agree,” Demetrius said. “We’re wasting time. Let’s go.”

They moved as a group toward the elevators. Demetrius figured their expressions and the fact that a Sheriff’s deputy was with them convinced other visitors to give them a wide berth. When the elevator arrived, they crowded inside and listened to the oddly arranged instrumental version of “Bad Moon Rising” as it carried them down into the depths of the hospital.

“We’ll find him,” Amelia whispered from Demetrius’s side, and squeezed his hand a squeeze. “We’ll find them all.”

Demetrius gave her a tight smile, and when the doors opened on the familiar white-tiled hallway, he and Deputy Walsh led the group to the stainless steel double doors and pushed inside. The morgue was in complete disarray, and the doctor was straddling the chest of a young man who struggled beneath him on the tile floor. Dr. Graham held a wooden stake in both hands and was trying to force it down into the chest of the man who writhed and hissed and shrieked up at him, exposing fangs as he clutched Dr. Graham’s wrists and held the stake at bay.

“The fuck?” Deputy Walsh said, immediately drawing her gun. “What’s going on?”

Their arrival distracted the vampire on the floor, and Dr. Graham took the opportunity to drive the stake into the man beneath him. They all cried out, Demetrius included, as the point pierced the man’s chest with a terrible cracking sound. Black blood erupted around the stake, and a foul stench filled the air as the vampire’s shriek climbed in volume and pitch. Then the whole body collapsed into a thick puddle of dark and noxious fluid, and Dr. Graham fell into the middle of it, the stake loosely held in one hand. He was on his hands and knees in the mess as he looked at them and smiled shakily.

“My apologies,” he said, getting to his feet and slinging some of the goop from his hand and onto the floor. “I was having a little trouble with one of the bodies.”

“Jesus H. Christ on a treadmill,” Eileen said.

“Oh crabapple trees,” Amelia said, one hand going to her throat. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

Demetrius rubbed small circles on her back. “You’re okay. We’re all safe here.”

“I don’t think any of us will ever be safe again,” Amelia said, unable to take her eyes off the mess on the floor.

“What brings you all back?” Dr. Graham looked hopeful. “Have you found Zenona during the daylight?”

“Found Zenona?” Deputy Walsh looked at Demetrius as she holstered her weapon. “Is he kidding?” She looked back at Dr. Graham. “That thing that tried to grab me has been busy tonight, Doc. It’s grabbed Deputy Durant…” She gestured toward Demetrius. “And Cody Bower. Just came down out of the sky and snatched them up.”

“Oh,” Dr. Graham said. He perched on a stool at the back of the room. He raised a hand to rub his forehead, realized it was still covered with vampire slime, and went to the sink where he scrubbed his hands clean.

“Oh?” Dave took a step forward, hands fisted at his sides. “That’s all you’ve got? You’ve been tracking this guy for decades. You’re our only hope to get my brother and everyone else back alive, and all you can say is ‘oh’?”

Dr. Graham dried his hands with a paper towel and dropped it into a trash bin. He was nodding as he turned to face them again. “You’re right, of course. And I will help as much as I can. But I have no answers or quick solutions for you right now. Tell me what this creature looked like.”

“Bat face,” Demetrius said. “With a human body, pale and wrinkled, sexless. And wings.”

“Big bat wings,” Deputy Walsh added. “And big claws on its hands.”

Dr. Graham pressed his lips tight and nodded. “Father has indeed arrived.”

“Father?” Oliver said. “The vampire who turned you and your brother?”

“Yes. He is ancient, and has become more bat than human. From the descriptions, he’s become more ferocious as well.”

“Oh, no,” Amelia said quietly, putting a hand to her throat. “Oh, Cody.”

Demetrius would not let himself think about anything other than finding and saving Cody, Zenona, and Lucia. There was no other option in his mind. He folded his arms, squared his feet, and fixed Dr. Graham with a steady look.