30 Days of Night: Light of Day Read Online Free Page A

up?”
    “No …”
    “Then you’re running out of time. Let’s get this done. The first step on a great journey, that’s what you said before.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Claiming our heritage, you said. Right?”
    “That’s right.”
    “So let’s do it.”
    “Okay,” Walker said.
    “For reals?”
    “For reals.”
    His mind made up again, Walker went into the kitchen and got the sharp knife he had had in mind the whole time. He wanted to act while the desire still raged inside him, before he had a chance to think too much again. Knife in one hand and empty glass in the other, he rushed down the stairs so fast he nearly lost his balance. But he reached the bottom. Missy was there, hands behind her back, heavy ropes lashing her to wooden support beams in the unfinished room. She was still in her gray sweats, almost the same color as the concrete floor. A rag had been stuffed into hermouth, held there with duct tape, but the fear in her eyes spoke loud and clear. She was sexy, like the hot girl victim in a horror movie, breasts prominent against the sweatshirt, sweat adding a sensual glow to her skin.
    Her fear gave Walker strength. She had refused him, humiliated him, taunted him. She would never do that to anyone else.
    She bucked and twisted as he approached her. She couldn’t get away, though, couldn’t break the ropes or the beam. “Don’t worry, Missy,” he said. “It won’t hurt for long. And you’ll be making history. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?”
    “Just cut her,” Mitch urged.
    Walker moved quickly to her side and just cut her.
    It was harder than he had expected. Slicing through the skin was no problem, but muscle offered more resistance. And what else, he wasn’t sure, cartilage or bone or whatever. He worked at it, though, and in moments he had opened up her throat. Blood spewed from her like water from a burst pipe. Her eyelids fluttered and her eyes rolled back in her head, and a series of racking shudders coursed through her body.
    Walker held the empty glass under her neck. Blood splashed his hands, his clothes, spattered on the floor. But it went into the glass, too. He kept it there until it was half full.
    Missy slumped forward in her bonds, small aftershocks still twitching her body. Her feet, tied at the ankles, beat out a tap dance on the floor.
    When she finally went still, Walker held the glass up toward Mitch. “Cheers,” he said.
    “Bottoms up, man,” Mitch said. “Do it!”
    Walker sloshed the liquid around in the glass, willing it to taste like strawberry-flavored milk. He held the rim to his lips and tilted. His mouth filled with thick, warm blood.
    He swallowed.
    First, he gagged, spraying blood all over Missy’s already blood-soaked body. Trying to fight it back, he dropped the glass, which shattered on the floor and drenched his shoes. He clapped a hand over his mouth.
    But his stomach heaved and he bent forward, vomiting on the woman he had just killed. He dropped to his knees and kept it up until his guts were empty and nothing but bitter strings of bile would come out.
    “That’s attractive, man,” Mitch said. “Nice going.”
    “Fuck you!” Walker cried. He wiped his mouth, his runny nose. “I didn’t know it would be like that.”
    “It’s not that bad,” Mitch said.
    “Did you even have any?”
    “While you were busy puking on her, yeah. I had what I could get that didn’t have your chunks in it.”
    “Well, aren’t you badass?”
    “Hey, Walker, ease up. It’s just the first time. It’ll get better.”
    Walker swallowed. “You think so?”
    “I know it. Come on, we’ve got to empty her out.”
    The concrete floor had a drain in the center, and they had already brought a hose down from the front yard. The idea was to empty as much blood as they could from her body, wash it into the sewer system, then dump her someplace where she would be easily found. The appearance of a bloodless corpse, while the vampire controversy still raged in the