The Vampire Next Door Read Online Free PDF Page A

strap the crossbow onto my back.
     
    I stopped at the end of the aisle, debating where to go. He would probably come down the aisle where I’d just entered, so I looked around an end-cap full of bottles of bleach, searching the long wall aisle that ran the length of the store. I saw no one, and slipped around in front of the bleach, waiting.
     
    Sure enough, the guy came down the electronics aisle, strolling right down the center, as if there was no possibility whatsoever that I might be able to fight back. His arrogance grated on my nerves. I sank to one knee, putting the crossbow on the floor, and raised the gun. “Freeze, or I’ll shoot,” I said.
     
    He stopped, and I saw a flash of irritation in his expression as he looked around for me. I squeezed myself a little closer to the shelf, trying to stay inconspicuous. My hands were steady as I gripped my 9mil.
     
    Before the outbreak, I’d fired a gun maybe twice in my whole life. Cole had a few of his own, but I’d had no interest in them. Eddie had set up a range at the park for me and had taught me to shoot. I was good, but maybe not as confident when facing off against survivors as I would have liked. It still felt wrong to me that I couldn’t trust humans anymore. We were survivors- we ought to be banding together, not hurting each other.
     
    The man’s eyes locked onto me suddenly, and he growled, turning his rifle towards me. I jumped backwards just as a bottle of bleach exploded beside me, soaking my arm. The shelf against the wall rattled, and I realized with a sinking feeling that the bullet had gone right through the bottle and embedded itself in the wall. That could have been me. This guy’s not messing around.
     
    I snatched up the crossbow, turned and ran towards the wall. I needed to get out of here, extra food be damned.
     
    My ears were ringing from the rifle discharge, and I scrambled to think of an escape route. There was no way I’d be able to get out of the store and start the scooter without him getting off at least a shot or two.
     
    I turned right and yelped as I found myself face to face with a new man- a man with wild eyes that flashed crimson, even in the faint illumination coming from outside.
     
    A vampire.
     
    He’d been hiding in the back corner of the store, just waiting for someone stupid enough to walk into his trap, like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web.
     
    I lunged backwards, trying to escape his grasping hands, but he followed, and I crashed against an assortment of hanging gift bags. I brought up the crossbow and squeezed the trigger, and the bolt embedded itself in his shoulder with a dry thump .
     
    “Missed my heart,” he rasped, his voice cracking. I could almost hear the inflection of thirst in his tone, the insatiable lust for blood. His skin was tightly drawn over the bones of his face, his complexion sallow. There was no surety in his shambling gate. He lacked all of the commanding strength that was customary with vampires, the confident sense of power that came with being undead.
     
    He was starving, and because he was starving, he was weak.
     
    One small stroke of good luck.
     
    I lifted my foot and kicked him in the midsection as hard as I could. His fingernails scrabbled at the leather of my boots as I pushed him away, but he couldn’t get a good grip and stumbled backwards, snarling as he lost his balance and went crashing into an end-cap full of boxed puzzles. From the corner of my eye I saw my human attacker emerge from the electronics aisle. I shoved off from the wall and darted past the vampire.
     
    The rifle went off again, echoing through the store and ringing in my ears, and I ran for the door. I dropped my gun into my shopping bag, too desperate to bother trying to put it in my waistband, and dug my key from my pocket.
     
    The clouds had advanced much faster than I’d anticipated, and it was cloudy when I emerged from under the store’s covered walkway. I cursed and threw