Chapter 170
“We’d better get on with it now,” Elizabeth said, pulling a revolver from a belt strapped at her waist. “The beast has been in there for at least half an hour. It’s bound to be done with poor Mr. Richter. It will be moving on soon enough.”
“Very well then,” Thomas said, lifting his eyes from Christian’s face and turning to his father. “Shall we?”
“Let us.” Peter’s enthusiasm radiated out of him as a bounce in his step carried him out of the shadows and toward the house. He did not wait for the others, including Christian. His mother, who was meant to protect her Hunter, in this case, Peter, did not move as quickly. Instead, she lingered with her son, one hand on his back.
She didn’t think it was safe for him to be there. It was evident in the slow pace she was taking. Normally, she would dart about so quickly Christian had trouble tracking her with his human eyes. Now, she was moving so slowly, he could’ve been a step or two ahead of her if he’d cared to be. In all honesty, his feet didn’t want to move any quicker than they were. He dragged behind, hoping his father would reach the home and annihilate the Vampire before he even had to see it. The glimpses he’d gotten of the last scene were impossible to remove from his brain, and he didn’t want to invite anymore such images inside if he could prevent it.
His father reached the cabin first, just as Thomas and Jess were going around the other side. A screech filled the night. Christian felt his sandy blond hair blow back from his forehead as the wind moved from the angry shout. It did not deter Peter Henry. He hurled himself into the small house through the open window, knocking the candle Christian had noted earlier off of the desk in the process.
Christian saw the monster then, standing in the middle of the room, fresh blood dripping down its chin. Tall, thin, with dark hair and sunken, steel gray eyes, its mouth was open as it roared again. Out here, the closest house was almost a mile away. He’d wake no one--not even the dead. The only reason he’d been discovered was because the Guardians never slept and often spent their nights out and about searching for these creatures. Thomas had spotted him making his way through the woods. Rather than following alone and taking him out before Caleb Richter fell victim, he’d ran to the old church and sounded the bell, which called the rest of the Goodies into action. Humans who lived in the vicinity believed the bell meant a bear had been spotted, so they’d stay inside and bar the door as the appointed neighbors went out to track what they thought was a natural beast. It was all an elaborate hoax put into place by Culpepper, and it worked. Except not for people like Caleb Richter who found out tonight that bears were not the creatures he should’ve been fearing.
This Vampire, staring at his father with cold, dead eyes, was not familiar to Christian. His mother had known some of the monsters she’d killed, known them in their former state. If her parents knew this man, they did not call him by name. As her father stood and raised his weapon, Elizabeth swirled her son around to look at her.
Christian’s eyes met his mother’s, his bottom lip quivering. “Stay here. Unless it runs this way. Then, hide!”
He nodded, not able to find the words, and then his mother followed her father through the window as Thomas and Jess came in from the other direction. The beast was trapped. And the house was on fire.
Christian smelled the smoke before he saw it. He’d always had a sensitive nose, especially when it came to the scent of something burning. When the first plume of smoke began to climb up into his view from outside of the window, he wanted to shout to his parents, but his father’s first shot had not taken out the tall beast, and now, the Goodies were locked in hand-to-hand combat with a monster that didn’t seem to want to go down despite all four of them pummeling it.
It didn’t seem to be afraid. In fact, as Christian stared at the monster’s face, it almost appeared to be laughing, as if there were something comical about the group punching, pulling, even stabbing at it. It was fighting back. It picked Jess up and tossed him across the room, into a desk. The wood shattered, spraying splinters into the air. Jess stayed down for a minute as Thomas hacked at the monster’s shoulder. If it weren’t his parents fighting an undead monster covered in a man’s blood, the corpse still warm at its feet, Christian might’ve also found the situation slightly humorous. He wasn’t laughing though, especially when he noted the monster was aware he was there, noticed him watching, and grinned at him, his long, sharp teeth picking up the light from the growing flames and radiating terror into the night.
And then he realized it wasn’t necessarily him the monster was grinning at. It was something else--something… behind him.
It wasn’t a sound that caused his head to turn. Not a snapping twig or a heavy footstep. Rather, it was a feeling, an idea, a sensation. The undeniable, unmistakable idea that someone or something was closing in on him from the darkness at his back.
