Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series #3) (2 page)

“Potter, you know what to do,” Murphy whispered, pulling open the driver’s door of the police car and peering inside.

Wiping the rain from his face, he bent over the police sergeant sprawled across the bonnet in a black pool of blood.

Realising what he was intending to do, I pushed him aside. “You can’t do it,” I told him, looking up into his green eyes.

“Look, we don’t have time to start getting out the police tape, sealing off the area, and crawling around on our hands and knees looking for clues,” he said. “This isn’t one of your crime scenes…”

Scowling at him, I said, “I didn’t mean that.” Then reaching out, I took hold of the police sergeant’s wrist and checked for her pulse.

“She’s dead,” Potter said. Then grinning he added, “But not for long.”

Placing a hand on my shoulder, Luke said, “Kiera, it’s not nice, but if she isn’t destroyed then she’ll only become…you know…”

“A vampire,” Isidor finished for him, raising his crossbow and aiming at the dead officer’s heart.

Snatching the weapon from Isidor’s hands, Potter glared at him and said, “You make me nervous every time you get this thing out, wonder-boy.”

Turning his baseball cap backwards on his head and stepping toe to toe with Potter, Isidor hissed, “Give that back and my name’s Isidor – not ‘kid’, not ‘Van Helsing’, ‘wonder-boy’ or anything else.”

Without taking his eyes from Isidor’s, Potter aimed the crossbow over his shoulder and fired a wooden stake into the dead officer’s chest. Handing Isidor the crossbow, Potter smiled and said, “It’s all yours, Rambo.”

Before Isidor had the chance to respond, the dead officer sat bolt upright and screeched. The noise she made sounded as if she were in unbearable agony. Looking down at the stake protruding from her chest, she fumbled for it with her blood-spattered fingers. Rolling her head back, her eyes rolling wildly in their sockets, she screamed then exploded, coating the car in a shower of grey dust. This was followed by a squeaking sound as the wipers started to pass back and forth across the windscreen, clearing away her dusty remains.

“Are you lot just gonna stand there chatting all night?” Murphy said from behind the steering wheel of the car as it rumbled into life, “Or are we going to get out of here before they come back?”

Without needing any further prompting, I raced around the front of the car. Nudging Potter out of my way, I clambered into the front seat next to Murphy.

“Easy, tiger!” Potter hissed. “I travel up front. I’m the sarge’s navigator.”

“Not today,” I smiled back at him and slammed the door shut. He looked back at me through the window and his nostrils flared out on either side. I could tell that he was pissed at me. Good.

“I don’t need this shit,” Potter snapped, climbing into the back of the vehicle. Glancing back over my shoulder, I could see that Luke and Potter sat on either side of Isidor, who looked squashed between their muscular frames.

Facing front, I looked again at where the officer had disintegrated and watched as the last of her remains blew from the hood of the car.

Murphy lurched the vehicle forward. It stalled then rumbled into life again.

“C’mon, Sarge,” Potter moaned from the back, “sun’s up soon.”

“Okay! Okay!” Murphy shouted. “This thing has got a gear stick - I’m used to an automatic!”

“I could drive!” I said.

“No thanks,” Murphy said as he crunched the stick into gear, “I’ve seen the state of your Mini.”

Pressing down hard on the accelerator, ramming the gear stick into first, the police car shot forward, almost into the path of an oncoming vehicle that was racing towards us. Throwing the car to the left, Murphy veered out of its way. Glancing in the wing mirror, I could see that the vehicle we had narrowly missed was another police car. With my heart in my throat, I watched as it spun around in the road and came tearing after us, its sirens and emergency lights blazing.

Chapter Three

Murphy snaked the car from left to right, and gunned it forward at an ever-increasing speed. The car rocked and rolled and bounced up and down, throwing me up out of my seat. Potter’s arm was suddenly holding me down, while his other hand pulled the seatbelt across my chest.

Clicking it into place, he whispered in my ear, “Hold on, tiger!”   Murphy took a quick sideways glance at me and gave a grim smile. “I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this one,” he said, as if acknowledging the look of fear on my face.

Suddenly, we were thrust forward as the police car that gave chase rammed into the back of us. The rear end of our car skidded back and forth across the road, as Murphy desperately fought to keep it under control.

Again they smashed into us and the car shot forward, this time nearly sending us headlong into a ditch.

“They can’t do this!” Isidor shouted from the back. “They’re police!”

“If you hadn’t noticed, Einstein,” Potter snapped at Isidor, “they ate one of their colleagues back there!”

Cops that eat other cops could do anything, couldn’t they?
I thought to myself and however much it pained me, I knew that Potter was right – these cops weren’t normal, they just wanted to kill us.

Murphy pressed harder on the pedal and we raced forward, the tires screaming against the rain-soaked tarmac as he desperately tried to keep the car on the road. Staring through the windscreen, I could see a roundabout ahead and Murphy raced us towards it. At the very last minute, he eased on the brake, and with a screech of burning rubber, Murphy pulled on the wheel and we sailed around it and headed towards a duel carriageway.

Now that we were on a straight and wider road, Murphy pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor and we flew forwards at a terrifying pace. Glancing at him in the gloom of the car, I could see that his bright blue eyes were fixed on the road ahead; his face was a mask of grim determination. The police officers who pursued us showed no signs of backing off.

“I hate to be the one to tell you this, Sarge,” Luke said from the back of the car, “but we’ve got more vehicles approaching from behind.”

Snapping around in my seat, I could see that Luke, Potter, and Isidor were all twisting their necks to see out of the back window.

“That’s not our only problem!” Murphy shouted back at him.

Swiveling in my seat, I stared straight ahead at the helicopter which was now hovering just ahead of us, its powerful searchlight sweeping back and forth across the road.

“Oh you’re kidding me!” I cried in disbelief.

“That’s it! We ain’t ever gonna get away now!” Isidor groaned.

“Why not” Murphy snapped over his shoulder at him.

“Haven’t you ever watched
‘Cops’
on the T.V.?” Isidor shouted over the roar of the sirens screaming behind us.

“Cops?” Murphy said sounding bemused, as he threw the car to the right and tried to block the police car that was now trying to pull up alongside of us.

“What you blabbing on about kid?” Potter cut in. “We don’t need to watch no cop shows – we
are
cops!”

“You could have fooled me,” Isidor shouted, then added as if to make his point, “Those helicopters have infrared thermal imaging cameras… and lots of other Gucci-shit! You can’t ever get away from ‘em!”

“He’s right, you know! We can’t outrun those helicopters!” I said.

With that grim smile, Murphy glanced at me again and said, “We’ll see!”

From behind me, I heard Potter spray laughter as if he were sharing a private joke that only he knew the punch line to.

“You’re actually
enjoying
this?” I gasped, looking back at him.

Staring at me from the darkness, Potter winked and said, “I thought you craved excitement, sweet-cheeks?”

“Knock it off, will-ya,” Luke barked and elbowed Potter in the ribs.

Ignoring Potter, I faced front as Murphy threw the car to the right and smashed into the side of one of the police cars that had managed to draw level with us. Both cars rebounded off each other and veered apart. The police car then came back at us and crashed into the driver’s side, throwing Murphy violently towards me. I looked at him as he frantically tried to keep our vehicle traveling in a straight line.

Staring into the police car that had pulled alongside us, I could see two officers seated in the front. They were dressed identically, and were the ones we had hidden from in the park. Both were dressed in black. Their faces were sickly white and drawn-looking.

The one sitting in the passenger seat turned his head slowly and looked at me. Then winding down the car window, he thrust his arm out, and began to fire wildly with the gun he was holding in his gloved fist.

In an instant, Murphy’s window exploded inwards, and he ducked to avoid the shot.

Taking hold of his crossbow, Isidor roared, “They can’t do this! They’re
cops
!”

“But not like the ones you’ve seen on T.V., right?” Potter quipped as he began to slide out of his long dark coat.

“They’re not normal cops, Isidor,” Luke shouted back at him, as he too loosened his jacket. “These are like the ones who killed that police officer back there.”

The cold night air that swept in through the smashed window blew my hair about my face and I shouted, “I think you’re right.”

“What do ya mean?” Isidor shrieked.

Before I’d had the chance to answer him, Murphy swung our vehicle back towards the police car. Once he’d drawn level with it, Murphy shot his arm through the window at lightning speed and drove the tiny silver crucifix that he carried with him into the face of the cop that had been firing at us.

Immediately, the police officer began to screech as if in agonizing pain. I looked at his face and it was as white as snow and covered in thick blue veins. The officer clutched at the air as if drowning as a row of razor-sharp fangs broke through his red gums. But then his face began to perish. It looked as if it had been sculpted from sand which was now being sucked inwards through its mouth, leaving a huge, gaping hole in the centre of its face. But what freaked me out more than his crumbling face, was how his blood-red eyes stared at me. The vampire-cop threw its gloved hands to its face and began to wail.

My whole body went cold, and I prayed that I’d never have to hear that awful cry again. I watched with fear and revulsion as the vampire-cop started to thrash its arms about and jerk with violent and sudden convulsions in the front of the speeding police car.

“Help me!” the cop
screeched, as it turned and blindly began to flay its arms at the cop driving their car.

Peering past Murphy, I watched as the driver fought madly to maintain control of their speeding vehicle. Losing it, the police car darted away from ours. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw it collide into the crash barrier, where it flipped into the air and spun away like a toy car being thrown from a ‘Scaletrix’ track. It landed on its roof and spun into the path of an approaching police car. This vehicle smashed into the overturned car, sending it careering forward in a shower of sparks and causing them both to ignite into a seething ball of fire. The force of the explosion sent our car flying forward and the helicopter into a violent spin overhead.

“I bet they haven’t shown anything like that on T.V.,” Potter yelled at Isidor, and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was pumped-up, as if enjoying every moment of what was unfolding around us.

Then, Luke roared, “Sarge! Beside you!”

Instinctively, we all glanced to our right to see the third police car racing along beside us. The window had been lowered and the cop in the passenger seat was leaning out and firing shots wildly at our car. Bullets thudded into the side of our vehicle, and whizzed about our heads.

Ramming our car into theirs, Murphy desperately fought to knock it off course and into the crash barriers.

“Where’s your crossbow, kid?’’ Potter hollered at Isidor

“It’s here,” Isidor said, holding it up.

“Don’t just sit there looking at it - fire!” Potter roared as the cops let off another round of shots. Without further hesitation, Isidor began to spray the pursuing police vehicle with stakes.

“Do you have another one?” Luke yelled at him. “Another what?” Isidor shouted, not taking his eyes from his target. “Oh for crying-out-loud,” Potter shouted. “Another crossbow!”   “No, of course not!” Isidor hollered over the sound of screeching tires, sirens, and humming rotary blades from above. Then, glancing quickly at Potter, Isidor flashed a fake smile and said, “Who do you think I am, Buffy-the-bleeding-vampire-slayer!”

Cutting over them, Murphy shouted, “Look, I’m not going to be able to hold them off forever – somebody help me out here!”

Removing his coat, Potter raised his right arm above his head. Where he once had fingers, he now had a set of claws. Groaning, he rolled his head back as if in pain. Then snapping his head forward, he rolled back his lips and I could see that his mouth was now full of gleaming fangs. Reaching up and flexing his claws, Potter began to rip a hole in the roof of our car. His nails sliced though the metal as easily as a can opener cutting open a tin of food. Once he had made a hole big enough, he climbed through it and disappeared onto the roof of our car.

I heard him stomping around above, and then watched as he slid down the windshield and onto the bonnet. I could see that he had now lost his shirt and his wings hung from his back. They still looked worn and tattered in places from the damage caused by the vampires who attacked us at Hallowed Manor some weeks ago. Seeing Potter balancing on the hood of the car, the vampire-cops released a volley of fire at him. As the bullets screamed over his head, Isidor released a burst of bolts at the police car to draw away their fire. I then heard a deafening thud as Potter thrust his right claw into the hood of our car, and in one swift movement tore it free. Propped against the windscreen, Potter held the hood in the air, using it as a makeshift shield.

“Move out of the goddamn way!” Murphy roared, as he strained to see past him, throwing the car left and right to avoid the police car that continued to ram us from the side. The helicopter hovered restlessly back and forth ahead of us, its searchlight trained on our every move.