Blood Lust: A Supernatural Horror (18 page)

“I love
big
American cities
,” she said
.
“
They seem like live creatures, awake twenty-four hours, never sleeping, always watchful.”

“What about Sao Paolo? Isn’t it the largest city in Brazil?”

She nodded with a bite of sandwich in her mouth. She swallowed
quickly
and answered. “It is large,
yes,
but it still has the feel of the jungle about it, like a sleeping beast during the afternoon and awake and prowling at night.
The pace
there
is
much
slower. Here, everyone rushes about
like ants disturbed from their nest
.”

“Everyone is in a hurry,” I said.

“Are you in a hurry, Detective Hardin?”
she asked, smiling.
Her eyes
nailed me to my chair.
I took a deep breath.

“The name’s Tack,” I said.
What the hell, I thought. I need someone to call me Tack now.
“My partner, Lew, always said I was in too big of a hurry. I guess maybe he was right. It just seems I never get it done.”

“Get what done, Tack?”
My name
sounded good
passing through her lips
.

“Solving crimes. Another one always seems to come along.”
I decided to change the subject. “Did you grow up in the city?”

“I was born in a small village along the
coast.” She laughed. “I was a chubby little girl.”

“I doubt that.”

“No, really.
I was.
Then I learned to swim. I lived in the ocean – swimming, surfing, diving. I even crewed on a private yacht one summer.”

“Swimming seems to have toned your body nicely,” I said.

She looked at me and smiled.
A slight blush colored her
tanned
cheeks.
“
Muito obrigado
.
Thank you.
I try to keep in shape. We moved to Sao Paolo when I was eighteen and started college.” She sighed. “I miss the ocean.
Here, you have ocean but no beaches.
”

I laughed. “
There are some nice beaches north and south of here. Here, you might get run down by a cargo ship.
”
 

We sat silently for a few minutes nibbling our sandwiches. I watched the people passing by, most
ly
unaware of each other, certainly unaware that a monster stalked the nights. The days were safe, for now.
Or were they?
I decided to ask.

“Does this thing sleep in the daytime?”

She shook her head. “I do not think
the
Chupacabra
sleeps. It prefers the night,
however,
the cover of darkness, but the sunlight is not its enemy, like in the vampire
myths
.
” She smiled. “
It does not fear sunlight or crosses.
”

She had read my mind. It could be out there watching us right now from the dark shadows on any number of abandoned buildings or rooftops. I looked up to scan the rooftops. She noticed the direction of my gaze
and guessed what I was thinking
.

“It has not fed in three days. Soon it must
feed
again
.
The creature’s hunger will drive it to do so whether it seeks to trap you or not.”

“We’ll have men on the roof tops and helicopters in the air with night vision gear.”
I spoke with more confidence than I felt.
Most of the uniforms out there patrolling would have no clue as to what they were guarding the city
against
.

She frowned.
“It will sense them and avoid them.”

I threw up my hands. “I don’t know what else we can do?”

She grabbed my hand and pulled it to the table
top
. “It has killed for decades, perhaps centuries. It has no fear of man. To think it can be
so
easily stopped is foolish.”

“This isn’t Brazil,” I snapped. “This is the USA. We’ll kill the bastard.”

“It has killed women in Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta and now here … It knows all about your American police and the weapons you possess and your
great
American know-how.
We do not all live in the jungle.”

I
realized
my outburst
had
offended her. “I’m sorry. I
just
want to kill this thing.”

“First, we must find it.”

There was a hint of a twinkle in her eye. “Do you have a plan?”
I asked.

“I think I do. It will be dangerous.”

“For who
m
?”

“For both of us. We must bring the
Chupacabra
to us
.”

I
nodded
with understanding
.
She certainly was no coward.
“You mean we will be the bait.”

“
Nao
. I
will be the bait.
We will need a room on an upper floor
with a balcony
.
If you will show me the area from where these women were abducted, I can make a guess as to where it might strike next.
We will need to find a place that is quiet and dark with nearby rooftops. The creature prefers taking a woman when it can use height to make his escape. In the jungle, it uses trees for short glides. It cannot carry a burden very far without rest stops.”

I could see where this was going and decided to put an end to it. “I cannot allow you to place yourself in danger.”

She smiled. “That is why you will be nearby heavily armed
, to protect me
in ca
s
e my plan fails
.
I do not wish to die. I want to
publish
th
e existence of this creature
in
the
scientific journals.
To vindicate my father,” she added. “To do so, I will need proof.”

I began
another
protest. She stopped me
cold
by holding out her hand palm forward
.

“I have decided. You cannot stop me. If we cooperate, we can
capture
the creature.
Think of the lives we might save.
”

I could see
that she
was determined, but then she had been after the creature a lot longer than I had.
My personal desire ran toward killing the creature rather than capturing it, but I would try it her way.
“Alright, but at the first sign of danger, you’re out of there.”

She hesitated. “Here
i
s the tricky part. The creature
has excellent night vision. He will be able to
see any officers stationed on the rooftops
or nearby
. They must be called off. You will need to wear a thermal disguising
cloak
to reduce your heat signature. I happen to have one
I have used for just such a purpose
.
If I fail, y
ou may get only one shot
,
”
she added.

I laughed. “
I see y
ou’ve been planning this for a while. Have you just been waiting for a fool like me?”

Her face went pale. “I have tried this twice before
,
”
she admitted reluctantly.

“And?” I prompted
,
dread
ing
her answer.

“Men died each time
.
”
S
he
quickly
added, “
But t
hey did not follow my recommendations. If you do so, you will survive.”

I shook my head
in awe at her audacity
. “Lady, you play awfully quick and loose with people’s lives, but it just so happens that I want this creature badly. You play the staked goat and I’ll be the big
game
hunter.”

She smiled at my tiger hunting reference.
As I finished my beer, a voice in the back of my head told me that the black SUV with two men in suits and shades parked down the block had been there since we had arrived.
I had watched it pull up as we went in to order. Neither man had gotten out of the truck. They seemed content to sit and watch.
The SUV
looked identical to the one parked
out
front of
Sasha Sattersby’s apartment.
Who were they and w
ere they watching Joria or me?
As we rose to leave, the SUV cranked up, pulled into traffic and passed us by.
Neither man looked in our direction
. Perhaps my imagination was running wild. Who would want to
tail me?

****

It took the rest of the day to get things prepared. First, I had to convince the captain to go along with
our plan
. He complied much easier than I would have thought.
His desperation was showing.
City Hall must have been on his ass big time.
However, he
flatly
rejected Joria’s
volunteering
as bait.

“
No way in hell I’ll let a civil
ian,” he glanced at Joria, “especially a foreign national place herself in danger.
I’m all for trapping the creature, but we’ll use a female officer for the bait
.
”

I agreed with him
on Joria’s participation but knew she would seek out the creature on her own. I felt keeping her close at hand would be safer for her.
“Need I remind you
,” I said, “that
Ms. Alvarez is the closest thing we have to an authority on the creature.
Without her input
and assistance,
I doubt this will work.”

He glowered at me a minute before nodding his head
curtly
.
“
O
kay
, but if anything happens to her, I’ll have your ass back in a uniform so fast you’ll get nosebleed.”

A
n apartment was easy enough to
finagle
; the department had several safe house locations
. Joria indicated an area near the Sattersby penthouse
and not too far from the
monastery
. We secured a top floor apartment with a balcony.
J
oria was certain that if she exposed herself often enough on the balcony, she would draw the creature’s attention.
I knew she would draw mine.
She was older than the other victims were, but unless the creature had some special sense, she would easily pass for early twenties in low light.

One question bothered me. “How do you intend to capture this Chupacabra if it does appear?”

She showed me a short metal
canister attached by a hose to a compressed air tank. “
With t
his.”

I was skeptical but helped
her assemble
what she called a ‘net cannon’,
basically,
a metal tube
powered by compressed air that could fire a metal mesh net over the creature
by remote control
, capturing it.
We secured t
he net to the metal railing of the balcony
with
a half-inch steel hawser
, short enough to allow her to retreat
to safety
inside the apartment
and allow me a shot at the creature if
her trap failed. I admit I was gravitating towards shooting the damn thing
even if the net worked.
To hide the net cannon, we hid it beneath a patio table and draped a cloth over it.

Inspecting our handiwork, she smiled. “We make a good team,” she said, stepping closer
to me
. Her perfume
drifted to my nostrils, enticing but not overbearing – delicate, like her. “
Perhaps after we capture the Chupacabra, we can, uh, get together.”

I gulped.
She was propositioning me and I liked it. “To compare notes,” I said.

She giggled. “
Sim
. Yes, we will compare notes.”

Just as I was summoning the courage to lean over and kiss her, one of the uniformed officers walked out on the balcony. He took one look at the situation and grinned. I stepped back
from Joria and confronted him
. “What is it?” I growled.