Vigil Read Online Free Page B

badly healed old wound.
    The vampires would sense his helplessness. They would come. They must come.
    He was the perfect bait.
    Tom’s team watched from the shadows as he began to run down the centre of the street.
    He ran in a hobble, his old heart pounding and sweat pouring already. The sun pounded down. Blinding for a human. Agony for a vampire.
    He pictured his daughter as he ran. Ten years gone, her face mutated by the hunger, then by a shotgun blast in her face.
    He had buried her ruined body in pieces ten feet apart with a silver coin pushed deep within each piece of her flesh.
    That focused his mind. He did not want to end like that. But they all knew the risks. Rather a shot to the head than be one of them.
    He stumbled on a shattered brick and rolled onto one shoulder. The impact jarred his teeth and took his wind.
    Up, Tom. Up. Run.
    He stood up to run again. Saw his marker. He had a hundred feet to go. He checked behind himself and breathed a sigh of relief. Set his feet, turned back, and his heart skipped a beat.
    A vampire. Upwind.
    It should not have been able to scent the blood upwind. Tom felt his heart kick in again. They had failed.
    The vampire stood by the trap, as if he knew it was there. Perhaps he did. Their senses were more finely tuned than humans. Maybe some animal instinct in these perfect hunters told them what Tom was attempting.
    There was nothing he could do. He was going to die but he wouldn’t stand still and bare his neck in expectation.
    As he turned to flee the last shred of hope died. Another vampire approached downwind, strolling. It looked like he was smiling, even though he was squinting heavily. The sunlight would be agony on their eyes, but the smell of blood would be a strong incentive.
    Effectively blind, the two vampires still held the upper hand.
    Tom was going to die for being a fool. Both ends of the street were blocked and he didn’t have the luxury of leaping over houses to make his escape. His bowels turned to jelly. It was hard to keep his legs straight.
    The vampires were in no rush.
    ‘Fuck it,’ he said, and drew his knife. He had no one left and his days were long. If he was going to die, he would do his damnedest to take one with him.
    He flicked his head side to side, trying to watch them both. They walked toward him. Easy, ambling. Knowing where the rubble was, even blind.
    They were a team. It wasn’t something he’d seen before. Vampires, sharing. Perhaps they would fight over him. Perhaps they would kill each other.
    Then they ran .
    Tom chose the one ahead and ran , too, to meet his death. He screamed as he ran. There were words there, but he never knew what they were.
    His knife plunged into the vampire’s chest as its fist came crashing down, driving Tom backward through the air. The vampire’s head exploded. Tom landed on his bad leg, hard, and cried out. He turned to face the other. He wouldn’t meet his death on his knees. But the vampire was on the floor, screaming and cursing, bucking and tearing at the net which encased it. The net burned it. A chary stink came from the vampire.
    Samson came out with a flame thrower and stood over Tom.
    ‘Did you get any on you? In your mouth?’
    Tom was too shaken to answer.
    Sam pointed the flickering jet at Tom. ‘Did you get any fucking blood on you!? Tom!’
    Marie, all skin and bone, ran out and pushed the flamethrower aside.
    ‘Stop it, Sam! Tom, can you hear me?’
    Tom stopped screaming with a hitching breath. When he spoke his voice shuddered and his shoulders shook.
    ‘Clean me off and net me. Just in case.’ He pointed to the vampire whose head was all over the pavement. ‘Burn it.’
    Samson grinned. Flames spewed from the tip of the flamethrower and the smell of scorched meat and burning fuel wafted on the air.
    Marie cradled her rifle in the crook of her arm, but the safety was off, and she scanned the cityscape endlessly.
    ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Back to the van. We haven’t got much