Draculas Read Online Free PDF Page B

looking for conversation. She needed a quiet place to think, to rehearse what she was going to say to Clay.

    She checked the time. She'd give the ER staff another ten minutes to deal with Mortimer, then she'd return. Poor guy. Such a kind man. He'd been so good to her. Why on Earth had he jabbed himself with those fangs?

    As she passed the elevator she saw a plaque:
CHAPEL 2
ND
FLOOR
.

    Not a bad idea. She wasn't religious, but it would be quiet and no one would be smoking.

    She hit the UP button and a pair of doors slid open immediately. She rode one stop and was stepping out onto the second floor when three sharp reports echoed faintly through the elevator shaft from somewhere in the hospital. She froze. They seemed to come from below. They almost sounded like...

    No...couldn't be.

    The elevator doors pincered against her and retreated. Puzzled and curious, she stepped back into the cab and punched the LOBBY button. On the way down she heard two more reports, much closer now, and immediately wished she'd stayed on the second floor. Because she knew that sound--knew it all too well from all the shows she'd been to where dealers and collectors demonstrated their wares.

    Gunshots.

    Somebody was shooting up the lobby.

    Her heart began to thud as she hammered her palm against the button bank, pushing them all, any floor, she didn't care, just not the lobby. Wasn't there a way to stop these things? No sooner had the thought cleared than she saw the red STOP button. But as she reached for it the doors slid open.

    Ernie looked up at her from the floor just outside the doors.

    No, not Ernie. Just his head.

    She screamed and began banging on the floor buttons again. She caught a flash of movement beyond Ernie's head. Someone racing for the elevator.

    No--some
thing
. It was shaped like a man and dressed like a man, though its shirt was in tatters. But there the resemblance stopped. Splattered head to toe with blood and its face...a horror of bloody jutting fangs and black eyes.

    And it was charging her!

    Shanna screamed again. As the elevator doors began to slide toward each other, she pressed her palms against them and tried to speed their progress. Through the narrowing opening she saw the fanged monster with its arms extended, its taloned hands scoring the air as it raced toward her.

    The doors...just a few more inches...an inch...

    Steel met steel just as a heavy weight slammed against the other side. The cab began to rise.

    Shanna sobbed with relief and slumped to the floor.

    That
thing
...its wild, insane teeth resembled the skull Mortimer received earlier...the teeth that had pierced Mortimer's throat.

    And despite all the blood, Shanna had recognized the gold belt buckle on its pants.

    She sobbed again, this time in disbelief.

    "Mortimer?"

Lanz
    "HER name's Oasis," the new LPN said from the head of the gurney.

    Her nametag read
Rodriguez
and she was all dark eyes and mocha skin and black hair. Not bad looking if you went for the Hispanic thing. Lanz preferred blondes.

    He shook his head.
Oasis
...was that who her mother was listening to when she conceived her? He brushed the question away and tried to focus on the girl's arm.

    Not an easy thing. But at least the ER was secured. The guard had returned Ernie's head to his body, Winslow was escorting the orderlies and the four new corpses down to the cooler, and two gun-toting uniforms were ready for trouble.

    Okay. Now to Oasis. The kid was sedated with a little diazepam but strapped down anyway. She had five tears in her forearm where she'd been bitten. The EMT stood by to help restrain her if she started struggling.

    Lanz held out his hand. "Lido."

    Rodriguez placed a syringe of local anesthetic on his palm. He was about to begin injecting when the EMT backed away.

    "Ooh, man."

    Lanz glanced up at him. He wore a strange look.

    "Don't tell me you're afraid of needles."

    "No, man." His voice was slurred. "I stick 'em in people alla time. I just