Vigil Read Online Free PDF Page A

time.’
    Samson nodded. He put his fingers to a black wire running around his throat.
    ‘Lucius. Pick us up. Be fucking quick about it, would you?’
    Tom put his face down to protect his eyes as Marie blasted him with the net.
    Marie was small, but strong. Tom wasn’t struggling, but with the net on he was dead weight. She shouldered him easily, nonetheless.
    Samson couldn’t afford the proximity, but he was a bull. He grabbed the screaming vampire by the ankle and dragged it. He held the flamethrower out to one side, sweeping, checking their back trail.
    It was just a matter of time before more came.
    Lucius bumped and rocked the van over the ruined road toward them. It screeched to a halt. The fourth member of the team jumped out and pulled open the rear doors. 
    ‘Fuck, they got Tom?’
    ‘Maybe. Maybe not.’ Samson shrugged. ‘Come on. Help me with this one.’
    Marie loaded Tom into the back of the van as gently as she could. Lucius and Samson didn’t take as much care. They quickly bundled the netted vampire into a large body bag, and threw it in with Tom.
    Tom scooted as far away as he could, but to his team, he had the same rights as the vampire for the first twenty-four hours. He didn’t complain.
    Lucius jumped back into the driver’s seat and lit a cigarette before he hammered the accelerator to the floor.
                  ‘Lucius, that’ll draw them from miles away!’
                  He winked at Marie. ‘Lighten up, love. Blood and screaming’ll do that well enough. Besides, blood and screaming always make me want a smoke.’
                  Marie did the fake spitting thing she’d learned from her mother.
    ‘Thanks, Marie,’ said Tom. He didn’t need Marie getting into a pissing match. She was the only one who gave a damn if he lived or died. ‘That was a hell of a shot.’
    Marie didn’t take her eyes off the city. ‘Don’t thank me, Tom. It was Sam.’
    ‘Well, then, thank you, Sam.’
    ‘Don’t thank me, either, Tom,’ said Sam, with a humourless grin. ‘I was aiming for you.’
     
    *
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    Fallon Corp. Research Complex
     
    They drove the rest of the way in silence. Samson’s bulk was jammed into passenger seat. His shoulders were hunched despite the seat being pushed back as far as it would go. Marie rode in the back, eyes scanning the deserted cityscape. Both Samson and Marie wore shoulder holsters under their left armpits.
                  Lucius wore a handgun, too, but slung low on his hip, like a gunfighter. He drove silently, cigarette clamped between his teeth.
    Tom bounced about in the back. He bore the indignity without complaint. There was very little danger of infection from the vampire next to him, but even subdued with a silver mesh net and bagged so that the vampire could not spit or bleed on him, it was an uncomfortable situation. Probably the most uncomfortable he’d ever been. It was somehow worse than being faced by two of the elders working in unison. Then, he’d known he was going to die. Now, he knew he might live.
    The vampire had ceased struggling, but was making pitiful sounds. It had to be in agony. The mesh had silver somewhere in its chemistry. The stink was making Tom’s nose itch, even through the body bag.
    He tried to push himself up so that he could see through the back window. He wanted a view of the outside world to hold onto before he returned to their home. He wriggled and pushed himself into a sitting position. The road was pocked and bumpy and his head cracked against the side of the van a few times, but what was a little more discomforted weighed against his peace of mind?
    The city scrolled by through the window. Small cars abandoned, burnt black, then turned to rust. Warehouses, factories, collapsed in on themselves. Entire streets destroyed so utterly that any map of the city from before the bombardment was effectively useless. There was a