Chapter 32

December Twenty-second

Tired of running, Alicia stumbled into the abandoned steel town with Lei draped across her shoulders. Feeding off the isolated residents of the rural areas had worked perfectly until tonight. She still wasn't quite sure what had happened. Maybe tonight's victim had gotten a call off to the police before she had pinned him to his kitchen floor. Maybe she had tripped a well concealed alarm system. Or, perhaps a passerby had witnessed the feeding through the kitchen window. She would never know.

Local and state police had descended on the old farmhouse in great numbers, all wanting to take part in catching the killer that had been terrorizing the countryside. Before they could get into position, she had grabbed Lei and raced out the back door. A policeman had already been sneaking onto the small rear porch and had shot her through the chest. She was fairly certain that the right hook she had thrown in retaliation had broken his neck.

She had run through the forest as fast as she could manage, but, even with the incredible speed conferred upon her by her condition, she couldn't outrun a radio. Time and again, police cruisers and helicopters had appeared ahead of her as if by magic. Only the fact that they had difficultly adjusting their pursuit procedures to a culprit who could run faster and farther than a thoroughbred racehorse had allowed her to evade capture.

Where possible, she had stuck to plowed and salted roads during her flight, but no such routes led to this place. Her tracks stretched over the hills and valleys behind her, clearly visible in the pristine snow. She no longer cared. She would die here, as her Master had before her.

As she approached his empty, gaping grave, a sharp odor assailed her senses, much like that which emanated from the blood that crusted her coat around the long healed chest wound. She temporarily put aside thoughts of her pursuers and followed her nose to a large gut pile. A pink stained trail of impacted snow, similar to that left behind by the passage of a toboggan, led toward one of the vacant houses. In the center of the path were small, deep indentations.

Cautiously, she followed the trail until it ended at the rotted and crumbling doorway of the dilapidated structure. Inside, the way was marked by the occasional smear of dried blood and, of course, the smell. The floor, bowed down toward its center, creaked alarmingly as she walked gingerly across it to a doorway that led to nothing but a dark hole.

Setting Lei down in the hallway, she dropped to her belly and peered down into the basement. On the filthy floor below, she could see the remains of the collapsed stairway. In the center of the ruins was a larger blood smear. Whoever she was following had fallen into the pit when the stairs had collapsed beneath him.

Standing, she stepped forward and dropped lightly into the cellar. At first she couldn't believe that her quarry could possibly be alive. His arms and legs were bent and folded around him, held together only by muscle and skin. Through a wide tear that ran from his sternum past his navel, she could easily see into his abdominal cavity. His heart was present, dry and covered in filth, but the other organs were gone.

She was suddenly distracted by the sound of a helicopter's rotors beating overhead. She listened tensely as it circled the area a few times before moving off. She had little doubt that her tracks had been seen and more police would soon arrive.

When she looked back down, she was startled to see that he was staring at her. His lips moved slowly but, without lungs, could produce no sound. She watched in fascination as his face contorted in pain, and one of his fingers twitched. Ever so slowly, it scratched at the dirt on the floor. Moving close, she could see that he had scribed a single, nearly illegible word: Help.

She nearly laughed at the request: she wasn't even capable of helping herself. She started to turn away to leave him to his fate, but then she noticed the tiny, desiccated bodies of mice, a rat and several rabbits surrounding his head. If he could force animals to come to him, perhaps he had the kind of strength she needed in a protector.

She leaned in close, not wanting to make too much sound in case there were already police searching outside. "I'll help you now if you'll keep me with you until I'm strong enough to survive on my own. Agreed?"

He nodded almost imperceptibly, but that was enough.

Returning to the ruins of the stairs, she jumped up to catch hold of the lip of the floor and pulled herself up. After brief consideration, she picked up Lei and leaped back down to place the immobilized ancient next to the crippled wreck of the man.