The President's Vampire Read Online Free PDF Page A

hissed.
    Howard rolled over, got his feet under himself and ran as fast as he could.
    There were more. They were coming over the railing, leaping onto the deck. They didn’t carry guns. They didn’t need to. One of Carrillo’s bodyguards gaped at the snake-headed things, and it swung an arm past the man’s gut. He saw a sudden gout of blood as the guard dropped his gun and tried to keep his entrails from falling to the deck.
    The creature leaped on the guard, slashing with both hands and feet, snapping with its jaws. It tore away great strips of flesh.
    Howard broke out of his frozen horror when another one of them nearly caught him. He dodged, but the thing tagged him on the arm. His whole side went numb and he ran.
    He got to the foredeck before he realized his arm was laid open to the bone from shoulder to wrist. The cut was so clean it looked like it had been done with a scalpel.
    Something blotted out the stars for a moment. It took him a second to realize it was a parachute. It wasn’t drifting lazily, the way he’d seen other skydivers come in for landings. It was dropping like it was tied to a rock.
    A second later, something hit the rear deck hard.
    Howard grabbed his arm and tried to stop the bleeding as best he could. His hand was slick and red in seconds. He kept moving, back to the bridge. He had to get out of here. Start the engines, raise the anchor, move the boat. Get out of here. Get free.
    By repeating that over and over, Howard thought he might stay sane.
     
     
    CADE OPENED HIS CHUTE eight hundred feet above sea level. It was not nearly enough time to disperse all the momentum from the fall, but he was out of time.
    Besides, he was a bit more durable than the average paratrooper.
    He hit the deck at close to seventy-five miles an hour, cracking the hand-rubbed oak planks. He popped the release on his harness.
    The chute billowed over the side and into the water. Cade took a second to survey the scene.
    It was a small slice of Hell.
    The Snakeheads were all over the deck, biting and slashing wildly at the human passengers. Some of the men had guns, and they emptied whole clips, trying to hit the reptilian creatures. A lot of bullets flew wide. Some hit the other people as the Snakeheads twisted and danced out of the way, impossibly sinuous and agile. Two of the things attacked each other, fighting over the carcass of a body with several hunks already bitten away.
    Cade heard the skitter of claws on the deck behind him. He turned to see the Snakehead already leaping at him, all of its limbs out and claws up, ready to tear him to shreds.
    It was very fast.
    Cade was faster.
    He stomped down harder on the plank under his foot, tearing it loose from the deck. The jagged edge came up into the air—right into the path of the creature.
    The Snakehead tried to change direction in midair. It didn’t work. Gravity and momentum did the rest.
    Cade moved before the thing stopped twitching. There was a whole boat of these creatures, and only one of him.
    And he could not allow a single one to get away.
     
     
    HOWARD WAS PRETTY SURE he was about to die. He was in an equipment locker just off the pilothouse. When he had tried to go inside, to get to the controls, one of the creatures had reared up through the broken window and spat at him. The spit—or venom or whatever it was—sprayed into his eyes, onto his skin and into his wound.
    He heard more hissing from the Snakeheads, but fewer screams. There was no more gunfire. Occasionally, he would hear the sound of claws on the deck as one of the Snakeheads ran by his hiding place. He may have blacked out for a time. He wasn’t sure.
    It was quiet when he opened his eyes again. He could see. And he didn’t feel as terrible. In fact, he was feeling strong enough to make a run for it. He listened closely, but heard nothing nearby. He decided to chance it.
    He carefully opened the locker and crawled out. His arm still hung limply at his side, but other than that,