That Thing At the Zoo - 01 Read Online Free PDF Page B

useless now, and the Nosferatu had circled around. Flying towards us and picking up speed.
    I threw it down and pulled out the Desert Eagle. My fingers closed on Jimmy’s shirt. Wadding the thin cotton up, I jerked him along. My feet pounded the grass as I ran toward a rock outcropping that was about twenty feet away. The skin across my shoulder rippled with sound waves as the Nosferatu shrieked, speeding after us, hot on our trail. The high pitch of it made my eardrums go tinny and start to burn and itch.
    The rocks were granite slabs that had been quarried in Georgia and moved here. They were stacked in a shelf. Three of the slabs made an opening that looked like me and Jimmy could fit in. We had to get out from the open sky; the Nosferatu had too much advantage without the shotgun to equalize our odds.
    We ran, the bloodsucker gaining on us every step. The opening was getting closer, but it was still too far. The Nosferatu’s shrill cry drove into my brain like a railroad spike, shooting pain from my ears to my teeth and up into my brain to complete the circuit. The pounding of my heart made the pain boil inside my head. Red and black swirled the edges of my vision. Gusts of air from the vampire’s wings beat at my back. The tips of claw-fingered wings brushed the back of my neck as I threw Jimmy into the cave in the rocks.
    He tumbled like a bowling ball, crying out as his shin banged against the stone. My feet flew out as I lay into a slide that skittered me across the dirt and into the cave on top of him.
    The Nosferatu slammed into the entrance a split second later. She couldn’t fit, too wide across the shoulders with the wings. She sprawled across the entrance, legs and arms splayed out, blocking out the light of the moon. Red eyes flared as she screamed. We were so close that cold, wet spittle flew across both of us. Her teeth gnashed as she folded in a wing and reached towards us. Her hand was gnarled, knotted with tendons and undead strength. The talons on each finger clicked and clacked as they groped in, trying to touch flesh and blood.
    I pumped a whole clip into her.
    Ten bullets in less than ten seconds. They exploded out of the barrel, spitting fire behind them. The concussion of the blasts pushed the air out of our space as each silver bullet struck undead flesh.
    They tore through her, tumbling as they hit, making a bigger wound. Black, dead blood blossomed out of her chest and sprayed back over my face. I was blind as a bat. The vampire blood was cold and sticky, half congealed. My fingers swiped my eyes, clearing my vision, as my other thumb punched the button to release the spent clip. The Nosferatu exploded away in a whoosh of air. I slapped a new clip in and jacked the slide. Another bullet locked and loaded.
    I lay still, waiting for the Nosferatu to try again, staring at the night sky through a haze of cordite. It wasn’t dead. Hurt, but not dead. Silver bullets can kill a vampire but only if you take the heart and take the head. Destroying a bloodsucker’s brain and heart is the only way to make sure they are dead. Anything else they can heal with enough time or blood to feed on.
    Well, technically you could trap them in the sun or a vat of holy water. Both would kill them with enough exposure. The sun burns them away like radiation on a tumor and holy water is equal to acid for them.
    You could also put a wooden stake through its heart. That kills a vampire. I don’t know why it works, just that it does, but good luck getting a wooden stake through a vampire’s defenses and its breastbone.
    My ears were filled with the whooshing of my heartbeat and breathing. My hearing was slowly coming back after being obliterated by the blast of my gun. The Desert Eagle trembled in my hands from adrenaline burning through my veins. Every nerve was lit up, looking for the vampire.
    Something grabbed my leg behind me.
    My heart slammed into my ribcage. I jerked the gun down, finger tight on the trigger,