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Chapter One
"They're cockier than
usual tonight," TJ Evans whispered to his partner
as a gang of five young men ambled down the deserted
streets of inner-city Houston, kicking soda cans and
talking loud enough to wake even the undead. "As
expected. They're looking for anyone who might have
ignored the mandatory evacuation order."
Ryan nodded in the dark. "Probably
getting hungry."
"Good, when they're hungry
they don't always think straight."
It was the witching hour,
the time of night you didn't want to be out on the streets
with all the creepy and dangerous people littering the
hours between midnight and four.
TJ and Ryan crouched behind
the abandoned automobile they'd chosen as cover for
their mission. As cops assigned to the Houston Special
Task Force, they were responsible for keeping the streets
clean of the worst kind of riffraff, and the guys headed
their way qualified-young, aggressive and vampires.
He recognized them from the sketches at the station.
"Ready, Ryan?" TJ
asked.
Ryan nodded and fitted a wooden
dart into his crossbow.
About the time he was set,
a woman emerged from an evacuated apartment building,
carrying a laundry basket piled with belongs.
The vampires whooped and made a beeline for their first
unwilling victim of the evening. Halfway to her car,
the woman spotted the men, her eyes growing round. She
darted a look from her car standing against the curb
and back to the doorway as if debating which she could
make faster.
"She's mine." The
short, stocky vampire wearing a black T-shirt and sporting
dragon tattoos on each arm led the way.
The woman dropped the basket
and dove for the car, fumbling to fit her key in the
lock.
"It's show time."
TJ pressed the stock of his recurve crossbow against
his shoulder. "Let's go."
The two cops stepped from
behind the rusted-out vehicle.
Ryan called out, "Halt or I'll shoot!"
TJ snorted and sighted his
weapon on the man in the lead. "You're such a rookie."
But the shout brought the
gang of men to a standstill, and they turned toward
the two cops. Their leader laughed out loud. "You're
kidding, right? You want us to stop?"
"Houston Police, step
away from the woman," TJ said, his weapon at the
ready.
"And who's going to
stop us? You?" The guy with the tattoo dragons
threw back his head and laughed, his long white incisor
teeth reflecting the light from the nearby streetlamps.
"Can't say we didn't
warn you." With his hand firmly wrapped around
the grip, his sights targeting the first man's chest,
TJ squeezed the trigger, sending the solid wooden dart
straight into the man's heart.
The laughter died on the tattooed
man's lips and his eyes widened. As he glanced down
at the wooden dart embedded into his heart, his body
jerked and then jerked again. Within seconds he shook
so hard he fell to the earth, screaming, his flesh dissolving
into dust until the wind lifted his remains and blew
them away.
The other four men stared
down at where their leader had been. By the time they
looked back at the two cops, Ryan squeezed his trigger,
another dart flying into the chest of the nearest man.
TJ had already reloaded and fired off his next round
when the gang of three remaining vampires turned and
attacked. He was able to fire his last round into the
heart of one, dropping him in mid-lunge. Neither TJ
nor Ryan had time to reload. They moved back, pulling
wooden stakes from the knife sheaths on their belt.
The two vampires left standing
leaped onto the hood of the abandoned vehicle and roared,
flashing their teeth. The bigger vampire growled and
dropped to the ground, stalking toward TJ.
You're in luck. I believe
the only good cop is a dead cop."
"Is that so?" TJ
said. He braced his legs for the attack, adrenaline
pulsing through his veins giving him an almost orgasmic
rush. God, he loved his job! "We may have a bit
of a problem. I believe the only good vampire is a dead
vampire."
The vampire leaped at TJ,
knocking him to the ground. For a moment, TJ's hand
loosened around the stake. If he didn't get it into
the vamp's heart quickly, he didn't stand a chance.
Vampires had superhuman strength and resilience. TJ's
only advantage was his ability to think under pressure.
His opponent clamped clawlike hands into his shoulders
and leaned forward, his lips peeled back from long,
wicked teeth.
"No!" TJ yelled,
acting as though the vampire had him now. But when the
teeth neared his neck, TJ raised his hand in a sudden
upward thrust, driving the stake through the man's ribs
into his heart. He collapsed on top of TJ, his body
shuddering and twitching as he withered into a cloud
of dust scattered by the wind.
TJ rolled to his feet, brushing
the dust from his shirt.
The other vampire had Ryan
pinned to the pavement.
"Need help, partner?"
TJ asked, retrieving the stake from the ground.
"Nope," Ryan grunted,
straining to keep the vampire's teeth from sinking into
his neck. "Got this one under control."
TJ chuckled. "Looks to
me like he has you." He raised the stake and plunged
it through the vampire's back into his heart. "Come
on, quit playing around. It's nearing daylight and the
end of our shift."
Ryan remained pinned for several
more seconds by the dying vampire. Then he stood and
brushed the dust from his shirt. "You take all
the fun out of the job."
"You'll get over it."
TJ glanced around for the woman in time to see the taillights
of her compact car disappearing around a corner. He
stared down at the dirt on his uniform and sniffed.
"God, I hate the smell of dusted vampires. What
say you and me head for the station?"
Ryan stooped to gather his
recurve crossbow. "You're on."
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